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themattress · 1 year

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Re-evaluating Diamond/Pearl?

With Ash’s time as the protagonist of the Pokeani behind us, I wanted to look back at my least favorite (and only straight-up disliked) series in the anime: Diamond/Pearl. Is it really as bad as I’ve always felt it was? Weeeell....no and yes. See, what I’ve come to understand more and more is that it was never really what’s in Diamond/Pearl that bothered me, it’s how they were used and, perhaps more importantly, how they were paced. Diamond/Pearl’s sense of pacing is abysmal, and that’s what really drags its elements down for me. I think that if I was a kid, I wouldn’t mind, so I don’t begrudge fans of Diamond/Pearl who grew up on it; more power to you. But I grew up on the Original Series, and while I kind of fell out of touch with the anime thanks to Johto, Advanced Generation was paced well enough that I had no problem checking back in from time to time and enjoying its better elements like May’s arc. Diamond/Pearl was just too exhausting for me, and IMO it’s pay-offs never made up for that.

Let’s run down the show’s main recurring components, shall we?

Ash's badge quest: Ash getting his first badge took from episodes 15-18, which immediately showcases a pacing problem. One episode to watch Paul get the badge, then an episode for Ash to try and fail, then a breather episode, and then a second attempt where Ash succeeds. Why drag it out that long? You could’ve had him get it on his first try; or if you wanted him to fail and try again, don’t waste time with Paul beforehand! It then takes 19 episodes until Ash gets his second badge in episode 37. And if you think that’s long, it takes 29 episodes before he even reaches the next city in episode 66, the kind of length that brings back bad “between Fuchsia and Cinnabar Gyms” from Kanto memories, and he doesn’t win his badge until two episodes later in episode 68. After this, things abruptly settle back to the way it was paced before: his next badge comes 15 episodes later in episode 83, then his next badge 19 episodes later in episode 102. But then, it takes just 6 episodes for his next badge in episode 108, only to then have another 19 episodes before his penultimate badge in episode 127. Last but not least, the infamous stretch where it took a whopping 48 episodes (that’s an entire year’s worth!) before he reaches the final Gym in episode 165...only for a complication in the following episode causing him to have to wait 13 more episodes before finally earning his last badge in episode 179! This was the biggest slog of a badge quest EVER, bar none.

Paul: At first, Paul isn’t paced well in his appearances and clashes with Ash, starting up in episode 3, then showing up again just 3 episodes later in episode 6, then 9 episodes later in episode 15....only to disappear for 24 whole episodes until he resurfaces in episode 40. It’s like the show just forgot about him for a while there. But he’s never forgotten about ever again, appearing in episodes 46, 50-53, 64, 66, 69, 74, 81, 100, 118, 127-133, 155, 163, and 182-188, and that’s not including silent cameos, flashbacks and mentions from time to time. So Paul’s issues were resolved pacing-wise; the problem now lay solely in his content, which was a repetitive, go-nowhere exercise in bothersome creator’s favoritism and asinine moral equivalency to the point of abuse apologism, meaning that unlike Silver whom he was based on, Paul wouldn’t get a real redemption arc because as far as Atsuhiro Tomioka and the characters he warped (even Cynthia!) were concerned he barely did anything wrong. The end result is me greatly disliking Paul......and not for the reasons I should be disliking him for.

Dawn's contest arc: The pace for this one once it gets going is episodes 11-12, 26-27, 49, 61, 77-79, 95, 114, 146, 161-162, 167, and 171-177. In this case, the problems are the 22 episode gap between her second and third contests and the 42 episode gap between her seventh and eighth contests (and she doesn’t even win said eighth contest, meaning we waited nearly a year just for her to see her lose to a cross-dressing James!) It’s not quite as bad as Ash’s badge quest, but it’s also nowhere near as good as May’s two contest arcs from the previous series. But Dawn has a much bigger problem than her contest arc, and that’s...

