A Real Icebreaker! (925)

[Rohanator]

If each of his Kalos team can have a unique move that no other of his same type Pokémon know, Water Shuriken, Flying Press, and Acrobatics, then Talonflame should get Incinerate. It has yet to debut in the anime.

I think those being unique for Ash's Mons is more of a coincidence than the writers deliberately giving them something that Ash hasn't had before. Water Shuriken and Flying Press are signature moves for Greninja and Hawlucha so that's obviously the reason behind them, and I feel like they just went with Acrobatics for the bat pun lol. I wouldn't mind Incinerate, but I'd also really love to see Overheat in XY quality, and seeing Talonflame pull that out of the bag in a dire league moment would be amazing (seeing it here when it's caught in Avalugg's Ice Fang or something would've been good but if they're saving a new move for the league I won't complain, ultimately I like that Talonflame won with its sheer fighting spirit).

 

[p96822]

It was a good gym battle this time around. I can say for a final gym battle I can say it would be in the top three with Johto and Hoenn. While I don't like Sinnoh eight gym battle because how the gym leader barely had two moves on his first time Pokemon. While in Unova I like it better then Sinnoh, but there where thing that was wrong with it like Ash using all six of his Pokemon that felt pointless

 

[LonelyShadow]

This episode's animation was pleasant as f**k. I really like the way normal Greninja used Aerial Ace.

Pikachu’s battle was very uninteresting in my opinion; in order to unfreeze his legs, all he had to do is run? What a struggle.

It’s cool that Talonflame got a win and all, but I feel like Avalugg went down too quickly without using Ice Body. I was expecting Ash to find a way to overcome this troublesome ability, is the temperature inside the gym so low that Wulfric forgot about his entire set-up?

Abomasnow's resistance is one the most impressive things this series has offered so far. It makes me wonder if this battle could’ve ended differently if Wulfric Mega Evolved him sooner or if he simply reserved Avalugg as his last Pokémon, I guess that 'Megas for last' will be an unwritten rule for now on. That Ice Punch was epic!

The latter scenes with Ash's team receiving the badge and chilling out were both nice. I wish that the current team remained outside their Poké Balls more often...

 

[Mrs. Oreo]

Hmmm the gym battle went just like I expected. At least Talonflame got redemption and a win this time, plus Ash-Greninja vs mega Abomasnow ended up being intense too. I especially liked the fist bump between Ash and his friends hee hee. :3

 

[Pokemon Fan]

Pikachu’s battle was very uninteresting in my opinion; in order to unfreeze his legs, all he had to do is run? What a struggle.

It was pretty logical really. Icy Wind doesn't freeze the pokemon (if Pikachu legs were frozen it wouldn't be able to move its legs at all), it chills its muscles so it moves more slowly. Moving around gradually heats up the muscles.

Presumably the move is still effective because often times a trainer or pokemon would simply panic before they could move enough to undo the effect, or the opponent would beat it before the effect could be undone. Pikachu was fortunately still fast enough to keep from getting knocked out before it could warm up its legs.

And I for one thought it was pretty cool the way they had Bergmite move in the match, skating around with such speed and agility.

 

[LonelyShadow]

It was pretty logical really. Icy Wind doesn't freeze the pokemon (if Pikachu legs were frozen it wouldn't be able to move its legs at all), it chills its muscles so it moves more slowly. Moving around gradually heats up the muscles.

I mean... that’s usually how it goes, right?

Presumably the move is still effective because often times a trainer or pokemon would simply panic before they could move enough to undo the effect, or the opponent would beat it before the effect could be undone. Pikachu was fortunately still fast enough to keep from getting knocked out before it could warm up its legs.

And I for one thought it was pretty cool the way they had Bergmite move in the match, skating around with such speed and agility.

The reason for me to dislike this part of the episode is due to how it was executed, this disadvantage for Ash & Pikachu could have been used in a much better way in order to make it feel more dramatic or a better reason for his defeat against Avalugg instead of trying to counter Stone Edge with Thunderbolt.

To make things worse, Pikachu was still able to jump and hit Bergmite with a Thunderbolt, proving that he was still able to continue battling and maybe even defeat post-sharpen Bergmite in that condition.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Objectively, it wasn’t a bad part in the plot at all (it's cool that Ash managed to come up with a solution to this little problem), I just wanted a more intense final gym battle as a whole. We can both agree that Sharpen looked very creative though c:

 

[XeroNegative]

* So annoying how Wulfric can't send out Obamasnow to set up the Hail and then switch out for the Ice Torterra

To be fair, the gym leader cannot substitute Pokemon after they send it out. But, also fair enough, they didn't repeat the rules for this episode, lol.

I suppose Wulfric expected Ash to come back with a vengeance and suspected the Hail-Ice body strategy probably wouldn't work on Ash a second time, especially after seeing the glint of confidence in his eye. So he went with the gameplan of keeping his mega-evo Abomasnow in the back to be ready for Sato-Greninja without taking too much damage from Ash's earlier Pokemon.

