Pokémon Black and White/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Are Reshiram and Zekrom two separate entities that have come to despise each other because they are polar opposites never to meet, or do they long to turn back into the original dragon they were before and be together? The latter seems a fairly popular interpretation on Pixiv.
    • Was the entirety of Team Plasma sans Ghetsis truly Stupid Good Well Intentioned Extremists who thought they were doing the right thing à la N, or were some in on Ghetsis's true intentions and merely playing up the facade in order to gain brownie points from the guy when he finished his conquering? The Sages at the very least seem aware, since they slip up occasionally and refer to Ghetsis as their leader (followed by him correcting them that he's one of the Sages and supposedly no more powerful than the rest of them). Similarly, they hint that N's desire to fight the player is interfering with Ghetsis's plans. Then there's the fact that the Shadow Triad is loyal to Ghetsis even after he reveals the truth... Heck, the two grunts who kick the Munna early on hint that they were aware that Ghetsis was lying.
    • N is often subject to this, especially considering the fact that every time you fight him he has a new party of Pokémon, as well as the more vague aspects of his backstory.
    • Even gym leaders get this. Are Cilan, Chili, and Cress just innocent novice gym leaders or are they hiding something? Is Elesa really The Stoic or is she a poser due to being a Volkner fangirl? And while Skyla acts like a Nice Girl, the way she has you reach her in the gym implies she may actually be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing or at the very least a cruel prankster.
    • As hinted below under Anvilicious, Ghetsis may be a Take That towards the more competitive "Stop Having Fun!" Guys; he merely sees Pokémon as tools, and as for his poor treatment of N and other people in general, keep in mind that there are some people who prioritize their own virtual pet monsters over their friends and family in a similar way, though maybe not as much.
      • At most, the sequel shows him as being the living, breathing antithesis to the games' message - he's the guy who simply will not listen to or tolerate the ideals of others since he only thinks of himself, and he cannot be reasoned with, given his Redemption Rejection. Which could be Anvilicious or a case of Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped about how there are some people who are just intolerant assholes.
  • Americans Love Zekrom: While it's quite popular in Japan (but less so than Reshiram), it's easily the most popular of all Generation V Pokémon stateside, with a fanbase rivaling that of Mewtwo and Charizard. It's also responsible for White selling more English copies than Black.
  • Anticlimax Boss: Morimoto's team has levels on par with the League Champion. It also consists mostly of early-game Com Mons. It is possible to challenge him before your team is likely to be anywhere near as high-leveled as his own, but still ultimately for disappointing for what's the series' only Creator Cameo battle.
    • Also, the final battle with N. His legendary dragon can be easily defeated by your own due to Artificial Stupidity (it loves to use its signature move, which you're resistant to and can power up your own dragon's signature move as well), and most of his other Pokemon can be one-shotted with the proper type matchups. Of course, then you face the real Final Boss, who isn't nearly as much of a pushover...
  • Anvilicious/Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The message about trying to get along with people whose opinion differs from your own is dropped with all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer. However, considering this day and age, where people constantly hold grudges against others solely based on differing in views (i.e. political parties), it may be a pretty solid Aesop.
    • Some people really feel like since Karen didn't do a good enough job back in 2000, that N needed to be a lot more Anvilicious about the "Stop Having Fun!" Guys who only see Pokémon as tools.
  • Awesome Music: Opelucid City and Route 10, for starters. The Team Plasma battle theme generally rocks, too.
    • Cold Storage/Twist Mountain, the Surf theme, the Gym Leader theme (especially the Theme Music Power-Up when they're down to their last Pokemon), and the Champion battle theme as well.
    • And then there's N's theme...especially during the Final Battle.
    • Don't forget the Village Bridge theme, the first song in the entire series to have actual singing (besides DENNIS in Ghetsis' theme).
    • Unlike in other entries in the series, the Elite Four battle music is quite different than the gym leader theme. It's actually relatively slow and cerebral, which is a nice departure from most battle music, and fitting for the more intellectual Elite Four.
    • The ending song also counts as this.
  • Base Breaker: Cheren and Bianca in regards to whether or not they made effective rivals, and whether their character arcs contained well done progression and development of their characters and goals, or were just heavy handed and Wangst filled.
  • Breather Boss: If you just bring a decent Electric-type to fight Skyla, you've pretty much won. Almost everything in the cave just prior to fighting her will sweep her whole team with no effort at all, with the possible exception of Boldore, because it's weak to Water. Doesn't help that her main Pokemon is doubly weak to Electric.
    • Brycen's gym is based around the Ice type, the flat-out worst defensive type in the series, bar none. If your Pokemon are near the 35 that the gym expects of you, a properly-equipped team will demolish it all, Victini or no.
      • His signature Pokemon also has an extremely low base defense of 30 which puts it at risk of being knocked out even by Tackle. There is no way anyone programming this could have thought this guy would be a challenge.
      • Burgh is in between two gyms that are fairly difficult, but is easily taken care of. Likewise, Iris or Drayden is really almost too easy at that point in the game, as your Pokemon will easily be the same level and they only use 3. Their premier Pokemon's main attack also forces it to move last, which ignores its own Dragon Dance boosts and exacerbates its unimpressive hit-taking ability.
  • Broken Base: Totally expected, but some examples follow:
    • There are serious debates over the designs of the PCs, whether the starters are awesome or not, and even the animations of the sprites. Some people hate the idea of triple battles.
    • Likewise, the Unfortunate Implications of Lenora's appearance has created a rift between those that feel it's a stereotypical design and those that don't. Discussion on the matter has been (permanently) banned on the Bulbagarden forums.
    • Also, some don't like the fact that there are no Pokémon from the older generations in the Regional Dex, whereas some think that it is a refreshing idea.
    • There was a broken base the moment the first fifth generation Pokémon was revealed. Some were overjoyed to see new Pokémon at last, others grumbled that it should have ended back in the second generation and that Game Freak needs to end the franchise.
