PokeAni Missed Opportunities

[UxieLover1994]

In my view, several bait-and-switch fillers were missed opportunities. Among others. To name some...

1: May catching Swablu, evolve them into Altaria, win several contests with them, and then release them when the flock is finally found after about 30+ episodes.
2: Meeting Koga's daughter Janie. She could've had a small arc where she joins Ash to gain the confidence of being the new Gym Leader while her father ascends as a member of the Elite Four.
3: Axew evolving sometime during BW, which would be a major step towards his goal.
4: Ash vs. Virgil, with the latter's Eevee evolving into Sylveon mid-battle. (Sylveon had already been revealed by this point).
5: Team Plasma being faithfully adapted to show actual grey-and-grey morality in the anime, with the cause of the split-up being Ash's friendship with Pikachu.
6: Several characters like Alain and Lusamine have full teams, but apart from their signatures, they're almost never seen (and the writers pretend they don't exist). They could've gotten more screen time.

 

[WatcherMark]

3: Axew evolving sometime during BW, which would be a major step towards his goal.
4: Ash vs. Virgil, with the latter's Eevee evolving into Sylveon mid-battle. (Sylveon had already been revealed by this point).

One of Best Wishes' major missteps was Kibago. We're told it wants to evolve all the way (and indeed, Iris states that all trainers from the Village of Dragons are expected to fully evolve their Pokemon) only to be completely dropped three episodes later. Hell, the thing never showed any kind of development beyond its baby persona... it was always getting lost and new moves were forgotten immediately after learning them. So yeah, some kind of development for the little Dragon-type was definitely a missed opportunity.

Satoshi vs Virgil's lack of battle was another big one. You'd think the show would have leapt on the chance to have a league battle with a team full of Eeveelutions (especially as the show was promoting the hell out of them)... but no. For some reason that even years later I can't begin to fathom, Satoshi loses to a complete idiot who could barely make it to register on time instead.

I definitely think the writers dropped the battle massively in Sinnoh towards the end... both the Champions League and Sinnoh Battle Frontier are set up only for nothing to be done with them. It's really annoying after all the time that was wasted on pointless arcs (especially between the seventh and final gym). Also, Satoshi's Fukumaru was a complete waste... it was like the writers suddenly decided they'd have rather have had him than Glion on the team so quickly put one there but too late to do anything with it. I think if you're going to give a main character a psuedo-legendary it should be done towards the beginning of the series so you can let it grow naturally instead of either rushing the evolution (hi XY!) or keeping it in its base form.

 

[game3524]

Yeah, the writers wrote themselves into a corner with the amount of foreshadowing they did in DP. Honestly, the Indigo League was written much better then the Sinnoh League, even though the battles were no where near as good. In Kanto, everything was been set up towards Ash getting his comeuppance at the league (ex. the "pity" badges, overconfidence, putting off training etc). It was a major character development moment for Ash as it not only furthered his maturation as a trainer, but also as a person.

Sinnoh did the exact opposite. It set up a lot of cool concepts, but the writers only really followed through with Ash's rivalry with Paul. I still love DP, but the league was a let down and it ended what was a really well done series on a down note.

 

[matt0044]

Hugh's plotline would've been a neat addition to Episode N where he's out for revenge and maybe befriends N before learning who he really is.

 

[prog rocker]

Hugh's plotline would've been a neat addition to Episode N where he's out for revenge and maybe befriends N before learning who he really is.

Now that I think about it, "Hugh meeting N" could also count as a missed opportunity in the games.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Recently, I've come to realize that it's a darn shame that no region other than Kanto has ever featured an alternate way of entering the regional Pokémon League Conference. Kanto had Pokémon Tech and the Pokémon League Admissions Exam, but in every other region, not even a passing mention is made to other methods of entering a League Conference besides earning eight Badges.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Satoshi vs Virgil's lack of battle was another big one. You'd think the show would have leapt on the chance to have a league battle with a team full of Eeveelutions (especially as the show was promoting the hell out of them)... but no. For some reason that even years later I can't begin to fathom, Satoshi loses to a complete idiot who could barely make it to register on time instead.

