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Don't Give In, Piplup! An Ice Floe Race in the Sinnoh Region!! (1097)

mysticalglacia

Alola Shill
...When did Piplup ever pine after Dawn?

Zoey showing up to spectate something she has no interest in would be downright weird as well

I meant that it heavily reminded me of Dawn’s based on the dramatic, prideful way it acted.

That last bit was a joke...I didn’t actually expect Zoey to show up out of nowhere. Candice would make more sense considering who she is, but again I wasn’t seriously expecting that.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
Crazy that it took 1100 episodes of Pokémon for a Lauren to show up considering how common of a name it is and how many thousands of COTDs have appeared in Pokémon history.

Wow so Piplup and Croagunk have the lightning-between-the-eyes rivalry that Iris and Georgia had for their whole run, and that Serena and Miette had just once, in XY26.

Why do Lauren's eyes look like lips?

I was hoping a random Avalugg would be disguising itself in the water as an iceberg. Alas.

Overall, this was one of the stupidest episodes of all time. There were way too many separate unrelated minor plots they tried to run simultaneously, a COTD I didn't care about had a plot that didn't really make sense, TR appeared and ruined everything, and other junk.

We’re at this point in a 4 episode streak of Gou catching a Pokémon every episode and I’m already bored of it. Just because a character has a goal of catching Pokémon doesn’t mean every episode has to have an obligatory capture, especially when it adds nothing to the plot. These captures they’re giving Gou not only are boring do to the lack of any kind of struggle, they feel hollow because they’re just so rapid fire. The writers really need to chill it.

Well, at least it's a way to show those stupid fans back in Season 1 who were frustrated Ash wasn't catching everything. It can now show them how stupid and plotless it makes the anime feel. Then again, those fans probably left the anime over 20 years ago.
 

Lord Starfish

Fond of owls
Crazy that it took 1100 episodes of Pokémon for a Lauren to show up considering how common of a name it is and how many thousands of COTDs have appeared in Pokémon history.
checks... Oh wow, they kept the reference. Both in the Japanese and English version she shares her name with a random Picnicker on Route 207. This is such a small and obscure reference that it would have been entirely understandable if they missed it, so good on them!
me4MvWL.png


Why do Lauren's eyes look like lips?
It's a Japanese stereotype. I guess it comes from people with glasses being "blind without them" and so if you take their glasses off they have to squint super hard to see anything?
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
It's a Japanese stereotype. I guess it comes from people with glasses being "blind without them" and so if you take their glasses off they have to squint super hard to see anything?
It looked a little gross and creeped me out a little tbh lol
 

Bguy7

The Dragon Lord
Yay, Team Rocket's back! Took a little too long for them to make their second appearance if you ask me. I hope that's not par for the course. I'm pretty apprehensive of this Rocket Pokémon prize machine thing. Please don't let this be the only way Team Rocket battles, they really need Pokémon of their own, especially James. Without their own Pokémon, they lose so much story and character potential.

Also, while I'm happy they're not putting the same kind of focus on Goh catching Pokémon as they did in that one Kanto episode, it's still getting to be a bit much. Does he really need to catch a new faceless Pokémon every episode? It's such a shame having a new Pokémon be caught in less than five seconds (or even off-screen) and it having no character or proper introduction. It's just pathetic.

I do got to admit though, I'm liking these episode better on average than I did Sun and Moon's filler episodes. They feel a little less pointless, and have more dedicated and interesting plots. If it wasn't for this show making such bizarre decisions, it would be clear which of the series I like better. Time will tell if that changes or not.
 
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LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
I do got to admit though, I'm liking these episode better on average than I did Sun and Moon's filler episodes. They feel a little less pointless, and have more dedicated and interesting plots. If it wasn't for this show making such bizarre decisions, it would be clear which of the series I like better. Time will tell if that changes or not.
Interesting..... I literally hated PJ008 and PJ009 so much that I almost thought of quitting Pokémon for the first time in 22 years, as I said in the dub title thread, fortunately 10-12 saved it for me. I'm certainly glad you liked it, but it's just so shocking for me to hear that considering that this might be one of my least favorite episodes in Pokémon history.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
At least it's inoffensively easy-to-ignore bad, rather than Win/Lose In A Completely Farcical Way Bad, or Feel Emotions Without A Good Reason To Bad
Fair enough, but the continuous pointlessness of multiple straight episodes was what drove me to madness. Ironically, despite SM being described as SOL at the beginning, and throughout as well I guess, and fairly so I suppose, since many episodes were SOL, this first stretch of Journeys feels way more SOL than SM ever felt to me. At least there was marginal progress for Ash in each of the earliest episodes, and we had heard of the Island Challenge by this episode (episode 8) and Ash even challenged it in episodes 9 and 10. I guess SOL bothers me less when there's also other actual stuff going on in other episodes, which it certainly didn't feel to me at the time I first watched this episode.
 

