Pokémon (anime)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Accidental Aesop: Tobias uses legendary Pokémon against children easily half his age in Pokémon Leagues... much like what can happen to any child who's a fan of the anime who tries to battle the Periphery Demographic who dominant tourneys.
  • Adaptational Heroism: In the Gen 7 game, the Aether Foundation is the true major villainous team in Alola, with it's president Lusamine being the Big Bad. In the anime, the Aether Foundation is purely a good organization aligned with the protagonists, with Lusamine, after playing a brief antagonistic role against her own will due to being intoxicated by and fused with Nihilego, becoming the Reasonable Authority Figure commander of the Ultra Guardians (the group Ash and his classmates form to hunt down wayward Ultra Beasts). Only Faba is ever depicted in a truly villainous light, and even he makes a Heel Face Turn and is an ally for most of the series.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • Team Galactic were always villains in the games, but most of them actually meant well with their cause, the grunts were largely a bunch of idealistic young goofballs, and all of them except for Cyrus and Charon had shots at a Heel Face Turn. In the anime, they're portrayed as much more intimidating, heartless, and vicious than in the games, all working to destroy the existing world out of personal dissatisfaction. Cyrus even gets turned from an Affably Evil but deeply disturbed Knight Templar with a Messiah Complex into a vile, malicious, purely self-serving Complete Monster whose motivation is completely changed - he now just wants to wipe out the universe and kill everything in it for good so that he alone can have the new universe all to himself
    • Team Flare's chief Mad Scientist Xerosic also loses the Pet the Dog qualities he had in the games.
  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Kenny losing the Sinnoh Grand Festival in the Appeals round counts for some... though this is possibly undone when he later pulls a cheap win in a battle against Ash. In fairness, Ash using Buizel against an Empoleon was monumentally stupid to begin with, so he kind of had that one coming.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Mars wasn't the most pleasant of people, her actions including the attempted blowing up of Iron Island for no reason besides her boss ordering it... and then she screams as Cyrus willingly erases himself from the universe and is completely silent and depressed as she, Saturn and Jupiter are arrested, looking completely unaware and uncaring of anything around her. You just gotta pity her there.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Americans Hate Tingle: Dawn's Piplup (but not the entire species). He's loved by the Japanese to the point it became a mascot, but it's hated in the West, due to many reasons.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced:
    • For the Best Wishes dub, they brought back the Who's That Pokémon? eyecatch. After a hiatus of seven years, no less!
      • An initial tiny gripe was that the new Pokémon didn't say their names like the ones in the original series did. No need to worry, though, as the problem was rectified and the voices were subsequently added in, almost immediately after the episode that Who's That Pokémon? had debuted with in Best Wishes.
    • For those in the fandom that were sick of Team Rocket's silly antics, their portrayal in Best Wishes has made them very happy.
    • Best Wishes Season 2. Dawn and Cynthia return, and a new major Team Rocket plot begins revolving around Meloetta, who decides to accompany Ash. And the climax of said plot? ASH CONFRONTS GIOVANNI.
  • Awesome Ego: The GARY MOTHERFUCKING OAK meme exists for a reason.
  • Badass Decay:
    • Ash's Buizel ended up noticeably less powerful than he was in his debut.
    • Turtwig. You know, the tiny turtle that, in his first major battle, he was able to beat a dinosaur that's more than four times his size? Just what did the writers do to him?
    • Bianca is also a noticeably weaker and less competent trainer in the anime than she was in the games, though the games treat her as less competent than she usually proves to be.
    • Some consider Ash to be a weaker and less mature trainer in Best Wishes series, especially after he beat Paul in Sinnoh League and took down two legendary Pokémon.
      • Granted, this is mostly only in the early episodes - as Best Wishes moves along, he reasserts himself (the Gym Battles with Elesa and Clay are excellent examples of this).
    • Team Rocket Took a Level in Badass during the Unova saga, culminating in them helping to thoroughly trounce Team Plasma. Upon leaving Unova, they reverted back to being the easily beaten Goldfish Poop Gang.
  • Base Breaker:
    • Ash. Is he The Hero or The Scrappy?
    • Paul is either resented for his Draco in Leather Pants status, or is considered him Ash's best rival.
    • Barry is either funny or annoying. Same goes for his Distaff Counterpart Bianca.
    • All of Ash's companions get this to some extent.
    • Tobias is seen as either a God Mode Sue, an amusing Troll, or a Badass all for using Legendary Pokémon in the Sinnoh League
    • Team Rocket. Better when they were goofy (pre and post-Best Wishes) or serious (Best Wishes)?
    • Dawn's rivals, Zoey especially.
    • Miette, sassy cute rival to Serena and deserving of Ash's love because she can actually spit it out or a bitchy weak rival for Serena whose flirtation to Ash is clearly unrequited? Even not as extreme/non-shippers don't like her since she's so arrogant and pretentious.
