In retrospect, why do you think the writers continued Contests in Battle Frontier?

[Cybersai]

Just a silly thread where I'm looking for some input, there will be a poll.

After Hoenn ended the writers could have theoretically revamped the cast for the Battle Frontier saga, but the writers decided instead to keep what they had. Why do you think May and Contests were kept for the BF saga?

Keep in mind that Contests weren't in FR/LG, so it can't be because of advertising purposes. Also keep in mind it wasn't advertising anything for D/P either, (unless you count Munchlax), since Super Contests in D/P (in the games, not the anime), are different than the R/S ones.

So why were May, Max, Drew, Harley and the Contest arc given a second round in BF, instead of changing the cast? Vote on the poll unless you have a reason not given there.

 

[Ashfangirl17]

I'm going to say becuase May and the contests were both popular...But if they keep up what there doing with D/P contests might not be so popular any more LOL.

 

[paperfairy]

To inspire more May doujins.

 

[Doctor Oak]

That last option is stupid flamebait.

I think pretty much they just kept it 'cos they didn't see any reason not to keep it.

 

[Zeta]

Because contests are better than filler, I'd think.

 

[Jnoo]

Contests bring in the more interesting Rivals (Even though the only ones we got in tems of "Rivals" were Ogata (Who I don't remember the dub name for) and Brianna.) so they wanted to try to introduce the rivals, but ignored that for some reason.

And it has Harley, the best rival ever.

 

[Cybersai]

That last option is stupid flamebait.

It probably is, but you have to admit at the time people thought Misty was only going to sit out for one region...not the rest of the series. It wasn't until afterward that people began to think differently.

 

[Jo-Jo]

What possible reason could the writers have for dropping the contests in BF? What were the alternatives - keep May but not give her a quest? Bring back Misty for one year only? Have no female character?

The last option is not only stupid flamebait, but stupid dull flamebait. Yawn.

 

[Rocketshipper]

I'd say something like "because the BF was part of AG". Contests were introduced as the new thing in AG, so it would make sense that they would have kept them throughout all of the AG series.

 

[Cybersai]

What possible reason could the writers have for dropping the contests in BF? What were the alternatives - keep May but not give her a quest? Bring back Misty for one year only? Have no female character?

I agree with you, but this poll was inspired by this lovely post:

Uh, I thought May's role in AG was pretty well wrapped-up at the end of the first Grand Festival. The only major benefit to May doing it again in BF was more Harley, honestly.

Now, I realize they probably couldn't have had May there without her doing any contests. But they could've easily come up with alternatives to having May there at all. And I'm not even referring specifically to a return of Misty, though I think a lot of fans would've sung their praises for that. They could have just had Max return, or Tracey, and show us the dynamics of an all-male group - though I confess that's unlikely since some fans can't live without underage female fanservice for some reason - or they could have even introduced a character for a single season, like they did with Orange Islands. For the last option, would it be tricky to not have that character fall prey to the same problems Tracey did? Sure. But I would say the writing's improved since Orange Islands, and I think they could've pulled it off.

Apparently not all people in the fandom are on the same wavelength.

 

[Loch Ness Lapras]

In my opinion, it was an excuse for May to stay on. If she stayed on without any contests being on, she'd be an unimportant character, much like how Brock was in AG when Max was introduced.

Of course, it could be that they decided to put in contests because of Emerald.

Or May was a popular character, so they let her stay on for one more season.

 

[Pie]

Yeah, because it's not enough that we have different opinions, Scott - you've got to go get census data and try to prove my opinion wrong.

Guess what? That wasn't speculating about what the anime might have done or why - that was just how I feel about what they did. And you'd be wise to listen to whoever it was in the other thread who keeps reminding you that majority opinion doesn't make individual opinion wrong.

Oy vey.

 

[Cybersai]

Heh, actually I didn't make this thread to try to prove you wrong, but what you said made me curious as to why other people might think May wasn't wrapped up after Hoenn and continued for BF.

I do think Rocketshipper is the first person to be spot-on though. Battle Frontier was still part of Advanced Generation, so the writers probably wanted to keep everything the same the whole way though.

And...we got to see a proper conclusion to May's arc, I doubt the writers intended to never have her beat Drew on-screen or have her Combusken not ever fully evolve to Blaziken. Those events were clearly saved for the tail-end of her arc, otherwise wouldn't May have beaten Drew in the Hoenn GF? They must have knew what they were doing at that point and had the BF saga pre-planned, (especially since the 8th movie still used the AG cast, and that had to be scripted about a year in advance).

