How do you fix your least favourite saga?

[TheWanderingMist]

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.

I agree, she should have beaten Zoey, which is also why they shouldn't have been in the finals together. As for Alain, I don't care that Ash lost to him, seeing as Pikachu deserved the honor of defeating Alain but got taken out too early to do so, and there was no post-League battle to rectify that.

 

[DatsRight]

Concerning the BW debate, I think it really depends on people's tolerance for the classic formula. DP and XY had good arcs but the filler format was really running thin by those series, while BW and SM are incredibly inconsistent in pacing and quality but did try to shake things up a lot more.

I could argue at least that BW offered more 'building blocks' in broadening the show's storytelling than DP did at least, and was the start of them dabbling in making things more versatile and character driven. It was in primordial state, but later seasons show what happens when those formula breakers are capitalised on (eg. having episodes without the TR formula where we just focus on the protagonists).

 

[Leonhart]

Concerning the BW debate, I think it really depends on people's tolerance for the classic formula. DP and XY had good arcs but the filler format was really running thin by those series, while BW and SM are incredibly inconsistent in pacing and quality but did try to shake things up a lot more.

At the very least, I can say that BW and SM had some interesting filler episode ideas compared to DP and XY, which were sagas that excelled more at mini-arcs and major subplots than episodic storylines.

 

[DatsRight]

At the very least, I can say that BW and SM had some interesting filler episode ideas compared to DP and XY, which were sagas that excelled more at mini-arcs and major subplots than episodic storylines.

I think those are the ones that most blatantly used the old formula as a crutch for storytelling, sometimes even when it had no place there (eg. inexplicably converting the long running Goodra vs Florges arc into a team up against Team Rocket). BW and SM sometimes have similar 'we don't really know how to end this plot' moments, but it feels way more like they try to experiment and have the characters do something different.

DP/XY kind of feels like the cast are trapped inside a pod with all their designations planned ahead for them, while BW/SM feels like the characters have escaped but are often left going 'now what?'.

 

[Alola Adventurer]

OS:
- The series ends after Orange Islands. Ash's journey in Johto is covered in a new series
with Brock and a new companion
- Give Butterfree, Pidgeotto, and more of Misty's team more screentime.
- Togepi gets caught by either Ash or Brock.
- Misty gets more character development early on in the series.
- Ash earns his pity badges fair and square
- Ash has a chance to let his Pokémon recover before his fight with Ritchie
- The ref doesn't disqualify half of Ash's team from being hit with a sleeping condition

 

[MartínK]

OS:
- The series ends after Orange Islands. Ash's journey in Johto is covered in a new series
with Brock and a new companion

With Cris/Marina and give Croconaw and Feraligatr some love in the anime