Did you like Piplup/Pochama's character in Diamond and Pearl?

[Hellion]

What did you think of the writers elevating Dawn's starter pokémon Piplup to the rank of mascot? Do you think it was a good move on their part? Did you like Piplup's personality and character?

 

[Cybersai]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

At the beginning I kinda liked it, but somewhere around the 50th or so episode it started to get tiring. Its antics were OK originally in short doses, but then when it appeared in every episode and started hogging the screentime I got tired of it.

Shame, I remember for the first 50 or so DP episodes, Piplup was actually very popular. Goes to show you how the writers can ruin a good thing.

 

[Almonds]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

I was biased when I watched the show, cuz I really loved Piplup when I played DPPt, so I was always fond of him. Though, I think the writers were ruining his potential when they could do so much more with him.

 

[HumanDawn]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

"I've decided stay as a Piplup and not evolve so kids would buy more of my toys." "WAAAAAAAA!!!! THEY ALL LIKE THAT GIBLE INSTEAD OF ME! SOMEBODY CALL THE WAAMMMBULANCE!"

Piplup looked like a crybaby and a jerk in its entire run. I don't know why Dawn didn't just do this:

Spoiler

 

[Jukain]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

I remember this question being asked in the middle of DP, and I think I'll still say the same thing I did back then. Yes, Piplup is stupid as all get out, but he isn't that bad of a character. He is genuinely loyal to Dawn and tries to get along with her pokes. (other than Cynda) He is the one that is most there for Dawn, although maybe to extreme measures. His reasoning for not evolving may be silly, but it is almost touching in an obsessed sort of way. He doubles as comic relief, so I can't really rag too much on his antics. The only thing I didn't really like about him was that he was so inept, and regardless of how much they've been through, he still has no idea what he's doing. Regardless, this serves as a good foil for how much more experienced Pika is, although they didn't have to do it for the whole saga. He really is a good person, he just tries too hard.

As for the whole mascot thing to begin with, just like with Dawn, it was high time someone got equal time with Pika as a main character. Piplup isn't exactly how I would've done it, but having two of the same kind of protagonist would be redundant. I don't hate the idea, and I agree, another poke trying to be Pika would fail as miserably as he did, but again, I don't think they should've done it for the whole saga. The reason is clear, though. Not only was Piplup the most popular of the starters, but I think the Japanese just have a thing for penguins. I can understand the decision, but it could've been executed a little better.

 

[Aestivate]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

That penguin was so annoyingly obnoxious and it got too many focus episodes of it basically just being stupid.
I just wanted to kick it half the time ~_~

 

[Shinneth]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

Fuck that stupid penguin who is an insult to real penguins everywhere.

I actually liked it at first because it displayed a strong, consistent personality that May's starter lacked. But it got old quickly, because with that personality it got to become very hard to like or even tolerate at times, and its character development was resolved fairly quickly. I don't count the "almost becoming Prinplup" thing because I'm pretty certain that it was stated early on in the series that Piplup (and Dawn) was content being the way it was and had no intention of ever evolving. So the Piplup-focused episodes following the wrap-up of Piplup's character were pointless and annoying, and I never once felt inclined to feel sorry for that bratty bird, which is probably why I enjoyed it being blown up with Gible's Draco Meteor late into the series.

And its dub voice is an atrocity. Its Japanese voice is actually okay, though equally unbearble with its dub voice in the final episode for all that interrupted sobbing it did. And Piplup's presence caused my many facepalm moments whenever its BubbleBeam attack was treated like a stream of atomic bombs instead of... y'know, bubbles. Though one positive thing I can say about Piplup is that it learned new moves in a timely, sensible manner that at least prevented it from getting cheap, unwarranted victories (I am never letting that Don Battle thing go).

