Things you wish that did NOT happen in the anime

[Rockapheller]

They did. Every time Ash's friends leave him and new companions replace them. When Misty and Brock leave, people started hating on the new characters because they weren't Misty and Brock. And that's not even getting into when Ash releases a Pokemon, even when he didn't actually release it.

The problem is only people who are unhappy with changes raise their voices, but there are those who are fine with changes, be it the character replacement or a Pokémon release. But they don't need to bark about what they are happy about.

 

[sc190191]

I wish we had never had those preview openings in DP (I think the term for it is cold opening, although I'm not sure if that term is just having some of the episode before the opening - which I like - as opposed to having part of the middle of the episode before the opening - which I strongly dislike). For all the stuff DP did well, those were really frustrating because I didn't like seeing what was going to happen later in the episode right from the start. I guess in Japan, where they get previews every week that spoil parts of the upcoming episode, it probably wasn't such a big deal, but I really don't prefer spoilers on the new episodes. It also meant that much less new content, since we would see the same scene twice.

 

[Sakuraa]

-BW as a whole, tbh, but the main thing was Ash catching 8 Pokemon in Unova. Only the starters and Scraggy got any decent screentime and development. The others were grossly neglected.

-Ash not traveling in S/M. I could accept the laid back, sol style of series if ONLY they allowed Ash to travel. Alola is the most unique region yet with it being made up of 4 islands and it was a huge missed opportunity locking Ash to Melemele for a majority of the series. The fact that they based the entire series off of the Pokemon School, which is literally just a 10 minute tutorial section in the games, was just the worst thing they could have done. At the very least, they could have made it a traveling school and let Kukui journey around with the class across the Islands, but nope :/

- Treating the Island Trials as some side activity as opposed to Ash's main goal. For the life of me I'll never understand why they didn't take the Island Challenge as seriously as the gyms. They were an interesting concept that provided some much needed change in the games and that was very refreshing. I would have loved to see them portrayed accurately in the anime, but instead, Ash battles certain Totem Pokemon 2 v 2 instead of 2 v 1, some Totems don't have their allies, some he doesn't even battle AT ALL, yet he is still able to challenge the Kahuha by the end of it all. The Kahuna battles were the only things done properly from the Island Challenge and they are literally just basic battles anyway.

-Keeping Ash as the main character past Johto. I wish they would have made a new protagonist based off of Brendan in AG and keep replacing the main characters each new series. The series is just so repetitive at this point. Introducing new characters with new personalities and new goals would have helped to keep the show fresh over the years.

 

[KrspaceT]

-BW as a whole, tbh, but the main thing was Ash catching 8 Pokemon in Unova. Only the starters and Scraggy got any decent screentime and development. The others were grossly neglected.

-Ash not traveling in S/M. I could accept the laid back, sol style of series if ONLY they allowed Ash to travel. Alola is the most unique region yet with it being made up of 4 islands and it was a huge missed opportunity locking Ash to Melemele for a majority of the series. The fact that they based the entire series off of the Pokemon School, which is literally just a 10 minute tutorial section in the games, was just the worst thing they could have done. At the very least, they could have made it a traveling school and let Kukui journey around with the class across the Islands, but nope :/

- Treating the Island Trials as some side activity as opposed to Ash's main goal. For the life of me I'll never understand why they didn't take the Island Challenge as seriously as the gyms. They were an interesting concept that provided some much needed change in the games and that was very refreshing. I would have loved to see them portrayed accurately in the anime, but instead, Ash battles certain Totem Pokemon 2 v 2 instead of 2 v 1, some Totems don't have their allies, some he doesn't even battle AT ALL, yet he is still able to challenge the Kahuha by the end of it all. The Kahuna battles were the only things done properly from the Island Challenge and they are literally just basic battles anyway.

-Keeping Ash as the main character past Johto. I wish they would have made a new protagonist based off of Brendan in AG and keep replacing the main characters each new series. The series is just so repetitive at this point. Introducing new characters with new personalities and new goals would have helped to keep the show fresh over the years.

