What are your final thoughts on Tripokalons?

[DatsRight]

Something about Serena always winning until the very end almost strikes as a deliberate twist. The results was done not by impersonal judges but audience votes. This makes it less a contest over genuine talent and more a popularity contest. Audiences vote ascend the likes of Jedward if enough take to them.

The development seemed kinda realistic according to this. Serena was unrecognised in her first attempt and failed on stage so lost miserably, as did Jessie. By the time she tried again she not only had more talent and confidence, but made more friends around Kalos. More would vote for her. Jessie however was still anonymous, so kept losing until later contests where Serena screwed up enough or was absent and Jessie had gained enough dark horse popularity. In the Master Class it was obvious Serena would get to the finals, all the people around Kalos were ready to vote for her. The same bias that brought Serena up also came back down on her in the end however, where she lost blatantly to the famous Queen Aria despite making no mistakes. Even the underwhelming and half offscreen performance of Aria seemed almost a jab at this cynical outlook. "Sorry pal, you're maybe better, but I like this girl."

 

[Lexya428]

Personally, I find performances to be the worst goal out of all the female leads' goals. It feels like an awful repeat of contests, with no challenge and nothing even remotely interesting. The entire XY series has been utterly boring and uninteresting. BW was not any better, XY still has something over it, but not by much and if I have to watch another awfully done "performance" by Serena, it might actually drop below BW for me.

I like Sylveon though.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Personally, I find performances to be the worst goal out of all the female leads' goals. It feels like an awful repeat of contests, with no challenge and nothing even remotely interesting. The entire XY series has been utterly boring and uninteresting. BW was not any better, XY still has something over it, but not by much and if I have to watch another awfully done "performance" by Serena, it might actually drop below BW for me.

I like Sylveon though.

Its better than Master types goals. They are too vague and there is no real visible progression at all. It made Misty and Iris feel like they hardly did anything.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

They started late and ended early without enough episodes. Now Serena became a living prop much earlier than expected, with her crush on Ash being the only redeemable trait she has.

Mostly a waste of time.

 

[Soniman]

They started late and ended early without enough episodes. Now Serena became a living prop much earlier than expected, with her crush on Ash being the only redeemable trait she has.

Serena had an ep last week and is apparentley getting one with Pancham latter.

I honestly curious at what (apparentley)low, arbitrary amount of episodes you decided need to pass before you cast a swift judgement the literal second her goal end

 

[Navin]

Serena had an ep last week and is apparentley getting one with Pancham latter.

I honestly curious at what (apparentley)low, arbitrary amount of episodes you decided need to pass before you cast a swift judgement the literal second her goal end

Chris probably is referring to meaningful episodes. And not future ones that are filler and are only interesting for some 30 second shippy scene.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Chris probably is referring to meaningful episodes. And not future ones that are filler and are only interesting for some 30 second shippy scene.

Still more interesting than any old pointless Ash focused episodes of his endless journey of failing all the time.

 

[Navin]

Still more interesting than any old pointless Ash focused episodes of his endless journey of failing all the time.

Ayyy, well let's see how the Kalos League turns out before we can permanently draw that conclusion. If it's another top 8 or a loss to the leprechaun or something else stupid, I agree with you 100%.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Its better than Master types goals. They are too vague and there is no real visible progression at all. It made Misty and Iris feel like they hardly did anything.

Its in least hand very unfair to judge type master goals as worse, when we never even saw them explored to full potential. To get proper picture of what they entail in their essence completely and all kind of tasks, obstacles which come with it. We only saw rough picture of final end game Misty or Iris as characters strives for and abit of explanation. But we have insufficient amount of information to give reasonable and fair conclusion of whether such careers if properly developed are indeed worse or better as far as im concerned.

If anything fact of type master careers involving battling, entering tournaments, training and more diverse competition in both males and females being allowed to rival themselves out already makes such concepts more appealing in my eyes. And with Misty and arguably abit better defined her water quest through Whirl Cup and other water related events(such as water chariots race) followed by potential to build up story on working to live up to her idol becoming E4 in distant future, already seem like more interesting option through which girls could grow than showcases were in reality.

