Over the many years of its existence, the Pokémon has gone through its share of ups and downs, as have some of its characters.
The Games
- Red, the protagonist of the original Pokémon Red and Blue, spent a long period of time as a Memetic Badass and the absolute apex of what a trainer should be, encouraged in large part by his appearance in Pokémon Gold and Silver as a True Final Boss and a Passing the Torch. These voices became particularly loud in the late-2000s-early-2010s due to two factors: players encountering Red in the Gold and Silver remakes, and increasingly growing frustration with Ash, the character loosely inspired by Red, in the anime, by then seen as a Straw Loser who had stuck around long past his expiration date. These fans would eventually see vindication in the Pokémon Origins anime, which showcased a Truer to the Text version of Red's journey and was incredibly loudly praised for doing so. However, after Origins, Red became a generally more contentious character: partly due to the anime having invalidated a lot of the fanon surrounding Red (no more cool jagged black hair and red eyes, no more eerie silent attitude), partly due to the Origins interpretation of Red being subjected to quite a few criticisms himself, as he mostly came off as a Stock Shōnen Hero with an odd hyperfocus on the below-mentioned Charizard. As the franchise has featured Red more often as a character, it's become evident that the Memetic Badass interpretation of him was mostly the result of fans trying to derive a personality from a character who didn't really have one, and the personality Red did end up having when he finally got one was nothing to write home about. Additionally, Ash's stock rose in the meantime, which resulted in the comparisons between the two coming off as far more mean-spirited or biased, and fans of other protagonists argued that there wasn't a reason for Red to be the "best trainer" out of all the protagonists (especially if those protagonists defeated Red as an NPC like Ethan, Kris, and Lyra for example) other than First Installment Wins. While Red has a ways to go before being hated, the "most awesome trainer of all time" interpretation is well and truly dead at this point, and the ones who still believe Red to be "the best trainer of all" usually have a Nostalgia Filter on.
- For the first fifteen-odd years of its existence, Charizard was well-liked for being a fire-breathing dragon, in spite of being underwhelming in battle due to its typing and overly average stats limiting its usefulness. Then Pokémon X and Y gave Charizard two Mega Evolutions, both of which are much stronger than the base version in addition to being downright cool-looking. Charizard's popularity consequently skyrocketed, eventually leading to said popularity getting acknowledged within the video games via cameos. However, people began noticing that the games of the time were making an excessive number of references to the original games and several Charizard cameos left it looking out of place. This culminated in Pokémon Sword and Shield, where the champion's signature Charizard is routinely shilled as being undefeatable and has a Gigantamax form that changes little from its regular appearance. Meanwhile, the other Kanto starters were completely absent at launch and they and the game's own starter Pokémon didn't receive Gigantamax forms of their own for half a year. Consequently, Charizard has gained a reputation as a Base-Breaking Character due to sheer overexposure. While the Flame Pokémon still has fans, many within the fanbase see it as emblematic of Game Freak supposedly pandering to nostalgia at the cost of innovation. It's telling that while a Charizard still retains some prevalence in Pokémon Horizons: The Series as one of the main Pokémon of Friede, it is not hyped up in the same way as Leon's Charizard, suggesting that the writers got the message and started to downplay the attention it was getting.
- Bidoof was initially one of the most hated Pokémon out there, due to having the misfortune of being one of the newest Com Mons right when the franchise was entering its Popularity Polynomial phase in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. This meant that a lot of older longtime fans getting back into the series were first greeted by Bidoof and despised it, due to its goofy appearance, the fact that you couldn't take a two steps without running into one for most of Sinnoh, and having mediocre stats even after evolving. The fact that it turned out to be an excellent HM slave in one of the most HM-heavy generations gave it some appeal, but also underlined the idea of its apparent ineffectiveness, since this suggested the optimal way to use it was to have it never see battle. For a while, Bidoof was essentially the go-to joke about a forgettable and useless Pokémon that nobody liked. However, over time, the genuine hatred for it subsided, brought on in part by similarly disliked early-game Com Mons like Patrat, Yungoos, and Skwovet, that were seen as lacking even Bidoof's goofy charm or utility. This left its uses in jokes, which, removed from the context of actual venom, turned it into a kind of loveable underdog, which would go on to be played to the hilt in official media like Bidoof's Big Stand. In a 2020 popularity poll, Bidoof actually placed 20th in Sinnoh overall, outclassing traditional "cool" favorites of the generation like Weavile, and ended up being the only one out of any of the early-game Normal-types to place in the top 30 for their generation.