Dawn's self-confidence issues: So when Dawn fails to make it past the Appeals Round in her third contest, she has a crisis of self-confidence, which should be interesting....except then it’s immediately dropped, only to start up all over again 12 episodes later in her next contest where the same goddamn thing happens! Why do that? Why start an arc, then stop it a minute later, then start it up again after some time passes? You could argue that Dawn could’ve just written the first failure off as a fluke so she needed another one to really depress her, but given that she lost her first contest and only barely won her second, I think she was on shaky enough ground as it is. But anyway, this arc of hers progresses for 18 episodes until it just abruptly resolves itself through her unconvincing victory over May in the Wallace Cup in episode 79. Afterward, Dawn has no personal struggles to overcome, just random issues with Pokemon such as Mamoswine or Plusle and Minun. In a 191-episode series, her character stopped growing 79 episodes in, which again reflects this show’s complete failure of pacing.

Brock: He gets nothing. Moving on.

Chimchar: Once Paul abandons him in episode 51, Ash picks him up in episode 52, and then his personal issues get resolved in episode 53. Or at least it seems that way. Episode 81 rather randomly re-opens his personal obstacles relating to Paul’s past abuse of him, and this leads to a very predictable outcome where he evolves in episode 132 to defeat Paul but fails, evolves again in episode 163, then defeats Paul at the last possible minute in episode 188. Honestly, they should’ve just had him utterly own Paul in that battle. It’d be more cathartic.

Buizel and Aipom: This is one of the weirdest continuing plot threads. Zoey first brings up that Ash oughta trade his Aipom to Dawn in episode 11, since Aipom does better in Contests than in battles. Later, in episode 34, Dawn catches a Buizel that’s clearly more adept at battles than Contests, leading for Zoey to make the trading suggestion again. After 20 episodes have passed, Ash and Dawn randomly decide to finally go ahead and make that trade in episode 55. But while Buizel does well enough for Ash, Aipom (now Ambipom) ends up suddenly developing a love and talent for Ping Pong of all things in episode 123, leading to Dawn releasing it in the following episode so that it can go pursue its newfound dream of becoming a Ping Pong Champion. So in the end poor Dawn got a raw deal with this trade!

Mamoswine: So Dawn’s Swinub evolves into Piloswine, becomes surly and disobedient toward her, then quickly evolves into Mamoswine and is more powerful but has the same rotten personality. But eventually, Dawn healing a grave injury it suffers makes it care about her again and become obedient and reliable. Aside from costing Dawn an important match, this is literally the exact same arc as Ash’s Charizard, dragged across 35 episodes and doing nothing unique. I wouldn’t mind so much except that Ash is still right there on the show, so there’s no valid reason for recycling this arc. In fact, it’s not the only time this happened - Pikachu’s evolution dilemma from Ash’s battle with Lt. Surge was recycled with Piplup in episode 122...which was after it had already been recycled with Ash and Pikachu themselves in episode 74! Again, pacing isn’t this series’ only problem: the lackluster content is too.

Hippopostas: Basically a rehash of Spoink from the previous series, it shows up in one episode (episode 44) as a set-up, then reappears later (episode 65) for pay-off. Like Snubbull from Johto, it seems like the writers were trying to recapture the success of Jigglypuff without running the joke into the ground the way Jigglypuff was, but none of these attempts worked.

Zoey: Zoey’s appearances were paced out relatively well (appearing in episodes 11-12, 34, 41, 49, 55, 77-79, 93, 126-128, 155, 174-177 plus the occasional silent cameo, flashback or mention), but like Paul she suffered in content. Whereas Paul was a character who just went nowhere because as far as Tomioka was concerned he was near-perfect as is, Zoey clearly was going somewhere at first, having a distinct dislike of people pursuing badges from Gyms and doing Contests at the same time. However, possibly due to reaction from fans who didn’t like her having a character flaw to overcome, it was just suddenly given up on when she shows up in episode 77, now being totally cool with people doing both. The explanation we’re later given into episode 126 as to why she had a problem with it to begin with is pretty underwhelming and it just doesn’t really feel like it was the original plan with her character.

Kenny: Dawn’s childhood friend and rival appears in episodes 26-27, then reappears 33 episodes later in 60-61, then 60 episodes later in episodes 122-123, then 51 episodes later for the first round of the Grand Festival in episode 174, which he loses, causing him to leave and then randomly re-appear 6 episodes later for a send-off. If not for a few silent cameos here and there, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that he was even a character on the show. Another thing Kenny has going against him is that in his debut he teases Dawn by calling her “Dee Dee”, and we don’t learn what that even means until 135 episodes later, where we learn that as a young child...a Plusle and Minun caused Dawn’s hair to sparkle and the other kids laughed at this and called her “Diamond Dandruff”. That was it. Oh, and in the episode this is revealed we’re now suddenly expected to take this seriously, like Dawn has a legit phobia of Plusle and Minun over this experience that she has to overcome. It’s so STUPID.

Nando: Kenny’s got nothing on this guy though. Debuting in just episode 4 and set up as a rival for both Ash and Dawn since he’s pursuing both Gyms and Contests, but only shows up again 32 episodes later in episode 36, in a non-competitive usage no less! He then shows up to win a Contest 13 episodes later in episode 49, then barring some silent cameos makes his return at the Grand Festival in episodes 174-177...125 episodes later! A few episodes later he appears at the Sinnoh League in episode 182...then loses in the following episode and is never seen nor heard from ever again. What an absolute waste of a perfectly good character.

Ursula: Appearing to just be a one-off in episode 114, Ursula returned almost a year’s worth of episodes later in episodes 161-162, then returned for the Grand Festival in episodes 174-177. It feels like she was an attempt to recapture the success of Harley from the previous series as well as give Dawn an “asshole rival”, but it ended up being done too late in the game to make an impact. For what it’s worth, I like Ursula, and she deserved so much more.

Barry: It’s the second half of the series and suddenly the rival from the games said series is primarily marketing appears! Barry appears in episodes 101-103, 110-111, 122-124, 140-141, 157, 163, and 182-189, so his appearances are paced out just fine. The problem with him is threefold: he’s thrown in late in the game, is treated as a Jobber who always loses to Ash, and is insultingly used to prop up Paul, both in being a comic relief foil as a rival and by literally singing Paul’s praises every chance he gets (again a case of characterization being butchered for Paul’s sake). Barry’s a funny and enjoyable character, but he was poorly used.

Conway: A one-off from episodes 50-52, until he reappears as a Flanderized, more comical version of himself in episodes 88-91, and then out of nowhere at the Sinnoh League in episodes 182-185 where we’re suddenly expected to consider him a major rival to Ash! Nothing about how Conway is used is particularly offensive, mind you, just...confusing.

Cynthia and the Elite Four: Lucian appears in episode 35 and establishes the presence of the Champion and Elite Four in the Sinnoh Region. 5 episodes later the Champion herself, Cynthia, appears. She reappears 57 episodes later in episodes 96-97, then in just the space of 2 episodes we get Aaron, who goes on to challenge Cynthia for her title and fail in just the next episode. 50 episodes later Cynthia shows up to hep defeat Team Galactic, then 15 episodes after that we are introduced to Flint. Bertha appears 5 episodes after this, then 10 episodes after this Flint reappears and says he’s going to challenge Cynthia next. Cynthia is at the Sinnoh League in episodes182-189, and then in episode 191, the final episode of the series, we see that Flint lost his battle with her. So my question is what was the point in any of this? Many back in the day thought it was setting Ash up to win the Sinnoh League and get to challenge the Elite Four and Cynthia, but as we know that didn’t happen. I’m fine with the Elite Four and Cynthia showing up; it’s to be expected. But why give the sense of a building plotline surrounding them and Cynthia’s status as Champion only for nothing to happen?

Team Galactic: I’ve railed enough about this one in the past. To sum it up, the pacing is horrible (episodes 36, 60, 69, 96-97, 110-111, 130, 136, 150-152), the content even worse, and it does no justice to the characters and plotline of Team Galactic, especially with Cyrus.

The Lake Trio: This might be the worst case of build-up and pay-off in the whole damn series, which is saying something. Dawn sees Mesprit’s shadow in episode 1, then Ash sees Azelf’s in episode 78 (77 episodes later), and finally Brock sees Uxie’s in episode 133 (55 episodes later). The pay-off in episodes 150-152 is that Dawn, Ash and Brock are psychically bonded to the Lake Trio and use this bond resolve the conflict by....praying to them. Really. And why were they bonded to them? Because of how they represent Emotion, Willpower and Knowledge respectively? Nope! Just because “they care so much about Pokemon”. As if that’s something unique and special to them. Also, why even build something up in episode 1 and then pay it off with 39 whole episodes still left to go in the series? Shouldn’t the pay-off be near the end? There’s no excuse for this, no real life interference...it’s just bad writing.

Hunter J: Another case of there being no excuse. Hunter J debuts in episode 20, reappears 25 episodes later in episode 45, then around another 25 episodes later in episodes 71-72, then 57 episodes later in episode 129, and finally 21 episodes later in episodes 150-151, during the Team Galactic climax, where she is suddenly killed off. Hunter J is an OC, created for the anime! The writers had no limitations on how much they could have used her, and yet they barely did use her. Maybe they were concerned about the series being too dark if she was used too frequently, but in that case they could’ve just toned her down and kept her extra evil-ness reserved for special occasions. Also, why kill her off as part of a different storyline, and with no climactic face-off with Ash, Dawn and Brock given that she was being build up as their personal enemy? This was a fantastic villain, but the writers screwed the pooch with her.

Team Rocket: They appear in every single episode, and yet this is the one series where it feels like the writers are desperately trying to justify their continued existence from start to finish. Whether it be Jessie suddenly being treated as a credible Coordinator as “Jessalina” (in essence giving Dawn yet another rival when she’s already swamped with them), James’ whole backstory with Jessiebelle suddenly being brought up again, Meowth constantly being tempted to leave Team Rocket for what he perceives as greener pastures, or their feuds with Hunter J and Team Galactic so that those super dark villains have comical foils to compete with and thus brighten the mood a little, Team Rocket’s time in Sinnoh was a never-ending exercise in grasping at straws. Giovanni didn’t even remember they existed anymore, that’s how bad it was and how irrelevant yet shoved down our throats they felt. DP!TR sucks.

Angie: An character who shows up in the Summer Camp arc of episodes 88-91 as a Distaff Counterpart / shipping bait to Ash. 7 episodes later, she reappears and we learn a little more about her, so you’d be forgiven for thinking she’ll be recurring from here on out. Nope! Never seen again. Why even have that one reappearance at all? She’dve been fine as a one-off!

Lyra and Khoury: These two actually were one-offs, appearing in a mini-arc that lasted episodes 143-147, then never appearing again afterward. They were fine; I didn’t mind them.

Cheryl: Also a one-off, early in for episodes 30-32. Again, perfectly fine for what she was.

May: She had her obligatory return appearance in the Wallace Cup (episodes 75-79) sporting her Emerald design. Beyond me not buying her losing to Dawn, her presence was welcome and a helpful distraction from the fact that we’re only just now getting Wallace in the anime.

Gary: Gary Motherfucking Oak is the reason Ash went to Sinnoh to start with at the end of the previous series, but he only shows up in episodes 45, 85, and 150-152. It felt like a waste back then, and it’s worse now after Journeys used him in a recurring capacity much better.

To sum it up, I reiterate that my problem with Diamond/Pearl remains that it fails so badly in execution. Hypothetically, there is a series where every single one of these elements, or at least most of them (I don’t think there’s any salvaging the “Diamond Dandruff” thing), were used almost perfectly and created an engaging experience that was truly worth the series being four years long and spent in a single region. But sadly, that’s not the series we have.

