08-07-2016, 07:09 PM | #326 |
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Ehh, focused more on the Ground tbh than anything else. (Donphan doesn't measure up, and Gible is only a Gible.)
Mostly true, but for an Elite Four run I can see them mattering even in the anime -- if the writers opt to stay true to the games and say "you have to make the entire challenge with the same six Pokémon," then suddenly the type balance of the team is going to matter unless the anime decides to turn its normal type-ignorance dial up to 11 and go balls-to-the-wall crazy with type disadvantages not mattering. 'Cause it's one thing when you've got Greninja vs. Sceptile or Charizard vs. Greninja. It's quite another when you have an entire team of waters vs. a team that's 50% fire or an entire team of dragons vs. a team that's 50% grass. Unova and Kalos have done a much better job of paying lip service to type disadvantages than have previous regions, which almost seemed to openly mock the concept given how much they handed Ash disadvantaged wins. It would be surprising if Ash were to 4-0 the entire Elite Four with a team that's too type-imbalanced.
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08-07-2016, 08:48 PM | #327 | ||
我が名は勇者王!
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Quote:
There isn't one stat to show it, but if you look at a number of different criteria, the same Pokemon tend to appear over and over. Sceptile, for example, has a low overall win percentage if you count its battles from when it was a Treeco. But when it finally reached Sceptile, it was a powerhouse that rarely lost, and achieved the feat of defeating a legendary. That's why, even with Sceptile's low overall KO it's considered one of Ash's strongest. Snorlax, Krookodile, and Kingler all have good pedigrees. League experience, experience in 6x6 battles, fully evolved (or powerful base). The 6x6 battle thing is important, since KOs are more likely to happen during them. Snorlax KO'd two of Harrison's Pokemon and lost to the third. In a hypothetical match where Ash uses his strongest team, five of his Pokemon are going to be knocked out. That doesn't mean they're not still members of his strongest team. Quote:
Though, given what you've said about Krookodile (which I only remembered when you brought it up) I'd put Krookodile as the final Pokemon. My reasoning: Kingler Spoiler: show Snorlax Spoiler: show Krookodile Spoiler: show I don't know if I would count Greninja has a true "dark-type" though, since it allegedly has Protean and only stays as Water/Dark on defense. Thus, given with Infernape you add a Fighting-type, and with Krookodile you add a Ground (both rare types for Ash). So there's the all-important diversity to Ash's squad. Not to mention all regions represent yo Pikachu, Charizard - Kanto Sceptile - Hoenn Infernape - Sinnoh Krookodile - Unova Greninja - Kalos Charizard replaces Noivern as the flyer (especially appropriate if he learns to Mega Evolve at some point). Infernape replaces Hawlucha. Krookodile replaces Goodra. That is a champion-killing team.
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08-07-2016, 09:36 PM | #328 |
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Your list is pretty good. Two things:
1. It wouldn't be all regions, of course. You've got Johto missing. Understandable though -- AK2 brought up Heracross in our discussion, but Heracross aside Ash's Johto squad is really lacking for powerhouses. 2. I thought that Froakie was confirmed at some point in the anime to have Torrent. Bulbapedia appears to disagree, stating that Greninja's ability is "Unknown" and having no mention of Torrent in the article proper. I thought I remembered seeing an episode in which they gave Froakie Torrent (and I was pissed because I hate it when the writers lock the starters in to their shitty default abilities). But I'll trust in the collective's accuracy here, and suppose that instead I am conflating Greninja with Serena's Fennekin/Braixen and/or Clemont's Chespin, as I am pretty sure they too have been confirmed to have Blaze and Overgrow instead of Magician and Bulletproof. If Ash's Greninja does in fact have Protean, that would be pretty cool -- but I feel like we've seen scarce evidence of it to date, and that we should have seen evidence of it by now if we were going to. (Then again, given the number of times Greninja has been knocked into the red, fought back, and then been KOed, I guess we ought to have seen Torrent kick in by now too.)
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08-07-2016, 10:28 PM | #329 |
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I did look at Heracross, because he's always been repudiated to be one of Ash's tougher Pokemon. With the ability to Mega Evolve (which only Charizard and Sceptile otherwise possesses), that is also an appeal. In my head I always considered Kanto-Johto to be two halves of the same whole, although there is a distinction even if it's less so compared with other regions.
