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Should they bring contests back to the anime?

Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
If they ever bring them back, I’d love to see both the male and female companions compete in them! We’ve never had companions be rivals of each other, and I think it could create a really nice dynamic not centered around Ash for once.

Isn't that a bit too much though? Jessie will obviously compete, and it'd be a massive digress if she suddenly sucked again when she was top 4 in Sinnoh.
I'd like them to actually show Jessie's wins again if she must be the female's rivals, was really annoying they gave her two random keys in XY without bothering to spare time in a useless filler to show her winning said keys
 

k6666

Pikachu Fan
After contest Rip off, gag goal why not? As long the female got battle , i rather get contest even though it's repetitive and boring, we survive league 8 gym badge quest for 6 saga
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
k6666 said:
After contest Rip off, gag goal why not? As long the female got battle , i rather get contest even though it's repetitive and boring, we survive league 8 gym badge quest for 6 saga

If you're implying that TryPokaron was a rip-off of Contests, I can see why that might be a popular opinion, although to me they had enough new gimmicks to be interesting. I liked how the audience could vote for their favorite performer instead of just having three judges and a timer decide that, as was the case with Contests.
 

Emelie

Bookworm
I think it's moreso the structure of the contests that is great rather than the contests themselves. Winning ribbons, having rivals and Grand Festival all resemble Satoshi's quest which give the girls a clear sense of progression.

Without that they often end up feeling like background characters or like they got "unfair" victories (the controversial victories with Iris' Dragonite).

But they shouldn't throw the battling aspect out of the window either. Serena has great emotional development mabye even the best but I feel that she was a little bit too stereotypical at times. She didn't feel like she was Satoshi's equal even though she was much more mature than him which felt really weird and outdated. Compare to Hikari who never felt less important than Satoshi.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Emelie said:
I think it's moreso the structure of the contests that is great rather than the contests themselves. Winning ribbons, having rivals and Grand Festival all resemble Satoshi's quest which give the girls a clear sense of progression.

Contests did feel like watered-down Gym battles to some extent, although certain Contests managed to be more entertaining to me than some of Satoshi's Gym battles, such as when Kojirou posed as Musashi and entered a Contest and defeated Hikari, or when Naoshi battled Nozomi at the Grand Festival.
 

mysticalglacia

Alola Shill
If you're implying that TryPokaron was a rip-off of Contests, I can see why that might be a popular opinion, although to me they had enough new gimmicks to be interesting. I liked how the audience could vote for their favorite performer instead of just having three judges and a timer decide that, as was the case with Contests.

I think the problem with that though is that the skill and prowess of a Performer didn’t matter as long as she had fans. Someone could turn out an absolutely awful performance and still win just because a lot of people were friends or fans of them, or even get pity votes because of a mistake, etc. The first round of Showcases wasn’t awful, even though there was room to be improved (I liked the quiz and Ryhorn herding, even though the latter was oh so convenient for Serena), because there were judges gauging them. I think for any goal, there needs to be professional judging to make it feel earned and not just handed out like some Showcase wins were imo.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
mysticalglacia said:
I think the problem with that though is that the skill and prowess of a Performer didn’t matter as long as she had fans. Someone could turn out an absolutely awful performance and still win just because a lot of people were friends or fans of them, or even get pity votes because of a mistake, etc. The first round of Showcases wasn’t awful, even though there was room to be improved (I liked the quiz and Ryhorn herding, even though the latter was oh so convenient for Serena), because there were judges gauging them. I think for any goal, there needs to be professional judging to make it feel earned and not just handed out like some Showcase wins were imo.

You're absolutely right about that flaw in TryPokaron since having more fans pretty much secured a win like in Elle's case when she won Master Class over Serena because she was more well-known. I admit that it was a pretty huge flaw, and I wish that the writers had at least changed things up a bit in Master Class to make it more fair to newcomers.
 

Emelie

Bookworm
While Elle's victory was a little unfair I think the biggest flaw was that she just wasn't that interesting. While Nozomi/Zoey was a little bit of a Mary-Sue as well, at least she had some meaningful interactions with Hikari. Elle's relationship with Serena was bland so their rivalry didn't feel engaging. Was it even a rivalry to begin with...?
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
While Elle's victory was a little unfair I think the biggest flaw was that she just wasn't that interesting. While Nozomi/Zoey was a little bit of a Mary-Sue as well, at least she had some meaningful interactions with Hikari. Elle's relationship with Serena was bland so their rivalry didn't feel engaging. Was it even a rivalry to begin with...?
No it really wasn’t. It didn’t really become a rivalry until Serena threaten to dethrone her (if you can even call it that). It’s one thing if Aria’s performance was better than Serena but we barely got a view of her performance and instead just cut scenes of people watching it.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Emelie said:
While Elle's victory was a little unfair I think the biggest flaw was that she just wasn't that interesting. While Nozomi/Zoey was a little bit of a Mary-Sue as well, at least she had some meaningful interactions with Hikari. Elle's relationship with Serena was bland so their rivalry didn't feel engaging. Was it even a rivalry to begin with...?

