Do you think Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy are still valuble characters?

L-05308

L-05308

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Basically what the tile says.

I remember when these two were introduced I liked them a lot and their clone-like families has always been a weird and wonderful concept, their characters were furthered by Brock and I enjoyed them. Undoutably, Joy has had much more focus than Jenny, up untill best whishes where Jenny has had a lot of focus and Joy has hardly made a difference, but I'm just not as excited by these twwo any more.

What do you think?
 
Not so much anymore. Especially with Brock gone, it almost feels like Joy and Jenny existed solely because of him.

They don't appear much in Best Wishes, do they? Should have gotten rid of them entirely as well.
 
I'm assuming that the whole reason Jenny and Joy exist in the first place is because the anime production team don't want to have to go to the trouble of creating brand new character designs every time Ash and friends have their pokemon healed at a new pokemon centre or consult with the local law enforcement - it's easier just to keep using these characters who, though never the same people in the context of the show,essentially make up one collective character to the viewer. So, if Joy and Jenny were removed from the show, wouldn't they just be replaced with two very similar characters who fulfill the exact same roles?

I'm fine with them remaining - they may get stuck with all the unexciting stuff like healing beaten pokemon and arresting bad guys at the end of episodes, but someone's gotta do it. :p
 
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Jenny serves as a very valuable cautionary tale. She teaches children never to trust the police, kyu.
 
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Apart from those handful of episodes where a Joy/Jenny got actual character development (The Joy of Water Pokemon being the standout imo), they were never particularly valuable as characters, they just filled a few seconds of screen time. Of course their existence solves a problem, so they will never be removed, and it is better that they be identified as Jenny/Joy compared to the times when you get the random swarm of unidentified male police.

Of course, Joy has more reason to exist as you get that reflected in the games. Up until a few days ago when I played LeafGreen for the first time and noticed the gender colour coding of the officer in Cerulean City, I'd always assumed that was the game's Officer Jenny. Adding to that characters like Looker, Jenny is made a bit more pointless, but still preferable to generic officers whenever the need comes up.

The addition of Don George this time around shows that they can still work with these recurring characters, and do so in a way that isn't reliant on a single joke.

As a random aside to Joy - is it just me who wondered why we got so few Blissey? Surely if the Chansey liked their work and Joy the happiness evolution would kick in a bit more often?
 
I don't think they were ever really "valuable", but especially not anymore.
 
Nurse Joy is a necessary character because somebody has to take care of and heal the group's pokemon when they arrive at a center. Officer Jenny is not seen as often in BW, but the stock character had important roles in quite a few of the episodes in BW thus far- the most notable being the Alder episode and the one featuring Beeheyem.

Clearly Nurse Joy has been seen more often in BW, but that is only because the writers rarely put Ash and co. in a deep situation that requires the intervention of an Officer Jenny.
 
No I don't think they are valuable characters anymore, and to an extent, neither are Team Rocket, especially after the Team Plasma episodes were dumped, seemingly pernamently, it's like the anime has gone in a completely different direction since Sinnoh ended...
 
Masterge77 said:
No I don't think they are valuable characters anymore, and to an extent, neither are Team Rocket, especially after the Team Plasma episodes were dumped, seemingly pernamently, it's like the anime has gone in a completely different direction since Sinnoh ended...
Click to expand...

I agree. Team Rocket really has no more value... They may as well not even be in the show, because I have NO idea what they're trying to accomplish anymore.
 
HilbertCressLover said:
I agree. Team Rocket really has no more value... They may as well not even be in the show, because I have NO idea what they're trying to accomplish anymore.
Click to expand...

True, it's like the writers simply abandoned what they intended to do because of what happened back in March that caused the Team Plasma episodes to be "delayed" (or at this point, we might as well say that they have been cancelled, with no chance of Team Plasma ever making an appearance at all), the writers seemed to have left Team Rocket to die, by the looks of it, Best Wishes might be their last season unless something is done...
 
Not really, they can produce good fillers for the writers, but for the plot and sagas themselves, they mean little to nothing
 
To me, Jenny and Joy never really served much of a purpose, other than, as others have said, to make production easier. Although I might agree that before, we had Jennies and Joys that different personalities. Now it's like the clone factory did it's job too well, and now they are all the same person.
 
They don't really serve much of a purpose, the writers could of course change that in the future though. I'm not a particular fan of their redesigns to be honest. Nurse Joy's isn't that bad, but Officer Jenny doesn't even look like Officer Jenny anymore. I realize they did it to tie into the "Unova is far from the other regions" thing, but if they can have the exact same names as their counterparts in other regions, they should look similar as well. sorry about that, had to say something about that... but like someone above said, its like the two of them mostly existed in the past because of Brock's love for them both, now that he's gone they aren't needed as much now. Kind of makes you wonder how Brock would take to their new looks if he had gone to Unova with Ash.
 
Should have scrapped the whole Joy/Jenny clone factory deal entirely if they really wanted to show Unova's distance from the other regions and remove characters that were basically satellites for Brock throughout the show, with a few having different personalities than generic nurse/generic cop. But like others have said, that would have been less convenient for the animators, so slap on a re-design and call it a day...
 
The concept of them is pretty cute, and I like that they got a redesign for the Isshu region. I love Joy's, Junsa's is still growing on me. I never really gave them much thought as characters.

The only time I really enjoyed them so far in Best Wishes was the Adeku episode, but their purpose was never meant to be anything spectacular to begin with. They are background characters besides the occasional episode in which they're relevant (or the ones where there were 'different' ones with their own story in a COTD fashion) and that will never change. Even though their roles are minimal, it's still necessary. Who else is going to run the Pokemon Center or be la policia? (Though weren't their male police with the Junsa in BW006?)
 
Should have gotten rid of them when DP ended. As I said, I bet they also existed as long as they did because of Brock's flirting gag.

If the writers want to sever all ties they should go the whole way.
 
Apart from the two Nurse Joys of the Orange Leagues (one having fear of water pokemon, the other being tanned and enjoying being at sea), the rest of the Joys hardly got any character development or any episode fillers focused solely on them.
The two episodes I remember with Jenny being the CoTD was the Growlithe episode which obviously showed the bonds between the police and their dogs, and the Wild-Jenny episode. Not much character development there, either.

They were all just filler material when the writers had nothing to write about.
 
They were never important characters to begin with. Now the Don Georges are more important, and they actually do things.
 
Being very minor background characters, Jenny and Joy weren't exactly "valuable" to begin with.

However, besides being objects for Brock's running gag, the Joys at least serve an important purpose - running the Pokemon Centers. When a main character's Pokemon gets its shit wrecked and they're near civilization, it's always Nurse Joy who comes in to treat the wounded - sometimes the critically wounded, even. The Joys also refresh the Pokemon when they're weary, so it's a quick and convenient way to get the main cast Pokemon back on their feet without some convoluted resolution handled by the main cast itself, and we know they're all not nearly as effective as a Pokemon Center. Well, Brock was close... that's why he's gonna be a doctor now, of course.

So yeah, while not exactly VALUABLE, I would say the Joys are at the very least useful in their minor roles. On the rare occasion we'll see individual Joys with some interesting backstories, and they were also ever-present Contest judges, too. As far as BW's concerned, the Joys are at least serving their primary purpose, and that's all they need to be doing.

Officer Jennys, on the other hand, I think the series could do without. They're pretty infamous for being the most ineffectual cops ever on several occasions and it's very rare that they actually do something useful. Like the Joys, there were some interesting individual Jennys in the series, but on the whole they often don't fulfill the purpose their role is supposed to provide.
 
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