Lurker > Anagram

GenesisSaga posted...

*très

>_>

Yeah, well... Burgundy shouldn't have kept using French for no reason.

>_>

WHAT!? Are you f***ing SERIOUS!? You have GOT to be kidding me! I honestly can't believe Dino lost with his unevolved pokémon at a 4x type disadvantage to Ash's Palpitoad.

I just honestly thought it was leading to something, you know?

I find it surprisingly that you're making excuses for Bianca after these last few episodes. I had officially grown tired of her after this.

I find Bianca to be pretty frustrating, but honestly, I still like her better than Burgundy becasue at least she keeps suffering consequences for her stupidity. Also, I hate Burgundy's dumb little bowtie.

Yeah, that struck me as rather cheap too. At this point Pikachu had what, two electric type moves, one steel type, and one normal type? Yeah, this battle was over before it even started. But I was happy enough seeing a main character other than Ash win a non-beauty-themed competition, so whatever.

It is gratifying for someone other than Ash to win, but it was in the meanest possible way, so eh.

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Started: July 6, 2005

I am working on a legal acquisiton of the next movie, I thought I already had it, but it seems that I do not.

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Started: July 6, 2005

CLUB BATTLE FINALE: A HERO'S OUTCOME!
"What was hot is now tre cool!"
Score: 5/10

Palpitoad defeats Darumaka in literally less than five seconds. Huh. That was a bizarrely interesting design for Dino and a suspenseful To Be Continued wasted on absolutely nothing. I mean… what was the point of that?

Well, whatever. Next up is Luke versus Iris. Luke's asked Bianca to film him, but she's instead chosen to film Zorua sitting.

Golett versus Axew. Iris opens with scratch, thus showing the writers remembered that ghost types are immune to normal attacks for this episode. Golett splits into three copies of itself with double team and then tries to smash into Axew. Not knowing which is real, Axew stands perfectly still and allows all of them to hit it. I must admit, that is a unique, interesting strategy that I, for one, never would have thought of. Since Axew can only use scratch and dragon rage, it's at a huge disadvantage, so it learns outrage. Wow, that’s a helpful thing to be able to do. By the way, outrage literally consists of just punching your target a bunch of times in a row and visually has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with dragons. Iris is the victor, and snuggles Axew because it’s cute. Enjoy it while you can, Axew, one day you’ll be a Haxorus and no one will snuggle you.

After the battle, Luke is disappointed that Bianca only filmed Zorua and spent her time making it an outfit.

I honestly don’t know what he expected - though I’ll agree that Bianca’s ability to create that much clothing in like two minutes is surprisingly. Bianca, for her part, continues trying to convince Zorua to be her pokemon, to a point where it becomes clear she only wants Zorua because the writers had no idea what to do with her during this tournament after her loss.

Burgundy appears and challenges Cilan to a connoisseur battle during the next Ash/Iris battle, which he agrees to. What does a connoisseur battle consist of? Commenting on things. Despite the quality of commenting and narration being completely subjective, they still manage to find a judge for their battle.

Pikachu versus Axe-- Excadrill?! That's just mean, Iris. That’s just mean. Ash has Pikachu use thunderbolt for its move because he wants to show how serious he is. No, really, that’s his literal explanation. I don’t know either. As the battle goes on, Burgundy and Cilan comment on it - but Cilan is clearly better at it than she is, and she consents to calling the connoisseur battle off. That was… literally 100% pointless padding.

Pikachu does well at first, but it finally loses so much energy that it's knocked down. It bravely, heroically stands up! And then is then knocked out by Excadrill's next attack before it can do anything.

As Iris accepts the prize, she sees a camera, so she says hi to the elders at the Village of Dragons. Wow, I be they’re really excited for your ability to win with non-dragons.


Meanwhile, Team Rocket is planning something with the music hall. OooOOOOOOooooOOOOooo

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Started: July 6, 2005

BNVshark123 posted...

Is it just me, or is Bianca's VA different? This one sounds way less annoying and raspy.

It's a different actress.

The comments seem to think that the anime is worse than this would be, but that's only because there's so little of it. If this had to fill fifteen seasons, it would be just as silly.

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GenesisSaga posted...

I KNOW, RIGHT? That'd be like May trading her Combusken for a random guy's Vulpix just because the latter is cuter. Ice cold!

I suppose, in complete fairness to Bianca, you can point out that Tepig is legitimately cute, and she might not have known it would evolve into something so hideous, and since she only cares about cuteness, she wants to find a new pokemon. But that's still, as you said, ice cold.

Everyone facing off against their own rival would be unrealistic and suspend too mucg disbelief. As you know, this children's show about fictional creatures has ALWAYS been about realism.

I know it would be unrealistic, but when Cilan beats Trip, it's like... okay. Great. These two characters with absolutely no emotional connection have had a battle. Whew. Though, I admit, it is nice to see the characters fight people they otherwise wouldn't - you'd never have seen Misty fight Gary.

Pawniard's pose there was the best. I'm surprised you didn't screencap it.

I did, but I couldn't think of any good captions for it. In retrospect, given what I did with Sawk, I should have gone "Boys."

Pawniard you were the best. For one episode. Then that happened.

Sawk actually has more shots like that. That was merely the first one.

