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YMMV / Pokémon

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Works with their own YMMV pages:

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    Main Video Game Series 

    Spin-Off Games 

    Anime and Movies 

    Manga 

    Stage Productions 

    Trading Card Game 

YMMVs that apply to the franchise as a whole:

    A-B 
  • Accidental Innuendo:
    • Basically, anyone who talks about Poké Balls. In fact, in HeartGold and SoulSilver, when the player first meets Kurt, he says, "(Player), eh? You want me to make some balls for you?"
    • Anyone who talks about breeding Pokémon.
    • Yanmega's Japanese name, Megayanma, made plenty of censor filters jump, along with Cofagrigus.
    • Professor Oak came◊.
    • Magmar and especially Magby's Japanese names: Boober and Booby, respectively! Of course, it was MEANT to reference birds like the Blue-Footed Booby, but... well... And Magmortar is Booburn. Ouch.
    • The series of unfortunate innuendos continues with Mandibuzz, whose Japanese name is... Vulgina. While it is meant to be a portmanteau of Vulture and Regina, it's very likely one doesn't pick this meaning first, especially considering the evolutionary line is all-female.
    • The move Harden could make a few people with dirty minds giggle. Especially since the same Pokémon likely will know String Shot... Hydro Pump causes the same dirty thoughts sometimes. Particularly with Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action jokes.
    • The fact that the Power Points used by moves have their name abbreviated to "PP" can lead to immature snickering in certain contexts. The existence of an item called the "PP Up" (and its stronger cousin "PP Max") doesn't help.
    • When Pokémon Masters EX was announced on Twitter, it came with the hashtag #PokemonMastersEX... and it promptly started trending for other reasons than intended.
  • Adaptation Displacement:
    • Ask anyone over the age of 40 about Pokémon. They'll most likely answer something like "Pokémon: The Series? Isn't it that cheap kids' cartoon from the '90s about cute little monsters?" And since Most Writers Are Adults, for a long time, most mainstream parodies of Pokémon were either based fully or partially on the early anime, with particular emphasis on the poor reputation that it had early on. Over the years, however, the balance has shifted slightly as millennials have become a more dominant force in popular culture; while some elements of the anime (such as Ash, Team Rocket, Pokémon Speak, and the theme song) are universally pervasive, elements from the games have become increasingly recognized and more commonly cited, and the overall tone of Pokémon parodies has shifted from derisive "kiddy" snark to nostalgic fondness (regarding both the games and anime).
    • Quick, what do you think of when you think "Pokémon's main theme"? For most people, it's the first opening of the anime (English or Japanese) rather than the game's title screen theme. A quick search on YouTube has the first English opening theme as the very first result. You need to dig further to find the game's title screen theme.
  • Adorkable:
    • Mainly Slowpoke, but Slowbro and Slowking have their charming qualities too.
    • There is something about the Magnemite line's big googly eyes and the way they spin their magnets that make them unusually cute in Pokémon-Amie.
    • Archeops' model from X and Y on involves it desperately flapping its wings as it struggles to stay aloft. It's endearingly pathetic.
    • A happy Xurkitree will do things one would normally not expect from an Eldritch Abomination, such as dancing in joy when being treated well in Pokémon Refresh, and you can see some Xurkitree happily skipping◊ (instead of more mundane running animations other Pokémon and Ultra Beasts have) in the background in the Ultra Plant in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
    • Sneasel and Weavile in Pokémon-Amie. They give off a sassy and badass expression, but that quickly melts away when you pet them. They will smile in happiness, and then give a genuine giggle that they sheepishly try to hide. It's so adorable.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Alternate Self Shipping: More than a few fanworks ship Red's classic design (Gen 1-Gen 2) with his modern one. Red's fanon design (Pixiv!Red, Uber!Red), and occasionally a cross-canon counterpart like Ash from the anime or Red from Pokémon Adventures, have been added into the mix.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: Because the franchise tends to trend more towards biological or historical accuracy than most other cartoon animal franchises, a lot of Pokémon designs tend to befuddle fans that aren't aware that its features parallel that of its actual animal basis. A good example is Stunfisk, which was widely mocked and derided for its goofy face, even though real flatfish are even weirder-looking.
  • Animation Age Ghetto:
    • Despite the Periphery Demographic, Pokémon, thanks to the anime, its English dub, and its lack of popularity among adults in its early days, is widely viewed as being solely for children. As of Gen VI, Game Freak fortunately seems to have caught on to this status, and is trying to appease the older fans and establish that Pokémon is indeed for all ages. An entire article was written on the subject, and the mainstream success of Pokémon GO has alleviated this to some extent. Pokémon Detective Pikachu completely averts this and was likely an attempt to shed this trope for the franchise in general, being a family movie targeted towards all age groups and not making concessions for the under-12 crowd like the rest of the franchise.
    • There is also the fact that many of the monsters, especially the most marketed ones, are usually simplistic enough to be easily drawn by children, which cannot be said for other franchises that have monsters as their main focus, like Monster Hunter or even Digimon.
    • A common criticism of later games in the series is that they are very overbearing in terms of handholding and in-game tutorials. This is often cited as an attempt to pander to young children and treat them in a patronizing manner, a common fallacy of Pokémon in general (most notably with the anime series pre-XY).
    • Despite the above, the philosophy of the series had always been to appeal to all ages from children to adults, according to Junichi Masuda's Word of God. When developing Pokémon Black and White, one of the main issues he wanted to address was that Pokémon players felt that they "graduated" the series as they got older (something he wasn't too pleased about), and he wanted to make a game that players could continue to enjoy as they grew up, echoing Iwata and Miyamoto's attitude towards the Super Mario Bros. franchise. Thus, while fans may have various complaints about different games in the franchise, pandering solely to children isn't one that was actually intended by the creators.
  • Americans Hate Tingle: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Anticlimax Boss: The battles with each game's main Legendary Pokemon are often reduced to this. They have story build-up, intense music, a unique intro, and then... Master Ball. Of course, there are many players who opt to not use the Master Ball, usually saving it for a random Shiny they might run across later on.
  • Archive Panic: Over twenty years of games, over one thousand episodes of animation, movies, comic books, spin-offs and remakes with an ever-growing number of characters, none of which (as of 2020) show any sign of slowing down. If you wanna catch 'em all, you better get started!
  • Audience Shift: While Pokémon started out purely as a "kids-only" franchise (and is probably most well known as such), over time the Periphery Demographic grew enough so that Game Freak would acknowledge them as a part of its demographic just as much as the kids themselves. Come Gen VI, lots of Pandering to the Base could be found in the games, and the official international website was overhauled to look more like an Apple product and less like an early 2000s kids' website.
  • Base-Breaking Character: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Broken Base: Has a dedicated subpage.

