History YMMV / PokemonBlackandWhite

* BrokenAesop: The game is not subtle about its message of contrasting perspectives and working with those of differing views, and yet in many ways drops the ball when it counts when it comes to N and Team Plasma. Team Plasma are repeatedly shown to be [[StrawHypocrite Straw Hypocrites]] who don't believe a word of what they preach and N is shown to be incredibly naive with an inaccurate perspective on the world thanks to being raised by Ghetsis through both the story and [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the game itself]], and yet is billed as the player's equal and opposite in both skill and goals. While the player's stance and moral judgement are never once questioned, the main antagonists of the game, [[StrawmanHasAPoint who raise a point that the broader franchise has been historically criticised for]] are shown to be explicitly, objectively wrong and made up of gullible idiots and self-serving liars.

** [[spoiler: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 Pokémon can be one-shotted with the proper type matchups. [[SubvertedTrope Then]] you face the ''real'' Final Boss, who isn't nearly as much of a pushover...]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** After four generations of people being really hesitant to use Technical Machines due to being expensive, tedious to grind for in the case of those available as prizes at game corners or battle facilities, or being one of the ''many'' that are only available once in a save file, Game Freak finally relented and gave them infinite use like Hidden Machines.
** The abundant number of new Fire types can be seen as an apology for the previous generations ''Pokémon Diamond & Pearl'' notoriously introducing and including few Fire types in their initial release.
** Likewise, the massive amount of new Bug types (most of whom have above average stat pools and movesets) has done lot to improve the type's reputation, since previous generations tended to relegate them exclusively to ComMon status.

* EightPointEight: 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. 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.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Ingo and Emmet both have some behaviour traits associated with people on the autism spectrum. Emmet has a monotone way of speech, speaks in short statements, is blunt and almost entirely focused on Pokemon battles. Ingo is more polite [[NoIndoorVoice if loud]], speaks more eloquently, has a hard time expressing himself facially and while not ''as'' Pokemon-focused as his brother, still seems to care about them a great deal. Both seem to have an fascination with trains that extends past them just liking their jobs (i.e. using many train-related mannerisms and metaphors in their actions and speech).

** Technically, all of his actions in the game are [[KickTheDog kicking the dog]]. Considering [[spoiler:the only reason ''he adopted N in the first place'' was to [[ItsAllAboutMe achieve his selfish desires]], he's crossed the MoralEventHorizon ''long ago before the game even started.'']]
*** Long before ''Red and Blue'' even started, considering N's age (he is confirmed by WordOfGod to be 20 years old), 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 N was crowned.
*** There's actually more to it than just that. Read the spoilers if you're prepared for the horror — [[spoiler: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 Pokémon from their captivity and oppression at the hands of humans, and even provided abused Pokémon for N as playmates. Ghetsis' own minions had abused the Pokémon, and since N could hear their thoughts and feel their pain, he came to believe that all humans hurt Pokémon and that all Pokémon 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 Pokémon or risk the region's destruction again. In reverence of the hero and the belief that his way is the truth or ideal ("having Pokémon will be considered a bad thing" as Ghetsis puts it), the trainers would release all their Pokémon... which would leave Ghetsis and his select followers as the only ones with Pokémon 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 Pokémon army headed by the legendary Pokémon of the hero, would go to war with all other regions and repeat the process so that more region's worth of Pokémon get added to his forces. The more Pokémon, the more power, and with enough power, Ghetsis could take over the entire world, [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans 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 superpowered 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 MoralEventHorizon.]]

* FanMyopia: From both ends. Many SacredCow supporters of Gen V are unable to fathom why ''Black'' and ''White'' failed to redefine the franchise and become the breakout hit they were meant to be, aside from [[FirstInstallmentWins "genwunners"]] disliking the games for their lack of "nostalgia pandering", despite the fact that many elements of the game[[note]]most notably the Unova Pokédex, but also elements like the region design, the annoying rivals, removal of features from Generation IV, and overreliance on the now-defunct Nintendo WFC[[/note]] caused a massive BrokenBase at the time and continue to do so. At the same time, detractors of Gen V treat them as if they were a widely-disliked DorkAge for the franchise that had very few good ideas, despite the fact that ''Black'' and ''White'' were very popular at the time and continue to have a fairly strong fanbase, and were one of the earliest successful attempts at [[WinBackTheCrowd winning back the favor of older fans]].

