The Episode Guide Writing Thread

I apologise for not having the Malamar episode guide up yet. Since I don't live in America, I have in no way access to Cartoon Network, so I have to wait a day or two for the episode to be uploaded on the Internet. The guide will most likely be up some time on Tuesday. After that, you can call dibs on any episode you want to write a guide for, and I can take care of the rest. I can handle just about every episode that has aired as of now.



Hey, I heard read that! Muahahahahahahaha!  Next time, be more careful when hiding your secrets!

I just realized that this Saturday on Cartoon Network instead of the next episode of X/Y they're going to air the Mega Evolution special.

Having only seen the English episodes to date, I have no idea what it's about (Maybe Mega Evolution) but apparently it doesn't feature the twerps, so I guess everyone has a bye-week.

The only thing I will give away is that this Special episode has nothing to do with the twerps and Team Rocket, except maybe for a brief mention of Ash, but that's about it. The protagonist is different.

The question is if we are going to write a guide for this episode or not. Most likely not; after all, it has no dodginess that needs to be highlighted.

My opinion is that we should not touch Special Episodes at all, or else we have to deal with Ritchie, Virgil, and a bunch of episodes that are full of pointless and over the top stupid edits.

No, I was mainly referring to 4Kids' "gems".

Personally, I would like to see a Special episode that focuses on Paul; where he reaches Snowpoint City, and rechallenges Brandon, but he is an old and forgotten rival by now, just like the whole Diamond and Pearl series.

There are a lot of concepts in the Best Wishes series that were discarded; a proper conclusion of these two rivals, the connection between Pikachu and Zekrom, Iris' special ability, overall development of Cilan's character (both Iris and Cilan were just screen fillers for the most part, they only got a chance towards the end of the series, and their respective Special episodes), and most importantly: a shit-ton of fillers in the end that could very well be used to implement the aforementioned concepts.

It felt like the writers had almost given up on the show, and the whole thing was just to hold us off for something bigger: the XY series.

I didn't say the XY series doesn't have its flaws. It sure as hell does. Where to start from? Well... Serena, (since you mentioned her) has had a whopping ZERO DEVELOPMENT so far. Funnily enough, even her Fennekin has had more development than her (it even learned Flamethrower!). Second, what the fuck?! Where is this series going, anyway? What to make of it? I guess Bonnie doesn't count. She is designed to be the annoying/cute (you'll be the judge) character of the gang, like Misty's Togepi, Max, Dawn's Piplup and Iris' Axew before her. I thought for a while that she was about to get some development, when I saw her will to take care of a Pokemon for her whole journey (something Max never did), but I was wrong. And here we have a loaf of bread that is even more useless than the traffic lights in Grand Theft Auto. Now that I think about it, it maybe does have some use: to provide electricity for said traffic lights, and sell extra merchandise. Of course, Bonnie looking for a wife to take care of Clemont is a very good piece of comedy as of now, but, in reality, it is just a cliché that will get dull and boring over time (see Brock). Team Rocket are starting to become slightly more stale already. Also, after all these years, I can tell almost certainly that associating Ash with romance is a pretty bad idea. It will most likely get discarded towards the end of the series, just like many concepts before it (see Best Wishes). In conclusion: So much for the hype!

However, the XY series has some key features over Best Wishes, which make it a better series overall, at least in my opinion. First and most importantly: CLEMONT! Clemont is the only character so far (ever since the very first episode of the anime) to CONSTANTLY gain development. Cilan had GREAT potential, he could be an awesome character in his own right, but the writers wouldn't give him a chance. Second, Ash showing competence. If the protagonist starts off as a complete idiot right from the beginning of a saga without apparent reason, while he showed an excellent performance in the previous one, you know something is about to go wrong. Terribly wrong. In my opinion, they attempted to completely reboot the series, only to result in a complete failure. They did it once back in Hoenn, but, for some reason, the Advanced Generation series was not a complete failure, probably because of May, who actually got some development, and the Battle Frontier (I don't know). Third, switching focus between characters. In order to keep things interesting, in XY series, they constantly shift the focus between characters. One episode focusing on Ash, followed up by an episode focusing on Clemont and so on. I know that Serena, for example, is hardly any interesting, but the whole idea is amazing. You see quite frequently Action Hero Ash being swapped with Action Hero Clemont, and that is a huge plus for the XY series. As mentioned before, Iris and Cilan hardly had any notable screen time. And last, the XY series have WOOOOOOOOBBUFFET!!