EDIT: Happy one-year anniversary to this post! This is the one that got me started on this lovely journey on this wonderful app in this incredibly polite fandom!

...yeah...

Keep in mind this post doesn’t have images cuz I didn’t know how to do those back then. Also I’m making a “Things I liked about XYZ” post to really celebrate the occasion.

Hope you enjoy!

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Well ain't this a great idea.

Okay, seriously, before anyone tries to kill me,(is that a thing on amino? I've never tried this before) hear me out. I absolutely love the Pokémon anime and the XY(Z) series is my personal favourite. But after seeing the reaction to the new Sun and Moon anime and how most of the fanbase is unfairly criticizing it more than they ever did with the XY(Z) series, I had to write something more than a comment on a YouTube video.

(Side note: I'll be using XY when referring to the original Kalos quest, XYZ when referring to episode 94 onwards, and XY(Z) when referring to the series as a whole)

Now, many people in the community have been very open about the new series, shout outs to Pokemonrangerboy12 and Kgprestige in particular, but there's always that statement. You know the one. "But it's not as good as XY(Z)," or "XY(Z) did it better." You can agree with these statements all you like, that's fine. But it's the fact that people are criticizing series both before and after for many faults despite the fact that a) those faults were still present in XY(Z), b) XY(Z) has other flaws besides those, and c) the series wasn't as unique as people seem to think it was. Also I'd like to mention that this is not meant to bash anyone who likes the series, I'm just trying get them to see the series in a different way so they can appreciate the other series for what they offer.

I'm going to break down the series into sections, with this first one being about the 4 main characters: Ash, Serena, Bonnie, and Clemont. Many people consider them to be the greatest cast ever, with varied goals and personalities that make them feel like a family. But… there not really. The cast, like the series itself, ranges from really good to boring to why exactly are you here again? I also won't be talking much about their Pokémon because I'll be talking about those guys in another section, if I ever get around to it.

With that fluff out of the way, let's get started. I’ll talk about the characters in XY(Z) from best to worst. Also this is gonna be a really long ride so get ready. Oh, and since I know what you’re all really here for, Serena’s section is third down.

-Bonnie

Bonnie was probably the best thing about the entire XY(Z) series, mostly because (this is important so pay attention) she was one of the most unique elements about it. We’ve seen younger, non-trainer companions before like Max and… Max, but none of them were quite like Bonnie. There’s the basic “she loves Pokemon” deal, but she also does one thing that rarely happens to companions, grow. Other companions before rarely got any development that changed them throughout their respective shows. In fact, the most development of any Pokemon series came from BW, but everyone hates that one so I digress. Bonnie had the most growth out of anyone in the series that carried with her throughout. And because she's a really young kid, she was versatile in being able to have different kinds of episodes, as well as making any episode a joy just by being there, both things that many of the other characters lack (cough, cough, Serena). She can get annoying, but in a little kid way, and none of her whiny tendencies had a negative affect and were relatively reasonable, sort of.

She had some of the best standalone episodes in the series ranging from funny to heartwarming and was great in either a supporting or main role in any episode, again, making any episode better just with her inclusion. (Ep.16, 27, 45, 49, 71, 87, 102-103, 114, 133 and 140 are her best main roles).

Many of the lessons she learned in XY didn’t seem to stick from episode to episode at first, but it's shown constantly through little character moments that would‘ve been different had they been at the start of the series. This was magnified in XYZ, where, because of her relationship with squishy, she was able to learn about having to lose something you love for the right cause, which is a great message for a kids show, even if it is something Pokemon has done before.

Overall, I can’t say anything bad about her, she’s the best part of a great series. Her brother, on the other hand…

-Clemont

Now, so far in this... lets call it a review, I’ve done nothing but praise the XY(Z) series. That's not a really good look for a blog post called “Why the XY(Z) series wasn't as good as you thought it was.” :tm: but here is where we get to the point of flaws that people really like to ignore about the series.