But it was enough to make me hate the entire Piplup species, really. I just... REALLY hate starter favoritism. Piplup being shoved in my face, I did not like. Easily the bane of the DP series for me besides certain rivals.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

At the beginning of the series, I thought that Piplup was okay. I liked its interactions with Dawn, it had a pretty well established and consistent personality and it wasn't nearly as overexposed as it would as the series progressed. It's pretty jarring to see episodes at the beginning of the series where Piplup doesn't even show up. What really ruined Piplup for me was basically how it was shoved into our faces by the middle of the series with it always being outside with Dawn and taking up the majority of the focus of Dawn's team. It just got old really fast, especially when Piplup's personality just made it more annoying as it continued to get so much screentime. Piplup getting so much attention to be one of the major issues I had with the series since I thought that really prevented Dawn's other Pokemon to get the screentime and development they needed, especially Buneary and Pachirisu. Putting Piplup in a comedy relief role felt kind of forced just because of how it didn't really start out in that role, even though it was pretty hilarious to see Gible hit it with Draco Meteor.

 

[~Aeon]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

it's obviously trying to recapture the role of psyduck. I'm not kidding. psyduck was that pokemon that would appear and have its moments. piplup was a pikachu/psyduck hybrid gone wrong. I'm sorry. (i wonder how many people thought i was trolling after reading the first part)

 

[Ampharos King]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

Meh. Piplup's emotional antics left a bad taste in my mouth after the end of DP. The pokemon was, for a lack of better terminology, "whored out" throughout the second half of the series. Dawn's Piplup had a lot of episodes where the focus was primarily on itself, and to add insult to injury, some of these had similar if not the exact same plotlines that provided development to Ash's Pikachu back in Kanto. The most notable aspect of Piplup's role as mascot character was that it had been the series's primary source of comic relief once the other main pokemon began to evolve and mature in personality. Perhaps this was the reason why the writers felt that it was appropriate to shove Piplup into anything and everything that they could possibly think of.

Consequently, the writers's decision to turn Piplup into the "mascot" had lessened the focus on those pokemon that had a lot of character development in the first half of the series. Once Piplup began to take the reigns with the direction of the series, Pachirisu was reduced to learning a new attack in the first five minutes of an episode and Ash's Grotle/Torterra's Energy Ball powerup was never brought up again after it was first used. There were similar cases with the other pokemon, but generally the writers began to cut corners with their screentime and development once the writers had decided to explicitly focus on Piplup.

Piplup's mascot role was so overused by the writers that they began to associate the success of the series with how they could make the pokemon relevant to a situation or plotline that it should not be involved with. For example, before the start of Ash's last battle against Paul in the Sinnoh League Conference, the writers spent a few minutes with Dawn giving Piplup a cheering costume to wear during the battle. Although it may appear to be a nod to Pikachu's Edo period clothing that the pokemon usually wore during important events in pre-BW, Piplup was never seen wearing the costume in any of the previous battles during the Sinnoh League. It simply felt like something that the writers had to do to stretch the battle out to three episodes, and the writers were unable to provide this filler in any other way than to focus on Piplup as the de facto mascot character.

That is not to say I didn't like some aspects of Piplup's characterization in DP.

For one, I did like how Piplup was truly established as Dawn's partner and main pokemon right from the beginning. Even in the first half of the series, when the pokemon was not kept constantly outside of his Poke Ball, Piplup truly cared about his trainer and wanted to do everything he could to impress her or to make her happy (the most notable example being DP007, where Piplup tried its hardest to master a contest appeal for its trainer). In this aspect, the writers had succeeded with Piplup where they had failed with May's Torchic in the first eighty or so episodes of AG when they shafted the latter pokemon for the other pokemon May had obtained and used in contests.

The writers tried to compensate with this later on when they eventually evolved May's Torchic into Combusken, but it still hardly bonded with its trainer like Piplup did with Dawn, and it did not even have half of the number of episodes of focus that Piplup received in DP. Combusken simply felt like a powerhouse after it evolved, especially when it was compared with the unevolved and inexperienced pokemon that May was given access to in the later stages of AG. I never felt that Torchic-Combusken-Blaziken was May's signature pokemon until the very end of AG. May was shown to bond more with her Beautifly, Skitty, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and even her Munchlax and Eevee than she ever did with her starter. With the exception of a few episodes near the start of AG (the most notable being Drew's debut episode), I don't think May has ever bonded with her starter on-screen. In my opinion, that was the biggest flaw of May's character in AG.