      • Mysteriously, now that there is a Generation V, what happened to the people who said this about Generation IV? They're nowhere to be found!
    • Even the names caused this -- some were happy to see the return to color names and admired the more simplistic nature of them, others thought they were boring and running out of ideas. Some even used this as proof that the fifth generation would be the worst thing to happen to the franchise.
      • The romanization for the starters and the region is causing no end of grief over on /vp/ (or /tr/, whichever you prefer). No doubt others are expressing hatred over this issue. For Pete's sake, people, they're just names!
    • On the competitive side of things, there has been a backlash over the fact that when battling via Wi-Fi or console link, the opponent's entire team (and their nicknames) are all revealed, without an option to turn this feature off (in the manner of Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD, and Pokémon Battle Revolution), as seen here. Some see it as a welcome addition to competitive tactics, and others believe that it will ruin the metagame forever. Also counts as an example of They Changed It, Now It Sucks.
    • Seasons. They're not real-time-based: Spring is in January, May, and September, summer is February, June, and October, fall is March, July, and November, and winter is in April, August, and December. You can go to places in some seasons that you can't reach in others. Some fans love the idea, but a lot of people aren't wild about seeing snow in August and the fact that you sometimes have to wait months to get certain places (well, you could tinker with the clock, ya know...)
      • Probably shouldn't tell those people that don't want to see snow in August about the southern hemisphere then...
      • There's also the whole, "...you're complaining about weather in a game where you can cause a sunny day in the middle of a building or call a rain/hail/sandstorm in the middle of a building?" aspect, too. If it was realistic, you'd have to tinker with the clock and set it all the way until December/whenever the game decides constitutes winter if you wanted to get an Ice type in the wild without having to go into Cold Storage.
    • The English names have created a divide in the fanbase too, especially since the region name got changed more dramatically than before.
    • Oshawott's family is Love It or Hate It, no point in between. Some people love him unconditionally, while there are people who think he has the stupidest character design and lamest evolutions ever.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Anyone who insists the story in this game is the same formula as any other Pokémon game has clearly not played it at all...and if they have they must have stopped before the fourth badge. Considering the videos about this game were all over the internet since the September before their international release, it's amazing how little research people have done.
  • Complete Monster: Ghetsis. His acts at the end of the game, plus his motives for exploiting N, strap him to a Garchomp for his full-speed flight across the Moral Event Horizon. He's a strong competitor for the biggest Complete Monster in the series, which is really saying something.
    • Where to begin? Ghetsis deliberately neglected N and raised him in confinement with Pokémon that had been abused by humans so that N would grow up to hate other humans and relate to Pokémon better than them. All of this was for the purpose of making N the "hero" who could control Reshiram/Zekrom for him so he could use it for his own goals. When defeated, he mocks N for this very reason and calls him a warped, defective boy incapable of understanding humans. So he's very much surpassed Cyrus in terms of horrific evil. At least Cyrus started out with good intentions and had an explanation for why he became the horrible person he became.
    • To drive it even further home, even fellow Complete Monsters like Darkrai and Purple Eyes are at least shown to never be able to cause harm to anyone else again. Ghetsis, however, is still around, and it's hinted in the back story that he's done far worse then we're shown to believe.
    • Something else that's horrifying about him is he states he actually enjoys the moment when someone crosses the Despair Event Horizon and have lost all hope. This man is a sadist who enjoys crushing people's spirits just to elevate himself.
    • To top it all off, he's The Devil. No, seriously. Read his entry there.
  • Counterpart Comparison: Ghetsis can be easily compared to Colonel Muska from Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Both characters are villains who are just straight up completely evil coming from people whose works tend to not feature such, both are Faux Affably Evil under the facade of being well meaning Nice Guys before revealing their True Colors later on, both are power-hungry Entitled Bastards who betray their own allies, Would Hurt a Child, and seek to Take Over the World, and both come from a royal lineage.
  • Crazy Awesome / Rule of Cool: Several Pokémon, especially some of the more audacious combinations, run on this. A buffalo with an afro, a jousting bug, a samurai otter/seal/sea lion, a mecha/golem ghost, a Henshin Hero, an eagle with the US color scheme, an ice cream cone, gangster crocodile, punk lizard, the three freaking musketeers, a trio of giant elemental dragons with aspects of Taoist and Norse mythology, a robotic insect with a laser on its back, a killer dinosaur-bird, and last but not least, a mummy Pokémon whose ability is the Pokémon equivalent of the zombie plague.
    • Within that group, Vanillite and its evolutions. And nevermind the fact they're a bunch of ice cream cones; the champion has one!
    • Not to mention the fact that they are the first Pokémon to be designed by a westerner, along with the American Robot.
    • Skyla's Gym, it´s in an airstrip and you have to be shot by cannons to moving around.
  • Demonic Spiders: The Patrat line. They learn Bide, Detect, Sand-Attack, Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Super Fang, and Crunch - moves which either annoy the heck out of your Pokémon or hurt a lot. And they're very common in the wild (especially Watchog). Worst of all, Team Plasma absolutely LOVE to use these things.
    • The first Watchog you'll be seeing is Lenora's, and it makes her battle a living hell for many players.
    • Swoobat is an example that's used by Trainers. If they're in the 25-35 range of levels, expect to fall victim to Attract, watch them boost their stats with Calm Mind, and proceed to flinch you time after time with Air Slash. Thankfully, it doesn't appear in the wild.
    • If you don't have a way of one-shotting them, preferably by a fighting move, Audino can be really hard and annoying to kill midgame, especially with weaker Pokemon. Attract spam, very good defensive stats, Refresh, STAB Doubleslap.
