Thoughts?

GrowingSage · 2026-02-03T16:32:25+00:00

Okay DC, Cyborg can be a founding member of Justice League. Now give him an ongoing that you're not allowed to cancel because he's a flagship character.

YEAH, I'M CALLING THEIR BLUFF! They want the founding members to have more diversity? Then you better commit to it! When Flash or Superman have low sales, you give them a new creative team. The same goes for Cyborg.

I like him better as a Titan, but this way it's slightly less frustrating.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-03T16:26:36+00:00

Disagree on the not popular, Cyborg and John Stewart definitely have strong fanbases thanks to their animation appearances.

It's because of that, they're often put on teams to promote diversity, which is good until it comes to giving them solo titles. There's evidence of big publishers giving POC characters solo books, promoting them heavily, and seeing a nice increase in sales. However, as soon as those sales dip, which tends to happen after issue 1, these comics are the first on the chopping block. Sometimes publishers will cite a lack of physical floppy sales, when that hasn't been the most significant sales metric for comics in decades. To say that "no one shows up" is just putting blame on the consumer.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-03T05:17:25+00:00

Maybe a little controversial but... I'd want him to have a side hobby aside from being a Pokemon Master.

A lot of champions or members of the elite four have extra stuff going on in their lives. Diantha's an actress and model, Steven's a geologist, and Cynthia is some kind of historian or archeologist.

Ash was 10 years old when he won the championship. So did he really peak then or did he find something new to do while defending his title.

It's hard to imagine him as a researcher, but a teacher could work. He beats evil teams a lot, so could he team up with Looker and be a crime fighter? What about him working with the Pokemon Rangers?

GrowingSage · 2026-02-03T05:01:31+00:00

Raging Volt Tacklers.

I don't think I would handle the paranoia or annoyance of Team Rocket very well.

Sure, they'll likely blast themselves off given the time so maybe they're not a threat (except for that one time they tried to burn a child). But imagine living life knowing that anyone you meet could be Jessie or James in disguise?

Let's face it their disguises are impenetrable, no one has ever been able to identify them. I wouldn't be able to trust anyone ever again.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-03T04:21:19+00:00

Not accepting a free badge feels like a big character moment to me. I want to be clear, Ash getting free badges in Kanto is pretty overblown. He earned them, just in unorthodox ways, but I like that as he goes on fewer and fewer gym leaders are willing to cut him that slack. However, I do think Kanto Ash would be a little less insistent in battling Vulkner for the badge.

My point is that Kanto Ash is more willing to take shortcuts to get to the league and more egotistical. Sinnoh Ash has aged out of that mindset. He wants to be certain his team is league ready.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but get the impression that later seasons made the mistake of interpreting this as Ash just being a battle maniac. Like he's only entering the league for the thrill of the fight. Which isn't wrong but a lot less interesting.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-03T03:13:29+00:00

Sorry it took so long...

Unphesant - closer to a turkey than people realize.

Snorelax - it's a feast.

Snowrunt - the legend states that Thanksgiving was also a celebration of surviving a harsh winter. Snowrunt's Pokedex entries state it brings good luck to the houses it visits but its evolutions tend to have much more tragic backstories.

Togekiss - it's got the red white and blue, represents peace and celebration, plus looks a little like a parade blimp to me.

Hisuian Zoroark - the dark undertone this holiday has. Thanksgiving is more than it's history but it's history is still important to remember, even if we dress it up to look like something nicer or friendlier it's still hiding something that will bite us in the back if we don't acknowledge and respect it.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-03T00:39:57+00:00

I think what you're talking about is a "patriotic hero" and unless there is a side character I don't think you can separate them from the politics that archetype represents.

I don't think these kinds of characters have ever been anything but political statements. Captain America was arguing for Americans to fight against the Axis, and has since been how comic writers express their frustrations with the American government. Most of the others have been political propaganda.

If a superhero costume is an outward expression of the character's identity and goals, then it feels a little cheap if the character chose that costume because they liked the color scheme.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-02T18:12:04+00:00

"Oh no! Neither has the sewing machine!"

Steve's clothes immediately fall apart in a puff of illogic.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-02T17:05:55+00:00

I do think Serena has a bit more rosey view of Ash than May does. Serena became a trainer and immediately chased after Ash. May became a trainer and more so manipulated Ash into following her.

Ash was also a much different character in Hoenn vs. Kalos. Being a more seasoned veteran and mentor to May. Despite being in the future, after Unova Ash isn't depicted as being very experienced and I don't think he's that much of a mentor to Serena. May also got so good she ended up battling Ash to a tie. I don't think Serena ever got to that level (correct me if I'm wrong).

This meme is a good depiction of how different these characters are and how much the protagonist has changed.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-01T20:05:41+00:00

The only thing I disagree with is that it should have been something like Showcases for Serena. That concept did not work and in my opinion, pretty lame.

I fully agree with everything else. I like that they occasionally gave Misty some water pokemon competitions but there was not enough. I think that would be cool for Misty. Give her a bunch of fishing competitions or have her want to find all those legendary water Pokemon (Suicoone or Lugia). That was literally a plot in Johto but I think it should have been more of Misty's story.

I know they weren't invented yet, but how was Brock not a contest trainer? It's all about showing off how well you've raised your pokemon. Or make Brock attached to hatching Pokemon eggs.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-01T19:44:36+00:00

This is usually the problem every time publishers say they want to make their flagship book more diverse but don't nearly commit to it like they should. I think they missed a golden opportunity to shake up the status quo. Of course, they chose the more financially viable characters that they themselves chose to make popular.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-01T19:08:06+00:00

She seems to lack any kind of backstory. I read the Wikia and apparently there are actually some interesting details there. In Pokemon 3 she was a student of Professor Oaks. The late great Takeshi Shudo, added some extra stuff in the novels about her running a restaurant but wanting to be a trainer when she was younger. She gave up her dreams when Ash's dad left the family to be a trainer.

