How do you fix your least favourite saga?

[Ashton Ketchum]

Sun and Moon is over. And someone will be remember this saga with love, someone - no. And if you from second side, who don't like this or some other saga, someone can ask you - "Okay, if you don't like this saga, how do you fix it?". And here, we'll be talk about how fix personal least favourite saga. And here is how I fix Sun and Moon.



LEAVE A PLACE FOR ADVENTURES

SM writers deserve admiration for their courage, with decision change formula of anime. Changing of formula is not bad, what bad - is when key aspects of franchise is completely removed. Pokemon is not school sitcom, games not school simulator, and we love franchise not for schools (plus - someone can have bad memories with schools). Just imagine if - SEGA make new high budget Sonic game, and it's a sequel of Sonic Schoolhouse, and seed this game as AAA-project. Rave, isn't it? Well, this idea with school is big rave! And if is necessarily, it could be better if...



BETTER INTEGRATE SCHOOL IN ASH'S STORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Oh, boy. When I first found out that Ash would go to school in this Saga, my first reaction was like "WHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT?????!!!!!!!". You can’t just show the protagonist experienced and competent in the previous season, and immediately send him to school the next season. What can he learn (except for the Z-Moves)? To the level, from which even Arceus’s heads will explode, in an attempt to find the right answer. But since this school was really needed, it could be delivered like this - Ash could go to Alola to deliver an egg there and take a break from adventure. But also, Professor Oak could offer him to attend school, for one lesson, to share his trainer experience with students and future friends. Since he recently took second place in the League, and prevented the end of the world. And having learned about Island Trials, he remains in Alola to rest more, share his trainer experience in the lessons, and successfully pass Island Trials. This would be appropriate for the further development of Ash, and the school would have a more justified place in his story.



MAKING HAU A ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS

Hau in this Saga had criminally little screen time. He deserves not just more screen time, but also second main character. He could be one of the students of the school, and the most experienced student. What could be the reason for Ash’s friendship with him. And he can become the main pear for slapsticks and jokes, instead Ash (who can save more competence from XY(Z)). (And Milotic could have rights smash Hau's "Poke Balls". Probably)



DON'T RUSH ARCS ON OTHER ISLANDS

Just give more episodes on other islands, and don't rush some events. Like Kukui's and Burnet's wedding, which was in episode with farewell with Solgaleo. Events like this deserves separate episodes.



USE RETURN OF THE MISTY AND BROCK FOR THE STORY

Return of the Misty and Brock is fun, nostalgic, enjoyable, but don't have any sense for story. May's return in DP have sense for story and Dawn’s development, even Dawn's return in BW have sense for story. So they both for SM can have sense for story. They could help Ash for some lessons, and share with his new friends experience. And talk about Ash's friends...



GIVE ASH'S FRIENDS MORE DEVELOPMENT EPISODES

As I said before, Ash in school should be not student, but help his new friends with gained trainer experience. Which also could show that - Ash could be ready for becoming a teacher. Not only for Lillie. And each of theme should get more Pokemon, because in SM only 3-4 of his friends catch a new Pokemon for theirs teams. Not Mallow and Lillie. So that each of them has at least 3 Pokemon. And catching a new Pokemon for team, could be strong challenge for Lillie, for becoming more brave trainer. And for Kiawe it’s gonna be right for potential rival. And talk about Kiawe…



FIX KIAWE AS ASH'S RIVAL

Kiawe have wasted potential. In beginning of SM we have hint for his with Ash rivalry, but anime remember about this after tons of episodes. Instead tons of filler episodes, we could have episodes about their rivalry. Plus, those clingy and «funny» moments with him. Kiawe could be most serious and hard guys in group, instead being part of that closing. Just imagine if Sawyer act him self like Kiawe. Did you accept him after all of this as serious rival in Kalos League? Well, I am not.



MAKE A ADEQUATE FREAKING HUMOUR

Number #1 problem that Sun and Moon is humour, which goes too far. Pokemon is not Teen Titans Go. If it’s kids show, what are such antics and a blow to «Poke Balls» doing here? Some of this antics could not cause laugh, but a physiological trauma. This humour and its huge number makes it difficult to perceive certain episodes or characters. Especially when watching episodes that squeeze out tears you can’t look for granted after a ton of episodes with an overdose of humour. You watch a similar episode, and then on those - suddenly a sad episode. The original series also allowed itself both humour and tearful series, but he controlled himself. At least in the first half.



