I should just get over the Gen3 hate now, but I'll never be truely over it. FRLG was handled horrably. They didn't let Hoenn finish properly first, which fucked over the Anime and Card Game.
The Anime was bogged down by the fact they had to promote both at the same time, hence the mess that is the Battle Fronteir Arc, which had the Hoenn Battle Frontier in Kanto. Yeah. While the Anime isn't exactly the basis of logic in our universe, this was just silly.
Oh, but did the TCG get messed about. Not only from the whole FRLG before Emerald, but a movie and a translation problem. First, FRLG get a total of two sets. Yep, 2. Emerald has the exact same, in reverse order due to a movie. No, EX Unseen Forces was not an Emerald Set, and clearly wasn't intended as, it's either a GS reference or a reference to the two 'cube games, the prior is more likely. Legend Maker was a Prelude to the Delta Species Era and an end to the ex Era.
Now let's look how well Nintendo handled Gen 4. The Anime has switched the costumes to Platinum and continued with Shinnoh. No problem there. Ash has obtained the 7th Shinnoh Badge. The Battle Frontier is shared bewteen Shinnoh and Jhoto, so there is no spatial problems like there was with Gen 3.
Card game? Well, I love the way it was handled. Seven sets to handle ALL(then) 492 Pokemon. 4 to handle Platinum, also handling the 'Team', the Gym Leaders, the Elite 4 and the Battle Frontier, with it's finaly celebrating the final Gen 4 Event Monster, Arceus. After that? Totaly new block starting with HeartGold SoulSilver.
So yeah, second time around they got it right.