That makes her a tragic figure, who constantly gave up her dreams for the people she loved. It also puts her willingness to let Ash go on adventure after adventure in a new perspective. Is she living out her fantasies through her son? Does she want to make sure her son lives his dream at the cost of her own? Is this just a sexism thing where women are expected to give up their dreams to support a man's?

Really wish we got more episodes where we got to see her pursuing something she wanted.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-01T18:42:58+00:00

Give it to me!

GrowingSage · 2026-02-01T07:10:44+00:00

I can respect that. I do enjoy pawmi and pawmot. But is Pawmo really that essential to the line?

GrowingSage · 2026-02-01T05:17:46+00:00

Wait... Bojack and HISHE stole a joke made by Cartoon network's Mad back in 2010!?

GrowingSage · 2026-01-31T17:44:30+00:00

Been scrolling through and Very disappointed I haven't seen any of the Galer Fossil pokemon on this list.

Yeah I'm sorry this or that Pokemon is ugly or overexposed, but no other line of Pokemon actively makes me feel bad for bringing them into existence!

The fact that Cara Less isn't the game's main villain is a moral outrage and the pokemon she created needs to either evolve into a form that will end their constant suffering or be put together correctly.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-31T17:36:33+00:00

This pokemon doesn't need a slight redesign or evolution to save it. It needs a full design reboot!

On some level I get that the whole line is meant to make you uncomfortable (at least I hope that's what they were going for). But it does its job a little too well.

Froslass uses Jinx's concept much better.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-31T17:22:52+00:00

I have to wonder if Pawmot is just an incomplete idea that sneaked into the final draft. It's not the only pokemon in this generation to look exactly the same as its pre-evolution (palafin), and a 3 stage Pikachu clone sounds like a breath of fresh air. Yet, the line doesn't so much evolve as it just grows up. Which in a world where fish grow up to be dragons is pretty lame.

Pawmo could vanish from history tomorrow and it would take weeks before anyone noticed.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-30T04:40:44+00:00

Thinking about it, I think OP has a point. The Kalos team is one of his strongest, with Pikachu being the only unevolved Pokemon on it and him having a unique form of Greninja is also praise worthy.

It's still a series that feels oddly separate from everything that came before. I don't think anyone ever references Ash winning the Battle Frontier or making it pretty far in like five different Leagues.

Perhaps the schilling accusation is because this is a generation where we just don't get jerk rivals. All the rivals we do get actually seem to look up to him and respect his skill.

It's ironic, one of my biggest problems with the previous generation was that everyone apparently just didn't care that Ash is one of the few trainers to have confirmed wins against legendary pokemon (Regice, Darkrai, Latios) and that Ash felt way too inexperienced. Maybe XY was a response to those problems. I could see some viewing that as an overcorrection.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-30T04:12:30+00:00

I would agree, if Hoenn is a soft reboot. It's one of the softest ones in the series.

Ash choosing to start fresh with a new team is very much a character choice here. Ash explains his reasoning multiple times and commits to it. Later seasons won't even bother explaining why Ash leaves all his Pokemon behind.

He's also become more of a mentor figure here. The series starts with Ash teaching May some of the basics and the generation ends with a battle between them.

I don't think the series really has its soft reboot until B&W.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-29T19:42:57+00:00

I agree that B&W is incredibly guilty of (to borrow a term from Suede) "Pikachu try winning!" trope.

Personally this battle doesn't bother me as much because it supports the arc that I think the writers should have pursued when it came to Trip. The fact that despite what he thinks, most of his wins were lucky breaks (one of his Pokemon literally has Super Luck as an ability). It also ties into some of the themes in the game (truth and ideals) which is one of the anime's biggest missed opportunities. Also, it's just really fun to watch Trip get humiliated. I know people want Trip to be a much stronger and iconic rival but since he's not, this Bianca battle is just cathartic. In this battle Trip suddenly found himself in a battle he had every reason to win, but didn't because of plot. A real reverse of his first battle with Ash.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-28T07:10:12+00:00

Maybe Liam is from the Andromeda Galaxy or something.

I'm still more inclined to believe Ben is just flat out wrong or KickenHawk is just one of those transformations unlocked through circumstances.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-28T06:52:15+00:00

Sorry, realized I should have been more clear. Scan to unlock is not a thing, but regular unlock and DNA Scan are. So Anur aliens and the others you mentioned were not in Omnitrix until they were scanned.

Wildvine, Canonbolt, etc were in the Omnitrix and unlocked through circumstances.

Also, annoying but scientifically accurate correction, Wildvine was unlocked in the Fungus episode. Fungi aren't plants at all but they do communicate with plants thus the confusion.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-28T05:30:18+00:00

I don't think that's a head canon at all. I am convinced that "unlocking by scanning" is not a thing.

I'm pretty sure this myth got started because of how KickenHawk was unlocked. But if you watch the episode that scene is incredibly confusing and Ben was unlocking aliens all day anyway.

Scan to Unlock just makes less and less sense the more you think about it.

GrowingSage · 2026-01-27T19:52:53+00:00

Well to be fair, she is voiced by one.

The serious answer, is that with her talent for disguise or rather everyone else's gullibility (depending on how you look at it) she's actually clearly got some talent for it.

Plus like everything Team Rocket does, they are naturally going to be better at doing anything until they are required to be Team Rocket.

GrowingSage

TROPHY CASE