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New 11 episode series, "Pocket Monsters: Mezase Pokemon Master", starts January 13th 2023

Konja7

Well-Known Member
I think star wars fans also got something of the same treatment. I'm no star wars fan to the extent of never having watch the original trilogy, but by my understanding that denigrated, nerfed, and weakened the ex main character to build up the Mary Sue of the current series. If they had creative control of the original series like they do for Pokemon, they'd do the same thing as Pokemon.

I can see why star wars fans would have the same reaction as I am having.
I'm pretty sure they don't wanted to denigrate ex main characters to build up new characters.

The thing is they wanted to write the story of an old fallen hero guiding a new hero. This kind of story isn't really new or uncommon.

The difference is the old fallen hero tend to be a new character, so people doesn't care so much this character has failed. Unfortunately, Star Wars used a pretty loved character for this role and fans weren't happy.
 
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Durrendal

Well-Known Member
Sigh...I'll bite.

This is...an odd comparison. And that's me being generous here.

Yes, planned obsolescence is a thing, especially in consumer electronics where there is:
  1. new hardware and software features/capabilities from one generation to the next
  2. parts of the devices that are consumable or degrade over time
There is a point where the vendor has to stop and say that they can't support something anymore and you have to update. That cutoff depends on a few factors including the manufacturer and whether its a budget or premium tier device. Apple, for instance, provides software support for iPhones for about 5 years and MacBooks for at least that long. I think the 2013-era Macbook Air's that my kids use finally stopped getting new versions of MacOS last year. Most PC laptop vendors provide 1st party software support for at least 3 years, and improved drivers often end up in Windows or Linux. I don't know about Android devices, but as long as the bootloader is unlocked, you can load your own custom Android builds and keep using your device.

But at some point, the vendor has to stop supporting it so they can focus on new things. Or add in new features that the hardware won't support. Or the carriers want to retire an older communications protocol.

And yes, phones or computers seem slower over time. That's because they add more software features that run in the background on the device. And older processors aren't optimized for those features or aren't powerful enough to multi-task. They're not sabotaging their phones or purposely making them run slower.

That's not a conspiracy. That's technology marching on.

So with that in mind, what benefit does TVTokyo, OLM, and TPC get by sabotaging the current anime in the run-up to the next? The show makes money by getting people to watch. It determines how much commercials cost for that time slot and how much foreign networks and streaming services will pay to air it. Once people stop watching, its hard to get them to watch again.

There is no practical benefit to Pokemon to make the Ashime look bad before the new series launches. Yes, they want to sell more games and merch, but turning fans off as Ash's series winds down doesn't help with that. Especially in an era where you can watch shows on streaming services and TPC/OLM/TVTokyo still make money off of it.

So that's why people are saying you're "fandom level weird." This is conspiracy theory level nonsense.
I've had several phones whose performance was downgraded, and by that I mean new updates that throttle RAM or cause overheating issues right after they bring out newer series phones. Had to rollback sometimes due to that. I'm talking 1-2 years in the product life. It's not some march of progress making horse carts obsolete thing.

Anyway.

From what I see, Ash's Pokemon Series has become a legacy, with too much baggage for the company to reorient it for new fanbases and directions. Think of something like reorienting Dr. Who or James Bond for the new social climates. Most fans didn't like it much. You can't sell things to new people with characters of older modes. That's a thought I've heard from a lot of talking heads, executives, etc you name it in the advertisement and branding space.

So they way out was to sunset Ash. If Ash's series was plagued with issues, was just crap in general, when the new one comes in, and if they fix the storyline issues, by association, it'll seem like the series is automatically better. Making a better cheaper character, a better story is surely a great way to do it, but often the easier way out is diminishing the previous one. Again, not the first time in entertainment space a previous version has been dragged to try make the current iteration look better.

There'd be grumbling if Ash was retired just like that. But if fans can be slowly poisoned by tarnishing the series slowly to the point that people see a new series as a relief, it'll generate less pushback. The allure of new fans is greater than retaining old ones. They've crunched the numbers surely. Anyway the game crowd is different than the anime crowd. Dedicated fans will nostalgia watch even harder the "better" Ash series since the new ones aren't so bad, they're still going to make a buck. Expect a spike in nostalgia sales as well.

I'm really not sure where all this skepticism comes from when see newer versions of older shows every other month that deliberately belittle the older ones as a strategy.

At any rate, you can see it working can't you? So many people excited for a series not plagued by the problems of the old one. Problems they created to sell the idea of a new series fixing it. Bad story and directorial decisions were taken strategically. If it wasn't, then the team isn't good or this is how they make stuff in which case the new series should also have these issues. If the new series seems good, then we'll know Ash's Pokemon series was deliberately made worse.
 

masdog

What is the airspeed of an unladen Swellow?
Unfortunately, Star Wars used a pretty loved character for this role and fans weren't happy.
It wasn't that they used a loved character for this role. That can actually work well if you establish why they became a fallen hero.

The problem with the SQL sequel trilogy is that they didn't do any world building. We go from this hopeful place at the end of Return of the Jedi to being dropped into the middle of a story where everything had fallen apart and nothing in the opening crawl to really establish WHY it had fallen apart.

I've had several phones whose performance was downgraded, and by that I mean new updates that throttle RAM or cause overheating issues right after they bring out newer series phones. Had to rollback sometimes due to that. I'm talking 1-2 years in the product life. It's not some march of progress making horse carts obsolete thing.
I can't say I've seen that. I'm assuming this was an Android issue and I don't live in the Android ecosystem.

So they way out was to sunset Ash. If Ash's series was plagued with issues, was just crap in general, when the new one comes in, and if they fix the storyline issues, by association, it'll seem like the series is automatically better. Making a better cheaper character, a better story is surely a great way to do it, but often the easier way out is diminishing the previous one. Again, not the first time in entertainment space a previous version has been dragged to try make the current iteration look better.
Purposely tanking their show to make the next one better is an extraordinary claim. Is it possible? Sure. But it's also possible that it was never good in the first place or that it's just general mismanagement.

I'm really not sure where all this skepticism comes from when see newer versions of older shows every other month that deliberately belittle the older ones as a strategy.
Such as?
 

Dark_King25

Shillmon Defender

SunGodNika1997

You can call me Tanner.
If Kenny ever appears in the last two episodes I'm gonna be a digimon fan.
*after the credits have rolled on episode 11*

It's a dark and stormy night at the Ketchum residence. Delia is awoken by a loud, repeated knocking at the front door. Drowsy and confused, she gets out of bed and makes her way to the source of the racket. Once she reaches the door, she cautiously turns the knob and pulls it open. At that moment, lightning flashes, momentarily illuminating the familiar figure standing at the door, a psychotic look in his eyes. "Where's Dee Dee!?" the visitor asks, inching his way towards Delia. She screams as the screen cuts to black.

Kenny will return in Pokevengers: Infinity Disappointment
 

bruhidk

LARRY SUPREMACY
*after the credits have rolled on episode 11*

It's a dark and stormy night at the Ketchum residence. Delia is awoken by a loud, repeated knocking at the front door. Drowsy and confused, she gets out of bed and makes her way to the source of the racket. Once she reaches the door, she cautiously turns the knob and pulls it open. At that moment, lightning flashes, momentarily illuminating the familiar figure standing at the door, a psychotic look in his eyes. "Where's Dee Dee!?" the visitor asks, inching his way towards Delia. She screams as the screen cuts to black.

Kenny will return in Pokevengers: Infinity Disappointment
That would be an awesome ending!
 
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