Now my attitude (half of the fan base) to SM is more or less calm, sometimes even very good. Largely thanks to the second half of the Saga, which more or less saves the situation. Which greatly spoiled half of the fan base's first impression, and because of this, part of the fan base still does not like the Saga. The first impression is the most important. And SM spoiled the first impression of himself in the first half. Just like the Star Wars Prequels with "The Phantom Menace." (And in that case second half is "The Revenge of the Sith"). Because of this, this Saga, despite all its good things, will be behind the same XY(Z). And if I will watch SM, then only many episodes of the second half. Since viewing the first half will be that still torture. Only several episodes from here. Now We can only hope that the first impression of the new season, despite to lack of XY(Z)-like Ash, will not be spoiled.



How do you fix SM, or other least favourite saga? Write.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Give Serena more focus and give her episodes early on. Have her battle more and give her an actual battling goal. Give her more than 3 Pokemon. Give her a more sassy personality (she was boring most of the time imo). Get rid of amourshipping completely.

Don't write Ash as being Mr. Perfect who can do no wrong with everyone worshipping him. Give equal focus to his Pokemon.

Give more focus to Clemont after his gym battle with Ash.

Exclude Bonnie from being in the main cast.

Get rid of most of thr generic cotd/Team Rocket fillers/almost fillers and decrease the number of Team Rocket appearances.

Don't bring Alain into the main series, or at least not the way the writers did.

Include continuity to past series by giving references and cameos to past Pokemon and characters.

 

[Zoruagible]

Have Ash actually travel and properly explore Alola
No Lana or silly/goofy faces

Ash, Kiawe, Mallow, and Rotom are the main characters. With Lillie as a supporting character.
Hau actually used and Decidueye not treated like a joke. Pikachu vs Alola Raichu is the main focus, Rowlet rightfully got his arse beat by Decidueye
Ultra Recon Squad are a thing but are being manipulated by Giovanni whose saying he'll help them bring light back to their homeworld.... but in reality, he wants Necrozma for himself and is biding his time for his top scientists to copy the technology the Squad uses to move between dimensions
No BS releases, and Ash actually takes his Pokemon home.

Oh yeah, and a certain professor dies.

 

[Dragalge]

Oh yeah, and a certain professor dies.

Professor Burnet?

 

[BabaVanga]

While not my least favorite, I'll do OS (Kanto) because it's the root of most of the problems I have with all of the later series as well.

1. Make Ash more competent

I know he was a rookie, but with all the out-of-the-box strategies Ash has showcased during those 20+ years, Kanto was the best opportunity to make him that talented kid that instead of overpowering his opponents, outsmarts them.

2. Evolve Pokémon

OS making evolution a trauma to Pokémon is something I will never forgive this series. I'm not sure if the reason to keep Pokémon unevolved was their marketability or the evolved forms were too hard to animate (none of this I think is a good excuse) but that certainly kept Ash and crew from being portrayed as the strong trainers.

3. Bring back Primeape

He should've come back for the league or some gym battle at least, really.

4. Give Misty something to do

Fishing? Surfing? Water races? Underwater battles? There are plenty of water-related competitions she could've take part in during her run in the show. Heck, Orange League could've been her arc. It's too bad the writers weren't interested in focusing on a female lead back then.

4. Change Brock's goal

I admit I never really liked Brock's goal to begin with. I wish it had something to do with Rock-type Pokémon. He could've gain interest in collecting fossils perhaps? So we could have Charizard vs. Aerodactyl fight between Ash and Brock near the end of the series.

5. Make Ash defeat Team Rocket (organization)

Basically adapt the game's plot, just make finale a little less anti-climatic than games did (Giovanni disbanding TR because he lost a battle to a kid never made much sense in my eyes).

6. Let Ash win the League and beat E4

Ash vs Gary during the Indigo League finals would have been much better than dragging the rivalry to Johto.