If you like it, cool. I just...can’t.

#Pokemon #Diamond/Pearl #Opinion #Analysis #Comparison

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themattress · 1 year

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When Poke-History Repeats Itself

The Kalos Champion Diantha and Team Flare Boss Lysandre from Gen VI are blatantly recycled from Sinnoh Champion Cynthia and Team Galactic Boss Cyrus from Gen IV. Seriously, it couldn’t be more obvious. An elegant female champion whose English name ends in “tha”, whom isn’t revealed as the Champion until the end of her debut game’s story. An obviously evil-looking, constantly frowning man who runs a scientific company and desires to use his region’s ancient legends to cleanse the world of all he deems is ruining things. Giving those descriptions, it’d be anyone’s guess which character you’re talking about.

But what’s most funny of all about this is that these two heroine/villain duos also share an eerily similar trajectory in the franchise where they kind of sucked in their debut games, only to become stand-outs everywhere else they appear (other games, anime, manga, TCG, etc.)

Cynthia and Cyrus each have a grand total of four scenes in the original Diamond/Pearl games (and their 3D remakes). In that time, Cynthia comes off as an irrelevant character until her last scene where she’s revealed as the Champion. Cyrus’ introductory scenes come and go absurdly quickly without any dramatic impact, he has no interactions with his own team, his personal goal seems too divorced from how the rest of it was usually operating, his motivations are sketchy, and his suffers from a massively anti-climactic resolution. Both characters look cool and are great to battle, but you can’t help but feel they’re stuck in rough draft form. Then Platinum came along, fleshing both of them out considerably: Cynthia is now involved in the plot and helps you defeat Team Galactic, and all of Cyrus’ issues are mended.

The only other place they fumbled was in the Diamond/Pearl anime series where they were subjected to insulting OOC writing, but Cynthia improved dramatically in Best Wishes and Journeys, and the latter series even managed to posthumously use Cyrus to good effect. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing for them. The Pokemon Adventures manga, the Diamond & Pearl Adventure! manga, the TCG, the Generations animated web shorts, and games such as Black/White, Black 2/White 2, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Pokemon Masters. Heck, even Legends: Arceus, which they didn’t appear in, was able to deepen their characters in a way by implying that they both share blood from the descendants of Volo / Cogita and Cyllene.

In the X/Y games, Diantha also only has a number of scenes you can count on one hand and is also irrelevant to the story other than being the Champion you battle at the end. Lysandre gets a lot more screentime and development than Cyrus did in Diamond/Pearl, but it’s so badly written that it doesn’t really make much of a difference: by the end you still don’t really get why Lysandre is the way that he is, he and his extreme objective doesn’t match how Team Flare was depicted prior to the reveal, and his conclusion is not only anti-climactic but also straight-up confusing. It doesn’t help that the game’s narrative is horribly intellectually dishonest about his objective. Behind the scenes report indicate that neither character was remotely depicted the way they were originally conceived, which had a strong extra-terrestrial angle to it, so that explains a lot about how undercooked they both feel as a consequence.

And yet in the anime, Pokemon Adventures manga, TCG, Generations and Evolutions animated web shorts, and games such as Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Masters? They’re great! Diantha feels less like a hastily prepared discount version of Cynthia and more like her own person...she even has fantastic chemistry with Cynthia in Masters and the Journeys anime. Lysandre actually rivals Giovanni as a villain in the anime and TCG, he’s a well-written and compelling character in the manga and web shorts, and his depiction in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Masters is well above X/Y in terms of narrative consistency and intellectual honesty.

On the whole, I still prefer Cynthia and Cyrus to Diantha and Lysandre, but it’s cool that both sets of characters have been able to redeem themselves for their lackluster introductions.

#Pokemon #Diamond/Pearl #Pokemon X/Y #Cynthia #Cyrus #Team Galactic #Diantha #Lysandre #Team Flare #Comparison #Analysis

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