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We're now 1 year into BW, what do you think so far?

C

Cybersai

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What do you like/dislike about this saga now that we're officially halfway into it, now that Ash has 4 badges and we're 1 year in?

Pros:

- BW trio team chemistry
- Iris and Cilan switch off between spotlight, neither feels ignored
- The bulk of the pokemon on the group are enjoyable
- Still decent pacing
- Serious Team Rocket will hopefully lead to something
- Nice rivals like Burungly, Langely, Bianca and Kenyan

Cons:

- Trip is the least interesting main rival Ash has ever had. A huge disappointment coming after Paul and even Gary for that matter.
- Pikachu is being shoved down our throats again
- Gym battles feel medicore this gen, much worse than DP standards
- Ash's pokemon rotation is handled badly. Ash capturing more than 6 pokemon is really showing how they can't give them all proper screentime. Seems like an experiment that backfired IMO.
- Team Plasma has completely disappeared, and we're now 55 episodes into the saga
- Giovanni started off like he was making a comeback to the show, and he disappeared
- Meowth worked better with Ash and co. than the new Jessie/James


As with any saga, my view on this one is mixed. It started out really promising at the start, but some things really feel like they've regressed or gotten worse. I think so far its been more good than bad however.
 
It started out as an improvement over the previous four seasons, but after the Team Plasma episodes were skipped (seemingly pernamentaly) it's gone downhill in my opinion...
 
Biggest pros of Best Wishes:

-Cilan. Cilan is one of the best Pokémon characters ever. His diverse and surprising personality is a nice change of pace.
-A more serious Team Rocket. Team Rocket was a total pushover during the earlier sagas. I like their new attitude, and their missions are action packed and more serious.

Biggest cons of Best Wishes:

-Ash' Pokémon. Ash has more than 6 Pokémon now, and some Pokémon, especially Palpitoad, receive almost no screentime.
-The Gym battles, especially the Gym battle against Arti, are dull and repititive.
 
My list is pretty much the same as yours, Glis. An addition to the cons is that some of the situations like Iris and Excadrill's resolution come out too quickly and less depth. I even feel this from BW's 1st episode where Iris and the Team Rocket revealing themselves were just put there without expansion.
 
I am very disappointed by the saga from the very beginning.

Cons

- Iris is rude and unappealing
- Cilan isn't doing anything and comes off as pointless
- Ash seemed to have lost all of his experience from DP
- Lack of real conflict or suspense. Ash beat Paul and Brandon and now he's losing to Trip seems like Ash is not caring rather than Trip is posing a real threat to quote Yahtzee "like a blind butcher's assistant I don't have a feel for the steaks"
- they got rid of volt tackle for elec ball :(
-The battles feel slow paced it goes step 1 close up on the trainer as he or she makes command step 2 close up on pokemon with recycled animation step 3 the results aka the real battle. Am I the only one that thinks the screen should focus almost entirely on step three it really grating when you know that the pokemon should have been hit by the opponents attacks while they are doing the close up. A little haste with their wording would be nice.
- Plasma disappeared
- Giovanni disappeared
- Meowth did indeed work better with the twerps
- Pikachu is getting pwned to hard to frequently
- The rivals lack luster
everything is recycled from previous sagas

Pro

It's Pokemon
There have been a few funny moments
The animation is good
serious rocket



500th post
 
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I think there was a post that I made like this a while ago.
 
I found none of the episodes to be boring. I'm glad we got the "MEOWTH FALLS IN LOVE WITH NEW GEN CAT". You can't blame me, it's a cat's love life and now his love life is even more messed up falling in love with a male cat! Maybe the Gothitelle one was boring, but that was meant to be more sad and I still love it. All the gym battles were fun(don't get what's with the 3rd gym battle sucking). Characters were more fun to be with. Can't find a big flaw other than the Team Plasma episodes being postphoned. This must have made the episodes that come after it change. I'm okay with everything. I don't force myself to not like an episode because things didn't go the way I wanted them to go. I've read a lot of comments in a lot of episode discussion topics about people complaining about things not going their way. It's unhealthy to complain about that. "OMG, ASH SHOULD WIN EVERY BATTLE!", "NOOOOOO!!! IRIS HASN'T CAUGHT A NEW POKEMON IN THIS EPISODE!", "CILAN HASN'T GONE YET! WHERE'S BROCK!?!". Just a few exagerated examples :p.
 
I like how we have a decent group of recurring animation directions going on now. Some are better than others, but none of them are as bad as Takeda or Kinoshita. I'm very glad to see Tamagawa regularly work on the show now. Hopefully he won't disappear like he has in the past.
 
Gliscor'd said:
What do you like/dislike about this saga now that we're officially halfway into it, now that Ash has 4 badges and we're 1 year in?

Pros:

- BW trio team chemistry
- Iris and Cilan switch off between spotlight, neither feels ignored
- The bulk of the pokemon on the group are enjoyable
- Still decent pacing
- Serious Team Rocket will hopefully lead to something
- Nice rivals like Burungly, Langely, Bianca and Kenyan.
Click to expand...

You hit the nail on the head with this one. Everything you said was completely correct, can't argue with ya there.


Gliscor'd said:
Cons:

- Trip is the least interesting main rival Ash has ever had. A huge disappointment coming after Paul and even Gary for that matter.
- Pikachu is being shoved down our throats again
- Gym battles feel medicore this gen, much worse than DP standards
- Ash's pokemon rotation is handled badly. Ash capturing more than 6 pokemon is really showing how they can't give them all proper screentime. Seems like an experiment that backfired IMO.
- Team Plasma has completely disappeared, and we're now 55 episodes into the saga
- Giovanni started off like he was making a comeback to the show, and he disappeared
- Meowth worked better with Ash and co. than the new Jessie/James
Click to expand...

Ditto! It's extremely disappointing how Trip is being handled. It's as if the writers signed a contract stating that every serious rival Ash would have would never be able to compare to Paul. To be fair, Paul is hard to Top, the same with Drew, the same with Harley.

It's kind of like Katy Perry trying to top Beyonce when I Kissed A Girl just hit the radio airwaves.
 
In my opinion, the greatest strength of BW is its ability to create a true, definitive trio composed of characters that are completely different from one another yet are able to interact with each other on a personal level. It wasn't like DP or AG where Brock was forced into an already existing dynamic between two separate characters. It certainly wasn't like the original series either when Ash and Misty interacted with one another very personally, and the third character (Brock or Tracey) was a third wheel presenting his quirks to the table. It is very important to note that even though Iris and Cilan are not co-stars in the same respect that May and Dawn were, they are still relevant in a vast majority of episodes that aired so far.

Of course, my biggest pet peeve of BW thus far has literally nothing to do with the execution of certain storylines or characters. No, what I disliked the most about BW so far was Jessie and James switching their uniforms. Originally we assumed that these two characters changed the color schemes of their uniforms in order to convey that they are affliated with Team Rocket as field operatives instead of scheming on their own. After Giovanni allowed TRio the freedom to "do their own thing," so to speak, Jessie and James immediately switched back to the white and black color scheme that they were most famous for prior to BW. Since TRio's main objectives are no longer associated with interacting with Ash and his companions, and the majority of their missions were assigned to them by a high-ranking member from the organization, why did a costume change take place?
 
Too bad for a lack of a main girl, but a pro for me is taht they went back to just having Ash as the main protagonist rather than have a temporary female protagonist. It's nice going back to the Ash with two gym leaders (or something like that) thing. I guess it's interesting to see Ash with the three starters too...

I've been watching BW! on and off, but... so far... none of the episodes I've seen were super interesting (haven't seen further than the dub- the thing with Zekrom was okay until Pikachu recovered shortly afterward).

Much of the BW! music I heard wasn't that special to me. =/

I still think there's background music from the past that they've never/rarely used, and along with new pieces, I'd prefer they use many of those.

......... I don't know where to rank this region with earlier ones. I really do need to see more episodes....
 
