Thread: Which is better: DP or BW?

BW has more likable and more pleasant characters. It has a great story line for the Pokemon and great animation.

DP has more powerful and organized characters. It had more better story plots, battles and character development.

But since I've seen all of DP I have to say DP for now. Until I see more and better episodes for BW, my choice won't change.

Well, It's kinda hard to say. Both Saga's have their ups AND downs.

DP Introduced rivals left and right, it was hard to keep track of all of them. However, they had MUCH better character development than the BW Rivals. Even the horribly abused/neglected Nando has more personality than either Trip OR Bianca. Trip's personality changes every single episode he is in, and Bianca, is just a ditsy bimbo. She's the same bimbo from the games, so I`ll give them props for that.

B&W DOES kinda neglect the games more than DP does. In DP, we saw Barry, Dawn, Marley, and various other NPC's who were in the games. In B&W, the ONLY in-game NPCs we see other than Juniper and the Gym Leaders are Fennel and Bianca. Where is Hilda/Hugo? Where is Cheren? Where is N? And that's another thing, we SAW Team Galactic in DP, but where the heck is Team Plasma?

BW Focuses on the debuting pokemon better than DP did, you ACTUALLY learn a little bit about the pokemon being introduced in BW, whereas in DP, you only learned whether or not Piplup got along with it, if they interacted at all.

DP had better screentime distribution among Ash's team than BW does. In Sinnoh, Ash went with his classic "Catch only 5 other pokemon and train them to be badass" strategy and we were able to get a good look at their personalities, albeit they were rushed due to Dawn and her annoying water bird. In BW, Ash is catching everything in sight, yet only focusing on Oshawott's training. This is aggravating to no end.

Which one is better? Well, personally, I DO like DP just a little bit more, only because it follows the same pattern I had ingrained into me. In reality, neither series is on top of the other in terms of quality, they BOTH have their goods and bads. However, we have to keep one thing in mind:

BEST WISHES ISN'T OVER YET!

We're only at Badge 4 right now, so don't count your Torchic before they hatch. If BW, which is at least halfway though, is on par with DP, which has run its course, then I`m going to go out on a limb and say that BW WILL surpass the other seasons eventually. The previous generations follow the same formula, so if BW is able to go toe-to-toe with them as it stands, then shouldn't we show a little bit of patience and give it a chance to go full circle?

When DP was first airing I was more interested to find out what was going on in the episodes and the main things that kept me glued was Paul, Pokehunter J and Team Galactic. However Ash's Sinnoh team also started going through great development, and I noticed how the battles had really gotten better in both Gyms and in regular episodes, that it was obvious this was going the extra mile. The extra continuity between DP episodes and past sagas was also a real treat. Even minor ridiculous things that nobody thinks of was brought up in the DP series.

And you know what the funniest part of it all was? I didn't even like the DP trio that much. Ash's personality WAS getting very bland, but I still enjoyed what a great trainer he had become. Dawn started off exciting at the beginning but after the Wallace Cup I felt her personality was flanderized, and the crappy rivals she had didn't get any better. And Brock, well...we've said enough there. The DP trio also didn't really have any interactions I cared for that much.

Its funny, the actual DP trio wasn't enjoyable to me, but I liked the actual episodes much more than BW. What does that say?

Originally Posted by Catilena1890

We're only at Badge 4 right now, so don't count your Torchic before they hatch. If BW, which is at least halfway though, is on par with DP, which has run its course, then I`m going to go out on a limb and say that BW WILL surpass the other seasons eventually. The previous generations follow the same formula, so if BW is able to go toe-to-toe with them as it stands, then shouldn't we show a little bit of patience and give it a chance to go full circle?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but seriously I highly doubt that BW will surpass DP in anything. Well, maybe trio interaction and as you said Pokemon introduction, but everything else is inferior.

By the time that Ash got his 4th badge in Sinnoh there wasn't any letdown of the series. Paul's development was already massive by that point, also due to Reggie's introduction as well. Team Galactic was also proving to be an active and effective antagonist team around that time I believe. The short amount of Pokemon that Ash had led to alot of good development to be had by that time in the show.

What of B/W? Its lacking far to much to even hold a candle to D/P at this point in time. Granted, it could have matched D/P because the material in the games is arguably the best that the series ever had. Too bad they didn't use that depth. No N/Team Plasma really hurts the anime too.

