My Rant on Pokemon

[Emaruse]

WARNING! This is merely my explaining my reasons for love/hate of pokemon, and my thoughts on the matter, and this is merely for fun since I believe I've been too nice for too long, and I haven't made a good rant in ages, so this should be fun, and a little offensive for those who can't take a joke or someone else's thoughts or someone who's as devoted to Pokemon like a Christian Nut (No offense, and did you know that a good part of Christians think Pokemon is evil?) Anyway, if you can't take a joke, if you can't look at this intelligently, and if you love Pokemon to the point of cosplay complete with Pokemon sounds, I'd highly suggest you leave this topic.... Right Now. But if you can take a joke, and love to hear my story, you're more than welcome to stay.

Ah, Pokemon. Some love you, some hate you. Me? Quite frankly, I'm at a crossroads at this point, because of the positives and negatives, because there's so much you could insult with Pokemon, yet things that stand out that you like. To be the nice guy in this rant, I'll start with the good. First off, when Pokemon began, we were hooked, and nearly everybody had a Pokemon card at some point in time, and it was everywhere in schools, well, until they got banned due to crime rings stealing cards lol (That's what happened in my school), but the best part of it was that we could use strange creatures with weird mutations and powers that enabled them to battle for our amusement, card game or video game, and they looked so cute, while some were "meh", but all in all, it's the ability to control these pokemon and try to be the best was quite enjoyable at the time. But, things came to an end quite soon, and now Pokemon Card Games are rarely seen outside conventions and some tournaments, but it may make a comeback one day (MAY), but as for me, the magic left the card game once the show started reaching a pattern, which I'll explain later.

The next thing was the video games, which really hooked people, since you could now fully control the Pokemon, catch them all, and go through the basic story: Get First Pokemon, Battle Gym Leaders/Frontier Brains/Whatever While Gaining Newer Pokemon and Leveling Up, Battle Evil Organization, Battle Rivals Throughout Game, Enter League, Find, Battle, and Capture Legendary Pokemon, Attempt to "Catch Em' All", which was all well and good the first 5 times, but now... It's gotten stale. Only thing I've seen updated is the Pokemon, Gym Leaders, and Some items, which is kind of boring to me sometimes. But that's just the base games, there's the Camera Games, Pinball and Puzzle Games, Hey You, Pikachu!, even a Pokemon upgraded form of an RPG, so yeah, there's a GIANT load of things to pass time, but now... It's gotten so DAMN predictable, but all things do reach this pattern, but Pokemon has gotten so predictable the only non-predictable thing is that how many more Pokemon will they possibly make before moving on from this tale of adventure.

Now.... The show. The very first season of Pokemon, back in the 1990's, was simply breathtaking, because America never saw anything like it, and I love it for that, to bring so many together with the simple quest of friendship and being the best everyday. But, as the series went on, it went stale for me in the middle to near end of Johto (If that's how you spell it), but I still kept watching hoping that some cool stuff will happen, and it did at SOME points, but it became nearly unbearable with it's flaws. One of which is the living core of an anime: The idiotic main character, and Ash isn't Naruto stupid because Pokemon was a 100% kids show, but he was close. For example, in the beginning, he more often than not used Pokemon that either had no effect or were weak against the other Pokemon. Don't believe me? First Example: Pikachu vs. Onyx. Enough said, because we all KNOW that in the beginning, we either had to hack or cheat, because there was NO possible way without staying in the first area for possibly 60 hours straight (Exaggeration, maybe) just to put Pikachu at the right level to defeat Brock's Onyx. But Ash has been learning a little (And I mean "A Little") about weakness and resistance, but everynow and then, he still keeps making the same mistakes throughout the entire series, and the most current I know of was Infernape vs. Infernape (Ash Vs. Flint), and he REALLY should have known better than to challenge an expert's pokemon with the same one. But I'm overanalyzing this fact, moving on. Secondly, it seems that Ash and his group ALWAYS falls for Team Rocket's disguises unless they ruin it themselves, and sometimes, they don't even try to hide who they are, and yet everyone seems to think they're someone else. It's almost like their Bluff check was at bloody 369. And his trait, like Goku has, of being pure-hearted sometimes leads to glory, and sometimes leads to defeat, but he eventually gets his way anyway.