    C-D 
  • Character Perception Evolution: Has its own subpage.
  • Character Tiers: A heavily present feature in the metagame, and kind of necessary, given that for all of Game Freak's tweaks and additions, some Pokémon still clearly have it better than others. Most communities make an effort to organize the tiers thoughtfully, at least, and as a result, each tier, especially in Gen I and whichever game is current, typically has its own metagame format with dedicated players, from the top "Overused" mons to the extremely weak "7U" tier. Smogon has one example.
  • Cheese Strategy: See the series' sub-page here.
  • Common Knowledge: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
    • Despite a fair number of them being crutch characters, it's not uncommon for players to keep their starters as permanent fixtures of their team (usually as the strongest Pokémon in their lineup). The reasons why vary from attachment to practicality (either as a legitimately good Pokémon or a HM Slave). Being available in every single mainline game,note  Magikarp is a staple on most in-game teams for being obtainable early and for becoming a Disc-One Nuke when it evolves into Gyarados, which has become easier with each generation.
    • In an inversion, it's an unspoken rule among players, particularly those simply going through the story, that Legendary and Mythical Pokémon are completely off-limits due to being Purposely Overpowered (though some players may simply decide that their team works quite well without one). This isn't so much the case in competitive play, however, where some lower-tier legendaries avoid being overpowered.
    • The metagame has resulted in a lot of Pokémon being used by players a lot (Smogon appropriately dubs them "OU" for "overused"), simply due to being very powerful without being an outright (major) Legendary or Mythical Pokémon. VGC 2016 brought this to a head with the teams of the Top 5◊ — which were largely identical to each other, coining the derogatory term, "CHALK".*
  • Complete Monster: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Creepy Awesome: Many of the Poison-, Ghost-, and Dark-types count. Also some of the more malevolent Pokémon definitely get this treatment such as Mewtwo, Giratina, Kyurem, Yveltal, Genesect, and so on. The Ultra Beasts also have their fair share of fans thanks to their creepy, alien, and un-Pokémon-like designs.
  • Creepy Cute: While they're supposed to be creepy and unsettling in-universe, Ghost type Pokémon, especially the unevolved forms, are just as adorable as any other unevolved Pokémon. A few examples include Gastly, Misdreavus, Shuppet, Drifloon, Yamask, Litwick, Pumpkaboo, Phantump and Mimikyu.
  • Critical Dissonance: According to critics, Pokémon has remained strong since the beginning. According to fans, the series has had high and low points which are greatly dependent on who you ask and when and where you ask. As you can imagine, fans do not agree on much.
    • Critic-Proof: That said, the franchise has sold well more often than not, with even the worst-selling mainline titles being profitable. The anime gets this the most, having had multiple seasons despite many fans bemoaning its Seasonal Rot at various points, but even the games started becoming this starting from the Switch era, where despite criticisms of being an Audience-Alienating Era, with some of the games being criticized for either being more of the same or outright unfinished, has gotten the franchise some of its best sales numbers in its history; Scarlet and Violet in particular became the biggest launch for a game in Japan ever when it released in 2022, and the highest global sales for any Nintendo title within a three-day period in that same year.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Nicknaming either Drifloon or Drifblim "Hindenburg" (and having either one of them with the Explosion attack) was already a pretty common joke, but then they got an exclusive Dream World Ability, Flare Boost, that increases their Special Attack while Burned. It's even worse in the Gen V and VII games, which take place in the series' equivalents of Americanote . Oh, the Humanity!...
    • On a similar note, one could nickname their Golem "Kurt Cobain" and teach it Explosion as well. Works best with suicide leads in the metagame.
  • Demonic Spiders: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Die for Our Ship: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Difficulty Spike:
    • The games invariably spike in difficulty between the eighth gym leader (~Lv. 43) and the first Elite 4 member (~Lv. 54), leading to a bit of Level Grinding to get your mons up to a comparable level. This is a sort-of positive trope; people somewhat enjoy the challenge of the Elite Four.
    • And that's the first Elite Four member. In most games, expect the Elite Four and Champion levels to top out at 60 if not higher. In the Gold and Silver remakes, repeated visits to the Elite Four allow you to face Pokémon that start out at that level and go up to 75. Massive experience for all, though! There's also the fact that you have to fight five trainers with decently-leveled Pokémon. On the plus side, each individual member gives good money when defeated, so if you're strong enough to beat at least a couple of them and balance out your monetary losses for losing, a good way to grind for the Elite Four is the Elite Four.
    • Generation IV was merciless with its difficulty spikes. The bigger one is the noticeable level spike between Blue (~Lv. 57) and Red (~Lv. 76 (GSC)/84 (HGSS)) in the Johto games, a holdover from Gen II. The more subtle one was the spike between Lucian and Cynthia; while the change in level is relatively graceful, the change in skill is anything but. One can quite easily coast through Lucian, but be pulverized by Cynthia's Garchomp alone (champion-level AI, psuedo-uber, three moves with 150 power, perfect IVs, and optimized EVs; the only way the devs could've made it harder is by giving it a Yache Berry).
    • In Gen V, Ghetsis, the Team Plasma boss, is ridiculously difficult compared to the Elite Four, which have levels in the high 40's. Ghetsis has level 52's, and his Hydreigon (the 3-headed dragon) is 54.

    E-G 
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Escapist Character: You get to go on a journey across regions by your lonesome at the ripe old age of 11 to 16, don't have to go to school ever, raise your own crew of cool pets up to and including various Physical Gods, take down criminal empires single-handedly, and become the region's biggest badass in short order. Let's be honest: if you've grown up with these games, you definitely wanted to become a Pokémon trainer at some point.
  • Even Better Sequel: Each new generation of games adds many new features and otherwise fixes design flaws.
  • Evil Is Cool: Some of the most popular Pokémon are known in-universe as sinister, malevolent, and destructive entities, such as Gyarados, Hydreigon, and Gengar. Special mention goes to Mewtwo and Necrozma, both widely known for being vicious and powerful Blood Knights in a land where being a Blood Knight is a way of life, and while the latter is the first Pokémon to be the Big Bad of a main series game, the former is one of the most famous and iconic creatures of the franchise.
  • Fan Nickname: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Fan Wank: Pokémon is somewhat notorious for its refusal to have a consistent mythos, something largely attributed to Game Freak, who has gone on record multiple times saying they do not set a hard ruleset so they can make one unique for each game. This has the side effect of creating numerous apparent retcons and contradictions: for instance, Archen and Aerodactyl, two Pokémon introduced over a decade apart, are both described as the progenitor of all bird Pokémon, and that's assuming Darwinian evolution even occurs in the Pokémon world (something Game Freak has said they are not sure of). And that's not even mentioning how real world animals reportedly went extinct long before the contemporary story of Pokémon, but several real world animals slipped by in many early episodes and even a few later episodes of the anime, and that doesn't even mention the age-old debate about where the Pokémon world's equivalents of meat and fish for human consumption come from. But arguably the most infamous case of this is in regards to the chronology of the games: Game Freak scenario writer Toshinobu Matsumiya posted a timeline to his Twitter in May 2014 placing Pokémon X and Y alongside Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, which started considerable debate between fans regarding its perceived legitimacy and practicality, something not helped by the Tweet being deleted not long after it was posted. No other comments about the timeline have been published since then, not until October 2019, a few weeks before the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield, when Junichi Masuda reiterated that he and everyone else at Game Freak tries not to think too hard about it to save them from anything overly complicated. Let's just say that, ever since Matsumiya-san's tweet, hardcore fans have done the exact opposite of "try not to think too hard about it to save them from anything overly complicated"...
  • Fanwork-Only Fans:
    • There are players who only play fan games/ROM hacks due to what they can offer vs. the official games: more difficulty, Darker and Edgier stories, a chance to truly "catch 'em all" without buying additional games/systems or having a friend who did, getting to immediately jump into competitive battling without spending hours making competitive-ready mons, and in some cases, just a chance to play something Game Freak didn't make due to dissatisfaction with the direction the mainline games have gone in.
    • There's also fans who only consume Fan Art, which can come in many, many varieties: Cute art of the franchise's Ridiculously Cute Critters, badass art of its more badass-looking mons, art that tries to make the mons look more realistic, fanart of the human characters, crossovers with other franchises giving non-Pokémon characters Pokémon teams of their own, and... well...
    • And there's also those who only engage in the fanfiction side due to the creative freedom available such as Darker and Edgier story lines, exploration of Plot Threads, shipping, original characters and the like.
  • Fandom-Enraging Misconception: There are several misconceptions that can set off the Pokémon fandom, which can be found here.
  • Fandom Rivalry: Has its own page.
  • Franchise Original Sin: Has a whole page.
  • Friendly Fandoms:
    • Pokémon has such widespread appeal that its fandom overlaps with most other fandoms out there, from similar franchises such as Kirby (given that both are made by Nintendo and have cute characters with Jigglypuff being similar to Kirby and Snorlax's Japanese name being a pun based on Kirby's name according to this 2019 Game Informer interview as both Kirby and Snorlax have large appetites), Super Mario Bros. (also created by Nintendo), and Sonic the Hedgehog to completely different ones such as Game of Thrones (interestingly enough, Pokémon GO and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have official crossovers with Ed Sheeran) and Love Live!. Given any fandom, there's a high chance that it'll have unironic crossover fanart and fanfiction with Pokémon, no matter how awkward the crossover may be. The most common kind of fanart you'll see being a fictional character having a team of six Pokémon that reflects that character's personality, appearance, abilities, home location, or occupation. The fictional character may even be dressed like a Pokémon trainer (mostly wearing sporty clothing and a nice hat).
    • A more niche overlap in fandoms comes in the form of Pokémon and Mega Man, which primarily stems from the fact that a large number of artists who originally did work for Mega Man (of note being Hitoshi Ariga and Hideki Ishikawa, who mostly did work for Mega Man (Classic) and Mega Man Legends) went on to become freelance artists for both the Pokémon video games and TCG. Looking at the art styles side-by-side◊ make the similarities present, and fans from both franchises have banded together to appreciate the overlap and enjoy what each one brings to the table.
    • Another instance of a more niche overlap in fandoms comes in the form of Pokémon and Arknights, with the number of people who have played at least one main series Pokémon along with said mobile game. Both Arknights and Pokémon take from as much nooks and crannies in the biological kingdom of Animalia as possible. A number of Arknights's character artists have expressed their love for the Pokémon games in some of their artworks mainly meant for Arknights.
  • Game-Breaker: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Genius Bonus: Some of the inspirations for the Pokémon species designs are delightfully obscure.
    • Shuckle resembles a turtle and many viewers automatically assume that it must be based on a turtle, but it's actually based on an Endolith, a kind of fungus that lives inside porous rocks.
    • Avalugg is likely based on Project Habakkuk/Habbakuk, a proposed World War II project to make aircraft carriers made of Pykrete, a mixture of wood pulp and ice. The project was considered for the fact that it turned out to actually be bulletproof, but ultimately turned down based on its ridiculously low maximum speed of six knots, along with the fact that so many measures would have to be taken to keep the damn thing from melting. Sound like someone?
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Goddamned Bats: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Goddamned Boss: Roaming Legendaries can become this easily. It takes ages to find them because they move all over the place (and will move to a new location if you use Fly) and when you do find them they run away on their first turn. The only way you can prevent this is to trap them with an ability or move, but even then you have to be lucky enough to make sure to lead with Pokémon with such moves/abilities when you encounter roaming Legendaries. For added insult, some of these legendaries have the forced switch-out move, Roar, which will provide the Pokémon a chance to end the battle even if you managed to trap it.
  • Growing the Beard: While the original Pokémon Red and Blue were were very popular and successful, they suffered from basic, unbalanced, and glitchy gameplay and the multiplayer and trading aspect limited by the need for physical meeting and accessories, contributing to the original Pokémon craze waning after Generation I. Each subsequent game added features and/or fixed the flawsnote  with Pokémon Diamond and Pearl being seen as the point the beard fully grew in. The built-in wireless and online functionality eliminated the hurdle in trading and multiplayer by letting it happen anytime/anywhere, the latter combined with the physical/special splitnote  perfecting the gameplay formula causing competitive play to take off. It also introduced a stronger story, which Platinum would improve along with hammering out minor technical issues. These won over enough old and new fans that Pokémon evolved into the Cash-Cow Franchise it is today.

