>>53425318I feel like people are just looking back on XY with context on how it ended and what came after, rather than objectively looking at it for what it was as it was airing, much of it being owed to being a very welcome breath of fresh air after Best Wishes. The animation was improved and looked fucking incredible when compared to anything that came before it even when counting the movies for some shots. Ash actually training his team and teaching them specific tricks for dealing with each new gym was also cool to see and brought back memories of the best moments of DP. Say what you will about Serena now, but her being established as an old childhood friend and potential canon love interest beyond the delusional fantasies of shippers on the internet instantly made her the most interesting girl companion character since Misty right out the gate, and while much of her character development ended up cliche, it was more development than both May and Dawn had received during their runs. Clemont and Bonnie were also fun brother/sister sidekicks. Not only was Bonnie a more fun and sympathetic character than Max for comparison, Clemont was also a bro character to Ash in a similar vein to Brock although with a different flair. Them being on the squad also gave us one of the best gym battles. Ash also got a pretty cool regional team of Pokemon, with the only real disappointment being Goodra, only because it seems the writers thought it grew too strong too fast or something and gave it the axe right away.
I could go on about several other things like individual story arcs and recurring side characters and whatnot, but my point is that XY had many exciting things going for it during its airtime, and while it might've failed to live up to the fans' most lofty expectations, it at least managed to get us excited for what was to come next right until the very end. I think it at least shows that XY had more substance to it than whatever they're doing with MPM.
