PokeAni Missed Opportunities

[Daenerys]

On that train of thought, Haunter and Larvitar too. He should have caught them--they were staring him right in the face!

I dunno, it seems kinda cold to want Ash to keep Larvitar when he was given the task of bringing Larvitar to its mother in the first place. I wouldn't have wanted Ash to be selfish and separate those two again.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I've brought up this subject before, but the anime has missed a lot of opportunities in not showing some important game locations or giving them way less focus than what they deserved. Today, I am going to focus on Cinnabar Island.

Excluding the Gym, which was guaranteed to appear, only one of Cinnabar Island's two main attractions appeared in the anime, namely the Pokémon Lab, and even it was stripped of everything that made it interesting in the games. Instead of a research lab capable of resurrecting fossilized Pokémon, it was depicted basically as a literal Pokémon gym, with nothing as much as hinting towards the idea of research being done in there.

And the Pokémon Mansion. I can easily forgive that it couldn't be connected to Mewtwo's creation in the anime canon, but still: it's a burned-down, abandoned mansion. That kind of setting has great potential! Besides, with season 1's love for mansions, it wouldn't have seemed out of place at all!

But nope! Let's make the entire place a tourist trap, with the most significant character who keeps complaining about tourists ruining the island being a hypocrite who runs an inn himself.

 

[Greninjaman]

I dunno, it seems kinda cold to want Ash to keep Larvitar when he was given the task of bringing Larvitar to its mother in the first place. I wouldn't have wanted Ash to be selfish and separate those two again.

I agree. Ash would have been no better than the poachers if he had caught it.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I agree. Ash would have been no better than the poachers if he had caught it.

I don't think he would have been that bad. If Larvitar wanted to stay with Ash and its mother was okay with it knowing that her child was at least safe and happy, then I think it would have been different. Granted, it's kind of moot where they'd have to change the arc completely to justify Ash catching Larvitar, but I don't think he would have been on the same level as the poachers who stole it in the first place.

 

[Greninjaman]

I don't think he would have been that bad. If Larvitar wanted to stay with Ash and its mother was okay with it knowing that her child was at least safe and happy, then I think it would have been different. Granted, it's kind of moot where they'd have to change the arc completely to justify Ash catching Larvitar, but I don't think he would have been on the same level as the poachers who stole it in the first place.

Well, when you put that way, yeah. I am saying it would be if ash caught it before returning it.

 

[El Squibbonator]

I dunno, it seems kinda cold to want Ash to keep Larvitar when he was given the task of bringing Larvitar to its mother in the first place. I wouldn't have wanted Ash to be selfish and separate those two again.

They could have done an arc where Ash tries to give it back to its mother, but once Tyranitar sees how well Ash took care of it she tells it to stay with him. Sort of like Toucannon and Rowlet.

 

[Daenerys]

They could have done an arc where Ash tries to give it back to its mother, but once Tyranitar sees how well Ash took care of it she tells it to stay with him. Sort of like Toucannon and Rowlet.

But that would've made the whole mini-arc about reuniting Larvitar with its mom completely pointless if it would've just stayed with Ash in the end. I'm also struggling to see the point of Ash keeping Larvitar when it would've just been ditched at Oak's lab a dozen episodes later after the Johto league anyway, because there's no way Ash would've taken Larvitar with him to Hoenn.

 

[Hidden Mew]

If the Larvitar arc was done much earlier in Johto, I could kind of understand why people would have wanted Ash to capture it. They could have made it similar to Lapras where Ash could catch it, but still release it back with its mother at the end of Johto. But since Ash had already gotten all eight Johto badges, was on his way to the Johto League and would leave all of his Pokemon aside from Pikachu at Professor Oak's Lab just a few episodes later, there would be virtually no point in Ash capturing Larvitar. It wouldn't have any time to really shine, get any noteworthy battles or have enough time for its strength to be believable.

 

[Rockapheller]

Not giving Serena a Furfrou. The two could carry a big potential.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Haunter was definitely one.

Seriously, they were obsessed with weird visual gags back then, this guy could’ve performed most of them in a way that didn’t hinder the story and made sense (unlike the repetitive and annoying Psyduck gag or Jigglypuff jumping out of a wormhole every now and then).

