History YMMV / PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Faba acting as TheAtoner out of genuine shame for his actions and a desire to better himself, after having an offscreen HeelRealization? Or is he only using CrocodileTears because he's desperate to keep his job in any form and avoid prison time, potentially even biding his time for [[TheStarscream another attempt at overthrowing Lusamine]]? Faba's willingness to use hypnosis to cheat in the Alola League, like he did during his time as a villain, shows at the very least he doesn't see all of his actions from that time as amoral...

* DesignatedMonkey: Ash in this series is seen as this by some people. While past series did give him some ButtMonkey qualities, the comedic and slapstick tone of Alola, as well as Ash's FishOutOfWater status, means that he ends up receiving far more comedic abuse than even his co-protagonists, such as in episodes like "Treasure Hunt, Akala Style" (where his Stoutland yanked down his pants and repeatedly [[BigFriendlyDog licked him at every opportunity]] while the others were all serious) or "Real Life...Inquire Within" (where Ash is forced to crossdress while Kiawe and Sophocles are not for seemingly no reason other than humor). Given that Ash is still the usual NiceGuy he's always been for the most part in ''SM'' and rarely deserves such punishment, treating him like a punching bag feels undeserved for a part of the audience. This does get downplayed by ''Ultra Legends'' where Ash screws up less often and the slapstick is more indiscriminate, and Ash also gets the ultimate bone throw of [[spoiler: winning the Alola league, while several of the other students are rather quickly eliminated]].

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Faba acting as TheAtoner out of genuine shame for his actions and a desire to better himself, after having an offscreen HeelRealization? Or is he only using CrocodileTears because he’s desperate to keep his job in any form and avoid prison time, potentially even biding his time for [[TheStarscream another attempt at overthrowing Lusamine]]? Faba’s willing to use hypnosis to cheat in the Alola League, like he did during his time as a villain, shows at the very least he doesn’t see all of his actions from that time as amoral…
* ArcFatigue: The trials. With huge gaps in between each of Ash's trials (albeit to deal with other plot points), it makes what most consider the main plot feel relegated to C-Plot status. [[note]]There is a 38-episode gap between Ash's grand trial with Olivia and his first attempt at a grand trial with Nanu, which rivals some of the gaps between Ash's Gym battles in Sinnoh.[[/note]] It's a bit more glaring than in previous series due to the fact that Ash isn't WalkingTheEarth and normally stays put on Melemele Island where he attends school (with occasional visits to Akala). Basically, Ash made progress in the island challenge [[CosmicDeadline when the writers felt like they showcased the newest game plot point and tie-in long enough]].

** Ash's decoy strategy with Rowlet was viewed by many as outright cheating and especially given how it somehow worked while inside Venusaur's flower.
** Also from the Alola League [[spoiler: Hau is declared winner of his battle against Ash, but once Hala discovers Rowlet was only sleeping and not fainted he persuades the ref to overturn the ruling. This runs counter to every prior series which indicated all ref calls were final and non-negotiable. Furthermore, Rowlet taking a nap could be seen as him not taking the match seriously and choosing to forfeit the match, [[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries like Charizard did during the Indigo League]]. So Ash should’ve lost the match on two counts, yet he’s given the opportunity to wake up Rowlet and turn the battle around.]]

* ContestedSequel: Perhaps the biggest case of this in the anime. Fans either praise it for breaking from a stale formula, having a much more expressive art style, animation and cast, its lighthearted and comedic tone and its focus on slice of life, or dislike it for being directionless and poorly paced, several old and new characters being mishandled or poorly represented, the downgrade in battle presentation, and seemingly putting more focus on incidental stuff than what should be the main plot. There's little middle ground to be found.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Faba acting as TheAtoner out of genuine shame for his actions and a desire to better himself, after having an offscreen HeelRealization? Or is he only using CrocodileTears because he’s desperate to keep his job in any form and avoid prison time, potentially even biding his time for [[TheStarscream another attempt at overthrowing Lusmaine]]? Faba’s willing to use hypnosis to cheat in the Alola League, like he did during his time as a villain, shows at the very least he doesn’t see all of his actions from that time as amoral…

** Also from the Alola Leauge [[spoiler: Hau is declared winner of his battle against Ash, but once Hala discovers Rowlet was only sleeping and not fainted he persuades the ref to overturn the ruling. This runs counter to every prior series which indicated all ref calls were final and non-negotiable. Furthermore, Rowlet taking a nap could be seen as him not taking the match seriously and choosing to forfeit the match, [[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries like Charizard did during the Indigo League]]. So Ash should’ve lost the match on two counts, yet he’s given the opportunity to wake up Rowlet and turn the battle around.]]