    H-L 
  • Hype Backlash:
    • The games have also gotten this for some due to the decidedly old-fangled mechanics at the core of the battle system, the similarity between installments, and their extremely high popularity despite being a largely stagnant, non-innovative series.
    • Any Pokémon that happens to be heavily marketed can suffer from this, since some fans argue that Game Freak goes overboard on the Wolverine Publicity whenever they decide to use it and makes them quickly get sick of the Pokémon in question. While Charizard is the most blatant example, each generation introduces one or more cases of this; some fans of Generation IX's Ensemble Dark Horse Tinkaton are apprehensive about it possibly becoming the next "shillmon" based on Game Freak's past behavior.
    • The Battle Frontier gets this reaction from some fans, along with its Spiritual Successor, the Pokémon World Tournament. While both facilities are highly beloved, a small sector of fans bashes any "sequel" or "third version" game that doesn't include either of the two or an equally expansive equivalent and disregards any other new additions or features that would make up for the content in other areas, making the Frontier and PWT appear overhyped and overglorified to other fans. It doesn't help that no such facilities have been introduced ever since X and Y greatly streamlined competitive breeding and training mechanics, causing people to associate such battle facilities with the unfun grind-fest that was breeding and training prior to Gen VI (or hacking).
  • The Inverse Law of Fandom Levity: The franchise is overall lighthearted and family-friendly, set in colorful worlds where you can collect cutesy creatures and take care of them. But at the same time, the fanbase is famous for making various Dark Fics, Creepypastas and discussions on the Fridge Horror of the games.
  • It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Many detractors, especially fans of other Mons games or JRPGs, look down on Pokémon games for being too easy and simplistic compared to others of the aforementioned genres, accusing mainly the predominantly 1v1 gameplay (even with the introduction of other formats such as double battles, which simply appear too sparsely) and the overcentralization of Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors over other combat mechanics due to the big damage multipliers.
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: The franchise has suffered from this all its life, first for the "Pokémania" fad among kids in the late '90s, and later for its massive and largely nostalgia-based Periphery Demographic. Additionally, some popular Pokémon species (such as Charizard) started suffering from this trope after their fandoms emerged in full force.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
    • All of the updated rereleases and remakes (and to a lesser extent, the first titles in any given generation) have run into a certain amount of these complaints. Generally the series as a whole has gotten this over remaining the same at its core.
    • For some, it can grow tiresome to see the same select group of Pokémon return in later generation Regional Pokédexs while other Pokémon aren't so lucky that they end up only ever appearing in the one generation they were introduced in. This is especially the case with Kanto Pokémon where many later generations tend to bring back the four trade-evolutions (Abra, Gastly, Geodude, Machop), several cave encounters (Onix and Zubat), and several water encounters (Goldeen, Magikarp, and Tentacool) in some capacity. Pikachu is this as well, though to a much smaller extent since being the Series Mascot, everyone just accepts that it will always be back.
  • It Was His Sled: For almost any game, you could make an argument that some kind of plot-twist is well-known outside the fandom.
    • The identity of the champion in all of the games. The exceptions are Alder from Pokémon Black and White and Leon from Pokémon Sword and Shield, who are outright stated to be their regions' respective champions when they are first introduced instead of just before the player battles them.
    • Likewise, the identity of each game's (true) Big Bad, if the game makes an effort to hide it, tends to stop being a secret amongst fans a few months or years after a game's release.
    • Team Rocket's boss is the final Gym Leader of Pokémon Red and Blue.
    • Red is the final boss of Pokémon Gold and Silver.
    • Nebby the Cosmog from Pokémon Sun and Moon is the pre-evolved state of Solgaleo and Lunala.
  • Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: In the Gen 1 and 2 Pokemon games, Team Rocket are the main villains, plotting to steal rare Pokemon, cutting off Slowpoke tails and serving them as food, and other heinous acts. But who gets all the vitriol from fans? Your rival Blue, or as he's known more colloquially, "Gary Mother F***ing Oak!!" whose greatest crime is...telling you he'll "smell ya later!"
  • Jossed: On Pokémon Day 2024, online fans were expecting that the next main game announcement would be either set in Unova or Johto, based on Scarlet/Violet DLC ties to the former, and hints by a well known leaker for the latter. No one could have predicted that the next game would a Legends game set in Kalos, specifically Lumoise City. Or that it wouldn't even come till 2025, making 2024 the first year without a major Pokémon title release in some time.
  • Junk Rare: See the series' sub-page here.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Two downplayed examples overlapping with also-downplayed versions of Americans Hate Tingle and Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
    • In the west, the human characters are (usually) hardly ignored, and many have large and dedicated fanbases, but most Western fans pay more attention to the Pokémon themselves to various degrees, a fact reflected in most Western fanart and almost all Western merchandising.
    • In Japan, however, this is outright reversed, at least where fanart is concerned, and the human characters get a good share of the merchandising, most of which stays in Japan.
    • As for the series in general, it suffers from the same problem as The Legend of Zelda in that it has too many Godzillas (no pun intended for literal Godzilla expies like Tyranitar and Groudon), a major factor behind its Broken Base. Some fans are attracted by the Pokémon themselves, some by the human characters and plot, some by the single-player campaign, some for competitive battling, some for in-game battle facilities, shiny hunting, Nuzlockes... The games have a very pronounced Fandom Rivalry because each generation emphasizes different aspects in different ways, and fans are often convinced that their Godzilla should be the primary Godzilla of the franchise.
  • LGBT Fanbase: Sylveon has become an unofficial icon for many transgender fans, as its color scheme coincidentally matches that of the trans flag; its evolution from the more masculine-looking Eevee only adds to the accidental symbolism. Primarina is also popular with trans fans, to something of a lesser extent, due to its extremely feminine design clashing with its 87.25% male gender ratio and the more boyish appearance of its pre-evolution, Popplio. In general, Pokémon with distinctively "masculine" or "feminine" designs but that are of the opposite gender (such as female Machamp, male Gardevoir and male Gothitelle) are popular with transsexual, transgender and non-binary fans due to the fact that the Pokémon themselves defy gender norms in a way that is just treated as natural rather than Played for Laughs or overemphasized.