Pros

-Iris she's one of the most enjoyable things about BW thus far, her dead-pan snarker attitude and her emotional sides are all so enjoyable, as well as her Pokemon.
-Dento, it's a damn shame we haven't seen anything focus on his "Sommelier" goal, but his Pokemon are fun Yanappu is a monkey he's got a great Ishizumai and Maggyo um...is decent.
-Langley best damn rival in the whole BW show, you could literally see the intensity jumping at you when she was watching Iris's Kibago Legendary Wrath the heck outta Luke's Gobitto and then she didn't leave with a mean or snarky attitude she left telling Iris to work harder on her Dragon Master goal, it holds intensity to her character while showing her other sides like how she was soft toward Bel.
-Mijumaru, I love that little guy he's defiantly awesome he's fun, and he's crazy and a fierce battler and a underdog.
-Adeku, he's a awesome champ maybe even better then Shirona. Here's hoping his time is enjoyable and hopefully, his situation is going to be one where a life(his deceased Poke) meets another life something will be born.


Middle Man Area
-Um..Team Rocket I don't hate them, I don't super love them either. I'm in the middle on one hand I like how they aren't appearing in every ep, and doing the typical "Grass Attack, Blast Off, Motto" thing and there showing more of there serious and reliable side. But, at the same time I like Nyasu a lot and I would like them to have a pinch more screen time, maybe a few eps throwen in there like the "Hitomoshi ep" thank God, TPCi stopped having them Alliterate and shit. Those idiots in the dub were the most annoying part of the show for me, TPCi still throws the occasional rhyme in there. But, still I like Team Rocket, I do hope that we see more of Nyasu's "Nyagotiator" goal.

More to come later. ^^;
 
I'm loving it so far. Massive improvement from DP. I wasn't sure I'd take to Iris, but I did almost immediately. I new I'd like Cilan. I'm not crazy about his character but he's likeable and fills Brock's shoes quite well. I love all the new Pokemon, especially Ash's three starters, then again I don't think I've ever disliked Ash's starter Pokemon, from any gen. I was worried that Kibago could be another Piplup, any Pokemon with an exuberant character could easily become overbearing when over exposed, but Kibago is quite soft natured and not annoying in the slightest to me. I vastly prefer the Japanese episodes over the American ones. I don't bother watching the American dub anymore at all, which is a first since I usually only watch the dub version. They've improved the writing, introducing more recurring characters and giving Iris and Cilan their own rivals. The music is really catchy and the animation is beautiful in HD.

The only complaints I have are TR's role. The serious thing isn't working for me. I never thought I'd say it, but I think they're passed their expiration date.
The other thing that bores me is Shooti. Nothing about his character that particularly bothers me. I'd probably really like him if his role hadn't just been portrayed for the last 4 years, by someone with different colored hair.
 
Hm, the biggest pro for me for this series is the chemistry between Satoshi, Iris, and Dento. I love it! It's not dull (like the DP trio which was too painful for me to even continue watching). It actually has life and doesn't bore me to death. Both Dento and Iris are interesting characters, and I like their quirks. I like the ironic humor of Iris and the over-the-top character of Dento who obviously has a dark side and a hatred and distrust of Choroneko. ;-) Dento and Iris' rivals are also interesting.

Another pro is the way the Rockets are being handled this series. I like the fact that they aren't focused on capturing Pikachu and have other stuff to do. The way they're being portrayed for BW was the way I always assumed they could be based on their debut ep and how they were considered dangerous and stuff...before becoming permanent comedy relief. So anyway, yeah, the eps are okay so far to me and seems that the only ep that bugged me most was the one with the Kindergarten. Satoshi just straight up annoyed me for that ep for some reason. Oh well. Other eps that bored me some are ones that have Shuuti in it...unless there are other characters around to.

The main cons for the series are Shuuti, no Cheren as a rival to Bel maybe (but this is just personal for me since I really liked the character), and the fact that there is nothing dealing with Team Plasma or N.

Shuuti is boring as a rival. Even knowing why he wants to become a trainer doesn't help. There's just something lacking there. I don't dislike the character or anything...he's just not interesting.

Let's see, it's also sad that Team Plasma's eps were dropped. I hope they incorporate them in some way. I actually want them to clash with whatever it is Sakaki is trying to accomplish.
 
Oh, to weigh the pros and cons of what we have so far in BW... predict walls of bitchy paragraphs, but to put it simply I think the series is terrible.

It'd be quicker to go through with the positives I see in it first, I guess...