I liked Elle's personality on the rare occasions that she appeared, but I agree that she was still pretty generic and not exactly the kind of final TryPokaron rival that I would've wanted Serena to have. If things had gone my way, either Armelle or Millefeui would've been Serena's final opponent in Master Class. I just wish that Contests had gotten a proper second wind in the XY saga and that Serena could've moved on to compete in them on-screen at some point in XY instead of that happening off-screen after the saga ended.
 
If Serena’s showcases had a battle round than contests would have been in XY, they were the same thing just with performances instead of appeals, and even then the DP appeals were heading in that direction already by the end.
 

Moonlight Starlight

Well-Known Member
I liked Elle's personality on the rare occasions that she appeared, but I agree that she was still pretty generic and not exactly the kind of final TryPokaron rival that I would've wanted Serena to have. If things had gone my way, either Armelle or Millefeui would've been Serena's final opponent in Master Class. I just wish that Contests had gotten a proper second wind in the XY saga and that Serena could've moved on to compete in them on-screen at some point in XY instead of that happening off-screen after the saga ended.
I think contest and showcases should do something bringing in both May and Dawn in their cameos in XY than not having May in the cameo of DP and Dawn not in BW cameo. If May had a better goal being a performer trainer like Serena that would do something for May being in the XY cameo and for Dawn showing up which I see Serena's rival Miette doing Contest that puts will in her character.
 

mysticalglacia

Alola Shill
I think contest and showcases should do something bringing in both May and Dawn in their cameos in XY than not having May in the cameo of DP and Dawn not in BW cameo. If May had a better goal being a performer trainer like Serena that would do something for May being in the XY cameo and for Dawn showing up which I see Serena's rival Miette doing Contest that puts will in her character.

If they were so determined at not including Contests in XY, then I would’ve liked to see May cameo and participate in a Showcase (but not abandon her much superior Coordinator goal), at the same time inspiring Serena’s interest in Contests at the end of the series. I liked their respective cameos in DP & BW though, so I personally wouldn’t want that to change.
 

Twilight-Kun

Pokemon World Champion
Galar really doesn't strike me as a region that's big on showing off the daintier side of Pokemon

Marnie being a rival to the female companion would be interesting though, although it'd be more fun if they finally let a female companion battle, if only to show off version exclusive gyms/characters/pokemon
 

MockingJ

Banned
Galar really doesn't strike me as a region that's big on showing off the daintier side of Pokemon

Marnie being a rival to the female companion would be interesting though, although it'd be more fun if they finally let a female companion battle, if only to show off version exclusive gyms/characters/pokemon

But Galar is based on the United Kingdom isn't it? I've always seen the U.K. as being fancy and posh, so Contests seem like a good fit even though I'm not 100% convinced that they'll come back.
 

Jangobadass

Surprise!
Should they? Oh heck yes.

Will they? Nope.

Galar's made the Pokemon League into an actual sports league, and, unless they really surprise us, there doesn't seem to be a big side feature like Contests (or even a small side feature like we've had since).
So unless there's a non-battle side gig in Gen 8 they haven't told us about yet, it looks like it's going to be more about battling than ever (though that's a good thing after SM barely had any battles, let alone satisfying ones).

I miss the Contests and how they helped add more plot & story to their animes, but there's NO chance they'll come back to the Show since there's no need to promote anything. Even Gen 4 remakes probably wouldn't help since they couldn't be bothered to have Contests to help promote ORAS in XY...
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
usagi10000 said:
If Serena’s showcases had a battle round than contests would have been in XY, they were the same thing just with performances instead of appeals, and even then the DP appeals were heading in that direction already by the end.

I feel like the writers could've just as easily merged TryPokaron and Contests by simply changing the structure of the anime Contests so that they didn't include the battle round anymore. That would've made them more accurate to their in-game counterparts, anyway.
 

Shayminslicker

Comes out of Nowhere
Yes, I would LOVE to see contests return. They were really different than just a regular battle and it's really fun to see Ash's (and other characters) performances. Not only that, but the showcases in X and Y just made me miss contests a lot more.
 

Lunalah

Well-Known Member
Contests were so much fun so yes please bring them back. We could have the new girl compete in them and maybe she could meet Dawn later on and get pointers from her on how to be a better Pokemon co-ordinator.
 
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