I didn't really have a problem with Ash not battling Virgil. It sounded like a pretty easy way to introduce Sylveon, but as frustrating as Cameron was, I think it would have been arguably worse if Ash lost to a team of Eeveelutions. Ash losing to a Lucario makes more sense. Granted, I'm a bit biased in that regard, but I don't think that the backlash towards the Unova League would have been significantly better if Ash lost to an Eevee instead. Admittedly, Cameron not even facing off against Virgil's full team did add salt to the wound of how Ash lost.

I definitely think the writers dropped the battle massively in Sinnoh towards the end... both the Champions League and Sinnoh Battle Frontier are set up only for nothing to be done with them. It's really annoying after all the time that was wasted on pointless arcs (especially between the seventh and final gym). Also, Satoshi's Fukumaru was a complete waste... it was like the writers suddenly decided they'd have rather have had him than Glion on the team so quickly put one there but too late to do anything with it. I think if you're going to give a main character a psuedo-legendary it should be done towards the beginning of the series so you can let it grow naturally instead of either rushing the evolution (hi XY!) or keeping it in its base form.

How were the arcs between the seventh and eighth gyms pointless? Despite how often people complained about that year gap, a lot of important events happened during that time. Stuff like Ash's first full battle against Paul, Dawn's remaining Contests, the climax for Team Galactic and the Sinnoh Grand Festival happened during that year gap. Not to mention both Ash and Dawn caught new Pokemon during this time. There were still filler episodes, but not really a noteworthy amount. DP is the only series thus far where a year gap between Gym battles could work because there was more going on than just the Gym battle quest.

I also don't think that they had the Sinnoh Battle Frontier arc setup per say. It was established through Palmer's appearance, but that isn't really the same thing as setting it up for something Ash to do later on. There honestly just wasn't any time for them to have another Battle Frontier. Even if it didn't take as long for Ash to get his last badge, I don't think that they would have enough time for Ash to get all of the Frontier Symbols and for Dawn to get five more Ribbons. It would have been far too rushed and I think that the quality of the battles would have suffered as a result. If anything, I think that AG would have been a much stronger series if they didn't rush through the Kanto Battle Frontier and just extended the Hoenn journey a bit longer. If they had tried to force in a Sinnoh Battle Frontier arc, then I think that it would have had similar problems. I can understand the complaint about the Champion League though. Unlike the Battle Frontier, that was established much earlier in the series and the notion of Ash defeating Paul in the Sinnoh League finals sounded much more plausible for most of DP. Even though, I'm not sure how much stock I put into the Champion League as a potential future arc.

I also thought that Ash's Gible was treated pretty well all things considered. It got a decent amount of focus with it trying to master Draco Meteor, even if part of it was being used as a running gag, and it was used in Ash's battle against Conway. For a late series capture, I thought that it was handled just fine. I wouldn't have minded it if Ash caught it earlier, especially when I liked it more than Gliscor, but I don't know if they would have decided to give Ash a Garchomp considering that it is Cynthia's signature Pokemon. I could have seen it evolve into a Gabite if it was caught earlier in the series though. I prefer how Gible was handled compared to Goodra, but at least part of that is due to the many issues I have with Goodra's storyline.

Yeah, the writers wrote themselves into a corner with the amount of foreshadowing they did in DP. Honestly, the Indigo League was written much better then the Sinnoh League, even though the battles were no where near as good. In Kanto, everything was been set up towards Ash getting his comeuppance at the league (ex. the "pity" badges, overconfidence, putting off training etc). It was a major character development moment for Ash as it not only furthered his maturation as a trainer, but also as a person.

Sinnoh did the exact opposite. It set up a lot of cool concepts, but the writers only really followed through with Ash's rivalry with Paul. I still love DP, but the league was a let down and it ended what was a really well done series on a down note.

I don't really agree with that take on the Indigo League. It makes sense for Ash to lose there given his journey and character flaws, but I wouldn't really take the pity badges as a sign that they were setting up the League for that at least. I'm also still not really sure if they really intended to have a Champion League arc. If they did, then their hands were most likely tied given they had to wrap up DP to move onto the then new BW series. There wasn't really any time for them to do a proper arc even if Ash had won the Sinnoh League. I can understand being disappointed in the Sinnoh League to a certain point, but at the same time, I never thought it brought down DP. Ash defeating two Legendary Pokemon, although one was through a draw, allowed him to go out in a blaze of glory. It was much more impressive than if he had lost to a regular trainer after defeating Paul and he was basically the honorary runner up considering that he was the only one to defeat Tobias's Darkrai.