And while we're still on Ash's case, it may seem that he wins the small-time things, he doesn't seem to be any closer from fulfilling his dream or living up to the motto of Pokemon: Becoming a Pokemon Master, and to "Catch em' all". Because excluding 30 of the same Pokemon (Tauros, which won't count except for the one), he's caught at least 35 or so Pokemon, and HOW many are there?! And still counting? And let's not forget the fact that he has NEVER wanted, or even attempted to capture any legendary Pokemon (Which EVERY Pokemon Game Player Has, Admit This Right Now), and he's only made movie friends with a few, but official.... Personally, I'm not quite sure, but I'd bet it's like 1-3. As for Becoming Pokemon Master, he may have won small time things, so what? Other than the Orange League (Which I believe is filler), he has NEVER beaten a league (Because the Battle Frontiers are classified as Championship Battles, thus, Second-tier compared to the leagues), In Kanto, he never even touched the semi-finals, but that's understandable, a dissapointment to us all, but forgivable since this was his first, Johto and Hoenn he got better, but still never reached the top, let alone face the final surprises we had to face in the games, and in Sinnoh, he finally made Top 4, but yet... Never reached the top. This seems to be a pattern with the show, to get so close only to get owned by someone, which would make Ash the infinite loser, since he can win the small things, but never the huge important ones, which dissapoints us all, thus (And I hate to be harsh) the loser.

Another thing I noticed was that people seem to try to find different callings after all that hard work, they just seem to give up and do something else, which is pathetic in my opinion, because if you're good at something, stick with it, or try to do it all. the BIGGEST example by FAR, is Gary. The main arrogant person who is now changed, because all because he lost against Ash (Finally) in the Johto League, he then made a change to become a Pokemon Researcher. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Gary Get far enough into the Kanto to face the Elite Four? Which Ash can't even beat one of them? And he basically earned the right to be called one of the best, since he kept owning Ash each chance he got until his defeat (Although we can say we've owned Gary lol). But my point is, why be so good at something just to quit after all that hard work? At least keep your old interest and do the new, not just abandon your old life like it was terrible. Dawn did the same to become a Pokestylist, since as far as I've gathered, you can only do the Grand Festival once, since May and Dawn have never attempted to do it again in the same area since.

And lastly (Sorry, this is a RANT, it's supposed to be long), It seems the villians have been improving over the years, but none have seem to make progress, since Team Rocket still hasn't given a new Pokemon to Giovanni and the Team Rocket Organization since WHEN?! And every other villianous organization seems to have been snuffed out thanks to Ash and Company, since we haven't heard from Team Aqua, Magma, Galaxy, etc... duh duh duh. And be honest, will Team Rocket ever get Giovanni's approval? Or even capture something worth actual value? And on that topic, when is Giovanni and the best Team Rocket group gonna get off their high horse and do something else evil? Because they should know that if Ash and Company can defeat every other organization, it'll be a matter of time before they're next. I just wish for a villian with a little... moxy, spunk, something that the others don't have, or at least be able to beat Ash outright without using a Legendary Pokemon or cheating, and Ash would have to call upon bloody EVERYONE to beat this enemy, but that's me. And my final words before the epilogue is.... Why can't there be more than just Nurse Jenny or Officer Joy, and HOW... In Nomadian's Name... Can there be SO... Many... Twin clone/sisters/nieces/what have you?!

So Yeah, Pokemon is something that will be remembered forever, and it should be respected (You may not like it, but respect it), and now that I've finished this MASSIVE WALL of TEXT, what do you think on this subject? Do you agree or disagree with my words? What do you think needs to be improved or changed? And what's your favorite Character and Pokemon? My Favorite Character is Brock, since he came before Miroku XD And my favorite Pokemon is Tyrouge, since he can eventually learn the skills of all his evolved forms and do some of his own.

You may now post.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It's a kid's show...
It doesn't need to make sense or be deep on an intellectual level...

 

[Internet Kraken]

I couldn't care less about the show, or really anything about Pokemon beyond the games. So my only opinions on Pokemon are going to be confined to the video games. Which might not be appropriate for this topic, since the majority of your rant (I really hate this word for some reason. I'd never want to say my own writing qualifies as one) seems to focus on a show I have not watched in years.

I have a very mixed opinion on the Pokemon games. For one, I realize there is actually a ton of depth to them beyond the "beat 8 gym leaders, become champion) business. Competitive battling in Pokemon actually involves far more strategy than most people realize. And this doesn't surprise me, since the game does a shit job of explaining this. The Pokemon games have tons of complex mechanics that the game doesn't even bother trying to explain. As a result, getting into competitive battling is difficult since there's no easy way to learn it in the game itself.

