Viroro-kun
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viroro.bsky.social
Viroro-kun
@viroro.bsky.social
54 followers 140 following 53 posts
(He/Him) Writer, reviewer, teacher, freelance journalist, Pokémon fan, boogeyman for 4chan's /padt/ thread, and a bunch of other cool stuff. For any questions: https://tellonym.me/Viroro https://neospring.org/@viroro
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viroro.bsky.social
#ViroNeospring
Question: Do you think that the lack of the TRio in JN actively harmed Ash's pokemon ? As in because Pikachu got captured in many such plots, Ash used to take out the other mons to save him, increasing their scrrentime. However, given the fact they did appear somewhat and still did not showcase the other Ashmons, would it really not have mattered either way ? Answer (1/2): I wouldn't say that's what harmed Ash's Pokémon, BW also had its moments where TRio were not involved in harming Ash's Pokémon and the show still managed to showcase some of Ash's team (the spotlight issues there were more related to Ash having a larger regional team than usual). The biggest harm was really done on TRio itself, as not having a regular team meant that they had less chance to show some of their better traits, often being reduced to their regular villain act with only few exceptions, and the variety of Pokémon they could use didn't actually do much to mitigate that. In hindsight, pulling a 'Rocket Revengers' from the start would've been better for JN TRio (but it's clear JN wasn't initially intended as Ash and TRio's final series). Back to Ash, however, I feel the real harm was really because of how JN's 'trim the fat' mentality on stories meant that we lost several moments of downtime where the characters could just exist. It takes until close to two years into the show to have moments like the picnic in Stow-on-Side's Gym, and most times we see many Pokémon in downtime it's usually just Goh's in Cerise Park (I wouldn't blame it on Goh, however, as it was never an either/or situation). Answer (2/2): Another issue was the way the show just breezed through the Great Class, robbing Ash of relatively low intensity matches where Ash could've only used a few of his secondary Pokémon, ontop of never having a 3v3 fight until the Raihan match, which further limited the amount of times Ash's Pokémon could shine. And that's all without counting a few baffling instances like Ash sending no Pokémon out in Goh's Pikachu's episode to fight against a Minccino himself, which was as funny as it kinda underscored the issue. All in all, Ash's team issue was a death of a thousand cuts with multiple sources that all worked together in leading to it.
March 15, 2025 at 6:22 PM
viroro.bsky.social
Every series has something to like, even the ones I like the least.

#ViroNeospring
Question: What would you say is your favorite aspect of each Pokémon series? Answer (1/2): Off the top of my head... OS: The general early installment weirdness vibe which gave way to several iconic episodes, movies and moments and that the franchise can't get back to ever again. AG: Setting up the standard for how most later shows would develop and be structured, and being a great midpoint between OS's madcap energy and DP's improved writing. DP: Taking all that AG did and improving on it, the smooth transition and well-done development and rivalries with very strategic battles. Generally being one of the most satisfying and well-executed series as a whole. BW: The supporting cast could be pretty fun, having regular mid-series tournaments was a solid way to capitalize on it, and I enjoyed a few of the Pokémon, their relationships with each other and trainers, and the first attempt at more thoroughly developed villain arc. XY: The very good cast, well-done character development, story arcs and action, and generally very confident execution. It's a show that knows what it wants to be and delivers as much as it can, and still my absolute favorite entry of the Ash era. SM: Sophocles and Litten are pretty good, the Ultra Ruin two parter was enjoyable, and generally any time the show was committed to being truly sincere about its subject matter, it could lead to wonderful episodes. Answer (2/2): JN: Goh and Chloe are some of the most conceptually interesting characters in this series that I enjoyed to see develop, and a few returns like Serena's, Paul's and Iris's second one managed to feel like solid capoffs to their journeys. JN's pre-MPM ending also felt like the best spot to wrap the Ash era, for me. HZ: A nice chance to finally revamp the show beyond the trappings defined in the Ash's era. Absolutely the best handling of female characters of the series so far between a wonderful main lead, a great tritagonist, and an interesting plot that manages to intersect with game elements while telling its own story.
March 15, 2025 at 5:35 PM
viroro.bsky.social
While I would be happy to discuss Lillie, SM and related topics more often in the right circumstances and with non-baity premises, I would much prefer to cover questions that are more interesting and enjoyable to discuss nowadays. No reason to keep beating dead horses.

