Lurker > FalconPain

Also, viewers will be happy to know that Anagram is doing you a favor by not pointing out that they've already gotten Stephan's name wrong at least six times in this arc alone. Seriously, pre-Chronicles Butch knew how to pace a running gag.

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More importantly, Cilan's disappointment at failing to get a Basculin in the end makes more sense if it's before he got a Stunfisk.

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My immediate thought when I watched the episode, and Pokemopolis also asserted: these three ducks are trolls, yet amusing and incompetent ones, and they get blasted off in battle.
In other words, they're trying to be classic Team Rocket for the episode.

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Her grandmother, satisfied, tells Daniela that if a Trubbish likes humans, it won't release its smelly breath, and everyone angrily asks her why she didn't tell them that before and save them a filler episode. Her response? "You have to go your own way." Jesus Christ, **** you, lady.

I'd just like to point out that I have never seen a summary or discussion of this episode that didn't feel this way.

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Because he saw Trip's Snivy, and it was indeed smug and soloed Pikachu.

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How should we do it?

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You didn't mention how Ash tried to catch that Deerling (and Iris) with a Pokeball as if he hasn't learned over the past four regions that you have to battle and weaken them first? As if being indirectly forced by a legendary to job to a newly-starting trainer wasn't enough...

I think the only Unova resident with a line who hasn't commented on Pikachu's rarity has been Professor Juniper's assistant, a character so minor I didn't even mention her.
Wanna know something funny? That's a guy.

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Anagram posted...

The other heroes arrive, and Dawn quotes Cynthia about how "when every life meets another life, something will be born," in an attempt to make Cynthia sound wiser even though that statement ultimately meant nothing.

It means "Ash/Paul mpreg", of course.

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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But... knowing who all the rivals are in advance spoils part of the fun.
At least, I was amused when Pokemopolis ended the Stephan episode recap by pointing out that we'll never hear from him again.

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While the episode was glossed over, don't you love the idea of using Baltoy to capture a Claydol?
Way to make your Pokemon make itself obsolete and deny it the chance to fill the exact same position by simply evolving.

And yes, it's hilarious that in a Fire vs Steel battle, Steel is offensive and Fire is defensive. Byron does not love this battle.

I'm surprised there weren't people complaining in this topic about Ash beating the eighth gym leader and making the tournament, followed by immediately losing to the supporting cast's sole contest washout. (Kenny evolved his Prinplup? Barry's is still better.)

On a more serious note, between this and the Grand Festival, the creators are finally realizing the appeal of having a large cast of tournament rivals that viewers have a chance to care about before the tournament arc ever begins. (Even if the winner...) This is a trend that happily continues into Unova, and more often.

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For the record, and to explain my comment at the top of the page, the TV-broadcasted version actually managed to lose ten minutes of the plot at the beginning before the credits.

Things covered include:
* The importance of that "boccer" thing everyone was interested in, and the reveal that Entei, Raikou and Suicune are the guest team (I kinda like the concept of legendaries being the Pokemon equivalent of celebrities)
* Brock doing his flirt with Nurse Joy and get stabbed by Croagunk routine
* Team Rocket in elaborate disguises
* Zorua getting separated from his mother and winding up with those Hop/Skip/Jump/whatevers.

I refer to Goone as Goon because he's a goon.

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Wonder if he'll catch the first ten minutes...

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Don't you love it when your writeup ignores a pointless scene and it turns out to be relevant to the next episode?
Stupid James's bottlecap and robot hand thieves...

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In Japanese, people call Hikari "Pikari", because "pika" means "sparkle" and the situation caused her hair to sparkle. Note that the dub came up with Dee-Dee as the embarrassing nickname years before anyone knew there would be an explanation.

Aside from the concept of Snorlax on a trampoline, the Pokeathlon episode didn't do that much for me. (They literally turned the lamp event into filler!) And it's a shame, because I like the Pokeathlon more than pretty much every other Pokemon side-event in the games.

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That marks a second episode in surprisingly little time in which I wish Pachirisu was actually involved. Dawnpachi.
The first was that water/electric slash episode. Wouldn't it have been more fun if Buizel and Pachirisu were also affected?

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Anyone who has played Chrono Trigger can vouch for the effectiveness of Antipode.

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*grumble*

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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Everyone seems to love how they used Future Sight to kill J's ship.

Am I the only one who wonders why they used Future Sight to kill J's ship rather than, say, another move? The only advantage Future Sight has is that it works later than expected, so all they did was ensure that their disastrous offense wouldn't occur until after they were captured. Why not just blast her in the face with an immediate move and thus save yourselves?