    M-O 
  • Magnificent Bastard: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Mandela Effect: Pikachu is often remembered with a black stripe at the end of its tail. This is likely because its ear tips are actually colored black, so people extend that to its tail. Muddying things even further is the Cosplay Pikachu introduced in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which actually does have a black tip on its tail.
  • Memetic Badass: RED. Pretty much agreed to be the ultimate Pokémon master, if not the only one deserving of the title.
  • Memetic Loser: Has its own dedicated subpage.
  • Memetic Molester: Has its own dedicated subpage.
  • Memetic Mutation: Has its own dedicated subpage.
  • Mis-blamed: The removal of the Game Corners had nothing to do with Moral Guardians; it was actually because the EU tightened its gambling laws.
  • More Popular Spin-Off: Not of Pokémon itself, but the concept of Genwunners is actually spun off from the "GEEWUNNERS" of the Transformers fandom, who blindly support and praise Generation 1 and bash all other incarnations (sound familiar?). Despite this, Transformers GEEWUNNERS aren't as infamous or widely debated as Pokémon Genwunners.
  • Most Wonderful Sound:
    • The sound of a Poké Ball locking shut around a new Pokémon, especially when it's a Legendary, as well as the Fanfare/ditty that immediately follows it.
      • Gen V introduced a new catching mechanic where on rare occasions, a thrown Poké Ball will make a jet-stream sound effect before making contact; telling you ahead of time that you had just thrown a badass ball that will require almost no effort to catch the Pokémon.
    • Landing a "super effective" hit on another Pokémon, especially when the target Pokémon has a double weakness to the move it is resisting and/or when a Critical Hit is factored into the damage as well.
    • The sound that plays at Pokémon Centers when Pokémon are being restored to full health by the nurse.
    • The "shing!" that plays when a shiny Pokémon appears.
    • Not as often mentioned as the others, but the fanfare that plays when you pick a TM from an item ball in the overworld. Later games made item balls containing Technical Machines yellow to distinguish them.
    • The small jingle that plays as a Pokémon prepares to evolve into its next form.
  • Movement Mascot: Pikachu is not just the mascot of the franchise as you can see.
    • In 2014, it was chosen as the mascot of the Japan national football team, an unofficial one along with Tsubasa Ozora. Also, it was chosen as one of the "anime ambassadors" for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, but was cut off the final announcement for unknown reasons.
    • Not exactly the character itself, but Pikachu also appeared as one of the mascots of the 2019 Chilean protests, in the form of a corporeal. The backstory is very innocent: a woman's child took the cellphone and bought various products from China, being the Pikachu corporeal one of them (for adult size), then the conflict started and in October and when the "biggest march of Chile" happened, the woman opted to go as Pikachu, dancing during the protests and bringing joy and hope to the rest of the people and became a symbol until today. She's already know as "Baila Pikachu" (Dance Pikachu) and even has her own Instagram account.
  • My Real Daddy: The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri, but there are many fans who consider Junichi Masuda, who took the reigns from Tajiri from Gen 3 and onward, as the Real Daddy of Pokemon, as he further fleshed out the world of the franchise and established many enduring elements of it, with increasingly greater emphasis on story and character development than there ever was in the Tajiri-helmed games.
  • Narm: The change from "[Trainer] wants to battle!" to "[Trainer] would like to battle!" in the Gen. 3 games. Sure, it's more polite, but it sounds ridiculous when said trainer is someone from Team Rocket or Cipher.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • Only one of Hypno's Pokédex entries mention it hypnotizing and kidnapping a child, and even then it was treated as an isolated incident. Yet the fandom Flanderizes Hypno into an entire race of pedophile kidnappers. There's even a song written about it!
    • The Jynx controversy arising from her suspicious original coloration has pretty much ruined any chance for her to be popular when she seemed to be a misguided attempt to represent a Japanese legend/fashion trend. Nowadays, any mention of Jynx will inevitably bring up the controversy, and her reputation has been spoiled.
    • Porygon and its evolutions will never live down being the focus and namesake of the infamous anime episode that sent hundreds of children in Japan to the hospital with seizures or other ill-effects. The episode was subsequently banned from ever airing again in Japan or elsewhere, caused the show to go on hiatus for a few months, and proved to be a major stumbling block for the series early in its life. Since then, Nintendo and Game Freak have continually downplayed the line, none of which have appeared in the anime since, and seldom appear in merchandise. That said, however, things have been looking up for the Virtual Pokémon and its evolutions as of 2019 such as getting a Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Hyde giving you a free one in The Isle of Armor in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
  • Nightmare Retardant:
  • Older Than They Think: Since the West grouped event-exclusive Pokémon such as Darkrai and Celebi in with in-game Legendary Pokémon (sometimes even calling them such), many fans think the former being split off and called "Mythical Pokémon" was a later development in the franchise's history, not helped by some non-Mythicals like Ho-oh, Lugia and Zoroark being event-exclusive at some point. This distinction, however, existed in Japanese media since almost the very beginning.

