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Wasted Potential?

C

ChaosMage

Izit cuz I is black?
Here's one of those lovely "moan" threads specifically aimed at all the characters, pokemon, storylines and events which could have been better, longer, more interesting, and in many cases actually being resolved would be enough to satisfy.

Please avoid mentioning the GS Ball, Misty or anything else which has been discussed to death. I'd rather see some new ideas.

Here's just some from my long list, all of which are about pokemon with wasted potential. I have chosen one for each main character, just to start it off;

Brock's Ludicolo- although it appeared frequently as a Lombre and even battled a couple of times, it's done next to nothing as a Ludicolo. It learned a new attack, which we'd seen enough of anyway, and even then it only had three overused moves at its disposal. Being one of the only third-stage pokemon in the run of the series, and one of only two in the Hoenn saga, and certainly the biggest pokemon in the gang, it would have been pretty powerful in battle. It also had a lot of comedy potential and I was devastated when it left. Who knows if we'll ever see Ludicolo done any justice.

Misty's Psyduck- Am I the only one who DESPISED the episode where Psyduck supposedly evolved? Why, you may ask? Because that Golduck was so damn cool! I'd rather have him than three more seasons of Psyduck, which did next to nothing in Johto. And this is the Orange Islands we're talking about, when Charizard wasn't obedient yet and nothing else exceeded three feet on Misty's team. If that Golduck was on the show, I would actually be missing Misty right now.

Ash's Pidgeot- It had guts. It had balls. It had a rather lengthly and colourful mullet. It lasted five minutes before getting the babysitter treatment. One wonders why they felt it necessary to be rid of that viewer-offensive bird, and one definitely wonders if the writers responsible for creating Swellow feel as we do looking back on this early decision. This is just one example of lust for cuteness destroying the potential of Kanto.

Jessie's Lickitung- To be fair, the thirty episodes of early Johto before it was ditched were OK for Lickitung. Why did the writers wait so long to put it back in action? Why get rid of it? Who knows... I certainly never will.

James and May have actually done very well with their pokemon, and there's little more that I can think of to do with them. Sure, Cacnea hasn't evolved, and Chimecho was left behind after a comparitvely short stay. But what else is there to do with them? They've both fulfilled all potential they can ever have as Team Rocket pokemon, and get plenty of screentime. Mime Jr is doing fine, and you can't accuse Weezing and Victreebell of being a waste of time. As for May, Combusken rocks to the full, and you couldn't expect much better from Bulbasaur, Munchlax, Beautifly, Skitty or Eevee for the time being (although Eevee will have to evolve eventually). Not to mention Squirtle has already done far more than it deserves to, and is the furthest from a wasted oppurtunity that it could possibly be. All I can say is that Skitty and Bulbasaur could have evolved. It just makes sense, since Delcatty and Ivysaur both suit May just as well as their previous forms, and make her a bigger threat to opponents.

I'll post later with a few examples of storylines and characters with wasted potential, plus a few more pokemon which have been shafted. See you later, fellow moaners!
 
I completely agree in most respects. I loved Golduck in its Orange Islands episode - it was such an awesome Pokemon and I'm a big fan of the things myself.

Same with Pidgeot. It was such a brilliant Pokemon and to finally see it (since, in Kanto, Pidgeotto battled quite a big yet never had a desire to stay in its form; its evolution was always pending) was so nice...it would have been welcome in the Orange Islands in my opinion.

I think in general Brock just got shafted. That is, in my opinion, the result of the 4 character roster. Max and Mays characters needed to be explored (the latter needed catches, and to expirience some of the things Ash did like loss, evolution etc) and we needed to show Max's fondness of Pokemon (Poochyena ep, Shuppet ep, Ralts ep) - added with Ashs gym matches and his team changes we had little room for Brocko. Ludicolo would have been great to see more often.

You know I don't like James team as much. Weezing and Victreebel > Cacnea and Mime Jr. Ok the latter are cuter and Cacnea can battle...but James team is too small and adorable these days. Victreebel and Weezing were much better imho.
 
Can anyone say Cyndaquil and Totodile?

