Why was BW's ending so bland?

[Sham]

I feel like I possibly made a thread similar to this but I couldn't find it. While I adored the BW's group dynamic it always bothered me how Iris and Cilan along with Ash showed little to no emotion when they were leaving. Even the flashback montage we got was wack. Thankfully Iris got a recent appearance and presumably could get more given her title BUT if that was the last time seeing her or Cilan that would've sucked. While I get the initiative of them wanting to be fish out of water and explore new things since they've never left Unova... it just felt like a hollow goodbye to Ash vice versa

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Because BW was a badly written series.

 

[PsychoLogical]

The BW saga was poorly written in general. Everything was warped and changed beyond recognition after the 2011 Earthquake caused the cancellation of TR vs TP. And the announcement of BW2 did not exactly help. If they stuck with the original plot, the BW saga would've been far better than it would've. Although then again there were complaints about the series before that anyways to the point of the VAs complaining themselves. Mainly due to the sudden change in TR's personalities from comedic to serious and genuinely dangerous.

 

[ChampioN One]

I think even the writers wanted to get this over with ASAP given how badly this whole series was handled lol.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

XY was on the horizon and the staff probably got just as bored as we were so they gave Iris and Cilan the most unfulfilling ending possible. Like dang, I know people didn’t like them but they still deserved better.

 

[PsychoLogical]

XY was on the horizon and the staff probably got just as bored as we were so they gave Iris and Cilan the most unfulfilling ending possible. Like dang, I know people didn’t like them but they still deserved better.

Technically Iris is liked but mainly due to her VA.

 

[PsychoLogical]

Honestly looking back on some of those episode reviews on the forums it seems like people actually enjoyed BW and liked their battles (never found any battles in BW THAT amazing tbh) but it seems like during XY it just got crammed with a bunch of hate when that wasn’t the reception when it was actually airing. I do agree with you they both deserved better endings.

May have been due to the tournament arcs which they were surprisingly quite frequent which after BW ended, they were non-existent. Putting aside the usual league crap, the amount of battle tournament arcs in the past 3 sagas were practically zero.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I blame Cameron and the League as being a major contributor to the dull conclusion BW had. Usually the League ends with a high note that carries over until the end of the series but this time, Ash losing really affected things in a really negative way. The Decolore Islands arc isn’t a bad story line but it definitely couldn’t save BW after the League disaster. The Decolore Islands wasted so much time recapping previous episodes and it probably would have been better off as an anime tie in special like how Mewtwo Return only a bit longer than an hour. Until the Meloetta and the Forces of Nature part of the arc did it feel like total filler material with the only interesting thing happening was the love triangle between Oshawott, Piplup, and Meloetta.

 

[KirliaToon50]

I blame Cameron and the League as being a major contributor to the dull conclusion BW had. Usually the League ends with a high note that carries over until the end of the series but this time, Ash losing really affected things in a really negative way. The Decolore Islands arc isn’t a bad story line but it definitely couldn’t save BW after the League disaster. The Decolore Islands wasted so much time recapping previous episodes and it probably would have been better off as an anime tie in special like how Mewtwo Return only a bit longer than an hour. Until the Meloetta and the Forces of Nature part of the arc did it feel like total filler material with the only interesting thing happening was the love triangle between Oshawott, Piplup, and Meloetta.

Honestly second this.
Although I remember the Decolore Islands and it wasn't good at all, I wished it was a Anime-Tie in Special, I've asked myself why isn't Pokemon best wishes look good in their eyes when I first saw the english dub version of that aforementioned show. Why doesn't Everyone love Unova when it comes to the Anime version?

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Honestly second this.
Although I remember the Decolore Islands and it wasn't good at all, I wished it was a Anime-Tie in Special, I've asked myself why isn't Pokemon best wishes look good in their eyes when I first saw the english dub version of that aforementioned show. Why doesn't Everyone love Unova when it comes to the Anime version?

And you have to admit it’s really bad when not even the return of a popular companion can save the sinking ship that was BW. The argument of who was the best female companion after Misty is always debated between May, Dawn, and Serena with Dawn and Serena usually being the more popular of the three.

 

[KirliaToon50]

And you have to admit it’s really bad when not even the return of a popular companion can save the sinking ship that was BW. The argument of who was the best female companion after Misty is always debated between May, Dawn, and Serena with Dawn and Serena usually being the more popular of the three.

Yep. I admit that it wasn't great at all but I'm not a huge fan of shipping war myself but it's weird that Dawn is in Pokemon best wishes not XY.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

Honestly, I didn't have any issues with that ending. It was not like they just stopped being friends. Their goals just carried them to different paths.

It's fitting when you consider the only reason they even formed their group was because they happen to want going to the same places.

Not all farewells need to have tears and drama.

 

[janejane6178]

It was good

 

[Dragalge]

Honestly, I didn't have any issues with that ending. It was not like they just stopped being friends. Their goals just carried them to different paths.

It's fitting when you consider the only reason they even formed their group was because they happen to want going to the same places.

Not all farewells need to have tears and drama.

It is one thing with what you said.

It is another thing when the writers obviously gave up on the series long ago. You could even say BW ended the moment Trip lost in the Unova League because the rest of the series afterwards became pointless barring Iris and Clair.

Compared with XY and SM where they at least try to tie up some loose ends. The hell was Georgia doing after the Ferroseed filler?

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Who the hell writes an ending after a string of fillers. Not even Naruto did this, and it's the king of filler.

That's why the ending was so bland. It was following up on filler content, whereas EVERY other ending in a saga did follow up on crucial episodes.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Who the hell writes an ending after a string of fillers. Not even Naruto did this, and it's the king of filler.

That's why the ending was so bland. It was following up on filler content, whereas EVERY other ending in a saga did follow up on crucial episodes.

Actually the end of Naruto part 1 had like over 70 consecutive fillers in a row just before the ending.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Actually the end of Naruto part 1 had like over 70 consecutive fillers in a row just before the ending.

Oh, wait. Right.

Anyway, my point still stands. It's just awful to have an ending after fillers that don't really build up to it.

 

[RafaSceptile]

Honestly looking back on some of those episode reviews on the forums it seems like people actually enjoyed BW and liked their battles (never found any battles in BW THAT amazing tbh) but it seems like during XY it just got crammed with a bunch of hate when that wasn’t the reception when it was actually airing. I do agree with you they both deserved better endings.

BW was an upgrade in terms of battle visualization, even Ash vs Paul which was the pinnacle of the Pokémon Battles at that point was not that great visually. The battles usually were not that bad but a lot of people just remember the very awful one (Ash vs Trip 2, Ash vs Elesa, Ash vs Cameron).

 

[mehmeh1]

I think even the writers wanted to get this over with ASAP given how badly this whole series was handled lol.

ngl the whole last 3rd of BW just felt like the staff was just tired of getting screwed over by circumstance and just gave up. I refuse to believe the Unova League wasn't deliberately terrible, and then having an eh version of Plasma and then like 20 episodes of filler/barely more than filler.....

 

[DatsRight]

ngl the whole last 3rd of BW just felt like the staff was just tired of getting screwed over by circumstance and just gave up. I refuse to believe the Unova League wasn't deliberately terrible, and then having an eh version of Plasma and then like 20 episodes of filler/barely more than filler.....

I always wonder if the main arcs and battles in BW being underwhelming was a result of the team being worn down by even the normal format episodes. It was the first series they were seriously messing with the old formula and trying to do new stuff routinely.

Remember this was the series even the Team Rocket showdowns were made to be more intense instead of a one minute stock footage beatdown.