Regarding Parker's belief that he was protecting Chloe by not telling people about her problems, getting people the help they need is more important than keeping secrets.
Putting other people's needs before your own is good, but there comes a time when you must put yourself first.
Being unempathetic or lacking social skills is no excuse to be a terrible person.
It doesn't matter how apologetic you are regarding how badly you treated someone or how often you apologize; your victim has every right to cut you loose if you've hurt them badly enough and people are perfectly in their right to not forgive you.
Firefly Funhouse is meant to imply that Chloe feels like she has mental problems she is struggling with and not being treated or helped, and that it is important to support people in her condition. It instead comes off as if Chloe is struggling with being accepted for having a socially unaccepted fetish instead.
If there's anything that can be taken away from the school plotline, is that a school that doesn't take its students' needs into accounts, is doomed to fail. Part of the reason why Chloe and Goh have such miserable times there is because both of them (ESPECIALLY Goh) are treated as special needs students; Goh is even shown having had his parents submit written documents for special accommodations, yet are practically forced to study the same way as everyone else even as it becomes clear that said studying methods don't work for them.
Professor Sycamore is the Pokémon Professor of the Kalos Region...Who also faints twice upon meeting the Train's Denizens for the first time, compliments Shion's cooking, and is left flushing when he learns Rimuru calls him the "Professor of the Monster Kingdom."
Yuri is a snarky kid who loves anime and mecha but also squeals in delight in seeing Porings and gathers them up in a hug.
Anvilicious: The story pulls no punches about hammering in the "troubled people need adequate help in order to get better" plotline.
Angst Dissonance: According to the narrative, Chloe is a kind-hearted girl who was badly mistreated by her homeworld, and who has a better chance to properly bloom on the Infinity Train. Most of the readership just see the same Chloe they've come to expect from Blossomverse stories, except more notable now due to having more moments of snapping back to square one as soon as any adversity or obstacle is encountered.
Angst? What Angst?: While the Goh of this story is spared from Parker's wrath and the infamous Nightmare Therapy, this Goh now has to deal with a near-drowning experience in his youth, and his usually well-meaning but neglectful parents who have a surprising lack of concern for his own well-being that doesn't seem to affecting him personally that much.
Anti-Climax Boss: For a guy that was set up as a big problem, Dr. Yung goes down with little fanfare after his Mirage Pokémon get converted into Denizens.
Arc Fatigue: This story has the most infamous case in the Blossomverse, with it taking over 30 chapters, almost 500000 words, and 8 months of time to finish Act 1.
Chloe Cerise, more specifically her changes compared to Blossoming Trail. Some believe that the changes done to her spare her from the controversial character she was in the original trilogy, while others believe that not only do these changes not make her that different, but making her Cloak even more powerful just sends her straight into overpowered territory.
As time has gone on, Professor Sycamore, the proper protagonist of the story, has fallen into this category. Some think he's a breath of fresh air compared to previous protagonists in the verse, simply wanting to do good and make amends with no strings attached whose mistreatment by the narrative is something to be pitied. Others, however, see him as a lackluster protagonist at best or a waste of space at worst, seeing as his presence doesn't change the base storyline in any significant way, and feel like he's more of a Pinball Protagonist who's affected and led by the plot, instead of the other way around.
Victor and Gloria. Decent replacements to Trip in an attempt to minimize the self-righteous verbal abuse her hurled at people with his Brutal Honesty? Or wastes of characters who not only fail to separate themselves from their Trip-like role but, in Gloria's case, do it in a much more mean-spirited way than Trip himself did?
The fact the story is fully canon to the original Blossomverse trilogy. Is it a good way to provide more life to the verse and focus on the multiverse, something the original trilogy only slightly did? Or is it a troubling idea that risks pulling many a Happy Ending Override just to move the plot forward?
Professor Sycamore being a Decoy Protagonist, with Act 1 ultimately focusing more on Chloe by the climax. A decent way to deconstruct the latter's overexposure in the verse in general, or yet another example of Chloe taking away the protagonist spotlight just so people can keep shilling her at the expense of the true main character?
Sara Dyktalis getting the unknown box instead of Parker. Some like the change since the Cyan Desert arc effectively turned Parker into The Scrappy so giving it to a Hate Sink like Sara who wouldn't get shilled after the arc was a good choice and gave us an epic final showdown between Chloe and Sara, which lets the bullied girl finally stand up to the girl who has caused her so much pain. However, you have others who don't like the change since Sara's nastiness is turned up with her bullying of Chloe because she thought that would make her give her a Pokémon, and how before this arc, Sara had no real importance to the plot. So, it came off more as the writers just redoing the arc not just to make Sara irredeemable, but to also let Parker be the hero this time around, which even includes him creating an UnChloe who helps fix everything instead of ruining everything.
Ash's writing has also broken the base a little. Some believe that he's written better than in the original trilogy, since he at least gets to avert the original story's Guilt Complex and do things other than sit around and mope over how he "wasn't better for Chloe". Others, meanwhile, believe that he's written worse, since while he doesn't get as hurt as in the original trilogy, they believe he gets even less to do than it, with only very small scenes reminding you he's supposed to be the Alola League Champion and not even having a hand in defeating the Unown, which was a pivotal character moment for him.
The ending of the Cyan Desert Car: Chloe and Parker take down Sara's machinations while Gloria uses the Unown to broadcast the abuse Marianne put on her daughter, ensuring she's exposed as an abusive mother and taken down as well. A fitting conclusion to the end of Act 1, or a collection of Ass Pull who's more interested in giving the mentioned characters a chance to come out on top over everyone else rather than follow on anything logical?