  • Die for Our Ship: Some N x Hilda shippers love to make Cheren and Hilbert Crazy Jealous Guys who may even go as far as to hurt N or Hilda. N x Hilbert fans sometimes cast Hilda as a Jerkass or too masculine for N or Hilbert. Hilbert x Hilda fans occasionally write N as a perverted creeper, outright excluding his sympathetic qualities.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: While N is certainly sympathetic and a well-written Hero Antagonist Anti-Villain who was a pawn of Ghetsis' plans, many fans treat him as if he's completely innocent and blameless, forgetting that he's a total man-child who tries to make you his friend regardless of whether or not you consent, he kicked Alder while he was down by bringing up his late friend and called him weak for being compassionate, and despite his best intentions, the nature of his plan was very diabolical. The way his Heel Face Turn was handled at the end made it look like he was being left off the hook too easily despite all the damage he had caused, which just makes it a little too hard for some people to swallow.
  • Ear Worm: Dream World players who go daily online to do activities there will, I repeat, WILL remember the damned happy-go-lucky themes. They're screwed if they don't mute the music in time.
  • 8.8: A strange variation- many fans complained over Famitsu giving it a perfect score, claiming that they've gone soft over the years and just are biased to the franchise. Keep in mind these complaints cropped up before the games were released anywhere.
    • And then Gamespot gives it a 7.5 while most other publications give it 8.0 plus. Cue the angry mob.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Snivy is by far the favorite of the starters and was the only one with a consistent Fan Nickname (Smugleaf is near-universal, and the only usual alternate, which ended up becoming the official name, Snivy, is similar in meaning: Snake/Snide/Ivy. Meanwhile, Oshawott was either Derpderp or Wotter, depending on your temperament, and Tepig had too many puns to pick from) and Braviary the American eagle.
    • Ghetsis, for being the most twisted, vile, hateful, cunning and downright evil villain in the series, according to some.
    • The Striaton triplets, Elesa, Skyla, Grimsley, and the Battle Subway masters all have fairly strong followings as well.
      • Don't forget the heartbreaker....his name...Charles....
    • There's also Scraggy and Scrafty. (He's hidin' in the wild. Snatchin' your poke's up...)
    • Chandelure, the Fire/Ghost chandelier Pokémon, seems to be universally loved.
      • With the exception of some people in the Metagame, who dread its appearance because it can be packing Shadow Tag and STAB Fire-moves for dealing with Forretress and Scizor. Then they go back to loving it because they can build it into their teams.
    • Have fun trying to find Japanese fan art that lacks Tympole.
    • Pretty much a given for Zoroark, since it shares many of the traits that made previous darkhorse Lucario popular, although it tends to be a bit more of a Base Breaker than Lucario, and hasn't attained Lucario's level of popularity.
    • Lest we forget the legendaries:
      • Zekrom, in spades. White is selling more copies than Black simply because fans seem to like Zekrom better than Reshiram; it may easily be the most popular of all the new Unova Pokémon (especially among the older male portion of the fanbase).
      • Genesect too, by way of Memetic Badassery and being called "DENNIS".
    • Golurk is basically a Humongous Mecha, which obviously brings it a bit of a following.
    • The fandom's reaction to Joltik can be described as such: D'AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Its evolution, Galvantula was voted the most popular new Pokémon by Official Nintendo Magazine readers.
    • A fake magazine scan showed a sad-looking, football-like Pokemon, also known as Sadfish. Even though it wasn't a real Pokemon, people were pretty bummed it didn't make it into the game.
    • Heatmor and Durant are surprisingly popular.
    • And let's not forget N, who is easily among the most popular Pokémon characters ever created due to his tragic backstory, his growing friendship with the player, and his good looks for the ones who like that sort of thing.
  • Epileptic Trees: Some have speculated that Cilan, Chili, and Cress are the Shadow Triad. Notice how the former are never seen with the latter. Chili and Cress also have some pretty ninja-like moves in that they can hide behind Cilan so well when you challenge them.
    • Some Japanese fan art speculates that the Shadow Triad were Tykebombs raised by Ghetsis alongside N, hence why they are so loyal to him and so cold.
    • It's revealed post-game by the Shadow Triad themselves that Ghetsis once saved the Shadow Triad's lives, which is why they're so loyal to him. How he saved them can lead to a lot more WMG.
    • Like with the Shadow Triad, nobody is really sure who--or what--Concordia and Anthea are. Are they truly goddesses? Are they related to N or Ghetsis at all? Are they figments of the protagonist's imagination?
      • Particularly, quite a few theories abound that Concordia may have some kind of relationship with Ghetsis or N, similar to the theories about Ariana being Silver's mother. As for Anthea, very few theorize her as little more than a handmaid to N.
    • Unrelated, but what is the truth to the legend behind the Abyssal Ruins? The facts that the characters change meaning after every floor and some phrases are read backwards mean that Game Freak do not want these messages to be deciphered easily.
  • Everything Is Racist: To be fair, a lot of this is tongue-in-cheek.
    • People are citing the fact that there are people of both black and white color in this game, and the fact that in White, the dark-skinned Iris is version-exclusive as a gym leader with the light-skinned Drayden in Black, as Unfortunate Implications somehow.
    • Especially when you consider that Iris is just Ambiguously Brown. (She might look Hispanic, but some think she's a stereotypical Chinese... or Southeast Asian.)
    • Jynx's Dream World Ability? Dry Skin.
    • The version exclusives may invoke this as well. Black version gets the cotton line, Smoochum-esque goth line, and the vulture with a bone through its hair. Meanwhile, White version gets a southern belle and American Eagle, but also the cellular reproduction Pokémon.
    • For a bit of a change: There are a couple of French-speaking trainers on Route 11 (during the postgame). One of them uses a Croagunk, a frog Pokémon.
      • It's worth mentioning that in the Japanese version, the Croagunk trainer speaks English.
  • Evil Is Cool: Despite Ghetsis being an irredeemable wreck of a human being, he is also a major Love to Hate character. His badass Pokémon team and battle theme also help.