Now, Clemonts great, I’m not denying that. He’s smart, he’s a great older brother, he has lots of inventions ranging from awesome to useless to high range explosives, and he’s an overall great guy. My problem isn’t that he’s flawed in any way, it's that the series didn’t seem to know what it wanted to do with for over half the frickin series (this is a major problem with many characters in XY(Z)). When he’s first introduced alongside Bonnie, he has a small degree of mystery to him. He seemed to know a lot about what was up with the Lumiose Gym and we knew he was its gym leader from the games. After the whole thing with Clembot gets resolved in episode 9, this leads into a great mini arc in the background as Clemont wants to become a good challenge for Ash as the gym leader, which cultivates in their epic battle which, ontop of being beautifully animated, has a great character dynamic between characters we care about, characters we both want to see win. It was the perfect climax to Clemont’s character arc. Too bad it happened almost 80 episodes before the series was over.

See, Clemont was great for the 67 episodes of him wanting to prove himself as both a rival to Ash as well as a gym leader, but after that, there was nothing for him to do. Episodes centered around him after his battle with Ash and before the Pokemon league had no weight to them because he had no real, tangible goal. He had some awesome moments during the team flare arc and in the final few episodes, but before that is just episodes of filler for our favorite scientist to just solve a problem, no lessons learned, nothing. This is a constant with XY(Z) where the series will create a subarc within itself that ends in a short amount of time to keep things from getting stale, which normally is great when given to side characters like Korrina who can leave the group after her arc is finished, but Clemont is one of the main 4, meaning he’s stuck in filler episodes until Ash completes his journey. Yeah he has to take care of his sister, and the cast just wouldn’t be the same without him or his Pokemon, but it makes his episodes some of the most boring in the entire series, with the exception of 88 of course. And I know that series before and possibly after have had similar issues with their characters, but that's what I meant by XY(Z) retaining more problems than it fixes, and don’t think that Clemont is the only one with this issue, Oh no. Clemont got the better end of the stick when it came to useful character progression.

I mean, besides the obvious…

-Serena

OHHHHH boy, this is it. If I say one negative thing here, my career as a blogger will have ended before it even started. Now let me prefix all this by saying that I like Serena, I do really. But she is not my favorite Pokegirl and she is not my waifu. And before any of you complain, think about this.

If Serena didn’t have a crush on Ash, would she be nearly as loved as she currently is? Let's look at her beyond the man she’s attached to and see how “unique” she really is (oh my, there's that word again)

I mean, she’s cute and all, she has nice hai-oh yea... she has a nice hat. Serena is a real oddball when it comes to how the fans treat her, which interesting and kind of ironic considering she’s fairly generic when it comes to the Pokegirls. I mean, think about it. Compare her to Misty, May, Dawn, and Iris with amourshipping completely removed and try to tell me that she’s completely different than all of them. I mean, besides Iris anyway. In fact, Iris was the one with the most unique personality as well as an interesting upbringing that was slowly shown to us through her character interactions in BW, but everyone hates that series, so I digress.

Now, here’s the deal. Serena is essentially a more likable version of Dawn with a crush on Ash…...So she’s May. With a crush on Ash. There's not a lot to her beyond that. And what there is… well, let's put it this way:

I remember back in episode 7 when it was revealed that, at first, Serena only wanted to go on a Pokemon journey to see Ash again and return the handkerchief he gave her when they were little. This is an okay starting motivation… alright it’s not, but I’m treading thin ice as is. Even so, this really ticked me off later in the series. And that's for this reason:

