History YMMV / PokemonScarletAndViolet

** Clavell is considered much more difficult and trickier than the final opponent of the Starfall Street plotline. His team is well-balanced and consists of Pokémon that can be really problematic. His first Pokémon, Oranguru, comes packing Reflect, greatly handicapping your physical attackers if he uses it, as well as the combination of Yawn and Dream Eater. His final Pokémon, which he Terastallizes, is the fully evolved starter that counters yours. If his starter is not Quaquaval, he will also have a Gyarados that knows Earthquake to counter Electric-types. The actual final battle of the story seems like more of a joke fight in contrast.[[note]]A full team of Eeveelutions that do almost nothing but spam Baby-Doll Eyes.[[/note]]

** ''Arven''. It is no overestimation that his second battle is one of the hardest of the entire game especially if you're underlevelled -- and considering the storyline's preceding battle is against Pokémon several levels lower than his ace, you likely will be. He has very sturdy Pokémon, like Cloyster and Garganacl, and fast ones, like Toedscruel. And be careful, as all of his Pokémon are prepared to face at least one type they're disadvantaged against (Greedent has Psychic Fangs for Fighting-types along with Earthquake for Rock and Steel-types attempting to wall it, Cloyster has Icicle Spear for Grass-types which it gains STAB for, Scovillain has Zen Headbutt and Energy Ball for Poison and Rock-types the latter also gains STAB, Toedscruel has Earth Power for Fire-types which will hurt harder due to gaining STAB, Garganacl has Body Press and Earthquake for Steel-types, and Mabosstiff has powerful counters for all three starters (Crunch for Skeledirge (which is its main STAB) and Play Rough for the other two). Cloyster also has Light Screen, which will be dangerous as most of his Pokémon already have really high defense (though it won't do much to Cloyster as its Special Defense stat is laughably poor even with Light Screen up), while Garganacl has Stealth Rock. Even if you know about all this beforehand, he will still be a challenge for players.

* PopularWithFurries: Like every Pokémon game, it has received a lot of attention from furries for its designs, especially Meowscarada, Quaquaval, and both Koraidon and Miraidon.

** Similar to Piers in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', one of the Gym Leaders, Ryme, has a musical-based aspect to their character, with her specifically being a rapper. But like in the aforementioned game, there's no voice to go along with her rapping. At least this time, there's text to get an idea of what's being sung/rapped, though it's still quite awkward.
** The lack of any voice-acting in cutscenes sticks out even more this time around, thanks to the clearly cinematic presentation incorporated and the presence of a fully-vocalized Music/EdSheeran song during the credits. This is especially glaring during the final scene of the game [[spoiler:where the main characters all start their return home after shutting down Area Zero]], where a scene which is clearly intended as heartwarming can come off as downright ''awkward'' due to it feeling like it's lacking voices that aren't actually there. The characters also have field dialogue conversations in the final dungeon a la ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', but they're conveyed ''entirely'' through subtitles and can be easily missed since they occur during gameplay and go by rather quickly with no option to pause them.
** Many fans saw the eating animations as this. They get preceded by your character eating thin air, with a flat image of the food in the background (''Sword'' and ''Shield'' at least had the courtesy of portraying your trainer lifting a spoonful of curry to their mouth). Each food will provoke two animations in order: one for the type of flavor (sweet, spicy, dry, etc.) and one for the quality of the food, which results in silly sequences where your character smiles and enjoys a sweet sandwich then suddenly collapses in response to its poor quality, or fanning their mouth after eating spicy potatoes before snapping to a neutral smile as if the spice spontaneously stopped having an effect. And that's without mentioning the various visual glitches that may often happen, such as the player character's face staying frozen (hence showing them taking a bite without actually opening their mouth).
** While Area Zero still otherwise does a pretty great job remaining ominous and alien, one point that does hurt its mystique a bit is the fact that the Paradox Pokémon are the only unique encounters in it. This isn't normally that big a deal, but one particular moment of The Road Home, your first encounter with a Paradox Pokémon in the Crater, has Penny mistake one for its normal counterpart and say it's good to see something familiar for once, which strikes as a bit strange since up til that point, you've encountered nothing but Pokémon you can find in the rest of Paldea, or at least their evolved forms.[[note]]This might make a little sense considering it's Penny talking, who's a big enough shut-in that she might not be used to running into ''any'' wild Pokémon face-to-face.[[/note]]
** The FinalBoss fight [[spoiler:against AI Sada/Turo]] is nothing short of epic and an emotional fight. But, they have a line for if/when they score a critical hit against the player saying it was AllAccordingToPlan. This will happen even if the critical hit either doesn't do a lot of damage (due to being resisted) or is a move that doesn't do a lot of damage (Such as Fake Out).

** Poppy being nine years old and a prodigy at Pokemon battling, to the point of being a member of the Paldean Elite Four would be confusing to an outside observer. Then you hear about [[https://dotesports.com/pokemon/news/7-year-old-kid-wins-huge-pokemon-tournament-with-an-odd-strategy Avery Vehlewald]] and [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/f8uiri/7_year_old_simone_lim_wins_pokemon_vgc_junior/ Simone Lim]], and suddenly, a child prodigy at Pokemon doesn't sound that insane any more...

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[spoiler:TheReveal that Penny is Peony's daughter was met with confusion by many, noting how different the two's skin colors are (some even theorizing that Penny's adopted). In real life, mixed race relationships [[https://verdantmeadows.tumblr.com/post/736900457330556928/penny-from-scarlet-and-violet-is-officially can indeed result in children with vastly different skin tones]], and we know from Peony's Rare League Card that his wife looks more like Penny]].