#ViroNeospring
Question: What is it that makes you not want to discuss Lillie, exactly, compared to other characters you may have criticisms for? What is it that makes her character hard to tackle, you think? Answer (1/2): This is an interesting question I feel willing to properly answer. The obvious caveat: my opinions of SM and Lillie back in the day are likely well-known by anyone who'd go out of the way to send me an ask, so I already expect questions like yesterday's asks to be fundamentally there to be mined for 'lol, he's such a loser obsessing over a fictional character' material. It's just not a topic that's fun to discuss. Second, even now that my opinion on SM has heavily softened (it's still not one of my favorites and my opinion of certain elements of it actually worsened, but I was definitely a bit too hardline in some areas), I feel Anime Lillie is just not a character you can discuss with someone in a fun way. She's generally what I would call a 'vibes character': you either love her or don't, and if you really love her, I feel you likely won't see why someone else wouldn't. A lot of her Anime handling is built on the implicit idea you must love her character and think she inherently deserves what she is given, and if you don't feel that way, you're bound to find cracks easier. With characters like say, Serena, Dawn or Liko I can at least point to the way their development and growth was portrayed to say what I like of them in an, if not objective (never objective), at least more structured manner, while Lillie's like is fundamentally tied to your emotional response to her plight. Answer (2/2): So if you like Lillie, good! I'm happy for you! But I feel most discussions we may have would start from fundamentally different points of view, we'll likely not see eye to eye, and I'd rather avoid both of us to have an unenjoyable talk.
March 15, 2025 at 1:29 PM
viroro.bsky.social
#ViroNeospring
Question: Do you feel BW-era Iris deserved all the hate she got back then? Or was it overblown? I feel her character has aged a bit better in time and people were being overly harsh on her. Answer (1/2): This is a bit of a thorny one. No, I don't think she deserved the hate any more than say, Goh deserved the hate: they were both characters that I believe got an unfair shake from the start and people held onto first impressions to keep forming their whole opinion on them. That said, I do feel like the writing was often actively against her: aside from infamously explicitly setting up Axew to evolve only to never commit to it until JN choose to do so, I feel her more interesting sides were often overshadowed by trying to recapture Misty and Ash's OS dynamic, and a lot of her important backstory elements are held back for a while for little reason. On a recent rewatch I noticed an interesting angle about how Iris seems to be a trainer that sucks, knows she sucks, and often projects as a result which reflects in her interactions with others (the way she quieted down once Ash jabbed back during the Accumula Battle Club episode, her arc with Excadrill, and so on), but I feel the show didn't quite use it as well as it could have. I feel JN manages to improve a few things on her end and think the Cynthia fight there is a respectful cap off to her character, even if I feel her becoming a Champion to synergize with the games was a bit too quick of a jump from where we left her in BW (if it could've been done, I would've liked her as a Gym Leader about to move to Champion in her first episode, and Champion only in the Masters Eight, as that both makes Ash's WCS climb smoother and it feels a bit less sudden of a jump). Answer (2/2): All in all, she both didn't deserve the hate and wish she could've had a chance to be written more properly.
March 15, 2025 at 12:28 PM
viroro.bsky.social
#ViroNeospring
Question: Do you think the XY anime has aged well, since its been a decade since it aired? Or do you think it's flaws are a bit more noticeable now that we're so far removed from it? Answer: While XY-related excitement was definitely a 'you had to be here' sort of fandom moment, I don't think it was masking or dulling flaws to any particular extent. The good bits and bad bits remain mostly the same for me as they were back in the day, and don't think the passage of time made any feel particularly worse; if anything, seeing Yajima's later Pokémon works and some Pokémon-related media released since gave me a deeper appreciation of some choices it took. So yeah, it probably aged well.
March 15, 2025 at 12:06 PM
viroro.bsky.social
It's nice to talk about things I like.