  • Broken Base: Nearly every series has something that's broken the base:
  • Canon Sue:
    • Ritchie is a classic example.
    • Solidad from the Battle Frontier arc, who shows up out of nowhere at the Grand Festival, is an old friend of Brock's, is also friends with Drew and Harley (I repeat, HARLEY), ships May and Drew together, and goes on to win the whole Grand Festival (other Grand Festival winners, Robert and Zoey, at least had build-up.)
    • Cameron in the Unova saga is an Anti-Sue - he's mentally challenged, the farthest thing from perfect, and makes several dumb mistakes as a trainer that should severely cost him, yet the plot and the universe seems to bend over backwards in order to make things work out for him. He's late for the Junior Cup? At least he gets to meet Ash and friends! He thinks the Unova League is held in Johto rather than Unova? Ash and friends tell him the truth and stop him from boarding a flight out of the region! He has only seven gym badges and forgets that he needs eight to compete in the League? Ash helps him when his final badge at Humilau Gym! He waited too long to get himself registered for the League? Ash pleas with the officials to let him in, and they make an exception for him! He brought only five Pokemon to his 6-on-6 battle with Ash? Not only is he not flat out disqualified for that once it's made public, but his Riolu evolves into Lucario and it wins him the battle, knocking Ash out of the Unova League! Thankfully, Virgil beats him afterwards, but he's still overall a Too Dumb to Live character who was benefited from too many contrivances.
    • Ash himself falls into this at times, especially in the XY series.
  • Complete Monster: It now has its own list (shared with other Pokémon media), seen here.
  • Crazy Awesome:
  • Creator's Pet: Dawn's Piplup, for being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad. The fanbase doesn't hate all Piplups; they hate this one in particular. It's English dub voice not helping matters - while Pochama sounds rather cute and might offset the annoyance, Piplup just makes it even more glaring.
  • Designated Villain:
    • Ursula. Just look at how the girl performs as a coordinator and say that her cockiness isn't the least bit justified. But apparently she doesn't deserve to win or get far because she's a jerk to Dawn. Not to mention the fans who are baffled at how the anime seems to be trying to present her as worse than Paul, when Ursula is at least shown to care about her Pokémon.
    • Team Rocket has frequently been this trope. In some episodes they did absolutely nothing wrong at all and still got treated like "bad guys" by Ash and got blasted off in the end! With their more evil demeanor in Best Wishes, they finally avoid this.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • The number of death fics written about Misty's sisters is staggering. House fire is a popular method, conveniently taking the gym with it.
    • Every one of Ash's female traveling companions, past, present, and future, gets this.
    • Mimete for Serena and/or Ash's ships.
    • Drew for May's ships.
    • Kenny for Dawn's ships.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Among the rivals, the antagonistic ones from Gary on down have all been this, but Paul's probably the biggest and worst case since it actually happens in canon a number of times!
  • Ear Worm: Enough to warrant their own page.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Evil Ash, who was popular enough to allow the writers to fool the fans in a trailer for Hoopa and the Clash of Ages.
    • Several of Ash's Pokémon have developed rather large Fandoms over the course of the series due to their sheer Badassery or Quirky Personalities. The most notable being Charizard, Heracross, Swellow, Sceptile and Staraptor. Even Ash's unofficial Pokémon, Haunter and Larvitar, have a place in fans' hearts.
    • Psyduck and Wobbuffet, two very similar, dopey Pokémon who just won't stay in ther Poké-balls.
    • Conway, an intended one-shot who was added to two other story arcs (the Pokémon Summer Academy and the Sinnoh League) due to fan popularity.
    • Some of the Characters of the Day get this as well. Gligarman (an obvious Batman and superhero parody) was popular enough to frequently get requested to return to the show, especially when Ash had a Gligar/Gliscor of his own.
    • Giselle, the Defrosting Ice Queen from an early season 1 episode, is rather popular as a One Episode Wonder among older Western fans. It also helps that she is remembered by fans for being the one girl that Ash was crushing on before the producers had officially decided that he would be a Chaste Hero for the rest of the series.
    • Ashley or Ash in Drag. People both love as a joke and as a real thing. This has improved with Ash crossdressing several times in the anime. This has cultivated in female AU or AUs where Ash is a famous crossdresser.
    • Harley, because he's such a Jerkass and yet so damn FUNNY at the same time.
    • Ursula, a one-shot rival coordinator who becomes a full-fledged rival for Dawn in the next season due to fan popularity for being a more antagonistic rival; separating her from Zoey, Kenny and Nando. Zoey appears to still be Dawn's most popular rival overall, though.
    • Gym Leader Byron, no doubt thanks to his hamtastic portrayal courtesy of by Dan Green.
    • Ash's Gliscor
    • Croagunk. And Gible, for being a walking Crowning Moment of Funny.
    • Burgundy only appeared in one episode originally. Immediately after her design was shown, fanart exploded, and she became a Launcher of a Thousand Ships. Then during the Don Tournament arc, she was the only rival to have some actual Character Development (the others stayed by and large the same.)
