Firstly, I am not here to troll as some of you might think =) I would just like some constructive insight into a matter of curiosity; why do you watch pokemon?
I used to watch the show in its original series and though I quickly recognised that most episodes were filler and uninteresting, I remained keen to follow Ash's journey. However, gradually I noticed just how repetitive the storylines were and the script writing is undoubtably lazy. Subsequently, I lost interest and moved on.
Where does the appeal of the show lie?
Perhaps it is partly explained by the repetitiveness; the fact that the plots are so predictable, it becomes a gimmick, which is attractive to people. For example Team Rocket would fail every episode; I call it the "Scooby Doo" syndrome (Scooby et al would meet one person per episode so that one person inevitably would turn out to be the evil cosplayer).
Is it the characters? Though it remains my opinion that the characters are horribly one dimensional (except May's chest, which is three dimensional), I understand there are moments in both the anime and movies where a deeper side is projected. However, this deeper side is even in itself rather predictable and shallow; probably to accomodate for a young audience.
Is it escapism? For the same reason that Lord Of The Rings is popular. LOTR shares many attributes with Pokemon; it is poorly written, the story is plodding, predictable, and there exists no deeper meaning (World War II commentary blah blah does not count). However, it is enormously popular, why? It offers an alternative reality for people to immerse themselves into, similarly to Pokemon.
I am particularly interested in the opinions of the older audience; do you wish the show had matured with you, or are you happy it reminds you of your childhood? Is there anything else that I have missed?
The ideal outcome of this thread is to make you consider objectively why you do something, anything, not just watching pokemon. Identify your incentives for doing everything you do, and weigh that against the costs (time, money, something else you could be doing instead) to decide whether you should be doing it. It is the first step to rational thinking, something that needs to be more common. I obviously decided long ago that the opportunity cost of watching pokemon outweighed the diminishing pleasure ("utility") gained.
On a side note
Personally, I do not understand the fuss caused by new voice actors. It only serves to show people are irrational, which is perfectly normal. It is a natural response to be opposed to change, because you cannot know what the future will bring; but given time, people realise that 1) they can do nothing about it (I'm sorry SOVA, but it's-ova) 2) other things are more important 3) the changes are not terrible and people adapt.
I used to watch the show in its original series and though I quickly recognised that most episodes were filler and uninteresting, I remained keen to follow Ash's journey. However, gradually I noticed just how repetitive the storylines were and the script writing is undoubtably lazy. Subsequently, I lost interest and moved on.
Where does the appeal of the show lie?
Perhaps it is partly explained by the repetitiveness; the fact that the plots are so predictable, it becomes a gimmick, which is attractive to people. For example Team Rocket would fail every episode; I call it the "Scooby Doo" syndrome (Scooby et al would meet one person per episode so that one person inevitably would turn out to be the evil cosplayer).
Is it the characters? Though it remains my opinion that the characters are horribly one dimensional (except May's chest, which is three dimensional), I understand there are moments in both the anime and movies where a deeper side is projected. However, this deeper side is even in itself rather predictable and shallow; probably to accomodate for a young audience.
Is it escapism? For the same reason that Lord Of The Rings is popular. LOTR shares many attributes with Pokemon; it is poorly written, the story is plodding, predictable, and there exists no deeper meaning (World War II commentary blah blah does not count). However, it is enormously popular, why? It offers an alternative reality for people to immerse themselves into, similarly to Pokemon.
I am particularly interested in the opinions of the older audience; do you wish the show had matured with you, or are you happy it reminds you of your childhood? Is there anything else that I have missed?
The ideal outcome of this thread is to make you consider objectively why you do something, anything, not just watching pokemon. Identify your incentives for doing everything you do, and weigh that against the costs (time, money, something else you could be doing instead) to decide whether you should be doing it. It is the first step to rational thinking, something that needs to be more common. I obviously decided long ago that the opportunity cost of watching pokemon outweighed the diminishing pleasure ("utility") gained.
On a side note
Personally, I do not understand the fuss caused by new voice actors. It only serves to show people are irrational, which is perfectly normal. It is a natural response to be opposed to change, because you cannot know what the future will bring; but given time, people realise that 1) they can do nothing about it (I'm sorry SOVA, but it's-ova) 2) other things are more important 3) the changes are not terrible and people adapt.
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