A Meeting of Two Journeys (909)

[Bguy7]

That was a pretty good battle. It was also very fun to finally see these two characters meet up. One thought I had though, Sawyer must be one of those trainers who puts all of his attention on his Starter. It always seems to be the case that his Treeko/Grovyle/Sceptile is the only Pokemon that can fight.

Also, I'm getting annoyed with the new music that plays in the background of Team Rocket's motto. I thought it was just a one-time thing at first, but this is the third times it's happened. I don't like it as much as the old one at all.

 

[Orton155]

A battle heavy episode which is quite the change of pace to of late but as said above, too much happened too quickly.

The Sawyer battle was very one sided but it just goes to show that Sawyer has a lot to learn but his Sceptile was definitely superior before Greninja changed. I guess we will see at the league.

So Alain answers so questions to Ash's Greninja except it looks like Mega Evolution. I hope we discover something soon. However, the battle was between heavyweights and Greninja certainly held it's own against a more experienced Charizard once it transformed.

I was going to talk about Team Flare but they were dramatically shoe-horned into the episode it annoys me but Xerosic still scares me.

Nice episode, onto the next one!

 

[Hero of Truth]

I was pleased by this episode. It's slightly darker and edgier than the previous episodes more comedic style, it brings the more serious tone, themes and tropes of the Mega Evolution Specials into the main anime series. We get to see Chespie still in a coma, Team Flare are testing some sort of device that makes trees grow and we see Alain's more cold but conflicted personality contrast with Ash's good natured and empathetic one. Despite Ash and Alain having two very different personalities they seemed to have a reasonable interaction. I had though Alain might be dismissive towards Ash as he was toward Mairin when they first met, but he actually treated him with a great deal of respect and almost awe when he saw Ash-Grenija for the first time. All in all the episode gave Alain a good main series debut. We get reminded of the events of the Specials but we only get a window into Alain's personality. Greninja was well developed in this episode too. We get to see it use it's special form in two battles, one where it dominates the other where it looses and Ash reveals more about how it feels to be in that form including the visible signs of fatigue at the end of the battle. Sawyer's presence was a nice touch. It means Ash-Greninja can be shown off against a familiar Pokémon and the audience is given an update on Sawyer's progress. While I've been adamant in Sawyer's inability to beat Ash, I have to admit he has shown a fair amount of skill in this episode. He was able to deal some decisive blows to Greninja simply by understanding and adapting to Ash's strategy. That's a clear improvement. In the long run I don't think it means anything though - Ash still took out Sawyer's two other Pokémon with one move and Sceptile clearly couldn't handle Greninja's Ash-Greninja form. All Ash has to do is adapt his battle style with Greninja and Sawyer's back to square one. Sawyer beating Ash in the league still looks unrealistic at this point and would be a anti-climatic way to end the series. I imagine such an ending would kill XY. My only complaint about this episode is that Charizard should not have been necessary to save Pikachu from falling - Ash simply should have caught him. Team Rocket's balloon wasn't that high. Plus - Exactly why is Team Flare building a weapon that makes giant trees grow - does this mean the anime isn't using the Ultimate Weapon plot from the games or is the ultimate weapon going to create a massive jungle. Either way it seems like they've chosen to water down the darker elements from the games, which is disappointing.

8/10

Not necessarily watered down. In the games, Team Flare wanted to create a beautiful world just for themselves. Now, filling the world with such trees and greenery does make it more beautiful, and the destruction it causes in the process does make it for the destruction caused by the UW. (I still want that damn thing to be used in the finale )

 

[Pikachu52]

Not necessarily watered down. In the games, Team Flare wanted to create a beautiful world just for themselves. Now, filling the world with such trees and greenery does make it more beautiful, and the destruction it causes in the process does make it for the destruction caused by the UW. (I still want that damn thing to be used in the finale )

True, but creating a "beautiful world" by planting super large trees that may inadvertently cause destruction as is the case in the anime as opposed to games where Lysandre actually said his plan was to kill everybody not in Team Flare isn't quite as dark. The themes of destruction was fairly constant in the XY games and they mentioned death quite a bit. By contrast the anime thus far has mentioned death in I think about two episodes, and only then in reference to the deaths of unseen characters, has left the mortality duo out completely other than a brief glimpse of Xernas during the summer camp saga and is using Zygarde as the legendary for the arch. If that doesn't constitute a "watering-down" of the games themes it's a major shift in the tone and suggests that the writers are more uncomfortable with the life/death themes than the game designers.

 

[Soaring Pikachu]

Neat battles.
Greninja v Sceptile
Even with a type disadvantage, Greninja is able to swat Sceptile away like a feather. (although it did leave him drained)

Greninja v Charizard
This time with a type advantage, Greninja is bested but the match did appear to be close.

I see some interesting gaps in power levels.

 

[the1stpkmnfan]

A few things felt off for me. Sawyer and Alain's VA for one. The pace kept me from wanting to see Ash VS Alain, and of course its held off until the end of the episode.

But on the other side, I love seeing the XYZ anime collide with elements from the XY Specials, with Alain and Marin getting showcased.

Can't wait to see more. Things can only get better from here, especially with what we saw from Team Plasma.

 

[Alloutℯ]

Seriously? Team Rocket decides to steal Pikachu in a safe house, with the entire party asleep, and not attract any attention? Realism has hit it's lowest point, and it makes me question on why Ash has yet to report their stalking to the police.

 

[LilligantLewis]

So after 70 episodes, Ash finally lost once more.

His last loss wasn't in XY36 because he lost to Tierno in XY39.

Manon was just in as much pain / turmoil as her comatose starter.

Ash-Greninja..Mairin-Chesnaught?

So that would be 18 gyms per region, with 8 of which are from the games (10 in the case of Unova because of Marlon and Roxie).

11. Cheren.

Seeing Ash's rivals wreck him every single time until the League happened (Paul and Trip) was stupid,

He tied Paul in their first battle and beat him in Pokéringer. Also, he tied Trip in their third battle.

Just combine the time for Pikachu v Sword and Lucha v Shellgon into one fight (Bat v Sword)..

Shelgon had to appear here because this was its only appearance as a Shelgon. If it didn't appear, Sawyer's Salamence would have skipped straight from Bagon to Salamence.

Then there is Virgil and while Ash didn't battle him at all, he used an Eevee in the League.

Agreed. That Eevee was really strong. In fact, I think it starred against Dino's Druddigon. Although, I really think it would have been better for Eevee to evolve into Sylveon to take down either Cameron's Hydreigon or Dino's Druddigon. It would have debuted 3 things at the same time:

Sylveon
The Fairy type
Fairy's immunity to Dragon

Seriously? Team Rocket decides to steal Pikachu in a safe house, with the entire party asleep, and not attract any attention? Realism has hit it's lowest point, and it makes me question on why Ash has yet to report their stalking to the police.

This is copied from UxieLover1994 at bmgf

 

[Leonhart]

I found it difficult to get invested in Satoshi's match against Shota since we knew how inexperienced Shota was at this point in Kalos. Still, he did slightly better than I expected with Jukain, and Alain's appearance was entertaining.

 

[FullmetalJackie]

Sawyer was too much of a rookie to even stand a chance against our hero Ash so what was even the point of this episode. I liked Sawyer's team however because he has a nicely balanced roster.

 

[Leonhart]

I liked Sawyer's team however because he has a nicely balanced roster.

I didn't expect him to own a Hitotsuki though since Shota was from Houen, so I was expecting him to only use Gen III Pokemon. I liked that he owned a Komoruu however, because even though it's awkwardly shaped, we hardly see those in the anime.