    • This also applies to Hydreigon as a species. And Team Plasma. And N (kinda).
  • Evil Is Sexy: Believe it or not, Ghetsis. Sure he's utterly twisted and evil- but still good-looking.
  • Fan Dumb/God Never Said That: Rather egregious, if this article is any indication. Cue them linking back to the Fan Dumb page.
    • Pokémon Sunday reported that "No old characters like Oak will appear", which mutated and really got confusing when some Gen IV characters showed up in the games.
  • Fanon: Many Japanese fan artists interpret Hilbert and Hilda as siblings, sometimes even twins. It should be noted in-game that the character you don't choose treats the one you do like a new friend, but that hasn't stopped fans.
    • Many fans tend to exaggerate just how evil Ghetsis can be; yes, he's certifiably insane and did abuse and manipulate his adopted son for purely selfish reasons, but no, he's never been seen feeding anyone to his Hydreigon with sadistic glee or the like.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: The main character (both the girl and the boy) x N is already quite popular, as is shipping the player characters together, especially compared to past main character couples such as Red x Leaf, Ethan x Kris or Lyra, Brendan x May, and Lucas x Dawn. This may be due to the characters being older this time around, as well as both playable characters being pretty warmly received by the fandom for the first time in a while.
  • Fashion Victim Villain: Ghetsis. A collar made to look like the top of a castle tower? Seriously?
    • His robes were probably meant to keep with the yin-yang theme of the game, but he ends up looking like Wind Waker's Ganondorf walked through a paintball fight. The chunky red monocle, triangular hair fringes, and his hilariously skinny ankles on display just put the last nails in the design coffin. If he weren't such a Knight of Cerebus and a Complete Monster, nobody would've taken him seriously.
  • Fridge Brilliance: One of the themes discussed later in the game, is how Pokemon have destructive potential, and how they can be used as potent weapons. This generation certainly has some of the most powerful and destructive Pokemon, statistically.
  • Freud Was Right: Upon seeing Oshawott for the first time, some people mistook the seashell on its chest for a penis marking. (Long straight shape in the middle, rounded shapes on the sides.) Also, Reshiram sure chose a nice place to grow a wang - WING! I meant wing!
    • Beartic has a suspicious-looking patch of fur on its crotch area as well.
    • To be honest, a lot of Pokémon had that same or similar patch of fur on their crotch-area. Blaziken included.
    • Krookodile's big long nose. I swear, if I hear it one more time...[1]
    • Reshiram. One word: Feather-cock.
  • Foe Yay: As mentioned with Hilbert under Ho Yay, when Hilda is the main character, she goes on the Nimbasa City ferris wheel with decoy Big Bad N. Then there's his speech about Hilda continuing his dreams at the end.
  • Genius Bonus:
    • When you consider his obsession with formulas and equations, N is likely named for the fact that n is a commonly-used variable in mathematics.
    • Scolipede and its Japanese name Pendoraa are derived from Scolopendra, the scientific genus for centipedes.
    • Gigalith is known as the "Compressed" Pokemon. If you know your geology, you'll know that it is based off Metamorphic rock, rocks that have been compressed under extreme heat and pressure and are usually found along with crystals (explaining the crystals on it).
  • Goddamned Bats: Bide, Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Super Fang, Mean Look... Patrat and Watchog could single-handedly kill a Nuzlocke run.
    • Don't forget the Durant that appear so frequently on Victory Road, either. If you don't have a Fire-type to exploit their one weakness For Massive Damage, their high attack/defense powers and speed will cause you some serious trouble.
      • Not just fire type, any special attack can simply defeat Durant.
    • Tympole, at the entrance to Pinwheel Forest. They can be a real pain to fight, what with their high speed, ability to hit hard with Bubblebeam, and Supersonic.
  • Hate Dumb: There are people who refuse to buy the games based solely on the appearance of the new Pokémon.
    • There were also people who somehow "knew" the game sucked before it was out in Japan.
    • There are a lot of cries of "Expy" when many of them actually aren't really visual expies. Gameplay expies? Yes, there are always Gameplay expies. But visual Expies? Not entirely; we have many types that have never been seen before in the series.
    • There are also cries of "Expy" based solely on species, ignoring typing, purpose, appearance, or stats. For example, some fans compare Galvantula to Ariados, just because they're both really big spiders.
    • For some reason, the designs are "overly complex". What's wrong with a detailed design?
      • Some reasons used: too distracting; too clashing; too complex compared to Gen 1 and 2; too much random stuff; too much like Digimon. Though honestly, this is absolutely nothing new in the Pokémon fandom.
      • On the contrary, many complain they aren't complex enough and unoriginal. Though some are mature and honest about it, many who are saying this are the same people who complained about the previous generation being too complex in their designs.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In Pokémon Red and Blue, a female trainer in Rock Tunnel wished she could have a pink Pokémon with a floral pattern. Now, in Gen V, she's finally gotten her wish in the form of Munna! With the number of abandoned and eventually reused Pokémon designs, it could have been an injoke.
    • A scientist in Devon Corp. back in Ruby and Sapphire stated "I'm trying to develop a device that visually reproduces the dreams of POKÉMON... but it's not going well." Munna's evolution, Musharna, can release "Dream Smoke", a materialization of the dreams it has eaten. With it, Fennel created a device that lets you "sync" your Pokémon with the official website and do minigames and such with it, and even catch special Pokémon.
    • The ending a villain is the final boss instead of a proper champion. Robopon did that years earlier, in the first game in its series.
    • In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Pokémon trainer's final smash was Triple Finish. The generation after Brawl introduced Triple Battles. Combination attacks were added, too, but only between two Pokémon at a time, and the results are supporting field effects rather than flashy Limit Breaks.
  • Ho Yay: Both the male and female player characters get one Gay Option for the Ferris Wheel Feeling Check. Hilda gets a Waitress. Hilbert gets a Hiker. I mean, come on.