** Also from the Alola Leauge [[spoiler: Hau is declared winner of his battle against Ash, but once Hala discovers Rowlet was only sleeping and not fainted he persuades the ref to overturn the ruling. This runs counter to every prior series which indicated all ref calls were final and non-negotiable. Furthermore, Rowlet taking a nap could be seen as him not taking the match seriously and choosing to forfeit the match, like [[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries like Charizard did during the Indigo League]]. So Ash should’ve lost the match on two counts, yet he’s given the opportunity to wake up Rowlet and turn the battle around.]]

** Also from the Alola Leauge [[spoiler: Hau is declared winner of his battle against Ash, but once Hala discovers Rowlet was only sleeping and not fainted he persuades the ref to overturn the ruling. This runs counter to every prior series which indicated all ref calls were final and non-negotiable. Furthermore, Rowlet taking a nap could be seen as him not taking the match seriously and choosing to forfeit the match, like [[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries like Charizard did during the Indigo League]]. So Ash should’ve lost the match on two counts, yet he’s given the opportunity to turn the battle around.]]

* AssPull: Ash's decoy strategy with Rowlet was viewed by many as outright cheating and especially given how it somehow worked while inside Venusaur's flower.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretatio: Is Faba acting as TheAtoner out of genuine shame of his actions and a desire to better himself, after having an offscreen HeelRealization? Or is he only using CrocodileTears because he’s desperate to keep his job in any form and avoid prison time, potentially even biding his time for [[TheStarscream another attempt at overthrowing Lusmaine]]? Faba’s willing to use hypnosis to cheat in the Alola League, like he did during his time as a villain, shows at the very least he doesn’t see all of his actions from that time as amoral…

AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is '''really''' acting as TheAtoner after having an offscreen HeelRealization, or is he only using CrocodileTears because he’s desperate to keep his job in any form and avoid prison time? Faba’s willing to use hypnosis to cheat in the Alola League, like he did during his time as a villain, shows at the very least he doesn’t see all of his actions from that time as amoral.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** ''Sun & Moon'' sees Ash having his largest group of friends yet with, including him, a group of ''six''. However, it seems clear that the writers either have their favorites or simply can't handle that many characters at once. As a result, some of them tend to be OutOfFocus. One of the worst offenders is Mallow who, besides her Bounsweet fully evolving into Tsareena and her backstory development with her mother and Shaymin, seemed to have been left aside, remaining fairly stagnant as a trainer, and only getting her Z-Ring very shortly before the Alola league at the end of the series, as the Grass Trial was taken by Ash so that his Rowlet could have a Grassium Z first. While Sophocles, Lana, and Kiawe fare relatively better, they're all outshined by Lillie, who is the only one to receive a fair amount of presence to the story as the {{Deuteragonist}}, and even she ends up OutOfFocus to some degree in the later half.
** It takes a while for Team Skull to show off any real importance other than just being a mere nuisance to the main cast. While many in the games also saw the Team as such, the anime almost makes them look like total pushovers who were DemotedToExtra compared to their game counterparts, with most of the stuff they would be expected to do done by Team Rocket instead. It doesn't help that, even after ''two years'' of the ''Sun & Moon'' series and both [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Motherbeast Lusamine]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon Necrozma]] received arcs in the series (the former of which happened [[AdaptedOut without their involvement]]), it took until ''episode 115'' for [[BigBad Guzma]] to finally appear. The fact that [[TheDragon Plumeria]]'s long awaited debut only happened in ''episode 104'' and consisted of only appearing for a few seconds without being named or doing anything only fanned the flames further for some fans. When Plumeria finally does battle in the Alola League, she is quickly eliminated by Ilima in the preliminary round.
** Hau, the [[TheRival main rival]] of the ''Sun & Moon'' games, is another example of DemotedToExtra, with Gladion instead being Ash's main rival. Like Guzma and Plumeria, Hau was introduced really late into the anime (episode 97) and ends up with a total of ''just one episode'' to build up his character before the start of the Alola League, which is when he finally reappears. What you're left with is Hau coming off as just an unimportant OneShotCharacter who was lucky enough to make a comeback for the league.
** Mallow's Shaymin. Even considering Mallow herself is already an arguable qualifier (see above), her Mythical Pokémon was left ''incredibly'' underplayed through its run in ''Sun and Moon''. It only got ''one'' proper limelight episode to develop and only battled ''once'' in its entire run ''offscreen'', only getting to utilize its Aromatherapy a couple of times otherwise. Even its release was done rather quickly at the very end of the series finale. Its lack of story relevance is especially jarring given the implication that [[spoiler:Shaymin is in fact ''Mallow's mother reincarnated'']].
** Sandy, the Eevee that wound up on the Alolan Islands. Eevee had a lot of hype surrounding it at first due to how it had its own six clip mini-series that showed off Eevee's arrival in Alola. Many figured that Eevee was possibly going to be caught by Ash to take up the empty spot in his party, but it ended up going to Lana instead. At first, people were willing to let go of this to see how Eevee developed under Lana but, as it turned out, ''nothing'' was done with it. Apart from Lana giving it a nickname and haircut moments after capturing it, Sandy simply remained OutOfFocus for the rest of the series to the point that it didn't have a single notable battle under Lana's command besides the aforementioned mostly offscreen Battle Royal alongside Shaymin, which left people feeling that Sandy was completely wasted as a part of Lana's team instead of going to Ash. Many were even theorizing that Sandy was probably going to evolve into Vaporeon at some point given how Lana is a trainer who specializes in Water types, but the series didn't even do that.
** Lana appeared to be the owner of a Ride Lapras in early points of the Alola series. Unlike even the other Ride Pokémon the students use, however, Lapras never really gets any proper limelight and largely disappears altogether by the second half. It is notably the only Pokémon of the students that doesn't take part in the Alola League. It's also particularly odd when you consider that they had no issue with expanding on the [[BreakoutCharacter Charizard]] that Kiawe was using as his Ride Pokémon to it eventually becoming a Pokémon that Kiawe uses for battle, yet the same wasn't done for Lana's Ride Lapras.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** In "Mounting an Electrifying Charge!", many fans were displeased that Charjabug was in a go-cart race rather than the trainers themselves. It would have been fun to see something like ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''.
** Team Rocket for once not only getting access to a powerful Pokemon that can match Pikachu, but even the region's power-up gimmick goes underused most of the time. They only actually use their Z-Move against the twerps a couple of times, even when the situation would be ideal, while most of Mimikyu's spats with Pikachu are hindered by Bewear's constant interruptions. Besides that, they are often stuck in the usual rut of {{Curbstomp Battle}}s with only the occasional NotSoHarmless moment, which is especially glaring when half the protagonists are very low on battle experience.