7. Write Ash off as a main character.

Keep him as a recurring rival and obstacle to overcome to Gold/Jimmy/however anime would call him instead. Bring him back to fight Team Rocket in Johto.

That's it I think.

 

[Bortgreen]

1-Smooth a lot the transition of DP Ash to XY, with more competence right away
2-Give more personality to TR Mons
3-A better league and a better loss to Ash
4-A stronger team for Ash
5-Making Iris more interesting instead of just calling Ash a kid
6-Non-Kanto or Dawn continuity

And, of course:
7-THE REAL TR VS PLASMA FACE-OFF
8-Ash having a proper battle vs Giovanni

 

[JustAStatistic]

1) BW Ash should be more competent in battles. Similarly, Pikachu should be so strong that Ash psuedo-benches it and only uses it in battle against other top tiers.
2) Ash can initially restrict himself to only using Unova mons, and later calls on reserves towards the tail end of the series.
3) No main rival. Cheren/Bianca/Trip can be newbie trainers trying to play catch up like Sawyer. Hugh can join this group later and Iris should be the eventual dream crusher and Vertress League Champ.
4) Instead of a rival, Ash can frequently clash against N and BW Team Plasma. Actually follows the BW story, minus forced legendary dragon capture.
5) TR vs TP starts off as skirmishes and escalates quickly. TR eventually helps out the good guys against TP.
6) TP arc ends with either:
a) Ash's top tiers (Pikachu, Charizard, etc.) vs Reshiram/Zekrom
b) Ash vs Ghetsis
Iris (league winner in this scenario) would defeat the other
7) TR filling the power vacuum after TP defeat and trying to capture the hiding/exhausted Unova legendaries. They get stopped, Ash's island adventure still happens but is shorter, Ash meets Alexa, he decides to go to Kalos, roll credits.

No clue who'd replace Iris as a companion though. Hilda's short shorts make me blegh, and Rosa wouldn't exist at this point. Bianca maybe?

 

[U.N. Owen]

Now We can only hope that the first impression of the new season, despite to lack of XY(Z)-like Ash, will not be spoiled.

And he can become the main pear for slapsticks and jokes, instead Ash (who can save more competence from XY(Z)). (And Milotic could have rights smash Hau's "Poke Balls". Probably)

Sounds like you just need the show to affirm your love for Ash rather than distribute the slapstick evenly. That's not balance. That's character worship.


As to improve XY, I have a few objections that could fix.

The rivalries: Whether I love them as characters or hate them the same is irrelevant. The rivalries were too undercooked for my tastes. To fix this, the rivalries would be done early, around XY25. Special attention to Serena's rivalries who I barely remember.

The animation: Something bothers me about how cloth is animated. I can't put my finger on it.

The Ash-Greninja Story: I hate it. Everything. I cannot possibly bring myself to care about the lack of lore. Sure, an ancient hero had it, so naturally, it shows up generations later. I like the odd lore of the games and that's why I liked DPPt and BW/BW2.

Serena and Clemont's interaction: I cannot buy that they're friends. This is the least genuine friendship since Brock and Dawn since I barely remember any conversations they had together.

 

[MartínK]

BW

1- More competent Ash, after been in the top 4 in Sinnoh they make him a rookie
2- Bianca as the pokegirl instead of Iris
3- Make Ash starters fully evolved
4- N as main rival and then give him a redemption arc like BW 2
5- Show Team Plasma early in the series
6- Ash befriended (Not captured) Reshiram to use it against Team Plasma
7- Decolore island could be shorted or skipped, he could easily meet Alexa in the Junior Cup or Unova Pokemon League
8- Get ridd of all the tournaments excepts the Junior Cup
9- Ash catching a Dragon type instead of Palpitoad and Leavanny (Those two are unnecesary with Oshawott, Snivy and Krookodile)

 

[Ignition]