    • N also takes the character on the Ferris wheel... Even when you're Hilbert.
    • Fennel and Juniper don't even share a lab while at work (Fennel's work is primarily done in Striaton City), but this hardly stops the fans from interpreting the two this way.
    • To be fair, though, when Fennel was first revealed, all that was known was that she was "Professor Juniper's Assistant," and once that allowed for certain implications, the idea of Juniper/Fennel took off.
    • Apparently, they were roommates in college. Your Mileage May Vary though on whether considering that ship bait or merely making everything out to be a hint at romance.
    • Lots of fans likes to pair Elesa with Skyla in a rather suggestive manner, despite the two girls not even sharing a word with each other in the game (except for the fanservice part.)
    • There's also Cynthia hanging out with every important female Pokemon League official at her villa, and Iris being Bianca's "bodyguard".
    • In the battle subway, one trainer you can fight (Lady Won), says you look gorgeous at the beginning of the battle. If you defeat her, she says that she "feels drawn to you". The same interactions happen if you play as Hilda.
  • Hype Backlash: Even before the game was released in English, some fans were already complaining about the hype. The perfect 40 score in Famitsu didn't help matters.
  • Internet Backdraft: Long before the game was released, debate raged over whether Unova was based on Manhattan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, perhaps Aomori, or somewhere else. Also, discussion on the Unfortunate Implications of Lenora's appearance, as well as the starters' final evolutions.
    • Some blogs continued to point out that it might have been China, such as saying that Braviary was probably based off of chinese kites and that Iris was a stereotypical chinese. When this was Jossed, it was removed - said blog(s) had a policy of "Don't go with popular theories until Word of God confirms them".
    • The English names. Bring them up- especially the human names- and brace yourself for cries of Ruined FOREVER and how the translation team is more incompetent than a room full of monkeys.
      • Oh my god! They changed the Japanese puns to ENGLISH Puns!
  • Incest Yay Shipping: Oddly enough, shipping the Striaton brothers seems to be rather popular, even though there's no real Incest Subtext in the games between them.
  • It's Easy, So It Sucks: Some people are claiming this. Apparently people missed when Masuda stated multiple times in interviews how all the games in the franchise start out easy in general so everyone can enjoy them, with more difficult side challenges like the Battle Subway and the option to battle against real people for more advanced players... or how the original games could easily be curbstomped through with a decent Psychic type, and how you could easily glitch your way to victory.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: The Fire-type starter's evolutions were revealed to be Fire/Fighting types. Just like the last two generations. Some fans got pissed, due to perceived laziness on the part of Game Freak. There are plenty of people complaining about the other starters being respectively pure Grass- and Water-type as well, but it's generally not seen as bad as giving the Fire starter the same secondary type three times in a row.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Some fans couldn't care less about the improved plotline. Some even hate its existence and the fact that it plays with Pokémon's usual formula a bit, as well as the fact that they have to get through it to get to postgame goodies like older Pokémon.
    • Play the Game, Skip the Story: The plot is more prominent in these games than in others, but that doesn't stop some fans from viewing it as such and only getting in the way of the gameplay.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Surprisingly, it's more so the male protagonist being shipped with a lot of Pokémon characters... Also Snivy.
  • Love to Hate: Ghetsis, big-time. So much so that back when the games came out in Japan, tropers were quick to label him as a Complete Monster. This helped drive much of the hype for his character due to the trope's implications in contrast to the family-friendly nature of the Pokémon franchise itself, with various websites and blogs picking up on his status as one.
    • Keep in mind that this was back when the Complete Monster trope was defined differently on the TV Tropes wiki. Currently, none of the main series villains qualify for the trope, including Ghetsis himself despite him meeting the general qualifications needed to pass. Needless to say, people are not happy with the wiki for that. Here, though, his status on the trope thankfully remains in-tact.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Ghetsis Harmonia almost reaches this due to his Dangerously Genre Savvy Chessmaster nature. However, his overconfidence crossed with the errors and miscalculations he makes when executing his plan, and how he's quick to throw a temper tantrum once beaten in a battle, shows that he's FAR more of a Smug Snake.
  • Magnum Opus: Masuda believes that this game is "the masterpiece" out of all the games he's made.
    • So Cool It's Awesome: These games are hailed by a large number of critics and fans as among the series' best; to many of them, these, along with the Gen II remakes, marked the point where Game Freak actually started trying to be innovative again.
  • Memetic Badass: Hilda and Snivy/"Smugleaf".
    • Oshawott's evolution is this.
    • Let's not forget Genesect. Thanks to its possible name origin (genocide + insect), as well as its classification as the Paleozoic Pokémon, it's been theorized that it caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. And it snowballed from there.
  • Memetic Mutation: EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Zoroark, the female Player Character, the starters, and Castelia City all became memes within days.
    • Black Version is longer.
    • Reshiram's "crotch plumage" and Zekrom's "turbine tail" are headed this way as well.
    • Pokémon Battles on Bicycles. Card games on MOTORCYCLES!
    • The airport is one.
    • Taking a fanon outline of Iris and making it look like another character. For example. More examples in here and here.
    • When Victini was revealed to be #000 in the Isshu dex, Missingno. jokes popped up quite quickly.
    • N can't x.
    • Serebii confirmed!
    • Until Next Time, See Ya
    • My secret sauce told me so!
    • N died for your sins!
    • Masuda stated
    • Bouffalant, or "afro bull", is on its way to memetic status.
    • KING RAMSEEEEEES
      • The 'Mon in gauze! The 'Mon in gauze!
      • RETURN THE SLAB!
    • DEEEEEENIS
      • "Penance" also works, too.
    • Thanks to its rather odd expression, Tympole being randomly shoved into art--especially with N--seems to be a trend on Pixiv.
    • You can see Bidoof in Klang/Klinklang if you look long enough.
