OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire

Brendan hardly resembles Red, especially his Emerald design. In fact, he gets bashed online for that exact reason, aka. "looks like he has white hair" and "doesn't look badass like Red and Gold."

As for Gold, he's clearly based on Red, but it's actually justified (GSC were direct sequels to RBY), and he still has his own distinct style (backwards cap, red/black/yellow color scheme).

Compare this to Lucas, who, when you look past the scarf, is nothing more than a palette swap of FRLG Red. Or, Hilbert, who is nothing more than a teenage version of Red. And, there's absolutely no justification for it besides giving the Eternal 10 Year Old a new outfit to wear. None of the later games are sequels to RBY, nor have any story connection to RBY.

A new discussion seems to have come up regarding the Alola protagonists' names. USUM trailers have been calling them "Ray" and "Ailey" instead of Sun/Moon or Elio/Selene, and some fans think these are their canon names.

However, I doubt it's the case. Player characters only get canon names when they appear in NPC roles. Red had no canon name until he appeared as a final boss in GSC, and May/Brendan, Dawn/Lucas, etc, only have canon names because they still appeared as NPCs when you didn't play as them.

But, the Alola protagonists? They're in the same situation as the protagonists in Crystal and FRLG. When you play as one, the other doesn't appear at all, so they will never have canon names unless USUM changes things so the unselected protagonist appears in the game.

That being said, I think the Alola protagonists not having canon names is fully intentional and unlikely to change. With character customization now being a thing, it makes little sense to continue giving player characters canon names and identities. The Alola protagonists are meant to be customizable dolls that represent the player rather than individual characters with their own stories.

Plus, there's also the anime. It's the primary marketing tool for the games, and it's become abundantly clear by now that Ash will be the main character forever. When the games' male protagonists are forever destined to be nothing more than new outfits for the Eternal 10 Year Old, there really isn't any point in continuing to treat them like separate characters with canon identities (especially when every single male protagonist from DP-onwards has been a blatant Red clone to begin with).

Very fanservicey, but a good starting point for better things. I hope we see Misty and Brock later show up in Alola.


I don't know about you, but I'm still very underwhelmed with USUM. All I see is a plain, standard third version that may not even be adding as much as Emerald/Platinum, let alone B2W2. It's obvious that GF slapped these games together as a throwaway stopgap while they're working on the Switch game. :rolleyes2:

I know others feel differently, but I honestly have no problem with SM ignoring AG-XY. :P I never liked Ash collecting badges past Johto, and you already know my thoughts on May/Dawn/Serena compared to Misty.

So far, what I've been seeing of these episodes doesn't seem to be acknowledging anything past Johto. Misty/Brock are still in their OS clothes, none of the flashbacks go any later than Johto, and none of the characters' post-Johto Pokémon seem to be appearing.

This may confirm the theory that SM is an AU continuation of OS where Ash went to Alola after Johto instead of going to Hoenn with Brock. We'll have to see if anything from AG-XY is directly referenced in the episodes, or if any AG-XY Pokémon appear.

I'm cautiously optimistic. The show *really* screwed up in the way it handled Misty -- forcing her out of the cast and making her put her goal on pause to watch over a gym -- so this is the show's big chance to finally right that wrong and give Misty much-needed closure.

I'm also happy to simply see this show acknowledging past sagas and characters after XY went out of its way to avoid doing that. It also helps take the sting off of the M20 debacle, although it doesn't completely make up for it.

SM have known issues running on old 3DSs:

http://nintendoeverything.com/pokemon-sun-and-pokemon-moon-push-the-old-3ds-to-the-max/

Since USUM are also 3DS games, this really puts a limit on how much GF can add to Alola.

It's probably just another replica done in the vein of Malie City. I'm not sure if the 3DS can even handle a two region game, seeing as it can barely run SM as they are.

(Plus, I'd rather not have Kanto be included without Johto, which would inevitably happen here.)

I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling good about USUM at all. :( It's been over two months since the games were announced, and the only piece of news we've gotten has been an event-only Midday Lycanroc recolor (which clearly only exists so the Eternal Twerp can have another marketing-driven special snowflake evolution, ala. Ash-Greninja).

