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PokeAni Missed Opportunities

I just think it's strange how people overreact to Erika handing Ash the Rainbow badge out of gratitude for him saving her Pokemon, yet I don't remember nearly as much outrage when we found out that Volkner was literally handing Beacon badges for free in the first Sunyshore episode. I just went through the episode review thread of that episode and only a few people seemed bothered by that compared to how many old school fans drag Erika for what she did even to this day.
There’s probably less reaction since the Erika incident happened to Ash, our protagonist, whereas he actually ended up battling Volkner himself. I’m not endorsing any of them but that might be the reason Volkner is not prominent.
And there were actually nuanced reason for Volkner not to battle (losing interest) and Ash had to reignite it, whereas Erika's reason to not battle sounds much more shallow (not having the same taste as her in perfume). One was a character flaw/burnout/issue that was actually resolved, whereas other was arrogance which was never resolved. Even though she thanks Ash for saving her Pokémon and gives him a badge, she never learnt to accept criticism.

Never thought I’d ever use that word but I’ve probably found the one that explains 99.99% of your arguments- whataboutism. You keep bringing people's reactions that happened 5+ years ago to justify something right now, for all you know the user you’re talking to was not even present on the forums discussing episodes at the time.
 
I just think it's strange how people overreact to Erika handing Ash the Rainbow badge out of gratitude for him saving her Pokemon, yet I don't remember nearly as much outrage when we found out that Volkner was literally handing Beacon badges for free in the first Sunyshore episode.
That wasn't controversial because Ash never took one of those free Badges. He actively insisted on having an actual battle to truly earn his Beacon Badge. Unlike with Erika, where he was just happy to get his Badge without wanting to properly end their interrupted battle.
 
It's weird when you think about some of the implications behind the "pity badges"; Gym Leaders seem to have a lot of leeway in giving badges. Kanto alone also shows how little oversight they have:
*Surge keeps sending challengers to the ER
*Sabrina turns people into dolls
*Erika's junior trainers ban people for complaining about perfume
*Blaine hid his gym and almost killed Pikachu
*After Viridian City's leader vanishes they have an Elite Four member take over. Something tells me there were not a ton of Earth Badges given that year.
Honestly I bet the league knows Giovanni is the leader of Team Rocket and just don't care.
Though maybe that explains Mandy; perhaps he made generous donations to the Gym Leaders. :bulbaWave:
*
A smaller one, but I wish they'd given Brock and Misty some of their G/S Pokémon in Johto, although in Brock's case I suppose it's because his whole GS party were from Kanto but it could have been interesting to see him end up with Kabutops and Omastar somehow, or at least let Geodude evolve.
 
Recently, I learned something that made me even more sad that we never got the Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma two-parter: the creative team behind the second part.

Screenplay: Atsuhiro Tomioka
Storyboard: Yūji Asada
Directing: Yūji Asada
Animation: Masaaki Iwane

Some of the best creative staff behind the Pokémon anime. And no one ever got to see what kind of a gem they had created with this episode...
 
This shit still infuriates me till this day. Like girl, who the hell are you to refuse and bar an official Gym challenger just because of a difference of opinion?
It's funny how annoying that is. I mean, among Kanto Gym Leaders I think she's less horrible than everyone but Brock and Misty (Koga had dangerous traps in his Gym, forgot to mention that) but I guess it's because Celadon City's banning is relatable--being the sort of petty power-play you see in real life--in a way Sabrina's literally turning people into dolls isn't.

I guess it's similar to how I find "literally a super villain" Hunter J more likable than "abusive pet owner" Damian.
 
It's weird when you think about some of the implications behind the "pity badges"; Gym Leaders seem to have a lot of leeway in giving badges. Kanto alone also shows how little oversight they have:
*Surge keeps sending challengers to the ER
*Sabrina turns people into dolls
*Erika's junior trainers ban people for complaining about perfume
*Blaine hid his gym and almost killed Pikachu
*After Viridian City's leader vanishes they have an Elite Four member take over. Something tells me there were not a ton of Earth Badges given that year.
Honestly I bet the league knows Giovanni is the leader of Team Rocket and just don't care.
Though maybe that explains Mandy; perhaps he made generous donations to the Gym Leaders. :bulbaWave:
*
A smaller one, but I wish they'd given Brock and Misty some of their G/S Pokémon in Johto, although in Brock's case I suppose it's because his whole GS party were from Kanto but it could have been interesting to see him end up with Kabutops and Omastar somehow, or at least let Geodude evolve.

Im suprised that non of them got in truble with the league or at list the police, espesilly Surge for sending challenger's Pokemons to HR and Blaine for the fact that his gym is INSIDE THE VOLCANO which is wery dangeres to all challengers and must of there Pokemons espesilly what almost happend with Team Rocket.
 
There’s probably less reaction since the Erika incident happened to Ash, our protagonist, whereas he actually ended up battling Volkner himself. I’m not endorsing any of them but that might be the reason Volkner is not prominent.
And there were actually nuanced reason for Volkner not to battle (losing interest) and Ash had to reignite it, whereas Erika's reason to not battle sounds much more shallow (not having the same taste as her in perfume). One was a character flaw/burnout/issue that was actually resolved, whereas other was arrogance which was never resolved. Even though she thanks Ash for saving her Pokémon and gives him a badge, she never learnt to accept criticism.

I feel like we're not even debating the same thing since I never brought up Erika's initial refusal to battle Ash; I originally spoke about how Ash receiving the Rainbow badge from Erika as a 'pity badge' for saving her Gloom didn't seem like such a bad thing to me because it was obviously meant to be a sign of gratitude on her part. And a lot of people agreed with me, so it's not like I brought up an unpopular or controversial train of thought.

But while we're talking about Erika's refusal to accept Ash's challenge, it wasn't even that she was just an arrogant snob about the whole thing. Ash didn't just disagree with her thoughts on perfume; he was extremely rude about the whole thing at Erika's shop and since Erika ran both the perfume shop and the Celadon gym, it made sense that she would be personally hurt by Ash's comments about plant extracts. People try to make Erika seem like she was completely at fault for not accepting Ash's challenge, but Ash was the one who was rude to her first and he never really apologized about his comments either. As for her not learning a lesson about accepting criticism, I feel like her approval of Ash at the end of the episode was meant to wipe the slate clean and show that she forgave Ash and that it was all water under the bridge at that point. So imo, she didn't need to have an epiphany by then.

Never thought I’d ever use that word but I’ve probably found the one that explains 99.99% of your arguments- whataboutism. You keep bringing people's reactions that happened 5+ years ago to justify something right now, for all you know the user you’re talking to was not even present on the forums discussing episodes at the time.

I don't know why you're resorting to personal attacks; all I did was bring up two perfectly valid comparisons, the Sunyshore gym situation and the Pewter gym scenario. I notice that you countered the Sunyshore city instance and that's all well and good, but my point still stands about Brock doing essentially the same thing that Erika did with the 'pity badge' that he gave to Ash. I'm just trying to be fair here - if some folks are going to drag one instance of a pity badge, then they should drag all instances as well. Call it 'whataboutism' or whatever other edgy word you want, but I simply provided a fair juxtaposition about the whole pity badge ordeal.
 
I don't remember that that much. Then again, I accidentally skipped a lot of Johto back then, to the point I was "when did Ash get a Phanpy?"
Many Finnish viewers can relate. The Finnish dub skipped the entire Orange Islands arc (starting from the last Indigo League arc episode), big portions of the Johto saga, and even a part of the first Hoenn season.
 
I don't remember that that much. Then again, I accidentally skipped a lot of Johto back then, to the point I was "when did Ash get a Phanpy?"
Really? Back in the early 2000s (when Jouto was airing) watching Pokemon was a religious thing to do for me xD If TV was busy I'd fight for it.

I believe the only episode I ever missed in the OS saga was the Doburu episode, which I'm not sure why I've never watched it before. Got to see it for the first time in Japanese a few years ago.
 
feel like we're not even debating the same thing since I never brought up Erika's initial refusal to battle Ash; I originally spoke about how Ash receiving the Rainbow badge from Erika as a 'pity badge' for saving her Gloom didn't seem like such a bad thing to me because it was obviously meant to be a sign of gratitude on her part. And a lot of people agreed with me, so it's not like I brought up an unpopular or controversial train of thought.

But while we're talking about Erika's refusal to accept Ash's challenge, it wasn't even that she was just an arrogant snob about the whole thing. Ash didn't just disagree with her thoughts on perfume; he was extremely rude about the whole thing at Erika's shop and since Erika ran both the perfume shop and the Celadon gym, it made sense that she would be personally hurt by Ash's comments about plant extracts. People try to make Erika seem like she was completely at fault for not accepting Ash's challenge, but Ash was the one who was rude to her first and he never really apologized about his comments either. As for her not learning a lesson about accepting criticism, I feel like her approval of Ash at the end of the episode was meant to wipe the slate clean and show that she forgave Ash and that it was all water under the bridge at that point. So imo, she didn't need to have an epiphany by then.
I was addressing this part of your post:
yet I don't remember nearly as much outrage when we found out that Volkner was literally handing Beacon badges for free in the first Sunyshore episode.
On the reasoning why Sunnyshore Gym didn’t attract outrage compared to Erika’s incident. In my opinion you have to look at the whole situation to assess why one got infamous while the other didn’t.
I didn’t address the Pewter Gym since I feel pretty conflicted about it myself and haven’t really formed an opinion about it in this context.

I do admit Ash was at some degree of fault, but a perfume business is a separate entity from Gym battles. Gym battles are essential services for the trainers of a region, and the leaders are supposed to be unbiased and not hold any grudges. It’s literally their job to accept challenges from trainers, no matter how rude they are. Trainers like Paul and Gary weren’t refused challenges that we know of for their personality (in fact; Gary manages to challenge more gyms than Ash). Gym leaders must be subject to greater degrees of professionalism in my opinion.
 
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.
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