It's not the fact that they didn't evolve, it's the fact that they had next to no memorable matches. In fact, Cyndaquil was shunned in the latter stages of its own league.

Torkoal suffered a similar fate, as we all know. Same can be said for some of Brock's Pokemon (a.k.a Geodude and Vulpix).
 
I got this moan from Dogasu, and if he were here(I know he lurks these boards), he would agree with me on these things.

WALLACE! WTH happened to the original Sootopolis Gym Leader? The writers decided to plug Pokemon Emerald like cheap sex and forgot about the poor guy. Jesu mesu, he should at least replaced Lance in the Kyogre/Groudon episodes or been hosting the Hoenn League(since he was the champion in Emerald). All the other gym leaders got deep backstories and wonderful Pokemon, but we never see Wallace once.

STEVEN: All we see of him is one lousy episode and one lousy Pokemon. "The Great Butler"(someone here) wrote him into a XD-style story and showed all his Pokemon in the games, but not once have we seen his Pokemon except in the hands or others.

THE ELITE 4(all three regions): The only characters we see are Lorelei(who got a name change), Bruno, Drake, and Agatha. (Okay and maybe Lance.) The others are ignored. With all those Johto fillers, you would have thought one of them would have shown Will or Karen. If it had been Glacia talking to Snorunt and helping it evolve, I would have been surprised. Not to say that the writers gave that Robert guy a great character, but where are Glacia and Sydney? :(

TRACEY had a lot of potential in Chronicles which was wasted. Why didn't he help Misty battle those badge thieves in "The Blue Badge of Courage", and why hasn't he summoned Venonat or Marill. Those guys could have evolved by now!

EDIT: Oh boy oh boy, I'm a Marshtrainer now! :D
 
Forretress.Forretress.Forretress.Forretress.Forretress.Forretress.Forretress.Forretress.Forretress.
Biggest waste ever, why did the writers keep it for 2 seasons if they never have
it do anything? It's such a cool Pokemon, but they always seem to forget
about it. Brock should of took Geodude to Hoenn instead, cuz maybe it could
of evolved or something.
 
There is indeed a grand list of Ash's pokemon not done justice for whatever reason, be it screentime, victory count, lack of development, or general lack of love, including;

Corphish- simply because of a lack of new attacks. He's a much beter endowed pokemon in all other respects
Glalie- not enough personality development or big enough range of attacks
Torkoal- not enough major battles (and too many losses)
Cyndaquil- Got overtaken by Bayleef despite its power (and if one more person says that he had no major wins in Johto, I'll throttle them) and got screwed in the league
Noctowl- Not enough substantial battles, undeveloped personality
Heracross- Abandoned too quickly, very few substantial wins while on the team, only one very disappointing BF battle
Kingler, Muk and Tauros- have all had their moments, but not enough given that they were all caught over 400 episodes ago
Primeape and Butterfree- these pokemon were given to Ash for one purpose, to prove that he could handle more difficult pokemon if they were more marketable. Butterfree was proof that Ash could evolve a weak pokemon into a stronger one and still handle it. Primeape was to prove that Ash could capture and tame a pokemon with an aggressive and defiant nature. However, the Kanto-style market forbade any pokemon above three feet from joining Ash's team in case 10 year old boys preferred Squirtle and Pikachu over Primeape.
 
The E4: Itsuki not showing up is a capital sin. :( Same goes for Sidney, Phoebe, and basically every E4 Member not from the Kanto group other than Drake. Why couldn't have Xatu's obligatory Johto showcase ep have had it in Itsu's posession? Why couldn't have Karen debuted a Dark type or two? Houen was decent with bringing in game charas, but why not have a Houen E4 member show up instead of Lance in the Groudon/Kyogre arc? It'd make more sense AND leave one less character unloved. They don't ALL have to involve Ash getting his arse kicked by one, you know, so it's not like it's an Ash-can't-lose-that-often issue. I want my Itsu dammit. D:<