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Started: July 6, 2005

CILAN VERSUS TRIP, ASH VERSUS GEORGIA!
"I have almost given up finding good quotes for these things."
Score: 6/10

Trip versus Cilan. Trip talks about how he beat Chili, but Iris can't imagine Cilan losing a battle. Even though Cilan lost a battle in his first episode. Dwebble versus Gurdurr. Gurdurr gets the advantage early on and nearly cracks Dwebble's rock, so Cilan decides this is the most appropriate possible time for evaluating, and he tells Trip all about how awesome Gurdurr is, but informs him that it is sadly not as awesome as Dwebble. To prove this, Cilan has Dwebble teleport boulders from nowhere.

Gurdurr is unable to handle breaking the laws of physics, and Trip loses handily.

There's also a subplot where Bianca thinks Zorua is lost and keeps getting tricked by it turning into Georgia. LULZ SO FUNNY.

Bianca versus Stephan. He's confident in his abilities, which angers Bianca. But neither of these characters are protagonists, so we just skip directly to the end of the battle between Zebstrika and Minccino, which Zebstrika wins easily. Well, Bianca, I don’t know what to tell you. That's what you get when you select your pokemon based solely on how cute they are.

Luke defeats Other Guy, and Iris defeats Jimmy Ray, the guy dressed like a Patrat. Wow, Jimmy Ray was surprisingly pointless.

Round 2 will consist of Georgia, Cilan, Luke, Iris, Stephan, Ash, Dino the Extra from Road Warrior, and some girl (watch out for her, she obviously knows what she’s doing). There’s a day before the next round, so everyone goes to the pokemon center. Ash is somehow completely surprised by Trip leaving early since there’s no longer anything for him to do here. The heroes have dinner with Stephan, but Bianca shows up and keeps trying to impress Zorua because she desperately wants it for her own. Jesus, the girl just can’t take it when cute things don’t like her.

Round 2. Georgia versus Ash, Cilan versus Luke, Stephan versus Iris, Dino the Extra from Road Warrior versus some girl. Man, how exciting to have characters face off against people whom they have absolutely no connection to whatsoever.

Ash's Snivy versus Georgia's Pawniard. Oh, uh. Yeah, that's a pokemon that exists, alright. Pawniard starts off strong, tossing Snivy around, and two minutes later Ash eventually remembers Snivy knows attract. It doesn't work, and everyone is completely surprised to learn Pawniard is female. Literally everyone. Even Dino the road warrior extra gets a moment when he’s like “WHAT?!”

A completely lucky attack launches a rock onto Pawniard's head... knife... thing, weighing it down too much to move. This allows Snivy to strike at the helpless enemy, but Georgia tricks Snivy into breaking the rock, allowing Pawniard to move again. She orders a use of guillotine, and uh you would think that if she's going to use that attack, she'd start with it but okay. Snivy is knocked on its ass, and as Georgia orders another use of guillotine, the episode ends.

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Started: July 6, 2005

Lord Bob Bree posted...

From: Anagram | #290

What’s weird is that every single person at the tournament acts like Ash’s choice is the most bizarre thing ever, like why would you ever choose a pokemon that’s neutral to something.

Because there's nothing weak to normal, of course.

Good point.


mnkboy907 posted...

According to Japanese airing dates, the movie premiered in between "Reunion Battles in Nimbasa" and "Cilan Versus Trip, Ash Versus Georgia".

So I guess the heroes just took a break from the tournament to go get into wacky antics with Zekrom/Reshiram. Serebii lists it before the Nimbasa tournament, though.

Since you're already in the middle, I guess you might as well watch it after the conclusion of this tournament.

What? Argh. Ah well.

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Started: July 6, 2005

BNVshark123 posted...

How so? Multiple Zoroark?

Bianca has such a crush on Stephan's Sawk. The dub doesn't even try to cover it up either.

What the-- That's pretty strange.

Afterall, Sawk doesn't fit with the normal cute pokemon she goes after.

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Started: July 6, 2005

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Are you gonna watch both versions?

No. I don't have the patience unless they're significantly different from one another.


BNVshark123 posted...

The next tournament is gonna be so catered to furries it's not even funny.

How so? Multiple Zoroark?

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Started: July 6, 2005

THE CLUB BATTLE HEARTS OF FURY: EMOLGA VERSUS SAWK!
"You think things will zig, but in the blink of an eye, they zag!"
Score: 5/10

Snivy gets up and uses leaf blade, knocking Pawniard back. It gets its knife-claws stuck in the ground, and-- that's the second time in one battle. This is the most impractical thing in existence. Well, even someone as idiotic as Ash can take advantage of getting stuck and immobile twice, and Snivy defeats Pawniard while it's helpless again. Georgia blames her loss on the field rather on having a crappy pokemon, and you know she's mean because she doesn't tell her losing pokemon that it did a good job.

OH MY GOD

I apologize, folks. "Some girl" was actually a really, really effeminate guy named Antonio. Dino the Road Warrior Extra defeats him. Also, we get some more Bianca derping around, and Zorua turning into Georgia so Iris can compliment herself on film. This is what we call “padding.”

Luke versus Cilan, and Luke asks Ash to keep the camera rolling for him. Ash is completely flabbergasted that someone would ask him for this favor. I, too, would be surprised if someone trusted Ash with an expensive piece of electronic equipment.

Luke is unsure of himself, but Cilan gives him a pep talk about how to put aside your uncertainties and play to your best. Freddy and Don George talk about how that's unwise, and I expect Cilan is going to lose now. Cilan's Derpfish versus Luke's Larvesta. Man, this guy has a shiny Golett, a Zorua, and a Larvesta? Where is he getting these rare pokemon from?