#ViroNeospring
Question: What's your general overall thoughts on Horizons up to this point? Answer: I enjoy it a lot so far! Now that there's no inherited elements that the show is forced to carry over, I'm very interested to see what the Anime can do with the freedom it gained, and things like the more serialized narrative and original story that crosses with game canon elements without fully adapting it is a breath of fresh air in what the Anime could be. Liko and Dot are fairly solid characters that are very enjoyable to follow, as are many others like Amethio, with very nice Pokémon writing as well. The steady character development and gradual growth has been a nice slow burn thus far, and the main plotline quite fun. It's definitely not perfect: the secondary Pokémon are often either left offscreen or treated as fodder for little reason, the second arc felt incredibly poorly paced and led to certain things (like the trio's gradual growth as fighters or the progression of the Heroes's plot) feeling like more of a problem than they would otherwise be, and the arc structure does mean occasionally a few developments need to be a bit more fast paced than they would have been before, with slightly less time for silly downtime episodes. I also feel Roy is slightly lagging behind Liko and Dot by not feeling that focal to the story aside from the occasional episode, but it looks like Mega Voltage is bound to address that now. However, none of this impacts my enjoyment much; the show is overall more hits than misses for me, and I look forward to where Horizons will go next.
March 15, 2025 at 10:20 AM
viroro.bsky.social
#ViroNeospring
Question: How do you feel about the way Serena's crush on Ash was handled? Are you satisfied where it went and it's relative conclusion? Answer: Obligatory preamble: I became a fan of Serena as a character before becoming a fan of her and Ash together, so my opinions of her character are only slightly affected by it. I think Serena's feelings for Ash are handled alright, mostly using them for light gags at best and when it's used seriously it's usually to highlight her actual growth, like going for being too shy to hold Ash's hand to bold enough to pretty much confess and kiss him before leaving for Hoenn. The fact that she was actually allowed as close to a resolution as a (then) endless Anime allows rather than teasing it for no payoff was also sweet. I also have no issue with her JN return focusing more on mentoring Chloe than interacting with Ash, that's what any good Serena return should've been built on in my opinion. And after being bold enough to kiss someone you love, it'd not make much sense to be all flustered and shy about your feelings, so their brief interaction being about supporting each other's dreams is the perfect addendum to their relationship. All in all, it's used well as a complement to her growth, and I appreciate it more for that than just to ship characters together.
March 15, 2025 at 2:18 AM
viroro.bsky.social
Always happy to see some old faces again!

#ViroNeospring
Question: Hey how have you been? Been a while since I’ve seen your posts on Twitter. You moved to BlueSky? Answer: Been doing well enough, and somewhat! Just been generally too busy for social media between life, work, and just other commitments. Still follow Pokémon and other series and generally enjoy myself, however. Hope you've been doing alright as well!
March 15, 2025 at 1:52 AM
viroro.bsky.social
Sophocles and Clemont are both good and I'm not gonna play the 'who's better' game with them.

#ViroNeospring
Question: Do you feel Sophocles is, "fat Clemont" or do you think he's more well rounded? Answer: I like both characters quite a bit and I feel they only have type specialty and some very early traits in common, and are otherwise different characters. So, this is comparing flowers to lemons (also, never been a fan of reducing Sophocles to 'fat' anyway).
March 15, 2025 at 1:35 AM
viroro.bsky.social
#ViroNeospring
Question: Do you feel Serena and Clemont lacked any real bond or chemistry? They felt like they barely talked to one another unless Ash was off on his own doing something else. Were Serena and Clemont even real friends? Answer: You could at least try more creative bait than the same reheated nontroversy.
March 15, 2025 at 1:26 AM
viroro.bsky.social
I'm almost glad to be getting all the greatest hits one after the other, honestly.

#ViroNeospring
Question: What is your opinion on SM Ash compared to XY Ash? Answer: My opinion is that this is a dead horse and there's nothing interesting to gain from resurrecting it.
March 15, 2025 at 1:18 AM
viroro.bsky.social
Honestly, if you come to me with this very specific question, it's a bit too obvious what you're looking for. And you'd be disappointed by the answer not being as incendiary as you'd expect, anyway.