I'd argue that the BW mons could have worked...there are a decent amount of 'dead weight' episodes they could have used for them. Also as I do subscribe to the theory that Ash was meant to catch Krokorok earlier (it would explain the mon appearing in Team Plasma two parter, the sudden use and then underuse of Palpitoad another Ground-type, Roggenrola using Stone Edge until around the time they could start fitting Krokorok back in when the move was lost, and the gap in appearances from just before TP to a while after) I think that they were making steps to make uses of Krokorok, Roggenrola, Tranquil, and Swadloon more, and later events messed it all up.

...Honestly makes me wonder if Ash was going to catch some Pokemon who ended up being shelved because of the Krokorok switch-up I theorize ended up happening.

...May the episodes leak in full one day so I may be proven right or wrong.

 

[Sakuraa]

I'd argue that the BW mons could have worked...there are a decent amount of 'dead weight' episodes they could have used for them. Also as I do subscribe to the theory that Ash was meant to catch Krokorok earlier (it would explain the mon appearing in Team Plasma two parter, the sudden use and then underuse of Palpitoad another Ground-type, Roggenrola using Stone Edge until around the time they could start fitting Krokorok back in when the move was lost, and the gap in appearances from just before TP to a while after) I think that they were making steps to make uses of Krokorok, Roggenrola, Tranquil, and Swadloon more, and later events messed it all up.

...Honestly makes me wonder if Ash was going to catch some Pokemon who ended up being shelved because of the Krokorok switch-up I theorize ended up happening.

...May the episodes leak in full one day so I may be proven right or wrong.

I don't get why that would be the case. They shouldn't be basing Ash's use of certain Pokemon to specific episodes. And even if an episode or 2 not airing properly caused certain issues, they should have been able to adapt and give them the focus they need in future episodes.

I agree that they could have worked with a large team in theory, but to me it seems like there was very little interest in focusing on a lot of them outside of battles. Honestly, Ash should have just had Pikachu, the starters, Scraggy, and Krookodile for Unova. The others were so ignored, it feels like they were pointless to have in the first place.

 

[KrspaceT]

I don't get why that would be the case. They shouldn't be basing Ash's use of certain Pokemon to specific episodes. And even if an episode or 2 not airing properly caused certain issues, they should have been able to adapt and give them the focus they need in future episodes.

I agree that they could have worked with a large team in theory, but to me it seems like there was very little interest in focusing on a lot of them outside of battles. Honestly, Ash should have just had Pikachu, the starters, Scraggy, and Krookodile for Unova. The others were so ignored, it feels like they were pointless to have in the first place.

As a Leavanny fan i'd say no, but I do recall Swaddy, Roggenrola, and to a lesser extent Tranquil getting use. Never underestimate what a series disruption can do to a series.

We know that Johto had a G.S plotline torn out of it, and look how that turned out.

 

[Sakuraa]

As a Leavanny fan i'd say no, but I do recall Swaddy, Roggenrola, and to a lesser extent Tranquil getting use. Never underestimate what a series disruption can do to a series.

We know that Johto had a G.S plotline torn out of it, and look how that turned out.

They got use, but is was so little that I question the point of having them captured in the first place.

I don't know if the GS Ball sideplot being scrapped is a similar situation. BW giving half of Ash's team the shaft because of two early episodes not airing just doesn't seem realistic to me. There was still plenty of time to focus on them long after those episodes were skipped. Like I said, to me it seems like they had little desire to give those Pokemon any focus in the first place.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I really doubt that Ash was going to capture Krokorok during the Team Plasma two parter. If that was the case, then there would have been an even bigger scramble to change things around than there was. It wasn't something simple that they could edit around like say any small scenes with Team Plasma that could have potentially been in an episode after those episodes were set to air or just say that Bianca started to travel with them off-screen for awhile. They couldn't really edit out one of Ash's Pokemon. It just seems like a big stretch.

