Worst PLOT episodes

[Camille]

I've never liked All Torkoal, No Play! Not only didn't Steel Valley have any Generation III Steel Pokemon (they could have easily put Mawile, Aron, Lairon, Beldum and Metang there), but the Magneton trying to knock May and Torchic off the tree branch was just horrid.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Recent Nebby/Faba/Lusamine arc is comes to mind. Too much hype, too little everything.

 

[HiroHunter]

Can I say most of the eps in the UB arc at this point have little point with the worst of them being the two Llima eps.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

A Watershed Moment and that Litleo ep...

because there is no plot...

at all.

It's just gardening and watching a Pokemon do a thing for 22 minutes.

 

[Gabo2oo]

@RetroPokeFan The thread refers to worst episodes that aren't filler.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Remember during the Hoenn Grand Festival when Harley gave May awful advice to sabatoge her? Remember how she took that advice despite it being blatently awful even if Harley was being honest? Remember how she trusted Harley over Drew? Remember how she still got past the appeal round despite performing suboptimally? Remember how that happened TWICE?!

 

[HiroHunter]

Remember during the Hoenn Grand Festival when Harley gave May awful advice to sabatoge her? Remember how she took that advice despite it being blatently awful even if Harley was being honest? Remember how she trusted Harley over Drew? Remember how she still got past the appeal round despite performing suboptimally? Remember how that happened TWICE?!

And this is why Dawn is better than May for me

 

[Alola]

I really disliked Ash's Gym Battle with Elesa. I understand that Ash in general was flanderized as an idiot for most of the Best Wishes saga, but this Gym Battle was utterly ridiculous.

• He brings one Pokemon to a three on three battle. What makes it egregious is that the day before, he viewed Bianca's battle where the three on three rules were clearly stated. Yet, him in his brightness and four sagas of Gym Leader experience, decided that Palpitoad (who admittedly typed well against Elesa) would be enough. Once Palpitoad was inevitably knocked out, Ash had what was probably the most embarrassing moment in animated Gym history, freaking out that his stupid plan failed and leaving mid-match to scurry to a Pokemon Center. Which leads me to...
• Snivy's Gym performance. I was a huge Snivy fan when she was introduced, until her Badass Decay began and she degraded into nothing more than a catty rival for Emolga. Here, it was her first Gym Battle since she was introduced after Ash earned the Trio Badge. How was she handled? Horribly. Yes she's at a disadvantage due to Emolga's typing, but she was absolutely walked over-I don't think she fazed Elesa's Emolga at all. Not to mention, Ash ignorantly had her use Attract on Elesa's female Emolga (which he should have known about already if he bothered registering his Palpitoad's own gender). I was just as frustrated as Pikachu watching the beat-down, especially given that Emolga is part Flying type with Flying moves. If he really wanted to use her, he could have had Pikachu battle Emolga and he send Snivy out for Tynamo.
• Pikachu knocking out Emolga and Tynamo. While I enjoyed watching Pikachu smash both of his opponents into the wall, was that Pikachu focus necessary? Especially since this was the saga of rotation? Pikachu was just the all-star lead in the previous Gym Battle against Burgh, yet he also gets to be the ace here too. Not to mention, his uncharacteristic frustration at Ash's stupidity is never seen again, like that. I just felt that several of Ash's other Pokemon could have done well here, or at least Snivy could have had a decisive win for once. Overall, I just feel that the episode was poorly executed.

 

[HiroHunter]

I really disliked Ash's Gym Battle with Elesa. I understand that Ash in general was flanderized as an idiot for most of the Best Wishes saga, but this Gym Battle was utterly ridiculous.