Most of all regardless of how much focused Misty or Iris goals were, that doesn't mean they were not active in other means. In playing important role in group dynamic, undergo character development, were central characters n various episodes and arcs influencing plot.

Like I said before. I appreciate pokemon performance in sense of allowing Serena character to blossom in personality sense. Giving her new direction through which her characters could be taken and emotionally explored arguably providing another dimension to way she perceives environment and world. Realizing where she stands as person and what her purpose in life should be, even though that growth had room for improvement and could've been better.

But in terms of entertainment, thrill of watching characters face each other and way they build on bonds with their own pokemon. Creativity and suspense builder as far as im concerned pokemon performance were just too limiting and stereotype for me to gain much satisfaction and excitement out of it. Compared to what other female protagonists did and strived toward to, even if were talking about less fleshed out careers like type master goals.

 

[Mew2]

How well were/are Pokémon Showcases received in Japan? I know that they are considered divisive on this forum, as well as on the other Pokémon forums I've frequented but I was wondering what the Japanese fans thought of them.

 

[Soniman]

Still more interesting than any old pointless Ash focused episodes of his endless journey of failing all the time.

WHY is that you respond with every criticism lobbed against Serena with "still better then *insert Ash related thing here*" it doesn't help your case and you're not providing actual counter arguments

 

[Soniman]

Chris probably is referring to meaningful episodes. And not future ones that are filler and are only interesting for some 30 second shippy scene.

Again what counts as meaningful is completely subjective, if a character is active, doing thing things, doing something on a semi consistent basis then they're NOT a background prop, Serena still getting episodes after her Master Class show this. She JUST came off of a major character arc, does she need a another one suddenly to be relevant again?

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Again what counts as meaningful is completely subjective, if a character is active, doing thing things, doing something on a semi consistent basis then they're NOT a background prop, Serena still getting episodes after her Master Class show this. She JUST came off of a major character arc, does she need a another one suddenly to be relevant again?

She's no better than a Seraph party member in Tales of Zestiria, and that says a lot.

 

[PokemonKnight]

There was a great piece of writing regarding the tripping. When Fennekin tripped, Serena froze and collapsed next to her. When Eeeve took a tumble, Serena rallied her team into finishing the performance. Even with that, she didn't win that Showcase, when the writers could have had her win a cliché victory. Sure, maybe she should have lost another Showcase without drastic events, but I thought it was a nice progression of growth.

 

[Sprinter1988]

To be honest, the whole concept was a let down.
Serena took far too long to get a goal of her own and to me at least, it seems like it was a rushed job.

The whole thing seems like a director said to a writer: "Write an episode for Serena."
But that writer looked at the director and replied: "How? Serena never does anything."
Then the director thought for a moment and realised that the writer with right and so called a staff meeting.
And in the staff meeting, the writer said "Hey, its ten-to-five on a Friday. Are you gonna be paying overtime for this?"
Then another writer said "This can't take too long, I gotta pick my kid up from Baseball practice."
And a third writer added "Yeah, and my wife's parents are coming to dinner. She'll kill me if I'm late."

The director then said "Don't worry. We just need to think up a goal for Serena."
So the second writer said "Well, we can't do the typing thing again, not after we botched Iris so badly."
The third writer said "How about Rhyhorn racing?"
But the lead animator said "Rhyhorn are really difficult to draw though."
And then someone whose job it is to market Pokemon Plushies said "Yeah, and how about Fennekin? We can't lose Fennekin from its screen time, but a Rhyhorn Racer has no use for a Fennekin."
And a junior writer said "Well, a dragon type specialist has no use for an Emolga but that didn't stop us."

The director slammed his fist on the table and said "Don't argue over past mistakes now. Just come up with a goal for Serena."
And the first writer said "How about Contests?"
To which the second writer replied "Really? Again? I know it worked really well for May and even better for Dawn but really?"
The first writer replied "We'll change it. Take out the battle round and replace it with something."
"Like what?" asked the Director.
"How about cooking?" suggested an animator.
"Good idea" they all said.
But then the storyboard artist looked up and said "But we can't give her a male rival though as that will get in the way of all the Ash x Serena Shipping that will never go anywhere."

