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Your Definition of a Filler Episode

Brumrha

Banned
Frankly, the obvious thing is that this animé had its fair share of filler episodes. What isn't obvious is that people see one episode as a filler, whilst another one would think otherwise, & vice versa.

To be honest, if any of these things happen in an episode, it requires my full attention:
- Gym Fights
- Contests
- Any other piece of competitive sport
- Full out war-zones
- A familiar face appearing, even if it is from the games
- A main character of the series aquiring a Pokémon for whatever reason
- One of the characters' Pokémon learning a new move &/or evolving
- The main characters get schooled on something, which is something that may not grab my attention

If none of these things happen in an episode, I label it as a filler.

Of course, there are some people here that beg to differ, & that's fine with me; you people are entitled to your own opinions as to what is a filler & what isn't.

Which goes to say, which qualities (or lack thereof) are present in a filler?
 

munchlaxboy

Catching up on XY
I define "filler" as an episode that can be done without. If the episode does not affect the rest of the show EVER AGAIN, than it is a filler.

Of course, filler is necessary, too. Something huge happening in every episode would get boring in itself after a while.
 
give the writers more time so they wouldn't have to rush important plots of the show (which unfortunately doesn't happen most of the time; sinnoh league and vice versa).
 

~Platinum~

<- Caught it!
I'd say a non-filler episode has at least one of these contents:

-Pokemon joins/evolves/released from the main cast.
-Pokemon on the main cast learns a new move or begins to learn a new move.
-Main cast meets or re-encounters a rival or reoccuring character.
-Gym battle/Contest.
-Antagonist plot is progressed.


I'd say almost any episode that doesn't have any of those contents is a filler episode. There can be some episodes that don't have any of those contents and can be a non-filler episode. I'd say those are the main contents of a non-filler. A filler does not contribute to the story plot at all.
 
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An00bis

Wicked Witch
I pretty much go by the textbook definition ... A Filler is any episode you can skip and still get the whole story.

Some people believe that episodes that introduce New Pokemon are not Filler by default. I disagree since that would put an absurd amount of Johto Fillers into non-Filler territory including episodes that no one would feel entertained watching. See " The Light Fantastic " for a good example. I think that was Remoraid's anime debut.

Right now I'm on the fence about whether or not to consider episodes that would otherwise be Filler if not for New Attacks. Sinnoh implores a lot of episodes that would be Filler if not for -Insert Pokemon- using -New Attack- to save the day. " The Lonely Snover " and " Piplup Up and Away " are two such episodes.

Though Pokemon Evolutions could fall under the same category (A Starvia is Born) I don't consider them Filler even if the Evolution happens at the last minute. That's because evolutions in general are so rare and monumental for a Pokemon that it's sort of like a milestone for them.
 

HoennMaster

Well-Known Member
Not trying to be mean tot he OP, but it doesn't really matterw hat people consider filler and not filler, if something important (gym, contest, evolution, egg, trade, capture, new move, character development, etc) happens, it's not filler, simple as that. I know some episodes make them seem wrong, but it is what it is.
 

CyberCubed

Yeah, ok!
Right now I'm on the fence about whether or not to consider episodes that would otherwise be Filler if not for New Attacks. Sinnoh implores a lot of episodes that would be Filler if not for -Insert Pokemon- using -New Attack- to save the day. " The Lonely Snover " and " Piplup Up and Away " are two such episodes.

For the most part, those training Pokemon for new attacks are barely above fillers.

For example, in BF May's Eevee suddenly knew Shadow Ball. It was implied it did off-screen training, and in that case the writers did NOT make a whole episode about May teaching it Shadowball. Brock simply said a line about how much training May had been doing and that was that.

You can use the same thing and apply it to DP. Just pretend those Pokemon learned the attacks off-screen.

Of course sometimes the attack learning is stretched out over several episodes, like Snorunt's Icebeam, Gible's Draco Meteor, or Grotle's energy ball...and then it happens in important eps too.
 

Lorde

Let's go to the beach, each.
I've always just gone by the assumption that a Filler episode in Pokemon is an episode where:

-No new Pokemon appear
-No important game characters make a debut/appear (aside from the main cast of course)
-No new move is learned by any of the main-cast Pokemon
-No important battles take place
-An episode that can be skipped without ruining the flow of the story

I might have been wrong because other people seem to have thought Fillers were something else, but that's just what I instantly think about when I hear "Filler".
 
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pokemonloverXD

Ash's fangirl
I define "filler" as an episode that can be done without. If the episode does not affect the rest of the show EVER AGAIN, than it is a filler.

Yeah, agreed
 

BlueVapor

Well-Known Member
Basically, I think an episode can be considered "filler" if you can skip it, and you don't become lost in what's happening in the show/it doesn't add anything important to the story.
 

randomspot555

Well-Known Member
A filler is when nothing important happens and doesn't affect the rest of the show ever again. It doesn't affect the plot or character development.