 

[TheScentedApple]

To be fair, the gym leader cannot substitute Pokemon after they send it out. But, also fair enough, they didn't repeat the rules for this episode, lol.

Wulfric said that they didn't need to reapeat them since they were they same as last time

 

[doofinc]

Watched the dub, I can't handle this Talonflame voice. taalon, taaalon, FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME.

Music handling was pretty decent in the first half, then it went pretty bad in the second half (uses Stand Tall for like 20 seconds or something). Their overuse of upper strings and xylophone in the anime soundtrack really gets old and lowers the energy.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I'm confused. Is this an Ice-type gym or a FIRE-type gym? Wulfric just kept talking about fire too much that even he said he was bringing in the heat. The only times he spoke about ice were in his attacks and the last shot before his defeat, but seriously. I think he needs a career change.

That Avalugg was nerfed so badly. It barely took that many attacks and it keeled over, unlike the real beating it got two episodes ago. And no, Ice Body with Hail doesn't exactly give it Full Restore treatment.

But then Abomasnov comes in with a ridiculous boost to its endurance even before it Mega Evolved. I didn't just sense that threat when it Mega Evolved. It just became an easier target to strike and barely even moved acrofatically.

Good job, Noivern. Thank you for telling us you were practically nonexistent in these gym battles. Hopefully you'll be big and reliable at the league!

Spoiler: MASSIVE LEAGUE SPOILER

That final shot hurts so much.

 

[Water_Dragon trainer]

This was a pretty good episode. I enjoyed seeing Ash's rematch though it would've been a bit better if Mega Abomasnow appeared sooner.

 

[Markerz]

I'm confused. Is this an Ice-type gym or a FIRE-type gym? Wulfric just kept talking about fire too much that even he said he was bringing in the heat. The only times he spoke about ice were in his attacks and the last shot before his defeat, but seriously. I think he needs a career change.

He's following the Pokemon game's not-so-subtle trend of backseating trainers.

"If only you had a Pokemon that could burn as brightly as your passion. Ah, a Talonflame! Now watch it get smashed by repeated wood hammers."

(Side note: Different voice actor for Talonflame? I liked the other one better because it was less ridiculous and more stupidly funny)

 

[Pokemon Fan]

That Avalugg was nerfed so badly. It barely took that many attacks and it keeled over, unlike the real beating it got two episodes ago. And no, Ice Body with Hail doesn't exactly give it Full Restore treatment.

Forget that the big difference was it didn't get hit by Pikachu in the previous battle, or by a Special attack for that matter. They may have been taking a bit from the games with how Avalugg takes Special attacks really poorly.

 

[DS0308]

(Side note: Different voice actor for Talonflame? I liked the other one better because it was less ridiculous and more stupidly funny)

As far as I'm aware it's still the same one. FLAME.

Once again about the only problem I had with this episode was BGM-related, I'm not asking for XY&Z but could you just not play four different tracks during Ash-Greninja VS M-Abomasnow, and when you do play Stand Tall don't cut it out because the scene lasted longer than 30 seconds and have it in the wrong place. Would've sounded better if it played behind Greninja beating the **** out of Abomasnow with the final Aerial Ace.

Also want to mention that both versions of Wulfric, Japanese and English, I've enjoyed equally.

 

[Vipsoccermaster]

Good episode. Rematch was good, although the battle with Avalugg, Avalugg was definitely nerfed. Good to see Ash getting all badges, but we all know how it's going to be throughout October 2016.

 

[Soaring Pikachu]

I thought the battle had really good pacing. The ninja appearance was inevitable but the others got some fair fight time and did not do too bad at all. A gesture to signal Ash and Greninjas Sync is an improvement, almost like this is the first time that they are using it for real. All in all, I would think of this battle as one of the better ones in this region so far.

 

[Orton155]

This battle goes down in the history books for me and I was just swept up in the whole drama of the battle.

Mega Abomasnow and Ash-Greninja aside with all it's build up (I actually forgot Abomasnow mega evolved so my surprise was quite prominent), I thought the battle as a whole was well put together. Each team member had it's part including Pikachu at the beginning using diiferent techniques and in fact Talonflame was probably the least memorable but that was really good too. Wulfric was a great character too as he did what a gym leader should do in bringing the best out of the challenger.

On to the Pokémon league and the next episode!

 

[the1stpkmnfan]

Probably one of my favorite gym battles in the Kalos Region, but I'll have to go back and rewatch a few just to be certain. I rather enjoyed the Anistar Gym as well. (And holy cow, that gym battle was 10 months ago.)

Yay, League time!

 

[LilligantLewis]

This is Fletchling/Fletchinder/Talonflame 9th gym battle of Kalos. I remember Pikachu had 9 gym battles in Johto. Are those the only two or have any other of Ash's Pokémon had 9 gym battles in one region?

 

[Alloutℯ]

I didn't liked the battle much. It started out with a decent introductory match between Pikachu and Bergmite, but then it just transformed into another over-glorification of Ash where he is the answer to everything.