03-08-2013, 01:20 PM | #51 | ||
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Snivy is as wasted as Brock's Mudkip. I think that it would have been better in every way possible if Ash had not captured Snivy and it had ben left as a rival pokémon. They set her up as this badass powerhouse and then did nothing with her. No real progression, not even new moves learned (though, admittedly, Snivy as a pokémon is pretty crap). |
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03-08-2013, 03:00 PM | #52 | |
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I had been answering Amras's post but I lost it due to a power failure. Allow me to address Mercutio's easier-to-address post first and then I'll cycle back around to yours, Amras.
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Second ... I wouldn't agree with you that Oshawott's development is either poor or derivative. Who would you point to and say it's derivative of? As far as a marketing role goes, Oshawott is this series' Piplup (they're both Water starters, they're both being kept unevolved to appeal to children, they both feature heavily in their respective series), but even there the comparisons start to fall flat. They're nothing alike in personality. Piplup's more accurate series role analog would be Axew, as he's the traveling partner's always-out-of-its-ball companion, while Oshawott's more accurate series role analog would be Charizard (the second most popular Pokémon of Ash's right after Pikachu; kept in his Pokéball but frequently summoned). So my point is, he's not really a Piplup clone. Who else then might you be saying he's derivative of? Totodile, perhaps? They're both sort of silly, fun-loving Water types? Yeaaaaah ... but that's pretty much all of Ash's Water starters. That was the case with Squirtle (prankster of the group, loved to have fun), that was the case with Totodile (lobotomized Squirtle), and that's sort of the case with Oshawott (not a prankster or anything but, like his cousins, he's fun-loving, energetic, spry). Really though, I just don't agree with you that Oshawott is poorly developed or a clone of past things, simply because we can point to all the elements of his fleshed-out personality and see that they match none of the other Pokémon Ash has ever had by 50%, 60%, let alone by 90%, 100%. He's ...
I dunno. I enjoy him. Really hated him for his design when he was first unveiled in CoroCoro Magazine, but thanks to the anime, I've really quite come to like him, and I don't even really hate the design that much anymore. (Objectively I still think it's poor, but subjectively I've come to like it. The power of positive association with a beloved character, I guess.)
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03-08-2013, 04:26 PM | #53 | |
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Because Pokémon is a kids show? Because it's in the hands of people who are more interested in the perpetuity of the franchise rather than creating an enduring piece of art with a definite beginning, middle, and end? Pokémon is not Avatar: the Last Airbender (though, as I've soapboxed before and much to my personal chagrin, it could be! / it could have been!). There's no real sense of risk here. There's no real sense of danger, no threat of permanent loss. When people do leave "for good," they don't: they just "go somewhere else in the world", very much happy to do so, very much still alive and well. Butterfree, Primeape, Tracey, Brock, Misty, Oak'd Pokémon, on and on we can go. Ash never ages. There's no mortal peril for him. Even when he dies, he comes back to life just fine. Numerous times. Numerous, numerous times. So if you're writing a series like this, where the primary goal is being a mouthpiece for a tireless video game franchise and the usual threats of mortality or narrow windows of time in which one's goals can be achieved are all but erased, what reason do you even have to seriously advance the character, to bring your franchise one step closer to its logical end? You don't. Why do they nerf Ash even more in Unova: The Unova nerf may be one of the worst nerfs he's ever had in comparative terms*, but in absolute terms, they're all pretty much on the same scale. If we start listing off the problems with Unova Ash and ShoPro's mashing of the Reset Button -- he dropped off everybody but Pikachu, he forgot how to battle properly and lost to a scrub who just got their starter, he has to re-learn how to properly battle and only by the end of the series is he battling well by fan standards -- these are all problems you find in the other series too. Johto? Loses to Casey and her scrub Chikorita, has trouble with many of the gym leaders despite being one of sixteen Indigo League finalists and the Orange Islands champion, the great gym battles don't come along until the very end with Pryce and Clair. Sinnoh? Loses to Paul and his Elekid -- a pre-evo, for God's sake --, etc. * If anything, I feel like Unova at least was somewhat better than average, but then again, I was just coming off of Johto around the same time, so that may have had something to do with it. I dunno. You can point at numbers and say "OMG HOW COME ASH ISN'T DOING AS WELL AS BEFORE!?" but I feel like he's doing about as well as ever. Which is frustrating, of course, in that we'd like to see some growth between regions, but it also stands as evidence against your line of reasoning that Unova has seen Ash regress more than usual.
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03-08-2013, 05:25 PM | #54 |
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I really just think that Oshawott is a lame version of Piplup. There's probably no way of you convincing me otherwise. I'm not saying that he's underdeveloped, he isn't. But nothing in him is new at all.
And I disagree with the assumption that some development is inherently better than no development. |
03-13-2013, 10:24 AM | #56 |
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Well I sure didn't mean to read that. But since I did, I may as well reply. But first: some comments about the latest episodes.
Sadly, it looks like the writers burned themselves out on writing non-stop non-fillers. Every other episode of the latest batch (1, 3, and 5) has been a filler, and the remaining episodes have only not been filler because they've had to do with {that character}. Stupid Team Rocket is back, having made appearances in at least three episodes (1, 2, 5) where they arrive with their Meowth hot air balloon (thankfully missing all series long until now) and discuss their plans to capture Ash's Pikachu. The motto is back, the blasting off is back, and finally with the fifth episode of this new arc even the 嫌な感じ! / "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" is back. -_-; Seriously, we are this close to seeing Comic Relief Team Rocket back in full force, and it pisses me off. Everyone was thrilled by your decision to inject Serious Steroids into their arms and make them show up only once every six or seven episodes. Why the sudden change of heart? So on to Deoxys's news ... Spoiler: show
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03-24-2013, 07:27 AM | #58 |
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Everything in that spoiler makes me happy inside.