Later down the line, the story does something with Simon and Grace that it didn't do in the original trilogy: Simon is given a chance to redeem himself and realize how the Apex wasn't good, while Grace goes off the deep end due to the constant verbal abuse and misfortune that's befallen her. Is this a good way to subvert expectations and try to provide depth to a character that was fairly paper thin in the original trilogy? Or is this yet another punch in the gut to Grace, and another example of a Double Standard, as Simon, a white man, is given a chance to redeem himself and not become the monster he'd later become in canon, while Grace, a black woman, has her sanity destroyed by a train and world who do nothing but yank her chain, with the narrative not so subtly indicating that she's this close to being beyond saving?
Is Chloe being suicidal an interesting route for her character that does give her a layer of sympathy, or is it a melodramatic way to try make a character who's been historically unsympathetic into sympathetic, and comes across as being a "get out of jail" free card for when the narrative needs to make antagonists specially heinous? Kurune and Ikuo, for example, are generally made responsible over the fact that their separation of Goh and Chloe led to the latter becoming suicidal, which can come across as exploitative since the events that led to Chloe's status didn't involve them, and at best were caused by factors beyond their control.
The flashback to Goh and Chloe's childhood that is part of the Harvest Moon Car's climax. A necessary setpiece that perfectly puts an end to the friendship plotline and gives Chloe some proper Character Development for once, or the final nail in the coffin regarding the narrative's refusal to give Chloe consequences, revealing information that was never foreshadowed just to force Goh to apologize and make Chloe the faultless victim yet again?
Should the story continue down its current route, or should it be rebooted to start anew? Some people believe that despite the many flaws within the story, it still has an interesting story to tell, and it could work should the story focus more on a singular plot rather than the conglomerate of plots and attempted issue fixes that have caused reception issues. Others feel like the plot has currently dug itself into such a big hole both narratively and in audience reactions that the only way to salvage it is to start fresh and without trying to condense the extended universe into one single story and discard as much of the issues that have come up as possible to streamline things. And a third camp believes that while the main story's fine, the sidestories and their canonicity to it hurts the story as they're mandatory reading to understand what's going on.
After Blossoming Trail and Voyage of Wisteria saw him getting put through the ringer to no end, it's incredibly satisfying to see Goh successfully put Chloe in her place twice, without getting undermined.
After the Blame Game plagued the original trilogy and made everything worse, Kukui managing to not only stop it from happening when his students start trying to blame each other, but getting them to actually talk things out is enough to breathe a sigh of relief.
With Blossoming Trail, rather hypocritically, saying Passion Is Evil in regards to Ash and Goh's goal while venerating Chloe's own goal, having Professor Cerise actually defend their goals to become a Pokémon Master and catch every Pokémon is rather refreshing.
Given how Chloe has been a Spoiled Brat through Act 1, culminating in driving Professor Sycamore insane with despair by using him as a stress toy after everything they did to help her, and Specter not only exacerbated the problem but proved completely unsympathetic to Professor Sycamore's plight once things calmed down, it's immensely satisfying when a truth geass forces Professor Sycamore to air out his anger towards the two of them, ending with him saying something so shocking to Specter's face that he's left speechless.
While primarily taking cues from Blossoming Trail, later chapters make it clear the story takes cues from the whole trilogy (Blossoming Trail, Knight of the Orange Lily, and Voyage of Wisteria) which means that even if a person is caught up with one of the stories, elements will show up that will confuse those not familiar with the other two (like White Gestalt).
Things only get worse when the side stories get involved. While Orchid Observer could theoretically be read on its own, and the "Arcanum Universe" duology primarily focuses on the backstory of two characters, Rey Mysterio Verses the Cosmos reveals some very important plot relevant information that doesn't appear in the story proper, and eventually the people from the sidestories end up appearing in the main story itself, with little effort done explaining the concepts brought from the story or the timeline in which they take place, further bloating the story.
Many aspects of the main story require the reader not only to be familiar with Infinity Train and Pokemon to get, but also franchises as disparate as Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, Silent Hill, japanese Sentai series, and professional wrestling figures. If you are unfamiliar with even one of them, let alone several, their inclusion becomes an immediate hurdle to comprehend.
Designated Hero: Chloe Cerise is supposedly a kind girl who was treated unfairly by her homeworld, but the picture painted of her is less than heroic: she has the gall to act shocked when her classmates ostracize her for harassing them with her horror interests, shunned and disowned her father when he couldn't uphold his promise to take her to softball camp, and then emotionally and verbally abused her Childhood Friend simply for not giving her the time of day. Even when she tried to reconnect with Goh through a ghost hunt, which ended with Goh nearly drowning and catching a fever, she showed no concern for his health, caring more about her own interests instead. These and many more events portray Chloe more as someone who kept quiet about things that were bothering her, and then throw a temper tantrum when people didn't immediately pick up on them.
Designated Villain: Goh's parents are revealed to have been driving a wedge between Goh and Chloe because they blame the latter for nearly getting their son killed and leaving him with a fever afterwards. However, as the above incident involved a ghost hunting expedition that nearly led to a seven year-old-boy drowning, after which Chloe showed no concern nor remorse for, it's understandable that they'd want her gone from their lives, much like Delia back in Blossoming Trail.
Like in the anime, Goh doesn't really like interacting with others (he only goes to school for testing), is hyper-fixated on wanting to find Mew, and his lack of a social filter makes it hard for him to explain what he truly wants, showing signs of being neurodivergent. The fact that he even has special accommodations with the school further supports this read.
