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

Egakor

Well-Known Member
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)
 

U.N. Owen

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night ...
Gengar losing to a faster opponent was to be expected since that's exactly how Pisces was able to defeat Gengar. Not to mention, Dragonite is an objectively better tank, seeing how it was able to go up against Go's Golurk without being one shotted like everyone else, even the likes of Pikachu. Just wished they showed it a bit better by at least having Gengar land something.
 

GhostTyper101

Ghost Enthusiast
I would say that I enjoyed the episode overall, but I have some gripes.

Gengar was done dirty, no doubt about it. It's been shown to be powerful before but now it's slow, doesn't let attacks phase through it and for some reason uses psychic to lift a rock instead of attacking the opponent? they had to nerf it so it would act dumb :/ This episode could have done with being a two parter, letting Gengar get a couple of hits in before being knocked out at least and ending when Lucario Mega Evolves.

Dragonite was amazing this episode. That thing is an absolute beast in battle and can tank a lot of hits. Seeing it beef up with Dragon Dance and getting down to scrap was great, and I loved those little moments when Ash was talking where it's face would go back to that lovable softy before hardening for the fight. I was expecting Ash to lose tbh. This could have a good chance to knock him down a little and I would have been fine with it, but he made it through. I was suprised he jumped so high up past Corni.

Riolu was very cute. I suppose the stubborn kid persona is gone. That tempermental Riolu for it's debut is gone and i'm not sure how I feel about that.
 
Ash fought this thing before, so it's not that surprising to me that he was able to beat it in a 1 v 1 scenario.

kind of reminds me of how Pikachu soloed Misty's Mega Gyarados after fighting one previously (Lysandre's)it took his whole team, along with Alain's Mega Zard X and Malva's Mega Houndoom to drop that one. I got the same vibe here, especially since it doesn't look like Korrina's changed out any of her Lucario's moves.

The more times a person faces something the better equipped you are mentally to handle it, and trainers are half the battle, last time he fought this thing it took both Fletchlinder and Pikachu to take it out, this time he knew what was coming...complete with a **** eating grin when he saw her mega evolve it.

of course Dragonite did use Dragon Dance a few times so it's Dragon Claw scoring the ko made perfect sense, besides we all know how durable the dragonite lines are especially in the anime.

To me the only disappointing thing of the episode was finding out Hyper Beam was Dragonite's 4th attack, I was fine with everything else.

You’re making use of a lot of false equivalencies here...

The Mega Gyarados Pikachu soloed is nowhere near equivalent to Lysandre’s Mega Gyarados. Different trainers with Pokémon of widely different power levels. The comparison doesn’t make sense. Secondly, maybe I would hold more credence to your opinion here if it were Pikachu vs ML. That would make a lot more sense. Dragonite, a Pokémon with next to no battle experience having that kind battle experience tie in with Ash doesn’t.
 

Red and Blue

Well-Known Member
Think Gengar jobbing might have been easier to swallow if it was shown winning a battle or two in the festival. Even if it was a quick montage
 

AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
Ash fought this thing before, so it's not that surprising to me that he was able to beat it in a 1 v 1 scenario.
Though it is surprising that he won with a fresh Dragonite that hasn't battled much...who pretty much solo'd Korrina whole team.

He will probably have his first loss against his rival in the PWC
For now, the question is, "Who is his saga rival?"
 
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GhostTyper101

Ghost Enthusiast
You do remember who his trainer is, right?

Ash isn't some dumb incompetent trainer. He has consistently performed well in Leagues and has become a champion. If you ignore Best Wishes where they completely reboot him, he has always been gradually improving in strategy and skill. His Gengar isn't dumb either. It showed interesting tactics against TR's Dusclops and the battle against Visquez. They just dumbed it for the episode, which is a shame.

Think Gengar jobbing might have been easier to swallow if it was shown winning a battle or two in the festival. Even if it was a quick montage

Agreed
 
I'm not sure how I feel about this episode. I would say that I'm not too critical of the anime when compared to others but to me the episode seemed somewhat rushed. I wish they would have given this a two parter.
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
What I love most in the episode?

The little scene of Raboot being on Goh's shoulder.

It made me so happy. For me it implies Raboot is more prone to show affection towards Goh when it's just the two of them

As for the battle, I'll comend the direction as that pause before the result of the match really made me question even if I kind of expected Ash to win. I literally felt the tension there.