    • There was a joke with the Klink line's Japanese names (Gear, Gigear, and Gigigear) -- telling everyone there was a third evolution, called Gigigigigigigigigigigigigear. The actual number of "gi"'s was up to the joker.
    • Stunfisk, aka Flounderp is so ugly that it broke the ugly barrier and is now beautiful. GAZE UPON IT AND DESPAIR.
    • Photoshopping Pokemon into questionably appropriate photographs, which cropped up after an English newspaper ran an article with photos with Pokemon edited into them and ran part of it on the front page, directly under the main story--the Fukushima tsunami.
    • CORY, CORY, CORY IN THE HOUSE!
  • Memetic Molester: N, Grimsley.
    • Ghetsis will probably end up like this.
  • Memetic Sex God: The protagonists, especially Hilbert, whose general Fanon characterization is of a charming gentleman no girl could resist as well as Hilda for her short shorts and her tomboyish appearance.
    • Snivy among some people who are into that.
    • The rivals and N also apply, with Cheren and N being somewhere between this and Memetic Molester.
    • The title still stands for Cynthia. Her Memetic Molester status has also increased, due to a reference to the previous protagonist, and her own reappearance.
    • Grimsley is gaining a reputation as this amongst certain fan circles.
  • Misblamed: No, sorry, Ken Sugimori didn't design every single Pokémon - Some, like Vanilluxe's line, Golurk's line, and the pre-evolution of Mandibuzz (The vulture type) were actually designed by NoA employee James Turner.
    • Misreported: Early reportings actually had Bianca as the champion the first time you beat the Elite Four, and that Alder would replace her on subsequent fights. Turns out that the truth was far, far different.
      • The traditional "This series sucks, why do people still like this?" threads are up. Pokémon has been around since the 1990s - we knew what happened in the games since before they were released outside of Japan thanks to the internet. And yet people still are pointing fingers at Nintendo, one of the publishers, for stuff that is clearly out of their hands. Poor Game Freak - they saved the Game Boy and still have received no credit outside of Japan.
  • Moe: Bianca can be viewed as this.
    • Fennel comes off this way.
    • N has been described as this a couple times.
    • Also, the Striaton Trio, possibly.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Technically, all of Ghetsis' actions in the game are dog kicking. Considering the only reason N exists in the first place was to achieve his selfish desires, he's crossed the Moral Event Horizon long ago before the game even started.
    • Long before Red and Blue even started, considering N's age (he looks to be at the very least 15), and the amount of time between those games and Black and White is a mere 7 or 8 years. And who knows how long Team Plasma was alive before then?
    • Read the spoilers if you're prepared for the horror - Ghetsis knew a self-centered man like him could never be the hero of legend, so he raised his own son N specifically to fit the qualifications needed to be the hero and to be the key pawn in his master plan. He kept N locked up in a room filled with toys for years in order to stunt his emotional growth, and had Anthea and Concordia frequently tend to him so that his innocence and purity could be preserved. He himself told N that Team Plasma was fighting to liberate Pokemon from their captivity and oppression at the hands of humans, and even provided abused Pokemon for N as playmates. Ghetsis' own minions had abused the Pokemon and since N could hear their thoughts and feel their pain, he came to believe that all humans hurt Pokemon and that all Pokemon long to be far away from humans. After N had come of age and was crowned Team Plasma's king, Ghetsis began his crusade to capture the hearts and minds of the trainer population, the grand crescendo of which would come when N, using Reshiram or Zekrom, could defeat the Champion and allow Team Plasma to take over the league. N would then issue a command to every human in the Unova region to release all their Pokemon or risk the region's destruction again. In reverence of the hero and the belief that his way is the truth or ideal ("having Pokemon will be considered a bad thing" as Ghetsis puts it), the trainers would release all their Pokemon...which would leave Ghetsis and his select followers as the only ones with Pokemon that they're able to use. After N's purpose had been served, Ghetsis would throw him away and take Reshiram/Zekrom for himself, and then with his personal Pokemon army headed by the legendary Pokemon of the hero, would go to war with all other regions and repeat the process so that more region's worth of Pokemon get added to his forces. The more Pokemon, the more power, and with enough power, Ghetsis could take over the entire world, bringing about a Dystopian new world order in which he, as the ruler who is the only one allowed to have and use Pokemon, has unlimited influence, privilege, and control over everything that lives and is free to oppress and suppress everyone by using threat of force via his supepowered mons. And the reason for all this? He felt entitled to it. Such a depraved goal with equally depraved methods of reaching it gives Ghetsis a claim to living far over the line on the Moral Event Horizon, making him the series' most evil villain to date.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: The sound of rustling grass. Audino exp bashing time, here we go!
    • WOOSH! ding! click. Critical capture.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page. A lot of it tends to overlap with Fridge Horror too, particularly owing to Ghetsis.
  • Nightmare Retardant: Mishearing the Ominous Chanting in Ghetsis's battle theme turns the biggest bad in the series to date into "DEEEEEENNIS".
  • No Yay: Ghetsis and most of the other characters.
  • Paranoia Fuel: The main plot becomes this when you consider how it would look from N's perspective.
    • N informing you that the Shadow Triad has been spying on you and your friends when you meet him in Chargestone Cave can be pretty paranoia-inducing as well.
  • Purity Sue: According to Word of God, this is what N basically believes himself to be due to his upbringing: he believes that as far as humans go, because he can understand Pokemon, he is the "perfect" savior of Pokemon. A great part of his Character Development is him learning that being pure doesn't equate to being "perfect" in his ideals and view of the world.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Many people saw Iris as this, seeing as she would star in the anime instead of the playable female from the games. Rescued from the Scrappy Heap might take effect, however, as she has been confirmed to be the White version's final Gym Leader, training Dragon-Types.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The ability Sturdy was changed from "immune to Fissure, Sheer Cold, etc." (mostly useless) to "can't be KO'd at 100% health"/"built-in Focus Sash" (which is incredible) AND "immune to Fissure, Sheer Cold, etc."