** Many people saw Iris as this, seeing as she would star in the anime instead of the playable female from the games. RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap might take effect, however, as she has been [[spoiler:confirmed to be the ''White'' version's final Gym Leader, training Dragon-Types]]. And again, as the ''Black and White'' season of the anime began to [[DorkAge draw tons of fan criticism]], thus making many fans indifferent to whether Hilda would have appeared or not (some were even glad that she didn't appear).

* ContestedSequel: The games have fallen into this over time, if not to the same polarizing extent as the 3DS entries. It all boils down to what one thinks about the relative importance and quality of the Pokédex, story, characters, region, and mechanics; the most common debate is whether the "unfamiliar" feel of the game and its Pokémon undermine it despite the memorable characters, story, and region. Notably, the games are among the ''least'' popular games in the series with more casual fans and gamers due to lacking older Pokémon, even if they aren't lambasted by that sector like they were when they first came out. Competitively, it is ''widely'' disliked, as the "Weather Wars" meta made for a very narrow playstyle that required almost every team to have Politoed, Ninetales, Tyranitar, or Hippowdon and a bunch of Pokemon that could make use of the weather they created, and the omnipresence of Dragons made the meta even more bland and formulaic, even after [[GameBreaker Garchomp]] was KickedUpstairs. Furthermore, basically all competitive players will agree that the games added nothing of value to the series from a mechanical standpoint, and the Pokemon introduced were almost all [[TierInducedScrappy Tier Induced Scrappies]]; it was rare for a Pokemon from this generation to not either be completely worthless or obnoxious, and some of the most infamous high-tier Scrappies in the history of the series (namely Excadrill and Landorus Therian) were introduced here.

** Generation V introduced triple battles, and also had a trio of brothers serving as co-Gym Leaders. Unlike Tate and Liza, who were introduced in the same generation as double battles, you never get the chance to fight all three at once, not even in the sequels.

** Many new Pokémon felt this way. Those who weren't killed by overdoses of [[GoddamnBats Zubat, Geodude, Machop, and Tentacool]] before (or just liked them for their venerability in the franchise) were frustrated when Woobat, Roggenrola, Timburr, and Frillish took over. It doesn't help that they [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute feel like updated releases]] of the old families replaced.

** Emboar's status as the third Fire/Fighting starter in a row. To a lesser extent, all three starters collectively forming the least powerful set of starters across all (then) five generations, even beating Johto's. In Website/{{Smogon}}'s metagame, ''all three of them'' were in the NU tier to begin with, with Emboar only rising to RU due to a player abusing a loophole in their tiering system, and Serperior only rose to OU with its Hidden Ability ''five years'' after its debut and well after ''BW'' hype died down.

* TheScrappy: You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who actually likes the elemental monkeys, who are widely hated due to their ugly designs and the fact that the game [[CharacterSelectForcing forces it on you]] for the first gym. In fact, in an official popularity poll conducted in 2016, [[https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/06/17-1/unpopular-pokmon-launches-pr-campaign-to-improve-image?utm_source=community&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=pokemon Simisear placed dead last]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: [[{{Mayincatec}} Sigilyph]] is based off of Nazca Lines's [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Nasca_Condor_2007_08.JPG Condor]], or the [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Lignes_de_Nazca_D%C3%A9cembre_2006_-_Colibri_1.jpg Hummingbird]].

* {{Adorkable}}: %% The Striaton Triplets.
** Professor Juniper, owing to her DitzyGenius status.
** Shauntal's endearingly socially awkward.
** If N's weird mannerisms don't put a given player off, chances are he's coming off like this for them.

* NoYay: Ghetsis and most of the other characters. Except perhaps his own Hydreigon. (Yes, [[BrainBleach it exists]])...

* BrokenAesop: The game is not subtle about its message of contrasting perspectives and working with those of differing views, and yet in many ways drops the ball when it counts when it comes to N and Team Plasma. Team Plasma are repeatedly shown to be [[StrawHypocrite Straw Hypocrites]] who don't believe a word of what they preach and N is shown to be a naive idiot with a warped perspective on the world thanks to Ghetsis through both the story and [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the game itself]], and yet is billed as the player's equal and opposite in both skill and goals. While the player's stance and moral judgement are never once questioned, the main antagonists of the game, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential who raise a point that the broader franchise has been historically criticised for]] are shown to be explicitly, objectively wrong and made up of gullible idiots and self-serving liars.