Certain Houen geographical interest points: Where'd Mount Pyre go?(hey, that would've been a decent place to show Phoebe, too D: And maybe help build up that Groudon/Kyogre arc too) What happened to Houen's Safari Zone? What about that desert area? (unless the desert from the Togepi arc was supposed to be it...) I don't recall seeing the Berry Master's House or the routes with the VERY tall grass either. I'm sure they could've done SOMETHING with those places. :/

Brock: His breeding schtick would have been PERFECT to help guide May with her contest skills(at least the "keeping your Pokes looking good" part), but no. His Pokemon generally rot in their Pokeballs, and there's really not much of a point for the writers to give him new Pokes or evolve existing ones if they NEVER SHOW UP. But this has been discussed to death. >_>

Dustox. Stopped having a purpose when the whole Jessie & May both have Wurmple thing ended. One can only hope that it's having fun in the Dimension of Shafted Pokemon, along with Forretress, Goldeen, Starmie, Golbat, and pretty much anything owned by Brock or Misty other than Psyduck, Gyarados, and Staryu.

Togepi. It had that metronome mystery build-up, but it never came to anything. Worse yet, it marked the beginning of Misty's steady decline, whether it's Togepi's fault or not.

Ash's staight-to-Oak's Pokemon. Doomed to rarely be on Ash's team from the start, all there is to it. D:
 
There's a few game characters left out;

Gabby and Ty
Wally
Brendan (as in real appearances)
The other Aqua/Magma admins
Sidney
Phoebe
Glacia
Will
Karen
Wallace
Mr Fuji
Daisy Oak
The captain of the S.S. Anne
The Old Couple from Mt Pyre
The Berry Master
The Devon employee from early in RSE
The GSC rival

Those I just some off the top of my head
 
ChaosMage said:
There's a few game characters left out;

Gabby and Ty
Wally
Brendan (as in real appearances)
The other Aqua/Magma admins
Sidney
Phoebe
Glacia
Will
Karen
Wallace
Mr Fuji
Daisy Oak
The captain of the S.S. Anne
The Old Couple from Mt Pyre
The Berry Master
The Devon employee from early in RSE
The GSC rival

Those I just some off the top of my head
Click to expand...
the devon employy was in one of the first eps in AG O.o
i dont see how you could miss it,the magma grunt ran away with the goods just like in the game
 
Glalie - Left at Oak's lab after only few eps since its evolution
Professor Sebastian - Pity that someone who is litterally sadisitc had to only appear for a couple of eps
Atilla and Hun - Those two made Cassidy and Butch look as lame as Jessie and James
Misty's Starmie and Horsea - Not enough screen time
Teams Magma and Aqua - Not enough screen time as they "defeated" by Team Rocket
Not enough Chronicles eps
 
The Hoenn landscape. I wanted to see the treehouses in Fortree and Mt. Pyre, not the Generic Forest Of Woe (copyright Heracross IIRC). What a terrible waste
The entire character of Max. They could have made him anything and instead they chose to be lazy
Cassidy and Butch in Chronicles. They were competent on the main series, but on Chronicles they were Jesse and James ripoffs. Truly a shame
May's team. Could have contained some really cool contest pokemon like Gardeivor and Vaporeon, instead chose annoyingly cute things with nauseating personalities
 
Battle Fronteir- As good as it seems, it's sad that Ash and the gang are not meeting back up with those Kanto friends they had promised to meet up with. Then again, those guys might not necessarilly be in Kanto now, but still...

Bill and Dragonite- The actual episode was cool, but by the time Dragonite came back, they didn't make it as special as it could've been. We haven't even seen Bill since his debut episode.

PokemonLand- Why did Giovanni spend money on that place? We really don't know that much about it, and it's only been seen in "Island of the Giant Pokemon".
 
For Ash, I would have to say Snorlax had the most wasted potential. Why? Look at it when it was in the Orange Islands; Every time Ash went to use it in battle, it was asleep. The only time it wasn't was in Bound for Trouble when he sent it to stop that Pidgeot. Now, every time he uses it (except for his battle with Harrison) it's wide awake and ready to go! I think Ash should consider putting Snorlax on his team again.