Also, Barney the Dragonite shows Goodra what Ash's pseudo-legendary is supposed to be. It just needs a better moveset.

Ash using a set up move to go for a sweep is the kind of thing I've never thought I'd see in this show. But then it reminds us its anime with D-nite also having Hurricane and Hyper Beam.

Still, Ash ordering "HAKAI KOUSEN" is quite badass. Rika Matsumoto really sold it there.

Riolu was the one part I didn't like but then I'm not a fan of him so...

Look at Ash and Goh practicing social distancing on the plane. They’re helping to stop the spread of Volcaronavirus!

I laughed with this. Thanks, man

The best sequences were about dragonite taking a beat. Yeah, understood, dragon dance to ups the power, m-lucario no sells hurricane and hyper beam, cross counter, but dragonite basically wins with its first and only direct hit.

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

Welp, that kid flying off stage lol

I've noticed it as well.

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

They never were

*GeminiSagaEvilLaugh*
 

Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer

AuraGuardian448

Aura Guardian
Satoshi vs Korrina. Initially very disappointed until I analyzed certain parts, which happened once before in Sun&Moon battle I thought sucked. Was actually going to compare the quality of this episode/battle to some of the (pathetically) weaker showings of S&M, too. Anyway, I expected Satoshi to lose, especially after Gengar's somewhat poor display (it just didn't land enough hits) and teamwork—even though in the grand scheme of things it was crucial that Satoshi wins—with Dragonite left to take on two opponents. It's just, Satoshi has on one or more occasion lost to trainers he's won against before. This happened with Shigeru (like the most notorious example, beating Satoshi after he lost to him in the Johto League and then again after Satoshi won the Battle Frontier), some Gym Leader from Hoenn (Tessen I think?), I think another gym leader from some region, etc. Perhaps in some cases the loses were justified for him using inexperienced Pokemon like Torkoal, but it wasn't just with inexperienced Pokemon. So I feared it'd happened again, but it didn't.

After Gengar's defeat and it only landing a single attack as a halved-damaging one on Lucario, I figured Satoshi's Dragonite can't defeat the fairly powerful Meinshao and undeniably powerful Mega Lucario. I was wrong and part of me was shocked. But after rewatching, my perspective partially changed. Parts like Korrina instantly Mega Evolving her Lucario before engaging Dragonit—rather than the usual tradition of "battle in regular form for a bit before evolving"—the multiple powering-up Dragon Dances, and Dragonite's self-portraying toughness helped add reason & logic to how it clinched the victory. Some people always have the narrow thought process of "this pokemon has more battle experience" and "it can mega evolve", so it should definitely win and/or be stronger than one Pokemon without those things, but it's evident that Dragonite's Dragon Dance uses gave it the edge it needed to defeat Mega Lucario. It used Dragon Dance to fill the gap of power it was missing from the lack of mega evolution, even though mega evolution isn't a power-up that guarantees its user being stronger than any non-Mega Evolved Pokemon. I am very glad the writers had Satoshi won this way, because also it comes full circle with how Korrina abused Lucario's powering-up Sword Dance in its first battle with Pikachu and allowed it to defeat it because of it. Good attention to detail, and Korrina got a taste of her own medicine. Additionally, it looked like Satoshi interrupted the fully concentrated state/wave of Mega Lucario during his "Aha moment", which was incredibly genius of Satoshi (also from a continuity standpoint), so the battle and victory from Satoshi is really not as bad as people think it is. (I also think that great strategy showed that Korrina and Lucario are still immature and haven't properly mastered the Mega Lucario form. Her grandfather's likely either wouldn't have lost concentration, or it would have and gotten its concentration back.) Dragonite had the right tools for the job, between flight, powering up attacks, high durability, and more. I don't think Pikachu could have won against ML if it fought it this time.

I'm glad the narrative wasn't set up so that Korrina/Lucario won to (mostly) have a stronger or specific impact on Riolu's growth, especially since they won't be proper rivals or recurring characters. Riolu can learn and grow plenty without Lucario needing to show some superiority over its trainer Pokemon. Not exactly sure what impact her Lucario will have on Riolu, but one of the things I hope is it being the way it uses Bone Rush, uniquely from the norm (breaking it up in two pieces rather than just using the singular staff). Outside its competence at wave control, I can't imagine what else it can make its own from Lucario.

Will probably give an expanded mini "review" after the subs are out, briefly going over other parts of the episode. Looking forward to rewatching with subs!
 
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