    • Georgia, Iris' "Dragon Buster" rival, is well-liked for having a rounded character and Jerk with a Heart of Gold tendencies.
    • Amongst Ash's numerous rivals, Stephan has become one of these. Being less prominent than Trip or Bianca (among others), he nonetheless has a lively and likable personality, as well as being a Badass battler from what we get to see of his skills. It also helps that he gets what is, hands down, the best battle in the entire Unova League.
    • The Club Tournament contestants - many don't even get any lines, but their character designs are regarded as among the best parts of those arcs (Antonio and Jimmy Ray/Watchog Guy especially). Some of these characters, like the aforementioned Antonio, return for the Unova League.
      • Edmund the "Rain Man", who's an (almost literal) One-Scene Wonder (he appears momentarily before battling Stephan, and disappears altogether afterwards).
    • On Ash's Unova team, there are three: Snivy, beloved for being an Action Girl Team Mom with a Sugar and Ice Personality; Krookodile, a Dark Is Not Evil Cowardly Lion who's also a powerful Boisterous Bruiser; and Palpitoad, the underused but strange and powerful trump card...especially Palpitoad. Just read the comments of fans, disappointed by his lack of screentime, minuscule development, and rare victories.
    • The Ducklett trio from an early Best Wishes episode, who caused bizarre, yet adorable chaos and trolled the characters several times. Ask any Pokémon forum about them, and you'll see they're almost universally loved.
    • Colress of Team Plasma, who completely stole the show in an arc named after a different character!
    • The Pokémon movies created several Ensemble Darkhorses; the films contributing greatly to the popularity of characters like Mewtwo, Latias, Lucario, Darkrai, Zoroark, Kyruem and Fullmetal Swordsman Keldeo.
    • Despite only appearing in one game and a single episode, Lucy the Frontier Brain is very popular and one of the main characters shipped with Brock.
    • Similar to the above Lucy example, several girls are this for shipping with Ash despite not being one of his primary traveling companions.
      • Melody from Pokemon 2000 for cheek kissing Ash.
      • Bianca from Pokemon Heroes for, again, cheek kissing Ash at the end of the movie. (Though, if this was actually Latias has always been up for debate)
      • Frontier Brain, Anabel, maintains a fanbase for Ability Shipping.
      • Angie, a tomboy from the Sinnoh Summer Academy arc for Morpheus Shipping.
    • Serena dresses in Ash's clothes once in a filler episode. Despite this single occurrence, 男装セレナ (Men's clothes Serena) became wildly popular among fan-artists.
  • Epileptic Trees:
    • A very large number of people think Giovanni is Ash's father. This is never even hinted at in the show proper.
    • In relation to the games, a common theory is that Cilan and his brothers are the Shadow Triad of Team Plasma.
  • Everything Is Racist: You can put the pieces together yourself here. Iris looks dark skinned, the generation colors are Black and White, and most of the fan-base is made up of immature teens. In particular, /vp/ was dropping the N-bomb left and right in regards to her announcement.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Jessie and James (back when they could actually be considered competent anyways), Cassidy, Butch, Domino, Attila, Hun, Shelly, Tabitha, Archie, Maxie, Harley, Paul, Hunter J, Team Galactic's Saturn, Mars and Jupiter, Pierce, Ghetsis, Colress, Brad and Angie, and then some.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Certain areas of the series like the Orange Islands arc and the entirety of the Black and White seasons are completely removed from people's conciseness.
    • Ash losing all those elite four battles.
    • Generally, Ash doing something stupid (even if it's an understandable mistake).
    • Ash being a Chaste Hero for shippers.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Both PokeShipping and Amourshipping, the former for being Ash's first female companion and the latter for being the first one to explicitly have a crush on and kiss him.
  • First Installment Wins: The original Kanto (and sometimes Orange and Johto) Seasons are the most remembered due to it being the original run and having many iconic moments.
  • Foe Yay: Any set of rivals is probably going to have this.
  • Fridge Brilliance:
    • Charmeleon/Charizard's stubbornness, which can be answered with this simple question: when he was still a Charmander, WHO does he have as the closest thing to a role model again?[3] One of these pictures certainly gives credence to the whole "takes after their trainer" thing. Add to that how his former trainer, Damian, treated him. Charmeleon/Charizard probably felt that since he'd evolved he'd be exploited for his strength, and couple that with how spoiled he was under Ash comparatively he must have developed a skewed sense of priorities. There are careful hints that even during his Delinquent period, he wasn't totally heartless.
    • Gary's starter was Squirtle, which evolved all the way to Blastoise. Ash, who had possession of all three Kanto starters, only had one of them, Charmander, evolve, into Charizard. And it's all because the anime is actually following another tradition in the games.[4] It was inevitable what happened when Ash and Gary finally face each other in the Johto League. It's probable that this was how their battle would've gone in at the Indigo Plateau back when the show had a mere 80-episode run planned. Not to mention, Ash's first choice of starter was Squirtle - Gary having a Blastoise was planned from the very beginning!