I am glad that the writers have used Piplup in DP to more than compensate for the lack of main character-first pokemon interactions that were hardly present in AG. Even though Dawn did obtain a lot of pokemon in such a short amount of time, even more so than May had did in her run, the writers hardly detracted from presenting Piplup as her most important pokemon. Piplup was used in a lot of battles, from fighting Kenny's evolved Prinplup in Dawn's very first contest victory to battling May and her Glaceon in the Wallace Cup.

Even though Piplup's refusal to evolve episode appeared to be another account the writers took from Pikachu's notebook, the interactions that Dawn and Piplup had in that episode were truly heartfelt and genuine. Piplup actually cared what his trainer thought when he had decided to disappoint her by refusing to evolve, and was simply unable to handle the stress of choosing between pleasing his trainer and doing what he felt he wanted. In quite a few of these episodes, Piplup was shown to be more than just a simple comic relief device or a Pikachu clone. Piplup may have had more screentime later on DP than he should have had, but it was because of this that we truly cared what happened to the pokemon when it really counted.

Secondly, I did like some of the interactions that Piplup had with the other pokemon that belonged to the main characters. Two of these pokemon in particular, Ash's Gible and Dawn's Togekiss, had interacted with Piplup a great deal even though they were only seen on the main cast for less than 40 episodes. Although Piplup being struck by Gible's uncontrolled Draco Meteor attack may have been the writers's attempt at forcing the pokemon into comic relief moments, this simple recurring gag had proven itself to be a very useful tool for character development and plot transition.

As expected of the emotional mascot, Piplup was bothered by the fact that it kept getting bombarded by Gible's attacks and its trainer did not do anything to help it out. Piplup wanted to lash out at Gible, but the latter pokemon was too dense to understand the repercussions of its actions until somebody else pointed it out. Gible eventually apologized for unintentionally hitting Piplup with its attack, but he still used the attack occassionally when Piplup was separated from the main characters. Introducing Piplup into the Gible mastering Draco Meteor subplot not only broadened Piplup's character development and sparked the character's relationship with another main pokemon, but it also made Gible a relevant pokemon in some of the episodes where the gag had been implemented.

And now in the latter case: Dawn's Togekiss may have been on the main cast for only twenty episodes and was only seen in half of them, but she still interacted with Piplup a great deal in the final episodes of the series. Very rarely in this series (in any region) do we have two pokemon that truly bond in the way that Piplup and Togekiss had in DP. Piplup may have appeared to be spoiled and impatient on the surface of its character interactions, but it still presented a soft side when he was in the presence of Togekiss. As an older and more mature pokemon, Togekiss acted like a foster mother or even an older sister to Piplup; perhaps the writers had wanted to liken Piplup's emotional state to that of a young boy after all.

When Piplup was hit by Gible's Draco Meteor, Togekiss scolded Gible. In the final episode of DP, Piplup was bawling tears after he found out that he would be separated from Ash, Brock, and their pokemon. Pikachu and Piplup may have been forced to stick together like glue for the second half of DP, but it was still sad to watch the two pokemon cry together when they were separated. What I truly loved of this interaction was how Togekiss was involved and calmed the two pokemon down. This may have been a brief moment during the episode, but the interactions that Piplup had with both Pikachu and Togekiss in this scene were truly genuine. These are far cries than the usual comedic (or at the very least, forced comedic) moments that Piplup is usually engaged with throughout the second half of DP.

To summarize, there were some aspects of Piplup that I did enjoy and others that I felt were good at first but eventually became overbearing in time. Overall, I felt Piplup's character in DP was a success; I found that there were more pros than cons with the pokemon's development and personality. But I am starting to get a little worried; some of Piplup's emotional outbursts appeared to have rubbed off on Pikachu in BW.