Derpfish starts with scald, and then we have more Bianca derping with Zorua. Cilan continues to give Luke advice, and so good is his advice that Luke actually gets better during the battle and stealing Cilan's ideas to have Larvesta jump into the air. A single flamethrower defeats Derpfish, taking everyone off guard. Well, uh, that’s kind of what you get when you assist your enemy in defeating you.

Next up is Iris versus Stephan. Emolga versus Sawk. Sawk punches Emolga’s attract away, which uh I guess is the strategy elementary school boys use against girls AM I RITE LOL

Emolga's lack of knowledge of flying-type moves is a problem, and Sawk begins kicking its ass - but its static ability paralyzes Sawk, which does not apparently matter because Sawk continues to kick its ass. However, Iris manages to stall Sawk long enough for the paralyzation to finally stop it from moving and hit it with a volt switch. Good for her on defeating a tertiary character, I guess.

Round 3 will be Ash/Dino and Luke/Iris. I predict a 100% chance that Dino will defeat Ash. Ash sends out Palpitoad, Dino sends out Darumaka, and the episode ends with a To Be Continued.

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Started: July 6, 2005

REUINION BATTLES IN NIMBASA!
"Battling Ash will be like drinking a flat glass of seltzer water."
Score: 6.5/10

The heroes reach Nimbasa Town, which is not Nimbasa City but instead a town a few miles away. It’s most famous for its giant Ferris wheel, because apparently that’s a thing you’re allowed to be proud of. Also here are Luke, Bianca, Stephan (remember him?), Burgundy, Georgia, and Trip, and they’re all entering the tournament. It’s nice how Burgundy has gotten even more annoying by speaking every fourth word in French for absolutely no reason. For whatever it’s worth, I kind of do like Georgia in this episode more, but I admit it is for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Luke starts filming himself introduce the battle tournament, apparently having turned into a journalist instead of a director, which is... not the same thing. Bianca starts staring directly into the camera because she’s apparently never seen one before, and then tries to trade her Pignite for Luke's Zorua. Wow, seriously? That’s your first pokemon it and ****ing loves you, you evil girl.

The heroes go to Don George to register for the tournament, and somehow Iris and Cilan are still amused by the Don Georges all looking identical. The announcer for the battle tournament is Freddy, a guy who looks like the dad of your best friend from middle school. The prize will be a rare set of wings that improve your pokemon or something, it's not really made clear.


Each competitor registers three pokemon to choose from, but the actual battles are one-on-one. We learn the upcoming battles for round one: Georgia versus Blue-Haired Guy, Burgundy versus Ash, Trip versus Cilan, Stephan versus Bianca, Luke versus Random Guy, and Iris versus Jimmy Ray.

I do appreciate that the tournament actually does show us battles between the unimportant trainers, but it is admittedly kind of boring because we don't care when Nameless Guy 1’s Venipede loses to Nameless Guy 2’s Tranquill. The only one of note is Dino, and only because he's dressed like an extra from Road Warrior.


Georgia's Beartic versus Sylvester's Joltic. Joltic is just too quick to hit, but Beartic accidentally crushes it when it falls on its back, giving Georgia an easy victory. That’s… pretty damn lame.

Burgundy versus Ash. Cilan reminds Ash that she owns a Dewott and a Sawsbuck, no doubt trying to give him an unfair advantage by helping only one side of the battle he’s supposed to be neutral in, but it doesn’t matter anyway because she sends out a Stoutland. Ash’s choice? Palpitoad, who by the way acts nothing at all like it did in its debut episode. What’s weird is that every single person at the tournament acts like Ash’s choice is the most bizarre thing ever, like why would you ever choose a pokemon that’s neutral to something.

Burgundy uses thunder fang, and then when it does nothing, she reveals that this is part of her plan: now that Stoutland's teeth are around Palpitoad, it can use ice fang and freeze it. Even though she could have just used ice fang to begin with. A supersonic breaks the ice, and a mud shot/hydro pump combo finishes Stoutland off while Burgundy shouts things in French over the unnecessarily heroic music playing in the background. Everyone (except Trip and Burgundy) is extremely excited for Ash’s victory for some reason. Particularly strange is Bianca’s screaming for Ash, as if she had any stake in this whatsoever.

Next up: Trip versus Cilan and a To Be Continued.

Honestly, this is a pretty decent episode, but Burgundy is so damn annoying.

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Started: July 6, 2005

I can't figure out what episodes the next movie is set between. Can anyone track this information down for me, please?

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GenesisSaga posted...

I maintain that Evil Togepi is the best filler episode, and makes a decent case for the best episode ever period. I mean... you gotta love an episode in a children's cartoon that frequently breaks the fourth wall by openly making fun of how stupid the main characters are. I mean didn't the gang fall for the same trick like three times before one of them finally realized the Togepi was up to no good??? XFD dumb children.

Best filler episode is Evil Togepi or Evil Litwick. If Pikachu's Goodbye counts as filler, it is the best filler episode.

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Started: July 6, 2005

mnkboy907 posted...

It's weird how some of the best episodes are the ones that are mostly complete filler.

Yeah. The only 10/10 scores I've given out were filler, though one was the backstory of Meowth, so I guess that counts as a real episode.

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GenesisSaga posted...

Yep, I loved that episode. :3

Yeah, 8/10 might actually be slightly low. It was a really good episode, I have to say.

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We get a lot of filming in the middle of the episode, and these scenes are actually pretty good. The first few scenes are perfect, and they come to the final battle. The scene goes perfectly and Ash defeats Cilan, but Team Rocket appears in a hovercraft and kidnaps Zorua. I love how Team Rocket is completely surprised when their hovercraft is destroyed by a shadow ball. They have absolutely no precautions for if someone attacks them as they commit blatantly illegal actions.

Cilan decides this is perfect for ad libbing, and throws off his pirate costume, saying that Team Rocket mind controlled him into being a villain. Iris and Cilan (but oddly enough, not Ash) combine their powers to fight Team Rocket in a scene that makes it clear that Jessie and James had absolutely no chance of success and thus, from a movie’s perspective, nothing is actually at stake. Team Rocket escapes, but during the battle, it’s revealed that the princess is a Zorua, so, knowing that the "Zorua is the princess" bit is ruined, it's “revealed” that Iris is the princess, and she disguised Zorua as herself. Um… not to be weird about things, but, uh… Iris looks like this,

And Zorua’s character looks like this.


Well, whatever, we see that Luke's movie was a huge success, and the theater owner mentions a battle tournament in Nimbasa City that would be good to enter for Luke so he can learn more about shooting battle scenes - this is a convenient excuse for a filler arc, I guess, so the heroes all decide to enter as well.

Honestly, this is a pretty good episode. Nothing more to say about it.

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Started: July 6, 2005

ZORUA THE MOVIE! ZORUA IN "THE LEGEND OF THE POKEMON KNIGHT!!!"
"Derp"
Score: 8/10

The heroes are in some town (maybe Nimbasa City? I can’t tell) and learn that the next Pokemon Knights movie is being filmed here. What's Pokemon Knights? Some kind of shonen thing, I guess. Cilan waxes on and on and about how much of an expert he is on film, to a point where I begin to wonder if there is anything this man is not an expert on.

As they wander through the town, they meet the lead actress! Who turns out to be a Zorua impersonating her, and Ash scans it because I guess he’s never seen a Zorua before. By the way, Zorua reveals its identity immediately after the heroes see it, so I really have to wonder how these things earned the title “master of illusions.” Shortly thereafter, Zorua’s owner, a kid named Luke, shows up with his inexplicably shiny Golett. Luke tries to grab Zorua, but it just escapes.

Luke explains that he’s an aspiring director and Zorua is his lead actress - by the way, it’s a girl Zorua, this is important. He explains that he was shooting a scene and instructed Zorua to turn into a pirate and a knight, but it got angry, turned back into a princess, and ran off.

As they search for Zorua, Luke explains how he met it: he was working as a projectionist (after all, he's ten years old) when he noticed that actresses in the movies kept appearing in the theater. Eventually he confronted one of them, and found it was a Zorua, which instantly agreed to star in his movies because it’s not like Zorua wouldn’t be the most sought after pokemon ever by professional directors for moviemaking purposes.

They find Zorua at the theater, and because “figuring out the obvious” is Cilan’s gimmick, he realizes that Zorua only wants to play the role of the princess because it's a girl, and dislikes crossdressing, I guess. I don’t know. Since the movie needs more than one actor, the heroes agree to help, and Cilan tells everyone that "a friend in need is a friend indeed." That's... like the least appropriate phrase ever for this situation. The heroes help Luke make costumes and a plot, which you would assume would take hours, but apparently not and they get done building a massive fake ship that’s like three stories tall in an afternoon.

The plot? One day, a pirate (Cilan) kidnaps a princess (played by Zorua, but voiced by Iris) because only she knows how to find the kingdom's treasure. A knight (Ash) overcomes obstacles to find the Dragon Master (Iris) and rescues the princess. This… honestly does sound like every movie I’ve seen in my entire life, I will admit.

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Started: July 6, 2005

Bump

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Bump

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Some_Character posted...

That joke will wear thin at some point.

Not soon enough to stop me!

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I suppose. By the way, I will always call it a Derpfish.

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Bump

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Started: July 6, 2005

A FISHING CONNOISSEUR IN A FISHY COMPETITION!
"Fishing! It's not as easy as you think! No it's nooooooot!"
Score: 5/10

The heroes are in an unnamed city when they run into Bianca, who, because Barry’s gimmick of running into people was so funny the first time, runs into Ash and knocks him into a river with a Frillish no one notices.

I very much like Ash’s response to her. Normally, Ash is always ready to forgive people and tell them it’s okay when they do whatever, but here he’s clearly annoyed with her but won’t actually say it. Anyway, Bianca tells the heroes about a fishing competition, so everyone decides to enter. Cilan is especially excited because he’s a master fisherman or something.

Unfortunately, the fishing competition is run by a disguised Team Rocket. Their plan? Let people fish up water pokemon (all of which are Basculin) and then steal them to use to conquer Unova. Yep. Team Rocket plans to conquer Unova with several dozen Basculin.

Good luck there, fellas.

The rules: catch yourself a water pokemon with a pokeball given out by Team Rocket. Apparently, Bianca has never before seen a pokeball in her life.

Team Rocket supplies everyone with rods, and Cilan selects a beginner rod for Bianca, but brought his own custom-made rod to use. That’s right, Cilan. Let your competition use the crummy mass-produced rods while you bring some unbeatable super rod to use, all while acting like a nice guy.

After some derpy Bianca moments in which she derps around, Cilan tells everyone about the world of professional fishing. I've got to tell you, I have been fishing. It is the most boring sport, and I’ve been to actual baseball games. I’ve been to cheerleading competitions (got dragged by my cheerleader sister). I’ve been golfing. I don’t give out “most boring sport” lightly, but fishing earned it. Anyway, Cilan catches a Basculin, but the rest of the heroes fail to catch anything at all. Bianca gets a huge bite, and Cilan helps her reel it in - it is the same Frillish from before, but it attacks Ash for literally no reason, so they’re forced to drive it away rather than catch it. Sorry, potential new pokemon! Trip already has you and you’re not marketable like the Snivy line, so there’s no room for multiples!

During the confusion of the Frillish fight, Team Rocket tries to escape with everyone's entries, but Frillish gets rid of their getaway boat (I guess it knew they were evil?). Team Rocket is caught and introduces itself, and after they explicitly say that they’re Team Rocket, Ash declares that they're Team Rocket. They try to escape with the pokeballs again, but Frillish steals the pokeballs and releases all of the Basculin. Thus, Team Rocket instead escapes with their jetpacks (instead of just using them to begin with?) while Bianca declares that with jetpacks and a name like “Team Rocket,” they must be rocket scientists. Bianca leaves to go get more gym badges, and the narrator claims the heroes protected the water pokemon when in fact they did literally nothing and Frillish was the hero of the episode.

I’m sorry, guys. I truly am, but…

I kind of like Bianca.

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Some_Character posted...

I believe that Bianca started following them for a while (which already happened for you) in that episode. Also, Ash and friends were surprised to see James' Yamask even if they had seen it before.

No... Those things didn't happen. Bianca leaves the heroes in this episode and she asks what Yamask is, and Ash recognizes it.

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Bump

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Some_Character posted...

That episode was originally supposed to take place in Castelia like the Plasma episodes, so it had some continuity hiccups.

Like what?

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Started: July 6, 2005

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

From: GenesisSaga | #254

Archen is said to be the ancestor if all modern Flying type pokémon according to Fennel, and yet that Archen did not know how to fly.

Fun fact: Archen can't learn Fly in the games.

Interesting.

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Started: July 6, 2005

ARCHEOPS IN THE MODERN WORLD!
"I guess science can be pretty awesome sometimes."
Score: 3.5/10

Professor Juniper and Fennel have received a plume fossil from Lenora, and they hope to restore it in Fennel’s lab, which is apparently so close to the heroes that Juniper had no problem with inviting them to watch. By the way, Fennel talks about how exciting this is, jumping around and dancing and acting nothing like how she acted in the previous episode with her, and is almost always blushing for some reason. I’m serious, she blushes when she types stuff in a computer.

She sends out her Musharna to go to sleep and its dream energy to power the machine. Despite having literally no assistants, Fennel’s process is successful, and out of her machine comes an Archen and three tiny seeds no one notices.

Archen spends some time freaking out and such while Fennel and Juniper talk excitedly about how much they’ll learn from it. Eventually it calms down, but it can’t eat any modern food, and every time it makes it cry, the seeds grow - but no one is in that room, and thus no one notices the seeds growing into large vines. By the way, seeds grow without sunshine, water, or dirt, didn’t you know?

Finally, the vines grow so large that they consume Fennel’s laboratory, and she is not freaked out by this at all. She’s surprised, but quickly comes to say “eh” and considers just letting Archen have the damn place as its new home. The vines sprout some fruit, and Archen eats them, causing it evolve for some reason even though it’s like two hours old.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket is trying to hack into Fennel's building, because James is a master computer hacker (?!). Doctor Monocle desperately wants the information in Fennel's computers about the pokemon restoration machine - even though it uses Muuna’s dream energy, he still has the dream energy Team Rocket stole in an earlier episode. James’ hacking is successful, so Jessie decides to try to steal Archeops as well, because why not?

Sadly, their attack only succeeds in accidentally setting Archeop’s vine on fire with shadow ball. Archeops is saddened by this, but as the sun sets, several wild Archeops appear to take it with them. Where did they come from? "Some hidden place... that has allowed them to survive all these millions of years." Yep, apparently there’s a place in Unova where, for millions of years, giant ancient birds have been chilling without human interaction. Juniper and Fennel are completely fine with Archeops leaving, even though they had hoped to study it.

At the end of the episode, we learn Doctor Monocle plans to do something with the data James stole. How foreshadowy.

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Started: July 6, 2005

GOTTA CATCH A ROGGENROLA!
"Oy vey! It's the twerp!"
Score: 5/10

The heroes are eating lunch when a wild Roggenrola appears and destroys their food in an attempt to get their attention - I've already made a joke about episodes starting with pokemon eating or destroying their food, so whatever. Roggenrola is freaking out and trying to tell them something, so Ash decides to catch it because it's clearly not trying to tell them about something important. Unfortunately for Ash, Roggenrola defeats Oshawott because I guess the writers want Tepig to be Ash’s stronger pokemon after Pikachu, so Ash throws out Tepig. Hilariously, though, Roggenrola kicks Tepig's ass. When Tepig falls unconscious, the heroes are all extremely concerned it's hurt and run to a pokemon center, as opposed to when Oshawott fell unconscious and they were like “Oh, Roggenrola is pretty strong.” Roggenrola keeps trying to tell them something, but they just ignore it and it sadly runs off.

At the pokemon center, Nurse Joy heals their pokemon and tells them that there's no running water. The plumber (who, by the way, will be in almost every shot for the rest of the episode as he travels with the heroes, but will do absolutely nothing) tells her that nothing is wrong with the pipes, so something must be wrong with "the cave." Yes, you see, this pokemon center pipes its water in from a cave instead of, you know… wherever regular buildings get water from, I guess. I don’t really know. The heroes mention the Roggenrola they met, so Nurse Joy, knowing that Roggenrola rarely leave their cave, decides something must be wrong in there. The plumber decides to go to the cave, and since small children are the best back-up ever, the heroes go with him.

Cut to the cave: Team Rocket is stealing the wild Roggenrola. Why? Doctor Monocle has designed a cannon that forces Roggenrola placed in it to fire a powerful beam. This is much more practical than a gun. The heroes reach the cave, where they see the wild Roggenrola. It leads them into the cave, and the plumber sees why the water source is cut off - someone collapsed some boulders onto it. By the way, we never learn why Team Rocket bothered damming up the water source.

Team Rocket appears and reveals their Roggenrola device (by the way, Jessie and James switch their positions between shots). They escape the cave, then use their weapon to collapse the cave entrance. By the way, Ash saves the main Roggenrola, thus impressing it because dammit, Ash is the hero and if you didn’t learn that in the previous seven hundred episodes well then here is a reminder. Fortunately, now that Excadrill is listening to Iris, it and Pansage dig the heroes out with no particular difficulty.

Despite Team Rocket escaping into a nearby abandoned warehouse (in the middle of the woods), Roggenrola can hear where its friends are. The heroes attack, but to literally only their surprise, Team Rocket just uses the cannon again. The main Roggenrola uses flash cannon to counter the beam (because I guess Doctor Monocle’s cannon is as effective as one wild Roggenrola), and Ash takes advantage of the opportunity to tell the Roggenrola to not go along with it. Well, apparently this is all it takes, and they reverse the energy of their cores or something, I don't know, and destroy the cannon. Literally all it took was telling them not to do it. That is just… I don’t know.

The heroes take all of the Roggenrola to Nurse Joy, and we even get the plumber telling us that he wrote a report to his superiors telling them to fix the water supply problem. Wow, good thing we got closure on the water supply subplot.

Roggenrola challenges Ash to a battle, so Ash chooses the worst possible option: Tepig. Tepig wins and Ash catches a new pokemon to never use. Have fun with Pidove and Swadloon, broseph!

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You have persuaded me, Gen. I did not consider these facts. I still stand that Fennel should be angry that Archeops is leaving because it leaves her unable to study more about it, and her constant blushing is still weird, but I agree now that I gave it too low a score.

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Soon, all three Audino walk away and meet up, resulting in the heroes all being together again, meaning the past three minutes were completely pointless. Everyone follows the Audino, but the tracking devices suddenly fail. Afraid of losing the Audino even though they are literally twenty feet behind them, Jenny has two of the Audino restrained, but the third rounds a corner into an alley, and they find the tracking device on the ground. By the way, from what we learn later, the Audino losing the tracking device makes no sense.

Cilan decides that whoever is stealing the Audino is using sound waves that humans can't hear using logic so bizarre and shaky that even after having heard it I don’t remember it, so Ash sends out Roggenrola because it’s got good hearing and needs some screen time. The Audino start walking off again, so the heroes follow Roggenrola follow the Audino. The Audino go to a cliff outside town with a ladder up it, and the heroes follow by having Solosis lift them with psychic. The Audino try to stop the heroes again, but Christy's Gothia lifts them across a chasm.

Roggenrola leads the heroes to an abandoned wind farm - we learn that Team Rocket is responsible. They're using a machine that lures Audino and jams tracking devices, built by Doctor Monocle, to steal the Audino to study their ears to build advanced radar. You would think he could more easily buy an Audino legally rather than build a machine like this, but I guess maybe he had a spare one laying around and gave it to Jessie and James. Also: why would he need more than one Audino.

The heroes appear, and Jenny arrests Team Rocket by telling them that they're under arrest. Fortunately, Doyle's Solosis and Christy's Gothita fight Team Rocket's pokemon while Jenny does literally nothing. During the battle, Ash accidentally destroys the Audino capture machine, freeing the pokemon. Team Rocket straps on their jetpacks and escape, and in fairness, Jenny does try to stop them by running at them very slowly and telling them to stop. Christy and Doyle ask Jenny whose pokemon was most helpful, and she tells them Roggenrola.

Fillerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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WHERE DID YOU GO, AUDINO!
"Ecks dee."
Score: 3/10

The heroes are lost in fog when they see an Audino. Its eyes are half-open and it barely notices them as it wanders into the fog away from them. Immediately after, the fog clears up (by the way, if you think this fog is a plot point, it’s not, it’s never mentioned again), and Officer Jenny and two children named Christy and Doyle appear to arrest them. By the way, I like how Jenny has a police car in the middle of a forest. She lets them go after Cilan tells her he's a gym leader. Officer Jenny tells them that several Audino from a nearby town have disappeared - and when they saw the heroes talking with the dazed pokemon, they assumed they had something to do with it. Wow, what good detective work there, Jenny. I can tell you’re really on top of things.

Doyle's grandfather's Audino has disappeared, and Christy's Audino friend is also gone. Doyle and Christy are huge rivals in the "find the Audino" case - Doyle believes his Solosis and Christy believes her Gothita will be the deciding factor. Just then, Jenny gets a call that the pokemon center's Audino disappeared, because apparently no one thought to post a guard on it. At the pokemon center, Nurse Joy tells Jenny that her Audino is gone. How useful a scene.

