• Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Do Showcases Bother You?

How Do You REALLY Feel About Showcases?

  • They're Amazing

    Votes: 5 8.2%

  • They're Boring

    Votes: 13 21.3%

  • I'd Rather Them Be Here than Serena to do Nothing

    Votes: 24 39.3%

  • I'd Rather Contests Repetitive or Not

    Votes: 19 31.1%
  • Total voters
    61
Aside for the unfortunate implications that have been thoroughly discussed (and people are free to choose what they want to believe; if they are okay or not, or if they exist at all), ultimately, I think the Showcases lack tension and suspense.

The pacing of Serena's goal limited the writers to having her need only three Princess Keys because there is no time for more Showcases. May/Dawn had time to participate in more Contests allowing the writers to play around with their wins/loses and make them a bit less predictable. Certainly, the Contests weren't without flaws nor were they the epitome of the unpredictable, but the battles, rival presentation and the fact that there was room for more Contests to be made added a certain level of unpredictability that I don't find in Showcases. I like Showcases not having battles, I really do, but you can't deny battles do add an element of suspense, and the writers haven't found that "something" that could add suspense to the Showcases yet. The Theme Performances have been tame so far. This could very well be a matter of execution and how they present the Theme Performances though.

So far Showcase results have been predictable to me. First is always the obligatory loss followed by the obligatory win. Shauna's appearance in the third Showcase kind of hinted Serena was going to beat her, and the fourth Showcase will most likely be a loss because of Eevee's circumstances (though I am looking forward to it and Eevee's development!) and because Serena needs at least one more loss before she gets her final Princess Key. Depending on the pacing Serena will either get another loss followed by her final win, or just another win.

This is all assuming XY follows a similar pacing as AG. So far that has been the case. Couriway, Snowbelle and Kiloude City are the only ones left to explore. I could see Kiloude being where the Master Class Showcase is held. The other option would be adding additional cities that aren't part of the game. There is also the possibility of the next Kalos game to have new areas & cities to explore. In that case they could stretch Serena's goal a bit further, but I honestly don't see them doing so if Ash has his 8th Badge by then. Unless, he loses his 8th Gym match and the group travels around until Ash trains and comes back, but again, I don't see that happening. With the current pacing, they will probably add an extra arc like they did with AG & BF rather than try to stretch Ash's and Serena's goals by stacking losses or taking forever for them to have their final Gym Battle/Showcase.

As usual, just my opinion.
 
It's ironic that the announcer for this female-only competition is a man.

Anyway, based on the facts given, Pokemon Contests are IMO better than Pokemon Showcases at the moment. The showcases are definitely lackluster in several ways, such as the lack of tension and suspense, as mentioned by krisichiki. There's nothing wrong with including male participants, in my view. Just like how the females dress up like princesses and queens, the males can dress up as princes and kings, though this contradicts with the name of the keys given after the showcases (Princess Keys).

Still, I don't hate them or anything. At least they give Serena a reason to accompany Ash and co., though the writers could've definitely done something better. She gets a fair share of character development as well, so I'm cool with it.
 
Showcases are beautiful visually, but they do lack something. I firmly believe that Showcases and Contests should combine together. Though I think Showcases are basically contests without the battling. They also should fix the ranking, when they first came out the the whole Rookie Class, I thought it was going to be like how Contests were in the games in Gen III: first would be Rookie, then Super, Hyper, (maybe add a Great/Ultra rank similar to Sinnoh) and ultimately Master class
 
The fact that it is female only makes the showcases are bit of a bother for me. At least the contests are opened to both genders. So I ended up not interested in showcases in the end.
 
Boring. The main problem for me was also that they gave Serena a chance to already challenge Queen. Too quick for first attempt. The same was with Dawn. She should have never reached the finals on her first attempt. The AG was the best. And how it should have been.
 
There also wasn't enough of a challenge in my eyes with showcases, at least with contests there was the battle part of it. I don't buy that whole "Serena doesn't like to battle" or "Serena is too feminine to battle" excuses
 
Short answer: Yes!

Long answer: They were just a bit boring and overhyped. Only girls competing? What's up with that? The way it was all rushed towards the end after taking ages to actually begin! The Master Class was a joke, they didn't do a theme performance, despite those being the best parts.

Serena's performances were all the same, Braxien only ever used Flamethrower and Fire Blast during them and Sylveon only ever used Swift and Fairy Wind, in fact Sylveon has only ever used Swift and Fairy Wind since it evolved.

It was all boring and dumb, I'm sorry; I don't usually have strong negative opinions on anything in Pokemon, but Showcases, Serena and everyting to do with them has been rubbish!

The best part was Jessie, and how maturely she acted after losing which feels like character development after her Grand Festival loss...
 
L-05308 said:
Short answer: Yes!

Long answer: They were just a bit boring and overhyped. Only girls competing? What's up with that? The way it was all rushed towards the end after taking ages to actually begin! The Master Class was a joke, they didn't do a theme performance, despite those being the best parts.