I also think Ash's BW team should have been Pikachu, the starters, Scraggy and Krokodile. Those were the only Pokemon that had any decent amount of screentime and having a more consistent team really would have helped him in some battles. Plus, I think it was a mistake to give him so many Pokemon. The idea of a rotating team sounds cool in theory, but when the writers haven't been able to give a regular team equal amount of development, then they couldn't do that with a larger team. I also kept forgetting that he even had some of his Pokemon. I kept forgetting that Unfeazant even existed despite being Ash's first capture in the Unova region. Levanny was pretty forgettable too, which was a shame since its capture episode was pretty good.

 

[Rockapheller]

Having "Rocket-dan's Rocket Song" as ending theme for only one episode. It was too cool to be used only once.

 

[P_S_B]

I wish that the pacing of Serena's Showcases wasn't so awful. Master Class was long before the end of the series and was mostly skipped over as it only took up two episodes instead of the minimum of 3 for a 'contest finale' arc seen in the past. Not only this but a large majority of the performers seen in Master Class Choices! were seen again at the Master Class, no more than 3 episodes after they were all trying to win presumably their third Princess Keys. By my count there would have needed to be at least 12 Showcases taking place offscreen in the time between the two episodes, which while technically possible is difficult for me to believe to the point of breaking my immersion. What should have happened was that the Master Class Choices! showcase should have been advertised as the final Showcase before Master Class and consisted of performers who would not be appearing at Master Class, like the girls with the Furret, Swanna, Swirlix (who unless Kiri and Concetta are counted as separate characters was the only performer in the actual episode who didn't obtain enough Princess Keys to make it to Master Class in the space of literally 3 episode later) etc. It would also have given that much more tension to Serena's necessity to win against Amelia.

Another thing that I wish didn't happen was for the finely-crafted designs of the recurring performers to go mostly to waste, with the overwhelming majority of them remaining unnamed and some only appearing in one or two episodes at most despite the obvious care that went into their designs and characterizations (the girl with the Smeargle having no confidence, the girl with the Swanna consistently losing, the girl with the Mightyena using her casual-wear as her performance outfit etc.).

Probably won't ever happen, but I would love to see a special episode focused entirely on those background performer designs where we would ultimately get to learn each of their names along with something about them over the course of the episode.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm not really sure how they could have made the Master Class Showcase three episodes long. Grand Festivals were a bit longer not only because they had more coordinators, but also because they had battles. The Master Class was barely different from a regular Showcase. Besides that, I think that they had already run out of ideas on what to do for the first round of a Showcase. They tried to justify not having a regular first round in the Master Class by saying how everyone already has strong bonds with their Pokemon, but the last themed performance was trying to attract Rhyhorn for some reason. They had few ideas beyond fashion and cooking for those first rounds and it shows.

They do have a lot of background Performers show up in the Master Class, but I kind of like that in a way. It shows that getting three Princess Keys is not that hard, despite how XY tried so desperately to say that it was, and it made the Master Class feel more like a regular Showcase. Considering how Showcases were handled and how they were introduced around the middle of the series, I think that the Master Class two-parter was a pretty fitting end for Showcases.

 

[P_S_B]

Having so many of the background performers there was a good thing, the issue was that there were so many who were ostensibly still trying to win Princess Keys literally 3 episodes earlier. The fact that the series expects me to believe that no less than 12 Showcases happened in the space of 2 episodes is something I find immersion-breakingly difficult to believe. What I'm saying is that they should either have had some of the non-Master Class-recurring performers (like the Egyptian-looking girl with the Kirlia from A Showcase Debut! or the girl with the Swanna, the girl with the Furret etc.) in Master Class Choices! or had more episodes in between the third key and Master Class.

