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Old 07-26-2014, 01:29 PM   #51
big bad birtha
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Watched 35 myself.

Episode 35 spoilers
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This was an alright episode. Vagina bird might end up being entertaining. Though this episode is another case of "MAKE HUGE DEAL OUT OF SMALL THINGS!". It's the amazing quick attack all over again! Like the pose..I'm sure it's not the pose that gives his opponents the time to move. Hell they have plenty of time to rest without the posing. Also it's kind of silly how Vagina Bird can take on all those powerful fighting types, but gets one-shotted by a pound.

Well whining aside, it had some neat battles, and no Team Rocket to be obnoxious.
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Old 07-26-2014, 04:30 PM   #52
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Cannot say that I saw 035 coming.
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Old 08-10-2014, 10:28 AM   #53
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Movie 17 Special & Sneak Peek:

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I enjoyed the five-minute Diancie special for what it was. I wish that it had been longer and more substantial, but alas. Carbink is a cute-looking Pokémon, but something about the voice acting for Diancie's Carbink servants pulls me out of perceiving them as cute and migrates me over to perceiving them as slightly annoying. The high-pitched voices? Their incessant complaining? Whatever it is, my headcanon voice for the creature is a lot cuter than what ShoPro delivered here. Even their constant "Meh! Meh! Meh!"s sound a lot less cute to me than the "Bink! ^.^ Bink! ^.^ Bink! ^.^"s afforded by Carbink fan Yuki. With "Bink!", the creature seems as adorable as the first Diglett Ash and Pikachu saw. With "Meh!", I dunno ... it feels more like a busy ant. *shrug* Whatever. ^^;

The first five minutes of the film, on the other hand, I enjoyed a lot more than I'd care to admit. haha ^^; The first two or so minutes were kinda awkward to sit through. Cute for small children but a little too braindead for adults. ("Playing hide-and-seek is so fun! ^-^" ........... ^^;;;;; ) But once the scene shifts to the elder Carbink asking Diancie to produce a replacement diamond for their society, the movie really took off. Enjoyed that scene. Enjoyed the elder's flashback to when he was younger and was almost killed by Yveltal. Was caught by surprise when the sneak peek ended right there. I was like, "No! I want to see more!" So given that that is precisely what the sneak peek's job was, I'd say that they nailed it. I can only imagine that this led to many children begging their parents to take them to the cinema to see the continuation.

CG graphics remain somewhat obnoxiously obtuse at times. When they blend in, they're fine, but it's when they pop out apart from the rest of the animation that I find myself not liking them. This was the case with most of the crystals in the film. The giant pink crystal looked fine, as it and the white glare it generated occupied most of the screen anyway and the CG effect gave the diamond a realistic glassy look. But the smaller blue crystals that would show up as we explored the Carbink society, these ones stood out a bit more obnoxiously. I particularly remember the part where a bunch of long, spindly blue crystals topple down like loose I-beams at a construction site, crashing down on some of Diancie's servants. The way the crystals looked made them feel "fake" within an ironically less realistic-looking cartoon world. Oh well. Not too bad. "Somewhat obnoxiously obtuse," I said, not "OMG RUINED THE FILM."


XY036:

Spoiler: show
The climax of this episode was unfortunately spoiled for me by an eager fan on Pokémon Showdown. I went into their lobby to try and find a friend when someone in the chat submitted a message about how Ash's Fletchling evolves in Episode 036. "Gee," I thought. "Thanks a lot. " So going into this episode, I wasn't too excited, feeling robbed of the big surprise.

In the end, I found the episode to be a mixed bag between good and dull.

Likes: I enjoyed the human character of the day, although I already forget her name. (Elsa? ^^; [/probably way off base, haha]) She had enough of a personality to stand out, though the way her animation and lines were handled makes it seem like we'll likely never see her again. She wasn't pristine -- she said or did a few things that revealed a slightly ugly personality -- but she wasn't a horrible person either. Her Talonflame also had a distinct personality that you could tell set him apart from other Talonflame.

Getting to see Sky Battles in action was nice. I never imagined that the player character took to the skies himself/herself in XY when engaging in Sky Battles -- I figured you just summoned your Flying-type (or Levitating) Pokémon and watched from the ground -- so it was interesting to see ShoPro's interpretation of the game mechanic.

Neutrals: I was neutral towards the Eureka aspects of the episode. They were once again clearly there for the wee ones in the audience. Oh look: she's being told she can't get on the ride because she's too short, and now Citron is proxying for parents of small children by telling Eureka (and thus proxy-addressing the small ones watching the TV) that it can't be helped, the rules are there for her safety, it's okay, world's not gonna end, etc etc. Oh look: now she's telling Fletchling that token line from many a children's book about how "there are some things that only we little ones can do!" ... even though that didn't really factor into this episode this much, not even during the battle with Fletchling, and even though that runs completely counter to the end goal of the episode in having Fletchling evolve into a much-larger Fletchinder. ^^; I'll admit that I was rather sleepy when I watched this episode, so perhaps some things didn't register? Maybe Fletchling did do things in his battle with Talonflame that only a small bird could do? But all I saw him do was 1) be speedy, which in the Pokémon world has never been tied to size, 2) use Double Team, and 3) just generally endure whatever Talonflame threw at him.

Dislikes: As for bad things, well ... for one, the battles bored me. Again, because I watched the episode while tired, maybe things didn't register properly? But normally when I watch battles while sleepy, it has the opposite effect: my brain enters into a weird time dilation mode where like, what passes by in deciseconds during the day feels like it takes seconds to pass by at night. Indeed, I'll often go back and rewatch a fight the next day and discover to my surprise that it is much, much shorter than I felt it was when I first watched it at night. Sooooooooooooooo, I don't think that's it. ^^; I think the fights were just generally lackluster. Talonflame vs. Hawlucha felt like a pretty standard, cross-generational short fight; and Talonflame vs. Fletchling had the characteristic feel of a Johto long fight. For an episode so focused on combat, and for one which tied an evolution of all things to combat, it's unfortunate that the combat didn't entertain me more. Oh well.

A second, even more minor complaint I had with the episode was that the trainers' being in the sky didn't really add anything to the battle. Like, we've had plenty of battles between a bird of Ash's and someone else's airborne Pokémon. I can cite Faulkner, Winona, and Skyla alone for easy examples. And none of these had the trainers in the air along with their Pokémon. So like, given that ShoPro decided to be imaginative and place Ash in a skysuit as well and not just his opponent, I was kind of hoping to see them do more with the skysuit than simply hang out like kites. I know the human trainer isn't supposed to interfere during a sky battle, but I dunno ... I guess I just would've liked to see them do more than be kites. I want to re-emphasize though that this is a pretty minor complaint, and that overall I was more pleased than displeased by ShoPro's show of creativity.

Overall, Episode 036 was okay but it wasn't one I'll remember for years. Maybe today's kids will, the same way we remember Charmander evolving in the Kanto episode with the Exeggutor and Charmeleon evolving in the Kanto episode with Aerodactyl. But for me, Fletchling has had so little personality up until now that his evolution, while welcome, wasn't able to bring with it too much excitement. Especially not when it was given away ahead of time by someone in a chat room. -_-;


XY037:

Spoiler: show
This episode was okay. It was a token Mirror Universe episode, and it did a few things that annoyed me but overall was fun to watch. I guess we'll divide this one by annoyances and likes as well, but we'll take it in reverse this time.

Dislikes: For starters, I disliked (but also liked; see below) the fact that some of the properties were opposite of what we normally know while others of the properties weren't opposite, merely different. For example, opposites include Serena's personality, Citron's faith in magic rather than science, and Team Rocket being heroes of justice. But non-opposites included Pikachu's personality and Eureka's personality. And we even had some things which were 100% identical, like Serena caring about Ash (the mirror universe one was just tsundere about it) and everyone having the same exact Pokémon species as normal (that we saw).

Another thing I disliked was what happened with Team Rocket in the end. The episode predictably (I was waiting for it the MOMENT Citron told Ash about the deadline! ) had Team Rocket get stuck in the mirror universe, failing to exit before the sun set. Now, the reason I dislike this is not because they're stuck there. Far from it: I think we all know that we're going to continue to see Team Rocket in future episodes. No, the reason I dislike this is because it either:
  1. asks us to accept that our Team Rocket makes it back to our universe despite what mirror universe Citron said about the window of time closing once the sun has set
  2. entreats us to consider the possibility that the Team Rocket we knew is stuck in the mirror universe forever and that the Team Rocket we see before us is some third Team Rocket from some other universe
and -- here's the kicker -- it doesn't clarify which is correct. That kind of stuff drives me crazy. I know that fans of mirror universe fiction love this kind of stuff, but it drives me crazy. I hate it when you have two people -- one who's an impostor, one who's the original -- and they get mixed up, you can't tell which is which, and then one of them dies / goes to prison / etc. And the fans are all like, "Did we get back the original? ;D Or is it the impostor who's with us now? ;D" But whatever. I recognize that a lot of people love this plot device, so for them I'm sure it was very entertaining.

A third thing I disliked -- but this comes with the territory of these sorts of episodes, I understand -- is how it doesn't make much sense that Crybaby Ash would attract the circle of friends that he has, that he wouldn't have had all of his Pokémon taken from him by now, etc.

A fourth thing I disliked was that they explained that the reason Crybaby Ash managed to open the portal was because of his intense desire. This is shown again when our Ash opens the portal with his intense desire to return home. The reason I'm not too thrilled with this is ... doesn't it imply that Serena's, Citron's, and Eureka's desire to rescue Ash wasn't strong enough? ^^;; 'Cause like, shouldn't the portal have opened on their end if their desire were strong enough?

Likes: I mentioned that I disliked how the differences between the two worlds were a mix of opposites and not-quite-opposites and how some things were even identical between them. But I also hinted above that I liked this too. Well, I did! I thought it was refreshingly loyal to the idea of multiple universes to not have this mirror universe be a 180° opposite of ours. Normally that's how stories like these go. Ash & Co. in the mirror universe would be evil, Team Rocket would be good, Pikachu would be super weak, and so on. That's not what the writers gave us at all. They gave us some opposites, like Citron going from believing in science to believing in magic. But they also gave us partial opposites, like Ash going from being brave and confident to being a crybaby who gives up too easily (opposite) while still remaining good-hearted, having friends, and having a strong Pikachu amongst many other similarities (not opposite). Or like Pikachu, who became more aggressive and mischievous but who was still hinted at being very powerful, not evil, etc. This is good. It's so tired to always see a mirror universe where everything is the opposite of how you originally knew it. Especially since there are so many things which still aren't the opposite in those stories (e.g. the laws of physics). I can better enjoy an alternate dimension story where there are some differences but people aren't necessarily always the opposite of how they are back home.

Another thing I liked about the episode was that Citron loved magic in the alternate dimension. I kind of wish that this had been explored more.

Despite my complaints above, the episode was still fun to watch. It's just ... it's one of those experiences for me which is "fun but constantly vexing". ^^; Y'know? So I explored the vexations above, but you should know that I was still entertained from start to finish.

Would I call it one of the best episodes of XY? No. But I wouldn't call it a terrible episode either. It was a classic filler -- nothing of lasting importance happened -- but I'd say it could've easily passed for an average Decolora Adventure episode. Not the greatest filler I've ever seen, but like a "good Johto filler" as opposed to a bad one.
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Old 08-24-2014, 05:04 AM   #54
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XY038:

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This was a sight for sore eyes: a Unova-style "filler" episode where we get some significant character development for one or more of Ash's creatures. The beneficiaries this week were Hawlucha and Froakie. It's 5:47am local time and I watched the episode half a week to a week ago, so don't expect the most razor sharp of details this time. ^^;

I don't understand why the episode's pre-title card bit with the heroes suggested that this would be a Citron-centric episode. A production error, maybe? It was clearly an Ash episode. (If we had to pick any of the four humans to assign it to, at least.)

I enjoyed the rivalry that the writers introduced between Hawlucha and Froakie. It was a simple enough of a plot device that permitted them to demonstrate quite a few character traits for both creatures. For example ...
  • we learned that Froakie's flavor of justice places importance on efficiency while Hawlucha's flavor of justice places importance on honor. This was explored by Hawlucha's distaste for doubles practices -- he kept wanting to treat the match as two separate 1v1 duels instead of one giant 2v2 match -- that became apparent when he became angry with Froakie, the latter who kept "interfering" by taking Hawlucha's KO, drawing enemy fire, what have you.
  • we learned that Froakie is not quick to forgive, as demonstrated by his refusal to shake Hawlucha's hand when Hawlucha is trying to apologize early on in the episode and let bygones be bygones.
  • we learned that both creatures care enough about Ash that they were readily willing to cooperate if it meant tracking him down; they did not squabble nor vie for glory when they went into the forest to try and rescue him
5:55am, been days since I've seen it, I'll have to end the list here for now. ^^; But I remember there being quite a bit more, and I'm sure others who wish to comment on it will be able to.

I thought that Trevenant felt rather shoehorned into this episode. AK2 commented that the writers likely felt that they could only tell a 10-minute story around Froakie and Hawlucha and so they had to couple it to a 10-minute story about Trevenant and Team Rocket. I suppose he is right, but I still feel like the Trevenant half of the episode felt shoehorned in.

While Team Rocket is dumb, I did enjoy some elements of this week's fight with them. The part where Hawlucha passes right through Pumpkaboo's ćthereal body ... the part where Hawlucha and Froakie execute their doubles move that Ash was trying to teach them ... things like these made the fight better than most typical TR fight scenes.

The fact that Ash taught his Froakie and Hawlucha a doubles move on the eve of their Shalour City gym battle would seem to suggest that his fight with Korrina will be a doubles battle. Only time will tell if this is true or not. If it is true, let me just go ahead and say that I would never have suspected a doubles match before now. O_o It wasn't a doubles match in the video game and Ash isn't one to preference doubles matches. If on the other hand the match is in fact going to be Singles, well then all I can say is that this was a very weirdly-placed lesson for Froakie and Hawlucha to learn. "Here! Let's learn a doubles move so we can kick ass ... except for in the gym match that we have coming up soon!" ^^;

The bit with Citron's Chespin eating all of the macarons again, brief and familiar though it was, was welcome as it reinforces that character trait of Chespin's, making him feel more like a person and less like a 2-dimensional cardboard cutout. (When was the last time we saw him being a glutton?) Though like the cardboard cutout it's not as though "LOL GLUTTON" is the strongest of character development writing all on its own. ^^; We'll need more than that for Chespin to really feel like a character and not a caricature. But I'm saying that for now it's at least nice to have something over nothing.
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Old 08-24-2014, 01:27 PM   #55
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Ash is really cool in this series
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Old 08-24-2014, 07:58 PM   #56
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
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The fact that Ash taught his Froakie and Hawlucha a doubles move on the eve of their Shalour City gym battle would seem to suggest that his fight with Korrina will be a doubles battle.[/b] Only time will tell if this is true or not. If it is true, let me just go ahead and say that I would never have suspected a doubles match before now. O_o It wasn't a doubles match in the video game and Ash isn't one to preference doubles matches. If on the other hand the match is in fact going to be Singles, well then all I can say is that this was a very weirdly-placed lesson for Froakie and Hawlucha to learn. "Here! Let's learn a doubles move so we can kick ass ... except for in the gym match that we have coming up soon!" ^^;
Spoiler: show
I don't really see it suggesting that. The reason Satoshi and Citron had a double battle is because Citron suggested doing so in order to possibly draw out some more of Keromatsu's hidden power, and the reason Satoshi got his Pokemon to practice Super Flying Cut was because they weren't working together and he saw this as a good teambuilding activity. None of it was ever said to be "training for the gym battle" specifically, it was all done for other, stated, reasons.
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Old 08-24-2014, 08:22 PM   #57
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Your thinking strikes me as far too in-universe. I'm meta-analyzing here. I'm looking at this as though a director or writer, and I'm taking into consideration past trends of this sort in previous seasons. The in-universe justifications are practically irrelevant.
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Old 08-25-2014, 06:51 PM   #58
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I don't know. This series has a long tradition of "training" episodes where the Pokemon or moves that were trained on weren't used in the next gym battle, even if the training was said to be for the gym. I think you're just seeing foreshadowing that isn't there.
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Old 08-30-2014, 09:24 AM   #59
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I've been lagging like hell on the episodes of this. I've been rewatching another show, and as a result, have been putting this off for quite a while. Did manage to watch 36 though:

Episode 36 spoilers:
Spoiler: show
This episode didn't really do anything for me. It reminded me of why I've been putting XY off for so long. It wasn't bad, but I spent the entire episode wanting it to be over. Eureka's bits were cute, but otherwise, eh. The whole "Sky Battle" thing always seemed dumb to me. Why do the trainer have to "fly"? I always viewed sky battles as the trainer flying on a large flying Pokemon as they battled...which is actually dumber than they are in the episode.


I'll try catch back up. Though looking at the name of episode 39 on the torrent, I think I've found my motivation to give a damn again! For a short while atleast.
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Old 09-01-2014, 03:01 PM   #60
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XY039:

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This was a pretty good episode. It focused heavily on the delightful Serena, and it addressed one of the greatest criticisms her critics have had of her for many months now: what she plans to do for a career. It introduced the anime versions of some characters from the video games, and it gave us some nostalgic blasts from the past. Let's discuss!


Of the three XY characters Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor (or Sana, Tierno, and Trova in Japanese), the one I enjoyed the most in this episode was Shauna. She stands out as an obvious "rival-friend" character for Serena, and the direction the writers explore this episode -- with Shauna pursuing a career in PokéVision video making and Serena considering following suit -- sets the pair up pretty cleanly to mirror Zoey and Dawn from the Diamond & Pearl series. While it's unclear how often we'll see Tierno or Trevor, I imagine we'll be seeing Shauna at least once every forty episodes from now on.


It was surprisingly good fun to see a Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander again all in one setting. For me, Shauna's Bulbasaur was the most interesting, followed by Tierno's Squirtle, and then Trova's Charmander in last place. When Shauna summoned forth her Bulbasaur, though, for a brief moment I wanted Ash to go over to the computer, contact Professor Oak, and show the XY kids his own Bulbasaur and Charizard. (And even Squirtle if he could get him somehow.) I soon realized, however, that this would distract attention from the episode's primacy focus, which was Serena's goals for the future, and that we've had plenty of Kanto nostalgia as recently as Decolora Adventure what with Charizard accompanying us.