By the end of Act 1 and during Act 2, the story tries to make a message about how human relationships are important, and that in order to make them work, communication and empathy are required from both sides. This is a pretty good message...that ends up falling flat when considering the context: Vermillion City, the location that gets the most focus in the story, is filled with horrible people, ranging from bullies who'd destroy someone in order to get a Pokemon, to adults that could care less about what happens as long as it isn't their problem. This is all without specifically noting when the story explores Chloe's own developments in this regard, as while certainly meant to show how Chloe has improved over time, focusing on her pre-development parts, tend to pain a picture of someone who is just as horrible as the bullies and adults mentioned above, and at times it is only the narrative, and not Chloe's actions and behaviors themselves, that communicate any progress in communication and empathy. These expansions also focus a lot on a Chloe who tends to display her worst traits in the Blossomverse, which further muddle the message as these developments are framed with large amounts of the very same traits that make Chloe divisive in the first place.
Later in the story, a subplot has Goh slowly come to realize how his absence from school has hurt not only him and his friendship with Chloe, but himself as a person, and eventually decide to slowly return to it. While the importance of school can be a good message, this message, like the one about relationships between humans and Pokémon, falls flat when considering the context: school, as depicted in the story, is generally shown to be a terrible place to be at where neither student nor teacher actually wants to go there, especially when there's a much more enticing alternative in becoming a Pokémon Trainer. Not only that, but the few decent people in the school are overshadowed by the majority of people in there being jerks who, at best, do nothing to fix the various issues present in the system, and at worst, actively cause said problems in the first place, giving very ample reason as to why going back to such a place might not be such a good idea.
Draco in Leather Pants: In story, Sara embodies virtually every bully stereotype imaginable; arrogant, prejudiced, racist, violent, wants what others have, and cares for no one but herself. However, many comments in the story tend to downplay a lot of this, mostly because her bullying so over the top that it surpasses the suspension of disbelief, especially when compared to Chloe, who in her worst moments acts just as bad as (if not worse than) Sara.
Fan-Disliked Explanation: Not everybody's on board with the idea that gods and demons exist on the Train and them creating the Cloak of Wepwawet is the reason why it's so powerful. Partially because of how it comes off as an excuse as to why the Cloak is so strong, partially because of the dozens of questions it brings up.
Fanon Discontinuity: Several events in the series attempt to link it to the original Blossomverse trilogy in some way, each of which is generally ignored by the fans of Orange Lily, Blossoming Trail, and Voyage of Wisteria who like to pretend that Crocus never happened.
A What If?story based on this fic featured Mairin entering the Train during her hotel stay. The main story would feature a similar scenario with much darker context, as it involves a group of cultists trying to convince her to enter by preying on her desire to save Alain.
Chloe admitting to Goh during their talk in Harvest Moon that she never truly hated him becomes this after Firefly Funhouse, where she confides to Atticus and Lexi that she fantasizes about murdering Goh for not paying attention to her.
Speaking of Firefly Funhouse, the school plotline and how everyone chided Goh not going to school like everyone else was already pretty hard to watch, given how Goh was being lambasted over not wanting to go to a place that the story has gone out of its way to paint to be as terrible as possible. Chapter 5 turns this entire plotline almost utterly meaningless when it turns out Goh has a special accomodation to only go to school for tests, and shows that he's been doing fine academically, meaning all the callouts he got before go from being mean-spirited but potentially well-meaning, to people willfully ignoring a legal documentation just so Goh acts like everyone else.
Still speaking of Firefly, with the reveal of Goh having submitted written documents for special accommodations, it further paints Chloe's gripes with him a in a negative light, as she either doesn't know about these accommodations, or does know and just doesn't care.
While done with more tact than usual, this fanfic in the Pokémon World repeats the same old "Goh finds out what Chloe went through and how he wasn't a good friend" and "people blaming the Cerises for Chloe's problems" nonsense that plagued the original trilogy that the readership had grown sick of by the end of Blossoming Trail, and the end of The Twisted Lab Car even repeats the "catharsis is damaging" Aesop the original story did, with as much chatter to boot.
Mis-blamed: Part of the reason behind the drama with Spinnerette. The many negative reviews the story's gotten made it seem like she was being blamed for everything, when Green_Phantom_Queen is more at fault due to repeating too many previously done events from the original trilogy, the story becoming more like her usual spite-filled stories once she took over, and generally responding to any criticism with "this is only Act 1" despite the story being 30 chapters in.
Only the Author Can Save Them Now: By the beginning of Act 2, Sycamore and Chloe's arcs have reached such a point that it would take a miracle for them to come out okay; in Sycamore's case, he gets mentally broken by Chloe to the point he wants to reset the world, which forces Paimon to erase his memories and send him right back to square one. As for Chloe, despite a clear light at the end of the tunnel, she sabotages herself by giving in to her anger and spite and using Professor Sycamore as an emotional punching bag, right before focusing on beating the ever-loving shit out of Sara, causing her number to rise much higher than it was before, ensuring she's stuck on the Train for longer. While Oak Lore tries to give it a more positive spin, as Gary explains that she just needs a "Melissa moment" that forces her to swallow her pride and truly start to change, the fact that mentally breaking Professor Sycamore and causing her number to rise bigger than it was before can make one wonder if that's not her "Melissa moment", then what could possibly do it?
Padding: Act 1 was over 30 chapters long, with each chapter having word counts comparable to Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, so some readers felt like the story was wasting too much time either setting up future things or repeating too many things from the earlier trilogy to get the actual story going.
Protection from Editors: The fic is notable for lacking the co-writers of later Blossoming Trail, Orange Lily, and Wisteria, and a resulting spike in the worst tropes of early Blossoming Trail returning, combined with more notable continuity errors, suggesting their lack of influence leading to a surge in problems.