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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One thing I like about this episode is how it plays off "Noodles, Roamin' Off" in more ways than expected. Not just the continuity of Meowth's ability to make noodles, either.

When the team split up, Jessie decided to spend her time focusing on being a better Jessilina. In other words, she proved that she views it as a role separate from her job in Team Rocket. And since she views it as a role, it is thus something that anyone can play, including James.

But James decided to become a better trainer and went after the meanest Pokemon in the area. While shiny Metagross was more than a match for him, it's that reckless confidence he can exhibit that paid off in the end of this episode, as Carnivine's ability to fearlessly stand up to Mamoswine and throw it off its stronger game caused its rampage that cost Dawn the finals.

So in the end, while the breakup lasted less than the episode's length, everything they did in the meantime came back to win Jessie her next ribbon. Woohoo!

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Okay, let's discuss the revival of Cyndaquil's popularity in a world that also contains Chikoritas and Totodiles.

All three appeared in the Arceus movie in scenes that Anagram pointedly excised from his review. Dawn has just received a new one thanks to the Johto festival. And this is not going to be the last we hear from the burny mouse this season.
And I don't even remember the thing showing up since that Typhlosion in Legend of Thunder.

Why did they go with the fire starter specifically? I guess Dawn already has a water-type, but she has no grass representative? Or did they think that a Chikorita would reduce the interest in Ash's, assuming that his Cyndaquil was a less interesting character?

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Lyra and Khoury (official spelling) aren't nearly as interesting as the creators hoped they are.
Aside from potential romantic tension between the two and their obsession with Johto, the only noteworthy things about them is the female Mario outfit, Lyra's inability to say the word "Dawn", and Khoury being voiced by Kirbopher.

That whole Attract thing is going to become far more important once we reach Unova. For once, the viewers will be informed of the gender of every Pokemon on Ash's team, and battle strategies will keep that in mind.

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Can we please go back to bashing Togepi soon?

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I just realized what episode's next. Woo.

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To be fair, semi-signature Psychic-type move kinda made up for the typing.

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Barry's Heracross was always an odd entity to me. Aside from the obvious question of how the hell Barry, Sinnoh's poster child for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, managed to wait around near a honey-slathered tree long enough to get it, it only appears in this episode and the Iron Island episodes, when Empoleon was too steely-ill to do things.
And yet every time it shows up, it's treated as though it should be Barry's most trusted companion, whether having the history in this episode or literally copying his every dramatic pose on Iron Island.
I guess it's good to have trusting bonds with multiple Pokemon, and I also like Empoleon, but you'd think we'd see more of it.

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I was referring to the "so-called Pokemon expert proves himself to be the real deal by easily identifying an Androcles Lion" cliche. Juniper did the same thing last (English-aired) episode.

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I don't remember much good stuff about next episode, aside from it using a trope that they also used in the episode that just aired in the US, and used less than twenty episodes before that as well. It can get repetitive.

The two episodes after that one are... I want to say amazing, but I'm not sure that's the right word.

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just once I'd like to see a legendary that cant get overpowered by humans
If a human can't overpower it, a human can't catch it. If it can't be caught, it has no business being in this franchise.
(mutter grumble Lavender Tower ghost)

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The heroes are momentarily happy to see Dialga, but Giratina appears out of another portal and attacks it. This doesn’t really make sense, since they-- oh screw it.
Which part?
If it's about the attack... uh... Giratina attacking Dialga and its reasons for doing so was kinda the catalyst for the previous movie, and it was strongly implied that when it left, it was still looking for Dialga or Palkia.

Then it tells the heroes that they have a beautiful world, and that it’s happy to be a part of it, before it leaves into its own dimension to not return for thousands of more years and interact with the human world as little as possible.
I'm a bit less upset about this than I was with Regigigas, because at least you got the idea that Arceus felt like hanging out with Damos for a bit during the flashbacks. It could always find an excuse to return later.

Other things that deserved at least a sentence or two worth of jokes:
* The series actually made an attempt, successful or otherwise, to convince everyone that they need to add an unevolvable Pichu to their party/card collection/want list simply because it has a notch in its ear.
* Johto starter inanity.
* "Magical creature". Suffice to say, there are very few people in the movie who actually use the word Pokémon, probably because they haven't figured out how to put a mon into a Poké yet.
* Heatran. Actually, the fact that it showed up and there was nothing to say about it speaks for itself.