Hugh's plotline would've been a neat addition to Episode N where he's out for revenge and maybe befriends N before learning who he really is.

As cool as that would have been, I can see why that didn't happen. Hugh's backstory and motivation ties directly into Team Plasma's attempt at liberating Pokemon. Since Team Plasma was just brainwashing Pokemon in BW instead, I don't think Hugh would have fit. Plus, Hugh missing Purrloin for years was kind of an important detail and I think losing that would have taken too much emotional weight from his anger/desire to find it. It is a shame since I think Hugh is one of the more underrated rivals out there and I really enjoyed his storyling in B2/W2, but I don't think he could have worked in Episode N for multiple reasons.

 

[game3524]

I didn't really have a problem with Ash not battling Virgil. It sounded like a pretty easy way to introduce Sylveon, but as frustrating as Cameron was, I think it would have been arguably worse if Ash lost to a team of Eeveelutions. Ash losing to a Lucario makes more sense. Granted, I'm a bit biased in that regard, but I don't think that the backlash towards the Unova League would have been significantly better if Ash lost to an Eevee instead. Admittedly, Cameron not even facing off against Virgil's full team did add salt to the wound of how Ash lost.



How were the arcs between the seventh and eighth gyms pointless? Despite how often people complained about that year gap, a lot of important events happened during that time. Stuff like Ash's first full battle against Paul, Dawn's remaining Contests, the climax for Team Galactic and the Sinnoh Grand Festival happened during that year gap. Not to mention both Ash and Dawn caught new Pokemon during this time. There were still filler episodes, but not really a noteworthy amount. DP is the only series thus far where a year gap between Gym battles could work because there was more going on than just the Gym battle quest.

I also don't think that they had the Sinnoh Battle Frontier arc setup per say. It was established through Palmer's appearance, but that isn't really the same thing as setting it up for something Ash to do later on. There honestly just wasn't any time for them to have another Battle Frontier. Even if it didn't take as long for Ash to get his last badge, I don't think that they would have enough time for Ash to get all of the Frontier Symbols and for Dawn to get five more Ribbons. It would have been far too rushed and I think that the quality of the battles would have suffered as a result. If anything, I think that AG would have been a much stronger series if they didn't rush through the Kanto Battle Frontier and just extended the Hoenn journey a bit longer. If they had tried to force in a Sinnoh Battle Frontier arc, then I think that it would have had similar problems. I can understand the complaint about the Champion League though. Unlike the Battle Frontier, that was established much earlier in the series and the notion of Ash defeating Paul in the Sinnoh League finals sounded much more plausible for most of DP. Even though, I'm not sure how much stock I put into the Champion League as a potential future arc.

I also thought that Ash's Gible was treated pretty well all things considered. It got a decent amount of focus with it trying to master Draco Meteor, even if part of it was being used as a running gag, and it was used in Ash's battle against Conway. For a late series capture, I thought that it was handled just fine. I wouldn't have minded it if Ash caught it earlier, especially when I liked it more than Gliscor, but I don't know if they would have decided to give Ash a Garchomp considering that it is Cynthia's signature Pokemon. I could have seen it evolve into a Gabite if it was caught earlier in the series though. I prefer how Gible was handled compared to Goodra, but at least part of that is due to the many issues I have with Goodra's storyline.



I don't really agree with that take on the Indigo League. It makes sense for Ash to lose there given his journey and character flaws, but I wouldn't really take the pity badges as a sign that they were setting up the League for that at least. I'm also still not really sure if they really intended to have a Champion League arc. If they did, then their hands were most likely tied given they had to wrap up DP to move onto the then new BW series. There wasn't really any time for them to do a proper arc even if Ash had won the Sinnoh League. I can understand being disappointed in the Sinnoh League to a certain point, but at the same time, I never thought it brought down DP. Ash defeating two Legendary Pokemon, although one was through a draw, allowed him to go out in a blaze of glory. It was much more impressive than if he had lost to a regular trainer after defeating Paul and he was basically the honorary runner up considering that he was the only one to defeat Tobias's Darkrai.