Cilan: I was lukewarm to him at first because I didn't comprehend the buttloads of hype he pretty much immediately got, and though his reason for traveling Ash is still sort of "ehh" to me, they at least made the attempt to justify it a little better and of the trio, I find him to be the least-offensive and most competently written character. He fulfills his role as the mentor sidekick figure well, and goes one step further in getting involved in many of the episode's plots, even if they don't directly involve him. He has meaningful things to say and his quirks can definitely liven up an episode. As far as characters go, I think they're doing the best with Cilan. Whether or not that has anything to do with Mamoru Miyano is a mystery, though.

Bianca & Burgundy: Technically I'd put Georgia in here too, but I want to see how she's handled after the Don Battle tourney to pass the ultimate judgment on her, given that her intro was pure shit and having the benefit of having awesome characters to interact with by her next appearance may have been a variable that her character might rely on, because I have a sneaking suspicion she'll have Ursula Syndrome with Iris down the road. But Bianca and Burgundy really liven things up and make the story interesting from a competitive perspective... well, in theory. I really hope they have Bianca make a monster surprise comeback by the end of the series and like, win the League or something, because these curbstomp losses aren't doing her any favors. Beyond that, Bianca's a very interesting character who's easy to relate to, and I maintain that she still should have been the token girl of the BW trio because her backstory and long road to her growth is much more compelling than what we have now. When it comes down to it, I do see her as Barry with Tits most of the time, but she has enough unique features to stand out in her own right. Burgundy had an awesome introduction and her interaction with Cilan is amazing. It was her debut episode that made me actively like Cilan, actually, so as a rival she's definitely doing her job in fulfilling her role. I wish she'd be more of a significant threat, but other than that, she's an excellent addition to the rival set. These two are proof positive that BW can still write well-developed, awesome characters, which is why I feel the need to be especially harsh on the characters where they've failed at this.

Snivy & Scraggy: Technically Oshawott might apply here in some vague sense, because Oshawott on its worst day is still better than Piplup was on its best day by far... but I never really liked the favoritism in the starters, which I knew was bound to happen if Ash got all three again. But I'll save that for the bitching section. Anyway, a haughty, Attract-abusing girl is an interesting change of pace for Ash's new Grass-type starter and Snivy has on more than one occasion entertained me with her antics. The fact that she won't put up with Emolga's bullshit is also awesome, and Ash's Snivy x Trip's Serperior is probably the best ship in BW ever. I'm hoping she continues to stand out and be awesome throughout the series, because she really deserves it. Scraggy is easily the most interesting baby Pokemon we've had on the show; there's just something great about having an ill-mannered baby wanting to give everything it sees a massive concussion. The little moments Scraggy has are just priceless ones and I'm glad Ash has it on his team.

Animation style: This is a partial pro for reasons I'll explain further down, but like everyone else I was impressed with the new rendition of the Iron Tail attack and I enjoyed seeing how BW really makes the attacks even flashier than before. And I'll admit I do like Ash's shoujo-kawaii desu eyes... though the lack of sclera in choice Unovan citizens is a little weird, IMO.

That's... all I can really think of for positives right now. This is kinda sad... oh well. Negatives!

Continuity? What continuity?: Alright, they'll throw one-off nods to continuity now and then with throwaway lines and cameos, but for the most part BW likes to pretend the previous series never happened, even though it is canonly following after the events of DP. The transition of Ash's character between series just does not match up in my head. Part of it I'm sure is because we're back to an Ash-only focused series after 8 years of having to share some of that spotlight with the girls, but ironically I think they're doing a poor job of it because it feels like they're nerfing Ash in more ways than one - his Pokemon, his training methods, and especially his battling logic. I really don't like Ash's sudden hatred of type advantages and how the crappy writing tries to justify this by having the majority of Ash's battles won with him having a type disadvantage. Yes, type match-ups aren't everything in battling, but they certainly aren't completely meaningless either, and that's how this series tends to treat the concept. There are so many examples of Ash's behavior contradicting the character development he's had in the past that I've lost count and I'm not gonna list them all, but in general Ash feels like he's regressed to his Johto persona for no good reason in this series. Though there is an element to this...