* FanartAtFirstSight:
** Iono received lots of fanart upon her introduction, owing to her cute design and bubbly personality.
** Professors Sada and Turo instantly received fanart after their reveal due to their very attractive designs.
** Mela of Team Star became popular soon after her reveal and received a lot of art because of her cute but cool and threatening design.
** Grusha received a flood of fanart after his reveal in a trailer, including some slightly less-than-safe-for-work designs from artists who either mistakenly thought that he was female or were more than happy that he was indeed male.
** Perrin in the DLC got a lot of fanart after her reveal due to her attractive design and being an [[AmbiguouslyRelated implied descendant]] of [[VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus Adaman]].

** The FinalBoss of ''The Teal Mask'' DLC can be this if you follow the intended level curve the game sets if you enter the DLC before completing the main game. The wild Pokémon, trainer, and story battles ramp up at a steady and reasonable pace if you play along, starting the DLC at around Level 10 and ending at the mid-to-high 30s. [[spoiler:The final fight with Kieran ranges from 33-38. The epic four-phase battle against Ogerpon? ''Level 20''. Even if you're trying your best not to overlevel, you'll most likely steamroll Ogerpon without even trying.]]
*** [[spoiler: Oddly enough, it's moveset implies that it was actually meant to be level 30 in the fight, which would have been a more appropriate level for the battle, so Ogerpon being underleveled for four-phase fight was likely an accidental oversight.]]

** In the Victory Road story, Geeta's team is among the weakest statistically of any Champion, with Pokémon that range from middling (Avalugg) to an outright LowTierLetdown (most infamously her [[ComMon Gogoat]]). She does have a couple of interesting team members, but the order she sends them out prevents them from using their full potential -- notably, her Kingambit can never make the most out of its Supreme Overlord ability due to never being sent out last, and her ace Glimmora that ''does'' come out last should really have been sent out ''first'' to reap the benefits of Toxic Debris. In addition, outside Glimmora, her team composition leaves her with two Psychic Pokémon and three Pokémon weak to fire, putting her at a severe disadvantage against a few Pokémon such as Skeledirge, Volcarona, and even Houndoom who gain STAB on attacks super effective against those five[[note]]Even Glimmora is not safe as the aforementioned Pokémon can learn Grass or Ground moves as well[[/note]]. This may be intentional, as [[spoiler:she's not the FinalBoss of the game or even her own storyline: the following battle with Nemona out-levels her]]. The Indigo Disk on the other hand has her [[TookALevelInBadass sharpen up for her rematches]]: her Glimmora and Kingambit's positions are swapped to let them use their abilities better (with said Kingambit also packing Tera Flying to neutralize its weaknesses to Fighting and Ground and normalizing its Fire-type weakness, though this makes it more vulnerable to Electric and Ice types upon it switching type), her Espathra has better moves, and she swaps out Gogoat and Veluza for Chesnaught and [[InfinityMinusOneSword Dragapult]].
** Meanwhile, the fight against the FinalBoss of the Starfall Street story is underwhelming, to say the least. [[spoiler:Penny's team consists entirely of Eeveelutions]], which ''could'' be fairly threatening if only they were built correctly, but that's not the case: all of her Pokémon suffer from having one or two STAB attacks, maybe a single other coverage moves, and Quick Attack and Baby-Doll Eyes taking up the last two move slots. These are moves that a Pokémon of their level would've and should've forgotten for much better options by now. The biggest blow to that fight is that the fight right before her is much more difficult and has a well-rounded team, with a fully-evolved starter that counters yours as the ace. This may even have been a case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration, since [[spoiler:Penny is canonically considered one of the weakest battlers out of the main cast and someone who isn't used to fighting her own battles, plus her dialogue in the cutscene before the fight also implies that even she doesn't think she stands a chance against you and is only battling you because she feels like it's her duty, and it's later implied from her dorm room that her team for that battle were her pets rather than a formal team]]. The much tougher fight beforehand is likely meant to make up for ending the plot with such an anticlimactic battle for story reasons.
** The FinalBoss of ''Violet'', because ''half'' of their team shares a weakness to Ground, meaning a good Ground-type such as Krookodile can ''easily'' sweep the floor with them. (In fact, two of these Pokémon have a ''double weakness''!) In contrast, [[spoiler:Sada's team of ancient Paradox Pokémon is a little harder to sweep due to the few Pokémon having type coverage also being able to withstand an assault]]; this would require players to use different Pokémon. However, if your team doesn't have a Ground-type, they can still be a tough fight in ''Violet'', since they still ''do'' have some decent coverage in terms of their moves.

* LowTierLetdown: The Stellar Tera Type was hyped up in initial marketing as being a powerful Tera Type that possesses the powers of all Types, sacrificing the defensive benefit of Terastalization for pure offense. Unfortunately, when ''The Indigo Disk'' dropped players quickly realized that the mechanic appears to have been perhaps over-balanced; while you get a boost to all of your attacks, the attack boost amounts to a measly 20% bonus damage for non-STAB attacks and the standard 2x bonus for STAB, which pales in comparison to normal Terastalization which grants 50%. Furthermore, the bonus is only good ''once per type'', meaning that the momentum boost you get off of Stellar wears off very quickly relative to the investment you have to put in considering that you only get one Terastalization per game. This makes Stellar Type borderline useless in virtually every use case where you would want to use a Tera to gain an advantage since normal Terastalization confers defensive counterplay and superior long-term damage. The only Pokémon who would realistically be caught using Stellar Type is Terapagos, who is also gimped by its reliance on needing Terastalization to transform and even then merely becomes a mediocre Legendary.