#ViroNeospring
Question: How do you feel about Lillie and the Aether arc in SM? Answer: She is a character that exists and an arc that happened. Next question.
March 15, 2025 at 1:11 AM
viroro.bsky.social
#ViroNeospring
Question: I'm genuinely curious how you feel about Ash not aging over 26 years, since Horizons decided to do a timeskip. Answer: I feel that you are barking at the wrong tree with this one.
March 15, 2025 at 12:57 AM
viroro.bsky.social
This was a lot of fun to think about.

#ViroNeospring
Question: Are you a regular orange Effect Monster or are you a Ritual Monster? And if Ritual, what's your Ritual Spell? Answer: Regular Effect Monster, but I do have a Ritual Monster in my archetype. Ritual Spell is 'The Ceaseless Enemy', requiring an eight star tribute. The Ritual Monster's effect increases the ATK of any opponent monsters that target the Ritual Monster by 5000, but they receive damage to their LP equal to their ATK by the end of the damage step.
March 15, 2025 at 12:34 AM
viroro.bsky.social
Grand Mole is the best Neo Spacian, if anyone wonders.

#ViroNeospring
Question: Are you a Main Deck Monster or an Extra Deck Monster? Answer: Main Deck Monster, cannot be destroyed by battle, all opponent monsters must target me if I am on the field. Once per turn, I can bounce myself and an opponent monster back to the hand if an attack is declared.
March 14, 2025 at 11:58 PM
viroro.bsky.social
#ViroNeospring
Question: How do you feel about Ash's definition of a Pokemon Master in MPM? Answer: It's pretty much roughly what I expected it to be, a quite literal 'Pokémon Master is the friends we made along the way' fits well with his character and how the goal's been used overall. I don't think it's a bad answer, per se. My only preference would've been to make it so Ash could at least in a spiritual sense be a Master already, like say, realizing that a Pokémon Master is someone that can connect to a Pokémon and trainers of all sorts, tying into all the encounters he had from OS to JN, a realization that he has become the kind of trainer his initial goal aimed towards and his new understanding allows him to start a new journey with a clearer perspective of forming new bonds, finally able to be a true Pokémon Master. It may sound semantic, but I think it would've given a better sense of 'end of a chapter, start of another' while keeping the open ending, versus setting up Ash to mostly be exactly the same when and if we get some nostalgic returns, given MPM pretty much leaves Ash and TRio exactly as we always would know them. But again, aside from this slight preference, I think the gist of the answer is what I expected.
March 14, 2025 at 11:33 PM
viroro.bsky.social
Fitting answer to start things over, I guess.

#ViroNeospring
Question: How do you feel about Ash and his series not aging now that Horizons cast is? Are you as bothered by this as other people?
March 14, 2025 at 11:08 PM
viroro.bsky.social
You know what? Let’s try this out for fun. May be a good way to start being less passive on posting.
November 30, 2024 at 3:04 AM
viroro.bsky.social
#ViroroTellonym
> What would you say is your favorite aspect of the Pokémon anime? I'd say if we were to take the Anime as a whole, I enjoy it as a chance to see a more fully realized take on the Pokémon world. The games are fun even in their weakest entry to me, but there's certain limitations inherent in being constrained to a silent protagonist's POV that the Anime doesn't have, and it's nice to see elements of the world expanded on or added. I especially like how the Anime can turn minor characters with sparse characterization into memorable and sometimes more complex character, even with a tendency to flatten a few others. I am also a big fan of how battling in the Anime is like, particularly when it hits a sweet spot of following game logic while still pulling maneuvers that wouldn't work in the games (part of why something like say, Ash shattering Trick Room in XY is one of my all time favorites battle moments). And as an aside, I do love the sense of journey a lot of the series can provide, the idea to explore a world that's at once familiar and different and getting caught up in all sorts of adventures along the way. It's definitely what got me coming back through most of the Ash era of the show, over and over again. While the show is not always perfect in any of these areas, I think this is what got me to follow the Anime from OS onward, even with occasional lapses and hiatuses.
November 11, 2024 at 9:53 AM