• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

PokeAni Missed Opportunities

Not letting Torterra take on Paul’s Aggron.

Infernape didn’t need three kills on its resume. This would’ve been a way to not only give Torterra some justice by beating something even larger than itself, but would redeem it (beating a pokemon even Pikachu was having trouble with)
Same thing with Volkner’s gym. They could have let Torterra have some glory there especially with it being both newly evolved and having type advantage. Infernape did not need to have so much glory in that match.
 
OH, don’t get me started on that. what the hell were they thinking...
Yeah, I'm not nearly as fond of the DP series as a lot of people and that's one of the reasons; the Infernape shilling just got obnoxious. See the Lake Acuity battle where even Pikachu's vast experience can't get a single win but Chimchar can (although honestly Pikachu just performed badly in DP--I don't think he got the starring role in a single Gym win and getting to tie a Legendary at the end felt more like a way to make sure Infernape wasn't the one to fail in the end rather than anything fitting his role in that arc).
 
Yeah, I'm not nearly as fond of the DP series as a lot of people and that's one of the reasons; the Infernape shilling just got obnoxious. See the Lake Acuity battle where even Pikachu's vast experience can't get a single win but Chimchar can (although honestly Pikachu just performed badly in DP--I don't think he got the starring role in a single Gym win and getting to tie a Legendary at the end felt more like a way to make sure Infernape wasn't the one to fail in the end rather than anything fitting his role in that arc).
To be fair, Pikachu picked up Torterra’s slack in the very example I was using, but I agree with you.

I personally like that he wasn’t starring in Gyms. Compare that with Johto, where he would constantly snatch slots from other team members that desperately needed battle development (e.g. Noctowl, Totodile and Heracross) and I think it’s a better deal.
 
To be fair, Pikachu picked up Torterra’s slack in the very example I was using, but I agree with you.

I personally like that he wasn’t starring in Gyms. Compare that with Johto, where he would constantly snatch slots from other team members that desperately needed battle development (e.g. Noctowl, Totodile and Heracross) and I think it’s a better deal.
Honestly, rather than giving Pikachu more starring roles I'd have done closer to the opposite--have Ash put more focus on the whole "fresh start" idea from AG onward and use Pikachu very sparingly (and when he does come in performs very well thanks to all his experience). This way Pikachu doesn't need to reset and his other Pokémon can get more screen time.
 
I think that a better conclusion for the Unova League would have been Ash beating Cameron and going up against Virgil, with Virgil's final Pokémon being Eevee, which evolves into Sylveon and defeats Ash's final Pokémon. That would have been a cool way to foreshadow Kalos, give Ash and Virgil the battle they should have had, make Ash lose to a more competent opponent, and not make Ash's League ranking worse than the previous one.
 
Gotta say, it was a bit of a missed opportunity that Lusamine didn’t take part in the Alola League. The fact that Faba took part, there was nothing against those associated with Aether Paradise competing and she had a strong team being one of the only characters in the series with not just a full team but one where they were all fully evolved. Such a missed opportunity that they were only ever seen during the Aether Paradise arc.
 
May’s Bulba/Venusaur was very mishandled, I’d say. She was there mostly to promote FRLG (I think?), got dropped at Oak’s for a good portion of her starring series, and then when May came back she was shown fully evolved... in a static image... for a couple seconds. Nobody reacted to her existence whatsoever, she never appeared before or afterwards during the arc, and we never got to see, or hear about, those two evolutions of development. Oh well.
 
I have a feeling that if there were no remakes, May would not have gotten Kanto Pokemon and we would not have gotten the Battle Frontier Arc (at least, not in Kanto anyway).
Specially considering we don't know exactly what happened in DP's development, considering they started revealing Pokémon way too early (Munchlax was announced May 2004, while DP was revealed... June 2005?) with no game announcement in sight. It's kinda like what happened with GS, but more secretive.

And now that I think about it, I wonder how the anime would have continued had GS been released on their original intended date (aside from no Orange Islands season), although "Red being the seventh Gym Leader, and the leader of Kanto at that" part might have been kinda problematic.
 
In retrospect, I think that they gave May way too many non-third generation Pokemon for her team. Starting with Bulbasaur, her Pokemon were primarily to promote FR/LG and/or to hype up the then upcoming D/P games. I think that made it harder for her team to stand out, at least compared to other female leads' teams. Aside from Blaziken, May doesn't really have a lot of stand out third generation Pokemon on her team. I do still wish that she could have kept Bulbasaur around longer, especially when it really deserved more screentime, but I kind of wish that she had more third generation Pokemon in general as well.
 
In retrospect, I think that they gave May way too many non-third generation Pokemon for her team. Starting with Bulbasaur, her Pokemon were primarily to promote FR/LG and/or to hype up the then upcoming D/P games. I think that made it harder for her team to stand out, at least compared to other female leads' teams. Aside from Blaziken, May doesn't really have a lot of stand out third generation Pokemon on her team. I do still wish that she could have kept Bulbasaur around longer, especially when it really deserved more screentime, but I kind of wish that she had more third generation Pokemon in general as well.
Speaking of her Hoenn Pokémon, it was really strange how they just dumped her Beautifly when they went to Kanto. Even in the prospect of it having been to make room for her Kanto captures the decision made no sense since she instantly left her Bulbasaur with Professor Oak and as a result spent most of Kanto with only 5 Pokémon in her team. It’s especially weird considering Beautify was one of her ace contest Pokémon.
 