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So which one do you prefer? "Wild" bowling ball Chatot Jenny or Japanese game show sting Growlithe Jenny?

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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If there was ever an episode where Jessie should have used her Seviper and didn't...

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(edited because I was completely wrong)


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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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Hey, remember that episode in the first season where Ash refused to support a couple of feuding gyms and we got to see how evil they were because they called upon a mob of Pokemon to gang up on a human at the same time?

He is really stretching the limits of their team rocketiness.

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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A lot of people complain about some of the various uses of legendary Pokemon in the last part of this season.
Me? I complain about the end of the Regigigas episode.

At the end of the episode, J has fled, everyone's been changed back to normal, and Regigigas is past both his temporary insanity and Slow Start.
So what do they do? Not only do they immediately seal him away again, but they also seal away most of Brandon's A-team and he basically quits his entire Frontier Brain career path in the process.
Why? Because it's apparently better than letting a legendary with many instances of heroism actually, you know, have any kind of life in the world it protects.

I'm probably biased, but I'm of the opinion that if legendaries exist in the Pokemon world, they should be allowed to do things. Even if it means having Darkrais in tournaments, it's better than this complete lack of anything resembling gratitude and breaking up one of the two finest examples of trust between trainer and legendaries. (And we haven't heard from Noland in a while.)

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Maylene didn't talk as much about kiai, and she's the fighting-type one with the partner with all the aura fireballs.
(This adds little to discussion, but I needed to post in the new topic.)

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It will be quite a while before Anagram reaches a morose gym leader. It will be approximately...
*checks notes*
...one gym leader from here.

(And if you've played your DPP, that's not a spoiler. At all.)

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It should be emphasized that she in fact uses the word "valiant" about as often as Sukizo uses the word "remarkable".

I am starting to wonder if this is an ill-guided attempt to incorporate that thing from the games where you get to choose a word from a list that they decide is awesome and use repeatedly. I mean, even Candice is going to fall heavily into this trap.

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Mr. Contesta probably decided he needed a higher average word length than Mr. Sukizo.

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And then you have Pokemon like Sceptile and Gliscor who very visibly didn't change their personalities upon evolution.

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That episode has one of the most egregious examples of Ash failing to catch a Pokemon I've ever seen.
The Snover was practically asking to go with him. Ash never even considered getting out a Pokeball.

(It's not like it hangs out with a Bagon or Gligar.)

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Indeed, you can rock Honchkrows.

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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Metagross is forced to blast them off instead of murdering them brutally

To this day, I have trouble with this episode for that reason. The best I figure, aside from the characters misjudging the threat, is that it's some kind of Last Action Hero-esque plot point that once the three members are back together, they qualify as comic relief and thus can survive a vicious attack.
On the brighter side, a TR episode I enjoy more will build upon some of the minor plot points in this episode (at least if you overthink it), so it's satisfying continuity-wise.

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The main thing I remember from the episode is the Phione saying "feeny!"
I admit that my perspective may have been affected by the third Phoenix Wright game.

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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I will never understand why Island of the Giant Pokemon was a one-time thing.
If you're going to have lengthy sequences in which Pokemon are the only characters and exposition happens, why not use subtitles?

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WE LOVE EPISODE WRITEUPS!
*withholding explosions until later*

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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Besides, Pikachu riding on another Pokemon's back has been done multiple times, and color filters aren't as awesome as they think they are. There's nothing going on during the Electric Armor that the viewer will find especially cool, aside from winning a battle that seemed out of reach beforehand.

With the Countershield, we get to see Buizel breakdance. Enough said.

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Yes, Cresselia's appearance in the series consists of getting caught by Team Rocket. In a net. Truly legendary.

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Then, awesomely, completely inappropriate giant robot-esque theme music starts playing in the background as Team Rocket attacks the heroes with rocket punches and stuff.

That song is "Double Trouble" (sometimes mistitled "Team Rocket's Rockin"), the second-season-era Team Rocket-themed single from 2BA Master/Pikachu's Jukebox/Pokemon Puzzle League. Fitting for a retro Rocket episode, but I never paid enough attention to the song during the fight to notice if that was still Rachael Lillis and Eric Stuart on vocals.

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He's certainly on the ball.
The GS Ball, as it were.

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Mewtwo Returns happened and only erased some memories! Also, he keeps showing up in movie intros and opening themes!

But Porygon evolutions don't exist, and Ho-Oh is still trying his hardest to not actually do anything, despite being seen a few times.

Edit: And this is why I should pay attention to original context before replying.

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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster
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