GF has done absolutely nothing to convince me that USUM aren't just a throwaway stopgap designed to tide us over for the Switch game. I thought the series had moved past stuff like this? :rolleyes2:

Ah, I see. I didn't realize there were two B2W2 trailers.

Still just one scene in a trailer that mostly focused on Nate.

What I'd really love to see is a Gen 2 version of Origins centered around Kris. (I'd take Lyra if they had to use her instead, but I'd way prefer Kris. Still my favorite female PC.) A Gen 3 version centered around May would be great, too. I'd also love to see Green and Hilda being featured in things.

YMMV. Looking the characters up, Diamond was still the one they portrayed as being from Twinleaf Town (and the child of Johanna), which is the role the player character has in the Sinnoh games.

(Granted, those things were also true of Dawn in the anime, and she certainly wasn't the main protagonist there, but still.)

At least, Nate was the star of the B2W2 animated special. That's more than Green, Hilda, and Rosa have, that's for sure.

One of many reasons why Generations was crap, IMO. Red is justifiable, as he's actually been canonized in the games (even if it only made sense with the original RBY/GSC since he didn't have a female counterpart then). However, the rest of the guys aren't, and showing them does nothing but exclude female fans and tell them that Pokémon is not for them.

The Sinnoh episodes did the right thing by not showing the protagonists, and the others should've followed suit. These episodes were meant to focus on the stories of NPCs, anyways.


Yeah, the guys are still treated as the primary protagonists, even if the girls at least get more varied roles than the anime lets them have. I can't think of a single adaptation that ever used a female PC as the main protagonist. :(

Serena didn't do anything but blindly crush on Ash and play dress-up in beauty pageants. Although she wasn't a main girl, Marina (aka. the anime version of Kris) was the same way, as well. As far as I know, Lyra was the only female PC who was ever shown to be an actual badge-collecting trainer and not some beauty queen.

People whine about the male PCs getting "screwed over" by the anime, but that's solely because of the show keeping Ash and the Yellow Rat around. You can see it in how Ash has literally worn the outfits of the male PCs since Gen 4. Otherwise, the male PCs themselves would be the protagonists, as they are in literally every adaptation that doesn't feature Ash. Just look at the various manga, Legend of Thunder, Generations, the B2W2 and ORAS trailers, and so on. The male PCs get plenty of attention, even if it isn't in the main anime.

It's the girls that truly get screwed over. They're lucky to even get to be Ash's ditzy costar, and they *never* get portrayed as the protagonists or heroes of anything. Neither Green or Hilda even has a single animated counterpart, and there's a decent chance Moon will never get one either.

Iris was a Poor Man's Misty. Tomboy type specialist with an attitude, but none of Misty's depth and nuance. That being said, she was a nice break from the streak of girly, ditzy coordinators. Even being a Poor Man's Misty is better than being a Contest Bimbo.

(And, I feel I should clarify that it's solely the *anime* versions of May/Dawn/Serena that I hate. I have no problem with any of them as game protagonists, and I actually quite like RSE May. What I hate is the anime constantly dumbing down the female PCs into ditzy coordinators and using them mainly for fanservice.)

Even Gary got the boot in this movie, which is especially insulting when you remember that he's Prof. Oak's grandson. Yet another extremely important and iconic character who was basically reduced to nothing. >:(

I don't know how to feel about that credits montage. From what I remember, the last episode of BW did something similar, so it's not even a fresh or original idea. Plus, it ultimately reduces Misty and Brock to being no more important or significant than the likes of Cilan or Serena, which I find disrespectful to the show's history.

I'm not trying to belittle later companions (for the record, May/Dawn/Serena are the only ones I truly hate; I'm mostly neutral on the rest), but it should not be hard to understand why Misty and Brock carry more importance. They were not only the original costars, but they were literal icons of the show and the entire franchise in the Pokémania Era. The Average Joe and Jane recognize Misty and Brock like they can Ash, Pikachu, and the TRio, and these characters are what helped put the show on the map in the first place.

