Anagram posted... Azp2k32 posted... what the hell is with all the glalie hate
I swear, it's the most polarizing pokémon to ever exist
edit: ib magnet joke
The most polarizing pokemon to ever exist would probably be Magneawwww
From Brags to Riches "That'll be the last time I ever hire workers from the Slowpoke Agency." Score: 4/10
This entire episode is just Ash and Morrison battling random dudes in their first matches. That's really, literally it. Ignore how that's obviously pasted over a riceball. Just ignore how they put no effort into making it match the animation. May literally says "This cheeseburger's the best." Those are her exact words. They chose to paste in a muffin and then call it a cheeseburger.
I don't think that's pasted over at all. That looks an awful lot like melon bread, which is a sweet thing that shows up in anime sometimes (so, yeah, it's probably closer to a muffin than it is to a cheeseburger, but it's a legitimate Japanese thing that they're just calling something else. But I'll double-check Bulbapedia.
...Bulbapedia does not have anything listed in the section "dub edits". What is this I don't even. I see upon continuing the topic that other people mentioned that it looks like melon bread, but Bulbapedia has no dub edits listed.
Also, I've learned that names are never a good way to be sure about a character's gender in anime. So yeah.
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Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
Furious Fura posted... why do pokemon caught by team rocket always drop down to the heroes instead of blasting off like TR whenever ash attacks them?
Like TR captures pikachu, then one of ash's pokemon makes them blast off but magically pikachu always drops down instead.
I give them a lot of leeway when it comes to stuff like that, I'll be honest.
janembaman posted... I like BW Joy more. I dunno,she is prettier
Jenny is the worst change they ever did seriously She looks like that she is a ...nevermind
I just looked at the BW versions. I like old Joy, but I can accept new Joy. New Jenny, though, is... I don't know. The hair is the worst part.
TsunamiXXVIII posted... I don't think that's pasted over at all. That looks an awful lot like melon bread, which is a sweet thing that shows up in anime sometimes (so, yeah, it's probably closer to a muffin than it is to a cheeseburger, but it's a legitimate Japanese thing that they're just calling something else. But I'll double-check Bulbapedia.
...Bulbapedia does not have anything listed in the section "dub edits". What is this I don't even. I see upon continuing the topic that other people mentioned that it looks like melon bread, but Bulbapedia has no dub edits listed.
Also, I've learned that names are never a good way to be sure about a character's gender in anime. So yeah.
But look, it doesn't even match the animation. It doesn't even have the same thick black lines.
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I'm surprised Grovyle finished with a losing record. He had a slow start and was never able to recover while both Corphish and Swellow were able to have their time in the sun. Fun fact, Swellow's first gym win came at the 6th gym against Winona's Swellow. I also counted the unofficial matches against Norman and Wattson.
Another thing that annoys me with the anime is the completely arbitrary way pokemon battles are decided
sometimes when a pokemon is issued an order, the other pokemon has time to get an order of its own, like dodge or counter attack, but sometimes it just stands there like an idiot and gets owned
Have they lost all the personality that actually made them Team Rocket in the first place? Unfortunately.
Yeah i just came in here to say that
it would be perfect if they still retained their old personality, now it's like they're completely different people, the only thing in common is their appearance
Dubwise, they "reverted" two episodes ago, but I haven't seen them since. I'll have to see their next episode to decide.
I'll say one thing, though. There are many episodes I've seen where they're completely superfluous and I wouldn't have minded if they didn't show up at all. Their new role suggests that the writers might actually agree.
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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster It's probably easier to just not break the rules. - SmartMuffin
perfect TR would be: competent and actually doing undercover stuff like in early BW, but also goofy and fun like in earlier seasons. Maybe a few episodes of them doing their thing as a part of a larger arc, investigating stuff and stealing, but at the same time being the same gang we like in earlier seasons, only actually pulling off their heists, and then an ep or two once in a while when they harass/meet up with ash and crew and get beaten, but actually look good while being beaten, not being crushed like in every ep in earlier seasons.
I've only watched the episodes aired in North America, but I've heard that team rocket has gone back to their old selves, but recently have gone back to their black clothes, possibly hinting at the Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma episodes happening in Nimbasa City.