While it's hard to tell if she's as hated as the person she's replacing, it's quite telling that the character used to replace the Big Bad of Blossoming Trail Act 2, Sara Dyktalis, is heavily disliked by the fans, being seen as a Replacement Flat Character who had what little depth remained from her original self removed in order to make her as detestable as possible.
There's also Elipzo. In theory, they serve as a counterpart to the Unsub's Crew, but with a more Well-Intentioned Extremist angle. However, the number of fans who like them is rather low. It's particularly emphasized by The Figure/Austen Plane, whose hatedom significantly grew after the now-deleted Fury of Thistle had him Mind Rape Blossomverse Ash and Goh into oblivion and having Parker become a Karma Houdini all over againwithout ever facing any consequences.
Between Trip's replacements, Gloria is seen as this compared to Victor. While they both act as the person who executes Brutal Honesty in order to get the characters to learn where they went wrong, Gloria is much more aggressive about it than Trip, even going so far as to cause the professor to have a breakdown, something that Trip never did in the original trilogy.
Salvaged Story: There was a bit of controversy when the Palimpsest Car had Ash decide to ignore the Rainbow Rocket invasion due to believing his friends were "strong enough" to deal with it themselves, which came across as very out of character for him. A later chapter not only tries to give an actual explanation for why he said that, as Nanu and Burnett told him to stay out of Alola for his safety, but the end of the arc has Ash get the encouragement to go to Alola and turn the tide of the battle in Alola's favor after being reassured by Goh.
Seasonal Rot: Some readers feel like the second half of Act 1 is weaker than the first. A few reasons include repeating too much that's already been seen in other Blossomverse stories, things either changing or staying the same to everyone's detriment, Green_Phantom_Queen's staples (horror, double standards, favoritism of Chloe) returning, and a general feeling that the story was taking way too long to finish it's first act, with over 30 chapters that are long by Reset Bloodlines standards with half as much progress in each massive chapter as Reset would have at best. Rather notably, this is the point in the story where the fic's comment count cratered, with strings of chapters with only one comment at best, often just being an author note by Green Phantom Queen note Although the authors turned off comments on the fic for all except logged-in AO3 users, this only occurred on the 42nd chapter and the comment drop off was visible long before this as the Cyan Desert Arc finished and concluded with a fresh burst of the worst of the Blossomverse each and every time.
Sequelitis: Much less well received or produced than its predecessor it copies point for point frequently (Blossoming Trail), getting far less attention and positive reception and repeating mistakes in character writing and plot elements that should have been learned in prior works.
Shocking Moments: The end of "The Skill Crane Car" has the death of Ogami, the Big Bad of Voyage of Wisteria. And unlike the previous time he dies, this death also includes the death of his soul, meaning that there's no way he can come back.
Goh gets a lot of flak in story for favoring Pokemon based-friendships over human ones, which is intended to be a show of his lack of support both for and from Chloe. However, considering how he's treated in the story by human characters, is it any wonder why Goh prefers the company of Pokemon?
Goh suggests that the reason why Chloe should've captured the Shiny Pumpkaboo was because she was the daughter of a professor, only to get shot down by his grandmother. However, this could've served as the perfect opportunity for Chloe and her father to actually bond, especially since the Pumpkaboo was a Pokemon that Chloe actually liked, and thus could've allowed them to become closer and not have such a strained relationship in the present day.
Goh gets a lot of mud flung at him for his set up for only going to school some times, being 'No-show Goh' and all. However, Firefly establishes that this isn't just him being lazy, he has paperwork from school to be allowed to do that, and as a student he still gets good grades despite his absences. Goh is not failing his obligations to the school as a student as a result, and any social issues he misses are entirely with people who, as mentioned above, are rather huge jerks and Goh gets his socialization in his job with Professor Cerise instead. Essentially Goh is expected to not use a system that is meant to help him, works for him, and keeps him from having to deal with a rather hostile environment, just because Chloe feels neglected.
Grace's declaration that Chloe's a threat to The Apex and that she needs to die is supposed to be proof of her being a Dirty Coward, with Sycamore wasting no time lambasting her over it. Thing is, she's correct in Chloe being a threat: compared to The Apex or even most Passengers in general, who are equipped with whatever garbage they can get their hands on, Chloe has the Cloak of Marchosias, which lets her turn into a fire-breathing wolf, and later gets a halo that lets her summon any demon she wants, albeit only once. These two artifacts alone make Chloe such a Person of Mass Destruction that she could literally annihilate not only The Apex, even the whole Train with a snap of her fingers. Even without these artifacts, however, Chloe has something of a Cult of Personality developing around the Denizens, who constantly praise her and treat her like a Goddess for practically no reason.
During the trial against Chloe in the Harvest Moon Car, Allighieri makes several critiques about her and declares that she should be separated from the Windchasers and Red Lotus Remnant. This is supposed to make him loathsome and make us rejoice when they win the trial and decide to stay with her regardless, but Allighieri ends up making some very valid points because Chloe has repeatedly proven to be a toxic individual who refuses any help that people offer her, only to turn around and demonize them seconds later for not helping her, AND is responsible for reducing the Windchasers' leader to a suicidal mess, the very same one she's been dealing with, and yet never truly faced consequences for it.
A lot is made about how Goh's parents don't push him to go to school more and how it's a staple of their neglect. Given that practically every time school is mentioned it is in regards to something horrible about how it treats its students, particularly Chloe, not forcing their son to go to a place like that is fairly reasonable, especially as their son has a job with Professor Cerise so he is no longer just in his room all day researching Mew. They also filled out paperwork for this, meaning that what they are doing is legal, acceptable, and the only problems that exist with the set up in-story is because of email issues that the school could solve by communicating with Goh in any other way (such as in-person, emailing him, or calling him).
