Best Wishes! Wish List: What do you wish for?

[Sweet Veil]

I'm afraid I can't see the difference between your two examples. Just because someone expresses a dislike of something doesn't mean they're necessarily bashing it. I don't like seafood; does that mean if I say "I dislike seafood, because I'm not comfortable eating something that spends its enire life in the ocean.", I'm bashing seafood?
Just because someone expresses an opinion that's different than yours doesn't mean that they're some evil troll who enjoys ripping things for the hell of it. People have likes and dislikes, and they have every right to say so. If they explain why, that's even better. If you don't like what other people say, don't listen to them.

Dude that's a dislike. Bashing is when people go around the forums bashing the character just for the sake of it. Like for example "Iris sucks!" or "Wow I wish we had a cool female in Best Wishes.", "The writers suck for bringing in a character like that" or "Kasumi was a dumbest decision the writers ever made" or "Sewaddle is a useless capture" we understand when you don't like a character. Shoehorning a bashing in every post isn't necessary and is just asking for unneeded conflict.

 

[The Puppetmaster]

Excellent article, Hellion! I enjoy reading your posts in the anime section because of your ability to analyze each aspect of the show and form logical opinions about them. You possess a splendid intelligence on the subject of writing and storyline, so I'm pleased that everyone who doesn't frequent the anime section is now able to view your ideas on the show. Even without the article, I think you deserve this award just for being such a wonderful contributor to the anime section.

I have a few thoughts of my own in response to areas of your article:

First up is Pidove, the requisite regional bird. Noctowl had a genius intellect, psychic attacks and shininess. Taillow was a strong-willed fighter who could take a punch. Starly as a Staraptor worked hard to master the attack Brave Bird and had a unique fighting style with moves like Close Combat. Pidove has none of that going for her. She displayed no personality so far, has no standout attacks and has no character building obstacles to overcome. She hasn’t really bonded with Ash or interacted with other Pokémon. She has no real issue to overcome, nothing to motivate her to work hard. So with all of this, I’m left with just one question. Why should I care?

While I agree Pidove hasn't been showcased very well or given much of a personality, it does have a little quirk - its slowness. In its capture episode (BW002), it was shown nonchalantly roaming as its pack flew away after being attacked by Ash and Pikachu. In BW017, though Scraggy headbutted it, Pidove didn't realize at first that it was being attacked and took a second to react.

It's not much, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

In Best Wishes, Ash’s main rival appears to be a trainer just beginning his journey named Trip. A photography aficionado, this young trainer quickly built a rivalry with Ash, twice defeating him. So far, Trip appears to be similar to Paul but he’s missing the substance. Paul was similar to Ash in many ways and the complete opposite in others, sort of like a dark mirror image. Trip so far can’t make such claims. He doesn’t clash with Ash because of a difference in philosophy or training style, but more so because Ash’s personality irks him.

Although the Ash vs. Trip rivalry isn't impressive at the moment, I think it's completely believable. I'm not saying you might not think that as well, but in my opinion, the chances of having an Ash vs. Trip rivalry in real life are more likely than an Ash vs. Paul rivalry.

Also, I know Iris wasn't very helpful during the earlier episodes of BW, but her baby Axew and disobedient Excadrill couldn't really have been of much assistance. Thankfully, in BW022, she at least tries to help by having Axew use Dragon Sneeze on a few of the Venipede. It's not much so far, but hopefully this means she'll start being more proactive in future episodes (at least when it comes to aiding the CotD/PotD).

There far from the line of dislike. Like for ex. many disliked Shinji for being an asshole and being abusive that's dislike. Bashing is when they just ignore all the good and focus on that one thing and go around the forums posting a bunch of bashing post about the character.

This is the definition of bashing.
Hellion isn't trying to attack Iris's character. I believe he's even stated in blogs before that he's just joking whenever he calls her a tree or whatever. With bashing, it's obvious that there's a sense of anger/disgust toward whatever is being bashed. Whenever Hellion does it, it's usually sarcastic/jokingly.

(I apologize for this off-topicness.)

