Has Pokemon Lost it's Emotion?

[(P.O.K.E.M.O.N)]

I am on the edge about this, Emotion was one of Pokemon's greatest strengths but they rarely display it anymore :s.

so what do you guys think?

 

[Haunter ゴースト]

In the anime it feels so, the writers try making upsetting moments but it never seems to work for me.

The only thing that keeps upsetting moments is the movies, luckily the recent ones have managed to do so still with Arceus nearly dying and Ash getting trapped in the castle flying up to space running out of oxygen, they were pretty intense.

The anime has never managed to recreate the same atmosphere as the OS though.

 

[Takeo]

I like the old fillers, they felt in some way apart of the story line.
and yes i know most would consider everything but meeting a character from the game or gym/contest battles to be the only story line.
The fillers from kanto to the end of johto were great, the episode's had meaning and to my recollection ended with morals. Now.....not so much

 

[MidnightMelody]

I like the old fillers, they felt in some way apart of the story line.
and yes i know most would consider everything but meeting a character from the game or gym/contest battles to be the only story line.
The fillers from kanto to the end of johto were great, the episode's had meaning and to my recollection ended with morals. Now.....not so much

Yeah Johto was a great arc with emotion Hoenn too but in dP they focused more on battles and in BW idk what they focus on. Cilan?

 

[randomspot555]

Pokemon had emotion?

 

[deathseer]

You can't lose what you never had.

 

[Haunter ゴースト]

Pokemon had emotion?

You can't lose what you never had.

I feel sorry for you both if you didn't (and still don't) feel any emotion whatsoever when Ash turned to stone and Pikachu cried.

Remember Pikachu's goodbye or Snow Way Out? I feel sorry for you on them too.

 

[JennaJayfeather]

No, I think Pokemon still has emotion. Maybe not as intense as it was in OS but some of that could have been because we were younger and did not know the outcome. I can think of several episodes AG + that have displays of emotion...or at least touched me.

 

[gohan5]

Yes I do believe that Pokemon has lost some of the emotion that was more prevalent in the early days. I mean sure we still have strong bonds between Ash and Pikachu and the rest of the cast with their one special Pokemon but other than that how often do we see that? If you look at Ash's Kanto team he had a tremendous amount of love and emotion that showed for each and every one of them. Now I'm not saying it doesn't hold true for his other teams, but that element has been less and less focused on since then.

 

[CyberCubed]

The fillers from kanto to the end of johto were great, the episode's had meaning and to my recollection ended with morals. Now.....not so much

The vast majority of Johto's fillers weren't good at all except for the Wobbufett ones and a few of the unique ones like the Unown, etc.

 

[randomspot555]

I feel sorry for you both if you didn't (and still don't) feel any emotion whatsoever when Ash turned to stone and Pikachu cried.

Remember Pikachu's goodbye or Snow Way Out? I feel sorry for you on them too.

No, I think Pokemon still has emotion. Maybe not as intense as it was in OS but some of that could have been because we were younger and did not know the outcome. I can think of several episodes AG + that have displays of emotion...or at least touched me.

I think PM makes a great point. It has an intense emotional feeling because we first saw them when we were younger AND it was the original series making a big impression. Therefore, future regions would have harder tiems "topping" it.

I think it depends on how you define "emotion". After the zillionth time where Ash chases after Pikachu being kidnapped or separated, it looses impact. And that had worn off well into Johto.

I'll say this. The one thing that OS didn't have that some AG and DP (can't quite say the same for BW) do have is emotional battles. When Pikachu was struggling to defeat Latias in the Sinnoh League, I honestly do get a bit choked up.

To a lesser extent, the same is true with Ash vs Paul's two full battles.

I never had that same emotion with Ash's league battles with Tracey, Gary, or Harrison.

There's some pretty emotional release episodes (Bye Bye Butterfree being my favorite, and I count Piakchu's goodbye as a "release" episode even though it wasn't permanent), but I think those are a bit unfair because later series just don't have nearly as many.

I think all of the end-of-region departure episode shave been really good.

But I don't think ANY of this is all that unusual in the children's animated series format. It's maintained about the same amount of emotion over time. 90-95% nothing beyond standard animated emotion, and every now and then hitting a note or heart string.

