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Arrival in Paldea (009)

Queen Cynthia

Dignified Queen of Sinnoh
I think all of the dialogue we got so far made it clear why Liko was unhappy. As the episode already established, Paldea is an ordinary sight to Liko so to her it's not that special of a place. That's one reason. She wanted to go to a different place to see new horizons, and she explicitly says in ep1 she came to Kanto hoping to find something (new? different?), but another big reason is also because she had no reason to stay at home.

In episode 1, when Anne asks Liko if she will be going back home, she says her parents are too busy. We see that her father apparently works at home due to his occupation, so he would be around...physically, so for Liko to choose to stay in Kanto instead must mean she'd just be ignored or neglected by her father, so why would she go back there?

When Alex says Liko's mom is away due to work, Liko says "She must be busy, too", and she's obviously accustomed to hearing that. On her first day back home, Liko refuses to sleep in her own room and once again tells Alex that since he and mom are too busy, she may as well sleep on the airship. Even Friede is like "Oy Liko" when she says that.

From Liko's own dialogue, saying "I'm home!" and "I'm off!" they established she already views the airship as her new home.

The morning after, when Liko talks to Orla and Mollie, one of them says "You must be pretty close to your father" to which Liko says "no, not at all".

It seems pretty clear that Liko doesn't have the closest bond with her mom or dad. She's friendly to them and stuff, but that's about it. They hired Volt Tacklers to bring Liko back home without ever notifying her about it or even asking if she was okay with it. The parents who are apparently overprotective want Liko to stay home, meanwhile they're never around and are too busy to deal with their own daughter. It's pretty unfair of them to ask that from Liko, given the kind of parents they are, so I feel Liko's anxiety and frustration were highly understandable. Why should she be denied a cool new experience only to satisfy her parents who kinda, but not really, care about her.

I think my biggest criticism of the ep is the fact that Alex let Liko go so easily, despite being supposedly overprotective and worried about her. Friede told him about Explorers off-screen, so he knows there's people chasing Liko, and yet he just let her go easily without insisting that she stays home.

I'm not too bothered by Sprigatito's behavior because it wasn't a serious conflict. Sprigatito has obviously grown more attached to Liko than in ep1, so a brief moment of jealousy is nothing too wildly out-of-character for a capricious cat.
You made some very precise observations!
Plus, Liko must be emotionally attached to her grandmother very much, which makes sense because that is often the case if kids are neglected by their own parents.
 

1rkhachatryan

Call me Robert guys
I….kinda found this episode to be needlessly dramatic to be honest. I get that Liko’s whole schtick is that she overthinks things, but this time felt less like a running gag and more like tension thrown in to lengthen the episode. Her Dad didn’t come off like a busy guy who was just there to collect his kid and shoo away Friede, in fact, it looked like he wasn’t even told Liko and co were coming. All he said was that he was thinking about having Liko commute to school which was an extremely weird opinion to have as we’ve seen that remote learning is a thing in the anime, to the point that Roy could get an education without leaving his island.

If there was ever a time for an MC to have jerkwad or at least overly cautious parents, this would’ve been a good one because we didn’t get to see why Liko felt so weird about being at home aside from her mentioning how familiar Mesagoza was. There wasn’t really any conflict aside from her Dad’s words that didn’t really have a lot of power to begin with.

Even Roy claiming Sprigatito was being distant over jealousy felt forced. They just acted like how they were in the first episode where they just did their own thing. I’m not too fond of Sprig’s swinging characterization of being an independent cat that hates being cuddled to constantly being carried and hugged by Liko. Either or please.

Alex himself gives me Alador Blight vibes where he’s a distracted guy with good intentions but married to a real B of a wife who controls him. The fact that Liko’s Mom is still not around tells me that she might have a hand in the story in more ways than he does. I do like that he’s probably where Liko got her drawing skills from though.