Misty was definitely Togepi. I mean, she carried the thing around for the second half of Kanto, and throughout the Orange Islands and Johto, and was used in battle once (against Pikachu in The Totodile Duel). Then she leaves, and comes back, only to have Togepi evolve and then leave! You would think they would make the one Pokemon of hers that wasn't a Water-type semi-powerful, but all it did was use Metronome a few times and then sit there and say its name. Talk about wasted potential!

Brock's Pokemon with the wasted potential, for me, was Crobat. He NEVER used it as a Zubat, used it all the time as a Golbat, and hardly ever used it as a Crobat. And even then, it was mostly used to look for something with its Supersonic.

For Jessie, I have to say Wobbuffet. Yes, it appears in every episode, but she never uses it! If I remember correctly, the last time it used its Counter was in the Gotta Dance short, and the only time it used Mirror Coat was in Wobbu-Palooza. If she used it more often, maybe Team Rocket wouldn't get blasted off as often as they do.

Just like Jessie, James' Pokemon with the most wasted potential is Chimecho. This is because, like Wobbuffet, it appeared in every episode. But James never used it in battle because he didn't want it to get hurt. If James had it use Heal Bell more often, they probably could have lasted a little longer against Ash and the others.

Honestly, I can't think of any of May's Pokemon that have been an example of wasted potential. Other than that, that's pretty much how I feel about the characters' Pokemon.
 
♥Latias♥ said:
the devon employy was in one of the first eps in AG O.o
i dont see how you could miss it,the magma grunt ran away with the goods just like in the game
Click to expand...

Actually, I was referring to the one in Petalburg Woods who you save. He appears frequently in the games after that.
 
One of the most irritating tidbits of the dreaded W.O.P is, imo, the filler episodes.
Fillers being a waste of potential. OH THE IRONY. But hear me out.
There have been a hell of a lot of fillers during the series that could have been absolutely hilarious given the chance. But for one reason or another, ended up being nothing but drab attempts at keeping the audience awake. One such episode that comes to mind is the recent Slaking Kong one. This one had a ton of potential scenes and moments that could have been exploited, from taking the Slaking's natural characteristics into account, to the parodies of the movies that blatantly inspired this episode. But what do we get? About 10 seconds of Slaking climbing a rocky spire and dropping Haruka, with the rest of the episode being dedicated to some BS Aipom crap and Team Rocket's god damn antics. We had a great concept, some genuinely decent pokémon on hand and the right characters for the job. But there was barely any attempt to make any of this work in the writer's...no...everyone's favour.
Now I'm hardly the best script-writer since *insert a real good script-writer 'ere*, but I know for a fact I could have wrote a script for that episode myself and made it a hell of a lot better than it was.
It's not even the potentially funny episodes that suffer either. Episodes where character development or various other useful antics concerning human and pokémon characters could take place, are never given the attention they need. Just look at 'Dragonair's Lake' for example. That was SUCH a good chance for Corphish to really get his groove on. But apart from a wee bit of training...nothing of relevance even happened. And at the end of the day, for some bizarre reason, Squirtle ended up being the big hero. What the hell?
Or how about Masato? Why not have him fight with Haruka more often or something? Why not have each sibling bring up each other's faults and have the opposing character attempt to fix them? And this is every episode. God damn.


Another of my personal pet peeves was Cyndaquil.
As a character, Cyndaquil had so much to offer. From it's capture episode onwards, it was developing to be quite a contender. It had glaring weaknesses and disabilities to overcome, and it did so after a few hardships. But then, after that, they seemed to drop the ball completely. Why not have the meek, timid Cyndaquil evolve not only physically, but mentally also? Gaining over-confidence as a Quilava perhaps, and being brought back down to earth. Gaining knowledge and wisdom that would be put to use as a Typhlosion. It would have been nice to see the pokémon mature and gain experiences in a number of ways (whilst still retaining it's sleepy attitude), but unfortunatly it was not to be. And to this very day, it still irks me greatly.

I agree with everything else other people have posted. This, in particular:
Juputoru said:
Certain Houen geographical interest points: Where'd Mount Pyre go?(hey, that would've been a decent place to show Phoebe, too D: And maybe help build up that Groudon/Kyogre arc too)
Click to expand...
 
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