The heroes ask to help, and when Jenny agrees that small children are useful in crime investigations, Cilan puts on a deerstalker hat and pulls out a magnifying glass. He will wear the hat for the rest of the episode. I love how Jenny actually tells Cilan all of the facts as if he's a huge help here. Including Nurse Joy's Audino, four pokemon have disappeared. Jenny knows of three more Audino in town, so she wants to split up and guard them all using untrained children instead of other cops. Ash and Doyle go to one Audino, Christy and Iris go to another, and Jenny and Cilan guard the last. Jenny also gives everyone a tracking device to put on the pokemon and a "messaging device" to stay in contact. By the way, the messaging devices will literally never be used.

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GenesisSaga posted...

You left off the entire flight training sequence. That was kind of important. >_>

I disagree. Archeops learns to fly. The end. I mean, yes, it comes up when it flies away with the other Archeops, but that's like it.

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GenesisSaga posted...

And also for 15-year-old girls who think they look cute!

>_> Well, fine. I suppose that's a good enough excuse.

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GenesisSaga posted...

I liked Newspaperboy caps way before I got into University, Anna. :(

Dammit, Genny! Those are for adults and Victorian-era children.

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That night, Iris sleeps with Excadrill under the stars. She realizes (through the power of monologue) that Excadrill had realized how powerful Haxorus was as soon as the battle began, but Iris completely failed to understand. Iris gives Excadrill a heartfelt speech, and you can tell it's listening because its eyes start watering, which in anime pretty much means the ultimate heartfelt connection has been achieved. Iris mentions that its lack of long range attacks might be a problem, so it gets up and decides to practice focus blast, because a move suited for Alakazam is definitely something Excadrill needs to know. After hours of training, it succeeds.

In the morning, Georgia shows up and steals their breakfast (what a *****), and Iris challenges Beartic to a rematch. Using its new focus blast, Excadrill easily defeats Beartic-- oh wait no it gets hit by ice beam. Iris screams “Excadriiiiiiiiiiiiiill” in a needlessly dramatic way, giving it the strength to continue, and it ties with Beartic. Georgia doesn't care about losing to a non-dragon and leaves, telling Cilan that she'll steal their next breakfast, too.

Okay, so… Solid episode, actually. Georgia annoys me with her silly motivation and newsboy cap (dammit, those are for college girls, you’re like ten years old), but she’s still better than Burgundy, so whatever. I do enjoy how Iris is such a crappy dragon trainer that she needs to use anything except a dragon to overcome her challenges, though. Has Axew ever won a battle except against Scraggy?

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IRIS AND EXCADRILL AGAINST THE DRAGON BUSTER!
"Derp."
Score: 7/10

The heroes are walking when they meet Georgia, who introduces herself as a Dragon Buster - she specializes in defeating dragon pokemon. I assume her friend is a Ghostbuster HEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Anyway, she especially specializes in fighting dragon pokemon from the Village of Dragons, all because she was once defeated at that village. Well, how can Iris refuse an awkwardly-inserted rival who was literally in the first frame of the episode and who has a silly motivation? Then we get the opening credits, and then the narrator tells us what happened thirty seconds ago. Thanks, bro. I hate how I forget basic plot points that quickly.

Georgia sends out a Beartic, and Iris counters with Axew. Axew tries its best, but gets its ass demolished. Upon learning Axew was her only dragon, Georgia is about to leave, but Iris offers to make her fight a much stronger non-dragon and taunts her into agreeing. She then sends out Excadrill. Her strategy? Even though Excadrill ignores her, if Beartic attacks, it'll probably get annoyed enough to fight anyway.

It works, but Excadrill completely ignores Iris' orders. It performs well, but still loses to a rock smash. Iris concedes, and Georgia leaves. Iris reveals that Excadrill's first loss was also to a rock smash, and ever since then, Excadrill has been moody and doesn't obey her commands.

Flashback time! Iris in the Village of Dragons. She played with the wild pokemon, but one was kicked out of its home by a Drilbur. Iris attacked it hand-to-hand, but got her ass kicked. She came back several times, each time getting her ass kicked. On her tenth try, she defeated Drilbur by accidentally kicking so that it fell off a cliff, but managed to rescue it, and the two became friends. They battled and became strong, and then the village had a tournament, which Drilbur won and evolved during. Then Drayden appeared, and somehow Iris does not yet know who Drayden is.

Drayden was impressed by Iris learning all of her skills on her own, and she challenged him to a battle for her one hundredth win. Drayden sent out Haxorus, and though Excadrill did its best, Haxorus was just ridiculously out of its league. Drilbur started questioning if it could win, and Iris told it could, only for it to be defeated with ease. After the battle, it clammed up and refused to listen to her anymore. Iris thinks it just can't handle losing, but Cilan says maybe Excadrill has a problem with Iris' strategy - she did, after all, command it during the battle it lost.

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Sorry, I'll update again soonish.

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Gladiator II died in the service of Doom.

There can be no higher honor (other than being Doom).

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FACING FEAR WITH EYES WIDE OPEN!
"Derp."
Score: 4/10

The heroes stop at a lake, and Ash, remembering that Oshawott has trouble opening its eyes while underwater, decides to work on the problem. This means that when the other pokemon are attacked by wild Foongus (the deadliest of all pokemon), Oshwaott is the only pokemon not poisoned.

