One thing i am happy about this episode is that the writers atleast didn't make the Sinnoh League as low key as the Sinnoh Grand Festival was (compared to the GF of Hoenn & Kanto, the Sinnoh one was pretty low-key).
I sort of like the new animation of "Eruption". The older one was kind of boring and was alot like the present animation of "Draco Meteor". But i wonder how it is going to use in a battle.
Also i am kind of sad that Cyndaquil didn't get "Extrasensory" for its new attack, it could have gotten that instead of "Flame Wheel" (that move would have been used to promote the HGSS games more).
Hmm.. I kinda agree and disagree with the low-key'ness.. The stadium for the GF just didn't look as good as the one in Kanto. I really liked the short and sweet openingceremony, I mean this is like the first time that it went the way it was supposed to!
As far as I could see there were four stadiums, which is less then what Hoenn had.. but I don't know.. the opening ceremony, no, the entire back end of the episode starting from the point of Cyndaquil's evolution was 10/10. Maybe they could've shown Noctowl using a move, instead of just flying, but you can't have anything when you have Donphan showing us it's bowling skills and showing us that Ash actually trained with all of them offscreen, prior to the league. So there isn't going to be as much DEM as he trained with them, rather then everything being surprising miracle wins.
Funny to note that the stadiums lights were colored along the lines of the lake pixies.. Pink, blue and yellow.
About Eruption, I figure that it would be the same as how Heatran used it in the Heatran episode. Except blasting it from it's mouth it will blast it out of the mohawk flames on it's head.. If it leans forward a bit it will go to it's front instead of up, just look at how Bulbasaur performs Solar Beam, same thing.
I thought it was really awesome how after it evolved it turned on it's what I'm going to call it's 'turbothrust burnengines' and then it's mohawkflames. Makes you wonder if it could use Eruption from it's rear flames to power up it's Flame Wheel or something like that! xD
About the writers picking Flame Wheel over Extrasensory.. It was just due, since Flame Wheel has been around since Johto and was it's signature move (ingame) back then. So I always found it weird that it didn't know the move and if it did return at one point that it should have it. I don't think we should complain though, it basically got a major movepool overhaul. From:
Old cyndaquil:
Flamethrower
Swift
Quick Attack
Smokescreen
To the new Quilava:
Flamethrower
Flame Wheel
Eruption
Aerial Ace
Somehow Dawn's Cyndaquil knows the moves that Ash' forgot: Swift and Smokescreen. I see Aerial Ace as a power up for Quick Attack..
They are going to get bigger roles when their respective battles with Ash and Paul happen. Didn't you read the title of the episode? It's about the reunion of Ash's old pokemon, not about the rivals having big introductions.
Seriously, do you have to nitpick about every little thing?
I for one love that we got to some of Ash's old pokemon. It was a great reminder of their personalities. I wished there was a bigger role for Glalie, Noctowl, Donphan and Torkoal but there were just too much pokemon and not a lot of time. They'll get their time once they battle.
I agree with you a full hundred percent.. We got so much of the preleague fluffing that it almost overflowed in awesomeness the last couple of minutes after Cyndaquil's evolution, and he still finds a point to argue..
I agree that the showing of the rest of the reserves was minimal, but it's the
thought of knowing that Ash actually brought them back for some pre-league training that makes up for that. That's more then we saw him doing during the Johto league when he brought others back. So I completely accept the episode as is.
I have a funny feeling that this actually is going to be a sort of Johto repeat. In Johto there was always one Kanto starter involved in the group fase that stole the cake. Squirtle vs. Macey and Bulbasaur vs. Vincent. Now we see that Quilava is taking the cake vs. Nando.
I kinda think that some people are having a reserve-high, thinking that they will fight most of the battles (even vs. Paul). And people like me, who have reserve-anxiety, as in thinking that they might take too much away from the Sinnoh pokemon at some points. Of course I'm not saying that a win for each isn't justified, just when they begin to take down every major last opponent I'll start to find it a bit scrupulous.
But to be completely fair about complaint concerning the episode, Conway hadn't even made clear that he's a league competitor, so him having a bit more of a spotlight on him would've been good. But the reaction the crew gave to him was more then enough and in all honestly, it should've been made clear before this episode that Conway was doing leagues and we wouldn't even have had this small problem...