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BOP Results: http://charmander6000.webs.com/GotD%20BOP.xls Congratulations to Black Turtle for winning the guru contest.
One of the upcoming episodes in Japan is called "The Cautious Purrloin! Meowth and Oshawott!", so maybe it'll actually be a Meowth episode, where he'll be back to having a personality.
Lucario and the Mystery of Mew "noooooo." Score: 7/10
We begin "in the legendary past, before pokeballs ever existed." A Lucario that can speak is running around a desolate wasteland, and we pan to an army so fierce, even their pokemon have armor. So I'm wondering... is that armor actually useful for the Aggron and Rhydon there? I mean... their skin is literally made of rock and steel, respectively. This predates the Age of Exploration (we know pokeballs existed in the 1700s from a flashback during the Orange Islands), so I guess this could be steel armor, but it would seem kind of unnecessary for an Aggron. I mean, it's like giving a human armor that's made out of flesh. Even their Steelix have armor on, though there are none in that shot. Well, in any case, Lucario spies on the armies using its aura vision. Upon realizing that it can't stop the armies, it calls Sir Aaron using a big crystal. Sir Aaron speaks to Lady Rin, the queen, hops on his Pidgeot (which is much larger than any Pidgeot ever seen before) and comes to Lucario. Sir Aaron tells Lucario that he's abandoned the queen and the kingdom and he'll never return, and then forcibly traps Lucario in a crystal staff and just leaves it there. Wow, what a dick move.
The queen mentions that the Tree of Beginning, which overlooks the castle, is crying as the two armies clash. A Ho-Oh watches everything go on, and then transforms into a Mew. Pidgeot gives the queen Sir Aaron's crystal staff, and then the tree glows green and it's revealed that Sir Aaron went into the Tree of Beginning and had Mew turn everyone's hatred into understanding and peace, which is an ability that would probably have been helpful when that one Mew had to fight Mewtwo. Thus, Sir Aaron was remembered as a hero.
Cut to the present, where the heroes are coming to Cameron Kingdom, where a pokemon competition is being held to honor Sir Aaron even though he was more associated with aura than with pokemon. We also see Mew is still around, transforming at will. The heroes dress up in traditional costumes, And apparently, "traditional" means "Beautifly belt." Also, you can't tell from my descriptions, but Ash just so happens to dress up exactly as Sir Aaron did in the past. Also,
The ruler of Camaron Palace is Lady Irene, and she looks exactly like the queen from the past. Ash competes in the competition, and in the space of a jazzed-up opening song, Pikachu defeats all of its enemies, including the Weavile of a woman named Kidd. Ash is declared the Guardian of Aura, and given Sir Aaron's staff. Jesus Christ, Irene, that staff must be centuries old, you're letting a ten year-old child handle it?! I wouldn't let a ten year-old child touch my laptop and you're giving him a staff that old? Well, anyway, Ash looks at the staff, and Lucario, still trapped, mistakes him for Sir Aaron and telepathically asks why he betrayed him. No time for this, though, because the day ends with a celebration and a party, and Ash sends out his pokemon to have fun at the party, too. Yes, send out your obnoxious crab, miniature elephant, and large, noisy bird while you're at this high class royal party. I foresee no problems with this. Mew leads all of the pokemon, plus Meowth, to another room to play.
Meanwhile, Kidd, the woman Ash beat, calls a contact named Banks and gives us some exposition: she knows Mew is nearby and wants to get information on it. Eventually, Kid gives her Weavile a transmitter to tag Mew.
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After a battle in which Pikachu defends Mew, Mew teleports itself, Pikachu, and Meowth away while Max watches. To be honest, I'm a little confused. Wasn't that just a transmitter? The Weavile tried to overpower Mew to put it on it, surely it would have known to just remove the transmitter when let free? Aren't transmitters meant to be stealthy?
Cut to Ash at the party. For absolutely no reason, Lucario is released from the staff. No, really, no explanation will ever be given as to why Lucario is let out at this moment. It mistakes Ash for Sir Aaron and asks why he abandoned the queen, and when Ash asks what's going on, Lucario realizes that Ash isn't, you know, an adult. Lucario runs outside and is confused by the fireworks and celebration, thinking the kingdom is still under attack.