Iris. Just... Iris: If she's well-received elsewhere that's fine, but I think she's by far the worst protagonist of the entire series. Her personality is grating, she snarks at Ash for no good reason (which makes her all the more unappealing to me), but since Ash won't sink to her level and respond to Iris' attempts to troll him, we're left with some pretty meaningless exchanges that do nothing to build on their friendship. While I can feel a genuine friendship vibe with Ash and Cilan - just as I've felt with all past traveling groups, even DP's - I don't feel that vibe with Iris and Ash or Cilan. Sure, on the rare occasion there's a science vs superstition thing for Iris and Cilan, but they really don't amount to much in the grand scheme of things and I think it's overhyped. If she ever gets called out on her hypocrisy or behavior, it's always a one-off inconsequential comment that goes nowhere and doesn't change anything. As the series has shown, despite making her out to be some struggling newb in the beginning for no adequately explained reason, Iris is actually a child prodigy who got talented by dicking around in the woods as a youngster and beating up wild Pokemon with her bare hands. Apparently people from the Village of Dragons are super-special snowflakes by genetics since the Iris-focused episodes serve to glorify her abilities rather than have her struggle or learn something new in her journey to become a Dragon Master. She's a vine-swinger, a human navigator because she can climb trees, make medicine at the most convenient times, has superhuman eyesight, and already has the "dragon whisperer" thing down pat. Only "hurdle" she really has left is getting Axew up to speed and maybe consider getting another Dragon-type down the road if she's going to be a so-called master of all dragons while only having an Axew that we see her getting experience with. Point is, she just isn't fun to watch and unlike Cilan, she often doesn't do her part in getting involved in plots or even Team Rocket skirmishes. When fun things are going on and Iris is in the background, she has a tendency to totally kill the mood with an unwarranted negative comment. Given than Iris virtually has all the qualifications to be a Dragon Master in her own right and can probably get Axew to grow on her own since I've rarely seen her take advice from Ash and Cilan anyway, it still makes me wonder, over 50 episodes in, why Iris needs to be in this group. At least with May and Dawn you knew they'd be pretty much lost without a guide and moral support, but Iris seems to be above all that. And above character development too, since she's gotten far too many lucky shots so far and it serves absolutely no purpose. And her Axew has no business learning Outrage at all. Just sayin'. I think the point I'm getting at is that Iris is terrible and not only drags herself down, but everyone around her as well.

Trip: There seems to be virtually no effort put into Trip at all. He is literally a color-reversed, saturated palette swap of Paul in design, and while he isn't Paul in character to a tee, he is WAY too self-assured and competent for a newbie, especially against a guy who has four regions of experience over him. He's caught a shit-ton of Pokemon in a very short amount of time and somehow, despite starting out on his own, he's already got all of his Pokemon's kinks worked out and he can use them all effortlessly in battle. He hates on Kanto for no goddamn reason, so hello xenophobe, and there's really a poor foundation to his rivalry with Ash. It isn't even focused now, because Trip wants to battle Iris because she has a Dragon-type and I wouldn't be surprised if he went after Cilan next time because of the Don Battle. There's just really nothing to him, and it was a major misstep for this series to make their main rival a Paul-offshoot. It's hard enough to fill those shoes as it is, but by making a low-effort parody of his character is just setting him up for failure before you even start.

Various Main Cast Pokemon: Oshawott, stop trying to be Piplup. It just makes you harder to not dislike. I'm sure this'll eventually lead up to Ash's first fully-evolved Water-type (Kingler aside), but the road to get there is full of unnecessary focus, I'm sure. Tepig, get a personality or go jump off a cliff and end it now. Seriously, why did they even bother giving Tepig the same backstory they've given to all of Ash's other Fire-type starters? They're not even doing shit with it. Tranquill, you're doomed to obscurity and there's nothing you can do about that. Swadloon, you sucked the moment you evolved and honestly you weren't needed. Palpitoad, are you ever going to serve a purpose again now that you've done your role against Elesa? Roggenrola... just get out. I'm serious; the fuck are you even doing here. Ash, you cannot use a tank for shit unless its name is Snorlax. Why are you even bothering? Stop catching everything that moves and train the damn Pokemon you have. And when I say that I mean besides fucking Oshawott. Maybe that way more than half your team will have a personality and we'll give a shit when we see them!

None of Iris' Pokemon appeal to me because they all only develop through plot magic instead of hard work and character growth, just like Iris herself.

Animation: While the flashy animations for the battling moves look nice, they're only good for recycling so many times before the viewers catch on that you're being really really lazy, animators. Stop wanking at your awesome single-perspective animation and get back to work.

Team Rocket: Y'know, if they had any idea what they were doing with this storyline and were competent in making the story compelling and interesting, I wouldn't have a problem with the sudden serious attitudes of TR. But as is stands, they're boring as sin - as if they've had the life sucked out of them and leaving only dry husks in fancy polished animation - and so many of their srs biz scenes are just pointless time-wasters. If you're gonna organize a major change to a set of characters you've been developing for over a decade, it goes without saying that some significant EFFORT needs to go into this change so viewers can stomach it better. But this series as a whole is "CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE HURRDURR" without any regards to quality or consequences, so it's really not surprising that TR's fared this badly with their plot that's currently going nowhere.

WTF, Pikachu: Okay. Zekrom I understand, even though that still isn't excuse enough to be defeated by a Snivy with no prior battle experience when Quick Attack and Iron Tail were still fully available. But since then Pikachu's power level has been highly inconsistent in the show and it's notable enough to bother me. Bitching about being benched even though it had NO PROBLEM AT ALL doing this in DP is just another inconsistency thing I've mentioned before, and overall Pikachu's just harder for me to withstand this series with the bullshit that surrounds it. I'm also one who doesn't approve of Volt Tackle getting replaced by Electro Ball... I mean, Volt Tackle is a signature move of the Pikachu line. Why not replace Thunderbolt? Almost every Pokemon and their grandmother can learn that move, it's been around FOREVER and Emolga could've taken the reigns for it easily (I'm... assuming it can learn Thunderbolt), and it would have maintained balance in Pikachu having one physical electric move and one special. But nope, we can't have things making sense in BW.

Move Favoritism: Alright, it was funny (and ironic) with Ash's Snivy, kinda tolerable with Iris' Emolga... but let's not have every Pokemon in the damn show eventually learn the damn move, okay? Running the joke into the ground is only going to kill it forever. Then again, BW seems to have that problem with running jokes in general.

Gym Leaders: Elesa's getting her proper due, at least, but the Gym Leaders of Unova are just pitiful compared to the Gym Leaders of Sinnoh. Crasher Wake and Byron aside, ALL Sinnoh Gym Leaders got at least 4 episodes to be featured in which really helped flesh them out and make them out to be more than just glorified CotDs. Before Elesa, the best we honestly had was Cilan/Chili/Cress, and the latter two were featured the least of the Gym Leaders so far. Lenora was okay, but not groundbreaking. Burgh was straight-up dull, though. When his intro episode centers on following a damn bug so everyone can observe the mundane-ass life of a bug, you know that's bad. The gym battles so far have all had some pretty notable faults to them - some more than others - that hamper my ability to enjoy them like I enjoyed Sinnoh's Gym Battles. I'm glad Elesa was given good characterization, but the nature of the gym battle and the battle itself just seems to fall on a lot of moral issues where you either loved the battle or you didn't. I don't like it when it's that polarizing. I'm hoping the next half of the Gym Leaders are handled better, but naturally I have my doubts.

Pacing and the Filler/Plot ratio: A little over a year into BW, we've already got half of the badges Ash needs for the Unova League. We have no Contest arc to stall for time this series. Things were scarily fast-paced before the start of the journey to Nimbasa City, and it makes me wonder just what they're planning? Incompetently as this series has been handled, I have no idea if they've got a filler arc in store for post-League (given that there is a lot of stuff to do post-plot in the games) or if they're going to stretch the story out to obscene lengths to fill the next three estimated years before we expect Gen VI stuff (which would be like, beyond Johto-horrible). Not knowing what to expect for what they'll do in the future is a little distressing, if only because I don't trust the people behind this series as far as I could throw them. And I'm not even going to get into the mess that is Team Plasma's absence and whether or not they'll even TRY with N (even if he is brought into the anime, what are the odds they'll ruin his character? Very high, of course). That in of itself is just another can of worms among many. But I would like to note that I am displeased with the lack of training episodes in BW; those were very beneficial in DP, both for the Pokemon and the human characters. By averting it and only rarely doing training episodes in favor of more full-fledged fillers (that may try to squeeze one tiny event in to somehow make it not filler), the series feels increasingly off-balance.

Y'know, the sad thing is that there's probably more stuff I could complain about, but now my brain's tapped out and this thing is long enough. Go ahead and gape.

tl;dr: BW is terrible.
 
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Shinneth said:
Continuity? What continuity?: Alright, they'll throw one-off nods to continuity now and then with throwaway lines and cameos, but for the most part BW likes to pretend the previous series never happened, even though it is canonly following after the events of DP. The transition of Ash's character between series just does not match up in my head. Part of it I'm sure is because we're back to an Ash-only focused series after 8 years of having to share some of that spotlight with the girls, but ironically I think they're doing a poor job of it because it feels like they're nerfing Ash in more ways than one - his Pokemon, his training methods, and especially his battling logic. I really don't like Ash's sudden hatred of type advantages and how the crappy writing tries to justify this by having the majority of Ash's battles won with him having a type disadvantage. Yes, type match-ups aren't everything in battling, but they certainly aren't completely meaningless either, and that's how this series tends to treat the concept. There are so many examples of Ash's behavior contradicting the character development he's had in the past that I've lost count and I'm not gonna list them all, but in general Ash feels like he's regressed to his Johto persona for no good reason in this series. Though there is an element to this...
Click to expand...

I agree. I really just think Ash was regressed simply because there's no beginning female trainer in the show this time. It's a real shame, because Ash could have been kept competent even with Iris/Cilan being already established trainers. Granted Ash isn't a total moron this series, but he does seem to be back to somewhere where he was in late Johto in terms of personality and battle style. In fact the BW Ash does seem very similar to Johto era Ash, which was actually the Ash I liked the least. *shrug*

As for his team, there's no doubt they will start evolving eventually, and his "extra captures" are really meant to be nothing more than battle machines. Hence why the starters are so heavily used over the others.
 
Quoted for truth:
"As with any saga, my view on this one is mixed. It started out really promising at the start, but some things really feel like they've regressed or gotten worse."

This new series has pretty much killed my following of the anime sadly :(
 
Shinneth pretty much said everything I wanted to regarding Iris, Pikachu, FREAKING ATTRACT, and the Gym Leaders (so true about Burgh argh he was so boring), so I'll just say that I was pretty disappointed in a lot of the episodes. Most of them have fairly uninteresting plots and thus are fairly unmemorable, which is a shame. The gym battles have traditionally been my favorite episodes in seasons past; now, the gym battles are woefully underwhelming, poorly written, and, frankly, bullcrap. The fact that we're a year in and have yet to see Team Plasma bothers me as well; even if the missing episodes DID air, that's one appearance. And finally, though this might seem like a nitpicky thing, Castelia was very underwhelming as well. I was looking forward to this massive, unparalleled city with huge skyscrapers and stuff, but it looked like any other big city, like Goldenrod or something.

That being said, there are good points to the show as well; I think Georgia and Burgundy have tremendous potential for being awesome rivals, provided they don't get the shaft later on. I find them fun and they've got great personalities. Cilan's overdramatic sparkletasticness is fabulous, and I always love watching his antics. Oshawott gets a lot of flack from the fandom for being an attention whore but I love him and his ridiculousness anyway.

In the not-so-distant future, I hope Clay gets handled well, because he's my favorite Gym Leader, and since he's pretty much The Boss of Unova, I think that ruining Clay would totally destroy my enjoyment of this series. /bias what bias?
 
I honestly feel what is holding up BW is Iris and Cilan themselves.

The general eps this saga haven't been all that special or great, its just the group dynamics that make them feel better. I think its just the fact that we have a trio with actual chemistry again, something the DP trio never had. I honestly think the reason some people found DP boring was just the DP trio itself, not really the episodes.

So for me, the BW trio is saving some of the not-so-great BW eps we've gotten. And I honestly like Axew a hell of a lot more than Piplup. If we're going to have a pokemon out of its ball in every episode, at least Axew isn't as intrusive as Piplup was.
 
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