OS Johto:
-Don't let this seem too much like Kanto part 2
-Actually let the Johto Pokémon shine.
-Let Heracross stay on Ash's team. It was always dumb that Bulbasaur was on Ash's Johto team longer than Heracross.
-Let Misty and Brock do something. They started to but just went nowhere.
-Let Jessie and James catch new Pokemon.
-Let Tracey come back, even if only for one arc
-A more enticing rivalry. I found it hard to get invested in Ash vs Gary because they rarely battled. Not to say the enticing rivalry has to be Gary (Silver?)
-Cut down on the borings fillers. Worst of the series by far

And as a bonus, this is how I'd have the main cast's teams:
-Ash: Pikachu, Noctowl, Heracross, the middle stage of all the starters, Phanpy, Tyranitar. Maybe an Espeon to mirror Gary's.
Brock: Graveler, Onix, Crobat, Vulpix (he keeps it), Forretress, Hitmontop
Misty: Togetic, Starmie, Politoed, Kingdra, Corsola, & Wooper or Chinchou
Jessie: Arbok, Wobbufett, Smoochum, & Sneasel
James: Weezing, Granbull, Ariados, Octillery
Tracey: Scizor, Azumarill, Venonat, Smeargle, Flaaffy, & Stantler. Would travel with Scizor, Azumarill, Flaaffy, & Stantler

 

[Leonhart]

My least favorite saga is the SM saga, and one thing that I would change is the saga's stance on comedy moments. I'd make the saga less light-hearted and more like the DP saga, which had interesting recurring characters and impressively planned character arcs, without needing to rely on laughs.

 

[keepitsimple]

getting the hell over myself and changing nothing

 

[Kuzehiko]

Bring back the old traveling and gym quest formula. That's all I need to fix my "least favorite series. I don't mind Ash being goofy. I don't think that's bad at all.

 

[DatsRight]

XY:

* Have Ash more emotive. Keep his goofy side from the first few episodes but make him more snarky and give him better chemistries with everyone else. eg. make him jaded towards TR, weirded out by Serena's shyness, exasperated by Bonnie's brattiness.
*Keep semi competent TR from early episodes as well, but slowly faze their twerp faceoffs out for arc focus like a rivalry against Team Flare and maybe even another Giovanni takeover scheme. Also maybe give them secondary Pokemon. Have only sporadic TR face-offs by XYZ in favour of more diverse plots or more protagonist driven stories that don't need them shoehorned in (at least give some long term explanation to them being in Goodra's arc if you're gonna put them in there). I get Ash was bound to outpace them by the time of Ash Greninja, but we didn't need to go back to generic TR curb stomps every single episode again. Even BW was smart enough to know that got old by DP.
* Make up their damn mind if they want Serena to be a good battler or not. Even just a quick transition of a few full battles with no plot armour like Sophocles got would work. Maybe play her showcase choreography into a battle style. Otherwise stop forcing battling into her episodes and give her quieter slice of life ones instead. Also play it indiscriminate and stop giving her crap opponents who can't hit back in intense action scenes so the threat level is maintained.
* Have Clemont not fade into the background and Bonnie do more than sing to Squishy in XYZ. Also give Clemont and Serena more chemistry.
* Maybe have the team play more into each other's trainer development together, like what the boy trio did in SM.
* Have karma hit Bonnie more often during her especially bratty moments. Sometimes she's cute, but sometimes she really needs her annoying moments get repercussions.
* Make showcases more developed and less an arbitrary mish-mash of random challenges. Also have Serena's choreography require some sort of progression or improvement, like she needs to get to better so her rivals seem more effective. Also use her 'B-Side' image song Candy Girl sometimes.
* Keep personality focus on the Pokemon even after they evolve . eg. Sylveon and Greninja could still appear in interaction scenes and keep some of their earlier quirks without dumbing down too much of their character development. Also let Luxray appear more often.
* Give someone in the main cast a Mega Evolution.
* I don't mind Ash losing the league, it made sense from a narrative standpoint, but do not waste the series building up everything to him winning, again give him some non-goal focused personality and downplay the cheap hype train. Maybe also add some continuity to previous series so it feels less depressingly self contained as a result of no progression in the end.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Simple. The League and Lake Acuity battles have their results switched, and victory is truly given to Ash. That is, Lake Acuity becomes the "draw" battle (perhaps even some of Paul's Pokemon finally start becoming disobedient after seeing how happy Chimchar is with Ash), and the League is Ash curbstomping Paul since Paul would still refuse to change his ways. At the League, one of Paul's Pokemon faints upon being sent out due to being forced to train to the point of physical exhaustion the night before. I'd even make it a point to have another Nurse Joy tell him not to have his Pokemon battle, and him ignore her, just to hammer in the lesson that what Paul does is unacceptable.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

How the hell does someone dislike DP more than BW?

