Do you think the writers gave Brock a good enough sendoff?

[Cybersai]

Brock's departure had the misfortune of sharing the same episode as Dawn's departure, and as we know, the writers had to focus moreso on Dawn leaving even though she was on the show far less than Brock was.

Brock had been in the anime for 13 years aside from Orange Islands, he was Ash's longest lasting travel companion in the series and had somewhere around 600+ eps in his total run.

DP191 focuses on him deciding to become a doctor, and his departure is after the end credits, where he and Ash shake hands before he leaves. His actual departure didn't last longer than 1 minute.

Do you feel it was a good enough sendoff for a character there that long? Should the writers have made a bigger deal out of it? Should they have done a character montage? How do you feel about the way it was handled?

 

[Froakie]

I'm mixed. When I watched the episode, both in Japanese and English for the first time (and still now...) I get upset watching that bit of the episode. It was emotional enough, like I liked how they both referenced each other's goals because they won't see each other again. Although for a character who has lasted for so long, it just wasn't enough. I am very very bitter towards the writers for making it as quick and meaningless as they did, although as I said, there were some nice touches. Like i liked how their handshake lingered.

 

[Cybersai]

I think the pokemon doctor stuff should have been foreshadowed at least prior to the Sinnoh league, (even though there were DP eps that focused on it early on), but it was handled alright.

 

[Eitarou]

Of course not. His reason for leaving came completely (and no, the previous episode doesn't count) at the last minute and was clearly made only for the writers to have an excuse to not have him back. It was touching, yes, but I'm still not happy about it....

 

[GreatLiver]

It was nice that they seperated his departure from Dawn's enough to show that his was more important. Still, there wasn't much to it. It was handled nicely, since he didn't really need his own whole episode for leaving, but I still don't know how I feel about their actual departure. It was sorta bittersweet just because it was nice but was so short.

 

[Faye Scarlet]

I liked it. Short and bittersweet is best in situations like this. D: A long, tearful farewell would be too over-the-top.

 

[투 애니원]

I felt it was rushed and emotionless. I mean can't they have departed away in a beautiful scenery. I'm not to thrilled by the dialogue aswell it should have been more emotional. IMO Brock and Ash should have had the best departure since they were together from the OS. It would symbolize how iconic he was to the series. I guess I expected to much to happen.

 

[Ampharos King]

...Except DP191 was not Brock's last episode, nor was it the episode that truly featured his sendoff.

Brock's last episode, which had yet to air internationally, briefly touched upon the character's newfound aspiration by featuring him reading a few medical textbooks. This was before Brock's younger siblings warned him that a gym inspector was requesting a battle from him.

Realistically speaking, it will require years of studying and practice for one to become a doctor in any medical or physiological field. We were not expecting Brock to make any real progressive milestones to reach that goal on-screen. Such a bold move would have been too ridiculous and over the top to air on television. It was suffice that the writers reminded the viewers that Brock was taking a bold new direction in his life, and that for this reason, he decided to leave Ash's side.

The main premise of Brock's final episode was focused on a very different position that Brock once had authority over, but it still troubled him up until this day. Due to a slip-up by his father, the Pokemon League was never informed that Brock had been replaced as the Gym Leader for the Pewter Gym. The Pokemon League sent an inspector to shut down the operation of the gym unless Brock was able to battle that inspector to her satisfactory. Brock lost, obviously, but then again he never truly expressed any real interest towards battling alongside his pokemon anyway. It was for this reason that Brock wanted to leave Pewter Gym in the first place.

Wanting to start over on a clean slate, Brock had to detach himself from any and all other obligations that might hold him back from fulfilling his newfound goal. In this sense, Brock had to "pass the torch" as Gym Leader, so to speak, to his younger brother, who had operated the gym at the time. The younger brother expressed anxiety and self doubt that he was unable to live up to his family's expectations, but Brock calmly reassured the brother that even if he were to goof up numerous times, the people who care about him will not think any less of him.

Remember, this statement was coming from a former Gym Leader who had to balance out raising a family of children on his own and had wanted to escape from that struggle. Brock matured as a person and became much more compassionate towards others once he travelled with Ash. Brock expressed joy and satisfaction that his younger brother was able to fight against such a powerful opponent using a pokemon that he himself had raised.

At the end of the day, Brock's main highlight in the anime was his maniacal obsession towards finding love, or at the very least, coaxing women who are much older than himself. This was the reason why Brock lasted as long as a main character as he did. The writers always felt that while Brock may appear to be a stoic and calm individual who was responsible enough to care for and support others, he is still a young and irrational person when it comes to the finer things in life. His father Flint even encouraged Brock to set out and find a mate during that last appearance.