    • Similarly, Oshawott is the first of the Unova starters Ash catches, and the only one of his that came from Professor Juniper like in the games. Trip, who has similar overconfidence issues to Cheren, chooses Snivy, just like Cheren would if the player chooses Oshawott. Meanwhile, Bianca has a Pignite, the evolved form of Tepig, who she would choose if the player chooses Oshawott.
  • Fridge Horror: Look at some of the articles on this very page, and what do you get? A very insane idea: the "projection" of Darkrai gets to battle the Sinnoh Elite Four, and, since he seems to be so unstoppable, that would mean that he would beat Cynthia, paving his way to become the highest-ranking trainer in Sinnoh. Crazy, but other people have already thought the bit parts up. In fairness, Tobias didn't seem like a bad sort - he outright thanks Ash for giving him a good battle after Ash takes out the two Legendaries he sent out. Not that the fanbase care...
  • Fridge Logic: Has its own page.
  • Freud Was Right:
    • Treecko-Grovyle-Sceptile (Kimori-Juptile-Jukain): Their Oral Fixation Fixation gets worse when you remember where he pulls it out of whenever he's called out...
    • Corphish (Heigani): A bouquet of flowers in his pincers just happen to wilt away when he gets rejected.
  • Gateway Series: One of the flagship series that people being introduced to anime start with, alongside Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon.
  • Hatedom / Hate Dumb: The Best Wishes series has a HUGE one. Despite good, steady ratings up to the Unova League and general positive reception from most viewers up to that point too, a large number of angry fans in the Periphery Demographic insist that the whole series is just a Dork Age that nobody likes and nobody should like solely because it changed the formula up, did new things with the show, and (the biggest sin of all) reset Ash as a trainer. Just see TV Tropes' version of this page for a good example of the hatemongering this series gets.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Goes hand in hand with the above: the gang's first impression of the eponymous Pokémon in the episode "Charmander the Stray Pokémon"? "I think that this Charmander has an attitude problem." Hilarious, because that very Charmander would later turn out to be the gentlest of Ash's starter Pokémon... and harsh because of it's attitude change once it evolved into Charmeleon.
    • In an early episode, Ash asks Brock what he knows about the local gym leaders, as he wants to be prepared. He specifically says to succeed, one must "know yourself, and know your adversary!". Brock is impressed, before Ash notes he "got that one from Dexter". He's referring to his Pokédex, but still, it describes that character's er, "work" philosophy quite accurately.
    • Anime!Lorelei only appeared during the Orange Islands saga. Come FRLG, we later learn Game!Lorelei's home is in the Sevii Islands. Coincidence?
    • In "The Ties that Bind", the announcer proclaims that Heracross' victory over Magmar was contributed to his "Guts". When game abilities are introduced, what would be one of Heracross' in-game abilities again?
    • "Why? Wynaut?": the one time Ash had a justifiable means of jumping a hundred feet through the air, Team Rocket think it's impossible. What about their opinions on the other times it's happened?
    • Wobbuffet really is the strongest member of Team Rocket, but Jessie just can't use him properly. It may be idiocy on her part, but, until Generation IV, the physical/special mechanics weren't exactly precise...
    • The Team Shot at the end of the Best Wishes OP. Oshawott the Attention Whore is standing right behind Pikachu.
    • In "A Chansey Operation" back during Season 1, the doctor recommends Ash and his friends could become competent doctors (being impressed by their handling of the sick Pokémon while he was out), but they choose to keep following their respective dreams. Come the end of DP, Brock decides to become a Pokémon Doctor.
    • All that talk about Brock being a Casanova Wannabe...when HG/SS updated his look to make him a true Bishonen.
    • An earlier episode had Ash, Brock, and Character of the Day Suzy denouncing the idea of making Pokemon look flashy by dressing them up with make-up and accessories, saying that it diminished their inner beauty. Misty and Team Rocket went against this view, and were made to look wrong for it. Come Generation IV and we have Super Contests, which partly depend on picking out accessories in order to garner points, and Dress-Up Rooms, which let the player go wild with accessories and backgrounds that sometimes may move and be flashy. This is taken even further in Generation V, where the Pokemon Musicals rely solely on the types of accessories that Pokemon can wear in order to make them stand out from the rest of the performers, with Trainers only able to decide to toss away an accessory twice during the entire musical number. Then again, Suzy's reappearance in Johto did say that making Pokemon look outwardly beautiful and fashionable is okay so long as the Pokemon consents to it and the human doesn't forget about the Pokemon's inner worth.
  • Hype Backlash: Save for the Orange Islands, the Johto saga, and Black and White. All the anime seasons have gone through this.
    • With the exception of Iris and maybe Mallow and Lana, all the Pokegirls have been subject to this? Serena, Misty, and Dawn are huge contenders.
  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Pick any two characters who have ever appeared on screen together or have anything at all in common. There is a ___Shipping name for them. The more complete lists have thousands of entries.
  • Internet Backdraft:
    • Mention any shipping with Ash outside the designated forum (thread/topic/etc.). Your computer will be nice and toasty in minutes. On a more specific level, who was the better traveling partner, Misty, May, Dawn Iris, Serena, Lillie (and Mallow and Lana), or Chloe?
    • Which line up of Ash's is the strongest?
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Not much has actually changed in the show's 20+ year run. Every episode hits the same beats as all the others, and the plot resolutions are very predictable. Even the deviations from the norm (like Gym Leader battles) have their own norm that rarely, if ever, is broken. The lack on any overarching plot does not help at all (To Be A Master does not count as a plot when the main character is no closer to his goals than when he started). That being said, the show doesn't actually always SUCK per say, it just gets really boring and predictable in its need to maintain the Status Quo.
    • They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
    • The flipside opinion sprung up when Best Wishes made several big changes.
    • Sun and Moon got this far more than any past series, with big complaints being the art style change and the overall tone change.
  • Jerk Stu: Paul. Your first clue was when he bounced down a 400-foot cliff like a damn ninja while Ash just plummets to his amusing injury. Your second clue is that in three or so seasons, his only defeats involved three legendaries, the Champion's signature mon, and Ash at the last minute, but even that barely phased him like one would realistically expect it to.
  • Lady Mondegreen: In the English dub, Episode 4 is infamous for one of Ash's lines being misheard as "Take back that novice crap!"
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ash of course, he's been shipped with every girl ever, EVEN POKEMON! Heck, it's not even limited to girls, he's be paired up quite a lot of his male companions, rivals and pokemon too!
  • Like You Would Really Do It: Non-deadly example: Practically once every year during the Diamond and Pearl seasons, there was an episode wherein Team Rocket would either break up or actually quit following Ash & Pikachu to do something legit. It never sticks. It happens again in Best Wishes, culminating with Meowth joining Ash's team for a few episodes! But once again...
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Giovanni, boss of Team Rocket. He's managed to keep his organization up and running for fifteen years of this show's history and counting, with only a few setbacks and fewer defeats.
    • Team Galactic's boss Cyrus in Diamond and Pearl, Team Plasma's "boss" Dr. Colress in Best Wishes, and Team Flare's boss Lysandre in XY&Z.
    • Dr. Zager, Jessie, James, and especially Meowth put an effort into being this trope in their Nimbasa Subway mission in Best Wishes, which was a very well put-together plan that only fell apart because of slight oversights, our heroes persisting, and Meowth deciding to be a Smug Snake by mishandling his captive Pokémon.
  • Memetic Molester: Muk and Heracross, and we love them for it.
  • Memetic Mutation: Chock full of em.
  • Memetic Sex God: ASH!
  • Memetic Sex Goddess: One-shot character from Episode 9, Giselle, is said to be radiantly beautiful not only by herself but by Ash, Brock, and James all in the same episode. The former's attraction to her is particularly famous, and she's now known among fans as the only girl Ash was ever smitten by, 'cause she's just that hot.
  • Misaimed Fandom:
    • Paul, though arguably, the way he's written encourages this.
    • Conway, who was intended to be a case of This Loser Is You, but it's rather botched in writing: if Conway's creepy attitude toward Dawn is meant to be bad and thus fans like him are bad too, then why does the anime staff go out of there way to show Dawn off?
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Paul's treatment of Chimchar, especially in the Tag Tournament arc.
    • Pokémon Hunter J is always a Complete Monster in all of her appearances, but in the "Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu" two-parter she really shows her cruelty when - besides her pursuit of the titular Riolu - she tries to kill Ash several times. First she orders her Salamence to burn the surrounding forest and fire Hyper Beam point blank; then she has her Drapion attempt to crush him (leading to one of the few times Ash ever directly attacks a Pokémon); and finally, she ejects him from her ship at great height. She also says that she wanted to punish Ash personally and took pleasure in trying to kill him and every time she attacks Ash she is shown with a Slasher Smile.
    • Team Galactic's (and Cyrus' in particular) comes when Cyrus ordering Mars to blow up Iron Island (full of people and Pokemon) after Team Galactic have finished scanning Mt. Coronet. And he sported a Slasher Smile when he gave that order. And the reason behind this order? Just to make a statement about Team Galactic and the "new world". The guy's an Omnicidal Maniac par excellence, after all. Cyrus' plan to destroy the entire universe and create a new world in his image qualifies too, of course.
    • Damian, Charmander's former trainer, was on the brink when he first abandoned Charmander, but he soared right over the line when he refused to come back for it once it started raining -not only would Charmander not move from its rock despite the threat of death if its flame went out, Damian knew this once Brock told him yet still didn't care. His alternate counterparts in Pokemon Yellow and The Electric Tale of Pikachu subvert this, since in both he's shown to be a poor trainer for some reason or other, but still cares for Charmander's well-being.
    • In the eyes of Pikachu, Meowth crossed this when it is revealed that he lied about being fired from Team Rocket and joined Ash and his friends, just so he, Jessie and James could steal their Pokemon. Pikachu was absolutely furious and didn't forgive him after this and now vows revenge against Meowth for breaking his trust. However, this is actually an extreme Kick the Dog moment for Meowth, and he is portrayed as a funny or sympathetic character in other episodes and has a few Even Evil Has Standards moments; also, from episode 12 of season 1, we see that Meowth is capable of killing (as demonstrated when he interprets a remark by the Squirtle Squad, who didn't join up with him to be hired killers, as a death threat to Misty) but didn't follow through with any of his threats because he's a Noble Demon.
    • Similarly to Damian, whom he's an Expy of, Shamus, the former trainer of Ash's Tepig, already had a huge Kick the Dog to his name when he abandoned Tepig in Accumula Town by tying it to a post, but went over the Moral Event Horizon when we learn that when he did so, he actually acted remorseful for having to do it and told Tepig that it was for the best, making Tepig think that he still loved him... except that when he was far enough away, he smirked and laughed about being free of his useless Pokemon! He was just pretending to feel sad so that Tepig wouldn't follow him. He gloats about this to Tepig during his and Ash's battle, painfully shattering Tepig's view of him (and making The Woobie of BW tear up painfully). Any viewer with a shred of a heart was thus very pleased when Tepig evolved into Pignite, took out both Shamus's fighters down and roasted Shamus's face at the end, giving his offer to rejoin his team again a MASSIVE "Screw you, asshole!"
    • If Team Plasma's lord Ghetsis wasn't already on the other side of this after raising N, Anthea, and Concordia just to suit his selfish agenda and lying to them about Team Plasma's true purpose, then he certainly crossed the line when he ordered the mind controlled Reshiram to attack and possibly kill everyone at the White Ruins with Fusion Flare attacks, including his own minions! Team Rocket even makes note of this, seeing that this Bad Boss makes Giovanni look like much better in comparison.
    • Lysandre was already touching upon the line with torturing Z2 and extracting it's cells to fuel his weapon and use it for his plans to desecrate Kalos and wipe out most of it's population who weren't chosen by him to be spared. But he at least believed he was acting for the greater good and was going to spare some people and Pokemon at all, but he officially soars over the line when, after Z2 has been freed and his weapon has been dismantled, he opts for a contingency plan to have a Zygarde shaped Megalith rock, powered by Mairin's infected Chespin (coldly subverting Lysandre's previous Pet the Dog moment where he agreed to look after it and keep it alive) act as his new weapon and have it eat up all the power of the Anistar Sundial so that it would unleash energy that would eradicate all life on the planet, and he's willing to do this solely out of spite and resentment for the world and the people who obstructed his genocidal plans.
    • Faba came close to crossing it when he attempted to wipe out Lillie's memories to save his skin and then attempt to awaken Nihilego and use it on Gladion. However, he recognized how horrible his actions were and is repentant for them for the remainder of the series.
  • More Popular Spinoff: According to some Pokefans, due to the seasonal rot and decay of the main series, they view the spinoffs and some of the Pokemon movies, like Kyurem VS The Swords Of Justice and Pokemon: Origins, very favorably.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • There's a reason why Porygon, a.k.a. 'The Seizure Pokémon', is never seen in the anime anymore and its evolutions are never seen in the anime, period, even though it was Pikachu that actually caused the seizures in the Porygon episode.
    • The Best Wishes series will always bear the stain of having the heavily hyped "Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma" two-parter that was meant to air in 2011 pulled from airing and eventually retconned out entirely, taking out one of the more interesting aspects B&W offered.
    • In-Universe example: Kenny never lets Dawn forget how she acquired her nickname.
  • Poison Oak Epileptic Trees:
    • A more... unsavory theory or two pertaining to Ash's father crops up every once in a while.
    • The Ash in a Coma theory.
  • Possession Sue:
    • If Misty's in a fanfic, she's probably one of these. Either that, or the opposite, though mercifully some fans can find a middle ground between the two.
    • Ash tends to be this for the male viewers.
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses:
    • Misty's usually the Fan Dumb's weapon of choice in this one...as well as a target. Developing out of her over-aggressive attitude early in the series has led to cries, while her original is turned against the more feminine May and Dawn. To her credit, when it looks like she's softening up too much (as seen when she's briefly put in Damsel in Distress territory in episode 12), she actually volunteers to help her friends out (e.g. when she volunteered to pick up the Super Potion herself after Meowth threatened her).
    • Some fans of May and Dawn hold the reverse opinion for Iris since she's not a coordinator. In this case, Real Women Always Wear Dresses.
