Ash & Latios (1235)

[Queen Cynthia]

That ball fondling guy was right. They deliberately made it so that audience would rage quit.

Nah, I 'm not angry about that. Just a bit disappointed because for the penultimate episode of the "Ash Anime", well I don't know, you kind of expect something more emotional... something more spectacular. But I guess that's been the problem of MPM since the first episode.

 

[DuquÊ?]

I can't help thinking Latios/Latias were portrayed a bit ungrateful at the end.

As for Latios, I can somehow understand if it's still a bit suspicious of humans considering what it went through. You could argue, though, that after seeing what Ash and his friends had done in order to save them, Latios could have become a bit more open-minded, at least towards Ash.

The bigger problem however is Latias: It's been stalking our heroes since the very first episode of MPM. It has been rescued and healed by Ash several times. And after all that there was a short, unemotional farewell scene where Latias was somehow acting like "Yeah, that's it. I'm off. We had a nice time but we'll never meet again."
What I'd like to say is that send-off scene could have been done much better.

Yeah, when you look to Ash's side, it's very ungrateful from the eon duo, since latias took her jolly time to know him and she learned he's reliable.

When you look to latios side, he was hurted by fleeing from the hunter all the time while latias was far and safe. On the top of all, latios was useless by himself and he needed the help of other human to actually have a chance to win.

From his POV, he probably felt both hurted and humiliated. It's bad because we know Ash’s core and we know that, when he wants to help, he actually means it. For latios, it was a desperate time.

Said that, I didn't like about something that bittersweet exactly by what is Ash's penultimate episode. But, eh, nothing to do about that, now.

 

[Ignition]

Watching again with subs, my opinion is the same: this was boring. The "build up" for Lati@s didn't lead to anything remotely interesting. Like the first episode, I just did not care for anything with the Lati twins and was really only interested in seeing the reserves again. I'm at least glad they didn't shove TRio or Giovanni into this as well as him not catching either of the Legendaries. Probably my second least favorite episode of this arc after the first which was just a slog. The M5 callbacks don't really do anything for me either.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Yeah, when you look to Ash's side, it's very ungrateful from the eon duo, since latias took her jolly time to know him and she learned he's reliable.

Plus, it's kind of strange Latias had fun travelling around with Ash for 10 episodes while at the same time she must have been well aware of the danger Latios was in. If I were Latias, I couldn't just stand there, not doing anything to help my friend.
Or maybe she was actually looking for help and the reason why she was stalking Ash was to find out if he was reliable. Well, I guess we'll never know.

 

[DigitalTrainer]

Okay finally had a chance to watch the whole thing in decent subs

So my expectations were low ever since i saw the description for this episode when it was first announced, the plot basically sounding like "Ash helps the Eon Duo from the nameless hunter, and then they fly off unceremoniously, never to see each other again"

It went exactly how I thought it would it go, I had low expectations but I still ended up disgusted by the writers choices

I mean really, the pen-ultimate episode, after 9 episodes of Latias staring at Ash from afar, only to be given a handful of nothing to show for it.

And all of this is just after the dog**** season that was Journeys, where not only did Ash not get as much as he should, but what and who he did get, didn't much in the way in the way of proper screentime or development, because most of the episodes it was just him and Pikachu either goofing around in some dumb fiiler/slapstick that contributed nothing to the season, or standing on the sidelines while they kept spoiling Goh
You know I heard somewhere that Ash was supposed to catch Latias long ago, but then they made the really stupid choice to not let him have it, oh but then during the Sinnoh league that self-insert grade a******e decided Tobias just waltz in with his cheat level team full of Mythicals and Legendaries, one of them being Latios itself, and I'm supposed to believe this edgelord fan character was worthy enough to have all those Ubers and throw their power around to win the Sinnoh League. Then there's that spoiled 8th stringer writers pet Goh who was apparently good enough to earn Suicunes favor, and let him catch it, and then later get Regieleki cause he piggybacked off of Gary, on top of everything that was handed to Goh. Same with his friend Horace, you're saying some rando was able to catch Virizion like that?

At the end of the episode, after helping the Eon duo from Hunter, what did Ash get at the end, his kindness slapped away, and I know that of course Latios would be distrustful of humans, but you can not tell me Ash didn't get done dirty compared to everyone else I listed off, especially compared to Goh

And for anyone who wants bring Naganadel, Melmetal and Solgaleo

1. Ash had to let Naganadel back to its own world
2. Ash should have used Melmetal a bunch in JN, relating to whole not using reserves problem
3. I didn't see Solgaleo go into a ball, so I can't count it

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Okay finally had a chance to watch the whole thing in decent subs

So my expectations were low ever since i saw the description for this episode when it was first announced, the plot basically sounding like "Ash helps the Eon Duo from the nameless hunter, and then they fly off unceremoniously, never to see each other again"

It went exactly how I thought it would it go, I had low expectations but I still ended up disgusted by the writers choices

I mean really, the pen-ultimate episode, after 9 episodes of Latias staring at Ash from afar, only to be given a handful of nothing to show for it.

And all of this is just after the dog**** season that was Journeys, where not only did Ash not get as much as he should, but what and who he did get, didn't much in the way in the way of proper screentime or development, because most of the episodes it was just him and Pikachu either goofing around in some dumb fiiler/slapstick that contributed nothing to the season, or standing on the sidelines while they kept spoiling Goh
You know I heard somewhere that Ash was supposed to catch Latias long ago, but then they made the really stupid choice to not let him have it, oh but then during the Sinnoh league that self-insert grade a******e decided Tobias just waltz in with his cheat level team full of Mythicals and Legendaries, one of them being Latios itself, and I'm supposed to believe this edgelord fan character was worthy enough to have all those Ubers and throw their power around to win the Sinnoh League. Then there's that spoiled 8th stringer writers pet Goh who was apparently good enough to earn Suicunes favor, and let him catch it, and then later get Regieleki cause he piggybacked off of Gary, on top of everything that was handed to Goh. Same with his friend Horace, you're saying some rando was able to catch Virizion like that?