    P-R 
  • Periphery Demographic:
    • Pokémon has, quite possibly, one of the clearest examples of this in video gaming; there's a reason why The Other Wiki lists it as the highest-grossing media franchise of all time. Outside its obvious target demographic of young kids, the entire franchisenote  is also quite popular with young adults that were kids in the late 1990s when the series was introduced, as well as with Otaku and Nintendo and JRPG fans in general. The franchise also has been a massive influence on youth and Internet culture, considering its popularity on Image Boards and the number of memes, videos, and fan tributes that the franchise has spawned, and has a number of famous fans such as Jordin Sparks, One Direction, Robert Downey Jr., Robin Williams and Ronda Rousey.
    • The franchise's adult fanbase has grown so much that in Japan, many child fans of Yo-kai Watch claim that the Pokémon fanbase is full of "old fogeys" and prefer Yo-Kai Watch precisely because it hasn't caught on with adult fans yet.
  • Pop Culture Holiday: The Pokémon Company and fandom alike celebrate Pokémon Day on February 27th, the anniversary of Pokémon Red and Blue's Japanese release. Ever since 2016, which was the franchise's 20th anniversary, the company has put out some celebratory merchandise or in-game events around this date, such as holding a virtual concert with Post Malone on February 27th, 2021. It's also a common date to hole special video game and trading card tournaments.
  • Popular Game Variant: Many players enjoy playing Pokémon using Smogon's rulesets on the battle simulator Pokémon Showdown!. These rules are designed to make the game more competitive by restricting or banning broken stuff and stuff that pushes the game towards Luck-Based Mission territory. To allow more Pokémon to see use, they are divided into Character Tiers, each of which have their own metagames. Also, importantly, while official VGC formats use doubles, Smogon mostly uses singles.
  • Popular with Furries: The franchise is a huge hit with the Furry Fandom, with high amounts of fan art from the fandom and it not being a rare sight for a furry to use a Pokémon species as their fursona. Pokémon Sword and Shield in particular gained popularity with the furry fandom thanks to the Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanics, which essentially canonized the longstanding relationship between furries, Pokémon, and macrophilia, causing a noticeable surge in cute giants, gentle giants, giant women, kaiju, and everything in-between of the Pokémon variety.
  • Recurring Fanon Character:
    • MissingNo.. and 'M were a pair of glitches that occurred in Pokémon Red and Blue when data was mixed or corrupted, causing a sprite of jumbled pixels and Normal attack moves. This gave rise to the popularity of the fan-nicknamed "Glitch Type" Pokemon, with MissingNo.. and 'M becoming the most popular of these and appearing in several Pokémon fanfiction and Creepypasta.
    • Ashley from Pokémon: The Series was initially just Ash Disguised in Drag to get into a gym that he'd been banned from. That hasn't stopped some people from making Ashley a separate character on her own, ranging from an alternate universe counterpart to a Genderbent Ash.
    • Many unused Pokémon are popular among fans, such as Kotora, a cute round tiger.
    • The fangame Pokémon Uranium contains many Fakemon that are popular in the fandom. One of the most memorable is Dunseraph. Reasons for its popularity include being a much-needed evolution to the otherwise mediocre Dunsparce, changing types from Normal to Dragon/Flying, good stats and movepool, and a beautiful design that is both majestic while at the same time retaining Dunsparce's dopey charm.
    • The Kaskade Region has many popular Fakemon designs, but the most beloved is Tofrug, a Poison/Fairy type that combines a frog and a tofu block. It is loved for its adorable and creative design, receiving a lot of fanart and even its own plush.
    • Platypet was originally a platypus Fakemon created for a fake leak that claimed it was a starter for Pokémon Sword and Shield. Even after the leak turned out to be a hoax, the design remained popular. Eventually, the artist sold the design to the developers of Temtem, where it was put into the game as a Water/Toxic type temtem.
    • Tentaquil is a Fakemon created when a 4chan user was asked to draw their fan favourite Pokémon without a reference, and the user replied with "tentaquil" when asked what it was. It became very popular in memes, with people pretending it was a real Pokémon.
    • Mewthree is a hypothetical second clone of Mew that is popular as an Urban Legend of Zelda.
    • For an Unlicensed Game example, Corphish's fake 2-stage evolutionary line (which makes it resemble more like a lobster with long antennae as it evolves and can fire beams from its claws) seems to be a popular choice for the unofficial gachas if they chose to adapt this species. In the Pokeland mobile game, where this different take possibly originated from, it seems to be The Artifact from the use of Captain Ersatz versions of the mons for marketing. Even its naming is also picked up as well, which favors "Lobster (title)" (even extending to renaming Corphish itself) over the more creative naming the franchise of origin is known for.
  • Remade and Improved:
    • Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are nearly universally seen as an improvement over Pokémon Red and Blue. The addition of a new area in the form of the Sevii Isles, the inclusion of abilities and held items, and the addition of a variety of moves as well as the fixing of unintended type matchupsnote  are just a few of the reasons given.
    • Similarly, Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal are games that are seen as completely surpassed by their remakes, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, which expanded several elements from the originals, including the rather bare postgame in Kanto, added back the Safari Zone that was cut for space constraints, included several events to tie the Johto region to the larger Pokemon universe, and are even included in the conversation for the best Pokemon games in the series.
    • Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, while not as well-received as Fire Red and Leaf Green (at least initially), are considered by many fans who have played them to be a much better experience than the original Yellow version, no thanks to Game Freak having had 20 years of experience to completely revamp the Kanto Region into something far more pleasant to the eye. This also on top of having the far more powerful Nintendo Switch as its platform, and the games retaining features introduced in later generations such as Mega Evolution, the Fairy-type, and Alolan forms.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Usually when a new Pokémon game comes around, you'll get this reaction towards certain Pokémon that supposedly replaced a previous favorite's role and failed/achieved to do the role better, or, in Zoroark's case, being purposefully advertised to be the next coming of the previous generation's Breakout Character, Lucario. And speaking of Zoroark, Generation V was notoriously infamous for this trope in terms of the main game's Pokémon roster.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Has a dedicated subpage.