  • Recycled Script: Some plots in the Diamond and Pearl saga mirror those during Kanto and Johto, though this was done purposely in order to inform newer viewers of older plots...it is a Long Runner after all. The problem is that, in Japan, for some reason the first few seasons haven't had a home video distribution. The reuse of old plots is supposed to, at least in theory, remedy this to a certain extent.
  • Replacement Scrappy:
    • Tracey for temporary replacing Brock and every male companion past Brock for replacing either him, or the preceding male companion.
    • All the female companions past Misty will be this for the same reason.
    • Among Paul's fanbase, Trip is this. No matter what he does or how his character evolves, he'll never be a good rival or interesting character in these fans' eyes because he's not Paul.
  • The Scrappy: Quite a few. See the Scrappy anime page for details.
  • Seasonal Rot:
    • Thank you for all that tremendous Arc Fatigue, Johto and Sinnoh. Sure, Ash beat his rivals in the end, but did we need to take 150+ episodes to get there? Even the people who liked these arcs will admit to tiring out by the end.
    • Best Wishes Season 2 was already showing signs of this (with the exceptions of the Meloetta/Operation Tempest arc and "Episode N", though even the latter seemed too short and underwhelming for most fans' liking, being particularly problematic in its first half) with the widely disliked tournament arcs featured, but what killed it was the final stretch, "Decolore Adventures", a filler arc where Ash and his companions leave Unova and spend 18 episodes island hopping before reaching Kanto. Literally nothing of relevance happened during this period, as it was all an excuse to pad the series out until XY was ready to be released.
    • XY for the first two years (the third year, XY&Z, is more well regarded). Among common complaints are that there's no real momentum or reason for any of the main characters to be doing anything, there are no rivals, villains, or competitions present, the formula for disposable filler episodes has come back in full force, Ash is written as a Boring Invincible Hero as compensation for his Badass Decay in the previous series, Team Rocket acts (and even looks) like caricatures of their former selves, and the main female companion brings nothing but a one-sided Romantic Plot Tumor that goes nowhere to the table. Also, the opening is annoying, particularly the dubbed one being an uninspired remake of the best-remembered original theme song.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: The History of Pokemon Shipping. For those who don't feel like clicking on an outbound link, it reads like the Wikipedia article for World War II.
  • "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Paul, who was created as a Take That toward those types of players, but (thanks in due part to the head writer's apparent favoritism toward him), he developed a Misaimed Fandom.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: The anime has several moments of this. Specially in the scenes when the Pokémon start "talking" to each other. Also, a lot of Dawn and Piplup's moments together.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: The doctor in "A Chansey Operation" protests that his hospital is for humans and he isn't interested in helping Pokemon. Admittedly his casual attitude is cruel but he's absolutely right. He is suddenly being asked to treat a large variety of species with probably little knowledge about their reactions to certain medicines or proper temperatures, if he has to do a major operation there is no guarantee that he would have the faintest idea which major organs do what and a large number of the Pokemon are very dangerous and not in control. At one point Ash has to battle a Dodrio which the doctor would have been incapable of doing if Ash weren't there. If anything he's being more responsible than the trio or Nurse Joy. She never seemed to consider just using the clearly established Pokemon teleportation technology to send them to another Pokemon center.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • Many episodes count such as Bye, Bye, Butterfree, Go West, Young Meowth, Pikachu's Goodbye and Do I Hear a Ralts. The latter is a fan favorite, even among a lot of Max haters.
    • Jessie and James having to set Arbok, Weezing and Dustox free, and the former's memories of a certain Blissey.
    • James being forced to leave to a sickly Chimecho behind with an old couple from his childhood, followed by giving his Cacnea to Gardenia because he knows she'll be able to help it grow much better than he ever could.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: At the end of one episode, Ash is transformed into a Pikachu. How long does this last, mind you? Five Minutes. About two and a half at the end of said episode, and then another two and a half at the beginning of the next episode. And of course, it's Never spoken of again.
    • Haunter Vs. Kadabra"; all that build up to an epic rematch against Sabrina...and yet Kadabra is defeated by laughing too hard.
    • Depending on who you ask, the portrayal of the regional Evil Teams in the anime deviating greatly from their game counter-parts can come off very disappointing. The main complaint being that they all suffer from anti-climactic endings (as described on the main page). In addition:
      • Team Rocket never got to do some of the bigger operations they pulled off in the games such as taking over Silph Co. or the Goldenrod City radio tower, and outside the Rocket Trio, the team's appearances, as a whole, were incredibly limited all throughout the Kanto and Johto journeys.
      • Team Aqua and Magma were reduced to one-and-done episodes with no ongoing story aside from their needlessly vague goals and ended with a two-part finale that came completely out of nowhere.
      • Team Galactic's continuous Myth Arc was too few for an era that many claimed to have suffered greatly from Arc Fatigue.
      • Team Plasma was left completely out of the picture until finally getting an arc dedicated to them AFTER Ash had participated in the Unova League, and completely missing out on the original Team Plasma led by N before he pulled a Heel-Face Turn.
