>>16265834They really weren't.
I stopped watching the anime because it was unbearable trash. I tried Origins thinking "oh, maybe with this modern reboot of definite length they'll be more willing to not have incomparably moronic trainers that must consider it a small miracle when they manage to tie their shoes every day".
I was wrong.
What the fucking hell, literally everyone was a dumbfuck. And the show makes the stupidest, most meaningless references to the games. Like, they go to the trouble of having ACTUAL HP BARS IN THE GYM BATTLES, as if HP was a real thing and not just a placeholder for "sustained injuries" or whatever... But then Giovanni, The Ground Type Trainer Who Trains Ground Types At His Ground Gym, mocks Red for bringing a Charizard, which is fully immune to ground-type attacks, as if it was the dumbest fucking move ever.
You've got Team Rocket portrayed as villains for going into the wild and catching Pokemon in nets while the good guys use Pokeballs to do the same thing, Blue Oak congratulating himself like a smug villain when he concocts his nefarious plan to save Mr. Fuji (as if it was SUCH A DICK MOVE, lol take that Red!), etc
It's the same as the original anime. The characters are mind-bogglingly stupid because it's the only way the writers care to push the story along. It doesn't have to be an excuse to make Ash "learn something" after eleventy-three seasons of battling, they manage to make every human character into an expositional dialogue box in their retelling of a game literally everyone played.
There's a reason James Bond didn't spend an hour losing hands in Casino Royale while the other players walked him through the basics of Two Pair beating One Pair, and that's because it's bad fucking writing.
Fuck Origins, what wasted potential.