But the bigger problem with Pokemon is that even when you do learn all this, it still doesn't change the fact that raising competitive Pokemon takes way to fucking long. I like the idea of raising a little Pokemon from the beginning of the game into a killing machine over the course of the long journey. The game is designed around that. But when you are trying to train a Pokemon as quickly as possible, it takes forever even when you use all the tricks to speed up the process. Simply put, to much grinding has to be put into each Pokemon to carefully raise them to be viable in battle. It also doesn't help that the Pokemon you did raise over your initial playthrough can't be used because you didn't get to EV train with them or some shit like that.

I'd like the Pokemon games a lot more if they cut out all the extraneous bullshit you have to deal with when raising Pokemon later in the game. I've tried multiple times to raise Pokemon properly, and it always gets to tiresome. Though hopefully they are moving in the right direction and making this process easier. The new generation finally made TMs permanent, which is actually very helpful. Improving the old formula in ways such as that would make the game a lot better.

Now to wait for the inevitable crying of "Pokemon was better when I was a kid".

 

[Jedamethis]

Oh lawd, I'm sorry but to be honest I can't be bothered to read through it properly, I skimmed...
Straight to hell with me.

Anywho, why do you care? You don't like it, ignore it.

 

[Stephanos132]

Why do you even care?

On the toon: You said it yourself, it's mostly for kids. Kids script writing is scarcely deep, because it rarely needs to be.

Games: You can't seriously expect them to massively change a clearly successful formula, can you?

 

[Emaruse]

Jedamethis, like you said, you skimmed, so you didn't get the point. The main point was that I did like Pokemon at the time, and I hate it for what it's become now. I merely ment this to be a rant concerning my feelings on the subject that may show some things. Not much else, that, and most of my things are true, in a sense.

Secondly, Internet Kraken, at least you tried to contribute. But I guess my thoughts are too overelaborate and complex for the Internet, it seems. I just thought there would be people that would know some reference to what I'm talking about, since this IS a Gaming Forum, and I was talking about the Pokemon series in general.

Next, Jarl, I highly didn't expect you'd know who I was, nor did I care, and there was a bit more to it than that, since there were somethings I did like about the series, and I gave you questions like favorite character and Pokemon. And once you think about it, ALL Rants are in one sense, self-centered, but there are those who tend to like, agree, or think about what you say, that's why it's called a Rant, and don't make me give names to those that do that (Because if I do, there's a chance you're going to hate me even more). And a topic, even one such as simple as a poll, may be a personal preference, but it can also be the exact opposite. But, it seems that you didn't much care to read it, which I said, and I quote: "if you can't look at this intelligently, and if you love Pokemon to the point of cosplay complete with Pokemon sounds, I'd highly suggest you leave this topic.... Right Now. But if you can take a joke, and love to hear my story, you're more than welcome to stay." Which you did neither. Like I said, I thought I could find some intelligent gamers or something of the sort, but meh, this is why there are times where I ask myself "Why do I even bother?"

And Daystar Clarion, yes, it's a kids show that even adults still watch, but every show can have a deep meaning (Well, except for the Extremely Idiotic like Adventure Time), and it can be done somewhat intelligently if they actually tried. Hell, one example was Case Closed, a Pre-Teen show (Hell, if they can ignore some blood, I'd bet even kids could watch it, my generation watched Tenchi Muyo on Cable Television on Toonami when we were like.... 10-13?), where they tried to teach kids how to use their minds for a change and make it entertaining, and some of the stuff actually made sense, and it's STILL on today, believe it or not, but America only saw like 20-30 Episodes. But my point is, everything can be looked at logically, and even though sometimes it may not make sense, it can still have a deep meaning if you look hard enough. Once again, "Why, oh why..."

EDIT: Stephanos, I do admit, yes, Kids shows rarely need to be deep because they don't have to be, but there are the occasional few that DO try, and those that don't plan ahead (Which are rare) do fail, but those who honestly try, do succeed and do well at it. And we both do realize that the game is going stale, pretty fast, and it's a matter of time before we all close the book on Pokemon, because all things have to end, and I think Pokemon will end quicker than anyone thinks. But once again, I ask: Did you bother reading? If so, I can say that I just wanted to make a topic about my feelings on the matter, and since this was a Gaming Forum, I thought that I'd get a little bit of response other than "I didn't bother reading it" and "Why do you care?" Here's a better question: If you had nothing constructive to say, and didn't want to read it, Why Even Bother Posting??? If you don't like the topic, or you think it's too long, don't post, just PM me saying WTF. That's better than just trying to raise your post count like some troller (No offense). So, honestly, if you don't wanna read, if you don't wanna say something that has some relevance that actually makes people talk more, then don't post. Simple as that.

 

[TerranReaper]

I couldn't care less about the show, or really anything about Pokemon beyond the games. So my only opinions on Pokemon are going to be confined to the video games. Which might not be appropriate for this topic, since the majority of your rant (I really hate this word for some reason. I'd never want to say my own writing qualifies as one) seems to focus on a show I have not watched in years.

I have a very mixed opinion on the Pokemon games. For one, I realize there is actually a ton of depth to them beyond the "beat 8 gym leaders, become champion) business. Competitive battling in Pokemon actually involves far more strategy than most people realize. And this doesn't surprise me, since the game does a shit job of explaining this. The Pokemon games have tons of complex mechanics that the game doesn't even bother trying to explain. As a result, getting into competitive battling is difficult since there's no easy way to learn it in the game itself.

But the bigger problem with Pokemon is that even when you do learn all this, it still doesn't change the fact that raising competitive Pokemon takes way to fucking long. I like the idea of raising a little Pokemon from the beginning of the game into a killing machine over the course of the long journey. The game is designed around that. But when you are trying to train a Pokemon as quickly as possible, it takes forever even when you use all the tricks to speed up the process. Simply put, to much grinding has to be put into each Pokemon to carefully raise them to be viable in battle. It also doesn't help that the Pokemon you did raise over your initial playthrough can't be used because you didn't get to EV train with them or some shit like that.

Alternately, you can use Shoddy Battle if the grind is too long for you, battles go by faster but it's lacking the graphics unfortunately. Pokemon Online is also good, but it's very glitchy (Especially anything to do with paralysis)

OT: I would agree, but like many others, I barely give a crap about the show. It's just that, it's mainly the fact it's a kid's show and that logic doesn't seem to apply that much. I remember Ash himself releasing vital pokemon that he could've used to destroy everyone. I really don't know, I guess for the sake of maintaining the show with the games, they make him lose just to keep it going.

 

[Daffy F]

WARNING! Snippity snip snip!

Alright, first things first. I don't know whether you know this, but you seem to be under the impression that the card game came first, which is untrue. By the way, if you DO know the Video games came first, then it was your poor writing that led me astray, forgive me. Anyway.
People who love to play Pokemon (video game) are very happy to see new Pokemon, as it adds a new dimension of strategy to the game. There are new foes you have to design your movesets for, new overpowered bullshit Pokemon to hate, and new abilities, moves, items and strategies. Lots of fun to be had there, even if the story gets a little samey.

Anyway, I read your wall of text, at least do me the honour of reading this.

 

[XzarTheMad]

Actually, ranting just means speaking in a violent, aggressive manner. It's got nothing to do with making people think or inciting a discussion. If you'd made a thread which was obviously a discussion on the finer points of pokemon, I might have bothered to read through it, even if I don't really give a shit about pokemon in the first place. But I'm curious, too, why DO you bother? Nobody knows who you are, so why should we want to read your story, which you obviously market as an angry, hateful schpiel about a fairly popular thing? And as far as "intelligent gamers" go, it's kind of ironic that you define "intelligent" as "people who agree with you in your ranting".

I think it's fairly obvious that nobody here really cares about your opinion on pokemon. If you really wanna discuss it, start a proper discussion, not a freaking blog post. Or go to one of the several threads on pokemon that's already been up plenty of times.

It's ridiculous that you think I hate you, though. I just said I didn't bother reading your mindless drivel. I don't know who you are. Nor do I frankly care. But, again, good on ya. Hope you find someone "intelligent" to pat you on the back.

EDIT: Oh, and as far as "ranters" go, I do enjoy a well-written rant. They can be amusing and sometimes even informative. Yours was neither. Nor was it well-written. But it's fairly obvious to me that you and I are the kind of people who won't ever really see eye to eye. So I'll just leave you to your thread and stop bothering you.

 

[Emaruse]

Look, I'm sorry Daffy for my writing, and I guess that's true, but yes, I did know that the games came first. But if new Pokemon (Abilities, moves, strategies), and items are all there is to improve, won't it get old or something?

And Jarl, Fine. No one gives a care about who I am, and thus no one should read my topic, by your opinion, but then, how am I supposed to make a name or some sort if I can't even say something? Riddle me that. And by the way, I'm sorry if it was meant that way, but I never called "Intelligent Gamers" people who agree with me, they are people who actually try to care about what I'm talking about and want to make a better response than " I just couldn't bear to read through your self-centered ramblings on a subject that really is all down to personal preference." I'm done for now.

 

[WittyInfidel]

I was going to read it, but decided to skim through the responses first. From the aggressiveness and rudeness I've seen, it made me rethink it entirely.

So, I decided to skim...

Glad to see that I was right and saved myself a few good minutes. Just another block of self-absorbed opinionated venom.

Good day.