>>56148828>Johto is the least memorable..........is too linked to Kanto, losing its identityFor the sake of good discussion, I'd like to politely disagree on that regard.
I get where you're coming from, it's true a lot of what happens in Johto feels like it's been conditioned by Kanto and the fact is canonically set 2 years after Team Rocket were defeated. For the most part you spend the majority of the campaign fighting the literal remnants of an enemy someone else already beat before you.
But I'd argue Johto's strongest and most memorable points is in small, concrete moments, rather than the region or the plot as a whole package. I feel like the Bellsprout Tower, Ecruteak and its lore, Lance nearly murdering a rocket with his Dragonite, the implementation of the apricorn balls, the slowpoke sideplot, Lake of Rage gyarados and the Rocket takeover... etc, were all not just moments that people still talk about today, but things that even went to influence the direction of the series as it kept "refining the formula" for the next gens. Hell, it was in Johto where legendaries became actual active entities of their region and not just an unknown animal sitting in the middle of a cave.
And then there's Silver, for whom you could argue he represents, for the majority of the fandom, the ideal rival that's been missing from pokemon games for a long time now.
By the way, I agree with your point about gen5. They're not my favorite either but I really appreciate them for their overall polish and quality. I only wish the second half of BW didn't feel rushed and actually finished developing the rivals' personal arcs, rather than just dropping them altogether and forcefully shifting the focus to the Team Plasma plot. I really like Bianca and Cheren as rivals.