As cool as that would have been, I can see why that didn't happen. Hugh's backstory and motivation ties directly into Team Plasma's attempt at liberating Pokemon. Since Team Plasma was just brainwashing Pokemon in BW instead, I don't think Hugh would have fit. Plus, Hugh missing Purrloin for years was kind of an important detail and I think losing that would have taken too much emotional weight from his anger/desire to find it. It is a shame since I think Hugh is one of the more underrated rivals out there and I really enjoyed his storyling in B2/W2, but I don't think he could have worked in Episode N for multiple reasons.

Disagree. Each badge "win" fueled his ego and made him think he was a much better trainer then he actually was. I used to have an issue with it, but after rewatching season one, I don't anymore because it clearly made sense given where the character ended up in the end.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I didn't really have a problem with Ash not battling Virgil. It sounded like a pretty easy way to introduce Sylveon, but as frustrating as Cameron was, I think it would have been arguably worse if Ash lost to a team of Eeveelutions. Ash losing to a Lucario makes more sense. Granted, I'm a bit biased in that regard, but I don't think that the backlash towards the Unova League would have been significantly better if Ash lost to an Eevee instead. Admittedly, Cameron not even facing off against Virgil's full team did add salt to the wound of how Ash lost.

As much as I like Lucario too, I think Ash's loss to Cameron was a disgrace and makes Cameron's Lucario the only member of its species that I don't like. Introducing Virgil and not having Ash battle him a was a waste of a perfectly good rival character.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Not to mention its entirely plausible for a well trained Eeveelution to be more powerful than a newly evolved Riolu that’s had a beating.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Not to mention its entirely plausible for a well trained Eeveelution to be more powerful than a newly evolved Riolu that’s had a beating.

Cameron's Riolu always seemed way OP to me. It took out much larger opponents than itself (like Bianca's Emboar) and, even worse, opponents with a type advantage over it (like Ash's Unfezant) with relative ease, which I think was unrealistic.

 

[Hidden Mew]

As much as I like Lucario too, I think Ash's loss to Cameron was a disgrace and makes Cameron's Lucario the only member of its species that I don't like. Introducing Virgil and not having Ash battle him a was a waste of a perfectly good rival character.

I can't really see it as a big waste considering that Virgil seemed pretty bland. If it wasn't for his team of Eeveelutions and not battling Ash, I don't think he would have been that memorable. Ash vs. Virgil probably wouldn't have been as bad as his match against Cameron, but I also don't think it would have been significantly better either.

Cameron's Riolu always seemed way OP to me. It took out much larger opponents than itself (like Bianca's Emboar) and, even worse, opponents with a type advantage over it (like Ash's Unfezant) with relative ease, which I think was unrealistic.

I don't know about that. Smaller Pokemon taking out larger opponents or ones with type advantages happen too often in the anime to be considered unrealistic. Bianca wasn't really a strong trainer to begin with and Ash's Unfezant never came off as particularly strong to me either. I would agree with it being a bit overpowered due to how it was able to defeat multiple Pokemon in a row during the match against Ash though.

 

[Daenerys]

Hugh's plotline would've been a neat addition to Episode N where he's out for revenge and maybe befriends N before learning who he really is.

Eh, I never really understood Hugh's appeal and tbh I felt that Episode N was already overcrowded in terms of recurring characters. So I don't think he was needed there.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

I talked about this before in another thread, but how come Ash's Corphish never evolved? It seemed like a competent enough battler and a Crawdaunt would've been pretty cool for Ash to own. I had the theory before that maybe the writers didn't want to give Ash the same Pokemon that Team Aqua was using. What else could've been the problem? Did they not want Ash to have a Dark (or Evil in Japan) type? I'm not really sure. Also Krabby was hardly used before the Indigo League after its capture episode and it was the first water Pokemon Ash owned to evolve? I know it was the early days so a Pokemon didn't need much focus or training for that matter to evolve, but still it's weird. Come to think of it, I could ask the same question about Buizel. Ash's water Pokemon aside from Greninja never really seem to get to reach their greatest potential which is kind of a shame. I could understand Squirtle and Totodile not evolving, but the others water Pokemon Ash owned from Hoenn onward not evolving seem like a missed opportunity. I'm guess I could be stuck on this particular topic because Water is one of my favorite types aside from Electric...

