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PokeAni Missed Opportunities

Say what you will about Alain beating Ash but at least our hero was defeated by a character who was established WAY before the league began.

No matter how much it's justified, Ash's League rivals are always just plot devices roped into the story in order to prevent him from even reaching the Elite Four and despite there being good battles, there's an underlying cheapness in terms of storytelling.

What I would like to see done is an rival who starts out losing to Ash only to beat him in the league. Maybe a meek little kid like Wally if they adapted him into AG. Hell, Trip could've been that easily if they weren't trying to create the poor man's Paul.
 
Say what you will about Alain beating Ash but at least our hero was defeated by a character who was established WAY before the league began.

What I would like to see done is an rival who starts out losing to Ash only to beat him in the league. Maybe a meek little kid like Wally if they adapted him into AG. Hell, Trip could've been that easily if they weren't trying to create the poor man's Paul.

Sawyer is what Trip SHOULD have been.
 
I think the most obvious is having Ash win the Johto league, become champion, and have Advanced be about Brendan or May, and then rotate the protagonists every new generation.
 
Sawyer is what Trip SHOULD have been.
Speaking of whom, was Sawyer Alolan? I mean, he honestly looks like Hau's younger brother. Were they planning on building up Alola with the character?
 
Speaking of whom, was Sawyer Alolan? I mean, he honestly looks like Hau's younger brother. Were they planning on building up Alola with the character?
Doubtful, since Sawyer's from Hoenn. I wouldn't expect anything more than a cousin.
 
Technically this isn't a missed opportunity, but it will probably never happen in the current season.

Now what if Elios (Sun) and Selene (Moon) were the two trainers who Professor Oak mentioned giving up on their journey. Both of them move to Alola Region to learn more about Pokemon and because they're more confident in their skills as trainers.
 
Now what if Elios (Sun) and Selene (Moon) were the two trainers who Professor Oak mentioned giving up on their journey. Both of them move to Alola Region to learn more about Pokemon and because they're more confident in their skills as trainers.
Wait, have the player characters from Sun and Moon been given proper default names already?

I already named the latter "Luna."
 
How come they didn't have the Battle Frontier take place on the Sevii Islands? I mean, seven facilities, seven islands. It practically wrote itself and they wanted to advertised FRLG's latest features.
 
Why didn't they use Lisia for the Performances? You'd think that she'd make a nice rival for Serena. Maybe alter her to be a real catty b-tch in the vein of Ursula. Now that'd be a blast.
 
If i started to list all missed chances and potential for great storylines in pokemon anime it would take me several days to go in detail about each and every one of them.
So ill narrow down choices only to select few, but very outstanding in my opinion plots or subplots which unfortunately due to wrong priorities or lack of insight coming from this series staff were wasted and abandoned:

1.) Ash connection to Aura Guardians never being handled with any care or serious attention. Whole beginning coming from 8th movie followed by episodes with Riley in DP presenting Ash in light of one of descendants. Holding in himself special gift and power to sense aura and even manipulate it to certain degree gave us interesting snippet of what could have grown in profound and creative storyline.

Introducing in Ash life burden, sense of responsibility and dilemma of having to choose between his love of traveling, training and continuously battling with pokemon. Or follow tradition and allow his innate abilities to develop in something bigger over time.

If anything it was chance to deliver more depth to Ash characterization and possibly learn more about his past. Like maybe Ash father has such sparks of this hidden ability too. Perhaps Ash is reincarnation of famous Aura Guardian from past times giving explanation behind having this special power in first place etc.
But in end writers dropped it never to be heard from again. Talking about bad writing.

2.)Serena becoming pokemon performer. It was imo most boring goal any of Ash traveling companions ever had. Very generic, limiting in what you can do with such type of occupation and sexist in a way as well.
Especially with whole rule of only girls being allowed to compete or being centered around traditional activities expected from every good housewife to possess.

Instead Serena should have became either professional pokemon racer. But in using all kind of pokemon. Not just Ryhorn. Effectively removing danger of this activities becoming monotonous, but also still going in line of subplot over Serena becoming rebellious in not wanting to stick with family tradition.
Based on all kind of races we had in past in pokemon series i think this kind of goal had potential to be very engaging to follow. Like water based race using water pokemon, air race using flying type, race on ground implemented with obstacles using two leg or four leg pokemon like Tropius, Rhyhorn or Lairon)giving Serena flexible and filled with options team marketing new games successfully through it. All done with purpose of mastering balance, strength and skill in riding pokemon building on character and storyline being something original and definitely more interesting to follow than showcases.

Or they could just spare both Serena and us this wasted time lost on pokemon performing and made Serena pokemon coordinator in first place. Considering she basically in end decided to become that dropping whole goal of pokemon performer and development coming from it away.