 

[Arc Blader]

Dude that's a dislike. Bashing is when people go around the forums bashing the character just for the sake of it. Like for example "Iris sucks!" or "Wow I wish we had a cool female in Best Wishes.", "The writers suck for bringing in a character like that" or "Kasumi was a dumbest decision the writers ever made" or "Sewaddle is a useless capture" we understand when you don't like a character. Shoehorning a bashing in every post isn't necessary and is just asking for unneeded conflict.

But Hellion isn't doing that. Hellion is stating what he doesn't like and why he doesn't like it, in an articulate and specific way. Not to mention the fact that this is an opinion piece. Hellion's opinion is supposed to be the crux of the piece, and that opnion just happens to be somewhat negative. It isn't "shoehorning it in" if the article is supposed to be about Hellion's likes and dislikes.

 

[Hellion]

Hellion, if you write anything else you'd like to publish, or want to talk about writing for Bulbanews, fling me (or Rex) a PM.

Just might do that, I really liked writing this piece.

I don't see why they can't mix DP's story arcs with BW's humor and characters.

That's my vision in a nutshell. Entertainment should never exclude compelling and well-structured storytelling in a show like this. I comepletely agree that DP wasn't the most comedic and entertaining series, that Dawn wasn't the most entertaining character, but ultimately what lacked in comedy was made up by compellingness. The Ash/Paul rivalry and Dawn's struggle to gain confidence in herself were storylines that I could get invested, where you could root for the character. In BW, so far, I feel that the storylines in general aren't as strong, or as compelling. What will it prove when Ash will beat Trip? If there's no substance to the rivalry, it won't prove anything. Same thing applies to Iris evolving. There's no real substance behind it, there's nothing really fueling it. Neither of these storylines are really compelling, and neither of those is exactly highly entertaining either.

In an ideal world, the anime would be both entertaining and compelling.

You possess a splendid intelligence on the subject of writing and storyline

*blushes*

Anyway, thanks for all the nice comments guys!

Bashing is when people go around the forums bashing the character just for the sake of it.

Gotpika, this is a thread about the opinion piece I wrote in December. If you feel I misrepresented things or if you disagree with the opinions I expressed in this article, feel free to say so. If you have a problem with my posts in other sections, feel free to take that up with those who moderate those sections.

 

[StarGaze]

/hands you some chocolate mousse

Thank you. I couldn't agree more. D/P bored the crap out of me because Hikari was the generic, little kawaii desu girl (yes, I went there) with nothing interesting in her personality and Takeshi, as much as I liked him, just sat it out on the sides. Shinji (in my opinion) was the only memorable character in the first thirty or so episodes and he didn't appear that often anyway.

Hikari got too much focus... I'd rather some of that went to Takeshi instead of him just being tossed out with maybe two or three episodes throughout the entire series that circled around him. Ontop of that, the colors on D/P felt really washed out and way too pale. If Jun didn't exist, I'd probably not have watched a lot of D/P episodes to begin with. He kind of got me wanting to see more.

B/W, unlike D/P, has me super excited for the new episodes. I didn't even watch the D/P episodes as they aired until the end of the season began nearing with only ten or so episodes left, just as a parting gesture.

B/W sacrificed a little bit of character development for entertainment, and I greatly enjoy that.

I couldn't agree more with this. :thumbup:

 

[Cybersai]

There's really nothing particularly new in BW. We have new versions of Misty and Brock, a seemingly bipolar TR, and two rivals which are hit or miss. The Pokemon on the group are also hit or miss.

Dogasu said BW feels dumbed down for children mores than the last two series, I agree with him.

 

[Sweet Veil]

But Hellion isn't doing that. Hellion is stating what he doesn't like and why he doesn't like it, in an articulate and specific way. Not to mention the fact that this is an opinion piece. Hellion's opinion is supposed to be the crux of the piece, and that opnion just happens to be somewhat negative. It isn't "shoehorning it in" if the article is supposed to be about Hellion's likes and dislikes.

Dude. I'm not just talking about the article. I'm talking about all of it as a whole.

@Scott Doesn't really feel like that at all. Tbh it feels the exact same as the last series.

@Hellion Excuse me but you don't have to act as if your a mod yourself. I'm just saying you seem to like to talk down to Iris in all places whether she does good it's all bad in the way you say. Now I'm dropping it because it's not really worth arguing over. Thank You.

 

[SolgaleoGX]

This aticle definetly hits the nail. It really sums up my general feelings on this arc, it's put together the worst of Kanto and Shinou with sprinkles of Hoenn's fresh start.

 

[CommanderPigg]

/hands you some chocolate mousse

*noms chocolate mousse*

B/W sacrificed a little bit of character development for entertainment, and I greatly enjoy that.

I really like both though! Which is why DP is still my favorite saga in terms of "concepts" and "ideas." However, the execution was pretty sluggish and lackluster for the most part, which was my main problem. BW seems to do the opposite of that. It has wonderful execution, but the ideas behind it seem a bit...underwhelming when compared to the previous saga. Just my two cents.

I didn't, but looking back, I'm wondering if it's just the promise of a new pokemon each week that kept me from ignoring Keyhole TV. For all the story elements and gradual growth that was going on, with the exception of a handful of episoodes, it wasn't a very fun show.
Perhaps I'll feel similar about the current series a few years from now, but for all it's ups and downs, I think BW is more successful at being entertaining.

I looked back at my hard drive and tried to interpret my viewing trends. Seems like I watched the episodes regularly in the JP version until the 20th episode, and then just focused on the Rocket-centric ones, and the contests (which I only watched because of Musalina XD). I think that you pretty much summed it up. While as a whole, the story telling of DP was superior, and the plot elements were memorable, a lot of the episodes didn't exactly have that "sparkle" to it. In BW, I'm enjoying individual episodes a bit more, but they have less cohesion to them, like DP had, which is why I'm still not deeming BW as my favorite saga just yet.

Dogasu said BW feels dumbed down for children mores than the last two series, I agree with him.

*takes this as an insults and storms away*

Nah, I get what you're saying. But it's strange that they're headed this direction considering it's been proven that the age demographics for Pokemon are expanding to older teens/adults.

 

[Hellion]

Dogasu said BW feels dumbed down for children mores than the last two series, I agree with him.

I tend to agree with that too. Don't get me wrong though, I'm glad BW has been bringing in some good entertainment value, with Cilan who's way more entertaining than Brock was in DP, Bianca who's as entertaining as Barry was, maybe even more so, and some of the gang's pokémon. But while some of the entertainment that had been toned down in DP is back, I sadly can't say the same for the substance that DP brought, the meaningfulness (if that's even a word... I guess it would be meaning in this case but.. whatever... ).

While Dawn and Paul definitely weren't the most entertaining characters (though they both had their moments), they brought a storyline with them, they gave meaning to the quests and a meaning to the journey. Ash's desire to prove that his ideas, his philosophy regarding training was just as good, if not better than Paul's and Dawn's struggle to become self confident and believe in herself ultimately made DP compelling and meaningful in my opinion. It gave DP a certain Coming of Age feel and, at the risk of repeating myself, substance.

One of the problem with BW (I'm referring to the second and third part of my article) is that not only Iris and Trip aren't bringing that meaningfulness, that compelling factor because ultimately their storylines are hollow, but they're not bringing in the entertainment factor all that much either. At the end of the day, if a main character is neither really bringing a dramatic quality to the show, i.e. compelling emotional storyline, or a real comedic quality to the show, like say Cilan or Bianca, then... what's their purpose on the show and why should I care about them?

Ultimately, I guess what the article is saying is I wish the writers wouldn't choose between making a compelling meaningful story and making an entertaining story, but choose to make it both those things.

This aticle definetly hits the nail. It really sums up my general feelings on this arc, it's put together the worst of Kanto and Shinou with sprinkles of Hoenn's fresh start.

I wouldn't be quite as pessimistic as that, because for all its flaws, BW has done some things really well. Cilan, Bianca, Snivy and Scraggy for example come to mind.