 

[KingMinun]

Not judging the BW series, but Pokemon has always had emotion, when I was younger I cried in many episodes, Pikachu's goodbye was the main one, but also Bye Bye Butterfree, when Squirtle and Charizard left, and Misty's departure was an emotional one too. I can't really say much about AG because all of the episodes I've watched, none of them were emotional and I haven't seen all the episodes of that series so I can't really judge. Moving onto DP, this series was emotional filled, it kinda had to include emotion though if they wanted to portray the whole Lake Trio, and this was certainly the case with Dawn, he character centred around emotion. Her contest story arc was emotion and hit home for me, as I was going through something similar at the time. And then of course, how can we forget Ambipom's departure, Dawn choosing whether to let her pokemon go on to something else, or hold it back to be with it for longer, and then there's Gliscor's departure, that was an emotional episode I think, and it really showed the emotion in Ash and Dawn's friendship, Dawn getting up in the middle of the night to help Ash and Gliscor train. Watching Dawn cry in the final DP episode was really sad for me, knowing it was all over, and then Ash telling her that there's no need to worry, it was fantastic to say the least. Also, Movie 10, I have a friend who said that they cry every time they watch that movie because of Darkrai's fate. So to say that Pokemon has lost emotion is simply not the case.

 

[d4rk_tailed]

Are we discussing emotion in a sad way, or in a happy way?

When Ash beat Volkner in the original, and went for the big swing-hug with Infernape and they were both screaming with the remnants of Greatest Everyday in the background, I felt the happy emotion.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

I wouldnt say it lost emotion necessarily,because i remember some very touching scenes in AG and DP too.Like Dustox departure from DP,Pikachu struggling to defeat Latios ,May parting of with Swablu or when TR was bated almost to death by Tyranitar when saying goodbye to Arbok and Weezing.

Its more that older series(including Johto) had different note to it with more focus being back than focused on development of characters and anime story in general than pokemon themselves like its case nowdays.Thats not necessarily bad,but it just happens that writers changed formula with anime having more identity in that sense back than(at least to me).

When looking back though i have to admit how Kanto,OI and Johto had generally more touching and easy to come to viewers heart feeling.Like "Bye Bye Butterfree",goodbye scene with Pikachu,when Ash was turned into stone,when Misty left cast(one of most impacting and sad scenes),when Latios died,etc,etc,etc.

Very few people could remain completely indifferent to every of those scenes.

The vast majority of Johto's fillers weren't good at all except for the Wobbufett ones and a few of the unique ones like the Unown, etc.

Perhaps to you whole Johto was giant pile of garbage,but that doesnt apply to everyone. Johto had many fillers but several of them were really enjoyable giving us more info about character past(like "Some like it Hot"which revealed why Misty likes water types,or "Bliss of Memories"revealing Jessie past etc) and some development.

I can count at least 20 fillers which were really good.

 

[MidnightMelody]

The vast majority of Johto's fillers weren't good at all except for the Wobbufett ones and a few of the unique ones like the Unown, etc.

So just because you say it its true? So much for freedom of speech...

 

[Ash Ketchum!]

I feel sorry for you both if you didn't (and still don't) feel any emotion whatsoever when Ash turned to stone and Pikachu cried.

Remember Pikachu's goodbye or Snow Way Out? I feel sorry for you on them too.

Don't forget Bye-Bye Butterfree. Probably one of the most memorable episodes ever.

 

[randomspot555]

Perhaps to you whole Johto was giant pile of garbage,but that doesnt apply to everyone. Johto had many fillers but several of them were really enjoyable giving us more info about character past(like "Some like it Hot"which revealed why Misty likes water types,or "Bliss of Memories"revealing Jessie past etc) and some development.

I can count at least 20 fillers which were really good.

I would hardly count "Bliss of Memories" as anything emotional, or even relevant. Has it even been mentioned in the years since it aired?

What good is character backstory if it's never used? At least Jessibelle and James' rich family comes up every once in a blue moon.

 

[CyberCubed]

So just because you say it its true? So much for freedom of speech...

Then would you mind explaining to me why 10 years ago, everyone complained about Johto's tedious filler episodes?

Maybe you were too young at the time, but all of us older pokemon fans who were in at least our early teens when Johto was originally airing remember the endless complaints.

That's the whole reason the show was revamped and rebranded after Johto ended and the writers never looked back.

 

[MidnightMelody]

Then would you mind explaining to me why 10 years ago, everyone complained about Johto's tedious filler episodes?

Maybe you were too young at the time, but all of us older pokemon fans who were in at least our early teens when Johto was originally airing remember the endless complaints.

That's the whole reason the show was revamped and rebranded after Johto ended and the writers never looked back.

Still opinions,one or a bunch can't speak for what others thing.

 

[CyberCubed]

Still opinions,one or a bunch can't speak for what others thing.

But that's why the entire show changed, so it made a difference. Otherwise AG, DP and BW would have all been exactly the same as Johto was.

We could have very well been sitting through the same type of show as Johto for these last 10 years. The original trio would have never split up, Ash would still be capturing all the starters and barely evolving his pokemon, Gary would still be the main rival, etc.

The ONLY reason the show was revamped was because of how Johto was received a decade ago. There is a reason why the Johto movies bombed in theaters...the entire original fad of Pokemon died shortly after Ash let Charizard go in early Johto.