I've gotta give credit to the writers. They did a great job of having Shauna's Bulbasaur feel 50% "unmistakably a Bulbasaur like the ones we've known before " and 50% "her own unique personality." I was commenting to AK2 how, in many fanfics or fan-operated Pokémon RPGs, whenever somebody writes a Bulbasaur character it inevitably winds up like Ash's Bulbasaur. That gruff wise old man character type is so beloved and so emblazoned in, I think, all of our minds when it comes to Bulbasaur that it's hard to dissociate the species' characteristics from the individual's. "Ash's Bulbasaur was that way because all Bulbasaurs are that way" vs. "Not all Bulbasaurs act that way like Ash's." Knowing which are the traits unique to him and which aren't. Anyway, yeah. The writers do a solid job of giving us a Bulbasaur with a clear identity that is distinct from Ash's and May's. Good job.

I don't have too much to say about Trevor's Charmander. It felt like a kind of low-hanging fruit that the writers went for with that one. ^^; "He's always getting into fights! But really he's just trying to be affectionate ..." Yeah, because we haven't seen that one a dozen times before. Anyway ...


What I liked best about Tierno's Squirtle, and it came as something of a surprise, was how it exhibited ninja-like reflexes that were better even than Froakie's. That "killing blow" at the very end of their fight, where Squirtle has her hand right up against Froakie's neck and the referee is like, "Yeah, this fight is over. TIERNO AND SQUIRTLE ARE THE WINNERS!", was a surprise to see coming from a Squirtle and was also a surprise to see in Pokémon period. I'm so used to the creatures capable of elemental manipulation focusing on that instead of on martial arts. And I'm so used to even the martial arts-focused creatures just doing your basic kicks and jabs. Seeing something like this was refreshing. Maybe they don't show it too often because Pokémon is marketed to such a young and impressionable demographic? (After all, you don't want little kids karate chopping each other's throats ... ^^;; ) But it's nice to have for a change. And I look forward to the emasculated Froakie learning this technique from Squirtle, taking one step closer to becoming the ninja frog I hope he'll one day evolve into.


And so now, with most of the other aspects of the episode having been explored, let's talk Serena. This was clearly her episode. And it was an episode which focused on a complaint that many of Serena's critics have been voicing for months now. "When is she going to decide on a career path and which career is she going to pick!? "

The thing is, I'm in the minority when it comes to this complaint. I actually loved that Serena was indecisive about her future, that she was good at so many things but none of them really grabbed her and made her go, "Yes. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life." Maybe this is partly because I can relate to it on a deep and personal level. And maybe this is partly because of how refreshing it is to have a main character in the Pokémon universe not know what she wants to do next. From the moment we met Misty, she was already on a mission to become a Water-type Pokémon Master. From the moment we met Brock, he wanted to set forth into the world to become a Pokémon Breeder. (He later changed his career path, but a) Brock always had a goal in mind while we knew him and b) this doesn't change the fact that he still knew exactly what he wanted to be when we first met him.) Dawn already knew that she wanted to be a Contest Coordinator. And even May, who took some fifteen or so episodes to figure out that contests were for her, was a character who, from the moment we met her, knew that she didn't want to tour the gym circuit and challenge the Pokémon League. Yet Serena was unlike any other companion character we'd met before. She was beautiful, not unintelligent, and capable of doing many things. She demonstrated the capacity to become a Rhyhorn racer. She demonstrated the capacity to become a pastry chef. She demonstrated the capacity to make PokéVision videos. She even demonstrated the capacity to arrange flowers. There are many hobbies and careers which Serena has courted and yet none of them have really stuck. She's been a jack of all trades, master of none so far. And that's frustrated many viewers. But boy if it hasn't been something I've enjoyed watching, knowing that it wouldn't last forever and appreciating it while it was here for its realism. It sends kids who don't know what they want to be when they grow up a healthy message: "it's okay. You'll figure it out someday. "

Well, it looks like the time may have finally come for Serena to find her answer. Episode 039 by no means confirms anything, but it points in two possible directions: becoming a Pokémon Performer and becoming a Pokémon Master. Let's tackle these in turn.

If the episode suggests anything, it's that Serena is most likely to wind up becoming a Pokémon Performer. Episode 039 does things like:
  • bringing to Serena's attention that her talent at making PokéVision videos has not gone unnoticed
  • giving her a new best friend in Shauna, one who is especially passionate about PokéVision videos
  • giving her a friendly rival in Shauna, someone she can strive to keep ahead of or at least not fall too far behind from
It would be somewhat strange, though not impossible, for Serena to go and become something else other than a Pokémon Performer now that XY039 has set the stage for her. But part of me honestly kind of hopes that she won't pursue this career. :\ And I'll tell you why: I worry that she's pursuing this career for mostly the wrong reasons.

Before Serena met Shauna, PokéVision videos had been nothing more than a one-time distraction that she'd tried out, had some fun with, and then forgotten all about. It wasn't something that she enjoyed so much that she couldn't wait to record her next video with Fennekin. She didn't even do the basic research that would have brought to her attention that these videos can be viewed remotely, their view counts visible as well. Shauna had to tell Serena this. For a girl who didn't even know that basic of a fact about PokéVision videos, it strikes me as weird for the writers to now try and argue that PokéVision videos are Serena's passion. And thankfully, they don't argue that. They have Serena considering it, but the episode ends with her on the dock alone with Fennekin, looking somewhat sad and alone, staring up into the starry night sky, wondering what to do with herself. At least that shows that the writers aren't clumsy enough to have Serena go from "forget they even existed" to "MY #1 PASSION IN LIFE, YES PLEASE! " At least if she does pursue PokéVision video making we can expect her pursuit to be a bit more realistic. I hope so, anyway. ^^;

The second likelihood that the episode points to for Serena, as unexpected as it might be, is that she wants to become a Pokémon Master like Ash. I think this theory is a lot less likely for a number of reasons. For starters, up until now Serena has shown little interest in partaking in Pokémon battles herself. She's had plenty of opportunities but so far she has tended to leave the practice battles to the boys. Serena has shown no interest in touring the gym circuit, collecting badges. She hasn't really done anything to indicate that she'd want to become a Pokémon Master until now. So why do I even voice such a crazy theory?

Because of the things she says and does in Episode 039, that's why. For starters, Serena is shown multiple times throughout the episode muttering to herself under a breath, "A Pokémon Master, huh ..." as she thinks about Ash and his career goals. The most obvious way to interpret this is that she's just reflecting on what Ash wants to do with his life. But there's the also-obvious possibility that she's intrigued by the career choice and is contemplating it herself. Second, this episode does not have Serena revisit PokéVision video making. However, what it does explore ... is having her partake in her very first refereed Pokémon Battle. She even remarks on this to Shauna, who seems a bit surprised that this is Serena's first. You can tell during her fight with Shauna that Serena's eyes light up, that she feels possessed by a strange sensation, that she doesn't know what is happening but she likes it. Serena is enjoying refereed Pokémon battling. We don't get to see the outcome of her match with Shauna, but whether she won or lost, it's clear at dinner that night that she had a very fun time. So yeah. Even though I completely agree that the episode more strongly suggests that Serena will become a Pokémon Performer than that she will become a Pokémon Master, I'm just saying that the episode does do a few things to raise the possibility.

And I've gotta say: I'd be so much happier if she pursued this than the Pokémon Performer thing. That's not to say that I will be unhappy if she chooses to become a Performer. Just that I think it would be so much more incredible if she chose to become a Pokémon Master instead. A, it'd be fun alone for the surprise that it'd be! B, I absolutely adoooooooooooore the idea of a husband-and-wife Pokémon Master pair in Ash and Serena. C, she would be the very first companion of Ash's who has shared his exact goal. Misty was segregated off into aiming to become a Water-type Master, and Iris was segregated off into aiming to become a Dragon-type Master. No one of Ash's traveling companions has ever aimed for the general category before. At least none that I can recall. I believe Serena would be the first. And damn if that wouldn't make her hot appealing to Ash if she were now this girl who shared his specific career dream.

Anyway, it's okay. Serena is more than likely going to become a Pokémon Performer and that can still be fun. We'll just have to see how fun.

Final comment: I'm a little disappointed in ShoPro for inventing the idea of Pokémon Performers as a profession when a) it feels like a scaled-back version of Pokémon Coordinators and b) we already have the Coordinator class! Why couldn't you have made Shauna and Serena want to become Coordinators? AK2 notes that it's because we've already got two Ash companions who dream of becoming the best Contest Coordinator in the world, May and Dawn, and how this is already going to spell trouble in Paradise. Adding a third girl to the mix would only be asking for heartache. Perhaps he's right. Still though. :\ Annoyed by how Pokémon Performers seem to either be the same as Contest Coordinators or else scaled-back versions of them.
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Old 09-01-2014, 07:44 PM   #61
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Now that I've read your comments on XY39, I really can't wait for you to watch XY40. I think you'll realize why after you've seen it.

On the subject of Kasumi, though, her "Water Pokemon Master" goal wasn't introduced from the get-go at all - in fact, it took about 80 episodes for her to come up with it. Her initial "goal" was just a vague "I want to become a strong Trainer" from episode 7 that never really got brought up again after that. It's a pretty common misconception, most likely arising from the fact that she just kind of starts mentioning it whenever she introduces herself instead of it getting a proper introduction, so people just don't register that it's not something she said during the first year-and-a-half of the show's run at all.
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Old 09-02-2014, 11:30 AM   #62
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XY040:

Spoiler: show
This episode was decently enjoyable. I loved the continued focus on Serena, as well as the brief scene with her and Ash in the ravine. I appreciated the groundwork that Shauna laid for Tripokalons. I was less enthusiastic about the inevitable: Serena's being guided into a career as a Pokémon Performer. I'll discuss all of these things and more below.


First, something I forgot to bring up in my previous post: Team Rocket. I thought they were cute in Episode 039. While they were their typical Sinnoh selves here, busying themselves with a sidejob whilst keeping tabs on the Jerry Boy and his crew, they were also pleasantly unobtrusive, even adorable at times.

It's a shame that Episode 040 later hints at their plans to try and kidnap Pikachu like always. I would have vastly preferred it if they were strictly here on business to raise funds for their mission and if they acknowledged that blowing their cover (and more than likely failing to kidnap Pikachu for very long anyway) was not worth the tradeoff of lost funds. I doubt we're going to get that ending, though, which disappoints me.

Obligatory notice that once again do Ash & Co. not only fail to recognize James and Jessie but that they fail to even notice that the 12-inch-tall man with the enormous slit-iris eyes is a talking Meowth. One of these days I'm hoping the writers justify this idiocy on the heroes' part by revealing to us that in Ash's world there is an entire nation of little people who upon reaching adulthood are roughly Meowth's height and width. :p


The animation in this week's episode was all over the place. Sometimes it was as good as it normally appears to be, particularly close-ups of faces. (Examples: Shauna, Serena) ShoPro rarely skimps on faces once they're zoomed in to a certain a point ... but this week, it seems like the only faces they gave a shit about were the really close-up ones. :\ Just look at Professor Sycamore! And if you think that's bad, check out the group photo (above) or the panning shot of the kids at the camp tables! Just really bad stuff. I appreciate that the writing is here this week, and it's not as though the animation is entirely absent either, but cels like these remind us that ShoPro's funds and staff alike are not up to snuff with modern anime's best.


Episode 040 provides us our most detailed look yet at the tournament circuit that Pokémon Performers compete in. Called the Tripokalon, it appears to consist of three different tournaments all at the same level which, if you should manage to win all three, then unlocks access to the Masters tournament. If you should win that, you then become crowned the Kalos Queen. Everything in Shauna's explanation to Serena seems to suggest that this tournament circuit is off limits to boys and men. The visuals show us girls and young women in ballroom gowns, walking down catwalks with their Pokémon companions, basically being something of a hybrid between real-life fashion models and real-life performance artists. Obviously men can be fashion models and performance artists too. And indeed it's not like only girls are encouraged to make PokéVision videos in this world. So perhaps there are separate Tripokalon tournaments for boys and girls, with the winner of the boys' Masters tournament being crowned the Kalos King. Only time will tell!

Shauna also establishes one crucial difference between the Tripokalon and contests: no battles! This came as a disappointment to me personally, as it signifies that Serena, for all the interest she showed in Pokémon battling in Episode 039, is going to regress to her old battle-averse self. I don't mind girly girl Fennekin being afraid to get her paws dirty, but I dislike that the writers take it so far as to establish that Fennekin downright doesn't want to partake in battles outside of repelling Team Rocket. I was hoping to see more combat out of Fennekin as the series progressed and sadly that isn't looking likely at this point.

This episode explains a bit more about Elle as well. It establishes that she is the reigning Kalos Queen, making her analogous to a regional League Champion. Elle is portrayed as being beautiful, kind, and all around lovely. This begs an interesting question: how will the writers justify Elle's loss to either Serena or Shauna? Or will they not, and will they instead keep Elle as the Kalos Queen, having both Shauna and Serena fail in their mission to take home the crown?

We also learn that Elle has a Braixen for her Pokémon partner. This affords a nice connection for Serena, who has likewise preferenced the Fennekin line. It also sets up for a possible duel in the future between the two girls, whether it be Fennekin vs. Braixen (the classic unevolved form vs. evolved form battle we've seen hundreds of times) or whether it be Braixen vs. Braixen (should the writers ever decide to evolve Fennekin; unlikely, but just tossing it out there all the same).


I noted last time that Serena's evolution into a Pokémon Performer seemed the most likely bet but that I was not willing to rule out the possibility that she'd pursue a career in battling instead. Suffice to say, I was a little disappointed but not at all surprised by the writers' decision to have her go the Pokémon Performer route.

The episode is ostensibly about a contest between Shauna and Serena to produce the best PokéVision video. I feel like this contest took a backseat to the Tripokalon explanation (above) and the incident at the ravine (below). I found all of the children's videos to be fairly boring. (Of all the PokéVision videos in this week's episode, I actually enjoyed Professor Sycamore's the most. ^^; ) Serena's told a short story like an indie movie, and for that it was good, I guess. But it was kind of boring and silly. ^^; And I'm not sure how well it accomplished her goal of producing a video with companions as an evident theme either. Meh. The XY trio's video was okay but it had two minor annoyances. First, the black smoke looked disastrous. ^^; Second, Shauna's line about how she was "the only girl in the group" bothered me. Provided you don't have all girls or all boys, when there are only three people in a group there is always going to be someone who is the lone gender representative! It's as stupid to say "I'm the only girl! ^-^" in a group of three as it would be for the lone boy in a group of three to say "And I'm the only boy! ^-^" Like I said, though: these are minor complaints.

The videos that won 2nd and 3rd place were clearly just there for plot purposes. The content was pretty lacking. ^^;


Ash's and Serena's tumble into the ravine was for me the highlight of this week's episode. It's a classic trope in love stories to have a boy and a girl fall down a cliff together and have to wait to be rescued, to have them trapped in a coastal cave during high tide, to have them stuck in an elevator, etc etc. And how during this time alone together the sexual tension mounts, sparks fly, and you know the rest. Obviously ShoPro held out on us as far as having Ash show any signs of registering that Serena likes him and that she's a pretty attractive girl herself, but on Serena's end they have her dabbing Ash's bare foot with her precious handkerchief, her fingertips gently brushing up against his bare skin. I won't read into it more than that. Suffice to say, ShoPro's probably never going to give us what I want out of this relationship yet they continue to tease more than they've ever done before.

I enjoyed how Ash voiced my views about how there's no rush for Serena to find out what she wants to do in life. What he said was obviously more there for the little kids watching at home than it was for Serena who by this point had already pretty much decided she wanted to become a Pokémon Performer. I do wish that his words would have resulted in the opposite outcome, one where she tells Shauna that while she does enjoy PokéVision videos she's not quite sure if it's what she wants to do with her life and she still needs time to think it over. Shauna could invite Serena to compete in the first Tripokalon event, Serena could accept her invitation, and the episode could end with Serena being open-minded about making some more PokéVision videos but being kinda sure that it's not what she wants to do for a living and wondering to herself what it is exactly that she wants to do. Hell: this could've even led very nicely into the development that she decides she wants to do Contests, having developed a taste for Pokémon battles while at the same time not wanting to take on the League circuit. Oh well. Going back to what AK2 said last time, I guess it's for the best that we don't have three girls all wanting to become the best Contest Coordinator in the world.
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Old 09-02-2014, 10:54 PM   #63
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I'll be rather underwhelmed with Serena if she gets a goal that doesn't involve battling. As seen with other characters like Brock, Misty, Tracey, etc. characters who don't battle often tend to be forgotten about and brushed to the side, and their pokemon don't get much screentime.

The most boring part of the Contest episodes were always the appeal rounds, as with few exceptions, they were never all that interesting. If Serena's goal is entirely something similar to that but with no battling, I can't see it being too interesting.

Serena feels like a girl the writers only want to use for shipping/fanservice purposes, but not to be an actual interesting character. Why they can't do both like they did with Dawn, is beyond me.
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Old 09-03-2014, 01:46 PM   #64
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I personally dislike all of the current companions but I think that they're all positives objectively. I agree with Talon that indecision and explicitly saying that indecision is ok is a great thing for kids to watch. Bonnie is a nice thing for littler kids I guess and her solid relationship with Renault is a good thing. Renault himself I guess could be interesting but I don't really care for him myself.

Although the character development of Pokémon this series is generally positive, I am now seriously bored of the lack of full parties. Serena and Renault don't need a full six, sure, but I'm just itching for some more interesting rosters.
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Old 09-03-2014, 02:19 PM   #65
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Originally Posted by Mercutio View Post
Although the character development of Pokémon this series is generally positive, I am now seriously bored of the lack of full parties. Serena and Renault don't need a full six, sure, but I'm just itching for some more interesting rosters.
The pendulum was on the opposite end in Unova, and it's clear from just how far it's swung back in the opposite direction that the writers' decision to give Ash & Co. small teams this generation is in direct response to the criticisms that arose from the large ensemble in Unova.