• He brings one Pokemon to a three on three battle. What makes it egregious is that the day before, he viewed Bianca's battle where the three on three rules were clearly stated. Yet, him in his brightness and four sagas of Gym Leader experience, decided that Palpitoad (who admittedly typed well against Elesa) would be enough. Once Palpitoad was inevitably knocked out, Ash had what was probably the most embarrassing moment in animated Gym history, freaking out that his stupid plan failed and leaving mid-match to scurry to a Pokemon Center. Which leads me to...
• Snivy's Gym performance. I was a huge Snivy fan when she was introduced, until her Badass Decay began and she degraded into nothing more than a catty rival for Emolga. Here, it was her first Gym Battle since she was introduced after Ash earned the Trio Badge. How was she handled? Horribly. Yes she's at a disadvantage due to Emolga's typing, but she was absolutely walked over-I don't think she fazed Elesa's Emolga at all. Not to mention, Ash ignorantly had her use Attract on Elesa's female Emolga (which he should have known about already if he bothered registering his Palpitoad's own gender). I was just as frustrated as Pikachu watching the beat-down, especially given that Emolga is part Flying type with Flying moves. If he really wanted to use her, he could have had Pikachu battle Emolga and he send Snivy out for Tynamo.
• Pikachu knocking out Emolga and Tynamo. While I enjoyed watching Pikachu smash both of his opponents into the wall, was that Pikachu focus necessary? Especially since this was the saga of rotation? Pikachu was just the all-star lead in the previous Gym Battle against Burgh, yet he also gets to be the ace here too. Not to mention, his uncharacteristic frustration at Ash's stupidity is never seen again, like that. I just felt that several of Ash's other Pokemon could have done well here, or at least Snivy could have had a decisive win for once. Overall, I just feel that the episode was poorly executed.

A lots that wrong about BW can be found in this ep.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Remember during the Hoenn Grand Festival when Harley gave May awful advice to sabatoge her? Remember how she took that advice despite it being blatently awful even if Harley was being honest? Remember how she trusted Harley over Drew? Remember how she still got past the appeal round despite performing suboptimally? Remember how that happened TWICE?!

Yeah, that was pretty frustrating. I could understand why May fell for Harley's trick when they first met. She would consider it helpful advice, but she had no excuse for the Grand Festival. While I do miss Contests, the first Grand Festival wasn't the best showing for May, particularly for the appeal rounds. May got through at least a couple of appeal rounds where she really should have lost during AG.

I really disliked Ash's Gym Battle with Elesa. I understand that Ash in general was flanderized as an idiot for most of the Best Wishes saga, but this Gym Battle was utterly ridiculous.

• He brings one Pokemon to a three on three battle. What makes it egregious is that the day before, he viewed Bianca's battle where the three on three rules were clearly stated. Yet, him in his brightness and four sagas of Gym Leader experience, decided that Palpitoad (who admittedly typed well against Elesa) would be enough. Once Palpitoad was inevitably knocked out, Ash had what was probably the most embarrassing moment in animated Gym history, freaking out that his stupid plan failed and leaving mid-match to scurry to a Pokemon Center. Which leads me to...
• Snivy's Gym performance. I was a huge Snivy fan when she was introduced, until her Badass Decay began and she degraded into nothing more than a catty rival for Emolga. Here, it was her first Gym Battle since she was introduced after Ash earned the Trio Badge. How was she handled? Horribly. Yes she's at a disadvantage due to Emolga's typing, but she was absolutely walked over-I don't think she fazed Elesa's Emolga at all. Not to mention, Ash ignorantly had her use Attract on Elesa's female Emolga (which he should have known about already if he bothered registering his Palpitoad's own gender). I was just as frustrated as Pikachu watching the beat-down, especially given that Emolga is part Flying type with Flying moves. If he really wanted to use her, he could have had Pikachu battle Emolga and he send Snivy out for Tynamo.
• Pikachu knocking out Emolga and Tynamo. While I enjoyed watching Pikachu smash both of his opponents into the wall, was that Pikachu focus necessary? Especially since this was the saga of rotation? Pikachu was just the all-star lead in the previous Gym Battle against Burgh, yet he also gets to be the ace here too. Not to mention, his uncharacteristic frustration at Ash's stupidity is never seen again, like that. I just felt that several of Ash's other Pokemon could have done well here, or at least Snivy could have had a decisive win for once. Overall, I just feel that the episode was poorly executed.

I've gotten through all of Ash's Unova Gym battles in my BW rewatch and this match is still easily the worst one in my book. The match against Roxie really made Ash's Pokemon look weak, but at least he had a couple of good moments that showed some nice strategies. Plus, Iris and Cilan cheering him one was one of the few good group moments I've seen from them, so that's a nice bonus. The main thing that frustrates me about this was Ash going into a battle relying on sweeping the Gym Leader with one Pokemon. Leaving the battle field to go get another Pokemon should have been grounds for disqualification, but because he's Ash, Elesa found his behavior interesting rather than a huge sign that her challenger wasn't even prepared to take the battle seriously.

I think that they were trying to show that Ash thinking too much about a strategy using different Pokemon than what he had been using frequently put him at a disadvantage. He wasn't able to battle in his usual way, but I think that there were other better ways to convey that instead of Ash literally banking on Palpitoad to defeat three powerful Pokemon. Not to mention the battle felt rushed, especially once Pikachu joined in. I think it was supposed to show that Ash was back to his usual battle style, but it just made the battle so unsatisfying. That made it extra annoying because they took about twenty episodes to just to get to the Nimbasa Gym and it turned out to be a terrible match.

I also find it ironic that Ash wanted to use different Pokemon for the match because he had been relying primarily on Pikachu, Tepig and Oshawott, but he proceeds to basically do the same thing for the rest of the series. Despite how Ash captured more Pokemon than usual in BW, he kept using the same ones frequently, while his reserved Pokemon were so bland and forgettable. Even when rewatching the series, I'll think to myself "Oh yeah, Tranquil exists" and I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you what Tranquil did between its two evolution episodes or if it even showed up more than a couple of times.

 

[SammyW27]

The Kanto Badge Quest & League
The Groudon vs. Kyogre 2-parter
Battle Frontier/Kanto Contests
The Isshu Badge Quest & League
The World Tournament Junior Cup
The Showcase episodes, especially the Master Class duo
The first episode or two of the Kalos League

 

[Alola]

Alain's Mega Charizard X knocking out Greninja with BURASTO BURN at the climax of Kalos League and Goodra's very poor performance despite being my favorite Dragon. There were riots on the internet that day.

 

[EscLucy]

The best one has to be Skyla though hahahahaha, oblivious and funny....kinda reminds of me a certain Alolan Rock-type trainer...

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Worst plot episode is no doubt Down To The Fiery Finish. Just watching Ash-Greninja fall to Alain’s incredibly OP Mega Charizard X and seeing Ash lose the Kalos League is still infuriating to this very day. There’s no acceptable excuse for all the build up and character development leading up to Alain beating Ash for the 3rd time and winning the Kalos League.

 

[HiroHunter]

Worst plot episode is no doubt Down To The Fiery Finish. Just watching Ash-Greninja fall to Alain’s incredibly OP Mega Charizard X and seeing Ash lose the Kalos League is still infuriating to this very day. There’s no acceptable excuse for all the build up and character development leading up to Alain beating Ash for the 3rd time and winning the Kalos League.

I'm still thinking what did Alain gain from winning the league?

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

I'm still thinking what did Alain gain from winning the league?

Mega Evolution energy for Team Flare's plan.

 

[HiroHunter]

Mega Evolution energy for Team Flare's plan.

Their plan was going to happen right after the league and they still didn't enough ME energy?

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Their plan was going to happen right after the league and they still didn't enough ME energy?

I guess.

 

[Antiyonder]

How could anyone dislike the Misty Gym Battle?

I don't dislike it and think it's definitely one of the better Gym Battles that he didn't win.

But I still maintain that it's a contender along with Erika's for the worst pit badge of Kanto simply because it didn't need to be. I have no doubt that Misty or Erika had a chance of beating him entirely, but the fact is they didn't have a Pokémon that was beyond Ash's capability to defeat like Brock's Onix at the time, Sabrina's Kadabra or even Mewtwo.

Providing that recalling Staryu meant one loss for Misty, Ash according to even the episode admits that Starmie would have lost had TR not shown up. So beside the mandatory need to have them appearing to oppose the main character, why didn't the writers structure it to simply have Ash deliver the finish blow and then have the Rocket Trio showing up?

