Filler Arcs

I have nothing against the concepts of fillers at all. It doesn't affect the actual story...unless it's written to be part of the actual story and did little to actually help the plot or characters overall.

Filler, on its own, isn't supposed to be spectacular. Efforts can be made to create it to the best of creativity.

Written filler at the time of the actual story will detract from the actual goings in the plot and character. It would be fine if it was just something small and meant little in the long run.

Filler arcs were written to fill in time to either catch up, develop more, or just outright padding. Typically, the audience would react badly. Again, it wasn't meant to win awards a la the Oscars. Fanfiction put in more effort than canonical filler, anime or not.

Fillers, at its core, did little to help the actual story overall.

If you know it's written to be such.

For example, the canonical Davy Back arc, which is not bad overall. It's a fun arc that showcased teamwork and introduced Aokiji. I don't hate the Foxy Pirates. In fact, I find them amusing and would make it to the New World out of sheer will.

A magnificently well-done filler arc came from One Piece's G8 arc. It's wonderful to behold. With each character getting an important role in some fashion and the marines are just as good. The writing goes outside the box of the formula.

I also heard Oda outlined the Ice Hunters arc too. It wasn't a bad arc overall because it foreshadowed the Marineford arc pretty well.

The filler arcs developed Hinata and other characters that weren't important to Naruto. Which ironically Studio Pierrot took back due to their almost mandated ending that is in no way could have been the mangaka's intention. It's an unnatural ending. Like I am aware that the 2nd half of Naruto had been under fire from fans, from editors, from even Kishimoto itself and the internal war between SJ and Kishimoto. I could sense something was off in the narrative where things should have flowed better with the original intent. I heard from Kishimoto that Sasuke basically rebel against him and wrote himself essentially.

Unlike the Naruto's filler arcs that were gone by the ending, a filler arc like the Orange Islands arc could be considered as such good. It introduced a new character who still worked at Professor Oak's lab to this day and have the most Pokeshipping hints with the second movie in that time frame.

Filler that did little to help the story but dragged the characters along like a dog that doesn't want to walk in that direction. Just looking at VLD S4 makes the writer in me cry a lot in frustration. It's not even the good filler that I mention above. The Voltron Show literally did nothing to help the plot and characters, not to see Hunk actually becoming a diplomat and applying that to the actual story, not giving Coran something important to the plot and character. Again, it's not a good Day in the Limelight writing at all. I have seen better including LOK. At least filler arcs like Ice Hunters or G8 actually develop onto canon and used the characters right.

In slow build/burn, everything written must be important. Get rid of repetition. If you plan to write a story, fillers must not drag or slow the story. Even small fillers had to help at some point. Even if it meant little overall.

Everything must be important.

A bad kind of filler was that of Steven Universe. I felt the slice-of-life factor was getting in the way. Listen, Durarara and Persona could be considered slice-of-life but I didn't feel anything was neglected because I am raising up anything I need and/or integral. The slice-of-life had to matter.

If the slice-of-life is written out-of-order and the characters' reactions unclear/unanswered (for example, Lars' family and girlfriend grieved...when Steven had the tools to rescue him. But no, draw out the Steven and Connie conflict to over a month and we didn't even see Lars' side of things like how on earth he got his new clothes. I like Space Pirate Lars as much as the next person but I want to see his journey to become a notorious criminal in the domain of the Diamonds rather than he telling Steven about his month-long rise to infamy. Not to mention, Lars is undead now so why the heck are they grieving when he was alive and well? Undead certainly and in dangerous territory but he's alive and Steven had Lion), then it meant nothing. This was a major problem with Steven Universe. Other than the status quo. It's one thing that the people do not know or apathetic (for example, many people had no clue of the Phantom Thieves' presence among them other than reacting to their actions), but it's another when you have a whole town knowing in some form or way that aliens are living among them. It's not a secret the Crystal Gems are there and that the Diamond Authority reigns. It's not a secret that the war was still ongoing.

However, peace seemed unchanged.

Seriously, I hoped to Godoka that the status quo and the same peace changed forever now the knowledge of Rose Diamond was acknowledged. Because it's stifling to see little change in Beach City when I have seen other works including the Persona series where the worlds are forever changed or acknowledged the change. Like Akihiko and Ken cannot bring back Shinjiro at all. Like new arrivals in Ikebukuro. Like All Might retire from the superhero scene and become a full-time teacher. Like the very fact, the arrest of Shido emerged a new wave. Like Sai disappearing. Like Apollo staying in another country altogether. Like Ema becoming a forensic scientist.