It's at this point we have the first of many, many, many flashbacks, and I really hope you enjoy them, because we won't be going ten minutes without them. It reveals that Sir Aaron taught Lucario how to use the power of aura, but much of the castle was repurposed as a museum and Lucario's memories are no longer accurate. Eventually, the queen and the heroes confront it. Lucario mistakes the queen for Lady Rin, the ancient queen, and ONCE AGAIN they call a queen a lady. Do they not know the difference? The terms aren't interchangable. Well, anyway, Lady Irene explains that Lucario's been trapped for centuries, which understandably freaks it out. For absolutely no reason, the heroes are allowed to stay and listen to her explanation too. Wow, I guess Ash's honorary Guardian of Aura title really means something, huh.
Lady Irene explains that Lucario vanished during a battle, and that Sir Aaron found a way to end the battle using aura, which Lucario thinks is impossible because of the whole betrayal thing. She invites it to stay in the castle, and just then Max runs into the throne room to tell everyone that a Mew teleported itself, Pikachu, and Meowth away. Upon being told that one of the rarest pokemon in the ever is around, the queen shrugs and is all "Yeah, Mew bops around every so often, no biggie." Lucario also tells Ash that his aura is like Sir Aaron's, and again, don't worry: there will be absolutely no explanation as to why.
Irene takes the heroes to a balcony and shows them the Tree of Beginning, and admits it's really just a rock formation that looks like a tree. The heroes, Lucario, and Kidd all decide to find Mew at the Tree of Beginning. Lucario is necessary because it can track down Mew using aura, and Kidd claims to be here to investigate the Tree of Beginning, and even though she's not a geologist or anything, everyone immediately believes her (though it is actually true). By the way, Ash could easily send Swellow to go find Pikachu at any point during this movie, but he doesn't.
When they're alone, Lucario asks Ash if he's Pikachu's master, and they have a discussion about friends and the not having or wanting thereof. Ash dislikes Lucario because it has an attitude even though he was just thrust forward in time and found out its Judas is treated like a hero. Ash Ketchum: The Most Understanding Man Ever.
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In the morning, they take a humvee to follow Lucario, who apparently has no problem accepting that, oh yeah, the internal combustion engine has been invented. Kidd discusses what aura is with the heroes (why would she know this?), and tells us that it's an energy field created by all living beings and absolutely nothing like the Force. Also, there was an organization of knights that could manipulate this energy and no one else could, but those guys are nothing like the Jedi. Since Ash's aura is like Sir Aaron's, that must mean Ash can manipulate it too, a line of logic that doesn't quite make unsense, but it's close.
At the Tree of Beginning, Mew plays around with Meowth and Pikachu, and we see Mew's personality is basically "playful derp."
Cut to the heroes, who literally take time out of the journey to search for Pikachu and Mew to... take an impromptu hot spring bath. Ash does feel a little guilt for wasting time like this, but quickly forgets that his friend is possibly in trouble. Lucario has a flashback to sitting at this hot spring with Sir Aaron, because the geography of this place has remained completely static for centuries, but doesn't want to join the heroes in the hot spring because, oh yeah, it had its entire worldview destroyed by someone who looks like Ash to its aura vision and distrusts humans.
Ash just happens upon a time flower, a flower that can show you the past if you have the power of aura, and when he touches it a second time, it shows him a flashback of the first time he touched it because "Ash and Aaron's aura are the same." Ash talks about how he became friends with Pikachu, and Lucario has another flashback to Sir Aaron's aura training where he had to dodge logs using aura, even though logs aren't alive and the movie clearly establishes that living beings have auras. So... did Aaron have natural control over aura? Because Ash has had no training but he can still manipulate it. But then, Aaron trained Lucario to use its aura, so... I'm kind of unclear on this.