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04-11-2013, 05:40 PM | #59 |
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So, I'm watching the eighth episode of the latest mini-season (BW116 according to Bulbapedia), and Ash busts out his PokéDex to look up ... a Charmander. And here I thought Roxie's Koffing was bad ...
God I want a rebooted anime for teens and young adults. -_-;
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04-11-2013, 05:42 PM | #60 |
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He was probably just adding it to his National Dex. Also younger kids might not know what Charmander is.
But yeah, we need a reboot. It's time to put this one to rest and finish it up nicely. |
04-11-2013, 05:51 PM | #61 |
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Ha, good luck with that.
It's times like this I wish I could draw or I'd make some kind of comic. |
04-11-2013, 05:53 PM | #62 |
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04-18-2013, 01:59 PM | #65 |
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Here's a hi-res copy of the poster for the next story arc in the BW anime. Warning: contains spoilers for (I dare say) over half of the episodes that'll air!
Spoiler: show It looks pretty filler-tastic. Thinking I might just sit it out and wait until August or September before watching. "The best laid plans of mice and men," as they say ... but still. Can't say I'm excited for a glut of fillers. I guess the one saving grace is the fan service in such things as: Spoiler: show Definitely feels like a lame duck season though. Even the excitement that would've ordinarily been there for the current story arc is largely absent, our excitement instead focused on the upcoming sixth generation. Here's a video sneak peek on YouTube.
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04-19-2013, 04:47 AM | #67 |
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Spoiler: show
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06-19-2013, 11:03 PM | #68 |
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Haven't posted here in a while. Will just say that I've watched up through Episode 03 of the Decolora Adventures arc. It's very, very Johto filler-esque, but honestly it hasn't been too awful. Episode 02 was like a standard Johto filler (so ... epically forgettable ^^; ) but Episodes 01 and 03 were surprisingly fun if cliché. Well, as fun as a filler episode can get, anyway. They're pretty damn fillertastic.
Silly though it is, I really am loving the new ending (Daily Motion; skip to 1m28s). It's just filled with personality. Watching this ending makes it so clear how the writers of the anime tried to make Unova stand out as "the supporting characters-driven series," and I think it was one of the series' real strengths. While they kinda sorta overdid it (especially with all of the in-hindsight incessant Don Tournaments ^^; ), having all of these personality-filled supporting characters really made Unova feel like an actual anime with an actual story at times instead of like Scooby Doo & Pikachu Too. And it's not just the humans either. The video does a great job of illustrating the personalities of Pokémon like Oshawott and Snivy or the interrelationships of ones like Charizard and Dragonite. Here's a Vimeo version for those who either can't or don't want to use Daily Motion. Sorry that YouTube's not an option -- all the videos are muted. =\ (EDIT: YouTube -- skip to 21m53s. You're welcome. ) YouTube recommended the English dub of Iris's match against Langley from the Junior Cup Tournament, so I decided to re-enjoy one of the best moments of the Unova anime. It's not every day you get to see one of our heroes in control of a Level 90+ ... The English voices are kinda eh, and I have no idea why they decided against keeping Langley and changed her name to Georgia, but whatever, it's still serviceable. Afaik, there's still no word yet on what we'll be doing in Region 6. A lot of kids on YouTube on both sides of the Pacific seem to be feverishly discussing the possibility of ShoPro retiring Ash a) because of how the newest ending credits make it seem like Ash's journey is coming to a close (?) and b) because of how positively and enthusiastically fans reacted towards the BW2 animated promotional trailers. I think the kids are living in a dream world myself. ^^; But it sure would be interesting (and shocking!) if they retired Ash out of nowhere this October. But yeah, there's no effing way that that's happening. No way in Hell would they retire Ash without at least first giving him the opportunity to re-enter the Indigo League tournament and this time win it.
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06-20-2013, 04:36 PM | #70 | |
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What didn't you like about the battle I linked? Remember that the Dragonite in question is depicted as being as experienced as and as capable as a Champion's Pokémon.
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06-20-2013, 04:49 PM | #71 |
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I know, I'll use Focus Blast on that Dragonite! That's a great idea!!!!
We're just like the animé but with less plottwist related flukes. And we have Beedrill that can rend the universe asunder. |
06-20-2013, 05:02 PM | #72 |
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With Ash reverting to a 10-year-old beginner at the start of every series it's clear that older fans will never get the closure they deserve. I hate the anime's formula with every bone in my body because it's all abundantly clear that they care more about milking their cash cow than they do about plot.
You can only spend so many years, watch Ash travel through so many regions, collecting so many badges and coming top-16 in so many tournaments before you realise that Ash is never going to become a Pokémon master and the show is never meant to end. It annoys me more than you could imagine. Just give us a mature Pokémon anime with 14 episode seasons already. Or make an anime adaptation of the Pokémon manga.
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06-20-2013, 05:05 PM | #73 |
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I suspect that a pokémon Manga movie would give my inner child heart palpatations.
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06-20-2013, 05:09 PM | #74 |
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I don't even watch the anime anymore, just catch up on key events on Bulbapedia, but I was actually left feeling almost angry when I read up on the recent Butterfree episode only to discover that Ash's Butterfree was only featured in flashbacks.
What the fuck. Seriously, that annoyed me. They set it all up and then took it away. |
06-20-2013, 05:09 PM | #75 | |
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