3.)Misty not staying for longer. Now to some being around for 5 seasons and 2 full sagas may have seemed like "more than enough". But was it really?
Explanation:
Because Misty was also in pokemon anime during time writers experimented and directors themselves who were in charge weren't even sure for how long pokemon series will air.
There existed lot of disagreements, inconsistencies and lack of communication between directors and writers as Takeshi Shudo in his blogs pointed out. Regarding in what direction to take pokemon anime and characters themselves.

It also didn't helped that during OS formula of this show was entirely different being much more about Ash journey and his loyal friends(Misty and Brock)helping him to catch ropes and grow in stronger and wiser both person and trainer.
Accompanied with fact of anime being much, much more about adventure, development of personalities and relationships between characters. Humor or mysteries waiting to be discovered in pokemon world.
Rather than goals, battling etc being given equal amount of care as well.
Which did resulted in great dynamic and unique , somewhat eclectic atmosphere show had going for it in older days. But it also negatively reflected on way Ash companions individual storylines were handled.

And Misty storyline, her own motives, desires and secrets dwelling in past left a lot more to be desired. Never staying long enough to explore her and her pokemon to reasonable degree and eventually provide some proper closure to her plots and place in pokemon universe.
Like whole shrouded with enigma goal of water pokemon master with Whirl Cup revealing how winning big water tournaments making name for yourself among others is precondition to achieve this with Alola or Hoenn seeing how water rich they are/were being perfect for that. Misty high ambitions of reaching E4 level living up to E4 Lorelei her idol offering path to become elite trainer apprentice after passing tests.
Many unanswered things about Misty history like bugs, what happened with parents spending childhood without them, having lot more challenges to overcome learning to use pokemon to full potential(like Psyduck).

Mega evolve her Gyarados reaching new level of power, meet first E4 trainer using pure water pokemon Siebold from Kalos. Who is water master in games and could train Misty to develop innovative battle techniques and better understand flaws and strength of water pokemon.

All around many of later down the line water plots and themes games introduced could have been utilized or displayed in more productive manner (especially current Alola islands giving resources to create all kind of special competitions such as underwater battling supporting aquatic types, races etc) .
If said character was allowed to stay for longer or at least remained existent through recurring type of role.

4.)Tracey as character was one big wasted opportunity. We have no idea from where he came, what are his roots, family. How he got any of pokemon, nothing. Tracey ended up introduced as one big mystery and sadly remained that way. His path of liking to observe and photograph wild pokemon in their natural habitat being watcher while not especially attractive did offered some additional and welcomed breathe of fresh air among other main characters who were focused more around more traditional sways in exploring and utilizing pokemon.

Feeling there existed some potential to create some path line of progression and development for Tracey himself. Especially after becoming professor Oak assistant. Providing credible possibility to be sent on various journeys and missions by delivering Oak errands to other professors and researchers. While getting to know more about unknown pokemon species and undiscovered regions that way himself.

Tracey is classic example of character who was completely screwed over only because of failing to become popular among audience. Which to make irony greater never really even gave him chance being hated from day one.
 
One thing about the PokeAni is how the world-building feels too heavy-handed sometimes. There's a time for exposition but Brock/Cilan/Clemont constantly interrupt the flow of battles with their play-by-plays. Cut most of them out and you'd lose very little. It's a little thing called "Show, Don't Tell." Maybe have the commentary after the dust has settled.

This goes for episodes that are nothing but world-building. We could focus on the characters themselves but instead they're often the third wheel to a Character Of The Day.

Also... was Pierce suppose to die in the Team Plasma vs. Team Rocket two parter? Because there's suddenly absolutely no sign of him during Ash's third gym battle episode.
 
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Steven Stone would've made for a good Hoenn League Rival for Ash to lose to if Wallace had to be the Champion to correspond with Emerald.
 
Making Ash finally win the League during a time the Pokémon franchise was experiencing a big resurgence. But it seems the writers take the fanbase for granted.

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You know?

When they had the arc with N, they could have expended more on his vision. They could have brought up questions about the morality of making Pokémon battles and storing them in Poké Balls for example.

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It's a darn shame that Janine could've appeared in Johto. Hell, I kinda wish Misty changed her hair-do to correspond with her game counterpart at the time but that's just me.
 
Why was Meyer a superhero to begin with? Like... did he just get bored and decided to jump around in a bad Batman ripoff?
I wonder.
Maybe it was a way to promote Mega Blaziken, since it seems Blaziken is popular.

But they never told us why he did it.

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It's a darn shame that Janine could've appeared in Johto. Hell, I kinda wish Misty changed her hair-do to correspond with her game counterpart at the time but that's just me.

We already had Aya, her anime counterpart.

Why was Meyer a superhero to begin with? Like... did he just get bored and decided to jump around in a bad Batman ripoff?

According to comic book cliches: his wife is murdered by crooks.
 
We already had Aya, her anime counterpart.

Janine could've been her sister. :/

I honestly think that AZ would've made for a pretty darn unique companion. I mean, hey, Ash would have a fellow immortal to relate to.
 
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