"OK," said the Director. "We'll do something like a contest, but with cooking instead of battling. And it will be all girls."
"What about when the anime is released internationally?" asked the Head Writer. "Suggesting that girls are only good for cooking things might get us in trouble, and we're only just starting to live down the fire-storm surrounding Jynx."
"Then we'll say its a talent show," said the Director. "And if they have a problem with it, who cares? In a couple of years we'll drop Serena from the cast and move on."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and went home.

The End.












Wow. I really got into that...
In case this wasn't clear, I think the whole thing was poorly thought out in a rush.

 

[PokemonKnight]

To be honest, the whole concept was a let down.
Serena took far too long to get a goal of her own and to me at least, it seems like it was a rushed job.

The whole thing seems like a director said to a writer: "Write an episode for Serena."
But that writer looked at the director and replied: "How? Serena never does anything."
Then the director thought for a moment and realised that the writer with right and so called a staff meeting.
And in the staff meeting, the writer said "Hey, its ten-to-five on a Friday. Are you gonna be paying overtime for this?"
Then another writer said "This can't take too long, I gotta pick my kid up from Baseball practice."
And a third writer added "Yeah, and my wife's parents are coming to dinner. She'll kill me if I'm late."

The director then said "Don't worry. We just need to think up a goal for Serena."
So the second writer said "Well, we can't do the typing thing again, not after we botched Iris so badly."
The third writer said "How about Rhyhorn racing?"
But the lead animator said "Rhyhorn are really difficult to draw though."
And then someone whose job it is to market Pokemon Plushies said "Yeah, and how about Fennekin? We can't lose Fennekin from its screen time, but a Rhyhorn Racer has no use for a Fennekin."
And a junior writer said "Well, a dragon type specialist has no use for an Emolga but that didn't stop us."

The director slammed his fist on the table and said "Don't argue over past mistakes now. Just come up with a goal for Serena."
And the first writer said "How about Contests?"
To which the second writer replied "Really? Again? I know it worked really well for May and even better for Dawn but really?"
The first writer replied "We'll change it. Take out the battle round and replace it with something."
"Like what?" asked the Director.
"How about cooking?" suggested an animator.
"Good idea" they all said.
But then the storyboard artist looked up and said "But we can't give her a male rival though as that will get in the way of all the Ash x Serena Shipping that will never go anywhere."

"OK," said the Director. "We'll do something like a contest, but with cooking instead of battling. And it will be all girls."
"What about when the anime is released internationally?" asked the Head Writer. "Suggesting that girls are only good for cooking things might get us in trouble, and we're only just starting to live down the fire-storm surrounding Jynx."
"Then we'll say its a talent show," said the Director. "And if they have a problem with it, who cares? In a couple of years we'll drop Serena from the cast and move on."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and went home.

The End.












Wow. I really got into that...
In case this wasn't clear, I think the whole thing was poorly thought out in a rush.

LOL.

I personally loved the Showcases, but this was well done, the little touches with baseball and the plushes was great.

 

[Sprinter1988]

LOL.

I personally loved the Showcases, but this was well done, the little touches with baseball and the plushes was great.

Why thank you.

 

[Aegiscalibur]

And in the staff meeting, the writer said "Hey, its ten-to-five on a Friday. Are you gonna be paying overtime for this?"
Then another writer said "This can't take too long, I gotta pick my kid up from Baseball practice."
And a third writer added "Yeah, and my wife's parents are coming to dinner. She'll kill me if I'm late."

...

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and went home.

The End.

This is their approach to writing every episode. If you get your paycheck either way, you might as well go home in time for dinner.

 

[satoshigekkouga]

I think that the Tripokalons are actually quite challenging. Not only do the pokemon perform but the trainer also has to get physical too and be really creative with how they show off their pokemon. The problem for me is that the first round is painfully dull, and the performances are quite repetitious from showcase to showcase (all i remember is Serena dancing around and Braixen spamming fire blasts tbh). It probably would have been more interesting if Serena had a full size team to allow for more change ups though.

Overall, not a terrible goal but not on a par with contests for me.

 

[Soniman]

She's no better than a Seraph party member in Tales of Zestiria, and that says a lot.

i dont know what that is but sure