Bguy7

The Dragon Lord
Interesting..... I literally hated PJ008 and PJ009 so much that I almost thought of quitting Pokémon for the first time in 22 years, as I said in the dub title thread, fortunately 10-12 saved it for me. I'm certainly glad you liked it, but it's just so shocking for me to hear that considering that this might be one of my least favorite episodes in Pokémon history.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying these were great episodes, it's just that I thought they were better filler than most of Sun and Moon's filler. Sun and Moon had it's thing it would do were it would just put one or two of the main characters into some random situation and watch it play out, without any sort of real plot, action, or climax. They also were reluctant to use characters and Pokémon of the day, which, in my opinion, made things less interesting, as I wasn't a giant fan of Sun and Moon's main cast. These two episodes at least had some plot and action to them, making them more tolerable to me. I still would say they were relatively mediocre filler episodes, but at the same time, I don't necessarily mind filler episodes, so long as they provide me with some actual plot and action. Oh, and Team Rocket goes a long way towards me enjoying a filler episode.

In short, I'd take these two episodes over "let's play Pokémon baseball" or "let's go to the mall" any day.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying these were great episodes, it's just that I thought they were better filler than most of Sun and Moon's filler. Sun and Moon had it's thing it would do were it would just put one or two of the main characters into some random situation and watch it play out, without any sort of real plot, action, or climax. They also were reluctant to use characters and Pokémon of the day, which, in my opinion, made things less interesting, as I wasn't a giant fan of Sun and Moon's main cast. These two episodes at least had some plot and action to them, making them more tolerable to me. I still would say they were relatively mediocre filler episodes, but at the same time, I don't necessarily mind filler episodes, so long as they provide me with some actual plot and action. Oh, and Team Rocket goes a long way towards me enjoying a filler episode.

In short, I'd take these two episodes over "let's play Pokémon baseball" or "let's go to the mall" any day.
Gotcha. Since I hate Team Rocket and wish they never appeared ever again, and you like Team Rocket and want them to appear in every episode, that explains the key difference.
 

Dragalge

"Orange" Magical Girl
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying these were great episodes, it's just that I thought they were better filler than most of Sun and Moon's filler. Sun and Moon had it's thing it would do were it would just put one or two of the main characters into some random situation and watch it play out, without any sort of real plot, action, or climax. They also were reluctant to use characters and Pokémon of the day, which, in my opinion, made things less interesting, as I wasn't a giant fan of Sun and Moon's main cast. These two episodes at least had some plot and action to them, making them more tolerable to me. I still would say they were relatively mediocre filler episodes, but at the same time, I don't necessarily mind filler episodes, so long as they provide me with some actual plot and action. Oh, and Team Rocket goes a long way towards me enjoying a filler episode.

In short, I'd take these two episodes over "let's play Pokémon baseball" or "let's go to the mall" any day.
Having little COTDs is fine. SM's the series with the best worldbuilding because of this.

And you don't neccesarily need a plot to have an episode be enjoyable. Hell, the problem with fillers in later series before SM was a lot of them felt like they reused plots of previous filler in earlier series or at least similar concepts were there.

No wonder the staff in SM had a lot of fun with their episodes because they were not restricted by status quo and could have a hell lot more freedom and new ideas to use. It's not to say all those were well-executed but shattering a restriction was well worth it.

(And not a big spoiler but do expect something akin to SM filler happening later on! You know, sub watchers, the one!)
 

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
Having little COTDs is fine. SM's the series with the best worldbuilding because of this.

And you don't neccesarily need a plot to have an episode be enjoyable. Hell, the problem with fillers in later series before SM was a lot of them felt like they reused plots of previous filler in earlier series or at least similar concepts were there.