It should not, I repeat, NOT take over 40 frickin episodes to give a character a reason, not even a goal mind you, a REASON to travel across the entire frickin region other than for that sweet Ass-h! And that is one sweet Ass-h, let me tell you! Now, I can see that the writers new what they wanted to do with her from the start, and a few of the characters in SM don’t even have a defined goal yet. But that's because in SM they’re at a school instead of on a very dangerous journey with nothing but a twig-eating fox baby for sole purpose of, again, that sweet ASS-H! And there’s another problem! What if someone watching doesn’t care for amourshipping? Serena then becomes nothing more than the average girl of the series with no reason to be there other than… what was it again? Oh yeah! GETTIN’ THAT SWEET ASS-H! You see, the problem is that Serena, by herself, doesn’t add a whole lot to episodes, especially in the beginning unlike a character like Bonnie, who like I said, could be entertaining in many different settings and in many different ways. Serena just has the average girl reactions that don’t even add to her character because she has no motivation in the beginning other than, say it with me now, THAT. SWEET. AAASSSSS----HHHH! And remember what I said about Clemont not having any reason to be with the XY(Z) family after his battle with Ash? Yeah, this is worse than that. Ash wants to be a Pokemon Master, Clemont wants to be a better trainer and gym leader by following Ash, Bonnie's there to be funny and have some important life lessons told her, and Serena?

Serena’s the girl, just bumbling around, watching from the sidelines for a good whole 3rd of the series looking for a reason to even be there. This makes her appearances in episodes in the first third of the series more boring and questionable than Clemont’s in the second third of the series!

Now, don’t get me wrong, the whole “looking for a goal” thing is pretty good angle to take a character for a kids show. Problem is it doesn’t work here because a) it takes too long, b) Serena isn’t even trying to find a goal half the time, c) it takes too long, d) It makes going across France to find your lover on a whim sound like a good idea, which is a stupid lesson for a kids show, and e) IT TAKES TOO FRICKING LONG! RANT OVER!

Now after Serena had that confrontation with her mother, which was, admittedly really well done and is the only difference she has from her predecessors, she becomes the same contest girl she was always destined to be. It's the exact same song and dance as with May and Dawn (literally), only this time, it’s the Pokemon Showcases! Events that are literally the exact same as contests only with no battling and more girls trying to look attractive! Because women can’t do anything but look attractive. This leads to them gaining popularity- I mean points. After the first round, these points are decided by the audience. Because why have official judges say who wins the adoration of millions of girls and really horny boys (on top of, you know, a career that has millions of dollars worth of profit), when you can have the biased opinions of those same girls and really horny boys do the work for you! Wouldn’t that be great in real life? Wouldn’t real life be great if you were judged by how good you look instead of how popular you were? Look at all of the good lessons XY(Z) is teaching its impressionable kid fans! Look at how much better this series is than that stupid show about a 10 year old acting like a 10 year old!

...Sorry, I… got a little side-tracked there. I promise it won’t happen again…

Definitely

…

...Probably

…

...Hopefully

…

...Probably not.

In any case, Serena’s journey and development are pretty par for the course for most Pokegirls, even if they are better animated. She’s cute and she teaches girls that if being a farm girl is apparently beneath you, you should be a pop star!

And, just so I can get this out of the way:

Amourshipping.

It’s fine, it’s cute, I support it more than the other Ash ships. It does give Serena an extra level of fanservice capabilities without making her sexualized. I just don’t think it's necessary. Well, it is in the beginning of the series, but, yeah. I just don’t think the kind of relationship a character could and, let's be honest, won't have should be the reason you like that character. The reason you should like that character is whether they entertain you and if the struggles they go through to get to their goal make you want to root for them. And Serena’s got those qualities, for sure. It's just that it was done before, and in a few ways, slightly better by the Pokegirls before her.

But what do I know? Time to make some cringey AMVs!

Hey, at least her boyfriend has more originality than her.

...Right?