    S-T 
  • Sacred Cow:
    • For all the base-breaking going on in the fandom, Pokémon as a wholenote  is treated as this because of the sheer number of people who grew up with it. It's become a cardinal sin to say anything bad about its world and characters or to claim that it's "strictly for children", and (aside from a few Vocal Minority circles) most complaints about the direction of the franchise are cast in a sympathetic light as opposed to bashing Pokémon as a lousy series.
    • Many Pokémon species in particular can also become this, with the strongest examples being popular Gen I and II(-related) species that do not suffer from Hype Backlash, such as Gengar, Scyther/Scizor, Gyarados, Eevee and the Eeveelutions, Mewtwo and Lugia, as well as a few from other generations such as Absol and Mimikyu. Such species are loved by older nostalgic fans, but are also tolerated and even equally loved by newer fans for not annoying them through excessive marketing and/or an overzealous fanbase, causing many people to consider them to be above criticism. Species that do attract Hype Backlash, such as Pikachu,note  Charizard,note  Lucario,note  Blaziken, and Greninjanote  become more divisive, with some fans treating them as Sacred Cows to an even greater degree and other fans expressing their annoyance towards such.
    • Since the mid-late 2010s, all generations from I-V have largely become this to the fandom, primarily due to the fans that grew up on each generation becoming more vocal and pushing the general goodwill of the fandom in their direction, but also due to these generations largely building off one another with none of the removal and over-addition of features that future generations have become infamous for. Individual games may still get flack (such as DP with their performance issues), but the generations as a whole are mostly unanimously loved.
  • The Scrappy: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Scrappy Weapon:
    • Several of the HM moves are considered a waste of a moveslot, not helped by the fact that HM moves cannot be forgotten without the help of Move Deleter or Day Care:
      • Cut's Power is sub-par at just 50, its 95% accuracy also means it has a slight chance to miss. Not only did Gen IV remove its ability to cut tall grass in favor of small trees, but Gen V buffed Tackle's Power to 50 and its accuracy to 100%, while also reducing Cut's mandatory usage to just one segment.
      • Flash is widely hated for its unreliable accuracy for an HM move that lowers the target's accuracy. From Generation 4 and on, its accuracy was increased to 100% and it is now a TM move instead.
      • While Rock Smash has a 50% chance of lowering the target's defense, its Power is a measly 20 in Gen II-III. This isn't as egregious in Gen II since it's a TM move, but Gen III turns Rock Smash into an HM Move and makes it mandatory to progress in certain areas such as Route 111 and Victory Road. Rock Smash would receive a Balance Buff in Gen IV by having its Power increased to 40. Unfortunately for it, Gen VI then introduced Power-Up Punch, which has the same power as Rock Smash but always raises the user's Attack if it hits (which is more useful than lowering the opponent's Defense), making Rock Smash redundant. It didn't help that in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire it regained its HM status.
      • Defog was quite a useless move when it was first introduced. In-battle, it reduces the opponent's Evasion by one stage, making it easier to hit them... but using this move, then a Powerful, but Inaccurate move, is less efficient than just using a weaker-but-more-accurate move twice. It can also remove Reflect and Light Screen, but Brick Break also does this while dealing damage at the same time, and it can remove entry hazards... from your opponent's side of the field. Out of battle, it clears fog from the overworld — fog is only found in a few areas in the gen IV games, and doesn't make it impossible to progress, but merely gives your moves a sizeable chance to miss. Fortunately, the gen VI games made Defog into a genuinely useful move by letting it remove entry hazards from the user's side of the field as well, giving Flying-types which would otherwise be weak to Stealth Rock a way to both alleviate this weakness and support their teams at the same time.
    • Hyper Beam was a menacing high-risk, high-reward Finishing Move in the Gen I games, packing immense power at the cost of making your Pokémon recharge if it failed to KO the target. However, ever since the bug fix/Nerf in the Gen II games which forced it to recharge after use no matter what, Hyper Beam became an extremely Awesome, but Impractical move: a 150-power attack sounds great, but the recharge turn makes it less efficient than just attacking twice with a move of 80 power or higher, and since it leaves your Pokémon vulnerable after use, the opponent gets a free turn to either hit you hard, or (especially in later generations) set up with a Status Buff move and win the game right then and there. Normal becoming an increasingly mediocre type in later generations just sealed the move's fate, alongside its physical counterpart Giga Impact. Past Gen II, the viable users of Hyper Beam have been few and far between, with some of its only consistent users being Porygon-Znote  or those which can ignore the drawback, such as Z-Move and Dynamax users. Its various clones haven't fared much better, though they have occasionally seen some success, such as Charizard running Blast Burn in ADV OU to muscle through Blissey.
    • Constrict has the lowest base power of all moves, at just 10. Its secondary effect isn't that impressive either: it has a ridiculously low chance of reducing the target's Speed. Gen VIII onwards removed this move since it's rendered pointless by similar moves that have better effects or power.
    • Submission has a decent 80 base power, but it has an inconsistent 80% accuracy — and, more to the point, 1/4th recoil damage, when moves with recoil usually have 120 base power or more. In the Gen I games, Submission was the strongest Fighting move available — if you didn't want your Machamp to have to chip away at foes with the pitiful (at the time) Low Kick, you were forced to use it. Later games added much better Fighting moves, fortunately, so players will tend to avoid Submission there whenever possible, and it's been removed in Gen IX.
    • Wild Charge is basically an Electric-type Submission, but with 100% accuracy and 10 more base power — still well below the standard for recoil moves. What makes it hated is that it's often the best option for physically attacking Electric-types, putting them at an inherent disadvantage — this move is one of the reasons why Luxray and Electivire are Low Tier Letdowns. Special Electrics get a much better deal, as Thunderbolt has the same power, no recoil, and a chance to inflict paralysis, and they also get Powerful, but Inaccurate options in Thunder and Zap Cannon. Most Pokémon actively avoid Wild Charge like a plague, with only a few making effective use of it — Iron Hands doesn't mind the recoil from Wild Charge much since it has massive base HP, and the Fire-type Arcanine runs it as a coverage option to hit Water-types. It doesn't help that the Secret Art of the Pikachu family, Volt Tackle, is effectively a stronger Wild Charge that was introduced much earlier and can actually induce paralysis.
    • Out of all the charge-up moves, Razor Wind is considered to be the worst. While most charge-up moves tend to have high power or make you semi-invulnerable for a turn to compensate for spending a turn doing nothing, Razor Wind has none of those, only having 80 power on top of having to charge up before executing. Worse, in Gens I to II, Razor Wind has 75% accuracy, making it possible to waste 2 turns doing nothing of value. Unlike Gust which became a Flying-type move in Gen II, Razor Wind retained its Normal-type despite involving wind. Razor Wind ended up vanishing into thin air in Gen VIII, with barely anyone noticing its disappearance.
    • Frustration is a full-power Normal-type attack that gets stronger the less your Pokémon likes you, maxing out at 102 power at 0 happiness. This move has a direct counterpart in Return, which maxes out at 255 happiness instead — and, while happiness goes up when you walk with your Pokémon, level it up, and use items on it (read: play the game normally), lowering happiness requires you to deliberately make your Pokémon faint or use one of a set of bitter medicinal items on it. Frustration is perfectly viable in competitive settings due to being effectively identical to Return there, but in-game, it's an exercise in frustration to use, and only a seriously Stupid Evil trainer would ever use it past the early-game.note 
    • Focus Blast is a special Fighting-type move with a great 120 base power, and is learned by many Psychic-types and other Pokémon for which Fighting is a desirable coverage type. The catch? It has 70% accuracy, and because many of the Pokémon which would want to use it are of the Glass Cannon persuasion, a miss at the wrong time will often result in them being knocked out or taking sizeable damage. Unlike other Powerful, but Inaccurate moves such as Thunder or Blizzard, there's also no way to make it guaranteed to hit outside of generic boosts to accuracy. Focus Blast has the Fan Nickname of "Focus Miss" for a reason, as it's a necessary coverage move for many Pokémon, but is infamous for missing at the worst time possible.
    • Ever since its introduction, Hail has been a joke competitively. It took all the worst aspects of Sand (lack of a boost to offense) and Sun (setters having bad defensive typings, in this case Fire versus Ice) and somehow made it worse. Having no Pokémon with a speed-doubling ability until Gen 7 (and not having a decent one until Gen 8 with the introduction of Arctozolt with its STAB Ice / Electric coverage that include its Secret Art Bolt Beak that nukes any non-Ground type switch in if it goes first under Hail), and have no other types beside Ice to synergize with their weather (Sun has Grass Chlorophyll abusers, Rain has Electric- and Flying-type to spam their strongest normally low-accuracy moves Thunder and Hurricane respectively, and Sand has Steel and Ground not taking the chip damage as well as Sand Rush abusers). It wasn't until the introduction of Aurora Veil and a setter with great Speed (Alolan Ninetails) in Gen 7 that the weather finally became somewhat viable as a strategy. Gen 9 revamped Hail completely and replaced it with Snow, which removes the damage over time effect but boosts the Defense of Ice types by 50%.
    • Pokemon has introduced several moves intended for Double or Triple Battles, and some of them are too specific to be worth using. The most notable example of it is Magnetic Flux which raises the defensive stats of the user and ally, but only if they have Plus and Minus as their ability. Players are better off using Reflect, Light Screen, or Aurora Veil that don't require the aforementioned abilities to work. In a similar vein, Gear Up requires Plus or Minus to activate, but increases their offenses stats.