At the end of the episode, after helping the Eon duo from Hunter, what did Ash get at the end, his kindness slapped away, and I know that of course Latios would be distrustful of humans, but you can not tell me Ash didn't get done dirty compared to everyone else I listed off, especially compared to Goh

And for anyone who wants bring Naganadel, Melmetal and Solgaleo

1. Ash had to let Naganadel back to its own world
2. Ash should have used Melmetal a bunch in JN, relating to whole not using reserves problem
3. I didn't see Solgaleo go into a ball, so I can't count it

Your "Uh nuhs" and "doesn't count" doesn't change the fact Melmetal, Naganadel and Solgaleo are Ash mons
Like you're really hating on the episode just for Ash not catching one of em? Lol

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

...Was Solgaleo ever caught in a ball by Ash, though?

Or are we considering it as a huge feline Larvitar.

Still an Ash mon
He raised it, it's in the OP with all of Ash's mons, in the poster, the promotional videos shows it along with moments of every Ash mon capture and evolution, and it's in JN132 along with Ash's other mons
Just coz it isn't in a pokeball doesn't mean it isn't an Ash mon. The show spells it out for you

 

[Shadao]

I mean, Misty's Togepi is considered to be her Pokémon... even though she never caught it in a Poké Ball.

 

[DigitalTrainer]

Your "Uh nuhs" and "doesn't count" doesn't change the fact Melmetal, Naganadel and Solgaleo are Ash mons
Like you're really hating on the episode just for Ash not catching one of em? Lol

I am, it was a pointless episode with no payoffs, which will lead to a very disappointing finale for Ash, just like almost all of JN has been

...Was Solgaleo ever caught in a ball by Ash, though?

Or are we considering it as a huge feline Larvitar.

Pretty Much, it should have at least come back and paid him a visit every once in while

I mean, Misty's Togepi is considered to be her Pokémon... even though she never caught it in a Poké Ball.

I thought it was still all but registered under her name

 

[Yuugis Black Magician]

Satoshi was never going to capture Latios or Latias. If he wasn't going to capture that Tunbear there was no way he was going to capture any Pokemon during this series. That's okay! Satoshi made a bond and re-steeled his love for life.

I don't mean to condescend but my goodness, as a world-weary woman of adult age I really don't see why y'all are getting mad at a cartoon for not delivering on something it never really promised.

I also don't see why we're getting mad at Takuto thirteen years later when it's clear that Takuto was never meant to be anything more than a convenient in-universe excuse for the staff to have Satoshi lose the Shin-nou League because it was decided that Satoshi was not going to be allowed to win it.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Since JN brought back all of these old characters from past series' this would've been the perfect time to bring back Hunter J, but apparently she died. Instead we got a discount version who is called "Pokemon Hunter". But he served his purpose for what he was given.

 

[TheCrazyMaster]

So this episode was a continuation of the one that came before, pretty much picking up right where the last one ended.

As per the main title of the episode, the main focus was on Ash and Latios having to work together to save Latias. What I find interesting is that they choose to have Latias get kidnapped before it can convince Latios that Ash is friendly, which creates a source of friction and conflict, as Latios wants to save Latias and hates humans, but also needs to trust this human that it just met hat Latias seems to trust. It all eventually came down to the two of them eventually putting enough trust in each other to battle side by side. I especially liked how Ash was able to use a move with no effect to his advantage to allow Latios to land a super effective aura sphere on Hydreigon, further showcasing how innovative Ash is in battle. And despite this Latios still remains distrustful of humans, showing that not all wounds heel so easily (unlike most of the trauma that befalls characters in this anime).
The hunter in this episode gave off incredibly obvious Hunter J vibes, to the point of riding a pseudo legendary and having a gauntlet that turns Pokemon (the main difference being that his statues are a dark grey color, obviously to avoid branding issues).
This episode also saw the return of Ash's Swellow. Even if it wasn't used for long, I'm glad to see that it was able to catch up to and stall the hunter, truly showing that Swellow is still the best (flying) bird. It's also a nice callback to it's battle with Tobias. Back then it battled a member of the eon duo, now it's trying to rescue both of them. Then there's the not so great callback to the fact that Swellow has jobbed in two Latios episodes....

Going back to the eon duo, we even saw them traveling to alto mare, further confirming that the movies are indeed cannon, and that the movie Latias is indeed a separate individual from the one in Journeys (with I thought was obvious).

The finale also sets up Ash returning to the lab for not only the final episode in ATBAPM, but THE final episode, which is tomorrow.

So....... are we ready?

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

So....... are we ready?

Short answer: No
Long answer: Definitely no

 

[Trey pokes]

Short answer: No
Long answer: Definitely no

My whole vibe is this also.

 

[KukuiFanatic501]

The nod to Heroes being canon (which was probably already a given just not as damning of a reference as this clear one) was the biggest highlight of the episode to me, along with Swellow coming back in.

Little disappointed that Ash didn’t catch either Latias or Latios but at this point in the game it was expected and I’m good with it. Ash got to bond with them in typical Pokémon episode style, so for what we got it wad good.

Overall good episode. Getting emotional over the last episode time for one last ride