Serena's performances were all the same, Braxien only ever used Flamethrower and Fire Blast during them and Sylveon only ever used Swift and Fairy Wind, in fact Sylveon has only ever used Swift and Fairy Wind since it evolved.

It was all boring and dumb, I'm sorry; I don't usually have strong negative opinions on anything in Pokemon, but Showcases, Serena and everyting to do with them has been rubbish!

The best part was Jessie, and how maturely she acted after losing which feels like character development after her Grand Festival loss...
Click to expand...
Serena's Pokémon need to learn new moves and better strategies, that's also why I wanted her to catch new Pokémon.

I loved Jessie during the Showcases and when she won she definitely deserved it considering her experiences in Pokémon Contests.
 
After seeing every Showcase in the series, I can safely say that they were an absolutely terrible idea with lousy execution to boot. From the lack of tension, the lack of any real challenge for Serena, the popularity voting and how both her third victory and Master Class were complete jokes, it was just awful. I do like Serena's growth from her Showcase arc, but her goal was terrible. I never want them to do anything like Showcases in the show ever again.
 
Hidden Mew said:
After seeing every Showcase in the series, I can safely say that they were an absolutely terrible idea with lousy execution to boot. From the lack of tension, the lack of any real challenge for Serena, the popularity voting and how both her third victory and Master Class were complete jokes, it was just awful. I do like Serena's growth from her Showcase arc, but her goal was terrible. I never want them to do anything like Showcases in the show ever again.
Click to expand...
Contests and the Grand Festival had more impact. They should've just brought those back but make them visually like the showcases
 
They probably didn't have enough time to develop a Contest arc since they require 5 Contest Ribbons as opposed to 3 Princess Keys. Serena's goal started too late into the story. Honestly, if the writers weren't planning to give her a Contest arc, I don't see why they couldn't introduce the Showcases earlier. Showcases are not Contests, so they shouldn't use the former to advertise the latter for ORAS, if that was their aim.

The girls need the first obligatory loss along with at least one more loss for story impact. And then they need 5 Contest wins. That's a minimum of 7 Contests as opposed to Serena's 5 Showcases. The Grand Festival would require more than two episodes because they have a battle round, and there is only so much you can skip. They could cut down some fillers, but again, there is only so much they could cut down without making it seem like the group is jumping from one city to another.

Serena's goal began being put into motion on episode 47 when she caught Pancham, declaring she wants to become a Performer, and her first Showcase was on episode 60. Even if you consider the first mention of Showcases as the start of Serena's goal, that's still episode 40. At that point May had already been in her first Contest. For reference, May decided to try Contests on episode 13, with her first Contest being on episode 35. She won her first Contest Ribbon on episode 51.

I understand Serena needed time to find a goal she's passionate about, but they didn't need 40-47 episodes of her doing nothing to show that (I'm exaggerating, but the point still stands). She could have tried a few different things. The PokeVision and the Pokepuff Contest were a good starting point, but then the writers suddenly dropped everything, and Serena felt more like a background character. We do have characters like Brock who really didn't do much in AG or DP, or Clemont whose story ended early so he doesn't have much to do outside the couple of Clemont-episodes and Clemont-related gags. But that's okay, because those characters are generally meant to be supporting characters. The focus is supposed to be on Ash (primarily) and the female companion (secondarily), at least since AG set that trend (no, Best Wishes never happened :unsure:). This is why I'm still displeased with how Serena was handled in relation to her goal.

On another note, I do love Serena, and I think her character development has been great. I'm still waiting for the entire series to end before I fully judge, but Serena is a candidate for "favourite female companion", a title currently held by May.

So yeah, Showcases. I hope they never return.
 
Last edited:
krisichiki said:
They probably didn't have enough time to develop a Contest arc since they require 5 Contest Ribbons as opposed to 3 Princess Keys. Serena's goal started too late into the story. Honestly, if the writers weren't planning to give her a Contest arc, I don't see why they couldn't introduce the Showcases earlier. Showcases are not Contests, so they shouldn't use the former to advertise the latter for ORAS, if that was their aim.

The girls need the first obligatory loss along with at least one more loss for story impact. And then they need 5 Contest wins. That's a minimum of 7 Contests as opposed to Serena's 5 Showcases. The Grand Festival would require more than two episodes because they have a battle round, and there is only so much you can skip. They could cut down some fillers, but again, there is only so much they could cut down without making it seem like the group is jumping from one city to another.

Serena's goal began being put into motion on episode 47 when she caught Pancham, declaring she wants to become a Performer, and her first Showcase was on episode 60. Even if you consider the first mention of Showcases as the start of Serena's goal, that's still episode 40. At that point May had already been in her first Contest. For reference, May decided to try Contests on episode 13, with her first Contest being on episode 35. She won her first Contest Ribbon on episode 51.

