Fair on Faceless Men, that's a good point. But honestly I still don't think the Night King kill really works. Yes, she kills for the sake of protecting people she cares about, and it's a heroic turnaround from where she's been. But she wasn't even aware of the White Walkers for most of the show. There are other ways she could have turned things around, but they did it in a way that steps on the toes of another person's story. There are so many other ways to cap off her development. I can't find it a satisfying subversion of expectations because Jon or Bran were more deserving.
I'd love the LSH thing you mentioned, if I didn't think LSH was a badass binchy. Objectively what you say is good. On a personal level, I want LHS to kill everyone, be badass and awesome. Forget the story and making sense, I just want her being chaotic.
And while the show isn't the classic hero-villain story, there's a reason why those stories are popular: it's satisfying to see the hero directly beat the villain he'd been fighting for so long. Jon's story has been straightforward compared to everyone else's political intrigue-heavy subplots. His story's trajectory was pretty straightforward, his story has had quite a few standard hero vs villain battles (though the Wildlings battle ended up being less straightforward after the fact.)
While prophecies often have twists (the valonqar theories attest to this), their twists can be predicted based on logic. Jon doing the majority of the grunt work to save the day, but not getting the kill, makes sense. A character unrelated to the prophecy just randomly coming in and killing the Night King, doesn't. It's possible this could happen, given how vague the prophecy is. But it's not satisfying and comes out of nowhere. And that's why I don't think the Arya twist works - subversion still needs to make sense after the fact.
At best she thematically fits, but other characters also thematically fit and have meaningful ties to the Night King.
But as you said, this could have all made sense if they worked on it more. Because connecting Arya to the White Walker story, maybe even playing on her connection to Jon, could have set up the twist and even make it make sense. Personally, I'd have loved the kill to be a team effort - Bran luring the Night King, Arya swooping in and incapacitating him, Sansa... I don't know, maybe she can do a sexy dance to distract the Night King, and Jon getting the final blow would be a great ending.
No, this is important and relevant. Scarlet and Violet will have time travel, and with that comes medieval fantasy. You need to be prepared for Ash assassinating political figures.
As for Ash in the next series, SM made it a point about him wanting to travel and see the world. While I can also see people worry about Ash not becoming stronger, I really like the idea of him broadening his horizons, meeting and learning about new Pokemon, and imparting his knowledge onto others. A Pokemon Master would probably need to know as much as they can about Pokemon, and training a new team to be the best they can be would fall under that.
While I'm not too fond of the Gym Challenge at this point, I can see it working. It'd help Ash learn about new Pokemon and help a new team grow and develop. It may not be the most challenging thing he could do (but let's face it, he'll struggle like he always does anyway), but he's still improving from the experience.
Yo I'd love to take this to the DMs if you'd like, it'll be a fun discussion and I think I've already annoyed people too much with the GoT talks, although I'll be happy to continue them here still
"An inference JN132 3+2(Gigantamax+B Thunderbolt) Charizard VS Pikachu(Gigantamax) Cinderace VS Pikachu(B Thunderbolt)"
So G-Max Pikachu will beat Charizard, then Pikachu will battle Cinderace and use its buddy thunderbolt move, question is whether Pikachu will be able to defeat Cinderace too or not. Anyway, I'm very glad that at least Pikachu defeated Charizard.
"An inference JN132 3+2(Gigantamax+B Thunderbolt) Charizard VS Pikachu(Gigantamax) Cinderace VS Pikachu(B Thunderbolt)"
So G-Max Pikachu will beat Charizard, then Pikachu will battle Cinderace and use its buddy thunderbolt move, question is whether Pikachu will be able to defeat Cinderace too or not. Anyway, I'm very glad that at least Pikachu defeated Charizard.
No, he already used G-Max on Charizard, and he can't use more than 1 gimmick. Ash, on the other hand, used 5 gimmicks in this battle. (3 + 2)
From how I know this genuine leaker, "an inference" according to him is a spoiler.
Hence it's already confirmed that G-Max Pikachu will defeat Charizard. Regarding Pikachu VS Cinderace, we'll have to wait 5 more days to know the result. Anyway, Pikachu defeated Leon's ace, which is very nice.
No, he already used G-Max on Charizard, and he can't use more than 1 gimmick. Ash, on the other hand, used 5 gimmicks in this battle. (3 + 2)
From how I know this genuine leaker, "an inference" according to him is a spoiler.
