PokeAni Missed Opportunities

[Kurolegacy]

I wanted Ash to get Alolan Sandslash.

I personally think Lillie should have gotten one especially given that she had helped the Alola Sandshrew in the ice cave earning her her z-crystal.

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.
*
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.

What makes that even stranger is that Kanto even established that there were agents hired by the Pokémon League to make sure that the gyms were following the standard set by the Pokémon League. They literally have the power to shut down a gym not adhering to these standards yet somehow they never got on any of these gyms cases. You’d think at least Erika and Sabrina would get into trouble for their conduct.

 

[Daenerys]

What makes that even stranger is that Kanto even established that there were agents hired by the Pokémon League to make sure that the gyms were following the standard set by the Pokémon League. They literally have the power to shut down a gym not adhering to these standards yet somehow they never got on any of these gyms cases. You’d think at least Erika and Sabrina would get into trouble for their conduct.

In the case of the Kanto gyms, they really should've been monitoring the Saffron gym since Sabrina was hurting people with her psychic powers and turning them into dolls and who knows what else. Had Ash (or more like Haunter really) not stepped in and inadvertently softened Sabrina's heart, who knows how many more people would've been harmed by Sabrina.

In the case of Erika though we were never led to believe that she made a habit out of turning challengers away, and her issue with Ash seemed to be a one time occurrence since he had been blatantly rude to her inside of her own establishment.

 

[typewild]

I wish we could've seen Ash bringing back Charizard to mega evolve into his Y-form during the XY saga to rival Alain's X. It would've made an epic battle ending with an explosion that covers up both Charizards, only to reveal the winner by having one of their orange flaming tails stick out. Whether it was Ash's or Alain's would be up to the writers.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I wish we could've seen Ash bringing back Charizard to mega evolve into his Y-form during the XY saga to rival Alain's X. It would've made an epic battle ending with an explosion that covers up both Charizards, only to reveal the winner by having one of their orange flaming tails stick out. Whether it was Ash's or Alain's would be up to the writers.

This would've been better than what Mega Charizard Y actually got in the anime... fodder to Alain's Charizard.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I personally think Lillie should have gotten one especially given that she had helped the Alola Sandshrew in the ice cave earning her her z-crystal.


What makes that even stranger is that Kanto even established that there were agents hired by the Pokémon League to make sure that the gyms were following the standard set by the Pokémon League. They literally have the power to shut down a gym not adhering to these standards yet somehow they never got on any of these gyms cases. You’d think at least Erika and Sabrina would get into trouble for their conduct.

This. As well written as the Saffron Gym arc was, I personally kinda find it disturbing how the PIA never seemed to tackle the problem Gyms in Kanto during season 1. Especially Saffron. They made the Gyms dramatic without really thinking about how the Pokémon League supervisors would react if they knew what kind of actions they were doing. I'm fairly sure that the Celadon Gym turning away potential challengers just because they acted jerkishly towards a product they manufactured also counts as misuse of authority and could be considered against the League rules.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

This. As well written as the Saffron Gym arc was, I personally kinda find it disturbing how the PIA never seemed to tackle the problem Gyms in Kanto during season 1. Especially Saffron.

Sabrina is a psychic. For all we know, she brainwashed the agents into thinking she was doing a good job.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Sabrina is a psychic. For all we know, she brainwashed the agents into thinking she was doing a good job.

Or the writers didn't even consider how any officials would react to her practices. Completely possible, considering the way season 1 was written.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Or the writers didn't even consider how any officials would react to her practices. Completely possible, considering the way season 1 was written.

That’s more likely.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Ash would’ve never lost the Indigo league the way he did if the league did their jobs properly. I’ve said it before, Team Rocket we’re not unknown to the world, so if your competitor is attacked beforehand by them, the match would be postponed at the least. Or even ensure that your competitors have a fully healed team beforehand.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Ash would’ve never lost the Indigo league the way he did if the league did their jobs properly. I’ve said it before, Team Rocket we’re not unknown to the world, so if your competitor is attacked beforehand by them, the match would be postponed at the least. Or even ensure that your competitors have a fully healed team beforehand.

I personally think that Ash losing because Charizard didn't obey him was still a valuable lesson for him to learn, especially combined with what Ritchie told him in the next episode. He learned to actually use his skills and train harder, rather than relying too much on luck.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I personally think that Ash losing because Charizard didn't obey him was still a valuable lesson for him to learn, especially combined with what Ritchie told him in the next episode. He learned to actually use his skills and train harder, rather than relying too much on luck.

Whatever it did/didn’t teach doesn’t matter. What mattered was that the league’s ineptitude resulted in the unfair loss of a candidate. They failed at doing their jobs.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Moving on from that topic, I'd like to bring out one huge missed opportunity from the anime: Jessie's mother. We learn of her in a Japanese radio drama, where it's revealed that she was a top Team Rocket agent and a favorite of the organization's previous leader, Giovanni's mother. She was lost in the Andes trying to find Mew, and her whereabouts remain unknown. She also gives an explanation to why Jessie and James remain in the organization despite their constant failures: Giovanni is keeping the daughter of his mother's favorite agent in the organization as a favor to her.

And the anime does nothing with this. Whenever we need to utilize a TRio member's past as a story element or even just a brief mention, it's usually James. In that regard, Jessie has received the short end of the stick.

 

[TRNatalie]

Moving on from that topic, I'd like to bring out one huge missed opportunity from the anime: Jessie's mother. We learn of her in a Japanese radio drama, where it's revealed that she was a top Team Rocket agent and a favorite of the organization's previous leader, Giovanni's mother. She was lost in the Andes trying to find Mew, and her whereabouts remain unknown.

And the anime does nothing with this. Whenever we need to utilize a TRio member's past as a story element or even just a brief mention, it's usually James. In that regard, Jessie has received the short end of the stick.

OMG F*ING YES!!! And I feel like it’s only gotten worse these past couple of years. Like in the past, I always guessed they didn’t touch Miyamoto because they considered what happened with her and Jessie to be too dark for the anime but after all we’ve gotten within SM’s time frame (from Stoutland to Mao’s mother to Snubbull’s story in M21), that doesn’t work anymore.

Within 2019 and onward, they currently have had/have three perfect opportunities to bring her up in the anime and do something with her but twice now they didn’t do it and it hurts!! First they had SM 108, an episode all about meeting a deceased family member (or finding out they’re not really dead in Lillie and Gladion’s case) but nothing! I’m more forgiving towards this one because there was a lot going on and Miyamoto and Musashi would have taken a lot of time and focus to do properly than the episode could give them without hurting the other characters (plus TRio weren’t present at all during the Poni Island arc and you would’ve had to spend valuable time on that) but then you had the Mewtwo remake. This should be a perfect opportunity to adapt some of the Birth of Mewtwo radio drama for a younger audience but they didn’t do it! I don’t think they even adapted Amber despite her importance to Mewtwo’s character! They even tease the connection between Musashi and Mewin this little bit

but... no Miyamoto herself!

And now we have a main protagonist with the goal to find Mew as well! This isn’t even a question of fan service or even Team Rocket backstory anymore, Miyamoto could very well be used to develop Gou as a character! Like, imagine this young child that’s been so obsessed with finding Mew it’s led to him isolating himself getting to meet not only the first person to find evidence of Mew’s existence but someone else who became similarly obsessed with capturing Mew that led to her own destruction, not to mention accidentally hurting the person she loved the most (even if all she wanted in the end was for her daughter to have a good life). That has so much potential for good development but based on how all over the place the writers have been with Gou, I won’t be surprised if they don’t even bring her up at all.

All I’m saying is that while I’m hoping against all odds they will bring her in, I will not be surprised if they skip over her once again but I will be massively disappointed and it will be the biggest missed opportunity for me. Apologies for the rant.

 

[Deleted member 85628]

The unused apricorn balls.

 

[Daenerys]

The unused apricorn balls.

I think Brock got a Heavy Ball that he never used, but I think that was it? Ash and Misty both used their Lure Balls iirc.

 

[Deleted member 85628]

They all got fast balls but only Brock used his.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

The unused apricorn balls.

Wow I didn't remember that. But really I always thought that the Fast Balls were pointless in the show because very few Pokemon are fast enough to dodge capture any way. When Brock caught Pineco in a Fast Ball I remember thinking it made no sense.

 

[Mew29240]

They all got fast balls but only Brock used his.

Watch Ash use that Fast Ball on a Pokemon this series. Gou's just going to go "Where did you even get that?" "It was at the bottom of my bag for 19 years or so."

 

[Charcoatl]

The thread about anime's dependence of Ash makes me think the biggest missed opportunity (for me at least) was not adapting the major aspects of the games properly and proving wrong those who say anime couldn't work without Ash as a main character.

 

[Greninjaman]

The thread about anime's dependence of Ash makes me think the biggest missed opportunity (for me at least) was not adapting the major aspects of the games properly and proving wrong those who say anime couldn't work without Ash as a main character.

Could you elaborate on what you mean?