 

[double trouble!]

/hands you some chocolate mousse

Thank you. I couldn't agree more. D/P bored the crap out of me because Hikari was the generic, little kawaii desu girl (yes, I went there) with nothing interesting in her personality and Takeshi, as much as I liked him, just sat it out on the sides. Shinji (in my opinion) was the only memorable character in the first thirty or so episodes and he didn't appear that often anyway.

Hikari got too much focus... I'd rather some of that went to Takeshi instead of him just being tossed out with maybe two or three episodes throughout the entire series that circled around him. Ontop of that, the colors on D/P felt really washed out and way too pale. If Jun didn't exist, I'd probably not have watched a lot of D/P episodes to begin with. He kind of got me wanting to see more.

B/W, unlike D/P, has me super excited for the new episodes. I didn't even watch the D/P episodes as they aired until the end of the season began nearing with only ten or so episodes left, just as a parting gesture.

B/W sacrificed a little bit of character development for entertainment, and I greatly enjoy that.

DP
Washed out colors
What?

 

[StarBP]

Sorry to disappoint you but Pokemon Best Wishes! isn't a reboot.

I didn't say it was a TOTAL reboot. Maybe I used the wrong word... the correct word would be revert. As in, they are reverting somewhat to the style of the first season. One big part of that is the fact that they are speeding through the badges.

 

[Sweet Veil]

I didn't say it was a TOTAL reboot. Maybe I used the wrong word... the correct word would be revert. As in, they are reverting somewhat to the style of the first season. One big part of that is the fact that they are speeding through the badges.

I wouldn't hold my breath. They have to make this saga last about 4 years.

 

[m33st4]

Great and interesting article...Note that I'm more of a Pokemon gamer than the anime watcher.

-Ash needs to win a league...so far he makes the worse anime counterpart of Red
-Team Rocket/Team Plasma actually does some really badass thing and succeeds and its up to Ash only and maybe a legendary pokemon to beat/solve it?
-Ash needs a pseudo-legendary on his team.

Bah, im out of ideas already

 

[Sheep]

DP
Washed out colors
What?

Compared to BW, it's washed out. To me, at least. I tend to notice the smaller things. Pikachu was a really ugly yellow, for example; they brought back his better coloring in the B/W saga.

 

[Ice Tyrant]

All I want if for Ash's Oshawott, Tepig, and Snivy to reach final stage eventually.

 

[SiGWDo Of Pokemon]

My one and only wish is that a certain yellow mouse would evolve.

Well, it turns out that if it evolved, it just wouldn't be the same. Also, can you picture Ash with a Raichu on his head? It would be WAY too heavy.

My wish list:

I wish that some of Ash's old Pokemon that haven't been seen in a long time come back. I'm specifically hoping that Butterfree and Primeape will reappear.

I wish that Iris will be able to meet Misty. They have so many similarities, and Misty hasn't been seen since the Pokemon Advanced series.

I wish that Ash will be able to show off some of his old Pokemon and his knowledge of the other regions. Iris always calls Ash "such a kid," but HE knows all about the other regions.

I wish that Ash, Cilan, and Iris will meet Max from the Advanced Generation, AKA Generation 3. He should be on his travels by now, and Ash promised him a battle.

I wish that Team Rocket keep some of their old personality. They're completely boring without it. Though it is annoying to have them chasing Pikachu and always failing, I think that they should sometime crack and go for Pikachu.

I wish that Team Rocket come up with a better motto or bring back the old one. Though the old one gets on your nerves, it'll feel great. I love the way that Ash and friends mock that motto.
The new mottos just don't quite have the same ring to them.

 

[JoanTRH]

I wish Satoshi's Zuruggu Evolves To Zuruzukin Early

 

[Froakie]

I know Pokemon is a kids show, but BW seems really dumbed down, which is why I don't like it.

 

[Sweet Veil]

I know Pokemon is a kids show, but BW seems really dumbed down, which is why I don't like it.

Ok I give. I've been hearing people say this all the time. What is it about BW that feels "dumber"?