But to me there's no reason to pick Heracross over the other candidates on Ash's roster. He does have league experience, but a low win percentage (.500), below average battles fought (4) and a history of inconsistency. He's lost to a Venusaur, against who he should have type advantage, and most of his wins were against other insect Pokemon. He has won against a Fire Pokemon, but many of Ash's other Pokemon have also won battles with type disadvantage so it isn't much of a feat. Heracross deserves a lot of flack for losing badly to Darkrai. Even if Ash made a lot of poor strategic choices for Pokemon to bring against Tobias, Heracross wasn't one of them. Sceptile had to shoulder most of the weight of taking down Darkrai because Heracross didn't do enough damage, weakening Sceptile to the point Pikachu had to battle Latios at full strength. My conspiracy theory about Tobias is Darkrai/Latios were his only Legendaries and his only strong Pokemon - the other four were team filler. Tobias is so confident in his Legendaries he uses his two strongest Pokemon to sweep and doesn't save any in reserve, unlike Ash who always holds back his strongest until late. Ash's strategy is overwhelmingly better in a tournament when not facing someone with a fixed party (like Elite Four or Champion). The opposition doesn't get to see his strongest Pokemon and plan for it (like Ash did for Darkrai, and how Goodra surprised Shota), and Ash gets more favourable matchups of weaker Pokemon v. weaker Pokemon and stronger v. stronger. Ash got completely screwed in Sinnoh because half his team got KO'd without landing a single hit on the opposition. If Ash had beaten Latios with ONE strong Pokemon left, I think he could have swept the rest of Tobias' team. If Heracross has a fight resembling Charizard's battle against Champion Drake's Dragonite, Sceptile survives to do damage to Latios and Pikachu doesn't faint against Latios. Then, Pikachu can slaughter Tobias' filler Pokemon. The only fight I can think of comparable to Heracross v. Darkrai is Bulbasaur v. Electabuzz. In the Orange Championship, it wasn't yet known that Bulbasaur gets owned by the Electabuzz line, so it was just sad that Bulbasaur, one of Ash's strongest pokemon at the time jobs despite type advantage, forcing Charizard out early in a disadvantageous match. And then Charizard does heavy damage to Dragonite in spite of being heavily damaged against Electabuzz.
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08-11-2016, 11:47 AM | #330 |
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08-14-2016, 05:53 PM | #334 |
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I am going to watch an XY&Z episode titled Pikachu Dreams of Squishy.
It is probably not a hentai.
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08-18-2016, 11:31 AM | #336 |
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08-18-2016, 01:34 PM | #338 | |
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Quote:
(Spoilers thru XY&Z 38) Spoiler: show
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08-18-2016, 09:48 PM | #339 |
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ふたりの想いが見つけだす希望 今 信じあえる あきらめない 心かさね 永遠を抱きしめて Last edited by Doppleganger; 08-18-2016 at 10:28 PM. |
08-19-2016, 01:33 AM | #340 |
uhhhhh
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I knew it was the right decision to dtop watching after DP
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08-20-2016, 10:25 PM | #344 | |
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Doppel asked me to write up a post detailing why XY is the best Pokémon anime series in generations. The problem is, I don't agree with that assertion. It's a perfectly fine series (as Pokémon series go), but it's got its fair share of problems and I liked a number of other seasons, overall, better.
I'll keep things "brief" for now. Perhaps in future, I'll go into greater detail. Up until the summer camp episodes (late 30s, early 40s), XY is without a doubt one of the best series we've had. It inherits a lot of Best Wishes' strengths and removes some of its most controversial changes to the formula. I might consider this a regressive downgrade, e.g. the return of Comic Relief Team Rocket, but for most fans the result is going to be sublime. Character-driven writing with a heavy focus on character development and actually writing characters. Good use of budget to make exciting things happen on screen. Taking off the kiddy gloves and showing just how violent or extreme this world can be. And Serena, Serena, Serena. Like a lot of stories that end up disappointing people, XY's opening is aided by the fact that, early on in any story, it's an open book. Little is set in stone this early. So much has yet to be explored. Fans' imaginations can run wild, as mine did, and they can ask for their wishes to come true. XY sets up for a lot of fan wishes early on, more than any other Pokémon series in recent memory, only to dash most of these wishes by series' end. Serena's crush on Ash ... Ash's battle prowess ... Serena being a unique and human character, one who doesn't conform to either the Misty-Iris mold nor the May-Dawn mold ... Ash's small team roster meaning we should have nothing but the best in well-written, well-developed characters ... all of this, at one point or another, will be demolished by series' end. The turning point in XY's story really is the finale of the story arc in which Korrina is trying to reach the Mega Evolution old woman's village so she can get advice on the situation with Lucario. Up until that episode, including all the other Korrina episodes before it, the series was doing great. That episode, it utterly ruined the Korrina arc. And not only that, but was incidentally a turning point for the entire series too. We never really recovered from there. The gym battles began to feel stale and forgettable. The Ashmon began to feel generic and blank in terms of their personalities. The attention paid to Serena dropped off despite her being one of the most popular characters in years, and when we did hone in on her we focused on the one thing I never wanted to see -- Tripokalons, a.k.a. Contests by another name, a.k.a. for the third time now we've made the female traveling companion a Contest idol. But while the turning point can be pinpointed at Korrina reaching her destination, for me personally the big "shat the bed" moment has to be summer camp. Summer camp was where the show, in hindsight, Quote:
If Serena is what made early XY so great, ShoPro dropping the ball with Serena is certainly, at least in part, what has made later XY so mediocre.
