A Battle Festival Exploding With Life! VS Mega Lucario!! (1114)

[Soniman]

Episode was okay, battle was okay. Some nice continuity with Korrina and some cute interactions with Ash's Riolu, cabt say it was the episode I was expecting after 2 months of waiting but it was fine. Gengar jobbed but Dragonite needed a good showcase.

Side note what even is the power boost megas get in this anime because at this point I feel like It doesn't do crap beyond a cosmetic change LOL.

 

[dman_dustin]

Well for those who did complain there may be some good news.

I think it's pretty obvious Ash isn't going to use Dragonite all that much in terms of battle outside of really tough battles.

So it'll likely just be a powerful support for now, only getting random non PWC battles.

 

[Red and Blue]

Well for those who did complain there may be some good news.

I think it's pretty obvious Ash isn't going to use Dragonite all that much in terms of battle outside of really tough battles.

So it'll likely just be a powerful support for now, only getting random non PWC battles.

Non PWC battles? It's only going to get harder from here now that Ash is in Super Rank. It's makes more sense to use Dragonite in more battles then less

 

[dman_dustin]

Non PWC battles?

..... any Battle that doesn't put Ash's ranking at stake.

It's only going to get harder from here now that Ash is in Super Rank. It's makes more sense to use Dragonite in more battles then less

I'm saying them showcasing Dragonite being super strong might be why they will hold back on using it, it's a trump card Pokemon, not something that needs to be over relied on, otherwise there would've been a point in Dragonite beating both Pokemon here.

Logically your right, narratively (from the writer's perspective on who to use) no especially when there are Pokemon who need to be trained heavily to make them as strong as Dragonite.

 

[Kazuniya]

I'm just sitting here, waiting for Ash to actually lose a battle or two because God forbid there's some kind of tension or conflict in his goal. Ash being competent is great and all that, but Ash winning every single PWC battle gets tiring real quick.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

I'm just sitting here, waiting for Ash to actually lose a battle or two because God forbid there's some kind of tension or conflict in his goal. Ash being competent is great and all that, but Ash winning every single PWC battle gets tiring real quick.

I'm watching the Shadowverse anime and 13 episodes in and the protagonist won every single battle. Granted, they tried to twist the second one in the sense the opponent kind of let him win.

Maybe it's a long shot - specially with when I have almost no examples - but I feel like protagonists constantly winning might be a new trend?

 

[Pokemon Fan]

Honestly there's only been a relative few ranking battles so far. I think it's way too early to judge if they're letting Ash win too often or not.

 

[LucasMV]

Well for those who did complain there may be some good news.

I think it's pretty obvious Ash isn't going to use Dragonite all that much in terms of battle outside of really tough battles.

So it'll likely just be a powerful support for now, only getting random non PWC battles.

I see your point, since Riolu (and potentially Sobble) need training to get stronger. But I think you got it backwards. It's Riolu (and potentially Sobble) that will be getting non-PWC battles, Ash doesn't seem to be the guy that tried using 1st stage pokemon against difficult rivals anymore, and from here onwards the PWC will only get harder. I think until Riolu and whatever else he catches gets to the level where they can hold their own like Dragonite, Ash won't be using them on important PWC matches. It wouldn't make sense. He'll use Pikachu, Dragonite and Gengar for those until Riolu can hold his own, which will probably be accomplished through non PWC battles and training.

 

[Remix2]

I'm just sitting here, waiting for Ash to actually lose a battle or two because God forbid there's some kind of tension or conflict in his goal. Ash being competent is great and all that, but Ash winning every single PWC battle gets tiring real quick.

Honestly I don’t mind him breezing through normal rank given his accomplishment, and all the tension and conflicts should be save when he hit super/hyper class where all the good trainers are.