Hence it's already confirmed that G-Max Pikachu will defeat Charizard. Regarding Pikachu VS Cinderace, we'll have to wait 5 more days to know the result. Anyway, Pikachu defeated Leon's ace, which is very nice.
I’m just pointing this out but they wouldn’t go out of their way to refill Leon’s Dynamax Band if he wasn’t going to use Gigantamax a 2nd time in this match.
Plus when the exemption to allow Ash to use all of his gimmicks in the match was made it was never said that Leon was restricted to only one gimmick and only one use of that gimmick.
I’m just pointing this out but they wouldn’t go out of their way to refill Leon’s Dynamax Band if he wasn’t going to use Gigantamax a 2nd time in this match.
Plus when the exemption to allow Ash to use all of his gimmicks in the match was made it was never said that Leon was restricted to only one gimmick and only one use of that gimmick.
Kinda proud of having diverted this thread to a long and deep discussion about GoT lol. Not as much interested in some things anyway because I'm a Stark hater (minus Rickon but because I kinda forgot he existed in the series lol poor thing deserved better) but well.
Going back to the topic, Pikachu vs Charizard is definitely the climax. There's a reason the episode is called "Aibou" / Partner. It's a showdown of the main partners. I don't think Cinderace's is getting the climax.
I think the options are:
1. Leon returns Charizard and uses Cinderace against Pikachu. Pikachu wins. Then Pikachu vs Charizard climax.
-- If Leon uses Dynamax again, perhaps he uses Gigamax with Cinderace here. Either way, Pikachu wins. Pikachu vs Charizard can go either way. Pikachu gets a solid victory 1v1 against one of Leon's Pokemon, something none of Ash's other Pokemon managed to do, and either wins against Charizard or brings it to its knees.
2. Leon doesn't use Cinderace at all. The rest of the battle is a big and climatic confrontation between the Partners, Pikachu vs Charizard. In this case there are three possible outcomes:
-- Charizard wins but almost defeated.
-- A true tie.
-- Pikachu wins but faints short after.
No matter what, Leon wins, but in the two latter scenarios, only because he has Cinderace left.
This exactly my reaction. Shut up with all of this Game of Thrones stupid stuff, I mean I don't mind spoilers but I don't watch these types of shows, it's so boring :thumbs_down:. We should stick to pokemon!
Kinda proud of having diverted this thread to a long and deep discussion about GoT lol. Not as much interested in some things anyway because I'm a Stark hater (minus Rickon but because I kinda forgot he existed in the series lol poor thing deserved better) but well.
Going back to the topic, Pikachu vs Charizard is definitely the climax. There's a reason the episode is called "Aibou" / Partner. It's a showdown of the main partners. I don't think Cinderace's is getting the climax.
I think the options are:
1. Leon returns Charizard and uses Cinderace against Pikachu. Pikachu wins. Then Pikachu vs Charizard climax.
-- If Leon uses Dynamax again, perhaps he uses Gigamax with Cinderace here. Either way, Pikachu wins. Pikachu vs Charizard can go either way. Pikachu gets a solid victory 1v1 against one of Leon's Pokemon, something none of Ash's other Pokemon managed to do, and either wins against Charizard or brings it to its knees.
2. Leon doesn't use Cinderace at all. The rest of the battle is a big and climatic confrontation between the Partners, Pikachu vs Charizard. In this case there are three possible outcomes:
-- Charizard wins but almost defeated.
-- A true tie.
-- Pikachu wins but faints short after.
No matter what, Leon wins, but in the two latter scenarios, only because he has Cinderace left.
"An inference JN132 3+2(Gigantamax+B Thunderbolt) Charizard VS Pikachu(Gigantamax) Cinderace VS Pikachu(B Thunderbolt)"
So G-Max Pikachu will beat Charizard, then Pikachu will battle Cinderace and use its buddy thunderbolt move, question is whether Pikachu will be able to defeat Cinderace too or not. Anyway, I'm very glad that at least Pikachu defeated Charizard.
Well seeing how Pikachu battled Cinderace once during this battle before being recalled, and Ash had a chance to see all of Cinderaces moves, I'd say a victory over Cinderace is foreseeable, especially if Pikachu uses Pika Papow, which should amp up his attack to maximum power. Plus, Pika Papow never misses, so I dont see how Cinderace is going to counter or survive that attack.
Based on how the anime has showcased Leon's Galar Starters, Cinderace is Offensive, Gorrilaboom is defensive, which explains it durability and defensive attacks, and his Intellion is a speedster. Since Cinderace is not a very defensive, I doubt its surviving a maximum friendship amped up attack that never misses.