In retrospect, I think that they gave May way too many non-third generation Pokemon for her team. Starting with Bulbasaur, her Pokemon were primarily to promote FR/LG and/or to hype up the then upcoming D/P games. I think that made it harder for her team to stand out, at least compared to other female leads' teams. Aside from Blaziken, May doesn't really have a lot of stand out third generation Pokemon on her team. I do still wish that she could have kept Bulbasaur around longer, especially when it really deserved more screentime, but I kind of wish that she had more third generation Pokemon in general as well.
Skitty was actually quite iconic and it did stand out for a while, but the only problem was that it was left at home way too early.
 
May should have received Brock's Mudkip. She would have made better use of it then he did.

As for missed opportunities, Ash not getting a mega in XY still bothers me. It is even worse now that both Brock and Misty have keystones. The big attraction of generation six was mega evolution and how do you not let your main character utilized the main gimmick of the new games? The excuse about Ash not being able to use old Pokemon doesn't make sense IMO since the whole point of mega evolution was to give older Pokemon a boost.

I wonder how the anime would have continued had GS been released on their original intended date (aside from no Orange Islands season)

Johto would have turned out a lot better if it came directly after Kanto IMO. Most of the key plot points of OI (Ash's "redemption" and Charizard's storyline) could have been pushed into Johto along with the storyline with Gary. You could have had Ash win there and then start generation 3 fresh with a new lead (while Ash shifts into a different role similar to Yugi).
 
Last edited:
As for missed opportunities, Ash not getting a mega in XY still bothers me. It is even worse now that both Brock and Misty have keystones.
Yeah, it's really odd they got Mega Stones while Ash didn't despite him traveling through Kalos.

Johto would have turned out a lot better if it came directly after Kanto IMO. Most of the key plot points of OI (Ash's "redemption" and Charizard's storyline) could have been pushed into Johto along with the storyline with Gary. You could have had Ash win there and then start generation 3 fresh with a new lead (while Ash shifts into a different role similar to Yugi).
I've previously thought that ending Ash's badge quest with a win in Johto would have fit pretty well with the next generation of games not having transfer capabilities and would have given us the interesting plot with his Indigo League failure due to his flaws without dragging the story out as long as happened. I never thought of removing the OI (I actually really like that season) but moving it's plotlines and memorable episodes into Johto definitely could have helped with the Johto filler issue.
 
I've previously thought that ending Ash's badge quest with a win in Johto would have fit pretty well with the next generation of games not having transfer capabilities and would have given us the interesting plot with his Indigo League failure due to his flaws without dragging the story out as long as happened. I never thought of removing the OI (I actually really like that season) but moving it's plotlines and memorable episodes into Johto definitely could have helped with the Johto filler issue.

Yeah, I love the OI arc, so it pains me to have to say the series would have been better without it. But it is true IMO.

Ash redeeming himself after the embarrassment at the Indigo League, having a proper badge quest to contrast with Kanto, and earning Charizard's trust during Johto would have helped give that series more direction IMO.
 
Ash redeeming himself after the embarrassment at the Indigo League, having a proper badge quest to contrast with Kanto, and earning Charizard's trust during Johto would have helped give that series more direction IMO.
And the funny thing is, at least two things from Spaceworld made it into the anime: the fake Prof. Oak (or was it during OI?) and Gary mellowing out and working with Oak (since he was the one that originally gave the starters).

Not sure if both were an accident or if they were recycling ideas.
 
Speaking of her Hoenn Pokémon, it was really strange how they just dumped her Beautifly when they went to Kanto. Even in the prospect of it having been to make room for her Kanto captures the decision made no sense since she instantly left her Bulbasaur with Professor Oak and as a result spent most of Kanto with only 5 Pokémon in her team. It’s especially weird considering Beautify was one of her ace contest Pokémon.

I didn't mind that so much since Beautifly got a lot of screentime during the Hoenn portion of AG. I think that they wanted to give May a mostly fresh start in Kanto to mirror more of Ash's style. It was fine for Beautifly and Skitty when those were her main Pokemon for Contests and it gave her the chance to use different Pokemon, but they were still too set on May having a much smaller team for some reason.

Skitty was actually quite iconic and it did stand out for a while, but the only problem was that it was left at home way too early.

I never really considered Skitty iconic among third generation Pokemon. It was one of the standout Pokemon for May's team, but I didn't think it stood out too much beyond that.

May should have received Brock's Mudkip. She would have made better use of it then he did.

In retrospect, I think that Brock's Mudkip had better screentime than I expected it to have upon rewatching AG. It was still pretty minimal for a starter Pokemon and Ludicolo stood out a lot more to me personality wise, but I don't think it blended into the background as much as I thought it did. Giving it to May would have been a better choice though. She needed more Hoenn Pokemon and a Water type before Squirtle could have given her performances a bit more variety, but I'm not surprised that they didn't go that route. I don't know if any main character besides Ash would have multiple starters in one team.

game3524 said:
As for missed opportunities, Ash not getting a mega in XY still bothers me. It is even worse now that both Brock and Misty have keystones. The big attraction of generation six was mega evolution and how do you not let your main character utilized the main gimmick of the new games? The excuse about Ash not being able to use old Pokemon doesn't make sense IMO since the whole point of mega evolution was to give older Pokemon a boost.

I think it did come down to how they basically didn't want Ash to use older Pokemon, which clashes with the point behind Mega Evolution. It is kind of strange that they went all into Z-Moves for Ash, but in that case, I think it helped that it wasn't limited to specific Pokemon. He could effectively use any Z-Crystal with any of his Pokemon as long as they knew a type specific move. The same can be said for Dynamax as well and Gigantamax would be more along the lines of Mega Evolution in the sense that it's limited to specific Pokemon.
 
Please note: The thread is from 3 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom