Pokémon the Series: XY / YMMV

Accidental Innuendo: Serena wearing Ash's clothes. Where Serena's clothes went is never shown, leading it to either be a case of Dressed in Layers, or she changed into them while in Ash's tent.
Ass Pull: Part of the vitriol toward Greninja's infamous release comes from the ridiculous circumstances as to why it needed to leave, with The Reveal that the Team Flare's evil vines had somehow survived Zygarde's attack and that Greninja (and only Greninja) had the power to track them down. Very few fans buy into this explanation due to how absurdly it contradicts the lore for both Greninja and Zygarde's abilities, and as a result often come out feeling more frustrated than moved by its farewell to Ash.
Base-Breaking Character: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
Broken Base: See here.
Character Rerailment: After Best Wishes derailed Ash back into how he was during Kanto, causing him to take a serious drop in competence and I.Q, X and Y brings him back much closer to how he was at the end of Diamond and Pearl.
Critical Backlash: After the huge backlash stirred up by Ash's loss at the Kalos League, some fans who saw it as a Foregone Conclusion were confused by the amount of vitriol it stirred up and found it ridiculous that some people claimed it retroactively ruined the whole Kalos series.
Common Knowledge: In fan discussions, many criticize Serena for being mad at Ash and throwing snowballs at him after he was feeling depressed that he lost his first battle with Wulfric, and claim the series depicted her as completely right for doing that. However, it is not that simple. Serena actually did try to console Ash at first, and while he initially apologized for staying away from the rest of the group, he coldly tells her to leave him alone after she brings up his defeat, as he was frustrated about his inability to master the Bond form with Greninja, not him losing and thus assumed she couldn't understand, and after that is when she became angry and tells him that she doesn't recognize him, implying that him pushing her away after staying away from the group is what made her angry. She later even tells Clemont she regretted lashing out at him the way she did, so even the series does not portray her actions as 100% positive, so the series tried depicting both as having fault.
Even Better Sequel: While technically the same series, the XYZ season arc of the XY series was an improvement over the previous two years of the series in terms of momentum of an ongoing Story Arc and paying off elements that were getting slowly built up before, with the writers going out of their way to also avoid the pratfalls of the third year of Best Wishes: Season Two.
Fandom Rivalry: Fans of XY and fans of Sun and Moon are rather infamous for their lasting rivalry. The former loves the more serious storyline, the close-knit group dynamic, the emphasis on growth and getting stronger, and Ash's portrayal as a competent Action Hero. The latter prefers the greater emphasis on comedy, the many surprisingly heartfelt stories, the change of pace brought about by the Slice of Life setting, and the bouncy dynamic between the kids. Arguments have been fairly intense ever since Sun and Moon first started, but they really heated up when Ash won the Alola League; fans of Sun and Moon began to mock and intentionally provoke fans of XY over this, while XY fans in turn mock the Alola League and downplay Ash's status as its Champion. Both fanbases are known for their tendency to Accentuate the Negative when criticizing the flaws of the other.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This series is far more beloved by the Periphery Demographic overseas than among its target demographic in its native Japan, where it suffered a steep decline in viewership interest during its second year and plummeted to new lows for the anime in its third year.
Harsher in Hindsight: During the penultimate episode of XY, Olympia predicts that Kalos will be facing a great crisis. She's actually referring to the events of XYZ, but one real life month later, Paris was struck with terrorist attacks.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: In the first episode of the series, Ash sees Clemont and Bonnie's bond and says he doesn't have any brothers or sisters. In a future episode, Ash is considered by Professor Kukui and Professor Burnett to be the big brother of their child, Lei.
Hype Backlash: While generally considered a more stable and popular series than its predecessor, XY still has some contension in parts of the fanbase for being hyped as the best series of the anime by others, with the former willing to point out some glaring flaws like reverting back to the overused formula which other later series downplayed, uneven character focus, lack of continuity with the other series, the occasional tendency to play Ash and other parts of the show a bit too seriously (losing some of the tongue-in-cheek humour the show is usually known for), and most infamously, wasting time shamelessly hyping up a potential league win that never actually happened. Most will still unanimously agree that XY has the most thought through layout of the post Diamond and Pearl series, though many argue whether this made it more entertaining compared to the more slapdash but inventive plots of Best Wishes and Sun and Moon.
Informed Wrongness: Grace was supposed to be wrong for pushing her daughter Serena to follower her footsteps as a racer. But it's made clear that Serena chose to try out Rhyhorn Racing, actually does have a talent for racing but doesn't enjoy doing it because it gets too rough for her, and indeed has a history of giving up on something she takes on the moment it starts getting too hard and requiring more extra effort from her. Grace thus seems insistent that Serena stick to racing because she knows that's something she's skilled at and pushes for her to put in more effort and work harder at it so that she can get better at it, which isn't an unreasonable thing for a mother to want for her child.
Memetic Psychopath: Serena. One of the most memetic depictions of her is nicknamed Yanderena. While this depiction is quite common among fans (from things like wanting to murder anyone who tries to get in Ash's pants), it exploded when a certain VA retired from voice acting. Said VA, Saori Hayashi, provided the voice for Miette/Millefeui, Serena's rival who knows about Serena's crush on Ash and teased her repeatedly to the point that she threatened her that if she doesn't make a move, she will steal Ash from Serena. This prompted an image of Yanderena superimposed against the news.
Moral Event Horizon: Lysandre crosses it when after Z2 was freed and his weapon dismantled, he opts for a contingency plan to have a Zygarde-shaped Megalith rock, powered by Mairin's infected Chespin (coldly subverting Lysandre's previous Pet the Dog moment where he agreed to look after it and keep it alive) act as his new weapon and have it eat up all the power of the Anistar Sundial so that it would unleash energy that would eradicate all life on the planet, and he's willing to do this solely out of spite and resentment for the world and the people who obstructed his genocidal plans.
Older Than They Think:
- Sawyer defeating Ash in Snowbelle City and bringing him to the brink at the Lumiose Conference was criticized by some of feeling rushed and not making sense since he was a beginner when first introduced. However, Ash in the original series, when in Sawyer's position, himself beat a lot of more experienced trainers, using a team far less powerful than the one Sawyer gained in this series. In fact, it was implied that many characters he lost battles to in previous series had recently started, such as Kenny in the 180th episode of Diamond and Pearl. It should also be noted that as Ash trains a new team every region he goes to, Sawyer's Pokemon were not actually that far behind the Pokemon Ash used against him in terms of individual experience.
- While the XYZ season is indeed the fastest-paced, most action-packed, and most dramatic season of the anime, it was not as big of a shift compared to what came before as some make it out to be. Starting with the third year of Diamond and Pearl with the Team Galactic getting a lot of focus and the rival Paul's personality getting fleshed out, every season (roughly corresponding to a year) of the series had become more and more action-packed and drama-filled, such as Black and White inserting mini-tournaments throughout the series when they were almost always at the end of the region before, XYZ was more of that trend getting to its peak then a sudden shift. It's likely very noticeable with XYZ because the following series, Sun and Moon, was significantly more chill than it.
Overshadowed by Controversy: Ash losing the region's league is nothing new nor is fan backlash, but the unprecedented appeal to older fans of XY, Ash unprecedented skill and maturity as a trainer along with his highly built and hyped up Ash-Greninja, and the episodes title and promotional materials along with other factors^Explanation all pointing to him finally winning. Ash's losing the Finals to Alain thus caused unprecedented backlash across both sides of the Pacific as invalidating everything praised about XY by having the seeming payoff of his win never happen and turned the previously well-liked Alain into a fandom pariah. Despite the immediately following Team Flare arc and rest of XY being seen as the best in The Series they're still mostly remembered by fans in terms of the debate if the Kalos League negated all their good or not. Ash won the next series League in what's seen as damage control and creator apology, but rather than forgive XY fans changed the issue to debating if his winning Kalos would have been better due to its better setup.
Pandering to the Base: The series was hit with accusations of this early into its run, as many of the creative choices relating to Ash, his Pokémon, his traveling companions, and Team Rocket appeared specifically made in response to the backlash to how these elements were handled in the prior Black and White series, to the point where it seemed things were back to how they were in the Diamond and Pearl series rather than an evolution taking both series' strengths and weaknesses into account. By around the point where Ash has his Gym battle against Clemont, these accusations faded as the show got into the groove of doing its own thing rather than simply emulating Diamond and Pearl.
Preemptive Shipping: While shipping Ash with the main female companion was nothing new, when information before the series revealed that Serena knew Ash from childhood, people already started shipping the two before they properly met. It only increased from there into one of the most popular and prominent ships in the entire series, if not franchise.
Signature Series Arc: The story arc for the third and final year, XYZ, for many good reasons (Zygarde, Ash-Greninja, the Master Class, Lysandre and Team Flare, the five-part "Save the World" Climax, etc.) and one not-so-good reason (Ash's notorious loss to Alain at the Kalos League).
Slow-Paced Beginning: Serena's character arc takes quite some time to take off, given that, unlike other female leads she didn't have a clear goal from the get go, and became a trainer mostly to get away from the Rhyhorn Racing her mother enforced upon her. A good deal of episodes at the beginning were spent on her trying different activities in order to find her calling, before she finally set on becoming a Pokemon Performer at almost precisely the full first year mark of the series. After that, she gets considerable focus and development at a much steadier pace.
Spoiled by the Format: You could see Ash's Kalos League defeat a mile away just from the fact that [the theme song already played in full for his fight with Sawyer, thus there'd be no way for it to repeat during the very next battle.
Strangled by the Red String: A complaint of Ash/Serena, which is completely unsubtle in its Ship Tease and originates in a Retcon to Ash's backstory (though in its defense, it is one-sided on Serena's part, as the retcon to Ash's past doesn't affect him at all).
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A dub example. While the dub swapping out the original music for its own was nothing new, the music for this series was generally considered a downgrade compared to the original Japanese version.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: See here.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: See here.
Unexpected Character: Clemont catching a Luxio was a huge surprise when it happened. Not only is it not a Gen VI catch, but the Shinx-line isn't even a part of the Kalos Pokédex in the games.
Values Dissonance:
- A common criticism of Showcases in the West is that only females doing them made it seem like men are not allowed to be performers nor do things that aren't related to battling with Pokemon in Kalos, especially as the activities didn't have anything that required someone to be female. However, it should be noted that Showcases are a parody of the Idol scene in Japan, where females and males are portrayed very differently, and in general, there are much fewer unisex activities in Japan than in the West. Because Showcases resemble female Idol singing since they are from the perspective of Serena, it would not make sense to the show's native Japanese viewers that males would be doing those so they were left out.
- The whole deal with censoring Serena's kiss. In Japan, displays of affection such as hugs and kisses are more encouraged to be done in private, with doing so in a public place like an airport being frowned on, or at least shocking. As such, this is a scene that would be avoided for potentially encouraging younger viewers.

YMMV / Pokémon the Series: XY

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