    • Frisk is commonly considered one of the worst abilities in the game that isn't outright detrimental, like Truant or Slow Start. Its effect is to reveal the item of the opposing Pokémon when you switch in — in-game, few foes hold items, and in competitive, most Pokémon don't have too many viable item choices, so guessing what a given enemy Pokémon will have usually isn't too hard. Frisk doesn't have any benefits outside of this, so if you already knew or guessed the opponent's item, your Pokémon may as well just not have an ability at all.
    • Anticipation is a similarly useless ability with an incredibly underwhelming effect: it causes your Pokémon to shudder in fear when an opponent has a super-effective or One-Hit KO move. If you know the type chart and the moves Pokémon commonly carry, it's not hard to tell when an opponent will have a super-effective move without the help of this ability, and One-Hit KO moves are banned in many formats and incredibly impractical in general.
  • Self-Fanservice: Happens incredibly often, most notably to the main Pokégirls of whatever season that's airing. It's absolutely not unusual to see them aged-up and in skimpier outfits, be they canon like Misty's swimsuits for example or a completely new fan-designed outfit. This also extends to other notable female characters in the anime and the games, and the occasional male character, and the more humanoid Pokémon.
  • Sequelitis: Many longtime Pokémon fans feel the games started to decline with Pokémon X and Y and the franchise's Video Game 3D Leap, which came with smaller and more linear regions, a general drop in difficulty, less Post-End Game Content of worth, mechanics introduced in one game only to be abandoned by the next, the removal of the National Dex (and, eventually, the exclusion of entire Pokémon species), the games charging you extra money to allow you to transfer your old Pokémon to the new games, and most infamously, the games lacking polish and suffering from a plethora of bugs and glitches.note  Notably, around this time the gaps between releases grew smaller, with at least one new game getting pumped out every year, and many fans feel that the series has suffered from decreased ambition in favor of increased profits. This sentiment seems to be stronger in the West than in Japan, where the games continue to be strongly received and Pokémon Sword and Shield received Famitsu's Game of the Year award for 2019.
  • Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer
    • The Game Corners are minigame hubs which, in early generations, include slot machines, and in later generations contain randomized puzzle minigames. It is very easy to get distracted by them.
    • Pokémon Contests and the Pokéathlon have this effect as well. Since both pull different kinds of stats from the Pokémon and have different methods of gameplay than the usual battle, you can easily find yourself partaking in them for hours once you get the hang of it.
    • Pokéstar Studios is most definitely this. Here the player partakes in mock battles to create movies.
    • A lot of time can be squandered in Pokémon-Amie trying to get the highest ranks, and therefore, best Poké Puffs in the minigames.
    • Mantine Surfing in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is not only a fun minigame in itself, but also a nice and quick way of earning BP to teach moves to Pokémon and buy items.
  • Squick:
    • The spiral on Poliwag's stomach? That's meant to be Poliwag's innards as seen through the translucent skin on its belly. In fairness, this is true of tadpoles in general.
    • One of the eggs of each Exeggcute has a piece of their shell missing, exposing their "yolk". In other words, you can see their insides...
      • Despite resembling eggs, they are more characteristic of plant seeds or coconuts, but still.
    • Beautifly and Gorebyss' method of feeding is sucking out their prey's bodily fluids. Leaving them a dried, dead husk. Oh, and Gorebyss's pink colour becomes more vivid once it's finished.
    • Lick, the only standard Ghost type move from the first generation, can cause Paralysis. The anime deliberately interpreted the attack through this trope (Ash's Charmander does not like it, for certain, and when Conway's Lickilicky in the Sinnoh League uses the attack by rubbing Ash's Gible from head to toe with its tongue, every human watching the match reacts in disgust). Later Pokédex data for Haunter actually reveals the attack is a form of Vampiric Draining, causing the opponent to shiver until it dies.
  • "Stop Having Fun" Guys: Some competitive players mock people who play with their favorite monsters and insist that the series isn't for kids. Though this seems to be more a product of G.I.F.T than anything, as most prominent members of the competitive community, such as most Pokétubers and contributing members of Smogon, actually applaud players who make use of lesser-seen Pokémon and often try to do so themselves (though they can be less receptive if they believe said players are using such Pokémon poorly). After all, the alternative is seeing the same dozen or so Pokémon over and over again.
  • That One Attack: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • That One Boss: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • That One Level: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Theme Pairing:
    • Pokémon Sword and Shield: It's quite popular to ship Scorbunny with Buneary (as well as Raboot/Cinderace with Lopunny), due to both lines being based on bunnies coupled with their masculine and feminine designs respectively (especially the latter pair). While the Buneary line isn't compatible with the base game of Sword and Shield, they do show up in the Isle of Armor. Wooloo gets shipped with Mareep and Cottonee, as they're both based on sheep. Unfortunately, Mareep isn't available in this game.
    • On the human side of things, it's common to see Allister getting shipped with Acerola (from Pokémon Sun and Moon) since they are both young children who specialize in Ghost-type Pokémon, as well as both of them having a Mimikyu (Allister in-game, Acerola in the anime).
    • Jasmine (Pokémon Gold and Silver) is a Steel-type leader from Johto, while Volkner (Pokémon Diamond and Pearl) is an Electric-type leader from Sinnoh. Their ship is strangely popular and the only connection that can link them is that Jasmine's Magnemite are part-Electric and that both are Gym Leaders in cities that have lighthouses.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • You won't be too hard pressed to find people who stubbornly claim that there are only 151 Pokémon, or that Gold/Silver/Crystal were the only good sequels, or that Generation III was very poor (FireRed and LeafGreen notwithstanding). In fact, the GBA generation has probably gotten the worst of it, due to the inability to trade and battle with games from the prior two generations.
    • At the time of each new generation, you would always hear complaints about "something" that the newest generation brought to the Franchise. Examples being:
      • Generation II's introduction of the two new types, Dark and Steel, ruining the original type set-up.
      • Generation III's introduction of abilities being needless tweaks to people's favorite Pokémon. Starting the tradition of staying to one region instead of following the Gold and Silver example of being able to return to previous regions received a ton of backlash in particular.
      • Generation IV's Physical/Special split causing overused Pokémon to lose some of their offensive power in certain situations that they would win most of the time prior to the split. There was also the "kid-friendly" Voltorb Flip replacing the Game Corners in HeartGold and SoulSilver outside the Japanese versions of the games.
      • Generation V's larger focus on story and dismissal of or reduced emphasis on classic Pokémon has divided some players.
      • Generation VI's removal of experience dividing (meaning any Pokémon sent out in battle gets the full EXP) and full-party Exp. Share, which can remove a large chunk of difficulty from the game. Also, massive game changers such as the Fairy type and Mega Evolution.
      • Much like Generation V, Generation VII's focus on story and constant cutscenes have divided some players. There is also either the removal or downplaying of many of Generation VI's mechanics, which split many fans.
      • Generation VIII has completely removed Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, alongside the complete removal of some Pokémon and moves, which has upset a lot of fans. There's also the replacing of the third game with expansion packs, which has divided the fanbase.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Gold and Silver's end-game, which allowed the player to return to the past generation's region and actually extending the previous generation's timeline. A lot of players believe that this was a great way to extend Pokémon's end-game, yet these were the only games to include such a feature (aside from the remakes, obviously).
    • Black 2 and White 2 have confirmed that shapeshifter Pokémon can take on human form and communicate with humans, in which a backpacker NPC says a few lines, gives you the TM Snarl, then transforms into a Zoroark and runs off. If this was a common thing, for Dittos, Zorua/Zoroark and even freaking Mew to be in human disguise, only giving off vague hints. That is a plot thread too awesome to not use. Many fans love to think that N is actually this, but unless Game Freak states it as canon, it doesn't count.
    • X and Y left a lot of fans curious about the mystery behind Zygarde, the apparent third counterpart to version mascots Xerneas and Yveltal. Then Generation VI ended abruptly before Kalos could get a traditional third version or paired sequels like Unova, and while Sun and Moon did give Zygarde some new forms, its sidequest was ultimately disconnected from everything else in the games and barely had any plot to speak of. It seems the green dragon has been left high and dry by Game Freak.
    • A lot of Mythical Pokémon, being Dummied Out for years before their official reveal and (usually) impossible to get in normal gameplay, wind up getting almost no focus in their debut games. The biggest examples of this may be Genesect, who only gets a minor event where it gets two Drives (of four) despite being the creation of Team Plasma, and Arceus, who despite being the Pokémon equivalent to God plays no role in the Sinnoh games' plot beyond vague allusions to it in backstory. The Azure Flute used to fight and capture it wasn't even officially released!
    • While the Regional Variants in Gens VII and VIII are not really underused, there is a sort of minor missed opportunity to use the Gastrodon family as the perfect poster boys for the mechanic. Gen IV establishes the family as being so prone to genetically diverging that even ones from opposite ends of Sinnoh look very different from each other, but the ones that can be found in the wild in both Alola and Galar are exactly the same as the ones from eastern Sinnoh, without even aesthetic changes. The fact that the nudibranchs they're based on really do come in a huge variety that can look wildly-different from each other makes the family's entire concept seemingly being abandoned stand out even more.

