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An abridged Pokemon -- what would cut as "filler"?

N

nosagi

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So I really want to go back and watch the Johto league and Sinnoh League episodes, but as with all seasons, there are some episodes that are just pointless filler. Say for example, between Badge 2 and Badge 3, you have like 14 episodes with maybe one important event, like Ash catching some new pokemon.

I really don't want to trudge through all 160+ episodes of DP, especially knowing how this series is with filler episodes. I'll probably watch all of Johto because I'm a Johtophile, but I was wondering if someone could help me with one thing about these two...

What episodes would you say are the ones I should watch and ones I should skip over? I'd like to be caught up with the anime, but like I said before... so much of it is filler. >_<

Any and all help or links to sites that list the important episodes would be awesome! Thank you! :3
 
About 65-70% of Johto's episodes were filler, and I'm not joking.

Most of Johto just consists of Ash helping filler characters with their problems. TR steal Pikachu in every ep, rinse and repeat.

If you were to cut out the fillers from Johto, there would be maybe 50 or 60 "important" eps, and that's probably being generous.
 
I totally agree with Johto being largely filler. XD Although I liked Johto enough to grit my teeth and bear it. Favorite region and all. Sinnoh is my third favorite, which makes it a little harder to bear all of the filler.
 
Sinnoh is a bit different as most of the eps have connections to other eps. The fillers this arc deal with "training" eps, where Ash or Dawn just train their pokemon to use a new move for the entire episode.

Most of DP is based around tedious training/battle eps, so if that's not what you're looking for, you'll have a tough time. DP is mostly about battling, while the adventure aspect takes a backseat.
 
I will perhaps agree that Johto can mostly be skipped over. DP has a lot of character development and stuff. It would be harder to sift through.
 
SGD1987 said:
Sinnoh may be longer than Johto, but it actually has fewer fillers than Johto does.
It really does.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that depends if you count the training eps as fillers.

Not everyone wants to sit through entire eps of Dawn practicing Contest appeals or Buizel learning Ice Punch.
 
Just because you don't like those episodes doesn't mean they're fillers. Those training episodes are important to the plot, and you'd be confused if you missed out on where all these new moves came from.
 
Most of the training in the previous arcs were off-screen. I didn't see anyone confused where May's Eevee got Shadowball from for example.
 
Gliscor'd said:
Yeah, but that depends if you count the training eps as fillers.
Click to expand...
Actually, no. Even if you consider those eps fillers, Sinnoh still has fewer than Johto. At the very least, I can tell you that the ratio of fillers is smaller even without actually counting all the eps from both sagas.

Gliscor'd said:
Most of the training in the previous arcs were off-screen. I didn't see anyone confused where May's Eevee got Shadowball from for example.
Click to expand...
But they still make the later episodes make more sense.
 
SGD1987 said:
Actually, no. Even if you consider those eps fillers, Sinnoh still has fewer than Johto. At the very least, I can tell you that the ratio of fillers is smaller even without actually counting all the eps from both sagas
Click to expand...

Sinnoh does have less fillers, you are correct. But a large chunk of the eps are still based on training/battling.

For example, Ash/Dawn having a tag battle against those green-haired kids with Quilava/Croconaw back at early DP....pretty much a total filler unless you like watching Ash/Dawn tag team.
 
I suppose that, for me anyway, I would consider episodes where they spend the entire time training to learn new moves filler. I won't be confused when Piplup whips out Blizzard or anything. I never really cared where the pokemon learn the moves or what moves they use.

I'm thinking that I'll just watch the Gym Leader battles and maybe 3-4 episodes before/after, since they'll be in the general area... and the Team Galactic-centric episodes... are there any other important subplots I should know about?
 
DP's arcs:

- Tag battle tournament
- Summer school arc
- Twinleaf Town arc
- HGSS Lyra/Khoury arc

Most of the Gym eps are arcs themselves, as well as the Contests. The Galactic eps are spread throughout the saga, as well as the Pokehunter J eps.
 
Actually, the importance there is not the double battle, as I don't consider that important myself. Then again, I'm on the fence about them further cementing their friendship by learning to work together. One part tells me to consider that as character development. The other tells me it's overkill and not really necessary.
 
Not gonna lie, I skipped over a ton of DP and I got the jist of what was going on. Sure there were probably a few things that I missed, but I feel like I got the better end of character development and plot.
 
Didn't we have a topic like this once before??

I wonder if I should post my filler percentages. A while ago I went through and tried to calculate the general amount of filler per story arc. DP came out with the lowest amount of filler, something like approximatly 18% filler. Johto was something like 49%.

I would argue that Training episodes are NOT filler, because we're seeing the pokemon grow and they're gaining experience and moves that we'll see them use later on in important battles.
 
Gliscor'd said:
Sinnoh does have less fillers, you are correct. But a large chunk of the eps are still based on training/battling.
Click to expand...
The way you worded it, you made it sound like I was saying I saying something wrong.

I said:
Sinnoh may be longer than Johto, but it actually has fewer fillers than Johto.
It really does.
Click to expand...
And you said:
Yeah, but that depends if you count the training eps as fillers.
Click to expand...

My only point was that Sinnoh has fewer fillers than Johto, and whether or not each of those training eps truly are (Not all of them are anyway). Nothing more. Even if Sinnoh does have quite a few fillers (I don't think there are THAT many anyway, perhaps I should count them all), that's not what I was saying.
 
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To be fair, you can skip a large chunk of mostly any saga and not miss that much.

I like watching every ep at least once as I get to see everything that happens, but I can see how other people wouldn't want to.

You do miss the captures/evolutions of Pokemon on the group, as well as the rival eps.
 
That's what bulbapedia is for :-D Let's you cruise through summaries quickly, find important episodes to watch, and read up on unimportant episodes.
 
You know, just because it's 'filler', doesn't mean it's necesarily bad. Look at Claydoll Big and Tall and evil Togepi episode. Hell, I'd say there have been some filler episodes that are better than the so called important episodes.
 
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