Overall…I’m much more looking forward to next week’s episode. I need some other storyline going on beyond everyone conveniently having seen a black Rayquaza.
Liko's thinking this episode was actually pretty well explained. She just hadn't really considered that now that she's back home, her adventure was over so she was lost in thought. It's why they have flashbacks to the conversation about them being her bodyguard and their job being to keep her safe which in her mind she thinks is complete now that she's home. It's only when she hears it from her dad's mouth that it's over that she gets a bit of an attitude and has to come to the realization that she wants to travel and stay with the ship.

You also have to realize that all her dad sees is his little girl that left, not all the ways she's developed since then so it isn't until Friede tells him everything that's happened and then Liko's speech that dad realizes how much Liko has grown in such a short amount of time.
 

Blood Red

【推しの子】
So this is a Scarlet universe huh...also, Riko's house looks almost exactly like the protagonist's house in the games.

Also, while I appreciate the fact that Riko's actually bothered by her parents being inattentive and mentally (in her mom's case, physically) absent from her life, I do wish we actually got to see her dad be anything except a regular, stay-at-home dad with a job; in this episode, he really doesn't come off as inattentive at all, and I honestly felt kinda bad for the guy.
Being funny isn't a personality. His character starts and ends with Pokemon. That's all there ever was to him. He was always generic.
...well you can't really call Ash 'generic' in the earliest season, since there weren't really a ton of main characters with that 'bratty, lazy idiot who sorta just expects things to fall into place' personality back then.
 
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Yce288

Grass type FTW
So Dot was added to the opening song, but not to the ending song?
i wonder why.
also, this is the second time that Liko was indecisive and she needed Sprigatito to decide for her, i hope she will gain more courage to speak for herself and she also lacked common sense since cats are afraid of dogs and in this case, Sprigatito was jealous of Fidough and she didnt bother to notice it.
and one more thing, i know that The Explorers shouldnt appear in every episode, but i still hope they will make an appearance in the next episode.
 

DuskAstral

Well-Known Member
So Dot was added to the opening song, but not to the ending song?
i wonder why.
Her absence from the ending may be because she doesn't have much of a connection with the rest of RVT. She is supposedly part of the group, but she isolates herself from it (she even said that contact with people causes her pain).
 
So Dot was added to the opening song, but not to the ending song?
i wonder why.
also, this is the second time that Liko was indecisive and she needed Sprigatito to decide for her, i hope she will gain more courage to speak for herself and she also lacked common sense since cats are afraid of dogs and in this case, Sprigatito was jealous of Fidough and she didnt bother to notice it.
and one more thing, i know that The Explorers shouldnt appear in every episode, but i still hope they will make an appearance in the next episode.
But, but, but...

Last Episode:
800px-HZ_ED_01_V6.png
 

Yce288

Grass type FTW
Her absence from the ending may be because she doesn't have much of a connection with the rest of RVT. She is supposedly part of the group, but she isolates herself from it (she even said that contact with people causes her pain).
Maybe, i also thought that it might because in the previous episode when she was asked to sing the reginal forms Pokemon's names she said:"There are must be better ways learn about Pokemon".
But, but, but...

Latest Episode:
800px-HZ_ED_01_V6.png
I missed that part.
 

Queen Cynthia

Dignified Queen of Sinnoh
Still haven't decided if Alex is a good dad or not...
On the one hand, he seems to be very caring and overprotective, but on the other hand Liko doesn't seem to feel comfortable at home and why don't really know why. They only said her mother is busy most of the time but they didn't say anything about Alex not having enough tme for his daughter.
 

SunGodNika1997

You can call me Tanner.
Still haven't decided if Alex is a good dad or not...
On the one hand, he seems to be very caring and overprotective, but on the other hand Liko doesn't seem to feel comfortable at home and why don't really know why. They only said her mother is busy most of the time but they didn't say anything about Alex not having enough tme for his daughter.
I think her discomfort has less to do with domestic issues and more to do with the fact that she wanted to keep traveling with the Asagi crew so she could become a more confident trainer.
 