Another thing is what has the rival Trip accomplished in half the series? Paul accomplished more in his first episode than Trip has in 50 episodes. Thats because Ash/Paul had an actual rivalry as opposed to whatever Ash/Trip call themselves doing.

From the rival character, to the Pokemon development, to the character development, to the battles, you name it and D/P more than likely did it far better. Also, like Gliscor'd said the continuity was really nice. It felt as if we'd come a long way when watching D/P, not like B/W where Ash is reset, is somehow just turning 10, and they despite that try to make vague references to the past which contradicts the reset in the first place.

Originally Posted by Gliscor'd

When DP was first airing I was more interested to find out what was going on in the episodes and the main things that kept me glued was Paul, Pokehunter J and Team Galactic. However Ash's Sinnoh team also started going through great development, and I noticed how the battles had really gotten better in both Gyms and in regular episodes, that it was obvious this was going the extra mile. The extra continuity between DP episodes and past sagas was also a real treat. Even minor ridiculous things that nobody thinks of was brought up in the DP series.

And you know what the funniest part of it all was? I didn't even like the DP trio that much. Ash's personality WAS getting very bland, but I still enjoyed what a great trainer he had become. Dawn started off exciting at the beginning but after the Wallace Cup I felt her personality was flanderized, and the crappy rivals she had didn't get any better. And Brock, well...we've said enough there. The DP trio also didn't really have any interactions I cared for that much.

Its funny, the actual DP trio wasn't enjoyable to me, but I liked the actual episodes much more than BW. What does that say?

Relevant to me, actually. While there are some episodes of BW that I find individually more entertaining than a good handful of DP fillers and whatnot, overall I still enjoy and respect DP so much more for creating such a tight-knit story that made sense in canon and actually reflected progress and and passage of time.

What irks me about BW the most is that I could make comparisons of a character from beginning of the story and up to this point and see pretty much stagnant character development as is the case with Dent, whom I ABSOLUTELY adore, but I wish they would play up what he's learned from traveling with Satoshi even more and that's outside of my yaoi head-canon, complete flanderization/derailing as is the case of Iris, or regression/retool of Satoshi when compared to AG/DP...

Originally Posted by Aestivate

Relevant to me, actually. While there are some episodes of BW that I find individually more entertaining than a good handful of DP fillers and whatnot, overall I still enjoy and respect DP so much more for creating such a tight-knit story that made sense in canon and actually reflected progress and and passage of time.

What irks me about BW the most is that I could make comparisons of a character from beginning of the story and up to this point and see pretty much stagnant character development as is the case with Dent, whom I ABSOLUTELY adore, but I wish they would play up what he's learned from traveling with Satoshi even more and that's outside of my yaoi head-canon, complete flanderization/derailing as is the case of Iris, or regression/retool of Satoshi when compared to AG/DP...

Well yeah. I will admit that I really did like Dawn when DP first started, but so did everyone at the beginning when she was a, "nice, shiny new character." The writers were also shoving her down our throats with her ending themes and constant spotlight to ensure that. However most would agree that halfway into the series her personality started to get a bit bland and/or flanderized, and it was around that point people realized her rivals weren't going to get any better and that Piplup would never evolve. So overall I grew more indifferent to the character and didn't like her as much as I thought I would. The DP trio's staleness also contributed to my disinterest.

The BW trio is a MUCH better group, but its obvious Iris and Cilan probably won't be used to their full potential. Still their interactions are saving what are some overall dull fillers that feel like they belong back in Johto.

Originally Posted by Gliscor'd

The BW trio is a MUCH better group,

Based on what? Sorry, I don't see exactly how the BW trio is just soooooooooooo much better than the D/P equivalent.

They do have better and more enjoyable interactions, but its not good enough to fix the rest of B/W's problems and bring it up to par to D/P. One thing that the D/P characters did have over the B/W trio is depth. While not necessarily with each other on a deep level, it was enough.

For example, we all know the history of Ash/Brock and they are like brothers. Ash/Dawn learned from one another and became better in battling and in contest through their interactions.

I absolutely doubt that Iris will learn anything from Ash or even consider what he has to offer (not much anymore lol) like Dawn did. Cilian also is lacking in this regard, though he is handled a little bit better.

So while they are more enjoyable as a trio they lack depth like so many things in B/W do. They are far more like a Kanto remix with the writers giving them more exposure than Brock/Misty had. But even then, Iris could be handled a bit better still, as well as Cilian being fleshed out more.

The lack of depth is whats killing B/W right now in everything. Looking at the B/W anime is like looking at Kyurem It just feels... incomplete... and hollow in alot of ways.