Unlike the Rainbow Badge "win", I've lately come to the conclusion that the writers wanted to keep the Ash/Misty bickering strong at this point. Thus episodes like "Path to the Pokémon League", "Mystery at the Lighthouse" & "Electric Shock Showdown" (Even "The Ultimate Test") wouldn't have the same punch to it with Ash having a legit Badge under his belt. Sure his bragging would still be undignified, but he'd have a least more clout for thinking highly of him

I always hated the way that the Indigo League episodes were handled. We barely saw any battles and the one's we did see were all too brief. And the writers were still too focused on the whole stupid they have to show Team Rocket still trying to steal Pokémon during the league.

Thankfully, that problem has been fixed in the later League Conferences.

Not really responding to the contents of this post, just including it for context:

I do wish the Indigo league actually let us see full battles, but I cut the writers some slack because it was their first tournament at the time.

Which is why I still forgive the 1st Season overall, but I don't know. I mean even if you're going into the story purely from the anime, the Pokémon League and Ash's involvement was built up over 70 episodes and a motive for him being determined to get all 8 badges.

With the Pity Badges, much as I and others object to them happening, it's easy to come up with ideas as to why they didn't want him to simply win all 8 of them traditionally, like say making him the guy who wins with a smile and pure heart over skill and hard work. If that's the case rather than speculation, it's still asinine, but it makes sense if you don't really look at the idea.

But other than running out of episodes and needing to get Ash to his 5th round, I can't imagine why they'd think that the viewers wouldn't want to see all four rounds in their entirety since again the whole competition was built up since Episode 5.

^ I always figured the reason why Togepi was released after it evolved rather than her keeping it is because of how hated the Pokemon was in the fanbase.

I remember Togepi being called "the demon egg" and so forth, I wonder if it was the writers gesture to the fanbase by finally having her release it and it being trapped in another dimension so we never have to see it again.

I honestly thought and still do think it was to go for an emotional moment.

But I definitely think it's why we had the official evil Togepi in a filler ep.

Kanto: March of the Exeggutor Squad: Melvin was the single most obnoxious character, ever.

Yeah I still like the episode and all, but to take some pages from two other reviewers:
1. Dogasu: Yeah it's nice that he did ultimate stop the Exeggutor, but he still responsible for enough property damage that logically means he should be having to do a heavy amount of community service rather than being a step closer to his dreams of Vegas/Broadway/Neon Town (whatever you think is the best way to sum up his location of dream).

2. Suede:
- Brock not bringing out Vulpix.
- Melvin's development being ringing false since he already did perfect his fire wand trick.

Adding my own bit of criticism, yeah I think Pidgeotto would definitely have been a big help here, but then we wouldn't want Ash to possibly have a 3rd Stage Pokémon that would listen to him would we?

I really disliked Ash's Gym Battle with Elesa. I understand that Ash in general was flanderized as an idiot for most of the Best Wishes saga, but this Gym Battle was utterly ridiculous.

• He brings one Pokemon to a three on three battle. What makes it egregious is that the day before, he viewed Bianca's battle where the three on three rules were clearly stated. Yet, him in his brightness and four sagas of Gym Leader experience, decided that Palpitoad (who admittedly typed well against Elesa) would be enough. Once Palpitoad was inevitably knocked out, Ash had what was probably the most embarrassing moment in animated Gym history, freaking out that his stupid plan failed and leaving mid-match to scurry to a Pokemon Center. Which leads me to...
• Snivy's Gym performance. I was a huge Snivy fan when she was introduced, until her Badass Decay began and she degraded into nothing more than a catty rival for Emolga. Here, it was her first Gym Battle since she was introduced after Ash earned the Trio Badge. How was she handled? Horribly. Yes she's at a disadvantage due to Emolga's typing, but she was absolutely walked over-I don't think she fazed Elesa's Emolga at all. Not to mention, Ash ignorantly had her use Attract on Elesa's female Emolga (which he should have known about already if he bothered registering his Palpitoad's own gender). I was just as frustrated as Pikachu watching the beat-down, especially given that Emolga is part Flying type with Flying moves. If he really wanted to use her, he could have had Pikachu battle Emolga and he send Snivy out for Tynamo.
• Pikachu knocking out Emolga and Tynamo. While I enjoyed watching Pikachu smash both of his opponents into the wall, was that Pikachu focus necessary? Especially since this was the saga of rotation? Pikachu was just the all-star lead in the previous Gym Battle against Burgh, yet he also gets to be the ace here too. Not to mention, his uncharacteristic frustration at Ash's stupidity is never seen again, like that. I just felt that several of Ash's other Pokemon could have done well here, or at least Snivy could have had a decisive win for once. Overall, I just feel that the episode was poorly executed.