I understand Serena needed time to find a goal she's passionate about, but they didn't need 40-47 episodes of her doing nothing to show that (I'm exaggerating, but the point still stands). She could have tried a few different things. The PokeVision and the Pokepuff Contest were a good starting point, but then the writers suddenly dropped everything, and Serena felt more like a background character. We do have characters like Brock who really didn't do much in AG or DP, or Clemont whose story ended early so he doesn't have much to do outside the couple of Clemont-episodes and Clemont-related gags. But that's okay, because those characters are generally meant to be supporting characters. The focus is supposed to be on Ash (primarily) and the female companion (secondarily), at least since AG set that trend (no, Best Wishes never happened :unsure:). This is why I'm still displeased with how Serena was handled in relation to her goal.

On another note, I do love Serena, and I think her character development has been great. I'm still waiting for the entire series to end before I fully judge, but Serena is a candidate for "favourite female companion", a title currently held by May.

So yeah, Showcases. I hope they never return.
Click to expand...
For me it's hard not to compare Serena to May, because their journeys are so similar. Though I feel that they knew what to do with May at the get go unlike Serena.
 
It's funny. The Showcases encouraged several aspects that supposedly related to being a great Trainer as well as Performer...but never included Pokemon battling. You know, the most common element to being a Trainer (which you have to be first before a Performer). If they would have added a battling segment, the concept would have been somewhat better. Or am I describing a Contest? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Alola said:
It's funny. The Showcases encouraged several aspects that supposedly related to being a great Trainer as well as Performer...but never included Pokemon battling. You know, the most common element to being a Trainer (which you have to be first before a Performer). If they would have added a battling segment, the concept would have been somewhat better. Or am I describing a Contest? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...
You basically described a Pokemon Contest.
 
Alola said:
It's funny. The Showcases encouraged several aspects that supposedly related to being a great Trainer as well as Performer...but never included Pokemon battling. You know, the most common element to being a Trainer (which you have to be first before a Performer). If they would have added a battling segment, the concept would have been somewhat better. Or am I describing a Contest? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...

That's pretty much a Contest. The free style performances were already basically glorified Contest appeals, so while adding a battle round could have helped to make them more engaging, it would have also made it more obvious that they were Contest-lite. I can see why they didn't just make Serena a Coordinator in the first place. By the time OR/AS were released, it was far too late for Serena to start working on getting five ribbons. While the performances were glorified Contest appeals, most of them weren't too bad and Serena really could have become a good coordinator. Maybe with having actual qualified people giving her points instead of being voted most popular could have forced Serena to change her Pokemon's moves more and maybe even get at least a fourth Pokemon. Popularity is not necessarily a sign of quality and while Contests weren't perfect either, the winners usually made sense with what we saw.

Although, the lack of a battle round does make the whole surprise at the dance episode kind of weird. Performers really don't have to battle. It can help them with their performances and all, but unlike with Contests, it's not as much of a necessity due to the lack of a battle round. But they had a tag battle as a prize for Performers during the dance episode in spite of that. It's kind of weird in retrospect.
 
Hidden Mew said:
That's pretty much a Contest. The free style performances were already basically glorified Contest appeals, so while adding a battle round could have helped to make them more engaging, it would have also made it more obvious that they were Contest-lite. I can see why they didn't just make Serena a Coordinator in the first place. By the time OR/AS were released, it was far too late for Serena to start working on getting five ribbons. While the performances were glorified Contest appeals, most of them weren't too bad and Serena really could have become a good coordinator. Maybe with having actual qualified people giving her points instead of being voted most popular could have forced Serena to change her Pokemon's moves more and maybe even get at least a fourth Pokemon. Popularity is not necessarily a sign of quality and while Contests weren't perfect either, the winners usually made sense with what we saw.

Although, the lack of a battle round does make the whole surprise at the dance episode kind of weird. Performers really don't have to battle. It can help them with their performances and all, but unlike with Contests, it's not as much of a necessity due to the lack of a battle round. But they had a tag battle as a prize for Performers during the dance episode in spite of that. It's kind of weird in retrospect.
Click to expand...
Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
I think another reason why Showcases were created was because it was like the beauty pageants or fashion shows they have in France.
 
I got bored of the whole contest/performer/showcase-theme mid-DP, May was cool and it was an original feature, Dawn was fine for awhile and she even got to be in a contest with May, after that I got bored, enough so that I've skipped the showcase episodes, I consider them to be filler, I have nothing against Serena, I'm just personally bored of the theme that Ash has a female partner that does contest-like things. I think a traveling buddy who's actually interested in battling and gyms would be cool, how they'd handle two gym battles per gym without boring us is anybody's guess, however, I suppose I just like the battling aspect of the anime more.
 
I don't think that two Gym battles per Gym would really work out that well. It could be interesting at first, but it would probably get old pretty fast and it would cause the pacing to be a bit slow, especially when one or both characters have to get in a rematch. It would be like if we saw Paul battle the Gyms first all the time throughout DP. It was cool the first time, but by the fourth time at least, it probably would have lost its luster for fans.

I don't mind the female character having their own goal. I think that's a good thing for multiple reasons, even though I dislike Showcases immensely, so I don't think that in itself is a problem. They just need to provide a better goal for the next female lead in my opinion.
 
Please note: The thread is from 8 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom