Why Was BW So Bad? Multi-Level Theory

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Anyone else notice how BW is the only series, since the first one that Ash's main traveling companion are people he never met before? Maybe this is why everyone's interactions sucked so much?

What makes it so different to the original series, is that Misty was harsh on Ash, while Brock was way more lax and calm about things (that don't involve girls). This gave us a good contrast of people.
BW on the other hand, had two VERY abrasive companions, one of which won't stop saying Ash is a kid and the other is very passionate about pretty much anything.

Orange Islands and Johto had Misty
Johto, Hoenn, Kanto BF and Sinnoh had Brock
Kalos had Alexa (temporarily) and Serena

The only time Ash got to be with someone he had traveled with before was Dawn, but by then most of the damage had already been done.

To me, Iris and Cilan are more joke characters than anything else, as Iris had all of her Pokémon disobey her at one point and Cilan was just there to obsess over things, with no real depth to his character.
It even got to the point where their "rivals" disappeared off the face of Unova!

It's not just these two who got the shaft, as BW had much less emphasis on character development and battles overall than any other series. Most of the time evolution was used to "mask" the lack of development, as we can see with Unfezant, Boldore and Leavanny.
The rest of Ash's Unova Pokémon either got much more spotlight with no to little development (Snivy and Oshawott), very rarely shows up (Palpitoad) or actually had an actual character arc (Pignite, Scraggy and Krookodile).


What went wrong?
Well, since it was made to be more like the original series than a proper continuation, Ash's competence went down and even had two game Gym Leaders as companions.
However, dumbing down Ash for the sake of "the good old days" didn't really go too well, as the series was still classed as canon to the rest of the series, instead of having a mini reboot.

Another Issue is Ash went back to capturing random Pokémon, which didn't really fare too well to begin with, as we rarely ever see Kingler or Muk.

All in all, I think this series was doomed to failure, as there are several things going against it, like Ash losing to a first-time trainer, a very rushed league and overall very bad pacing.
 

precita

Aspiring Trainer
Member
What went wrong was just the writing style. Ash was regressed for the first time ever, he captured tons of pokemon with no development, it had the worst league, and then a pointless filler arc where nothing happened. Serious TR was also botched and that could have been great. His main rival, Trip, was also an absolutely awful character and forgettable rival.

I like to work on my theory that the writers were frustrated that they couldn't allow Ash to win a league because the higher-ups who control the franchise told them no, so they had to drop the Elite 4 foreshadowed from DP and have Ash lose to a legendary trainer and then reboot him.

Its pretty easy to tell when DP was originally airing the writers had big plans for the end of the region. Around the time of the 1 year gap between the last two Gyms is probably when the writers were told they weren't allowed to have Ash win a league for whatever reason, so the end of DP was likely rewritten with different ideas. So a possible Elite 4 arc was scraped, Cynthia promising to meet Ash in the league was done away with, and hence Tobias receiving no characterisation and coming out of the blue.

My guess is after BW went poorly the writers were allowed to do what they want again with XY. XY feels like a far more natural continuation of DP almost as if BW never happened. Of course he might lose the league again in XY too, but at least the build up is there again.

I also find it odd that Iris hasn't had her cameo and XY has more than 100 episodes now. By this point in all previous sagas, Misty, May and Dawn made their cameo returns. If the writers really don't give Iris a cameo arc then its a sure sign they don't want anything to do with BW and view her character as a mistake.
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
That would explain why I hate the second half of DP so much.

Though, I don't quite understand why characterization was given a back seat in BW. Even if Ash couldn't develop much, his Pokémon could still have grown.
For example, Pidove was shown to be kind of dumb and modest, so she could have been a ditzy Pokémon and when she evolved, she was a bit more sensitive, so maybe she could have been shown crying when other Pokémon attacked her.

Another problem I have with BW, is the league was WAY too soon and there's no reason why Ash couldn't have got to 4th place like in the last league. I mean, he could have got Snivy to use Attract on Lucario and she probably would have won.

Also, for a show that's meant to advertise, they really didn't show much B2W2 content outside of the Gyms and PokéStar Studios.
 

TokenDuelist

YGO TCG is Cheaper. Fight me.
Member
Best Wishes was bad because there was absolutely no development for the characters whatsoever. The animators chose to keep most of his Pokemon in their basic form and rely on them for the most intense battles. This led to battles looking ridiculous and unrealistic as far as Pokemon terms go. Iris was definitely not cute at all in the anime, and Cilan was the only saving grace of the team because he was the comedy relief.

I expected a lot more out of the Team Plasma arc, and was very disappointed. Even when they brought Charizard back. XY is perhaps the best we've had in a while. I want them to DEVELOP Ash as a character again. He needs to grow, he needs to win a league, he needs a few seasons where he picks some of the best Pokemon he's got and actually has intense battles. He won't become a Pokemon Master if he beats a Pokemon League. In order to become a Pokemon Master he'd have to win as many as possible. When the writers went "If he won a league we'd have to end the show." as an example, it makes me think they just don't want to go deep enough with the plot.
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
At least Ash will have a full team of FE mon when Noibat evolves (excluding Pikachu).
 

StriatonIsMagic

I'll Never Forget This Day
Member
That would explain why I hate the second half of DP so much.

Though, I don't quite understand why characterization was given a back seat in BW. Even if Ash couldn't develop much, his Pokémon could still have grown.
For example, Pidove was shown to be kind of dumb and modest, so she could have been a ditzy Pokémon and when she evolved, she was a bit more sensitive, so maybe she could have been shown crying when other Pokémon attacked her.

Another problem I have with BW, is the league was WAY too soon and there's no reason why Ash couldn't have got to 4th place like in the last league. I mean, he could have got Snivy to use Attract on Lucario and she probably would have won.

Also, for a show that's meant to advertise, they really didn't show much B2W2 content outside of the Gyms and PokéStar Studios.
The fact that there was virtually no BW2 content adds to my BW2-in-alternate-Unova theory.
 
Top