I've gotten through all of Ash's Unova Gym battles in my BW rewatch and this match is still easily the worst one in my book. The match against Roxie really made Ash's Pokemon look weak, but at least he had a couple of good moments that showed some nice strategies. Plus, Iris and Cilan cheering him one was one of the few good group moments I've seen from them, so that's a nice bonus. The main thing that frustrates me about this was Ash going into a battle relying on sweeping the Gym Leader with one Pokemon. Leaving the battle field to go get another Pokemon should have been grounds for disqualification, but because he's Ash, Elesa found his behavior interesting rather than a huge sign that her challenger wasn't even prepared to take the battle seriously.

I think that they were trying to show that Ash thinking too much about a strategy using different Pokemon than what he had been using frequently put him at a disadvantage. He wasn't able to battle in his usual way, but I think that there were other better ways to convey that instead of Ash literally banking on Palpitoad to defeat three powerful Pokemon. Not to mention the battle felt rushed, especially once Pikachu joined in. I think it was supposed to show that Ash was back to his usual battle style, but it just made the battle so unsatisfying. That made it extra annoying because they took about twenty episodes to just to get to the Nimbasa Gym and it turned out to be a terrible match.

I also find it ironic that Ash wanted to use different Pokemon for the match because he had been relying primarily on Pikachu, Tepig and Oshawott, but he proceeds to basically do the same thing for the rest of the series. Despite how Ash captured more Pokemon than usual in BW, he kept using the same ones frequently, while his reserved Pokemon were so bland and forgettable. Even when rewatching the series, I'll think to myself "Oh yeah, Tranquil exists" and I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you what Tranquil did between its two evolution episodes or if it even showed up more than a couple of times.

Yeah and I maintain that even at his lowest, Kanto era Ash wouldn't be this dense. Even with the problem of him getting a lucky 1st round sweep in the Indigo League he still had two Pokémon on standby.

Adding to the points made by Alola:

• Yes it's definitely against the rules I believe to enter a 3 on 3 match with only 1 Pokémon. Even a reason that he couldn't have an official match against Norman in Advance. And regardless of his intellect he still has integrity enough to at least trying to abide by rules of the battle. I mean even in his match against Brock wayback then he refuse to continue a Gym Match where he got the advantage due to a fluke despite said Gym Leader not really taking that into consideration and told him the match wasn't over.
• For that matter, even if you could argue that the stupidity was in character and that he doesn't attempt fair play, you can't really defend the fact that the referee or Elesa wouldn't disqualify him for the aforementioned embarrassing display and a disregard for the rules. Either one should have put their foot down and said "Young man, the rules of this match required both sides to have 3 Pokémon, thus you lose through disqualification. Come back for a match when you get your act together!"

As you even stated Hidden Mew, they could have pretty much kept the gist of the plot (Ash overthinking and overestimating Palpitoad) without him only bringing one intended fighter.

With the other missteps made that were mentioned in thread or in general it's easier to chalk it up to simple laziness or a mistake that's frustrating but was an honest oversight with some effort nonetheless, even other eps of BW to a point.

But this is probably the closest I'd say that an episode actually feels like a middle finger to the viewers for expecting some dignity and competency on Ash's part.

 

[David blane]

Pokemon go Season 1 episode 16, worst one yet