- Team Flare, the villainous team of Pokémon X and Y, were originally considered to be very weak antagonists, with many decrying their unflattering outfits even mocked in-universe, the Laughably Evil behavior of their grunts, and overall feeling like rehashes of Team Rocket just with more classism, and with the additional problem of being unfavorably compared to the well-liked Team Plasma. Pokémon the Series: XY portrayed them in a far more serious light as a result to a warmer reception, leading fans to look back on their original game incarnations and noting that in the wake of both social attitudes increasingly turning against perceived elitism, and the Villain Decay of subsequent villainous teams such as Team Skull, Team Yell and Team Star, who all engaged in relatively minor crimes at best and Poke the Poodle-level antics at worst, Team Flare's goal of committing genocide against the poor was re-evaluated as being shockingly realistic and capable of establishing them as serious threats. While Team Flare still is far from being the most popular villainous team, they are far more respected than they used to be.
Anime and Manga
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Protagonist Ash Ketchum was, especially following the anime's initial wave of popularity in the 90s, once one of the biggest Memetic Losers in all anime due to his constant losses in leagues, perceived inferiority to videogame protagonists (especially Red, who was a Memetic Badass at the time), being perpetually 10 years old, personifying the Fleeting Demographic Rule, and his Idiot Hero nature undergoing increasing Flanderization with time, especially in Black and White. Opinions started to shift around the X and Y era, where he was written as a more competent trainer (and for those who didn't like how overly mature he seemed given that he was still meant to be 10 years old, the following Sun and Moon series rectified this while retaining his competence as a trainer, with the following Journeys series finding a middle ground between the two portrayals level of maturity while also keeping his competence), with him reaching new and increasingly significant heights including a runner-up position in Kalos, winning in Alola outright, and becoming the World Coronation Series Monarch in Journeys. Also contributing is that around this time, Red's reputation started to waver due to overexposure by both official and fan media and his divisive Pokémon Origins take that debuted just before X and Y aired, leading fans to re-evaluate Ash as a likable protagonist who displays genuine care for his Pokémon rather than it being an Informed Attribute and had to work hard to earn his victories and achievements rather than be an Invincible Hero. Many also reappraised him as a decent attempt at translating one of the blank-slate game protagonists into an actual character following Origins. When it was announced that he would be retired in 2023, fan reaction was overwhelmingly one of sadness and fond remembrance. Had this happened 10 years earlier, the response would've been And There Was Much Rejoicing.
- Ash's initial portrayal in the Original Series was one of the main factors behind his reputation as a Memetic Loser that persisted at least until either DP or XY. Reasons for this include his brattiness, immaturity, how he didn't earn half his badges legitimately, how most of his Pokémon stayed unevolved and the few who evolved either ended up being quickly Put on a Bus (Butterfree, Primeape, Pidgeot) or became disobedient (Charizard). However, as the anime went on and not did only Ash become more mature and competent but the series became far less mean-spirited, people looked back at the Original Series and realized that Ash was just an inexperienced kid with big dreams who was constantly mocked and put down by everyone (including Misty and Brock) and how he was often blamed for things that happened at least partly due to external factorsnote . While OS Ash might not be anybody's favorite portrayal of Ash, he's now seen at worst as a Jerkass Woobie who tried his best in an uncaring World of Jerkass.
- Ash's characterization in Pokémon the Series: XY was originally praised for fixing him, especially after his low point in Black and White, into the highly capable, mature trainer fans have long wanted him to be such it overshadowed any detractors of his change. After Ash lost the Kalos League, the backlash led to criticisms that losing his comedic moments and most defining flaws made him boring and one-dimensional, becoming far more prevalent due to the seeming tradeoff of his finally winning a League failing to happen. Subsequent series having Ash regain some flaws and a level of comedicness while keeping his newfound skill and competence to the point of finally winning the Leagues further eroded support. So while Ash's XY depiction still has fans and is seen as a step in the right direction, it's divisive nowadays with few saying it's his best or definitive portrayal like they did before.
