mysticalglacia
Alola Shill
when fiction peaks!
Amazing episode. It both establishes and payoffs so many things and does all of them so well….
Brandon coming to Snowpoint to research the temple bc of his Regi’s made sense, & it was good to see him again. Paul learning that Ash beat him and being shocked was so great, it added even more to his frustration 100%.
Paul was the star here obviously. Seeing him lose his composure little by little all throughout until he’s essentially shouting his feelings out in frustration and anger was crazy. Even Ash was shocked like wow. We’ve never seen him show such palpable emotion before this; it really was the facade crumbling as we get to learn the whole deal on why Paul is the way he is and why he wants to defeat Brandon so badly. Seeing him fight tooth and nail so desperately juxtaposed with the flashback where he looks considerably more happy and relaxed was even crazier; the differences in his voice acting in both just added to it. Props to his VA, he ate this performance up.
The flashback spoke volumes about how both Paul and Reggie interpreted Brandon’s words. Reggie retired from battling bc he found his own unique strength was somewhere else, but Paul took it as him quitting out of a want to not improve and try to be better. It makes sense that Paul would interpret those words and put them into practice to become as strong as he can in his own specific way, which is why he’s so steadfast about his training methods. Man. The writing is just continuously excellent.
A small but welcome detail was Paul being a rookie but starting in Kanto bc he went to visit Reggie for his match against Brandon, that was neat.
Paul accepting his loss and Brandon’s words to him at the end was the right kickstart to his development. Brandon questioning what his Pokémon and goal mean to him and mentioning fighting a more peaceful version of him in the future makes me really wish we got to see a round two post-DP; just a genuinely great narrative plot point that would give even more closure to his character than he already has.
But for now…..this episode has the hypest ending ever. Reggie proposing the iconic Lake Acuity 6v6, the cliffhanger about the temple, the music playing. Like damn they were going off in 2009
Amazing episode. It both establishes and payoffs so many things and does all of them so well….
Brandon coming to Snowpoint to research the temple bc of his Regi’s made sense, & it was good to see him again. Paul learning that Ash beat him and being shocked was so great, it added even more to his frustration 100%.
Paul was the star here obviously. Seeing him lose his composure little by little all throughout until he’s essentially shouting his feelings out in frustration and anger was crazy. Even Ash was shocked like wow. We’ve never seen him show such palpable emotion before this; it really was the facade crumbling as we get to learn the whole deal on why Paul is the way he is and why he wants to defeat Brandon so badly. Seeing him fight tooth and nail so desperately juxtaposed with the flashback where he looks considerably more happy and relaxed was even crazier; the differences in his voice acting in both just added to it. Props to his VA, he ate this performance up.
The flashback spoke volumes about how both Paul and Reggie interpreted Brandon’s words. Reggie retired from battling bc he found his own unique strength was somewhere else, but Paul took it as him quitting out of a want to not improve and try to be better. It makes sense that Paul would interpret those words and put them into practice to become as strong as he can in his own specific way, which is why he’s so steadfast about his training methods. Man. The writing is just continuously excellent.
A small but welcome detail was Paul being a rookie but starting in Kanto bc he went to visit Reggie for his match against Brandon, that was neat.
Paul accepting his loss and Brandon’s words to him at the end was the right kickstart to his development. Brandon questioning what his Pokémon and goal mean to him and mentioning fighting a more peaceful version of him in the future makes me really wish we got to see a round two post-DP; just a genuinely great narrative plot point that would give even more closure to his character than he already has.
But for now…..this episode has the hypest ending ever. Reggie proposing the iconic Lake Acuity 6v6, the cliffhanger about the temple, the music playing. Like damn they were going off in 2009