Sun & Moon, your thoughts now vs first thoughts

[PokemonKnight]

It all comes down to a sense of progress and context.

In the past, no matter the amount of filler (with the exception of the middle of Johto), it felt like Ash and the gang were going somewhere. Because at the end of most episodes, you have the sunset and the twerps moving on. It was a journey and every journey has its filler spots aka breaks. After all, biographies of famous people never mention the exciting supermarket trip, which, essentially, most fillers are. In SM, Ash is located at a stationary place. There is a feeling, after about 20 years of journey and roads, that Ash isn't motivated. It isn't true but considering the setting, it feels like Ash is on vacation.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

It all comes down to a sense of progress and context.

In the past, no matter the amount of filler (with the exception of the middle of Johto), it felt like Ash and the gang were going somewhere. Because at the end of most episodes, you have the sunset and the twerps moving on. It was a journey and every journey has its filler spots aka breaks. After all, biographies of famous people never mention the exciting supermarket trip, which, essentially, most fillers are. In SM, Ash is located at a stationary place. There is a feeling, after about 20 years of journey and roads, that Ash isn't motivated. It isn't true but considering the setting, it feels like Ash is on vacation.

Ash kind of is on vacation. Thankfully this time it's physical instead of mental like BW.

 

[Darthlord7]

idgaf what anyone says, but for me this has been the most enjoyable series since DP.

We are on the same boat. It's been a long time since I eagerly wanted to watch a new Pokemon episode.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

We are on the same boat. It's been a long time since I eagerly wanted to watch a new Pokemon episode.

Same here. Unfortunately it's been too long, probably since the build up of the Team Rocket vs Team Plasma episodes that fell through for me :/

 

[satopi]

Same here. Unfortunately it's been too long, probably since the build up of the Team Rocket vs Team Plasma episodes that fell through for me :/

I am still overly upset about the horrendous ordeal.

I usually enjoy most episodes but outside of the SM anime, last time I was excited to watch an episode was eagerly awaiting the Mega Evolution episodes that premiered every 6 months or so and the last Gym battle against Wulfric and the important battles in the Kalos League. So basically near the end of the XY&Z saga but I don't like how it was executed.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I am still overly upset about the horrendous ordeal.

I usually enjoy most episodes but outside of the SM anime, last time I was excited to watch an episode was eagerly awaiting the Mega Evolution episodes that premiered every 6 months or so and the last Gym battle against Wulfric and the important battles in the Kalos League. So basically near the end of the XY&Z saga but I don't like how it was executed.

Same here; I wish they aired those :/
Honestly I found the mega evolution specials the only good thing about the XY series; everything else was pretty much crap. It would have been great if we got specials like that for SM but it doesn't seem likely right now

 

[U.N. Owen]

It isn't true but considering the setting, it feels like Ash is on vacation.

The impetus of SM was a vacation. It wasn't even a research vacation like BW. This is "we won the lottery and we need to blow it" vacation.

 

[satopi]

Same here; I wish they aired those :/
Honestly I found the mega evolution specials the only good thing about the XY series; everything else was pretty much crap. It would have been great if we got specials like that for SM but it doesn't seem likely right now

Agreed.

The impetus of SM was a vacation. It wasn't even a research vacation like BW. This is "we won the lottery and we need to blow it" vacation.

Mimey won a vacation trip to Alola, not any big money or else Ash will pay to build a Pokémon League he'll win.

 

[Akkipeddi]

Mimey won a vacation trip to Alola, not any big money or else Ash will pay to build a Pokémon League he'll win.

No I'm sure he'll still find a way to lose even if he owns his own pokemon league.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

No I'm sure he'll still find a way to lose even if he owns his own pokemon league.

He's destined to lose. Kind of reminds me of what happened to Kaiba in Battle City lol

 

[345ash-greninja]

No I'm sure he'll still find a way to lose even if he owns his own pokemon league.

Yes, that's because the writers have to promote the upcoming games, so they have to somehow shift Ash to the next region.

 

[Akkipeddi]

Yes, that's because the writers have to promote the upcoming games, so they have to somehow shift Ash to the next region.

Yeah I know. My comment was made in jest.

 

[UltimateNinja]

So Sun and Moon have actually had less fillers than XY in this gap, especially with the super filler gap in XY. However, we do see that he does reach the second gym at this point. With theoretically 11 trials (4 being Grand Trials), they could have paced it out a bit better. Having the Gumshoos trial with the Hala Grand Trial right after was a little bit rushed in my opinion; either having him lose the first time or push back the Grand Trial a bit could have made the pacing feel better and less of "nothing's happening", even though there are clearly a bunch of things happening. Use this info for discussion I guess.

Good for SM but the case here is that XY's most filler happened in the first fifty episodes, while XYZ had with it's 15% filler rate the least amount of fillers of all seasons. SM needs to hold that filler ratio until the series is over since at the end it counts how many filler there were through the series.

Like some pointed out, some of SM's non-filler were actually mostly filler material with about a minute or two were actually important to the plot, the character, the pokemon etc.

Also XY15 was non filler since it confirmed Chespin to have Overgrown. Falls under the same category as what I said but if something like XY13 wasn't a filler since the egg hatched at the end which took only about two minutes, then this should also be no filler.

 

[Satoshi & Touko]

Yeah I know. My comment was made in jest.

Still, it's funny because I do think the writers would find some excuse for him to lose no matter how much sense him winning would make.

 

[SinnohEevee]

The first director said they don't care about him always losing because the target audience always gets renewed.

He can have Mewtwo or Arceus and still lose.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

He's destined to lose. Kind of reminds me of what happened to Kaiba in Battle City lol

I'd compare him to Joey (who would have won against Marik with just a bit more strength) rather than Kaiba (don't think he ever faced Marik directly), but yeah. Still, he's the only Trainer besides Gary we've seen take on and place in multiple regional Leagues yet for some reason was only recognized by that one Nurse Joy in BF.

 

[U.N. Owen]

Ash would still lose even if he was the only competitor at the league.

 

[SinnohEevee]

Talking about filler-like episodes, there was that episode in AG where May, her Squirtle, and Meowth travelled in time to save the husband of an old lady. It was all filler except for May's Eevee hatching from the egg.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Talking about filler-like episodes, there was that episode in AG where May, her Squirtle, and Meowth travelled in time to save the husband of an old lady. It was all filler except for May's Eevee hatching from the egg.

So I guess going by that then that episode must be boring as well; it's basically similar to how some of the SM episodes are set up /sarcasm

 

[345ash-greninja]

The writers have to find out some way of Ash winning the League and still continuing travelling, because the same circle is really getting agonizing and repeatative. He certainly has the capability of winning a League. He defeated a Pokemon in DP which can sweep a League (Darkrai) and still hasn't won a League, in XY, he managed to battle toe to toe with a Champion's ace and overwhelm it(Mega Gardevoir), which E4 members would even struggle to do, and still hasn't won a League. He certainly has the capability to win a League, but the writers always have found some way of preventing Ash from winning a League. They need to stop this.