    • Bug type. In previous generations "new Bug type pokemon" usually meant "A bunch of earlygame bugs, usually early evolving as well, whose stats just plain suck. Also, half of them is Bug/Flying, a shit typing weak to everything ever, another half is Bug/Poison" The only ones that are at least playable were Scyther/Scizor, Nincada family, Heracross and Pineco/Forretress. Prior to generation IV, the fact that Bug just sucks was also supported by having pretty much no attacks. What did Black and White do? They introduced eighteen bugs. All of them with great stats. Not a single one evolves early. Around half of them have new typings. Three of them are Bug/Steel (only one weakness). Scolipede is able to learn freaking Earthquake and Rock Slide. Galvantula gets a STAB Thunder with much better accuracy thanks to Compoundeyes. Durant has crazy-awesome attack power with its Hustle ability, albeit with a little less accuracy, and it gets even better with Hone Claws, which boosts Attack and Accuracy. And it, too, can learn Rock Slide. Volcarona has the awesome Quiver Dance and a solid Base 80 signature move which has a pretty good chance of boosting its Special Attack. Volcarona is really close to being a legendary, seeing as there's one in the whole game sitting in a tower at level 70, like all legendaries do. And that's a shame, because the title of the first legendary Bug-type in the series goes to Genesect, also introduced in this generation. "Bug trainer" is no longer a stigma.
      • As an extra example: the Champion of the Pokemon League has three Bug-type Pokemon. The most powerful trainer in the land has Bug-types as half his team.
    • And that doesn't count some of the previous generation bugs - Butterfree, Beautifly, Venomoth and Dustox all got the amazing Quiver Dance, which boosts Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed.
  • Ron the Death Eater: While Bianca's dad is adamant about refusing to allow her to go on her Pokémon adventure, it's clear that he's concerned over her safety and gives her his blessing when Elesa puts his fears to rest. Lots of fans however seem to love writing him as an abusive, repulsive bastard in various fan fics and Nuzlocke comics when the worst he does in-game is yell at her.
  • Ruined FOREVER: Every major information release about this game has elicited just as massive amounts of hate from the "fans" as positive response. There was hate for the starters, hate for the legendaries, hate for every new Pokémon, and hate for the simple existence of a fifth generation. As soon as new facts come to light, the Pokémon franchise is ruined. This has been more or less forgotten since the release, though.
    • Course, given the massive Fan Dumb and the Hate Dumb around the series, this is pretty much simple routine; those who seemed to have hated Gen III and IV seem to have vanished, now.
    • "OH MY GOD! They didn't localize Tsutarja as Smugleaf! They localized it as Snivy! HOW DARE YOU!"
      • And on the other side, you got the people who are telling Game Freak "Thank you!" for not doing that.
    • The English names in general have gotten this, with people claiming that the translation team has severely butchered and ruined the game, despite a few of the American names sticking to the meaning of their Japanese counterparts and no major changes being made to the actual script from the dialogue snippets we've seen. Probably the names hit the hardest are Chili for Pod, Fennel for Makomo, and Hilbert/Hilda for Touya/Touko. Notice that two of those characters only have a brief role, and the third you either name yourself or only see briefly on the Battle Subway.
    • Gameplay-related example: The Pokémon Archeops, whose design was rather popular, was loudly alas'd when it was learned that its Ability halves its offensive stats when its health drops below half.
  • The Scrappy: Oshawott's design has made it the subject of regular bashing since day one, but it became The Woobie almost immediately in backlash. First Broken Base around the game!
    • Zorua and Zoroark have come under increasing fire as well, due in no small part to the fact that both of them are event-only Pokémon.
    • Pansage already wasn't popular because it was yet another monkey-based Pokémon, but since Panpour and Pansear made an Underground Monkey of him, Panpour and Pansear, the results aren't pretty.
    • The evolved forms of Tepig are yet another Fire/Fighting starter.
    • The Kami trio have gotten some SERIOUS hate for how similar their sprites are. While they do have noticeable differences due to their skin colors, moustaches, hair, tails, and more importantly animations, many people still claim them to be unoriginal.
    • If people are talking about Gen V Pokémon they hate, Trubbish and Garbodor are pretty likely to come up as well as the Vanillish line due to being based off of inanimate objects.
    • Emolga are also this for not only being yet another damn Pikaclone, but for being damn annoying to battle thanks to their flying sub-typing bypassing Ground, Electric's common weakness.
    • Since the Global Link was opened, people have been getting mad at Fennel if they can't access the Dream World, thanks to her taunting expression.
    • Audino, due to being so common in the shaking grass patches where there are possibilities of much rarer Pokemon. They tend to make up for it by being Metal Slimes, but it can be pretty aggravating when you just want to catch a damn Emolga.
    • Among the rivals, Cheren was hated by quite a few for being viewed as being rather boring and one-dimensional in his pursuit of strength for most of his screen time in the game, though he seemed to escape this status in the sequels.
  • Ship Tease: You get to take NPCs on a ferris wheel ride in Nimbasa City. The actual NPC varies by season, but all of their names have the name of the season in it.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: The shipping community for the games is usually (mostly) civil compared to the anime, but for some reason, these particular games have caused some very nasty flame wars and Fan Hating on opposing ships. The most notorious of these is the N x Hilda vs. N x Hilbert vs. Hilbert x Hilda war, with Die for Our Ship in full effect for the member of the triangle excluded from one's OTP.
  • That One Boss: Elesa, the electric gym. She has two Emolga, which are Electric/Flying and thus immune to the Ground moves that would normally be super-effective. What's worse, Emolga will keep spamming Double Team so you can't even hit the damn thing. And there are almost no Rock moves and no Ice moves available at this point, so you'll have no type advantage no matter who's in your party. (Even worse, one of the other trainers in her gym also has an Emolga.)