What many people get confused is they associate a "bad" episode with a "filler". That isn't true. The Rotom episode I absolutely loved, it was hilarious, but it was undoubtedly filler. Similarly, when Dawn got her Piloswine, it occurred in a sucky Darkrai vs Cresselia episode. It's not filler, but it sucked.
 

Corzola

Gible´s biggest fan!
I would probably define fillers as the most, an episopde that I can miss and still have a clue about the present events in the show. But I also think that there are some twilight cases, such as when they give some semi-important news, news that don´t have to mean a major change in the series BUT does provide us with some character information. And then we have whole filler arcs that can stand alone and actually be missed but taken together does make the characters experince something not so ordinary.

For example I never saw the Angie- eps at that summer school when it first aired (neither in Japan or in US) but I still had a clear- cut view of the series progress. Then I watched the eps in a row and thought them as semi- important arc that provided character traits and they showed that our main group affected a certain amount of people for more than one episode.

There I think of one my points about what a filler is; the episode must affect some characters for more than one ep. So even if a small arc can stand alone it dosen´t count as a filler because what the group does in those eps are important for more than just one single episode.
 

ForeverFlame

Well-Known Member
An episode without a capture, evolution, important battle, or character development. I tend to skip school and new move episodes unless they also provide ample character development and/or an important battle.
 

S.Suikun

Thank you, SPPf! :)
A little off-topic, but it drives me batty when people say they'll refuse to watch an episode because it's a filler. Not only are some fillers among the best episodes of the series, but there are quite a few important episodes that, well...suck. It's not a quality determinant. Just like how there are entertaining fillers, there are crappy gym battles.

I agree with Brumrha's criteria regardless.
 

munchlaxboy

Catching up on XY
A little off-topic, but it drives me batty when people say they'll refuse to watch an episode because it's a filler. Not only are some fillers among the best episodes of the series, but there are quite a few important episodes that, well...suck. It's not a quality determinant.

Pikachu's Goodbye
The School of Hard Knocks
Snow Way Out!
The Pi-Kahuna
Go West, Young Meowth!

...Couldn't agree with you more. Those are pretty much all in my Top 10 right there.

But should "Go West, Young Meowth" be considered a filler? I mean we learned Meowth's entire backstory. However, it isn't necessary to know in order to watch the other episodes.
 

raz1337

Miju Miju!
For the most part, those training Pokemon for new attacks are barely above fillers.

For example, in BF May's Eevee suddenly knew Shadow Ball. It was implied it did off-screen training, and in that case the writers did NOT make a whole episode about May teaching it Shadowball. Brock simply said a line about how much training May had been doing and that was that.

You can use the same thing and apply it to DP. Just pretend those Pokemon learned the attacks off-screen.

Of course sometimes the attack learning is stretched out over several episodes, like Snorunt's Icebeam, Gible's Draco Meteor, or Grotle's energy ball...and then it happens in important eps too.


Are you talking about Eevee learning dig? I just tried tracing the Eevee eps to find the one where it learned Shadow Ball. I could find it with 10-20 more minutes of cycling episodes. I found the one where it learns Dig, in What I Did For Love. May talks about how much training she's done with Eevee to get it ready for contests. Then Eevee uses dig, May notices and Brock comments about her training paying off. May wasn't focusing training on Dig, she was focusing it on all around effectiveness for contests. Eevee taught itself Dig all on its own.
 

the1stpkmnfan

Your Big Buff Bro
By my define, basically nothing relevant to the story or side story at all.

Especially like no League episodes, Grand Festival episodes, Gyms, Contests, Captures/Releases, Rivals. Or possibly even adaptions from the games to the anime; but not all of which are big events.
 

Aladar

Dark lord of Sith
My definition of filler is 'Ash and co help a COTD, TR tries to steal Poke feature in the ep, TR gets blasted off'.

Basically, even if a Pokemon only learns a new move or some character gets at least a little development, it ain't filler for me.
 

Pinsirius

Sentimental Fool ;)
I'd say a non-filler episode has at least one of these contents:

-Pokemon joins/evolves/released from the main cast.
-Pokemon on the main cast learns a new move or begins to learn a new move.
-Main cast meets or re-encounters a rival or reoccuring character.
-Gym battle/Contest.
-Antagonist plot is progressed.


Platinum, you took the words out of my mouth.

Ash and the girl of the week are the characters expected to grow over the season, so any time a Pokemon learns something important, on the battlefield or personally, it's plot.

And needless to say Gym Battles, Antagonists, and Recurring Characters are plot- in fact they are really the backbone of the show in the plot department.
 
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