I could go fucking on but it just annoys me in Steven Universe. The slice-of-life factor isn't used well. Initially, it was great to use for character development but some time later, it became intrusive to the plot. I get the writers wanted to emphasize Steven's two sides but Holy Woman of the Beginning, the slice-of-life showed little tension in the overall plot. While I had a low opinion of VLD's writers, at least they can write tension. While I do think they had it all planned out, the writing is not that great. It could have been great but alas... At least they had great composition and made it as epic as they can because I love the beautiful animation that gave Keith, Shiro, Pidge, and Allura so very much.

I mean we could have seen Lars' side of things. It's one thing that it's unreliable and I seen unreliable narrator on TV. Teen Wolf and YOI come to mind. But there is little unreliable narrator because we are seeing things through Steven's eyes, not anyone else. Flashbacks were easily differentiated in the Revolutionary Girl Utena style animation. Which means that we wouldn't get the whole complete story of Pearl unless Steven literally went into her mind and we just did.

Even in games, we see other people's POV. In P5, we see Sae, Akechi, Makoto, and so many more without the protagonist in the scene. In One Piece, we are in the fucking Reverie arc for god's sake and we aren't returning to the Strawhats until it's over. We are instead seeing lots of important pirates and nobility in one place and literally, my heart cannot take the revelations we are getting. The Reverie arc would be close enough to Amazon Lily's arc chapters too so short but succinct and very revelatory about the current and future events. In My Hero Academia, we are now following the top ten pro heroes in Japan instead of the students of UA.

Okay, I'm complaining about that problem of Steven Universe like a lot of people. However, when I seen better narrator in other shows including a show that I had recently made clear I won't return to until the series ends (not One Piece, it's VLD), it's just distressing that Steven Universe was just drawn out way too long and unable to reach OP's level of writing. Even Kishimoto wouldn't reach this level because he planned stuff unless influenced. SU's idea of hints isn't as good as Oda's; it's more like drips than actual drops that Oda usually gives like for example, he made damn sure it's important that we know Sanji was called Mr. Prince and North Blue. He made damn sure we know Usopp's lies to the point people are expecting them to be true at this rate including me. SU was more ideas thrown and barely a consistent story. Art and little continuity was a problem. I still don't get the partying Amethyst does but it never made clear explicitly she made it up to sound more impressive. It's not like Beach City ostracized the Crystal Gems. Steven was still welcomed despite his heritage. There was little bullying overall too. Yes, the show dealt with PTSD and other stuff relating to war but Beach City is not affected by anyway when it should have, given how many people got involved accidentally or otherwise. Greg and Lars are involved, regardless. We don't get too crucial an examination. Even if VLD had troublesome missing scenes that would best put the show's emotional level better (for example, we don't even see the deal strike between Lotor and the Paladins at all. Only that Lotor was in jail and everyone was suspicious. We don't even get to see the reactions immediately after we learn of Keith's heritage in S2, just Allura's justified reactions and even then that's not a bit good because how wasted the writing ended up.).

Sorry, but it must be important. Unlike Horikoshi or Oda, the writing of VLD just stressed me out, not because of its unpredictability (I embrace unpredictability in writing), because of its less than impressive writing. There were times they could have shown great stuff and not show it at all. S6 was mixed for me. On one hand, it has tension and impressive writing for Keith, Shiro, Allura, and Pidge. On the other, Lance and Hunk did not receive better. One could argue Lance was getting negative character development and had yet to reach his personal arc until Earth. Show the important moments, forgoing things that will not be important. Show the emotional moments that are crucial instead of leaving it up to the imagination. Seriously, people were disgruntled we did not get immediate reactions. I like imagining reactions like any other person but I like to think of the people outside the fiasco, not the people who we should see since the very beginning.

If you want to elevate your writing to the greatest it can be, be sure to make it important to the damn story, emotional and crucial moments included. If you were writing from one person POV, then you are detracting from other POVs that are fun and crucial on its own. There was a reason why Zuko's story was so effective when we get to see Zuko Alone and so forth. Hell, Tales of Ba Sing Se was so popular because it showed Iroh, Sokka, and everyone else on their own mini-adventure, some more tearjerking.