Damerdal

[Dam]n h[er] Gan[dal]f!
Dr's Summary - Horizons Episode 009 Review
Rating: 6.5/10

#The Good
:
- Ah, those sights of Mesagoza were great to see! Especially with that game shoutout with Liko and Roy trying out sunglasses.
- I always appreciate character-driven episodes in the Pokemon anime.

#The Bad:
- This episode frustrated me a bit. It had three separate conflicts (Liko wanting to stay with the RVT; Liko and her relationship with her father/parents; Sprigatito's jealousy) that I think could have each warranted a separate episode, or at least an additional episode. I'm not saying that I don't like episodes that are full of multiple elements at play, but I think in this instance this episode felt almost a bit rushed with how quickly everything resolved. Yes, Liko realizing she wants to be with the RVT, and subsequently being so preoccupied with anxiety of telling her father that she wants to travel with the RVT that she misses out on Sprigatito's jealously was a nice A problem -> B problem --> C problem, but I felt more time could have been fleshed out for each aspect.
- I felt an episode in Mesagoza to introduce Paldea could have been more appropriate before they traveled to Liko's house. I really do hope they go back to it in later episodes.
- I preferred the in-game Cyclizar sounds.

#Thoughts:
- Ah, so Liko lives in the Scarlet/Violet Player Character house. Either Alex's paintings really sell well, or Liko's mom is the clear main breadwinner for them to own a property like that.
- For somebody who's so careful of being secretive, Dot hanging her outfit on the ship deck in the open was rather uncharacteristic, unless it's supposed to be an indication that she's breaking out of her shell.
- Liko, just kick the Lechonk! Or capture it!
- Imagine how funny it would have been if Alex heard that monologue and replied, "No, go to your room."
- Who is Liko's grandmother and why is she still shrouded, unless this is supposed to be a stylistic depiction of Liko recalling an old memory.
 

DuskAstral

Well-Known Member
- For somebody who's so careful of being secretive, Dot hanging her outfit on the ship deck in the open was rather uncharacteristic, unless it's supposed to be an indication that she's breaking out of her shell.
I don't think anyone (not even RVT members) knows that she is the Nidothing.
- Liko, just kick the Lechonk! Or capture it!
How would Liko catch him if she doesn't have pokéballs?
 
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British Soul

Top Hat Regulator
No, you forgot to post an essay for the umpteenth timee:
Considering we see Naranja Academy, this series must be set in the world of Scarlet, so if we do see Clavell, he'll be wearing red, of course on first viewing, I overlooked this for some reason, in any case, the game setting is basically irrelevant anyway.
Aesthetically speaking, Liko's house looks pretty good, definitely a building you'd see in Spain. The Arcanine and Rapidash paintings look like they could be printed on pokemon cards, both decent pieces. Alex does seem like a decent dad, he cares for his daughter, though may be a tad overprotective, and when Roy blurted out that Liko was part of the RVT, Friede was very quick to change the subject.
When Liko got to her house, Sprigatito felt like a third wheel and Liko initially didn't consider that it was jealous (until she saw the drawing and when Roy pointed it out), at least Fidough made an effort to make it feel at home.
Dot was lucky noone was there to notice her hanging the Nidothing costume out to dry, though considering where the airship landed, she figured that it'd be ok to do so, though she does have good perception judging by the drawing that was left outside Liko's room the following morning.
One thing I will say about the battle against Lechonk is that it was the fiercest I have seen Lechonk, a far cry from the art I've seen of it thaty's for sure.
Alex wasn't expecting Liko to have grown so fast, sure he was worried about his daughter but at the same time he came to realise that Liko had her grandma's thirst for adventure, I think he wanted to see Liko be sure of what she wanted to do.
So Dot was added to the opening song...
She was? [checks back] Damn son, I did not notice she was added into the end shot of the OP.
 
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