Would also explain why only the AG characters, (May, Max, Drew and Harley), were written out to make room for the D/P characters, (Hikari, Nozomi and Shinji), while all the characters from Kanto got to stay. Of course, with the exception of Misty, who doesn't get that luxury since she's a girl.

 

[Luna Tiger]

For my opinion will never be represented on that poll:

I think it's partially because of what Zeta said: Contests are better than filler.

HOWEVER.

Given that only the girls seem to switch off whenever a new girl is readily available (Misty to May with R/S's release, May to Hikari with D/P's release), if this is the intended pattern, Hikari won't leave either until we have a 5th gen girl ready and willing.

That's why I believe they continued with Contests. Because they couldn't drop May just yet, popularity be damned; the 5th gen was just around the corner, and if they truly want Misty to be a recurring character and not give false hope she'd stick around this time, they weren't about to risk replacing May with her on such a short arc, only to drop her again for Hikari. =P

 

[FireEmblemPride]

Contests were still in Emerald, which is what the Battle Frontier saga really focused on (with FR/LG thrown in for good measure). I voted the final option just because I thought it was funny.

I expect May (and Max) to make an appearance in the Diamond and Pearl series sometime this year. I expect her to be flaunting her Emerald gear then.

 

[XD375]

Because it was AG. Battle Frontier wasn't as "filler" as Adventures on the Orange Islands, since it was only 38 episodes long, and 38 episodes don't really make a difference if you look at Johto's long gaps. If there was to be a saga NOT based on the video games and only about 30 episodes in the middle of AG, we may have seen a character leave for a little while, but the non-filler game regions will always keep the same characters as long as the show keeps whatever title it has - whether it be AS, AG, or DP.

 

[Cybersai]

I do dislike calling Battle Frontier a filler season as well, because unlike Orange, it was a direct continuation of everything set up in Hoenn.

Plus the Frontier Brains are from game canon, unlike the Orange Island Gym leaders who the writers just made up.

And as I said on the previous page, we got a proper ending to May's story arc, (with her finally beating Drew and her Combusken evolving), and that was clearly saved over from Hoenn. Not to mention we got to see Grovyle finally realizing its full strength as Sceptile and Phanpy came back from oblivion.

All Battle Frontier really was, was Hoenn extended for another year until D/P came out. They just changed the region, (and this Kanto was barely recognizable aside from Mt. Moon and the Pewter Gym), and just continued everything from Hoenn.

 

[birdboy2000]

I say they did it as an excuse to get such cool-looking battles animated.

 

[Nomekop Oen]

Really nice poll choices there Scott... =/


Um,it's because May was still there.What else was she going to do? All of a sudden turn Pokemon Watcher on us? Like Mega Man X said,Battle Frontier is still part of AG.It obviously would've been way too early to introduce Hikari and the writers wouldn't have done something (COMPLETELY) random like bringing back Misty,Tracey,Duplica,etc.


They sticked to AG until they were ready to crossover into D/P,it's as simple as that.And May really did feel tacked on during Battle Frontier IMO,the Contest arc in Kanto wasn't nearly as good as the Hoenn arc.The Kanto arc would've been really lame if Harley wasn't there to spice things up.

 

[Cybersai]

Um,it's because May was still there.What else was she going to do? All of a sudden turn Pokemon Watcher on us? Like Mega Man X said,Battle Frontier is still part of AG.It obviously would've been way too early to introduce Hikari and the writers wouldn't have done something (COMPLETELY) random like bringing back Misty,Tracey,Duplica,etc.

Its not my question, someone else brought it up. Some people seem to be confused as to which characters are more important than others. I think AG and D/P was a rude awakening for some people who thought they had a good grasp as to what the anime was about.

And May really did feel tacked on during Battle Frontier IMO,the Contest arc in Kanto wasn't nearly as good as the Hoenn arc.The Kanto arc would've been really lame if Harley wasn't there to spice things up.

I disagree, aside from the Harley Contests, (which was only two of them), we got to see Combusken kick ass, (it was only in 1 Hoenn Contest), we got to see an adorable Drew fangirl with Brianna, and we got the excellent Kanto Grand Festival to wrap everything up. The battles in the GF were better than Ash's final rematch with Brandon, particularly May Vs. Drew, which was one of the best battles in the entire series.

I also very much like the fact that the writers even gave May two more episodes after the Grand Festival. Hell, they could have just done nothing with her after the Kanto GF ended, but they even gave her two additional episodes to wrap up everything they did and put so much effort into her arc.

Compared to how they have other characters in this show stay stagnant and barely develop them, they used Battle Frontier to give some full closure to one of the few fully realized characters on the show.