I always felt that Brock was meant to fulfill that small gag to make the anime suitable towards all audiences. The writers tried to revamp the gag a little bit at a time by incorporating different characters to the routine, but over time, the process became stale and irrelevant to the overall plotline. The gag was just tacked on to fill up time in a certain episode.

In fact, Brock's obsesssions towards love were the closest thing he truly had to a goal that would have required him to travel on his own. Brock wanted to become a "Pokemon Breeder" for a while, but the term in of itself was far too generic, and the requirements simply involved a trainer who was able to nurture and raise a multitude of different pokemon at once. Brock met other breeders such as himself throughout his journey, but never once did he gain anything significant by being introduced to their presence.

In terms of his relationship with Ash or other members of the group, Brock was the mature and level-headed (most of the time) caretaker. Brock was there to keep everybody else in line even though he has his own faults and insecurities. Ash and Brock did not express the significance of their connection towards one another by anything more than a handshake, but that was the way it was truly meant to be.

Ash respected Brock as he would an older brother, and had always attempted to seek out his advice when he was flustered. Brock admired Ash for his persistent determination. They displayed a mutual respect towards one another, like the relationship between two good friends, or between cousins. Ash never felt bothered that Brock eventually decided to leave his presence. Both characters encouraged one another to follow through with their goals. Ash and Brock last interacted by wishing the other good luck.

Brock passing the torch as a Gym Leader and severing all obligations he had to the gym was the last step that the character had to make to truly start over fresh.

 

[Piplup]

Your problem is how you view a character's closure ep... Brock's was DP190, not DP191, just like Dawn's was the ep where she loses to Zoey in the GF... DP191 was the group going their separate ways, but the real closure for Dawn and Brock were the final GF ep and DP190 - just like Ash's Sinnoh closure was the ep where he beats Paul in the Sinnoh League... Ash's battle with Tobias, Dawn meeting Kenny again, Dawn and Brock's "specials" - are all "extra" eps that were needed, but the true conclusion for each character isn't necessarily the last ep we saw them in or the ep where they left the group...

So yeah, Brock got a great conclusion... DP190 and the whole doctor goal was a great idea to send his character to, and his final departure from Ash at the end of DP191 was really emotional and was done perfectly, with them calling each other doctor and master and how you could see their hands slowly leaving each other, proving how hard it was for them to go their separate ways...

 

[PDL]

I thought that Brock got the perfect sendoff. It was subtle, but the plan for having Brock become a Pokémon Doctor was probably referenced as early as the episode where Bonsly evolved into Sudowoodo (I forgot which number it was). He has shown greater competence when dealing with Pokémon wellbeing close to the begining of the Diamond and Pearl Saga then he had before, plus after 10 something odd years of the character, there was a desperate need to do something with the character.

It's also excellent that his clousure subverted everyone's expectation and didn't involve Brock falling in love with a girl (sort of, it was suggested by a Nurse Joy...). It wouldn't be taken seriously at all if they decided to go that route since it had been used as a running gag for so long.

So yeah, I think Brock got a good enough sendoff.

 

[Froakie]

I don't like how the last time we saw Brock was just.. on the floor. lol.
Ugh. This thread is making me sad. I really do hope we see him again because that send off was not enough, no matter what anybody says.

 

[Iteru]

I think that his send-off was fine for a third-wheel character. DP190 was a great setup episode, and fully explained why he wanted to be a Pokémon Doctor, so I think that his motive for leaving was okay.

Anything really over-blown and emotional would have been unrepresentative of Takeshi's status on the show, and so I'm glad that it wasn't better than some other characters who have left who had more important roles in the show.

 

[chimera]

Brock's sendoff was pretty good, IMO. I didn't expect him to get all emotional or anything, though I think it could have been a little better.

 

[Cybersai]

Did we see Croagunk in DP191? I can't remember. I think we only saw Sudowoodo, and Croagunk didn't appear until the special.

 

[The Puppetmaster]

Did we see Croagunk in DP191? I can't remember. I think we only saw Sudowoodo, and Croagunk didn't appear until the special.

It appeared in one scene when Ash, Dawn, and Brock were still at Dawn's house. It Poison Jab'd Brock 'cause he was going all gaga over something.

To answer the question, I feel like Brock's departure from the show was handled pretty well. Like Iteru said, his send-off was fine for his character. While I do wish their was more set up for his switch to a career in Pokémon Doctoring, I think him receiving the second to last episode to focus on his new goal was acceptable enough.

Also, Brock was never one to get very emotional when parting ways; I mean, he did it twice before his real departure, and he seemed fine both times. Anything more than what we received would have been out of character for him in my opinion.

Overall, I think Brock's departure from the series was acceptable, though it would have been nice to see his new goal foreshadowed throughout the Sinnoh saga more.

 

[Shinneth]

I'd be lying to say Brock's departure was done perfectly, but expecting that much given how the show treats this character despite his longevity is basically setting yourself up for disappointment, so I kept my expectations low.