Honestly Showcases as a whole were pretty poorly executed, I just liked the performer designs and Showcases were pretty much the only time we got to see them. I am still disappointed that they didn't bring any of them back for the improptu Showcase performance they put on for the citizens of Lumiose after the Team Flare thing, opting instead for only Serena, Shuna and Jessie.

 

[Bloodstained]

Having so many of the background performers there was a good thing, the issue was that there were so many who were ostensibly still trying to win Princess Keys literally 3 episodes earlier. The fact that the series expects me to believe that no less than 12 Showcases happened in the space of 2 episodes is something I find immersion-breakingly difficult to believe. What I'm saying is that they should either have had some of the non-Master Class-recurring performers (like the Egyptian-looking girl with the Kirlia from A Showcase Debut! or the girl with the Swanna, the girl with the Furret etc.) in Master Class Choices! or had more episodes in between the third key and Master Class.

Honestly Showcases as a whole were pretty poorly executed, I just liked the performer designs and Showcases were pretty much the only time we got to see them. I am still disappointed that they didn't bring any of them back for the improptu Showcase performance they put on for the citizens of Lumiose after the Team Flare thing, opting instead for only Serena, Shuna and Jessie.

Yeah, the whole thing could've been eliminated with little complaints. Either that or make it so it's not competitive. Just have it be some kind of profession and Elle just be a really good Performer. Maybe the only real obstacles would be to pass certain tests to become one.

 

[yab]

Anyone think Max should have stayed in Petalburg between the Hoenn and BF transition? It seemed like the writers already ran out of things to do with him by the end of Hoenn, and for the entire span of Battle Frontier I don't think Max got a single episode. I think the only reason the writers didn't change the cast is because they wanted the same group for the entire span of AG. Something generally felt a bit "off" about the Hoenn groups chemistry in Battle Frontier, and I'm not sure what it was but I think the writers just stopped caring about Max and Brock at that point.

 

[sc190191]

Anyone think Max should have stayed in Petalburg between the Hoenn and BF transition? It seemed like the writers already ran out of things to do with him by the end of Hoenn, and for the entire span of Battle Frontier I don't think Max got a single episode. I think the only reason the writers didn't change the cast is because they wanted the same group for the entire span of AG. Something generally felt a bit "off" about the Hoenn groups chemistry in Battle Frontier, and I'm not sure what it was but I think the writers just stopped caring about Max and Brock at that point.

He had that Deoxys two-partner that he played a big role in. Are you sure the chemistry didn't feel off because of the dub voice changes (not to mention script style changes)? I always have trouble with that season because having the voices change mid series is difficult to adjust to, but I think from an original standpoint the chemistry doesn't really change.

But to your original point, yeah I don't think he was really needed, but he never was particularly needed. I don't think it really hurt having him there, even if he didn't get a huge role, since at his age he did just want to be there for all the experiences, its not like a stale Brock thing where he could have potentially been doing something else.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Looking back at Waruvile's appearances, there is certainly a big disappearance after the TPvsTR two-parter:

BW003 - First appearance
(8 episode break)
BW012 - Revealed as Recurring
(7 episode break)
BW020 - Last appearance
(2 episode break)
BW023 - Unaired TPvsTR special
BW024 - Unaired TPvsTR special
(41 episode break)
BW066 - Waruvile's Return

That makes a 45 episodes long disappearance for a recurring character, almost long as a third of whole BW saga. That's unusually high, which give credence to the theory that Waruvile is banned from the show for some time, similar to Porygon.

 

[Greninjaman]

likely they forgot about Krokorok for while.

 

[Camille]

Pidgeot's release and Piplup's refusal to evolve are the main ones.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Even with how long Krokorok disappeared from the series, I still have a hard time believing that theory. Krokorok would have been featured more heavily in other episodes and it probably would have been too difficult to remove it from at least some scenes if it was going to be captured during that two parter. It isn't an impossible theory, but it just seems unlikely to me.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

I think going back to school after the Aether Arc was the worst thing to ever happen to the anime, followed closely by the butchering of the trials.