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Do we underappreciate filler too much?

Scorbunnie

Well-Known Member
Fillers can be good episodes, if they are funny. However, most Pokémon ones are boring, following the same plot over and over. Ash meets Cotd/Potd, TR appears, battle, goodbye. No one cares about Cotds/Potds.

Yeah fillers about characters that we'll never see again aren't as good as fillers that are about the cast members dealing with development or some funny situation.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Jeal said:
Fillers can be good episodes, if they are funny. However, most Pokémon ones are boring, following the same plot over and over. Ash meets Cotd/Potd, TR appears, battle, goodbye. No one cares about Cotds/Potds.

I think Jouto and Houen had too many fillers that revolved around Satoshi and his friends helping COTDs with their problems. Kanto had some as well, but many of them were actually quite enjoyable like the weak Paras episode, or the Eievui episode about the evolutionary stones.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
I think Jouto and Houen had too many fillers that revolved around Satoshi and his friends helping COTDs with their problems. Kanto had some as well, but many of them were actually quite enjoyable like the weak Paras episode, or the Eievui episode about the evolutionary stones.

I think it's also that a lot of them in Kanto and parts of Orange Islands still had some sort of personal ties and involvement from the main cast, helping them feel more character driven. We'd still get unique little depths from the cast even with a COTD or Team Rocket pivoting it. This is probably where Misty benefited more in this era for example, since she was much more proactive against ornery characters or those who selfishly treated their Pokemon, showing her virtuous but still very short tempered side, eg. the Pokemon school episode, or the Romeo and Juliet Nidoran one.

Johto-XY downplayed those moments heavily with less cases the COTD had some sort of chemistry with the main lot, making Ash and the companions feel like unrelated observers that kinda got shoehorned into the whole thing besides maybe a very generic TR battle at the end.
 
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Leonhart

Imagineer
BabaVanga said:
Can't relate, some of my favourite characters are CotD's.

There are a few that stood out to me, such as Imite although some would argue that she might not count as a COTD since she appeared more than once. But I still consider her two appearances to be filler episodes since they didn't exactly progress the plot.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Scorbunnie said:
Which ones would those be? I can't think of that many that had good chemistry with the cast other than Sakura if she counts as a Cotd.

Imite bonded with the cast and had great chemistry with them, and characters like Taichi from the Eievui filler that I mentioned before bonded with Kasumi. There are also countless other examples that are too numerous to list.
 

Scorbunnie

Well-Known Member
Imite bonded with the cast and had great chemistry with them, and characters like Taichi from the Eievui filler that I mentioned before bonded with Kasumi. There are also countless other examples that are too numerous to list.

I meant as much chemistry as Ash has with his normal friends. I don't deny that they met some great characters who they became friendly with but that's not the same as having good chemistry.
 

Satoshi & Touko

Peanuts aren't just a nut.
Only some fillers are underappreciated. Those that aren't though include any kind of obligatory Pokemon "love plot" filler. Most of them are stupid anyway, I mean who thought it was okay to ship a bipedal mushroom with a flower?! Or a yellow mouse with a brown rabbit
 

Ubermuk

Sticky & Sweet
Only some fillers are underappreciated. Those that aren't though include any kind of obligatory Pokemon "love plot" filler. Most of them are stupid anyway, I mean who thought it was okay to ship a bipedal mushroom with a flower?! Or a yellow mouse with a brown rabbit

I hate love subplots in filler episodes or any kind of episode really. Like why should we care about the love lives of minor characters?
 

mintellic

Member
I'd say the best fillers are the eps that give one of the main cast member some kind of development. People love, "Bye bye Psyduck" from Orange Islands for example because it gives Misty some focus commanding that powerful wild Golduck and is a funny episode, even though it's technically a filler.

"The Bicker, The Better" from AG is another great filler, due to the hilarious tag battle with Ash/May and Jessie/James. To this day I consider it one of the funniest episodes of the series.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Ubermuk said:
I hate love subplots in filler episodes or any kind of episode really. Like why should we care about the love lives of minor characters?

Fillers about romance are generally forgettable, although I really liked EP198 because Himeka was insane and the love plot of that episode seemed like an exaggerated version of other love themed episodes.
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
For me the best fillers are the ones which at least feel like they tie into the story even if in reality they are just filler or the episodes that have something unique to them. For example the girl who agreed to marry Clemont really felt like it tied into the running gag and felt like a payoff. I also like episodes where they try something unique like they did with the Mirror Universe where you met alternative versions.
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Yes we underappreciate fillers very much, people give way too much hate on pokemon filers, well atleast pokemon do not filler between important arc like naruto series has ** war arc**. Can you imagine a very important battle going on and you are on the edge of your seat and the next episode is a god damn filler.
 

Scorbunnie

Well-Known Member
Yes we underappreciate fillers very much, people give way too much hate on pokemon filers, well atleast pokemon do not filler between important arc like naruto series has ** war arc**. Can you imagine a very important battle going on and you are on the edge of your seat and the next episode is a god damn filler.

That's because this show rarely has important battles to begin with so of course it's different from Naruto.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
ash&charizardfan said:
Yes we underappreciate fillers very much, people give way too much hate on pokemon filers, well atleast pokemon do not filler between important arc like naruto series has ** war arc**. Can you imagine a very important battle going on and you are on the edge of your seat and the next episode is a god damn filler.

I don't think it's fair to compare Naruto fillers to Pokemon fillers given that Naruto had an active plot that was split into smaller story arcs, whereas Pokemon is much less story structured and more episodic in general. And frankly, even some of Naruto's filler episodes had better storytelling than some of Pokemon's filler episodes, although I give Pokemon's fillers more credit because a lot of the old ones and a few of the newer ones were genuinely charming and made me laugh.
 

Ubermuk

Sticky & Sweet
For me the best fillers are the ones which at least feel like they tie into the story even if in reality they are just filler or the episodes that have something unique to them. For example the girl who agreed to marry Clemont really felt like it tied into the running gag and felt like a payoff. I also like episodes where they try something unique like they did with the Mirror Universe where you met alternative versions.

The Clemont episode was funny and tied into Bonnie's marriage proposal thing but I didn't feel like it affected Bonnie's way of thinking. And I know I'll get hate for saying this but I effing hated the mirror world filler...
 
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