    • Lenora only has two Pokémon, but they're both much tougher than anything else in the game at that point. Her Watchog especially; it's the highest level mon you can possibly face in the game at that point. It's fast and can put you to sleep, leaving you helpless while it hits you with the most powerful attacks the game has thrown at you yet. Combined with her signature move that doubles damage when being called out after a Pokémon has fainted, she can start the second half of the battle with a huge headstart. You can notice a recurring theme with normal-type gym leaders... the Normal Type isn't a good offensive type... so in order to compensate for that, the leader(s) find other ways to annoy the living hell out of you.
    • One of the Subway Bosses has a Durant which has max Speed, letting it outspeed practically everything. It has very few weaknesses except for a double fire weakness, which is remedied by a Berry that halves the damage. It has great coverage moves like X-Scissor and Rock Slide. There's a good chance that unless you come specifically prepared, that ant will wipe you out.
    • Ghetsis's Hydreigon has been responsible for a lot of player rage. Its high speed and the extensive type spread of its attacks means it can One-Hit Kill a lot of pokemon before they have a chance to act, including that shiny new Reshiram/Zekrom you just caught. Most people recommend bringing along a pure Fighting-type just to deal with it.
  • That One Level: Chargestone Cave. Goes on much longer than anything that grind-intensive ever should.
  • That One Sidequest: The pokemon seek game in the Dream World- Where as the other 5 games that you play to befriend pokemon (at least the ones available to the states) allow some form of strategy, Pokemon Seek is pretty much a Luck-Based Mission.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
    • The Wifi / Competitive play mechanics. There are significant changes to Player vs Player gameplay, including the inability to do IV battles, and the now dominant type being 3v3 instead of 6v6, alongside the ability to preview your opponent's team. The competitive battle circles are having a fit about this, as it throws a wrench into the min-maxing dynamic created over the past 4 generations. Interestingly, a good number of these changes appear to be done specifically to break up the existing Metagame.
    • Competitive players (like Smogon) were not pleased with Rotom-A losing its Ghost typing (as it can no longer prevent Rapid Spin from working.)
  • Tough Act to Follow: Although there's still a vocal section of the Fan Dumb who hates Black and White, the reception among the rest of the fandom has made this arguably the most fan-adored versions since Generation II. In particular, the protagonists and N are incredibly popular, and most of the new Pokemon are well-designed and have decent to great stats, abilities and movepools.
  • Ugly Cute: Trubbish is probably the most adorable garbage bag you will ever see, same with Garbodor for some.
    • To some, Scraggy and its evolution are this. Joltik also counts.
    • A surprising number of fans think Kyurem is cute, largely due to Alternate Character Interpretation; see The Woobie below.
    • Eelektross may be a giant levitating Psycho Electric Lamprey, but the little dance it does in its sprite animation is both hilarious and cute.
    • While Stunfisk is quite the goofy looking little guy, it still manages to be awkwardly cute among quite a few people due to it's rather pathetic looking facial expression.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Some fans think the character Lenora looks uncomfortably like the "mammy" stereotype.
    • In the Japanese version, her description in the badge case is, in English, 'Natural Born Mama.' Huh.[2]
    • There was a bit of an uproar over the cotton Pokémon being exclusive to the Black version.
    • Lilligant being based on a Southern Belle and exclusive to the White version didn't help.
  • Unfortunate Names: N's real name just so happens to be Natural Harmonia Gropius. Gropius.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Several fans pointed to early screenshots of the male trainer and, based on his sprites, speculated about there being two female player characters to choose from, while wondering when a male trainer would show up. (To give the viewers credit, these were low-quality screenshots from a magazine scan.)
    • Cheren looks enough like a short-haired girl to be mistaken for a Bifauxnen before the games' release. Doesn't help that the shirt under his coat looks exactly like Whitney's.
    • N as well. Really not helped at all by the, ah... familiarity of his official art pose.
    • There's also Burgh, the gym leader of Castelia City.
    • N introduces the Shadow Triad as men, but that hasn't stopped the fans from questioning their gender, especially since it is only addressed once. In Pokémon Special, they look like masked versions of Mello. Not helping. At all.
      • Also does not help at all that we only ever see their overworld sprites in-game. Because they never fight you, they don't have portrait sprites that would help clear things up.
  • Viewer Species Confusion: Zorua and Zoroark are often mistaken for being wolves or werewolves, when they're actually foxes based on the darker variation of the kitsune.
  • The Woobie: According to its Pokédex entries, Yamask's gold mask is its face from its time as a human thousands of years ago before turning into a mummy, and it still has memories from those times. It occasionally stares at the mask, sobbing.
    • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Then it evolves into Cofagrigus, which eats humans and turns them into mummies.
    • Believe it or not, Kyurem. Since it's frozen, everyone is afraid of it, and it can't even use its powers to their full potential, Kyurem fans decide that it needs a hug. (No one can prove that it really ate people...)
    • Bianca. As if having self-esteem issues, an Overprotective Dad (at first), and getting the short end of the stick starter-wise wasn't bad enough, she enters her third battle with you feeling confident and sure that she'll do well, only to lose all heart (she even says she won't ever be as good as you or Cheren) when you end up defeating her. Yeah, that's right - the game makes you Break the Cutie in order to continue. I'd say that's worth a cuddle. And if it's still not enough, she got her Munna stolen. She got it back, but still...
    • N - his father could give Cipher a run for its money in sheer callousness. That's grounds for a hug right there. And Concordia's words just make it even sadder: "N's heart is pure and innocent. But there is nothing more beautiful and terrifying than innocence". Also a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds considering Ghetsis's plans for him.
  1. ↑ Dickhead. Penisnose. The list goes on.
  2. ↑ Her English description is "An Archaeologist with Backbone", and her husband, Hawes, refers to her as "Dear" instead of "Mama" in the localization.
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