The only solution is to find a local weed that can be used to cure the poison, and it can only be found in the very small crevices between rocks at the bottom of the lake. Those crevices are too small for a human to enter, so Ash decides to keep his eyes open underwater and guide Oshawott by pulling on its ears… okay…

He and Oshawott start swimming, but another threat lurks: a Palpitoad and some Tympole see him and attack the two for no reason. Oshawott tries to fight back, but without opening its eyes, it's hopeless-- Ash encourages it, however, and finally, Oshawott forces open its eyes and-- the Tympole all swim away rather than fight it. Now that the weeds are unguarded, Ash and Oshawott leave immediately rather than get them.

Palpitoad tells a Stunfisk it’s friends with to attack Ash and Oshawott because they called it Derpfish behind its back, I guess, and Ash goes to Cilan for help. Cilan’s solution? Fish Derpfish up and swing it in the air to distract it while Ash battles Palpitoad.

Oshawott gets its ass kicked, so Ash decides Palpitoad is strong enough to be worth catching. Oshawott still has trouble opening its eyes underwater, but it gets over it and uses aqua jet correctly, and Palpitoad is defeated in one hit. Both Ash and Cilan catch their respective pokemon. Woo. Cilan owns a Derpfish now. Truly, the show is improved by this. By the way, I want to make this clear: Palpitoad and Derpfish are jackasses. I don’t mean they’re cool or anything, I mean that they’re straight-up mean-spirited jerks.

Almost as an afterthought, Ash tells Oshawott to get the weeds, and the pokemon are soon healed.

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Bump

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I honestly like Farfetch'd as it is. I hope they never give it an evolution - that would ruin it. Instead, give it an item that increases all of its stats by 90. It'll still be bad.

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I used to love Hitmonchan.

I wish some older pokemon with useless stats could be upgraded without having to get evolutions.

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Pokalicious posted...

trip worst rival

yes, worse than ritchie (which i actually like)

Nope. Worst main rival, though.

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ASH AND TRIP'S THIRD BATTLE!
"Lunchtime - or more like Standing Up The Chef Time!"
Score: 6/10

Ash and Iris are screwing around while Cilan makes lunch, when they run into Trip. Trip is using a Vanillite to catch a Palpitoad, but Ash's interference accidentally costs Trip the pokemon - and we also learn that Iris is afraid of ice pokemon, apparently even of the suckiest ones. Be afraid of Weavile, I’ll understand that. But Vanillite is literally a glorified ice cream cone. Ash asks what her deal is, and while explaining that dragon-types are weak to ice, she mentions the Village of Dragons, which impresses Trip.

Assuming that the would-be Dragon Master Iris owns many more pokemon than just Axew, Trip challenges her to a battle. She refuses because she's not in "top form today," obviously not wanting to rely on Excadrill or Emolga, so Ash asks for a battle. Trip refuses, but when Iris calls him a little kid, he accepts. Yeah, show her how mature you are by being taken in by extremely mild insults. Three-on-three battle time, best two out of three.

Trip's Servine versus Ash's Snivy. After a lot of insulting each other, they finally start battling. Servine has "been leveling up" and can now "block status moves," and with the mighty power of cut, defeats Snivy handily.

Trip and Iris mention Alder, the champion of Unova. Ash has never heard of him, however, but Trip’s actually met him. Trip has a flashback to when he met Alder as a kid, narrating to himself because apparently people do that. As a kid, he told Alder that he wanted to defeat him, to which Alder basically said “grow up and try it, lol.”

Trip sends out Timburr, so Ash counters with Oshawott. Oshawott's aqua jet is still inaccurate, but Trip takes a picture of it while it's aqua jetting around - Oshawott keeps closing its eyes while using aqua jet, so that's why it keeps missing. Even Ash seems kind of annoyed at Oshawott about this, but they continue, and Oshawott actually defeats Timburr pretty easily.

Ash sends out Tepig, and Trip Vanillite. Trip then says he's been inspired by Ash's off-the-wall battle style and wants to try it out - after exchanging some hits, both pokemon are exhausted and collapse at the same time, and Trip decides Ash's battle style doesn't work for him. Trip agrees that this was a draw, and walks off. Yep. It was indeed a draw.

Although my write-up of this episode is pretty bland, it actually is a decent episode. I still don’t like Trip, but he at least has a real backstory and motive now. Granted, it’s “I wanna be the very best like no one ever was,” which we’ve rather seen before in the past, and it doesn’t explain why he’s such a dick, but it’s something, which I can appreciate. If there is a problem, it’s that there’s not really a lot left to the imagination with Trip’s battles against Ash. We know how they battle, we know their relative strengths, we know how they interact with each other during battle. Ash has battled Trip three times in like thirty episodes - for comparison, he battled Gary twice and Paul four times over the course of five and four seasons. There’s just nothing left to the imagination with Trip, and to add to that, he doesn’t even come off as that great of a trainer like Paul did, he just comes off as another trainer who’s kind of a dick.

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A UFO FOR ELGYEM!
"It can only be science time!"
Score: 4/10

In this episode, Tranquill is hit by a shadow ball.

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Bump

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Wanglicious posted...

hm... i guess you could read it that way too. i read it as he has all pokemon moves and he uses one per second. >_>;

Wang is correct here.

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If it's that she has too many specific powerful abilities, couldn't you just remove one (such as the buff) and leave her otherwise the same?

It's not a big deal, I'm happy with Statue still being in the game, I'm just throwing that out there.

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Is the only thing wrong with Jane the missing attacks thing?

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