No wonder the staff in SM had a lot of fun with their episodes because they were not restricted by status quo and could have a hell lot more freedom and new ideas to use. It's not to say all those were well-executed but shattering a restriction was well worth it.

(And not a big spoiler but do expect something akin to SM filler happening later on! You know, sub watchers, the one!)

That one is either the biggest abomination of an episode ever created or the best thing to ever come out of the franchise :p
 

AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
Having little COTDs is fine. SM's the series with the best worldbuilding because of this.
We still don't know if there's a second classroom or even a second teacher at the school. Like, there's so much empty space to explore in there. Do the filler students even react when the pond outside opens up into a flying hatch while they're busy with arithmetic.

If anything, SM had the worst world building in the series. The setting was almost always Melemele Island in the same damn city, the school, the abandoned beach(!), or the kids' houses. Akala Island repeatedly revisited either Kiawe's farm or the arena. Ula Ula barely existed outside of Ash self-isolating himself from the whole class and the trip to the city for two episodes. And Poni Island is just even worse than it was in the games...somehow.

Though just like previous settings, they all suffer from one thing; the fact they're all in their own little world and no settlement ever has relations with another. SM, while having too many episodes on Melemele and showed a few culture things, simply forgot about those culture bits the next episode. (People can say Melemele is maybe the best developed setting (though not by much), at the expense of making every other setting within the saga look pathetic.)
 

Bguy7

The Dragon Lord
Having little COTDs is fine. SM's the series with the best worldbuilding because of this.

All depends on how you want to look at it. Me personally, I like the variety that characters of the day add. Rather than being restricted to events and activities that the main cast would partake in, you get to see an expanded range of stuff. It also makes structuring the episode a little bit easier, as you don't need to worry about the impact the episode has when you never see the focus character again.

Also, I'm going to side with AuraChannelerChris on the world-building thing. Sun and Moon arguably had the worst world-building, simply because we didn't see as much of the world, or as many of the characters that lived in it. It did do a better than average job with character-building on the main characters, but that's separate from world-building. And didn't really help my opinion on the show that much, since even with the increased focus, Lilly and Kiawe were really the only two of the cast, aside from Ash, that I like, and even Lilly was borderline.

And you don't neccesarily need a plot to have an episode be enjoyable. Hell, the problem with fillers in later series before SM was a lot of them felt like they reused plots of previous filler in earlier series or at least similar concepts were there.

Good for you if you can enjoy that, but I need plot to keep entertained. I just can't bring myself to care about the class playing baseball or Ash and Sophocles going to the mall if there's no plot attached. Give me a rehashed plot over no plot any day (but, of course, give me a new plot over either). If nothing of interest happened, then why is there an episode about it, and why should I care?

No wonder the staff in SM had a lot of fun with their episodes because they were not restricted by status quo and could have a hell lot more freedom and new ideas to use. It's not to say all those were well-executed but shattering a restriction was well worth it.

And not worth it in the slightest for me.

(And not a big spoiler but do expect something akin to SM filler happening later on! You know, sub watchers, the one!)
That one is either the biggest abomination of an episode ever created or the best thing to ever come out of the franchise :p

You guys have me intrigued. Judging by your remarks, I'm probably going to hate it...
 
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Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Best part of SM's Filler is that there's enough of them to make its own separate story, further supported by the fillers bringing up events that happened in previous fillers, yet never mentioned anywhere else

It's like two in one. You got main saga and the filler saga!
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
It's like two in one. You got main saga and the filler saga!
tbh it kind of made me feel like very few episodes in SM were even filler, when I first watched. Not going to argue over the definition of filler here, but what I just mean is, in the past, when I turned on Kids' WB! or Cartoon Network on a Saturday morning, the episode got going, and within the first 5 mins a COTD and POTD showed up, I sometimes got this sinking feeling of "ah ****, here we go again". I rarely if ever got that feeling turning on Disney XD on a Saturday morning.
 

KingMinun

Dawn/Sinnoh Fan!
It’s nice to be back in Sinnoh!
And this episode paid a nice little homage to my 3 favourite characters! Loved the ending when Psyduck appeared to save the glasses! Dawn, Brock and Misty Homage through the 3 fast swimming Pokemon! And in my favourite region too! Neat
 
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