- Pokémon: The Original Series: Back in the 90s and the 2000s, Misty was one of the most popular characters in the franchise for being a Fiery Redhead Action Girl and hilarious Deadpan Snarker who acted as the perfect foil to Ash Ketchum while also being a bit of a mentor to him, with legions of fans shipping the two of them together. Many were devastated and outraged over her getting Put on a Bus at the end of Johto, and you could see people demanding her return to the series as a main character as late as 2009, long after her replacement May had been retired and while May's own replacement Dawn was getting ready to leave as well. However, starting in the early 2010s those same fans would look back on Misty’s tenure and scrutinize it for a multitude of reasons. Unlike later female characters, she lacked any kind of Character Development beyond becoming less violent after getting Togepi (which some don't count as actual development, considering the show as a whole became less violent around this time), with said violent outbursts now being seen as more cruel than funny. These fans also point out that for all of Misty's bravado, she rarely battled against trainers aside from Team Rocket, which made her credentials seem like at best an Informed Attribute, and at worst made her many critiques of Ash seem hypocritical. The introduction of the infamously polarizing anime version of Iris was also a contributing factor; Iris was widely suspected to be an attempt at recapturing Misty's success, which caused many viewers to go back and re-evaluate Misty in a more critical light, with some pointing out that quite a few of Iris' most criticized qualities had earlier been displayed by Misty. While Misty still retains fans to this day, she's become far more divisive, with many fans arguing her initial popularity came mainly or even solely from being Ash's first female companion.
- Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire: When May was first introduced, she was seen as, at best, nothing special, and at worst, a Replacement Scrappy for Misty, with fans scrutinizing May for lacking the assertiveness of Misty and acting too similar to Ash. These fans also critiqued her career of being a Pokémon Coordinator, finding the battles that occurred in them to be less interesting than Ash's Gym Battles, with May's many victories being seen as unearned given her lack of experience. However, as time passed, Misty's popularity would dwindle and characters leaving the show would become a regular occurrence, which caused a revaluation of May's character to occur. For starters, May's lack of assertiveness and self-confidence facilitated Ash's growth into a mentor and more mature trainer. With the passage of time, May's nicer demeanor would also be seen as a better look than Misty's temper, with her dynamics with her little brother and Ash being seen as highlights. Furthermore, Pokémon Contests would gain better reception as their presence allowed the series to avoid the Arc Fatigue that plagued Johto. The fact that May's successor, Dawn, would have more dynamic Contest Battles and more frequent losses, showed the anime had been paying attention to criticisms of May's arc, which in turn led to people looking back on its issues as growing pains that would be addressed later. These days, May is seen as one of Ash's' most popular companions and, ironically, a More Popular Replacement to Misty, with many fans lamenting she couldn't get a reunion with Ash in Pokémon Journeys: The Series on account of May's Japanese voice actress being retired.
- Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl: When Paul made his debut, his reception was largely positive for allowing Ash to have a rival again after his lack of one in Ruby & Sapphire was seen as a detriment to that series. By the midpoint of the series, however, opinions soured, thanks to the large amount of Character Shilling he received, while ignoring his prior abuse of Chimchar, which would've been treated as Moral Event Horizon in other series. Made worse by Ash’s inability to beat Paul until the very end of the series, indicating the narrative was on Paul’s side. The fact that Paul’s motive behind his methods boiled down to getting bitter his brother Reggie didn’t complete the Battle Frontier resulted in many growing to detest Paul. Black and White, however, swung the pendulum back in a positive direction as Trip was seen as an inferior replacement to Paul despite being nicer, as Trip was seen as a Flat Character whose victories came less from his own skill, but more on reliance on Ash's regression in competence. This caused many to now see Paul's victories and praise as better deserved due to his legitimate skill and had the payoff of forcing Ash to step up and achieve his aforementioned competence. Pokémon the Series: XY furthered Paul's reevaluation when Ash infamously lost to Alain in the Kalos League finals, making him the only major rival Ash failed to ever beat, in comparison to the massive Catharsis Factor Ash's final victory over Paul brought. This along with the franchise as a whole shifting its focus away from Jerkass rivals towards Friendly Rivals to diminishing returns, made the desire for and appreciation of rivals like Paul grow even more. These days, Paul is seen as a strong contender for Ash's best rival, with criticisms of Paul nowadays generally focusing on the writing surrounding him rather than the character himself; when he returned in Journeys, fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
- Protagonist Ash Ketchum was, especially following the anime's initial wave of popularity in the 90s, once one of the biggest Memetic Losers in all anime due to his constant losses in leagues, perceived inferiority to videogame protagonists (especially Red, who was a Memetic Badass at the time), being perpetually 10 years old, personifying the Fleeting Demographic Rule, and his Idiot Hero nature undergoing increasing Flanderization with time, especially in Black and White. Opinions started to shift around the X and Y era, where he was written as a more competent trainer (and for those who didn't like how overly mature he seemed given that he was still meant to be 10 years old, the following Sun and Moon series rectified this while retaining his competence as a trainer, with the following Journeys series finding a middle ground between the two portrayals level of maturity while also keeping his competence), with him reaching new and increasingly significant heights including a runner-up position in Kalos, winning in Alola outright, and becoming the World Coronation Series Monarch in Journeys. Also contributing is that around this time, Red's reputation started to waver due to overexposure by both official and fan media and his divisive Pokémon Origins take that debuted just before X and Y aired, leading fans to re-evaluate Ash as a likable protagonist who displays genuine care for his Pokémon rather than it being an Informed Attribute and had to work hard to earn his victories and achievements rather than be an Invincible Hero. Many also reappraised him as a decent attempt at translating one of the blank-slate game protagonists into an actual character following Origins. When it was announced that he would be retired in 2023, fan reaction was overwhelmingly one of sadness and fond remembrance. Had this happened 10 years earlier, the response would've been And There Was Much Rejoicing.
Movies
- Pokémon 2000: While Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres have always been recognized as antagonistic characters due to their fighting risking the destruction of the world, opinions have shifted as to what kind of antagonists they were and whether they were morally culpable for the problems they helped cause. When the movie premiered, the anime portrayed many if not most Pokémon as essentially just animals with superpowers, so it was widely assumed that the three legendary birds simply didn't have the capability of higher thought (at least not to the same extent as humans) and were acting largely on instinct without understanding the consequences of their actions. As a result, they were widely seen as wild beasts that lacked more constructive problem-solving skills reacting to provocation in understandable ways. But as the franchise went on, more and more Pokémon, especially Legendaries, were given fully developed personalities and were implied to have intelligence comparable to or even greater than the human level, retroactively making the birds appear so selfish that they were willing to wipe out all life on Earth just because they didn't want to be around one another. As a result, they're now seen in a far more negative light; tellingly, countless fanfics that cover this movie have someone (usually Lugia) rip into the three for their behavior.
- Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened: The Mewtwo that appeared in this film, commonly referred to by fans as "Newtwo", was hated upon the film's release being widely seen as a Replacement Scrappy to the beloved Mewtwo character from the Original Series and Pokémon: The First Movie. This was because her very existence was an Ass Pull, given all data related to the original Mewtwo project was destroyed, the trailers and marketing made it appear that the original Mewtwo was returning, and people saw her character arc as just a poorly done rehash of the original Mewtwo's character arc. However, fan opinions softened as later medias depictions of Mewtwo increased acceptance of giving them different characterizations, turning in 2019 when an interview was conducted to promote a remake of the first movie, revealing that Newtwo was only used in place of the original Mewtwo from legal issues with Takeshi Shudo's estate that had since been sorted, rather than anything insidious. Newtwo's popularity would then soar throughout the 2020s thanks to the wide popularity of the fan comic Mew and Mewtwo. This series, and other comics inspired by it, had Newtwo interact constantly with the original Mewtwo, which better highlighted the differences between the two and fleshed out her character far more than the film ever did. While the movie Newtwo hails from and the way she was introduced into it both remain contentious, these days you'll be more likely to find fans of the character herself, and hard-pressed to find as many detractors.
