Am I the only one who finds this preposterous?

[Pokeplayer150]

There's one thing in the anime and movies that has been bothering me for a long time. In almost every situation in which the group gets captured, and they have their Pokemon on them, they do absolutely nothing to try to escape and it's up to someone else to save them, with some aforementioned exceptions. Now to be fair, I have tried to find possible explanations for why they don't do anything, but in the end, it just makes no sense. And it's not just with the main characters, but with their Pokemon as well. Does anyone else find this absurd, or is it just me?

P.S: This has nothing to do with my personal bias towards the anime. I've watched the OS and thought it was pretty good but even then I've noticed holes here and there.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Yeah, it is. The anime tends to selectively forget that pokémon exist - my personal favourite is the Eterna City Team Galactic episode. For some reason five trainers, including the Champion, can't bring down a swarm of Golbat and a few personal pokémon of the admins.

I usually just ignore the logic hole, but that was one I couldn't ignore

 

[Alola]

They always do this. Unfortunately, it's common sense as the plot demands.

A recent example would be the recent Wigglytuff episode. Ash & Co see that the Salamence is in pain due to TR's device. Even though he destroyed the one they put on Garchomp (another dangerous, rampaging, pseudo legendary Dragon Pokemon) at the beginning of the series with Pikachu and Froakie's help, does he try the same tactic again?

No. Instead, he opts to just stand there. And when Wigglytuff literally Protects Nurse Joy from Flamethrower, Ash instead opts to run away and not help the Salamence. Yet he has no problems doing abrasive stunts when it comes to other Pokemon.

 

[Dogasu]

It's the very premise of the show itself - children walking around able to command powerful beasts at a whim - that's to blame. Realistically there's not much that would be able to stop a group with the kind of pokemon teams we saw in Diamond & Pearl, for example, but from a storytelling perspective that would be extremely boring to watch. So they have the characters temporarily forget that they have certain pokemon or make active battlers just sit and watch because plot.

The "protagonist is too powerful" thing is something that writers for series like Superman have trouble with all the time.

 

[Pokeplayer150]

It's the very premise of the show itself - children walking around able to command powerful beasts at a whim - that's to blame. Realistically there's not much that would be able to stop a group with the kind of pokemon teams we saw in Diamond & Pearl, for example, but from a storytelling perspective that would be extremely boring to watch. So they have the characters temporarily forget that they have certain pokemon or make active battlers just sit and watch because plot.

The "protagonist is too powerful" thing is something that writers for series like Superman have trouble with all the time.

I guess that's true. But they should at least do something to make it more logical like strip them of their Pokemon.

 

[FletchMaster26]

It's the very premise of the show itself - children walking around able to command powerful beasts at a whim - that's to blame. Realistically there's not much that would be able to stop a group with the kind of pokemon teams we saw in Diamond & Pearl, for example, but from a storytelling perspective that would be extremely boring to watch. So they have the characters temporarily forget that they have certain pokemon or make active battlers just sit and watch because plot.

The "protagonist is too powerful" thing is something that writers for series like Superman have trouble with all the time.

I guess that's true. But they should at least do something to make it more logical like strip them of their Pokemon.

There have been times where that has happened, one example being during the fifth movie where he has to run out of the pokemon center quickly and leaves his pokeballs there (still has pikachu).

 

[Dogasu]

But then even *that* can get old after a while. It's the equivalent of giving every one of Superman's villains Kryptonite weapons.

 

[Pokeplayer150]

But then even *that* can get old after a while. It's the equivalent of giving every one of Superman's villains Kryptonite weapons.

Then I guess there's just one other solution: Stop letting them get caught so often. I mean, look at something like Dinosaur King, the kids on that show were rarely put directly in danger, but whenever they were, it made sense. Whether they were disarmed, overwhelmed, their actions would have tight consequences, etc. I never felt the need to question their scenarios like I do with these.

 

[BlackButterfree]

But then even *that* can get old after a while. It's the equivalent of giving every one of Superman's villains Kryptonite weapons.

Then I guess there's just one other solution: Stop letting them get caught so often. I mean, look at something like Dinosaur King, the kids on that show were rarely put directly in danger, but whenever they were, it made sense. Whether they were disarmed, overwhelmed, their actions would have tight consequences, etc. I never felt the need to question their scenarios like I do with these.

Ooh, I love Dinosaur King because the main character is Veronica Taylor and one of the villains is Jessie! It's like a reunion of 4Kids!

 

[CrashBash]

But then even *that* can get old after a while. It's the equivalent of giving every one of Superman's villains Kryptonite weapons.

Then I guess there's just one other solution: Stop letting them get caught so often. I mean, look at something like Dinosaur King, the kids on that show were rarely put directly in danger, but whenever they were, it made sense. Whether they were disarmed, overwhelmed, their actions would have tight consequences, etc. I never felt the need to question their scenarios like I do with these.

Ooh, I love Dinosaur King because the main character is Veronica Taylor and one of the villains is Jessie! It's like a reunion of 4Kids!

Likewise. ^^ And the fact I liked dinosaurs really helped.

 

[Pokeplayer150]

But then even *that* can get old after a while. It's the equivalent of giving every one of Superman's villains Kryptonite weapons.

Then I guess there's just one other solution: Stop letting them get caught so often. I mean, look at something like Dinosaur King, the kids on that show were rarely put directly in danger, but whenever they were, it made sense. Whether they were disarmed, overwhelmed, their actions would have tight consequences, etc. I never felt the need to question their scenarios like I do with these.

Ooh, I love Dinosaur King because the main character is Veronica Taylor and one of the villains is Jessie! It's like a reunion of 4Kids!

Likewise. ^^ And the fact I liked dinosaurs really helped.

It's really nice to hear that there are still fans of the show, but I think we're getting a bit off topic here.

 

[LordSeliph]

Oh, logic holes, we meet again, seriously, though, it's as if the writers enjoy seeing the characters in tough situations

 

[CrystaI]

Pokemon anime was actually full of plot holes since day one. Moreover, the plot hole appearance frequency and amount within one episode become higher and higher as generation goes, which become so significant that even preteens can feel something is wrong with its story.

In the old OS days, the holes was not that significant, it was just a wormhole on an apple, so people can just pass over it.
Starting from Johto IMO, there are more holes, so it start to become an eyesore in some people's eyes.
Then IMO starting from AG, where that is the generation starting to incorporate abilities, the plot holes are really getting significant and numerous, story are as porous as Swiss cheese.
I skipped a lot of DP episodes, and didn't watch any BW episodes, so I will not comment on those sagas.
But then even it is movies which I had watch them all without skipping, I would also agree story of movies are getting porous, each new one is getting more plot holes then the previous one.

 

[BlackButterfree]

But then even *that* can get old after a while. It's the equivalent of giving every one of Superman's villains Kryptonite weapons.

Then I guess there's just one other solution: Stop letting them get caught so often. I mean, look at something like Dinosaur King, the kids on that show were rarely put directly in danger, but whenever they were, it made sense. Whether they were disarmed, overwhelmed, their actions would have tight consequences, etc. I never felt the need to question their scenarios like I do with these.

Ooh, I love Dinosaur King because the main character is Veronica Taylor and one of the villains is Jessie! It's like a reunion of 4Kids!

Likewise. ^^ And the fact I liked dinosaurs really helped.

It's really nice to hear that there are still fans of the show, but I think we're getting a bit off topic here.

We definitely are. Let's get back on track (btw, we need a triceratops Pokémon that I can name Chomp and use with Pikachu in double battles. )

 

[Osprey]

Arbitrary plot devices are arbitrary. The anime is full of inconsistencies, and I guess it's the suspension of disbelief that makes the ridiculous situations more believable. Who knows?

 

[Pokeplayer150]

But then even *that* can get old after a while. It's the equivalent of giving every one of Superman's villains Kryptonite weapons.

Then I guess there's just one other solution: Stop letting them get caught so often. I mean, look at something like Dinosaur King, the kids on that show were rarely put directly in danger, but whenever they were, it made sense. Whether they were disarmed, overwhelmed, their actions would have tight consequences, etc. I never felt the need to question their scenarios like I do with these.

Ooh, I love Dinosaur King because the main character is Veronica Taylor and one of the villains is Jessie! It's like a reunion of 4Kids!

Likewise. ^^ And the fact I liked dinosaurs really helped.

It's really nice to hear that there are still fans of the show, but I think we're getting a bit off topic here.

We definitely are. Let's get back on track (btw, we need a triceratops Pokémon that I can name Chomp and use with Pikachu in double battles. )

Well considering that they've already made two fossil Pokemon based off dinosaurs, that's certainly possible (maybe when I get my hands on X or Y I'll pick Tyrunt and nickname it Terry).

 

[Master Cyrus]

Haven't you ever considered how odd it was how the group never runs into things like an angry ursaring near the end of a region?

because the writers believe that having charizard or infernape beat the crap out of it is boring and uninteresting.

not that it is, but that's the reasoning behind it.