Group wise, I say I like the interactions with BW. But as far as everything else goes, it has alot of catching up to do with DP.

If I compare the first 54 episodes of DP to the first 54 episodes of BW... DP blows BW out of the water. I think DP just had a sense that the writers were going somewhere, they were making compelling storylines for the heroes, they made me root for both Satoshi and Hikari. The pokémn each had loads of personality and their own issues to overcome, their own moment in the limelight, meaning they actually felt like real characters as opposed to souless battling machines. I loved the continuity within the saga... Overall, it was just better written and more compelling, because the characters and the storylines were more human and more realistic.

BW doesn't do that.

On the chemistry, as much as I was bored by the blandness that were the Hikari/Takeshi interactions, I find the Satoshi/Iris and Dent/Iris interactions grating, cause Iris just is not a likeable character and she doesn't feel like she's friends with the boys, she doesn't feel like she wants to be traveling with them or that she has fun with them. So neither trio is perfect or really better than the other, they just have different flaws.

Originally Posted by Kairyu

Based on what? Sorry, I don't see exactly how the BW trio is just soooooooooooo much better than the D/P equivalent.

The DP trio had my least favorite character interaction of the entire series. Brock and Dawn had zero chemistry and barely interacted. Even the Ash and Brock friendship was handled so poorly in DP that you would forget how long they've traveled together.

About the only thing that was good about it was the way Ash and Dawn trained, battled and learned from one another, but that didn't save the trio overall.

I would say they're equal, though judging Best Wishes now is a bit unfair. Best wishes has more group dynamic, packs a few more surprises than DP did, and has a decent mix of battles and story. Diamond and Pearl on the other hand had Dawn {easily the most developed character in the show next to Ash, and easily my favorite of his traveling companions.}, awesome rivals, and amazing battles.


So it's a bit of a trade off.

Originally Posted by Hellwarden

I would say they're equal, though judging Best Wishes now is a bit unfair. Best wishes has more group dynamic, packs a few more surprises than DP did, and has a decent mix of battles and story. Diamond and Pearl on the other hand had Dawn {easily the most developed character in the show next to Ash, and easily my favorite of his traveling companions.}, awesome rivals, and amazing battles.

As said, its too bad we couldn't get a mix of both worlds.

I still don't think that the DP trio was that bad. I'll admit that they could have done with Dawn/Brock interactions, especially when they did a lot with Ash/Dawn interactions, but I could still tell that they were friends, which is really more than I can say for Iris/Ash or Iris/Cilan. Ash and Cilan have pretty good interactions with each other that shows that they're good friends, but Iris really doesn't have that with either one of them. She still insults Ash with her kid comments than show any genuine sign of liking or caring about him and while she might be a bit nicer towards Cilan, she still finds his energetic behavior, like whenever he gets excited, as an annoyance and acts kind of like a downer to counteract his enthusiasm. Although, that might be another running gag, but it's not too funny in my opinion. She just doesn't have much on-screen behavior to make me believe that she is friends with Ash and Cilan. While Brock's interactions with Dawn could have been better, he still supported Dawn during her Contest arc, helped her learn about Pokemon medicine that helped her get Mamoswine to listen to her and I thought that Dawn appreciated Brock's help with both her and Ash. That feels a lot more than what Iris has at this point.

A part of me thinks that the main reason why people prefer the BW trio over the DP trio is just because Brock isn't in a series for once. While I can understand how that would give the BW trio a more unique flare for some and I think that did make it more interesting at the beginning of the series, but as the series has progressed, it really doesn't feel that great. It's just different and I don't think that necessarily makes the group chemistry better, especially when I find Iris pretty unlikable at this point.

Originally Posted by Hidden Mew

I still don't think that the DP trio was that bad.

A part of me thinks that the main reason why people prefer the BW trio over the DP trio is just because Brock isn't in a series for once. While I can understand how that would give the BW trio a more unique flare for some and I think that did make it more interesting at the beginning of the series, but as the series has progressed, it really doesn't feel that great. It's just different and I don't think that necessarily makes the group chemistry better, especially when I find Iris pretty unlikable at this point.

That's not it at all. I liked the Hoenn group's interactions a lot and that had Brock in it.

The DP trio definitely had something missing when comparing it with the original trio, Hoenn group, or BW trio. The other 3 at least have a dynamic and character chemistry, the DP trio on the other hand felt forced and artificial.