Lucario gets frustrated for no reason and decides that all humans are untrustworthy, even though literally every single human except one has thus far been trustworthy. It accuses Ash of being willing to abandon Pikachu if it came down to it, and when Ash points out that there's no proof that Sir Aaron abandoned the queen other than Lucario's word (which is, in this entire conversation, the only legitimate point), Lucario tells Ash that Pikachu probably didn't want him for a master and left him. Ash tackles Lucario, and unsurprisingly, gets his ass completely owned. Lucario then runs off. Later, Max gives Lucario some chocolate (because nothing is good for dogs quite like chocolate), Lucario admits that it's pretty good, and everything is suddenly better now. This will be Max's final contribution to the movie.
Cut to Mew playing with Pikachu, and I begin to suspect that Meowth is only here because without him, Mew and Pikachu would be incomprehensible. Pikachu likes Mew, but wants to go back to Ash, which disappoints Mew. Want to know something else that probably disappoints Mew? I bet it's brought back dozens of pokemon like Pikachu to its home in the tree, and all of them have died of old age while Mew remained immortal. We know pokemon age, there have been old pokemon in previous episodes.
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At night, Ash apologizes to Lucar-- oh, no he doesn't. He just whispers "Pikachu" forlornly, and when they start driving again, he has on his serious face because Lucario guilt tripped him. As they drive the next day, Lucario comes across the place he was trapped in the staff, and yes, it's identical to how it was centuries ago. He wonders why Sir Aaron trapped him, and just then notices a time flower that shows him yet another flashback, this time to when Sir Aaron trapped him. Yes, I guess that time flower had been there, unplucked and alive, for centuries. When the average lifespan for a flower is, what, a year? I have no idea.
Seeing that Lucario's story is true, Ash apologizes for acting exactly as maturely as Lucario had acted. Lucario makes Ash promise to never desert Pikachu, and Ash agrees so long as he can still take hot springs breaks when his friends are in danger.
You know what this tearful and serious scene needs? Flow-breaking action.
A Regirock appears and attacks everyone, and its voice literally -- literally -- sounds like SNES sound effects, with little beeps and everything. I really wish I could capture audio. Since this scene of the protagonists being in danger is obviously boring, we cut to Lady Irene, who worries for the heroes and thinks their quest might fail even though as far as she knows, everything is completely fine and Lucario can track down Mew using aura effortlessly. Lucario thinks Regirock is protecting the Tree of Beginning from intruders, but takes the heroes into it anyway because no one can protect themselves like small children can. Inside the tree is a huge lake and ecosystem full of extinct pokemon, and no one mentions this. Everyone heads up the tree, somehow knowing Mew and Pikachu are at the top, while Kidd uses flying robots to take data from the tree and send it to her computer, run by Banks (remember him?). The survey robots tell her that the rock formations are alive, and it's really driven in here that the Tree is part of an ecosystem that exists separately from the rest of the world. We learn that a Registeel and Regice also protect the tree, which begin hassling the heroes, but Pikachu hears Ash calling and starts trying to find him.
One of the crystals absorbs Jessie (they followed the heroes to find Meowth), and after the most emotionless "NOOOOO" ever from James, Jessie is absorbed into a crystal, and honestly, there are layers of symbolism in this shot I cannot even begin to analyze. I mean, there is no way that only I see that. There is no way I am the only person who sees that.
Another crystal grabs James. Banks tells Kidd that the crystals act as white blood cells and eliminate intruders, and the Tree is like a single living entity. One of the crystals grabs Lucario but lets go, and Kidd decides that "pokemon aren't considered dangerous" just before Regirock launches a hyper beam.
Ash tells the others to go while he creates a distraction, and Kidd, the adult explorer, enthusiastically agrees. Lucario refuses to leave Ash until he has Pikachu, however. I like how this is all for Pikachu, as if Ash would risk being absorbed by a magic crystal to save, say, Noctowl.
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This proves to be a poor decision, because immediately after they leave Ash, another crystal absorbs Brock, May, and Max. And yet another movie goes by in which everyone except Ash is written out of the script.
Eventually, Ash and Lucario find Pikachu, Meowth, and Mew, and Kidd meets up with them again, having escaped the crystals. I especially love how Ash doesn't ask why Kidd isn't with his friends, and she doesn't volunteer the information that she watched them all get eaten by crystals. I mean, eventually Ash thinks to ask, but it takes him an enormous amount of time.
Well, despite this happy reunion, Ash and Kidd still get eaten by crystals, and Kidd and Ash send out their pokemon to escape. Ash's pokemon are broken up by watching their master be killed (the Weavile are just kind of "Dammit"), so Mew gets all of the crystals to spit out the humans they absorbed, and convinces the Regis to leave. Kidd now realizes that Mew and the Tree are symbiotic and depend on each other for survival, even though nothing implies the Tree would be in trouble without Mew and indeed, from Irene's story earlier, Mew frequently leaves the tree.
The effort of forcing the tree to free the humans sickens Mew, and the crystals start turning to dust. Banks tells Kidd that the Tree's ecosystem is breaking down because the transfer of energy has been disrupted because of Mew's reversal, and "the Tree is going into shock," because you can definitely go into shock without a nervous system.
Barely conscious, Mew leads Ash, Kidd, and Lucario to the Tree's heart, in which Lucario finds Sir Aaron's gloves, in perfect condition despite laying around for centuries. Now those are some gloves. I guarantee you that if you went over to Home Depot and bought some gardening gloves, those things would turn to dust in only a few decades. Sir Aaron's body is encased in a crystal, and they find another time flower.
Sir Aaron gave Mew his power of aura to use to stop the armies from fighting, but the effort of it cost him his life and forced him to be encased in crystal. Mew tells Lucario that it can save the tree by using its aura, and Kidd warns Lucario that if it uses aura to save the Tree, it'll end up in the same crystal as Sir Aaron. She can't possibly know that's true, but whatever.
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Lucario decides to do it anyway, but he isn't as strong as Sir Aaron and fails. Ash puts on Sir Aaron's gloves and somehow instantly gains control of aura like Sir Aaron had. The two of them combined are enough to match Sir Aaron, and at the last possible second, Lucario knocks Ash aside and uses the built up aura to give Mew the power, which it uses to save the Tree using CGI. You know, Japan... CGI hasn't been impressive since the 90s, I'm just saying. It doesn't "wow" people like it used to. Lucario is too weakened and accidentally trips yet another time flower, this one a personal message from Sir Aaron.
Aaron trapped Lucario in the staff to prevent it from following him, because he didn't want it to also be encased in crystal (whoops), and apologizes for not telling it the truth. Satisfied that its master was a true hero and that it gets to follow him even into death, and that Sir Aaron was truly its friend, Lucario tearfully bids farewell to Ash and withdraws into the crystal to be with Sir Aaron. Ash gives up being a pokemon master to become one of the world's only masters of aura.
No, okay, he doesn't.
This is a generally strong movie, but the key problem is that there's no real urgency until Mew accidentally almost destroys the Tree of Beginning. It's like... "Let's find Pikachu, and there's not even a time limit on how long we have. I wonder if Sir Aaron really betrayed the kingdom, and... that's not really a pressing matter, either." A significant portion of the movie is made of flashbacks or time flower flashbacks, which is necessary, but again, it's like... in the actual, pressing present, there's no real hurry, evidenced by the heroes taking their time in a hot spring rather than trying to find Pikachu as quickly as possible. It was stuff, but it wasn't really very exciting stuff.
However, Lucario's arc is engaging, Lucario as a character is quite interesting, and Obama is going to win in 2012, guys, come on. I hate him too, for multiple reasons but his callous disregard for the space program is probably my biggest, but who are the Republicans going to nominate who could possibly defeat an incumbent?
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Also hot damn you have made some progress. When this started I thought you would have no chance of actually catching up with the anime, but you might just manage it!
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"The great fallacy is that the game is first and foremost about winning. It's nothing of the kind. The game is about glory." - Danny Blanchflower
Also hot damn you have made some progress. When this started I thought you would have no chance of actually catching up with the anime, but you might just manage it!
I've only just begun Battle Frontier, man. I still have a long way to go.
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She varies, but the first Emo episode was the one that convinced me that she was more annoying than amusing.
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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster It's probably easier to just not break the rules. - SmartMuffin