 

[mehmeh1]

Honestly I don’t mind him breezing through normal rank given his accomplishment, and all the tension and conflicts should be save when he hit super/hyper class where all the good trainers are.

yeah, it's better to escalate it. If battles start with high tension, the investment will have diminishing returns

 

[WaterShuriken]

I just realized that I never posted my thoughts on this episode. I found this to be the best match in PJ so far. I like the show acknowledges how far Ash has come in terms of battling tactics that even Korrina mentions that it is so unlike Ash to be "careful" by having Dragonite use Dragon Dance a second time upon Lucario mega-evolving.

Some people took issue with Dragonite tanking Mega-Lucario's moves, but it is important to remember that Fighting-type moves are NVE on a Dragon/Flying Pokémon. We have seen in the past how tanky Dragonites can be, so Ash's Dragonite doing so didn't seem too Farfetch'd. The only thing that did bug me was that Dragon Claw is the only move that benefits from the +2 Atk boost. I know Hyper Beam is a powerful move on its own but they could have given her an elemental Punch or maybe Brick Break or Aqua Tail. Something interesting.

Gengar failed here, but it did take out Visquez's Raichu, so that's something. Honestly, Korrina had a great strategy for Gengar by using U-Turn so she can defeat it with Bone Rush. A nitpick was why did it use Psychic on a rock instead of the actual opponent?

Overall, it was a very enjoyable episode. I do wish Korrina asked Ash about his special Greninja as she never got a chance to battle it after seeing it in person after the League and dealing with Team Flare.

 

[Blazicken]

The gengar battle was horrible in every sense of the word. Although Korrina's startigy was great, Gengar has a movepool to turn that around, but he did nothing untill it was too late and got wiped out.
This fight made Dragonite look like beast who won this match all by himself...
I'm not saying he shouldn't be, but when will the writers make him lose in a way it'll leave the viewers with a bad aftertaste like how it happened with gengar this time?
Can't stand the writers when they do **** like this.

 

[Ignition]

I was expecting them to leave it on a cliffhanger but nope. They just condensed all of it into one episode.

I personally don't like Korrina but it's nice to see someone return that's not affiliated with Kanto. Don't care for Riolu either but at least they're setting up its eventual arc (lmao at anyone who thought Riolu would face Mega Lucario now). The battle was ok, I guess? I'm not liking how one sided most of these battles feel. Gengar being the fall guy was an eye roll. Despite not liking Dragonite, it was cool seeing it sweep. My favorite part of the episode was Gurkinn and Go talking in the stands based on their (in) experience with Mega Evolution.

I'll give it a 6/10.

 

[mysticalglacia]

The episode was good. Just good, not great. Animation was fine and so was the battle, nothing outstanding, but serviceable. That’s the problem though, when the first old character of the series is returning after 4 years everything should be high quality. The Visquez battle was more clever and had better technique and strategy than this one, and that’s a problem. I enjoyed seeing Mienshao get some limelight as it’s one of my favorite Unova Pokémon, and seeing Korrina actually grow as a trainer gives me hope for future returning characters. Gengar jobbing was honestly sad but it’s understandable and I hope in the next PWT match it gets the clutch win. Also, seeing a Dragon Dance version of Counter Shield was really cool and something I hope gets used again.

Now the writing of the battle itself was just odd. U-Turn and the aforementioned Dragon Dance were neat to see but the pacing was very off. The grievances of Journeys being episodic (a worse-than-Elesa-Battle type decision), sigh. Dragonite being strong and stable enough to beat ML isn’t that far-fetched but I still think there should’ve been more struggle between the two. It was very quick and obviously squeezed in because of the shitty pacing, so they had to come up with that anti-climatic ending. It was enjoyable but hard to agree with nearly any of the choices made.

Dragonite is cuter than every baby Pokémon to date.

 

[Yuugis Black Magician]

The episode was likely made with a small number of drawings in mind so that's going to inevitably lead to battles feeling short, especially if they give what few drawings the episode has to a skilled animator to do a small number of shots.

