YMMV / Pokémon The 'Bridged Series

• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Pretty much everything Pikachu, Brock and Ash say or do. Especially Brock.
  • Officer Jenny also counts, seeing as she openly acts like a child predator while also carrying a police badge.
• Designated Hero:
  • Ash is incredibly incompetent and doesn't actually do anything helpful, often causing destruction without getting called out for it by anyone except Misty. Though, up until Episode 24, he could have at least been seen as being ignorant to the consequences of his actions.
  • Brock, although he's meant to bounce off of Ash's antics, is mostly just a borderline creepy stranger who is a little too into his hobby of breeding. Not only that but he often has very little regard for the companions he travels with (especially Misty), and often resorts to borderline illegal activities (such as abduction) behind the scenes.
• Designated Monkey: Misty was intended to be the overbearing, protective teammate that gets on everyone's nerves due to her constant nagging, but ends up being one of the most sympathetic characters in the series due to how brutally mistreated she gets by those around her. Not only do Ash and Brock's horrible behavior and gaslighting take a toll on her mental health (to the brink of insanity at one point), but her family effectively disowned her due to wanting to raise fire-type Pokemon instead of water-types.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • After the accusations of emotional abuse and manipulation by 1KidsEntertainment and the confirmation of such being cited as the reason for his retirement, a vast majority of moments in the show, especially the abuse towards Misty, becomes a lot more difficult to swallow.
  • The Episode 7 "Derub", in which the three main voice actors trade roles and 1Kids takes on the lines of Extreme Omnisexual Brock, become almost terrifying.
  • As the LGBTQ community flourished over the years, episode 9 in particular becomes exceedingly more difficult to watch, especially with the use of a derogatory word in the end credits.^note An addendum was added to the video description of this episode years later acknowledging the use of such language and was made clear that it no longer represents their current views.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Vaporeon is basically treated as a Butt-Monkey in Episode 19 (even its owner doesn't want it!) Two years later, Vaporeon is one of the absolute best Pokemon in Pokémon GO (at least before the first patch.)
  • Misty is ostracized by her family for her interest in fire types. In Twitch Plays Pokémon HeartGold, the Gym Leader types are randomized and Misty gets Fire type.
  • It's fairly common in this series for characters to incoherently shout or be be reduced to blabbering out single-word sentences in exasperation like "Wonder. Pokemon. Is!" Many years later in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, an actual canon character (Nemona) gets in on the fun when you try to avoid But Thou Must! too many times.
• Jerkass Woobie: Arguably, all the main characters count.
  • Ash has an incredibly abusive mother who kicked him out when he was ten years old.
  • Misty's family disowned her because she liked fire type Pokemon. Not to mention the fact that Ash and Brock annoy her endlessly and that nobody ever listens to her. Like, ever.
  • Brock's father also disowned him due to his obsession with breeding.
  • Pikachu is the second most frequent victim (after Misty) of Ash's utter stupidity.
  • Tracey grew up in a nudist colony that was woefully unprepared for their first ever recorded snowfall, and every single member of his village died except for him (including his parents, who passed away right in front of him). It eventually led him to make a deal with the devil (i.e. wear clothes) in order to survive.
  • The ending to episode 24 seems to imply that Keith and his Farfetch'd are homeless and starving, hence why they steal and eat other people's Pokemon.
  Keith: Those Goldeen crackers sure were good! Now for the main course: Horsea Raddish! Haaa...(meekly) I miss pizza...
• Les Yay: Sabrina's very pleased when Misty yells that she hates boys.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • During the Orange Islands Special, Brock possibly crosses it either for breeding Satan, which happened without Satan's permission, as Brock explicitly stated he "doesn't like sharing the power with another Satan", or for planning to breed Satan yet again had he not been kicked out of Hell, knowing full well that the previous Satan he created is likely fighting to the death to see who gets to rule the Underworld, so creating another Satan would just cause more violence.
  • In Episode 24, Ash crosses it when he deliberately loses all of Misty's Pokemon to Keith, knowing full well that he intends to eat them, all because Misty caught the Pokemon he wanted. Even Brock, who normally tolerates Ash's actions, is disturbed by what he did.
• Retroactive Recognition: In Episode 24, Keith the Pokémon thief is voiced by Kellen Goff.
• The Scrappy:
  • Barbara for her absolutely annoying voice. She is also considered this In-Universe by Misty. This is Lampshaded when the team released an "improved" version of that episode in which all Barbara's lines were replaced by silence.
  • Parodied in Episode 15: the canon version of Max is considered this by a good portion of the fandom, so everyone in the episode (except Misty and Tracey) treats him with disdain.
• The Woobie:
  • Misty throughout most of the show's run endures several different cases of abuse, mostly by the hands of Ash and Brock, including (but not limited to) verbal assault, visual trauma, gaslighting, and even just flat out abduction.
  • Mikey from Ep 19. After Eevee Headbutts Team Rocket out of the way, Mikey chooses to keep Eevee like it is. Later that night, Eevee accidentally evolves into Umbreon, and Mikey's hair and pants were forcibly altered accordingly by his three Jerkass brothers. The pants won many awards, but Mikey is so fed up with their shit that he outright murders all three of them.