I've written before, here and on BMG, that Unova was in many ways a wish-granting series. It took a look at the wishlists of many a Kanto era fanboy and it said, "Well okay then: let's do it. "
  • smaller gaps between gym battles
    • Gym 1 battle begins: BW005
    • Gym 2 battle begins: BW015
    • Gym 3 battle begins: BW025
    • Gym 4 battle begins: BW051
    • Gym 5 battle begins: BW063
    • Gym 6 battle begins: BW070
    • Gym 7 battle begins: BW081
    • Gym 8 battle begins: BW085
    Longest gap (and the only one of its kind) was 26 episodes. Shortest gap was 4 episodes. Average gap was 11.4 episodes.
  • more battling
    • the more closely-spaced gym battles
    • the frequent Don Tournaments
  • less filler
    • the first half of the series, not counting the filler arc between Gyms 3 and 4, was practically devoid of Johto-style filler episodes.
    • What little filler was present practically deserves air quotes around the word "filler" because it either tied into the plot of the video games (e.g. stealing the Dragonite skull from Nacrene City's museum) or else it featured Ash capturing a new Pokémon, evolving an old Pokémon, or teaching an old Pokémon a new move
  • no more Comic Relief Team Rocket
    • they were turned rather serious, competent, and even occasionally successful in their missions
    • they showed up very infrequently, maybe only once every five to six episodes
    • no more "blasting off again!" or similar; even in defeat, they were smooth and serious
    • alas, no more Wobuffett ^^;
  • Ash capturing more than six or seven Pokémon a region, just like he did in Kanto!
    • main squad: Pikachu, Oshawott, Snivy, Tepig, Scraggy (baby), Krookodile
    • support squad: Unfezant, Leavanny, Boldore, Palpitoad
    • for the first time in the history of the franchise, Ash would make deposits and withdrawals off camera. This enabled the writers to write episodes with whichever six Pokémon they pleased. No longer were they beholden to canon concerns about Ash's team shifting around. Write with you who want, writers!
And much more. On the topic of Ash's large team, which is the last thing I left off with, that bears obvious similarities to what happened in Kanto. We had his main team initially (Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, Pidgeotto, Butterfree), and then he kept cycling through the sixth slot with releases (Butterfree makes way for Haunter, Haunter makes way for Primeape, Primeape makes way for I don't even remember ...). As for deposits he kept on hand at Oak's ranch, Ash had his Krabby, his Muk, and his herd of Tauros. A lot of fans wanted to see Ash have a big team again, and so the writers delivered. And what ended up happening?

It was a small disaster. ^^; With too little time to afford to character development episodes (a.k.a. those fillers that everyone loves to hate on), the ten Pokémon on Ash's squad were left to duke it out amongst themselves for screentime. Towards the end of Best Wishes, even Snivy and Oshawott -- easily the two Unova acquisitions with the most screentime -- were finding themselves preempted by others on Ash's team who desperately needed the screen time. It left viewers feeling that Ash's Pokémon lacked personalities. This was especially true of the support squad -- Unfezant, the regional boring bird; Leavanny, who probably had the most personality of anyone on the support squad but it was just the 2-dimensional trope about being a smothering motherly type; and Palpitoad and Boldore, completely devoid of any personality whatsoever. Once the writers decided to bring in a blast from the past in Ash's Charizard, that pretty much spelled the end of Pignite's chances for character development. (He had a few pity appearances later on but they didn't add up to much.) Overall, there just wasn't enough time to give everyone an adequate personality.

So I think that's what the writers desperately wanted to avoid in XY. But so far, they haven't done the best job of it in my opinion. ^^; Hawlucha I'd give as much personality as Snivy but less than Oshawott. Froakie is the same, though it's clear the writers want for Froakie to be right on up there with the likes of Chikorita and Oshawott. (Just gotta keep trying, guys! Less tossing him on camera with nothing for him to do, more showing us that he has a personality! Show us clear personality traits! You're starting to, but we need more!) Fletchinder sadly has next to no personality still, ever the typical regional bird. :\ And of course rounding out the cast is Pikachu, who the writers still have on cruise control, relying on past generations to tell us what sort of person Pikachu is. But even if they've not been successful in their goal, I think it's pretty clear from the tiny team sizes that they want for this generation's Pokémon to be as beloved as the Chikoritas and Charizards of old and not to be Torterra No.043 or Unfezant No.005.
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Old 09-03-2014, 02:23 PM   #66
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Yeah I completely agree and, although I did enjoy that Ash had some cool stuff in Unova, it was not great for character development (I have the additonal disadvantage of hating all of his Unova starters). As for wish lists, all I want is a fully evolved Greninja and something defensive to go on Ash's team. Anything else the writers may do as they please.
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Old 09-03-2014, 02:23 PM   #67
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The capture rates for Ash are the same as they were in AG and DP. It took Ash 50 episodes into Hoenn and Sinnoh to have a team of 4 or 5 pokemon.

The only one lagging behind is Serena, who has managed to go 45 episodes with only a single pokemon. By this point all previous girls had at least 3 pokemon.
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Old 09-03-2014, 02:25 PM   #68
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Yeah but it feels much longer because of the terrible filler.
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Old 09-03-2014, 03:00 PM   #69
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Originally Posted by Mercutio View Post
As for wish lists, all I want is a fully evolved Greninja and something defensive to go on Ash's team.
While I'd enjoy Ash getting a defensive creature, he has never been one for defensive playstyles. Ash would use a Skarmory as a Brave Birder, a Bastiodon as an Iron Header, etc. So if it's Kalos we're talking about, then I guess the likeliest candidate would be Avalugg. And I imagine that he'd just order it to use Gyro Ball and Avalanche a ton. ^^;

As for Greninja, that's a shared wish if ever I saw one. I believe he'll get it. I know some people take the opposite position, that Froakie is never going to evolve and that he's going to be one of those tired examples of a Stage 1 (or, as the TCG would say, a Basic) Pokémon who can triumph over Stage 3s (or, TCG-wise, Stage 2s). But I just don't think that's going to be the case this time. Reasons:
  • Ash has never had an evolved Water-type before; and the writers have shown interest in smashing long-standing records this season
  • Greninja is, I believe, the most popular of the Kalos fully-evolved starters by a long shot
    • everyone likes him for his looks, ninja nature, etc.
    • and competitive players like him for how usable he is in OU (as compared with how unusable the other two are)
  • Ash needs a Mega; his most likely candidate, Pikachu, is ineligible; his second most likely, Charizard, is conspicuously absent and would crowd out Fire/Flying Talonflame; Sceptile's a possibility but strikes me as little more than the wishful thinking of Hoenn fanboys; and then there's Greninja, with the only thing in his way being that Kalos starters haven't been revealed to have mega evolutions yet (but you KNOW that they have got to)
  • Sanpei's older brother has a Greninja; Ash is inevitably going to pay the ninja village a visit; and it just seems wasteful to have Froakie still be a Froakie when this happens instead of being either a Frogadier or a Greninja
  • Froakie is arguably the least cute of any Water-type starter we've ever had; and the Water-type starters have historically been kept unevolved, it is claimed by fans, because of how cute they are and how that massively appeals to tots in the audience
    • Froakie is no Piplup
    • Froakie is no Oshawott
    • Froakie isn't even a Totodile or a Squirtle
  • the series already has plenty of other "cutesies for the widdle ones" mascot characters anyway
    • Chespin
    • Dedenne
    • forever Pikachu
    • Fennekin, to some extent
    so we don't even need Froakie to remain a Froakie. The tots have already got plenty of babby characters for them to enjoy.
  • the writers know that fans appreciate evolutions; and Ash's current squad, if Froakie were to never evolve, only has one remaining evolution ever (Fletchinder --> Talonflame); given this, we can logically surmise that Froakie has just got to evolve before series' end
I could probably keep listing off reasons but I think this is a good enough list for now. While I acknowledge that it's possible that Froakie will never evolve, I just don't see it as very likely. It would be a huge missed opportunity to lose out on Greninja.
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Old 09-03-2014, 03:15 PM   #70
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I feel like Hawlucha is a counter argument for him getting a Geninja. Fast, warrior, Ash hasn't had this kind of thing before.
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Old 09-03-2014, 03:25 PM   #71
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I feel like Hawlucha is a counter argument for him getting a Greninja. Fast, warrior, Ash hasn't had this kind of thing before.
I don't see it as a counterargument myself, no more than I would see Swellow as one to Sceptile (swiftness) or Staraptor and Torterra as one to Infernape (brute force). I guess if you see it that way then Hawlucha's arrival would give you concern for Froakie's future, but personally I think they will occupy different niches.

Hawlucha is sort of like the heavy in a fighting game. He practically broadcasts to the enemy, "Okay, *ngh*, let me just climb up here, *rnghg* let me get set up and ... *hngh* ... okay! Ready to piledrive you! " You can see it coming from a mile away and then you dodge it. But if you should happen to not dodge it for some reason, then you're going to take a colossal amount of damage.

Greninja is like your stereotypical lithe, agile character in a fighter. They have high agility, they can fire off a flurry of punches in very little time, but each individual punch does little damage. These are the Chun Lis, the Kasumis, the Jams. They jump all around, they dash all around, it's difficult to land a hit on them and very easy for them to land hits on you ... yet when they do hit you, per individual hit anyway, it's not for much damage.

Talonflame is in the exact same boat as Greninja in this sense except make him airborne. So if anything, Talonflame and Greninja fill the same niche but the writers will segregate Talonflame to almost exclusively sky battles while leaving Greninja to the bulk of the terrestrial threats.

Should the writers bring back Sceptile (per many kids' optimism given ORAS), would you feel that that only further worsens Froakie's chances of evolving into a Greninja? I mean, of all the non-Kalos starters Ash owns, I feel like the one who is most like a Greninja is his Sceptile.
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Old 09-05-2014, 03:21 PM   #72
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XY041:

Spoiler: show
Not too much to say this time. It was pretty much a boring filler episode. What it accomplished in a nutshell:
  • introducing Xerneas to the television series' plot
  • justifying why it should be a close race between all four teams at summer camp going into the final competition instead of being a runaway victory for our heroes
The episode frequently felt like a Pikachu short which is not a good thing. It had one small nice thing and one small bad thing that I'll point out, and then that's about all I'll say on the episode.

The small nice thing was, I liked how Serena asked Ash near the start of the episode if his foot was okay. It's shockingly rare for Pokémon episodes to display continuity references like this, especially ones that have to do with physical injuries (as they seem to always magically heal up in full between episodes). Kudos to the XY writers for giving older fans this delectable morsel. "Yeah, we still magically healed Ash up good as new in between episodes. But no, we're not going to just ignore it. We'll draw attention to the fact, connecting Episodes 040 and 041."

The small bad thing was, the part where everyone rescued Ash and Eureka as they hung off the side of the cliff. Specifically, what I didn't like about it was the silly physics:
  • the animators show Pikachu, all by himself and with his tiny two paws, keeping Ash and Eureka from falling; and he doesn't seem physically distressed either
  • the animators then show Citron, Serena, and the XY rival trio going all "NRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! >.<" as they tug with all their might on Citron's technological Aipom tail, the Aipom tail in turn grabbing hold of Pikachu.
So the implication is that Ash+Eureka+Pikachu are so remarkably heavy that it takes five adolescents all of their physical strength to keep the three others from falling ... yet at the same time Ash+Eureka are so magically light that a single Pikachu can keep them from falling no sweat. Silly. ^^;; And the entire thing could've been avoided if the writers had simply not placed Pikachu where they did. Should've had the chain be Everybody Else --> Ash --> Eureka instead. Would've made so much more sense physics-wise. Anyway ...
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Old 09-07-2014, 08:22 AM   #73
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You forget that Ash's Pikachu is Legendary Awesome Mega Excellent. It has super powers.
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Old 09-07-2014, 10:04 AM   #74
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Talon87, what websites do you frequent for your pokemon anime info? I usually check serebii but I'm wondering if there's anyplace better for info.
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Old 09-07-2014, 10:14 AM   #75
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I don't! I tend to not like knowing what's coming. And I have a friend who adores spoilers, so if ever there is anything I do want to know, he's my go-to guy.

I know that Pocket Monsters doesn't just fansub -- they operate a news site as well.

Dogasu of Dogasu's Backpack fame has a long history with Bulbagarden. You can try his site and/or BMG forum posts for more info if Serebii is too slow or second-hand for you.
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