One villain or villain of the week

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ShelFish

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What do you prefer, show that is one continous story and there is only one villain or villain gang that the hero has to stop, or a show that has different villains every episode, and the episodes don't have to connect.

Shows that have one villain are most Anime shows, and any show that is story oriented. Though once in a while the hero will have a conflict to resolve against other villains that is not affileated with the main villain, but it is not that often.

Shows that uses the villain of the week format are super hero shows like Superman, Batman, Spider Man, etc.
 
Lately, I'm liking a combination of both:

Hold a storyarc with one or two villains in mind at the time, but leave room for fun fillers with a wider range of villains.

In mind alone, American Dragon, Danny Phantom, and I think Gargoyles have done it like so.
 
I don't mind recurring villains who come back from time to time, but overall, I prefer shows which change and juggle villains. I've never been all that into shows where the hero(es) have to face the exact same villain (or villain gang) week after week. Not only does that get boring for me, but it doesn't say much for the heroes: how good are you if you can't stop one guy or one group? JMPO.
 
Yeah these shows have a main season storyline with a main villain, but in between have fillers with other villains.

Silverstar I think shows that have one villain is because it one continuos story or journey. Like a lot of Anime action shows or Avatar. I think those shows are excellent in their own right, because I love story structure as well as shows that use recuring villains. If I watch Avatar I am so into the story, I don't want a detour like the episode The Great Devide. I don't think, dam they are fighting the Fire Nation again, can they confront something has nothing to do with the war? Every episode is about the war with the Fire Nation, enough already. But that is the point of the show, defeating the Fire Nation, end the war, and restore balence. Imagine if other week, they just forgot about that and instead foil bank robbers.

But there are some shows that got old with the same villain week after week like Xiaolin Showdown, and as much as I love them, but sometimes Team Rocket gets old on Pokemon. I don't think Pokemon even needs villains.

It depends on how good the story is, and how good the villain is.
 
Admittedly, I don't mind it so much when it's one long gigantic continuous story (though even then the odd filler episode to keep things from getting monotonous is nice I find), but a show in which the majority of the plots are stand-alone (like the syndicated Ninja Turtles series) in which the Turtles faced off against Shredder and Krang week after week just got old for me. It reminded me of the old Krofft shows which they always dealt with the same baddies for some different trivial reason.



You know, I've often thought the same thing myself. I haven't watched Pokemon in a while, but when I did view it regularly, Team Rocket started to really get tiresome. The Pokemon battle plots and side stories incorporated into them were enough to carry the show on their own, I thought.
 
Off topic but speaking of Pokemon, not only Team Rocket, but if they wanted to continue the series and do spinoff shows like they did with Advanced Generation, and Dimand and Pearl, they should have been all new main characters.

Pokemon could have lived on without Ash, Ash's Pikachu, Brock, and Team Rocket as the regular characters.
 
Interesting villain topic, I would prefer a show with different villains on every episode like The Real Ghostbusters, Darkwing Duck, The Tick, Totally Spies, Ultimate Muscle, Zatch Bell!, & Tactics since most different one-episode villains on those episodes can be interesting, silly, dangerous, & diabolical.

Off topic, I agree with zoombie that they would of maked a brand-new Pokemon series with all-new main characters from what they would of done with the Pokemon Chronicles: Legend of Thunder special with Jimmy & Marina to make it a new Pokemon series out of it since Pokemon totally gets old having Ash & the gang & Team Rocket mostly.
 
The question comes down to, if you prefer a story driven show with each episode connected, or a show with mostly stand alone episodes in which each episode at least one conflict is resovled.

But I do agree, shows that too both are the worst kinds. A show with one villain but with almost every episode is stand along plots.
 
Nail on the Head. :cool: Really; AG is remembered for characters such as May, Max, Drew, Harley, etc. anyway. Ash, Brock, and Team Rocket were not neccessary, and without them perhaps Team Aqua and Team Magma could have actually gotten satisfactory development. Same thing with DP; characters like Dawn, Zoey, Kenny, Paul, etc. should stay, but at this point Ash, Brock, and Team Rocket have worn out their welcome (and Team Galactic could be spared the Aqua/Magma fate.) :yawn:
 
I think I also like a mixure. One main villian and then other villians who appear every few eps. like in Superman Lex and Brainiac are the 'main' villians but there are other smaller occuring villians like Metallo. Makes it more interesting and 'realistic' in the sense that if there was really a Superman he wouldn't be fighting just one bad guy/chick.
 
The topic of weather Pokemon: Advanced Generation, Pokemon: Diamand and Pearl, and any other Pokemon series that follows should have completely new characters has become a good topic, so I started another thread about that. So we can keep this thread in topic.

One last thing about that, Mad Mod I agree with mostly everything, however Paul is a character perfectly made to be Ash's rivalory. I can't imagine Paul being a rival to another character, and being as good as his rivalory with Ash.

http://forums.rabroad.net/showthread.php?p=2817320#post2817320
 
Both.As mentioned before,American Dragon does a great job of one-episode villians and then a continuous plot with the Huntsclan.

Teen Titans did a fine work with the first two seasons with the Slade Arc showing up craftily,as well as other one-episode villians mingled in.After the Raven plot,it sort of got...well,a little too different.And the way the Terra plot was handled is anything but satisfactory.Since she doesn't even remember.
 
It is pretty obvious to me Terra remembers everything.

If I can disguess American Dragon for a moment, I think it has a similarity with Danny Phantom, in that both shows have a main villain plot, but also a ultimate villain plot which is different. The Huntsclan are the main villains and the main story, but the Dark Dragon is the most dangerous villain and the ultimate villain who far exceeds in other villain, while Vlad Plasmeous is the main villain, Dan Phantom is more powerful than Vlad and pocesses a much more dangerous threat if he was free. The main villain is not always the most dangerous villain.
 
Like others here I can go either way. I mean, having one main villain is fine, but as serie's go on it can become increasingly hard for writers to come up with believable plots that see the baddie beat every time without looking pathetically dimwitted. CAse in point: Mr. Burns. The prime evil guy in The Simposns gets completely overlooked in the movie. Why? IMO Burns has done every evil thing to the town the writers could think of and using him again would be repeating parts of plots from the series.

As for recurring baddies, again, they can get a bit old, especially if they become increasingly weird &/or wacky. But they can help keep a show fresh as new stroylines can be constantly explored and of course, these characters can always be brought back for another crack of the whip.

I guess a compromise would be like a group of bad guys (I honestly can't think of any at the moment). But here you can have a main bad guy that can be a recurring charcter, but his (or her) minions can pop up once if need be. This arrangement has the best of both worlds; a familiar charcter but new ones that can mix things up a bit.
 
A combo of the two, like Sensational Spiderman is doing. It is giving us weekly villains and using them as a cover for the true villains.
 
I agree with this. That's why I hate long-running shounen stuff like DBZ and Inuyasha, and old 80s shows like G.I Joe. Having the same villain every week means you either get a little bit closer every week (W.I.T.C.H. is a good example of a show doing a single villain correctly) or you just go back to status-quo at the end of the episode (the previously mentioned shows shows)

A "rogues gallery" as its called in superhero comics, is what I prefer, since it offers a lot more variety than just the same guy every week with a few filler villains thrown in every once in awhile.
 
I prefer recurring villains, though I believe that they shouldn?t be too recurring. For example, back when The X?s was still relevant, I watched six complete episodes. However, Glowface was the villain in every single one of them. I know the series apparently had other villains, but that guy was used far too often. It bothered me and I stopped watching the series, though it was ultimately cancelled anyway. It?s all about balance.
 
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