Stuck in Their Shadow: When the writers, Spinnerette and Green Phantom Queen, are discussed, it is pretty much always Green who is in focus and discussed, for good and for ill, with Spinner being practically forgotten despite being the story's official writer.
For those who believe that Parker wasn'tRescued from the Scrappy Heap when it happened, him failing to get a wish from the Unown and then having his leg crushed by a giant paint can is immensely satisfying after what his Blossoming Trail self did.
For those who don't see Chloe as a Base-Breaking Character and just straight up hate her, any time Goh rips her a new one and forces her to outright admit she's not innocent is also satisfying.
The fourth Palimpsest chapter has two long awaited moments for Trip and Gloria, both courtesy of Goh.
Goh calls out Trip for making Ash cry and emotionally wrecking him, stating that he thinks that Ash should date anyone else but him because of the guy's abusive behavior. He also mocks Gloria for referring to Chloe's home life as "abusive".
While most of the complaints about the narrative are how similar it is to previous Blossomverse stories, that doesn't mean all the changes the story does have are received without complaint. In particular, the changes to the White Gestalt and their increase in angst haven't been received that well.
Sara Dyktalis is an odd case. In theory, she's not much different than in the original story: she bullies Chloe, is insanely petty, and would rather coerce people into compliance than admit she's wrong. So why is she here? Because of the execution: the story puts a heavier emphasis on her bullying personality while taking away or downplaying what good or sympathetic traits she has, so most fans have grown to positively despise her and her execution in story.
How some people feel about Victor and Gloria. Initially brought into the story to replace Trip's controversial status, they quickly became wasted they end up repeating the same "Goh has to go to school" argument as the original story and then make the same mistakes that Trip did. Gloria has it a little worse, however, since her aggressive bouts of Brutal Honesty and the Analogy Backfire of Chloe's situation did not endear her to many readers' hearts.
Despite being on the short list of characters who's more affected by Sycamore's disappearance than Chloe's, Mairin does nothing of relevance between her four-day-long moping session at the hotel and nearly joining Elipzo in a desperate attempt to save Sycamore and Alain. This especially stings once you realize that Mairin and Serena's sisterly bond in canon could've been used here to try to give both of them something to do, but alas, Serena is Adapted Out.
Trip gets even less to do here than in the original trilogy, which is saying a lot. While in the trilogy he eventually managed to try redeem himself by becoming more empathetic to Ash and others, in here he's present for all of one chapter before being Put on a Bus, and said chapter mostly involves people calling him out for being a jerk. It especially stings considering his replacements, Victor and Gloria, end up doing the exact same thing he did in the original trilogy, making his leave feel superfluous.
Ash fits this in the Act 1 finale. After initially going down his same guilt complex shtick and then going away for a few chapters to recover and train with his Pokemon, he returns for the big battle... and proceeds to do nothing of importance. In fact, one moment of important development for him in the original story, summoning all his Pokemon to fight against the Unown creation, is handed over to Parker instead, leaving him with nothing to do but stand there as everybody else contributes to the battle somehow. This thankfully starts getting rectified in Act 2, as after a few close calls, he finally decides to step up and help with the Rainbow Rocket invasion of Alola.
Many readers have noticed that, for a story that's supposed to be about hope, it retreads so much angst, blame throwing, and nonsensical ideas from the original trilogy that it comes across as totally lacking an identity of its own. It would've been interesting to see the Blossomverse stuff either being averted more often or replaced by something less narratively frustrating, but alas.
Yet again, Goh isn't the one to get the Unown. It stings a little more here, however, since thanks to Gloria's influence, the Unown could've used his wish to try show his conflicting mind regarding how everybody thinks he's at fault for everything despite other people saying otherwise. Alas, it is Sara, a certified Hate Sink whom the readers can't stand, to get it instead.
The intention of the story with Chloe was to show a different angle to her, this being that she was a broken girl. It instead comes across as rehashing a lot of stuff done with her in early Blossoming Trail.
Serena and Mairin's relationship in canon could've been added here as an attempt to not only give Mairin something to do for Act 1, but finally give Serena, a longstanding example of a wasted character, something to do and feel relevant to the story once more. However, not only does Mairin go on to do nothing of much relevance through Act 1, but Serena being Adapted Out means that the chance of them meeting become null, leaving Mairin with nobody by her side.
Despite setting up a fight between Ash, Goh, and Team Magma forces in Galar, the following chapters skips over the fight to the end, notably skimping out on pure Pokemon related action to focus more on train shenanigans in a arc that is seen by many as being utterly unbalanced in favor of the Infinity Train side of the crossover.
Ash leaving the Cerise Lab to train instead of getting bogged down in Trip relationship fumbles or the blame game became this where, upon his return for the Cyan Desert Arc, he not only is completely underused in a plotline that was originally used to give him major moments in Blossoming Trail, but there is no clear sign of any of this supposed training. While Oak Lore would go some way to rectify this, the level of Continuity Snarl between it and Crocus during the Galar segments, as well as the falling out between with the writer of Oak Lore due to said Galar segments, means that it seems unlikely that this entire plot point served as a way to not write Ash for a while instead of anything meaningful, a decision that more than a few fans would probably considered a better use of the character than wasting his potential in the Crocus take on Cyan Desert or the resulting controversial implementation of the Rainbow Rocket plotline.