I will say, though, that I found Brock's departure much more well-handled than Dawn's. Even though Dawn (and mostly Piplup, that screeching limelight-hogging brat who bawled for more than half a minute uninterrupted) had most of the episode to dedicate her farewell, I felt rather lukewarm about it. It didn't really emotionally snag me, not even at the end. Brock however, didn't need lengthy dialog or a whole bunch of scenes focusing on him to do his farewell justice. We'd already seen Ash and Brock at the crossroad scene before at the end of AG, so it was a nice bit of deja vu combined with the fact that the separation would be for real this time. The familiarity was a very nice touch, and for me it was also the lingering handshake scene that really got me emotionally. That single scene, that barely lasted a few seconds, made the episode for me.

It goes to show you don't need a lot of bells and whistles to pull off a character sendoff well. I think the initial shock of him actually leaving the show was enough to leave a lasting impression as well. Most of us knew Dawn wouldn't last beyond DP because... well, May didn't last past AG (her cameo episodes notwithstanding), so why would Dawn last past DP? Writers in interviews outright admitted they shift the girls every gen-switch for eyecandy purposes, so I didn't bother getting too emotionally attached to Dawn throughout the series because I figured she'd only last for that series. The point is, when we expect a character will leave the show at a certain time, the emotional and shock values tend to drop. Well, they do for me, anyway. It wasn't until we found out about Brock's doctor episode that we considered the possibility of him leaving the show, and even then, we wouldn't know how exactly he'd go about that until the final episode.

And even if it did seemingly come out of nowhere, I do think the DP series was subtly hinting at Brock's career change throughout the entire series. There were a lot of subtle developments in the series (Ash getting Chimchar, Paul's general development) and this one was probably the most subtle of all. For all the years we knew Brock as an aspiring breeder, his sudden change to a doctor was not only genuinely surprising, but it also made sense given there were many moments in DP where he displayed some pro doctor skills. So I have to give props to the writing staff for giving us some nice, genuine surprises as they sent him off for good.

Considering how this show usually treats Brock, they could've done a lot worse with his sendoff. But the fact that one brief scene of his sendoff pulled my heartstrings more than Dawn's (and Piplup's) entire sendoff that took up like 95% of the episode tells me - hey, you know, they did a pretty good job in this farewell to a character who we've been watching for well over a decade. And that's enough for me.

 

[Cybersai]

Well Brock was there since the first season, Dawn was only there for 4 years, so even if Dawn got a bigger sendoff because she was more important in the DP saga, Brock's departure may have had a deeper meaning because of how long he was there.

The pictures on Brock's wall of all the past groups really said that. It made you realize just how long Brock was there for as well as a nice stroll down memory lane.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Im on fence on this.On one part im pleased that Brock managed to find his calling and what he wants to do in life deciding how he wants to help pokemon one day becoming doctor.This can be in nutshell viewed as step up from his career of being breeder since it shares many similarities with both professions requiring taking proper care of pokemon by nurturing and healing them to stay in top form.

However im displeased with way things were executed with Brock being kinda robbed of from proper departure.His soul searching and questioning what he should do didnt happened until end of Sinnoh league with everything giving feel of happening too quickly and randomly with no proper build up happening prior to that.This was typical problem of writers trying to cramp up too many things in short period of time.
There were some occasions during course of DP where Brock showed interest in healing pokemon leaning toward doctor side but this was just part/extension of what he already was with breeders job also involving taking care of pokemon and curing them while making sure to raise them properly.Which is reason why i cant count this as foreshadowing considering how before very end of Sinnoh Brock never indicated in any way that he plans to become pokemon doctor.

To make things worse even his special after he left main cast barely focused on his newly found career with episode revolving mostly around his brother Forrest and how to save gym from passing inspection.Sure Brock severed ties with his past life of being gym leader becoming more compassionate and full of understanding but at same time episode didnt gave any insight of what else might be required for Brock to do aside from studying to become doctor as well not knowing in what direction his life will take him not knowing if he plans to open daycare center or become traveling doctor.

Because of several unanswered things and lack of focus on new career i have to say how im not completely pleased with departure Brock received with long lived character like him who was very important for Ash progress as trainer deserving better.

 

[BugMite]

Yeah, I think it was good enough even if there were no flashbacks.

For whatever reason I rank DP190 (The Brockster is In) as one of the saddest (in a good way, I mean) episodes of the entire anime, personally.

 

[Cybersai]

DP190? If that ep took place anywhere else in the series, it just would have been an average filler episode. Its not like the plot of taking care of sick baby pokemon is anything new.

The fact that even Happiny evolving into Chansey seemed so insignificant was odd in itself. I also think its rather odd we never see Brock's Chansey again, in either DP191 or his special.