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I feel like people need to understand the difference between storytelling and writing. Like, you don't need to write well in order to tell a good story, because there are different aspects to each of them. When people talk about writing in particular, it's referring to more technical aspects like structure of narrative, dialogue, and pacing. But when we refer to storytelling, we look at aspects like character depth and creative liberty. It's why Journeys has been given so much shit over its episodic nature: the writing is criticized there because there is a loss in structure, which previous series had. Alternatively, you have BW making characters stop to give five minutes of exposition and introductions when they're in a life threatening situation: the writing is crappy here because of the dialogue and pacing.
Then there's the famous Mallow's mom episode, which is the highest rated pokemon episode. The storytelling here is good because it fleshed out a character and appealed to people's pathos(their emotions) which far more often is going to be more impactful than say, Greninja vs Sceptile. Alternatively in this case, The Power of Us movie is paced to perfection, making it well done on a writing aspect, and is praised for its storytelling as well.
Of course, you can't always separate these two, because then you'll have a problem. A "story" can be well-written in that the prose itself is well written, but that doesn't make it a story by itself. It's kind of why writing classes always have that one unit spent on writing poems. Good prose and storytelling go hand in hand, yes, but the two are still separate.
I say "nobody looks to the pokemon anime for quality writing" largely because of its technical aspects overall. A lot of things just don't click, and some things fail in the storytelling department as well. As a whole, what story has the anime told? Ash's quest to become a pokemon master, right? But that goal isn't clearly defined, which is why you see many people being turned off by Pokemon, because the story it's following might not seem interesting because people don't know what it even is. In regards to technical aspects, SM is praised for its world-building, but the pacing for the whole show is really off. It's a strange mix between episodic and linear, in which this orthodox method of writing may appeal to many and I personally believe to have helped the show in the long run(even if it constantly ran the risk of hurting its narrative). In contrast, Journeys is strictly episode sans the Darkest Day arc and the Darkrai-Cresselia two-parter. That narrative structure is why the writing-technical aspects-of Journeys are constantly picked on.
There are a lot more layers to it than that, since like I said, writing and storytelling do go hand in hand together, which muddles that fine line between them, and is in my eyes what makes the practice of writing to be an art. Writing is objective, people say, but there are more layers to it than that, and I think at the end of the day, all this talk about what is "well written" and what isn't comes down to people's subjective opinions. Like, Alexander Hamilton is a famous writer from the US in America, but trust me when I say nobody talks about the guy writing fairy tales.
Basically, the key difference is writing tends to refer to the prose, whereas storytelling refers to the more creative aspects.
Then there's the famous Mallow's mom episode, which is the highest rated pokemon episode. The storytelling here is good because it fleshed out a character and appealed to people's pathos(their emotions) which far more often is going to be more impactful than say, Greninja vs Sceptile. Alternatively in this case, The Power of Us movie is paced to perfection, making it well done on a writing aspect, and is praised for its storytelling as well.
Of course, you can't always separate these two, because then you'll have a problem. A "story" can be well-written in that the prose itself is well written, but that doesn't make it a story by itself. It's kind of why writing classes always have that one unit spent on writing poems. Good prose and storytelling go hand in hand, yes, but the two are still separate.
I say "nobody looks to the pokemon anime for quality writing" largely because of its technical aspects overall. A lot of things just don't click, and some things fail in the storytelling department as well. As a whole, what story has the anime told? Ash's quest to become a pokemon master, right? But that goal isn't clearly defined, which is why you see many people being turned off by Pokemon, because the story it's following might not seem interesting because people don't know what it even is. In regards to technical aspects, SM is praised for its world-building, but the pacing for the whole show is really off. It's a strange mix between episodic and linear, in which this orthodox method of writing may appeal to many and I personally believe to have helped the show in the long run(even if it constantly ran the risk of hurting its narrative). In contrast, Journeys is strictly episode sans the Darkest Day arc and the Darkrai-Cresselia two-parter. That narrative structure is why the writing-technical aspects-of Journeys are constantly picked on.
There are a lot more layers to it than that, since like I said, writing and storytelling do go hand in hand together, which muddles that fine line between them, and is in my eyes what makes the practice of writing to be an art. Writing is objective, people say, but there are more layers to it than that, and I think at the end of the day, all this talk about what is "well written" and what isn't comes down to people's subjective opinions. Like, Alexander Hamilton is a famous writer from the US in America, but trust me when I say nobody talks about the guy writing fairy tales.
Basically, the key difference is writing tends to refer to the prose, whereas storytelling refers to the more creative aspects.
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