 

[WatcherMark]

I didn't really have a problem with Ash not battling Virgil. It sounded like a pretty easy way to introduce Sylveon, but as frustrating as Cameron was, I think it would have been arguably worse if Ash lost to a team of Eeveelutions. Ash losing to a Lucario makes more sense. Granted, I'm a bit biased in that regard, but I don't think that the backlash towards the Unova League would have been significantly better if Ash lost to an Eevee instead. Admittedly, Cameron not even facing off against Virgil's full team did add salt to the wound of how Ash lost.

I don't have a problem with Satoshi losing to a Lucario. What I have a problem with is Lucario taking out half of Satoshi's team, with two of them having not battled yet and one of them having a type-advantage and being fully evolved while Riolu was still in its base form (I consider Kenhallow's performance against Riolu to be absolutely shameful).

To be honest, the whole region seemed to be focused on making Satoshi look weaker and him losing to an idiot who went on to be walked over by Virgil was the sour icing on the awful cake.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I talked about this before in another thread, but how come Ash's Corphish never evolved? It seemed like a competent enough battler and a Crawdaunt would've been pretty cool for Ash to own. I had the theory before that maybe the writers didn't want to give Ash the same Pokemon that Team Aqua was using. What else could've been the problem? Did they not want Ash to have a Dark (or Evil in Japan) type? I'm not really sure. Also Krabby was hardly used before the Indigo League after its capture episode and it was the first water Pokemon Ash owned to evolve? I know it was the early days so a Pokemon didn't need much focus or training for that matter to evolve, but still it's weird. Come to think of it, I could ask the same question about Buizel. Ash's water Pokemon aside from Greninja never really seem to get to reach their greatest potential which is kind of a shame. I could understand Squirtle and Totodile not evolving, but the others water Pokemon Ash owned from Hoenn onward not evolving seem like a missed opportunity. I'm guess I could be stuck on this particular topic because Water is one of my favorite types aside from Electric...

This actually reminds me of something: I thought it was really unfair that they made Kingler miss the Silver Conference, when it hadn't exactly much to do since the Indigo League. Sure there was the Whirl Cup, but it's not as big as participating in a League. And the worst part is why they shelved Kingler: to give more spotlight to Squirtle. While I understand that they wanted to show off the results of its training, I still thought it was unfair that Squirtle, a Pokémon whom Ash had actually traveled with a lot and had had its time to shine multiple times in the past, got to once again be in the center stage, while poor Kingler, who was already rarely used, was denied of a possibility to shine in favor of that.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

This actually reminds me of something: I thought it was really unfair that they made Kingler miss the Silver Conference, when it hadn't exactly much to do since the Indigo League. Sure there was the Whirl Cup, but it's not as big as participating in a League. And the worst part is why they shelved Kingler: to give more spotlight to Squirtle. While I understand that they wanted to show off the results of its training, I still thought it was unfair that Squirtle, a Pokémon whom Ash had actually traveled with a lot and had had its time to shine multiple times in the past, got to once again be in the center stage, while poor Kingler, who was already rarely used, was denied of a possibility to shine in favor of that.

To be honest, if I didn't rewatch old episodes as often as I do I'd forget Ash even owned a Kingler due to how little it appeared.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

To be honest, if I didn't rewatch old episodes as often as I do I'd forget Ash even owned a Kingler due to how little it appeared.

I always remember it from the way it was caught (being sent to Oak immediately) and how it evolved.

 

[Galactic_V]

Satoshi's unevolved Pokemon always bothered me too, mainly when they're shown to be very strong and well trained. One of the reasons XY's my favorite series is that all his team is evolved, something that even DP neglected to do (why his Buizel never became Floatzel I'll never understand).

I can understand OLM leaving some of the Pokemon in their early stages for merchandising purpose, but it was clearly not the case with both Buizel and Heigani.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

(why his Buizel never became Floatzel I'll never understand).

Probably has something to do with its rivalry with Crasher Wake's Floatzel, but I agree. Ash's Buizel deserved to evolve.