* FollowTheLeader: ''Sun & Moon'', with its GenreShift towards slice-of-life comedy as opposed to action and adventure, along with DenserAndWackier animation, is often seen as an attempt to ape ''Anime/YokaiWatch'', which in Japan rivaled and even ''outdid'' the success of ''Pokémon'' (especially the movies, of which ''Pokémon'' has suffered diminishing box office returns) around the time ''Sun and Moon'' came out.

* AccidentalAesop: Given that [[spoiler:Ash finally winning a league, and would later go on to become ''the strongest champion in the anime'']] all happened to started from the series he attends school, many have (somewhat jokingly) suggested that the overall Aesop of ''Sun and Moon'' is to stay in school if you want to succeed.

* AccidentalAesop: Given that [[spoiler:the series where Ash finally wins a league, and would later go on to become ''the strongest champion in the anime'']] all happened to started from the series he attends school, many have (somewhat jokingly) suggested that the overall Aesop of ''Sun and Moon'' is to stay in school if you want to succeed.

* AccidentalAesop: Given that [[spoiler:the series where Ash finally wins a league]] is also the one where he attends school, many have (somewhat jokingly) suggested that the overall Aesop of ''Sun and Moon'' is to stay in school if you want to succeed.

* ArcFatigue: The trials. With huge gaps in between each of Ash's trials (albeit to deal with other plot points), it makes what most consider the main plot feel relegated to C-Plot status. [[note]]There is a 38-episode gap between Ash's grand trial with Olivia and his first attempt at a grand trial with Nanu, which rivals some of the gaps between Ash's Gym battles in Sinnoh.[[/note]] It's a bit more glaring than in previous series due to the fact that Ash isn't WalkingTheEarth and normally stays put on Melemele Island where he attends school (with occasional visits to Akala). Basically, Ash advanced his Island Trails [[CosmicDeadline when the writers felt like they showcased the newest game plot point and tie-in long enough]].

* WereStillRelevantDammit: ''Sun & Moon'', with its GenreShift towards slice-of-life comedy as opposed to action and adventure, along with DenserAndWackier animation, is often seen as an attempt to ape ''Anime/YokaiWatch'', which in Japan rivaled and even ''outdid'' the success of ''Pokémon'' (especially the movies, of which ''Pokémon'' has suffered diminishing box office returns) around the time ''Sun and Moon'' came out.