I am very disappointed in Sceptile. Perhaps expecting the second Charizard was unfair of me, but Sceptile wasn't any more impressive than Grovyle was. It matches Blaziken, but so what? That's May, who doesn't even train her pokemon for proper battles. And it has almost no battles other than that one. Granted, that may have been a conscious choice on the part of the writers to avoid Sceptile solving all of Ash's problems too quickly (remember how they had to always forget Charizard could solve every problem in the show by itself after Charizard Chills?), but what can I say? It rarely battles, and when it does, it's just plain not on Charizard's or Snorlax's level.
Battle Frontier Retrospective
Overall Score: 6/10
Best Battle: Ash versus Noland
Best Episode: Tactics Theatrics!!
Worst Episode: The Green Guardian / Pinch Healing!
Best Protagonist: None
Worst Protagonist: Max
Best Side Character: Brandon
Worst Side Character: None
Best Protagonist's Pokemon: Pikachu
Worst Protagonist's Pokemon: Aipom
Best Side Pokemon: Noland’s Articuno
Battle Frontier is what I can only describe as “adequate.” It has one goal: fill the space between Hoenn and Sinnoh, and in that, I can only say that it succeeds better than the Orange Islands does at the same job. The Frontier Brains are fun, but only Tucker and Brandon are at all memorable… maybe Annabelle as well. The only memorable battle in the entire adventure is Charizard versus Articuno, and only because it’s the first time a regular pokemon takes down a legitimate legendary pokemon in a one-on-one battle. Such a fun, lovable battle. I will give the Battle Frontier this, though: it has noticeably less filler than most of the other adventures. There are only two or filler episodes between the content episodes, and for that, I respect it.
I have nothing to say about the Best and Worst Episodes. They speak for themselves.
No one impressed me this season. Between Team Rocket’s new motto and everyone getting new voice actors, a lot of the personality that characterized the protagonists… well, it doesn’t disappear, but it does change a little. James in particular seems different than he used to be, but I can’t quite put it into words. Max retains Worst Protagonist as always, of course.
Brandon was the obvious standout side character. He’s calling out of Ash for his stupidity is hilarious. No side character really struck me as so bad that he or she deserves specifically mention, however, which is good.
Pikachu earns Best Protagonist’s Pokemon mostly because it has no competition. Ash’s main team this season was Pikachu, Sceptile, Corphish, Swellow, and eventually Aipom, switching out the last spot as necessary. I almost gave the spot to Charizard solely for the Articuno battle, but then I thought, “it wasn’t really a main pokemon this season, that’s not fair.” Aipom does nothing for its entire appearance except… no, it really just does nothing. It knows swift, I guess, and that’s about it. Noland’s Articuno earns Best Side Pokemon only because I am absolutely biased toward Articuno (it’s my favorite pokemon) and don’t care that that’s not fair.
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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005