-Ash

So, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll probably have noted that for the main characters, I want them to either have goals that are worth rooting for, or be entertaining in their own right. You’ve also probably noted that Ash is at the bottom of this character analysis, meaning I think he’s the weakest of these characters in terms of writing. Now, before I go into that, let set a few things straight: No, I don’t hate Ash because he lost the league again, I’m actually one of the few people that doesn’t mind Ash being the protagonist for every series. Would it be great if he won once and the series had a different trainer at the helm? Of course! Would it be great if they handled the series more like Adventures? Absolutely! But I’m not going to act like my opinions on a TV show should dictate how its made. I know the reason he’s still here and I understand and agree with why he should leave and why he should say. I mostly just go along with whatever the series has in store because it's a series about making friends and being friends. I know this is rich, but I’m not actually trying to hold the series up to a standard I want it to be. My main problem with the Pokemon Anime as whole is how the fans react to it. Particularly how they all treat Ash. I like Ash. He’s a good protagonist for a show about small creatures that you collect and train. Despite me being younger than most Gen 1 & 2 fans, I still consider him as a part my childhood. He’s just a simple kid for the kids that watch the series to look up to and for older fans to reconnect to whenever they want. So why does everyone hate him?

“We’re tired of him, we want something new.”

Ash’s personality changes so much from series to series that you can hardly call him the same character. He’s different, though not more mature, than he was back in Kanto.

“He keeps losing and never grows.”

Ash grows in each series in a similar yet different way. It shouldn’t matter that he’s reset, only that how he solves a new problem will be different now than before. The Pokemon he bonds with, the people he meets, are those aren’t different enough?

“We want to see him achieve his dream.”

Now, that one's understandable. Ash has had the same dream since the first episode, and that will probably never change until the series ends or Pokemon finally changes up its main character. But even if the character does change, what will really be different? The Trainer will have pretty much the same goal and go about it the same way. The only reason XY(Z) is loved more than other series is because it tries act more mature when, the franchise never needed to. (Let’s also not forget that ,from a money standpoint, XY(Z) bombed hard in Japan, which is where most of the money comes from). And don’t mix up being mature with having a good story. Gen 5 (discluding the anime because people hate it), The Adventures Manga, and all of the Mystery dungeon games proved you can have good stories in this franchise without compromising the light-hearted nature. But getting rid of Ash? That's too big of a change for it to be financially successful because the majority of Pokemon fans like Ash and want him to stay. The anime would have to change its core demographic to become what these other fans want it to be. But we’re not the core demographic, and it should stay that way. If Pokemon became as dark and edgy as we apparently want it to be, it wouldn’t be Pokemon anymore. And from a business perspective, it wouldn’t exist at all, because, like it or not, the amount of people who actually want that is really, really small. It always comes back to this: If it should be more serious, why does no one buy it when it is? Why do the really edgy and serious DC movies get stomped by the funny and more light-hearted Marvel movies? If the anime should be like Adventures, why isn’t Adventures itself popular enough to warrant a completely different adaption? Why isn’t it the with an adaptation? That’s the kicker. The anime is child-friendly because child-friendly sells more, and if you want that to change, buy the serious stuff so they’ll make more serious stuff. If enough people like it, it will be made. And if not, well, I guess you'll have to write a multi-page essay about your feelings and hope for the best, you weeb.

...wait a minute-

Oh yeah, and, um…

Lets just make this list form

In XY(Z):

-Ash is boring

-He’s not more mature, he just doesn’t emote as much

-Seriously, he has like, 3 facial expressions over the entire show

-He doesn’t have any development

-That stuff in episode 121 wasn’t developement

-Ash gets sad, Serena throws a snowball at him and he isn’t sad anymore

-Everything else is just fans looking way too much into things

-Ash-Greninja is the biggest plot-device I’ve ever seen and it doesn’t even have an actual plot to it

-No, seriously, it wins whenever it needs to and loses whenever it needs to

-Then it screws off out of nowhere because the writers lost the script they had planned for him in the millions of petitions for Serena to come back to the show they had to burn

-Ash is literally the same person he was at the end of the show that he was in the beginning

-And all of you saying I’m a biased hater, kindly go screw the fridge door off

(And if you have any fair criticisms, feel free to share, I'd really like to do this in the future for more positive subjects)

Now I’m gonna go watch some One Piece

See you next time if I’m not dead.