Misconceptions and What You Can Do To Fix Them

There's a virus in the Pokémon Anime community. It's rather unfortunate, and it's rather unsettling. Left untreated, it will lead to a horrible disease known as "SM Perfection Acceptance". To this end, one must clear up this virus before it spreads too far and allows people to impose their 100% Acceptance rate on the newest season of the Pokémon Anime.

What is this virus, you ask? Why, it's simple.

It's called "Misconceptions about Pokémon XY".

But Epicocity, you've already covered XY? Why are you talking about it again? Because people are really, really stupid. I wish there was a nicer to way to put this, but there isn't. When it comes to XY, people are dumb as bricks. If literally any other series were to do it, it'd probably be praised, but since it's XY, you know, gotta hate it. Deep? Nah. XY is shallow!

These misconceptions have created something very, very dark in the community, and it's time to set the record straight. "But you're just an XY fanboy!" I'm a fan, yes, but I can also think, which is something that appears to be in short supply in the community today because people are really dumb.

So, as a public service announcement, let's go!

1) Greninja Hogged All the Screentime

I'm sorry, what did you say? Please, go to the doctor immediately and get your eyes checked, because I'm almost certain you were mistaken. Must've seen Infernape...

Joking aside (not really), Greninja hardly hogged the screentime. He was an ace of Ash's XY team, yes, which means he'll naturally get more screentime, but he by no means hogged it. Hell, in the first 90 episodes of XY, his only focus episodes were the episodes with Sanpei and him taking down two Pokémon at Ramos' gym. He co-starred with Talonflame against Olympia then. Other than that, he got relatively little focus to Ash's other team members, like Goodra, who got a whole freakin' arc in the spotlight.

Come XYZ...not much changed. He was the focus of his evolution two-parter (surprise, surprise). He was the focus of an arc, as well. An arc that, mind you, also gave focus to Noivern and allowed Hawlucha and Talonflame to take big wins. I'm sorry, I fail to see how he steals the screentime and balance from the other Pokémon. Hell, in the timespace of XYZ, Greninja and Hawlucha have near identical win records. Same with Talonflame.

Oh, but he steals all the screentime, yeah.

You realize he never got more than one win a battle outside of Ramos, right? Even against Lysandre, every Pokémon put time and effort in and there was such an ensemble cast that of course not everyone could be focused on. That's like suicide to anyone who's ever written anything.

Before you spread this dumb idea that Greninja and the Ash-Greninja phenomenon took away time from everyone else, look to DP where Infernape shined no matter what the battle and Johto Pokémon took away much needed wins from the Sinnoh team at the League (poor Torterra, you deserved better).

2) Ash-Greninja Went Unexplained

No, it didn't. Yes, it was explained satisfactorily. And all in one scene, too!

Greninja has latent powers. These latent powers can only be brought out by that one trainer, and only when he's previously reached his top form, hence why Pikachu can't do it. They're synchronized when they're working perfectly together because it's brought out through said latent powers. They feel pain because they're synchronized and there's nothing like a Keystone to help this. This also isn't the first time it happened.

Oh look...I explained it in a paragraph...

3) Serena

Oh, lordy, I could spend a whole blog post on Serena (oh wait, I did). So much about what is said concerning her is just...wrong...

No, she did not spend the first 40 episodes doing nothing. She was a girl who had one profession that she utterly hated hammered into her for years, and was a girl who gave up at the slightest touch of problems. She's shown it when she cries in the second episode because she gets cuts and bruises. Her mother says as much. Naturally, anyone breaking away from said profession while like that is going to take time to find something to devote herself to.

That's exactly what she did.

I'm not gonna rehash for the umpteenth time what I said in that post because the best arguments against it I've seen are "Serena was a horrible character", but I will reiterate one thing that people seem to be overly dumb on: the hand-sprain.

"It was pointless. It didn't affect the results." Of course it had a point you ignorant twats. What did I just say above about episode 2? The Serena of episode 2 would've said "Screw this, I'm hurt. Aria wins." The Serena of XYZ 20, though, says "I'm not giving up." That is what the sprained hand means.

I know, the subtlety must've gone over your heads. There's a lot of subtlety about Serena that usually hits with the force of a sledgehammer, but people are dumb, so, what can you do?

4) Ash Is A Robot

Ooh, my favorite. I'm sorry, just because Ash isn't acting like a five year old on a sugar rush doesn't mean he was a robot.

Ash showed plenty of emotion, but what he also was mature. This guy has been through 5 regions, and he's grown as a person. He shouldn't be acting like the same idiotic child. He should be more mature, determined, focused, especially after the debacle in Unova.

Of course, he still gets excited over new Pokémon, and Clemont's inventions, and sweets...and Mega Evolution...and battles...He's just not flailing around like a complete idiot. But, that seems to be what the community wants these days since they love seeing Ash the Butt Monkey worse than OS (back when he, you know, kinda deserved it).

Now, Shonen Protagonist? Sure, I get that complaint. But robot? Check yourself and get your head out if your ass.

5) Team Flare

"Team Flare had no buildup until XYZ, and by then it was too late. Squishy could've ended the arc in seconds."

Sigh...

Okay, let's turn back the clock a bit to a little something called Mega Evolution Special that aired after XY 20. In it, we meet this guy called Alain, who gets mysterious calls on a Holo-Caster from a mysterious guy. Ash's name is in the special and the ending is the next opening of XY. Come the next special around XY 50ish, said mysterious guy is revealed to be Lysandre.

record scratch

I'm sorry, I thought it wasn't built up until XYZ?!

No, that's not the case. See, here's the thing: Team Flare was built up early in the series, just separate from Ash's adventure. And it makes sense in-universe. Lysandre's not taking chances. He's manipulating events and people like chess pieces until something goes wrong and he needs to have his operatives act because manipulation won't cut it after such a debacle (here meaning Squishy escapes). However, once he obtains Z-2, he slinks back into the shadows. But now, we as the audience are aware of Lysandre's vile ambitions, and so can get a glimpse of them rather than being hidden behind the veil of lies.

Now do you understand? Lysandre and Team Flare's plot was always there. Hell, even Alain was introduced in XY 68 via flashback. It just didn't intersect with Ash until there was an accidental need to.

Oh, and the second claim about Squishy? If the movie's anything to go by, Squishy can barely do anything in Complete Forme on his own. He needed Z-2, who hated humans, so why would he act in the slightest. Oh yeah, and Lysandre had a backup plan. The events of the arc were what convinced both Squishy and Z-2 to act in the end. Without them, world would be doomed.

Conclusion
I'm sure there're more I can think of, and I'll add more as I roll along in time and see more ridiculous stupid statements from everyone, but for now, this'll do.

I hope you enjoyed this scathingly biting public service announcement.

Dare to Be Silly,
Epicocity