 

[keepitsimple]

How the hell does someone dislike DP more than BW?

it's not that hard to believe. if you don't like the ash/paul/chimchar storyline (which Mist doesn't) then there's not much else to be interested in besides dawn's coordinator goal. also brock totally sucked and nearly every episode was "stop team rocket from stealing pokemon/thing"

best wishes isn't as bad as the tantrums of manchildren online make it out to be. i find it to be more funny, cute and uplifting than DP

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

it's not that hard to believe. if you don't like the ash/paul/chimchar storyline then there's not much else to be interested in besides dawn's coordinator goal. also brock totally sucked and nearly every episode was "stop team rocket from stealing pokemon/thing"

best wishes isn't as bad as the tantrums of manchildren online make it out to be. i find it to be more funny, cute and uplifting than DP

Well dawn was very interesting atleast. Iris never had any progression to her goal, her storyline was dumb. Her axew staying an axew was dumb. Cilan was boring, Brock became irrelevant in DP i agree but i still find him more enjoyable than cilan. For me cilan stopped being any sort of interesting from rival destinies. Also i think the major issue is that Ash was regressed. Pikachu was regressed. It broke the excellent continuity before that has since not been repaired with XY or SM. However yes i do agree it had a lot of great points such as Don tournaments, TR plots (tho their personality being destroyed was stupid ), meloetta, krookodile and it's arc, Leavanny, occasionally being very funny, great fillers at times, meowth joining Ash and gang for 5 episode or so, the butterfree episode etc. But then again it had Cameron, elesa, snivy etc

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Well dawn was very interesting atleast. Iris never had any progression to her goal, her storyline was dumb. Her axew staying an axew was dumb. Cilan was boring, Brock became irrelevant in DP i agree but i still find him more enjoyable than cilan. For me cilan stopped being any sort of interesting from rival destinies. Also i think the major issue is that Ash was regressed. Pikachu was regressed. It broke the excellent continuity before that has since not been repaired with XY or SM. However yes i do agree it had a lot of great points such as Don tournaments, TR plots (tho their personality being destroyed was stupid ), meloetta, krookodile and it's arc, Leavanny, occasionally being very funny, great fillers at times, meowth joining Ash and gang for 5 episode or so, the butterfree episode etc. But then again it had Cameron, elesa, snivy etc

I do like Dawn, but what the hell was she doing getting to the finals in her first Grand Festival? Same goes for Zoey.

Other than the Ash mental reset (I figure Pikachu is because of the Zekrom attack), BW restored my faith in the anime since it was far more positive than the precious region, and Cilan and Stefan were the best parts. Also, Bianca was good, especially when she beat Trip. Too bad they kinda lost focus during the last third of the saga though, without the League to centralize things.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

I do like Dawn, but what the hell was she doing getting to the finals in her first Grand Festival? Same goes for Zoey.

Other than the Ash mental reset (I figure Pikachu is because of the Zekrom attack), BW restored my faith in the anime since it was far more positive than the precious region, and Cilan and Stefan were the best parts. Also, Bianca was good, especially when she beat Trip. Too bad they kinda lost focus during the last third of the saga though, without the League to centralize things.

Oh well I respect your opinion. As for dawn she had a very extensive arc detailing her progress and failures. She deserved the final spot. Just because it was her first grand festival doesnt mean she can't do well. Ash didnt do well in his first league yes but he barely earned to do well anyways. Half of his badges were illegitimate. Meanwhile dawn had full arcs detailing her progress. She failed a lot. Heck she failed to go past the two appeal rounds consecutively. It all added to her growth and her finally doing well in the grand festival. Heck her losing is for me as bs as Ash losing to Alain coz she never beating Zoey was dumb and ruined their excellent rivalry up to that point.