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08-20-2016, 11:26 PM | #345 |
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900 episodes in and it seems we still, for some reason, expect the anime to actually deliver what fans want... it seems the studio will never do anything that could slightly deviate from or shake up the repetitive, boring cycle, because it's not the fans they're catering to, it's the kids and the investors, god forbid they do anything 'different' outside of filler episodes.
"Honestly though, when has the Pokemon anime ever done anything to please its fans?" - my gf |
08-21-2016, 12:14 AM | #347 | |||
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Quote:
Quote:
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Unova S1 really, really understood the importance of character writing. "There's no such thing as 'filler': every episode not spent advancing the plot is a golden opportunity to flesh out characters." If you haven't watched Best Wishes S1 and you care to waste any of your adult life at all watching Pokémon, I'd suggest you check it out. It is without a doubt the best exercise in character writing since Johto (Chikorita). Oshawott, Snivy, Emolga, Sandile ... each of these is worth two Greninjas, five Hawluchas, or ten Goodras when it comes to the character writing. Best Wishes is also the closest you're going to get to "freed from the formula" writing, owing in humongous part to no obligation to include Team Rocket in every episode. With all due respect to the Rocket Trio's voice actors who I otherwise adore, fuck the voice actors and fuck their selfish aims for forcing the bumbling idiot version of the trio back upon us, and in well over 50% of XY episodes to boot. It's horrible. I hate them (the characters, not the VAs) so, so much. Unova not only rewrote them for the better, it understood that "sometimes less is more" and that by not including the Rocket Trio in every episode, you actually get the audience to care more when they do show up. How 'bout that.
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08-21-2016, 03:20 AM | #348 |
uhhhhh
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ok uh
yeah tbh Best Wishes was early on a very solid season, but it really deopped off hard and just floundered about way too much for my liking. I really thought Serena was actually going to pursue a form of Battling, now that you bring it up, and to be honest I would have loved to see her continue being pretty much aimless until like Episode 70 while simply showing an interest in official Battling without really wanting to pursue it. Ideal situation she would seperate from the group a little, get Badges to try and impress Ash/wanting to Battle, and be the first perma companion to enter the League alongside Ash, but I mean Literally nothing of that ever panned out so |
08-21-2016, 07:30 AM | #349 | |||
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Quote:
As is the case for most LN anime adaptions now, a LN publisher funds the anime as basically a big commercial to boost the LN sales. This is probably the scenario you're thinking of. Take the anime No Game, No Life, which had high DVD sales for Madhouse but was infamous for having zero chance at a second season: Quote:
By comparison, for Pokemon: Quote:
The game have influence on the anime but the reverse is almost never true (save Yellow_. The anime could do whatever it wants, and that's why the G1 anime could be so experimental. Let's not forget that in every game, the player basically lays waste to the region and brutally slays the criminal group and the champion in the same rampage. Will talk to Talon when I wake up. Nighty night, sleep greeter, don't let the Darkrai use Dream Eater
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08-21-2016, 05:30 PM | #350 | |
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I was aware Talon (and BBB) liked BW early on, but I'm surprised Talon still liked other series more. To be honest I'm a bit of a faker, since I soft-dropped XY years ago and only started to pay attention when people were talking about the Pokemon League.
My main problem is pacing, so I wonder if I'd like BW. I don't care for 3-year build up into an ending like what we got this week. I don't hate filler if it's fun or interesting, so long as it's not irrelevant to the plot. Ash's Pokemon learned new moves in filler episodes during Kanto so the filler wasn't worthless. Little things like that to contribute to the overarching story are acceptable. Still. It's a bit sobering to hear that XY has been stagnant for almost two years. I wonder if that exposure helped reign in expectations, since the hype train definitely recruited in those not paying attention like myself. Serena as a Pokemon Master would have been an interesting idea, and hilariously accurate to the games, but even if ShoPro were a more daring studio, that's asking for the moon, I feel. Serena is not nearly as talented as Ash, so she's destined to fail (ALTHOUGH IT WOULD BE INTERESTING to see her challenge the same Gym Leaders as Ash). Ash isn't emotionally capable of really supporting her. Would have been tasty to watch. Also, here's a transcript since I need to get some stuff prepared: Quote:
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