 

[Cybersai]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

I do feel like the original idea behind Piplup was to make it what May's Torchic wasn't, an actual identifiable starter pokemon with tons of personality. Isn't this why everyone loved Piplup in early DP? Seriously, you can read the old DP review threads when DP first started in Japan, and everyone would talk about how much they loved Piplup.

It was only until it started getting shoved down our throats that people got tired of it. Its a shame too, because during the first maybe...30 eps of DP, Piplup was handled well and stayed in its ball, and it was actually making up for how little screentime May's Torchic got.

I guess this proves how the writers could mess up a good thing, right? Man, it brings back memories to DP's start back in 2006, doesn't it?

 

[SolgaleoGX]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

I was okay at first with him. He was actually amusing and funny to me at first.

But then he started to hang out of his Pokeball. And the writers strated shoving him down our throats for no reason other than to make him a Pikachu wannabe. He got so annoying, there wasn't any redemption for him in my eyes. I wanted him GONE.

If there is one thing I am super happy about the BW no Pokemon before Gen V's "rule". Is that there'll mostly likely NOT BE an appearance from the damn thing soon.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

That penguin was so annoyingly obnoxious and it got too many focus episodes of it basically just being stupid.
I just wanted to kick it half the time ~_~

It being annoyingly obnoxious is blatantly obvious. *Conway laugh* Piplup was so annoying I stopped watching the show only Paul brought me back.

 

[Insanish Danish]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

I honestly had mixed feelings about Piplup. On its own it was a totally adorable Pokemon, but its personality was so annoying I just wanted to mute the TV whenever I watched an episode of DP. Piplup being so cute appearance wise kept me from despising it, but yeah...it was annoying and every time it opened its beak I would just be like, "Can you PLEASE shut up already you stupid penguin?"

 

[Yankees4life]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

"I've decided stay as a Piplup and not evolve so kids would buy more of my toys." "WAAAAAAAA!!!! THEY ALL LIKE THAT GIBLE INSTEAD OF ME! SOMEBODY CALL THE WAAMMMBULANCE!"

Piplup looked like a crybaby and a jerk in its entire run. I don't know why Dawn didn't just do this:

Spoiler

HAHA, that would've been an ice-breaker for the gen if that happened!!!

 

[Araragi-hakase]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

Pochama in general is hit or miss for me, depending on the episode. As a Pokemon species, I LOVE him because it's just a bb penguin, but in the show, ugh...

At first I really liked him because he had a cute personality, but after a while he just became annoying. I cannot STAND his dub voice. The shtick with Gible's Draco Meteor hitting him all the time was funny the first few times, and sparingly, but after a while it got old, fast. Another cutesy starter that doesn't want to evolve, surprise, surprise...

He was so adorable in the last episode of DP, though ;__; And that episode when he was all googly eyed over Hikari was pretty lulzy.

Parts of his personality remind me of Satoshi's Mijumaru...

 

[Bandit Keith]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

I liked it better then I like Axew now, and that's saying something.

 

[Blue1225]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

^Agreed. I hated it back then, but Axew isn't any better.

 

[Cybersai]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

Technically none of those "out of the ball" Pokemon have been good.

Togepi, Piplup, and Axew all have various problems and could have been prevented if they weren't forced in every episode.

Piplup did happen to be the best utilized though.

 

[JennaJayfeather]

Re: Did you like Piplup's character in Diamond and Pearl?

No...I did not. Remember how I mentioned about Dawn? Piplup I even dislike more than Dawn. ;_; That darn PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPLUUUUUUUUUUUUP squeak that came out of its mouth killed my ears and the little thing just thought it was so cute and adorable. Dxx I cower in fear when I think of Piplup... Not that it's a horrible character or anything, he just made me think of a Pikachu copy that is trying to act cute.