Yes, I recognize that the later companions have plenty of fans. I hate May, but I still wanted her to return in XY to promote ORAS, and I can also clearly see how Makoto owning a Piplup is a huge slap in the face to Dawn and her fans. I also think it's unfair that Iris did not get a returning cameo at all and that it looks like she never will. But, at the end of the day, none of them were brought in for reasons beyond shallow game promotion (and giving creepy men "eye candy," as in the case of May/Dawn/Serena), and none of them carry the same iconic status as Misty and Brock.

Seems hard to believe, but Lance's last appearance in the show is now almost 13 years old. Or, in other words, older than the show's intended audience. Combine that with the fact that his presence in the games has been nil over the past decade (and the lone "recent" games where he has any substantial presence, HGSS, are both insanely expensive and hard to find), and Lance is screwed. :(

It didn't have to be this way. They could've continued to give him appearances in the games and anime. But, they opted to promote the Sinnoh Blonde instead. >_>

At least Steven got the opportunity to later redeem himself in the XY saga with the Mega Evolution specials and Team Flare arc. On the other hand, it feels like the show has been afraid to even touch Lance again after the Magma/Aqua fiasco.

He could've easily gotten an appearance in the latter part of DP to promote HGSS. And, then you have the BW arc, which had an actual aspiring Dragon Master in the main cast, and she even later got an angry, unruly Dragonite. Everything about Iris and her story just begged for Lance to be a part of it, and yet instead, we got Iris worshiping Cynthia (whom she has little in common with), training with Clair (!), and Lance nowhere to be found, not even as a side reference. It's like the show went out of its way to avoid acknowledging him. :(

Of course, now that Lance has seemingly ceased to exist in the games, the odds of him ever returning to the show are basically nil. If they wouldn't bring him back for HGSS and B2W2, why would they ever bring him back for games he doesn't even appear in?

I don't know why they did that. I assume they were trying to promote FRLG, although you'd think that the Magma/Aqua climax would've been the absolute last place to do it. At the very least, they should've done what they would later do with Diantha and Steven himself in XY's Team Flare climax and have Lance and Steven team up together against Magma/Aqua.

Better, though, would've been setting the Battle Frontier arc in the Sevii Islands (or even Orange Islands) instead of Kanto and have Lance appear there with Lorelei in a Team Rocket storyline inspired by the one from FRLG's postgame.

Happy birthday! :)

No doubt, especially with Wallace also having the extra mark against him of being "too feminine." I remember before ORAS came out, a lot of people wanted Steven to be the Champion and Juan to be the 8th Gym Leader, with Wallace being completely sidelined as a guy who does Contests and little else.

....

What upsets me the most about Piplup Girl being Cynthia's daughter is that it's all but hard confirmation that Lance will never be relevant or prominent in the anime again. I mean, if Misty's going to be replaced by a Champion's daughter in an OS-inspired movie, wouldn't it make far more sense for it to be the daughter of the OS era Champion? As in, a character who's actually important to Kanto/Johto and whom Ash himself could potentially face at the Indigo Plateau down the road?

If Lance can't even get the spotlight over Cynthia in Kanto/Johto/OS based stuff, then what chance does he have of ever appearing in anything again? ;-;>:(

Although he obviously wasn't as prominent as her, Lance is in kind of a similar situation as Misty. Both were essentially left behind to rot in AG, and neither was given a sendoff that left a positive, favorable impression. Lance's final appearance was in the infamously horribad Magma/Aqua finale, and I shouldn't have to explain how botched and mishandled poor Misty was.

Even their game counterparts are in the similar situation of having only appeared twice since the mid 00s, with one being a remake (HGSS) and the other being a minor cameo in a postgame battle area (B2W2). They've rarely even been referenced in other games, and they've never appeared outside of their home regions. Unless USUM pulls a surprise with the Battle Tree, the 3DS will go down as the first handheld to not have a single game with either character.

It's both amazing and depressing to think that these two characters who were once considered prominent and important in the franchise later became so completely forgotten and irrelevant. Piplup Girl's existence only further sends home the message that Misty and Lance are dead and buried. :(