** The girl trainer (canonically, Hilda) is established to be 14 years old, and has a cute and tomboyish but overall modest design. However, the very fact that she was part of the first pair of "older" player characters in the series, along with her TomboyishPonytail and [[WhoWearsShortShorts short shorts]], has caused a lot of fans to sexualize her in fan art, often emphasizing and increasing the size of her chest and/or butt to make her look 2-3 years older. This is ''despite'' the fact that she's widely accepted to be underage, and is still very young and small compared to the series' adult characters; to be fair, she ''is'' a mute BlankSlate that represents the player, and has been depicted as 16 years old in works based on ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' with the same appearance.[[note]]Hilbert and Hilda ''do'' appear in the games proper, albeit only when battling with someone on the original ''Pokémon Black'' or ''Pokémon White''.[[/note]] She is also commonly depicted as a tall girl in fanart, while ''VideoGame/PokemonMasters'' shows her to be almost comically shorter than her successor Rosa.

** While Ghetsis' appearance does turn off some, [[spoiler:his adoptive son]] N is considered very attractive.

** Surprisingly, it's more so the ''male'' protagonist being shipped with a lot of Pokémon characters, mostly being shipped off with [[FoeYayShipping N]], [[DistaffCounterpart Hilda]], [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Bianca]], [[HoYay Cheren]], [[ChristmasCake Professor Juniper]], [[MsFanservice Skyla]], [[DefrostingIceQueen Caitlin]]... [[InterspeciesRomance also Snivy]] and [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent Reuniclus]] [[CrackPairing (NO, SERIOUSLY!)]].

** The female protagonist has more recently started to get her share, too, mostly being paired off with [[{{Bishonen}} N]], [[DistaffCounterpart Hilbert]], [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Cheren]], [[HoYay Bianca]], [[DualBoss the Subway Masters (especially Ingo)]], [[PowerTrio the Striaton triplets]], [[CastingAShadow Grimsley]] and [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Sawk]], [[CrackPairing (seriously)]], among many others.

* MemeticMutation: Tons of it.
** The starters became memes within days, with Snivy's (literal) SmugSnake trait being the most memetic.
** ''Black Version'' [[BlackIsBiggerInBed is longer]].
** Reshiram's "crotch plumage" and Zekrom's "turbine tail".
** When Victini was revealed to be #000 in the Unova Pokédex, Missingno. jokes popped up quite quickly.
** Serebii confirmed!
*** [[{{Catchphrase}} Until Next Time, See Ya]]
** N died for your sins!
** [[WordOfGod Masuda stated]]
** Bouffalant, or "afro bull".
** [[OminousLatinChanting DEEEEEENNNNNNNNIS]]
*** [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS Hi, Mr. Wilson!]]
*** [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Obvious exits are: North, South, and...*see above*]]
** [[LargeHam "PLASMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"]]
*** "Plas-bad!"
** Among the many fake Pokémon released by fans during this generation, one has persisted as a meme. [[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/vpokemon/images/b/bb/2814i29.gif/revision/latest?cb=20120307001029 Sad Fish]], as it's called, became a sensation for its depressing looks.

** The main character (both [[FoeYay Hilda]] and [[HoYay Hilbert]]) x [[{{Bishonen}} N]] is quite popular, as is shipping the player characters together, especially compared to past main character couples. 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.

* FoeYay: [[spoiler:The entire [[FerrisWheelDateMoment ferris wheel scene with N]] has hints of this. Then there's his speech about the PC continuing their dreams at the end.]]

** Surprisingly, it's more so the ''male'' protagonist being shipped with a lot of Pokémon characters, mostly being ship off with [[FoeYay N]], [[DistaffCounterpart Hilda]], [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Bianca]], [[HoYay Cheren]], [[ChristmasCake Professor Juniper]], [[MsFanservice Skyla]], [[DefrostingIceQueen Caitlin]]... [[InterspeciesRomance also Snivy]] and [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent Reuniclus]] [[CrackPairing (NO, SERIOUSLY!)]].

* ShipToShipCombat: 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. The most notorious of these is the [[FoeYay N x Hilda]] vs. [[HoYay N x Hilbert]] vs. [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Hilbert x Hilda]] war, with DieForOurShip in full effect for the member of the triangle excluded from one's {{OTP}}.