    U-W 
  • Ugly Cute: Hydreigon arguably always has had some shades of this, but it's made more evident in Gates to Infinity, where it's a kind hero with a quirky personality and made completely undeniable with how adorably it behaves in Pokémon Amie in X/Y. It's hard to see it as a raging beast of mass destruction when it's beaming at you and doing happy dances, and also makes one question the accuracy of its Pokédex entries.
    • Several Pokémon fit into this: Feebas, Stunfisk, Skrelp, Mareanie...
    • A case could be made that every Pokémon that's not conventionally cute is at least somewhat Ugly Cute (or Creepy Cute).
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Many Pokémon, such as Kantoian Mr. Mime, Jynx, etc., due to being designed as off-putting humanoids.
  • Underused Game Mechanic: Double battles. They were introduced in Gen III as a selling point of the new games, but are rarely ever used outside of a few token battles in the main games. The only games that put a major emphasis on Double Battles are Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon XD, and to a lesser extent, Pokémon Emerald, which are all in the debut generation of Doubles. This wouldn't be so bad if official VGC tournaments weren't entirely conducted based on Doubles. In other words, the single-player campaign of most Pokémon games do almost nothing to prepare players for a crucial part of tournament play.
  • Unfortunate Character Design:
    • Quite a few Pokémon have a suggestive tuft of fur/feathers between their legs, like Blaziken, Reshiram and Beartic. White Kyurem gets a few of Reshiram's characteristics... but not that suspicious placing of fur.
    • Not to mention what the Internet has done with Cloyster. Though this was unavoidable considering oysters have been considered yonic symbols since ancient times.
    • Palkia's phallic design from the shoulders up.
    • Combusken's torso, head, and thighs together look like a different kind of pecker than the designers probably intended.
    • And the issue of Onix being a "rock snake".
    • The African American character Lenora sparked controversy with her apron (which links to her being a mammy), so the Japanese designers re-designed her without the apron.
  • Unpopular Popular Character:
    • Magikarp: since it has horrible stats and can learn only four moves outside of events, it is systematically perceived by in-game trainers as useless, and even its Pokédex profile describes it as "virtually useless". In Real Life, on the other hand, everyone knows it evolves into the much more badass and useful Gyarados, so it ended up being the opposite of this trope for fans and the Trope Namer for Magikarp Power. This had the side effect of giving the impression that nearly any Pokémon based on a fish is bound to be awful, even when it isn't the case (most of the time anyway).
    • Absol is despised in-universe for being a Dark type that allegedly starts disasters, but has quite a hefty fanbase for its Panthera Awesome design.
    • In-universe, Pyukumuku is viewed as an ugly nuisance by tourists, to the point where chucking them back into the sea is a common part-time job in Alola. Players beg to differ, finding the sea cucumber utterly adorable.
  • Values Dissonance:
    • Western fans often clamor for a "Light" type, mainly as a countertype to Dark. What many don't understand is that Dark itself is known in Japan as "Evil", with Fighting being already the "heroic" type, in reference to samurai and the code they followed, to counter it, and Psychic and Fairy to embody anything that could be considered "holy" (as opposed to "good"). Some argue still that a Light type would be strong against Poison (one of Fairy's weaknesses), by way of purification (something Shaymin is known for, despite embodying another Poison-susceptible element), and would be more likely associated with the sun than the moon, while others wonder what a Pokemon equivalent to, say, Angemon, who isn't exactly a fairy or a psychic, would benote .
    • The Bug-type being super-effective against Dark also makes little sense to a Westerner, where bugs are often met with fear and revulsion. However, in Japan, bugs are considered super-heroic, and the Dark type is known as the Evil type in Japan.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Has a dedicated subpage.
  • Viewer Name Confusion:
    • Ash's name is often assumed to be a shortened version of another name, such as Ashton or Ashura. His canon name is just "Ash".
    • It's "Ninetales", not "Ninetails". Less often, but still common, fans will misspell Gastly as "Ghastly" and Victreebel as "Victreebell".
    • Pidgeot's Japanese name has been officially Romanized as "Pigeot" and "Pijotto".
    • Thanks to the title of an episode, many fans think Misty's surname is "Waterflower". Misty has no canon surname.
    • It's Pokémon Tower, not "Lavender Tower".
    • Some fans accidentally switch up the names of Sky Pillar, Rayquaza's abode in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire; and Sky Tower, the final main story dungeon of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team, which also houses Rayquaza.
  • Viewer Pronunciation Confusion: The main series of handheld games isn't voiced, so you generally have to wait until a Pokémon appears in the anime to get the official pronunciation (usually intuitive enough, but not always — Arceus goes against the usual conventions for when a C should be soft and when it should be hard, and logically, Blastoise should be pronounced "blastus" since it's a combination of "blast" and "tortoise"note  and not "blastoyse", though that one depends on your accent). Then there are the console games (the Pokémon Stadium series, etc.), which... don't always follow the official pronunciations faithfully.
  • Vocal Minority:
    • Within the Pokémon fandom, the anime tends to attract a small, but extremely vocal faction that dismisses the show as "kiddy" and praises the games as being "mature" relative to the anime; in some cases, even the anime-based elements in Super Smash Bros. and Pokkén Tournament can be a Berserk Button for them. The same faction treats Pikachu in a similar way, since it's a Kid-Appeal Character and most of its prominence and its Spotlight-Stealing Squad tendencies come from the anime. While a decent chunk of the older fanbase still dislikes the anime, the proportion of fans who don't seem to mind it or its influence on the rest of the franchise seems to be a bit bigger and much more silent about it, especially over time where the anime's overall effort and ambition seemed to increase (despite still having some controversial moments). These older fans might even regard the first few seasons with some degree of fondness.
    • Within the games themselves, you'll find plenty of complaints about the post games of Gens VI, VII, and VIII being "too short" or lacking in extensive battle facilities that Generation III, IV and V had. What isn't mentioned is that Game Freak has noticed that most fans don't even participate in them since they're often far too difficult for most of the player base to even attempt, and to do well, you'll need to understand the ins-and-outs of game mechanics that the game doesn't mention at all. This all indicates that those who actively complete these areas are unfortunately a minority of players. Generations VI, VII, and VIII in fact, got more sales and mainstream recognition than the previous few generations, indicating that ultimately the changes made in them resulted in wider overall appeal and all but confirming said fans as a Vocal Minority.
  • Woolseyism:
    • Many Pokémon and NPC names are portmanteaus or puns, and the translators took time to create a portmanteau or pun when translating from one language to another.
    • Renaming the Evil type to Dark type may count as this, especially considering the black colour of nearly all the Dark Pokémon. It also makes a bit more sense thematically in that most Pokémon of the type are morally examples of Dark Is Not Evil anyway.
    • The Champion Ribbon is known as Hoenn Champ Ribbon in Japanese games. Except it's awarded for either Hall of Fame existing then. Fixed with the description in Gen IV as it states "in another region". Sinnoh doesn't have that problem, as Johto has a separate ribbon for the True Final Boss.
    • The "pokédollar", the in-game currency used, is actually based off of Yen, and was invented for the English script. Because many people were not familiar with how Yen pricing works, it was easier to just make up a fantastical currency instead of translating it into Yen, and "Dollar" is the currency in many English speaking countries (America, Australia, Canada). As a result, inserting a decimal point after the last two digits makes the numbers sound much more reasonable.
    • Elite Four is such a fitting translation for Shitennounote  that it carried over to this very wiki.

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