And it was a way of showcasing ghosts and give Ash a sixth team member that had an actual personality, unlike Pidgeotto.

 

[Daenerys]

Not giving Serena a Furfrou. The two could carry a big potential.

It's literally a gimmick Pokemon that was only made to showcase haircuts. What potential was there for such a finicky Pokemon whose only appeal relies on constantly getting trimmed, which is purely an aesthetic form change anyway?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Lillie should have used that Ice Stone she got to evolve Snowy. Why was she even given one, if she was never going to use it?

 

[matt0044]

Lillie should have used that Ice Stone she got to evolve Snowy. Why was she even given one, if she was never going to use it?

I feel the writers put it in while debating if they should evolve Snowy or not during the writing. If they decided they wanted to, they'd write an episode about it and have just the plot device on standby. If not, well, never mind then.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Lillie should have used that Ice Stone she got to evolve Snowy. Why was she even given one, if she was never going to use it?

While it was strange to introduce the possibility to evolve Snowy and not follow up on it, I didn't really have a problem with it. Snowy really didn't have a lot of battling experience and even by the Alola League, its only offensive move was still Powered Snow. I think that making it evolve would feel more forced than anything else. Alolan Ninetales is gorgeous, but I don't think that Snowy needed to become one. I think it should have learned a new offensive Ice type move like Ice Beam or Ice Shard instead. Ice Beam would have been a more powerful move so that Lillie didn't just have to bank on mastering her Z-Move for the Alola League. Ice Shard also could have fit pretty nicely with Snowy's more defensive moveset while still offering a bit more power than Powered Snow.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

While it was strange to introduce the possibility to evolve Snowy and not follow up on it, I didn't really have a problem with it. Snowy really didn't have a lot of battling experience and even by the Alola League, its only offensive move was still Powered Snow. I think that making it evolve would feel more forced than anything else. Alolan Ninetales is gorgeous, but I don't think that Snowy needed to become one. I think it should have learned a new offensive Ice type move like Ice Beam or Ice Shard instead. Ice Beam would have been a more powerful move so that Lillie didn't just have to bank on mastering her Z-Move for the Alola League. Ice Shard also could have fit pretty nicely with Snowy's more defensive moveset while still offering a bit more power than Powered Snow.

I admit that Snowy could've used a more powerful Ice move than Powder Snow, but I just don't see an Alolan Ninetales being unsuitable for Lillie, and I hope she'll end up using the Ice Stone one day.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Learning a new move and evolving isn’t mutually exclusive either way, in fact, most of the time evolution is accompanied with a brand new move.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

In the last episode of SM, Lilie should gave Satoshi her doll, which would explain how it magically appeared in his room. Hoshi should have appear too.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

In the last episode of SM, Lilie should gave Satoshi her doll, which would explain how it magically appeared in his room.

Would have been a nice game reference.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I admit that Snowy could've used a more powerful Ice move than Powder Snow, but I just don't see an Alolan Ninetales being unsuitable for Lillie, and I hope she'll end up using the Ice Stone one day.

I don't think that Alolan Ninetales was unsuitable for Lillie. I just don't think that it was necessary for it to evolve despite Lillie having an Ice Stone. The bulk of Snowy's screentime was spent in Lillie's arms. It wasn't as bad as Sandy or Shaymin in that regard, especially when it did contribute heavily to Lillie overcoming her fear of touching Pokemon, but it still didn't really get to do a lot. Having Snowy evolve off-screen so that it is an Alolan Ninetales when/if Lillie shows up again could work. I just don't think they needed to do that before the end of SM.

Learning a new move and evolving isn’t mutually exclusive either way, in fact, most of the time evolution is accompanied with a brand new move.

While that is true, I think that would also risk feeling kind of cheap, at least in Snowy's case. It shouldn't need to evolve in order to learn a stronger attack. Considering that Snowy rarely battled, suddenly learning Ice Beam after becoming an Alolan Ninetales wouldn't really feel earned.

 

[ii kanji]

Hmm this thread might have a lot more use once again now that we are apparently reliving the Battle Frontier saga again, but with all 7 previous regions this time

"Why didn't they reference Ash's Bulbasaur in Episode 3..."
.etc .etc ad infinitum