      • Team Skull have almost no role in Sun and Moon apart from being a small nuisance. It isn't until the League that Guzma finally shows up, and his subplot is quickly wrapped up, with the Team disappearing entirely after that.
    • The GS Ball being left to rot at Kurt's house will never leave the minds of some fans due to how important the quest to open the ball seemed at the time. It WAS suppose to contain Celebi before the Pokémon was instead used for the next movie.
      • Speaking of Kurt; some often wonder what ever happened to Brock's Heavy Ball and Ash and Misty's Fast Balls which dropped off the face of the planet once the trio left Azalea Town.
    • The start of Unova with Team Rocket's ongoing side-arc with the Meteonite is for some fans due to the indefinite postponement of its Team Rocket vs Team Plasma finale, which was set to air moments after an earthquake, tsunami, and radiation disaster had devastated Japan in real-life and left the ongoing plot literally unfinished.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Serena can come off this way in her relationship with her mother, Grace. We're meant to see Serena feeling as though Grace is pushing her into following in her footsteps as a racer and wanting her to do things she doesn't want to do as being valid and reason to root for her. But it's made clear that Serena chose to try out Ryhorn Racing, actually does have a talent for racing but doesn't enjoy doing it because it gets too rough for her, and indeed has a history of giving up on something she takes on the moment it starts getting too hard and requiring more extra effort from her. Grace thus seems insistent that Serena stick to racing because she knows that's something she's skilled at and pushes for her to put in more effort and work harder at it so that she can get better at it, which isn't an unreasonable thing for a mother to want for her child. Yet Serena acts as though her mother was overbearing, even when Grace has given her enough comfort and freedom of choice that her striking out on her own in order to join Ash on his journey was possible in the first place.
    • Unless you agree with her, Misty's nagging about Ash can come off as this.
    • Iris for similar reasoning. Most people actually do agree with her, but she's much more annoying about it, making people feel bad for Ash regardless. They're also the fact she can be hypocritical about the things she nags about.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: According to the Kids' WB! Kooky Karolfest, the recurring Jigglypuff is a male.
    • Ash's Pikachu has been confirmed male.
    • Dawn's Piplup is a boy.
  • Wangst: Can happen a lot when a character loses an important battle or competition. Ash and Dawn are frequent offenders.
  • The Woobie:
    • Sometimes Dawn, sometimes Ash, sometimes May and/or Max, and sometimes the Team Rocket trio, especially James. And on the Pokémon side of things, Chimchar.
    • After the revelation that they're simply punch clock villains in "Island of the Giant Pokémon", it's impossible not to feel sorry for poor Arbok and Weezing. After getting curb stomped by the heroes every single episode, you'd think that they would run away from Team Rocket just to escape the daily pain. But no- they keep on because they care about their trainers. And their final appearance is a testament to how Jessie and James feel the same way.
  • Woolseyism:
    • Naturally quite a few, particularly the puns which can/can't be translated. One worthy of note, however, is that Brock's Sudowoodo's use of "Take Down" in the original Japanese - which Sudowoodo cannot legitimately learn in the games - was changed in the English dub to "Double Edge", a move with similar properties which Sudowoodo can use...similarly, in the episode where Ash challenged Roxanne's Gym, her Nosepass apparently used "Hyper Beam" twice in the Japanese version (during Ash's episode battling her) - but given the electric-based properties of the attack (which was actually plot-relevant), the dub changed these two instances to "Thunder Wave" and "Zap Cannon" respectively, which actually makes more sense (Zap Cannon is probably what the attack was meant to be, anyway).
    • Hikari/Dawn's Embarrassing Nickname, "Pikari"/"Dee-Dee", is a particularly clever one, which makes you wonder if PUSA had planned it ahead. To elaborate, Dawn's nickname is treated as a Noodle Incident until the last DP Season, where its origins are revealed to be from Dawn having been shocked by a Plusle and Minun when she was little - her friend Kenny partially traumatized her at the time by calling her "Pikari" (in reference to pikapika, the sound an electric sparkle makes). Since the dub changed her name, the nickname becomes Dee-Dee - which is short for "Diamond Dandruff", a rather suitable nickname for the scenario.
    • While being a "Pokemon Sommelier" fits for Cilan "tasting" the compatibility between Pokemon and trainers, "Pokemon Connoisseur" works much better when it comes to Cilan's various hobbies when he declares himself a "--- Connoisseur", seeing as a connoisseur is another term for an enthusiast.
  1. ↑ The three tropes previously potholed form their own ACI.
  2. ↑ Though Ash did participate in several of the latter.
  3. ↑ pre-Character Development of both characters, of course
  4. ↑ That is, The Rival having the starter that has the type advantage over the hero's.
  5. ↑ the time gap was between the Japanese debuts of "Volcanic Panic" and Goldand Silver
  6. ↑ As of this writing, the A-Z page has been temporarily removed. A-M and N-Z are up though.
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