 

[Shuriken Throw]

I think this is the best episode of the Pokemon Journeys series so far. Korrina returning was epic, and she deserves and should return again. She’s developed so well since she first appeared in the show. Korrina’s battle with Ash was excellent too.

 

[Almighty Zard]

considering both of Korrina's pokemon were involved in taking Gengar down, I fail to see how that instantly makes it look bad.

If it only took one of her pokemon to do it, then yeah i'd think differently, besides if anything it showed me that Korrina has good strategies in place in case someone comes to her gym with ghost types, since we know their generally the bane of fighting types who can't normally hit them.

 

[LilligantLewis]

The short amount of time Binacle appeared in this episode combined was already more interesting than everything the Binacle did combined in 20 minutes in their featured episode in XY&Z

Ash vs. Korrina! This is definitely the most epic thing that's happened in Journeys yet!

Ash was smart to bring out a Ghost type against a Fighting trainer.. he's become smarter since he used Seismic Toss on Dusclops...

By the way, Mega Evolution Guru is Gurkinn... LOL...

I don't understand the point of this post?

True... Probably a last minute change?

Wait, you guys actually think that they edited their seating arrangement on the airplane due to coronavirus?

Sorry, girl, but all the training in the world and your fancy power-up with its own power-up theme are no match against Ash's fresh Barney dragon.

I thought you call Goodra, not Dragonite, Barney

Korrina was ranked 1001 in this tournament? Wow, gym leaders ain't nothing.

Or it could be that like Ash, she only recently joined the tournament

I'm still not happy about how fast Ash's rank progressed, it's quite aggravating actually.

But here's the thing: he's actually better than everyone in the lowest tier and we all know that as long-time fans of the show. So it only makes logical sense this way. Think about how Roger Federer climbed back in the rankings so quickly in 2017 after his 2016 injury. We all knew that the injury had decreased his ranking, not actually being a bad tennis player (in Ash's case, we all knew that him not officially registering was the only thing dampening his ranking, not actually being a bad trainer) so we expected him to climb quickly, and he did.

I'm just sitting here, waiting for Ash to actually lose a battle or two because God forbid there's some kind of tension or conflict in his goal. Ash being competent is great and all that, but Ash winning every single PWC battle gets tiring real quick.

Well it's the reverse BW. No competence then. Supreme competence now. I'll take this anyday. PJ is far from the best series but when I think back to some of the **** we've dealt with, I am always thankful at times.

I'm watching the Shadowverse anime and 13 episodes in and the protagonist won every single battle. Granted, they tried to twist the second one in the sense the opponent kind of let him win.

Maybe it's a long shot - specially with when I have almost no examples - but I feel like protagonists constantly winning might be a new trend?

Protagonists winning is not anything new. Think back to the original Yu-Gi-Oh.. as far as I remember, Yugi's only 2 losses came in nonstandard rulesets: Pegasus using a clock and Kaiba almost suiciding. In duels with traditional rulesets (correct me if I'm wrong) he never lost even once. Yet, the show still managed to be compelling in its own way

a worse-than-Elesa-Battle type decision

there's no way this is true

I was surprised when Ash told Dragonite to do the 2nd Dragon Dance. That was a good and cautious move from him. Otherwise, Dragonite wouldn't be able to knock out Mega Lucario (It was close fight even with 2 Dragon Dance)

I actually went and used Showdown's damage calculator. Turns out a Dragonite on +2 has a change to OHKO a Mega Lucario.

Ash got lucky and got max damage + a critical hit

thank you to the two of you for making me like this battle, as well as those who pointed out Hurricane was Counter Shield. Before reading through this thread, I thought the OHKO was ridiculous, having forgotten about the Dragon Dances, and I also thought Hurricane was pointless.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I thought you call Goodra, not Dragonite, Barney

Nickname is easily interchangeable.

 

[Red and Blue]

Gengar's performance here is worse in hindsight considering

Spoiler: spoilers

As of now it hasn't battled since Korrina