I don't understand why this debate exists.
The people who say ray QWAH zuh argue that it's how it SHOULD be pronounced.
The people who say ray QUAY zuh argue that it's how it IS pronounced in official media.
You can say it however you want, but neither of these arguments is going to convince anyone who's already rejected it in favor of the other. Everyone who's arguing QWAH is *aware* that the official pronunciation is QUAY. Everyone who's arguing QUAY is *aware* that you think it looks more like QWAH. There's no use restating those two arguments a thousand times over because they're clearly not changing anyone's minds.
That said, if anyone actually IS open to changing and not just posting here to say "I, too, am aware of the official pronunciation and choose to reject it" like everyone already has, I might as well weigh in, hopefully with comparisons that other people haven't raised that might actually make a difference instead of pitting the same two facts over and over and expecting a change.
Honestly, it's pretty stupid to argue "the word as it is written in English looks like it should be said this way, so I will reject the actual pronunciation in favor of how it looks." Have none of you realized that English is not a consistent language when it comes to pronunciation? Heck, it's easy to argue ray QUAZZ uh - pronounced like JAZZ - because we have "plaza." But nobody is going to argue that because it's freaking stupid and sounds awful.
Heck, "dove" (verb) and "dove" (noun) look EXACTLY the same and aren't pronounced with the same vowel sound - it's not even surrounding letters that decide it. It's stupid to try to judge by what the word looks like when we have official confirmation otherwise, which is exactly the kind of precedent you use for most of the words in your own language. It's exactly as bizarre to reject the real pronunciation of Rayquaza in favor of what it "looks like" as it is to reject the real pronunciation of "snow" because it looks like "now."
