DP having more references to past sagas

C

Cybersai

Registered User
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
28,895
Reaction score
225
I think most people noticed this, but DP has a lot of references to characters and events pre-DP. The funny thing is before this, the Battle Frontier saga avoided all references to the original Kanto like the plague, and now suddenly in DP they're bringing up stuff from older seasons. Why the change of heart?

Just about every important past character has either appeared in DP (like May and Gary), or gotten references or silent cameos, (like Tracey in DP1, Max, Drew/Harley at the Wallace cup, the Misty lure, and Oak/Delia's phone calls)

But what surprises me are the released Pokemon being brought up. Ash talked about Caterpie and then Butterfree in two separate episodes. James brought up both Victreebel and Chimecho.

The writers brought up events like the Thunderstone from the Lt. Surge eps, the half ribbon he split with May at the end of AG, they even mentioned Jessebell.

Why do you think the writers are suddenly bring up events from years ago in DP, when they hardly ever did this previously?
 
The writers probably realized that the core audience hasn't been watching since the show started.

Or they wanted to make those of us who have feel old. Hard to say.
 
Maybe they want to refresh our memory, or let the new fans know more about Ash's old Pokémon.
 
Yoshi1001 said:
The writers probably realized that the core audience hasn't been watching since the show started.
Click to expand...

^ I think that this is the sole reason really, to let those new to the series get a bit of history/backstory of the show.
 
And also please be reminded that, they do frontier in a rush so they don't have many time for referencing.
 
It might also be a little shout-out (I...guess that's the right word) to people who have been watching the show. References like that tend to make the older fans happy (or feel old as someone else just said.)

And also because DP has way more continuity than ANY previous arc, I've noticed.
 
At the beginning of Movie 10 they also showed scenes from all previous 9 movies, kind of like a tribute.

I guess when you have a show going on for a decade, the writers figure its best to remind people of past events, or for the kids who never saw them before too.
 
As someone new to the show I sure appreciated it. I knew next to nothing when I watched the first three DP episodes on CN. It just main me want to watch the older episode even more which would be great marketing if they'd release the damn show on DVD in Japan.
 
I think it has more to do with the fact that the show has been going on for Ten Plus Years now and a lot of the new fans don't know what's been going on all these years.

Let's face it, fans like myself (and others), who having been watching Pokémon, since Season One are in the minority of the show's fanbase. Still, I like the continuity references because it shows that what happened before did occur.
 
I think it's just PUSA or whomever new stretching their legs. BF was a primer, since they got the switch. DP is the first to try something they should've done a long time ago?
 
Rocket Girl said:
PUSA doesn't have anything to do with this. They just dub the show.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but a significant portion of the show's audience is outside of Japan. The people who write the show have to account for that, too (though they don't always do the greatest job).
 
I don't understand what possible relevance a reference to an older season would have to a viewer's geographical location.
 
He means the Japanese probably consider what the dubbers think. Like if the dubbers think new kids won't understand the show without bringing up old, major events or characters (like how Ash got Pikachu), then they'll probably ask Japan to incorporate it. There's no proof of that of course, but yeah. I'd think the Japanese would know that anyways. :p

When it comes to the TCG though, Japan has often asked PUSA their opinions about things, even going as far as asking American players what they want in future sets. So I guess it could happen with the show too.
 
I don't think the writers are very concerned about other countries. (Nor should they be IMO.) If they really wanted to take other countries into consideration I doubt we would've had the attempted Dokonjou Gaeru reference.
 
The switch to PUSA didn't affect the Japanese writers at all.

We'd still have characters like Paul and Pokehunter J in the show even if 4kids was still dubbing. Whether 4kids would tone them down or not is another story.

As for the references, it probably is for the younger kids. You think 7 year old little Timmy who is watching Pokemon for the first time has any idea what happened in the 500 episodes before DP?
 
But Scott, I already explained in Japan they constantly air the original series again and again, AG used to air again until not long ago, most of AG/DP available there for rental...
And even in the US they sometimes air old seasons... about half of the show is available on DVD (and in Australia it's the WHOLE show on DVD)

It's only in countries like here in Israel where the episodes don't air again anymore, aren't released in any way, there's absolutely no way (not even illegal) to watch them - that there's a problem of new fans not knowing what happened in the past... and I doubt they care about such countries and do that for them
I think it might be only part of it but actually mostly for the viewers who did watch it all from the beginning... the wrirters improved as we noticed and one of the things they do right currently that they didn't used to do is remind us past events
I guess Poké's 10th anniversary also have something to do with it
 
Yeah it is a shame that Pokemon is not readily available in all countries. I guess there's nothing that can be done about it.

But is isn't too far a stretch to say they're doing this for the younger fans, as not all those kids are also watching reruns or getting the DVDs.

I also wonder though, why did Battle Frontier avoid most references to Kanto? That was just one season before DP, its like a sudden change of heart, considering Jessebell/Victreebel were mentioned in DP2.
 
Piplup said:
But Scott, I already explained in Japan they constantly air the original series again and again, AG used to air again until not long ago, most of AG/DP available there for rental...
Click to expand...

The show is over 500 episodes long. How many kids are actually going to watch every single episode? Even if they have cable and rent episodes, it's still quite an undertaking to see them all. I've been a fan since DP started in the US, and I only just finished up the Whirl Cup arc.
 
Please note: The thread is from 17 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