Several moments in Act 1 and in Firefly Funhouse have the characters question why Class 5-E and Sara didn't just straight up go on a Pokemon journey rather than stay in school, which sounds like a decent setup for a proper exploration of the failings of the school system after the original trilogy did a shoddy job at focusing on it, like showing how either the students didn't have the resources to go on a journey like most people, how different parenting styles affect permissions, or even that attending the school was mandatory in some way. However, no further focus is given to this plot point, with it ultimately coming across as yet another jab at how Class 5-E and Sara were too lazy and stupid for their own good.
While the reason why it didn't happen was understandable, Mairin joining Elipzo could've been a significant development for the story, not only allowing us to see how the underutilized organization works in the first place, but also giving Mairin something to do after spending most of Act 1 moping and whining about her situation.
With Harmonic Storm's existence, it could've easily opened the door for more Passenger-Denizen fusions to give the story a bit more of a unique flair, especially since there are several pairs that could work, like Sycamore and Rimuru or Chloe and Lexi. However, across the doorstopper that is Act 1, Specter and Easter are the only ones to utilize this technique, making it come across as grossly underutilized.
The revelation of a trip to Kalos years ago where Goh drowned and Chloe showed herself to be apathetic towards it could've been the perfect chance to show that she was as unempathetic as she is in the present day, and allow Chloe to truly reconsider herself and actually come to terms with her having been an insensitive jerk since she was young. Instead, the next chapter makes it clear that Goh is the one who got himself into this mess, with Chloe risking her life to bring him back, once again absolving her of any blame and turning her into a hero from youth at the expense of Goh and his family, who are demonized to drive the point home.
With focus placed not only on the reputation that famous trainers like Ash get, but repeated issues raised with previous actions like Goh's Lugia escapades possibly putting his life in danger and the many lampshadings on why Chloe's classmates aren't trainers if they are so interested in them, the story has a good opportunity to explore the potential side effects of trainers who do become famous not only as a means of exploring Chloe's perspective on the matter from the other foot and expanding on the dark side of popularity that might come from being the Alola Champion or Chloe of the Vermillion, as well as having a second go at the original trilogy's Pallet Town adults plotline that has aged poorly. However due to the lack of focus given to the Pokemon parts of the story, especially for exploring aspects that do not directly relate to Chloe in some way (such as Goh and Chloe's pasts), Chloe's views on trainers and how they might tie back into her own fame and the narrative's own focus on the dangers of canonical stunts remain as informed attributes and means to bash Goh respectively.
With a fair bit of focus placed on Chloe competing with Ash's superiority, perceived or otherwise, the possibility of comparing the two further was a very plausible direction for the story to go on. After all, Ash has made type mistakes in several of his most important battles, such as against Brandon and Kukui, the former even being against a Ghost-type too, and he also experienced a post-loss experience similar to Chloe, including what could be described as insensitivity by those around him and unfairness. The possibility of having Chloe reflect on those incidents, or even having her raise an alternate perspective of the fairness that befell Ash could have helped her connect with him, while also working on her own empathy problems. However, as with many things not directly related to glorifying Chloe, this was ultimately never explored.
Uncertain Audience: The stories are a divergence from the original Blossomverse trilogy, but they contain the same controversial or discredited, aspects while making controversial changes giving little of interest for fans or critics of the original. Yet it also takes bits and pieces from the original such newcomers are also left cold.
As always, Ash and Goh are given flak for not knowing what Chloe wanted tor what her problems were, when all evidence shows that she was she was deliberately being uncommunicative while they were extending plenty of open hands.
We're supposed to see One-One in the wrong for exiling and banning most of the White Gestalt from the Infinity Train and erasing their memories of it. Thing is, while his actions were extreme, the story glosses over the fact that said group's actions nearly destroyed the Infinity Train, something that neither the collection of hell spawns like The Apex or The Usurper of Amelia ever did. Plus, given the Train side takes place during Book 3, One-One is still grasping the concept of emotions, so even if he overreacted to the whole deal, it's not really fair to treat him like he should.
Act 1 has several people call out Grace and remind her about how she murdered Utahoshi, which is supposed to serve as a reminder of how, despite all the mishaps she's suffering, Grace is a horrible person who had it coming. However, given how the story goes out of its way to yank her chain repeatedly (gets separated from the kids she's looking after, called out as the worst by anybody who sees her, gets disowned by her parents), it instead comes across as needlessly rubbing salt into the wound, especially considering how these are the same people who let Amelia walk around without so much as a word, despite being the reason Grace became mean in the first place.
Backhanded Apology aside, Ash and Chloe's talk at the beginning of Act 2 is supposed to establish that Both Sides Have a Point, and that both of them are equally guilty for the latter's current situation. However, it's hard not to see Ash as the more sympathetic one in the argument, because not only is the actual argument - that Ash didn't try to get to know Chloe any better - a heavily flawed one, but it conveniently ignores how Ash's issues were either downplayed or outright not there before Chloe had her hissy fit.
Goh scolding his Pokemon for wanting to attack Chloe when she returns is portrayed as a noble action that shows that he's really starting to care about her. However, their reason for doing is also a noble one; seeking justice for their trainer being hurt. Furthermore, this comes up right after Goh understood why they wanted to do so and gave his approval, making the guy come across as an indecisive Ungrateful Bastard who'd switch opinions at the drop of a hat if it meant keeping Chloe from having another episode. Retroactively, the Firefly Funhouse Car also establishes that Chloe wanted to murder Goh, meaning that his Pokemon are being blamed for having a now completely justified reason for wanting to attack someone who had wanted to murder their trainer only a few months earlier.
We're supposed to see Professor Sycamore's Anguished Outburst at Chloe and Specter with shock and horror, especially considering he ends up saying something so shocking to the latter that he's left troubled and speechless. However, considering the fact that the former had Sycamore essentially sabotage his own trip just to take care of her, something she didn't appreciate, and the latter proved utterly unsympathetic despite having some idea on what happened between Sycamore and Chloe, it comes across more as an example of Sycamore finally gaining the strength to call out the two of them on their bs and realize just how badly they hurt not only him, but the people around them, all the while only caring about their problems and nothing else.
The narrative lambasts Goh's parents for deliberately keeping their son and Chloe separated after the ghost hunting trip in Kalos years ago, causing their friendship to strain, despite her saving him from drowning. Thing is, while their actions were extreme, the story glosses over the fact that Chloe, after saving Goh from drowning, only cared to ask if he was feeling better just so she could take him on another potentially dangerous adventure, not once indicating that she cared about him for his own sake. So they come across more as a pair of Well Intentioned Extremists who are unfairly persecuted just because they understandably didn't want their son to be friends with someone who only wanted to hang out with him for personal interest. Later work also shows that their set up with Goh and the school was official and Goh was getting good grades, work experience, and socialization, so by all accounts what they doing was working.
In chapter 46, though making good points, we're supposed to see Allighieri in the wrong for trying to get Chloe sentenced to working on herself on her own, separate from the Red Lotus Uprising or Windchasers. Thing is, while his argument gets damaged by him focusing on the bad stuff, the basis of it holds water: at that point in the story, Chloe has been such a toxic and damaging person to each member of both groups, directly or indirectly, that anybody else in their right mind would ditch or at the very least keep their distance from her until she truly starts working on herself. Not only that, but being such a beloved figure on the Train, there's no doubt that a Passenger or Denizen would eventually pick up the slack of both groups, and potentially do it better so long as they don't immediately buy into Chloe's stories. Instead, Allighieri is left fuming as the Red Lotus Uprising and Windchasers decide to stay with Chloe despite not only conceding to Allighieri's points, but even admitting that they hate her.
While Ms. April is said by the narrative to be a poor teacher, and the rest of her class is not a good showcase of her skills, Firefly Funhouse makes it clear that her handling of Goh was in fact far better than what the story shows. Compared to her successor, she essentially was doing her job dealing with a special needs students practically flawlessly. He was accommodated, was getting good grades, and was happy and healthy; yet the story ignores this fact to further criticize her.
Victor and Gloria when they see the videos about the paint can incident. The two of them were added to the story, among other things, to give Goh the support he never got in Blossoming Trail. However, once they see the video and Goh confirms what happened, not only do they side against Goh and call him out over his perceived neglect of Chloe, but they use the exact same "argument" that Goh's detractors have drilled into him before they met.
In The Chocolate Car, we're supposed to feel bad for Gloria because she recognizes that her Analogy Backfire has emotionally harmed people, and multiple characters say that her analogy, while hurtful, wasn't exactly wrong. However, given that her so-called analogy was comparing the Cerise Institute to an abusive household after only hearing Chloe's side of the story, Gloria comes across as a Hypocrite for doing the exact same thing that she chided Trip for doing. Furthermore, her Brutal Honesty has gotten her in trouble before, and the story only tells us this after her mean-spirited comparison causes Professor Cerise to break down and snap at her, which is not only a hollow method of trying to make Gloria sympathetic (because if this moment was important to her current character, it would have come up before), but it also shows that Gloria is apparently unwilling or incapable of learning from her mistakes.
Parker is supposed in the right when he calls out the adults for not confronting the Shadows that have been summoned by the Unown and treating him like a kid. Thing is, he's stuck in a wheelchair, he says this after Renji showed concern for him, and they have no idea how to deal with the monsters. To make matters worse, he then approaches one of these monsters and tries to make contact with them, without really explaining what he's doing, giving the adults even more reason to be afraid.
Chloe Cerise during Dr. Yung's attempt to break her. Given that the chapter that features this moment came right after the chapter where Chloe and Goh talked things out, it seemed like she didn't learn anything from that moment.
Goh when he calls out the Alolan students for not paying attention to Chloe when she and Professor Sycamore appear in a video call at a conference. He's supposed to be seen as trying to be supportive of his friend, but Professor Sycamore is the first person to appear on the screen and Chloe isn't even trying to get their attention, making it seem like he's chiding them for not noticing an easter egg.
The people who remind Grace of her murder of Utahoshi. In theory, it's supposed to be a reminder of how Grace is a bad person who has been on karma's list for a while, but in practice, it makes these people come across as horribly petty and hypocritical, since not only was this one event something that happened years ago, but most of them don't even say anything about Amelia, who's not only the reason Grace became terrible but had a reign of terror that lasted way longer than Grace's.
One Freudian Excuse of Chloe's is that her father had once promised to send her to softball camp, only to have to change plans after a last-minute conference came up. However, this excuse is rendered moot for several reasons; First, Professor Cerise gave Chloe a full explanation of the situation and assured her that she could "go next time". Instead of doing just that, Chloe simply took that to mean that her father didn't care about her]]. Second, the narrative tries to hold the Professor responsible for factors such as Sara smugly claiming that Chloe's parents must not love her if she couldn't get them to sign a permission slip, even though there was realistically no way for him to know that without Chloe telling him. And finally, Chloe's end of the bargain, behaving herself for a week, is really not that much to expect of her, so she comes off as a Spoiled Brat for still whining about not getting her reward months later AND bringing up this incident while explaining that she would rather ''die'' than get into Pokemon.
Ash's decision not to interfere with the Rainbow Rocket invasion in Alola and instead let his friends handle it. It's supposed to be a moment that shows both Ash's trust in his friends and how he's going to focus on his mental health, however considering that these are friends he built a deep connection to, including a professor he sees as a father, it comes across as him looking shockingly apathetic to an alternate version of Team Rocket deciding to wreck havoc. Not to mention it makes him look like a Hypocrite, given that just one act earlier, he was this close to devolving into a Nervous Wreck over thinking he didn't do enough to help Chloe, even though he couldn't have done much, when in here he has the means to help but chooses not to.
Goh when he calls out his Pokemon in the Palimpsest Car. We're supposed to see this as a triumphant moment when he finally puts his foot down and ensures people stop hurting Chloe pointlessly. However, considering the fact that his Pokemon have legitimate reason to hate Chloe compared to how most other people hate her for petty reasons, the fact that they're one of the very few characters who have taken his side without changing their minds or having ulterior motives, and the fact that he actually understood why they'd draw lots to attack her just the chapter prior, it instead makes Goh come across as an Ungrateful Bastard and a hypocrite who is so in over his head over how Chloe is "innocent" and he's in the "wrong" that he will immediately put himself down and force people to hurt him just to appease Chloe. And this is without mentioning the fact that, by saying that he thinks that this action could retraumatize Chloe, that he feels like she'll be just as emotionally vulnerable when she returns from the Train, rather than being emotionally mature enough to recognize why they would do it and why she'd deserve it. Fortunately, this was later mitigated with him deciding once and for all that he'll allow his Pokemon to attack Chloe but only under his supervision to keep things under control, and Chloe herself accepting that she deserves it.
The reveal that Chloe had tried to connect to Goh after a ghost hunt that the two ended up involved in by chance is intended as a humanizing moment for their relationship and a demonstration of how she tried to keep their relationship going with a mutual interest, and how she had saved his life. However, the fact that this was done with ghost hunting, a type of Pokémon that is infamous for being very dangerous in pretty much every region of the Pokémon world (especially Kalos), makes Chloe come off as irresponsible and fortunate that Goh's near-death experience was simply drowning and not being cursed or strangled by a Gourgeist. It also makes Chloe's disinterest in Pokémon come off as very reckless as she knowingly brought Goh into a very dangerous environment without proper caution. Finally, she prioritized having fun over Goh's well-being, wasted time picking flowers instead of bringing Goh straight back to camp, and then continually harassed his parents with phone calls about ghost hunts in a similar manner to how she'd later badger her classmates with her own interests, ultimately creating a pattern for Chloe's loneliness that is the result of her own actions.
There's also Tomie when she calls out Goh's parents during the discussion of said ghost hunting trip. This moment is supposed to establish her as the Only Sane Man in Goh's family, and a Kick the Dog moment towards the parents for their role in straining their friendship. However, the fact that she not only glosses over the fact Goh nearly drowned as a result of Chloe's irresponsibility, but then goes on to solely focus on Chloe's pain, with her only briefly noticing Goh when he gets disturbed by her later yelling, instead makes her come across as another Chloe apologist who's quick to defend the girl over something that, to an extent, was her own fault in an attempt to absolve her of any wrongdoing, while condemning a pair of people (one of them being her child), whose only crime was done from a place of being worried for their son's well-being.
Parker Cerise once again falls victim to this trope during his talk with Goh and Gloria regarding General Shepherd. We're supposed to see him in the right when he not only calls out the two of them for not listening to him, but when he turns out to be right regarding the general being able to turn into Pyramid Head. However, not only does he shoot himself in the foot by revealing a twist in the Silent Hill games that makes the duo of Goh and Gloria too scared to find out what else he knows, but he acts in such a bratty and spiteful manner that he comes across as throwing a temper tantrum because somebody didn't think he was right rather than reacting to being identified as just a kid. Plus, his supposed correct assumption regarding Pyramid Head is only one possible ending in a spin-off game, and he never humors the idea of the other endings, making him appear less like the Silent Hill expert the story wants to paint him as, and more like an arrogant Know-Nothing Know-It-All who just so happened to be right once and ran with it.
The Firefly Funhouse Car tries to make Chloe more sympathetic and show how throwing curry in Goh's face might not have been the most "diplomatic" way to start her journey, but Goh brought it on himself by being insensitive and taking her and their friendship for granted. It also shows the ten-year-old protagonist fantasizing about "beating Goh to death with her donut holer" as a symbolic gesture. Not to mention the fact that the narrative attempts to use Disability as an Excuse for Jerkasseryagain, citing her anxiety and "possible autism" as the reason she can’t be honest with people and show her interests—while at the same time showing Chloe being infuriated at Goh'slack of social grace and fixation on Pokémon.
Firefly Funhouse also makes Ms. Valente, the unseen new teacher of Goh, far less sympathetic than intended. While originally meant to be a teacher whose simply doing her job where Ms. April hadn't in the main story, Funhouse establishes that Goh had in fact put in written documentation for special accommodations to allow for his absences. So what was meant to be a teacher expecting Goh to act like a regular student has instead become someone willing to ignore accommodations for someone who is not only special needs, but doing fine in his classes academically within those accommodations, with her only defense being issues with Goh's parents lack of response to emails which itself ignores other means of solving the issue.
Wangst: Just like in the original trilogy, Chloe's petty, vindictive behavior, and entitled attitude towards Goh can make it hard for readers to root for her.
based on this fic featured Mairin entering the Train during her hotel stay. The main story would feature a similar scenario with much darker context, as it involves a group of cultists trying to convince her to enter by preying on her desire to save Alain.