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Farewell, Sophocles! (969)

Bortgreen

Captain Pikachu is EPIC
Even being a fakeout/bait I liked this episode, and I think it's the second most emotional episode so far(the first is obviously the Litten episode). I think it's still early for some character to leave, they wouldn't create a character, give him small development and kick him out, out of nowhere...
I understand Sophocles dilemma, and the ending, even not being that good, was better than random slapsticky angry faces that fortunately, were only in Sophocles imagination. And still, they were happy he wasn't moving
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
On a funny side note, some DP fans on Youtube have took notice of the fact Mallow high fived Ash in this episode. XD

One minor thing though, anyone noticed when Ash's team searched for the Charjabug, Rowlet disappeared when they all dug it up? After the previous handful of episodes, which were at least for comical effect (Rowlet snoozing when Skull appeared for example), I hope they're not making too much of a habit of Rowlet being the 'useless' one of the lot.
 

Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
One minor thing though, anyone noticed when Ash's team searched for the Charjabug, Rowlet disappeared when they all dug it up? After the previous handful of episodes, which were at least for comical effect (Rowlet snoozing when Skull appeared for example), I hope they're not making too much of a habit of Rowlet being the 'useless' one of the lot.

Well, to be fair, Pikachu, Rockruff, and Litten are much more suited to digging than Rowlet is. It's much easier to dig when one has four feet and can plant two of them firmly on the ground, than when one only has two feet to start with. I wouldn't consider that an example of Rowlet being the "useless" one.
 

Nebbygetinthebag

Well-Known Member
On a funny side note, some DP fans on Youtube have took notice of the fact Mallow high fived Ash in this episode. XD

One minor thing though, anyone noticed when Ash's team searched for the Charjabug, Rowlet disappeared when they all dug it up? After the previous handful of episodes, which were at least for comical effect (Rowlet snoozing when Skull appeared for example), I hope they're not making too much of a habit of Rowlet being the 'useless' one of the lot.
Yeah I like that moment where mallow high five ash there some DP reference.
 

Spyro39

Well-Known Member
So the "shocking turn" in this episode was that after Sophocles told his friends he was moving away, his parents told him that they moving to another house for about a week, and then move back, but Sophocles couldn't muster up the strength to tell his friends the truth because he feared they would hate him for getting emotional over nothing if he did. Yeah, what a "shocking turn" indeed. I still enjoyed the episode though and Sophocles finally got character development and focus the proper way.

Regarding the whole Snowbelle City theme being overused at this point, I can't remember much from the SM games, but I think there are two sad themes in its soundtrack (if there are more let me know). They are "Lonely Lillie" and "Someday...". I believe those two OSTs will be used (and remixed) at some point in the anime, particularly surrounding Lillie when a sad moment revolves around her. But until then, the anime might just keep using Snowbelle City's theme if a sad moment revolves around the other main characters or their Pokemon.
 

k6666

Pikachu Fan
I love the episode 10/10
i kinda cry a little
i like sophocles more now
 

mystic9899

Pokemon fan
Regarding the whole Snowbelle City theme being overused at this point, I can't remember much from the SM games, but I think there are two sad themes in its soundtrack (if there are more let me know). They are "Lonely Lillie" and "Someday...". I believe those two OSTs will be used (and remixed) at some point in the anime, particularly surrounding Lillie when a sad moment revolves around her. But until then, the anime might just keep using Snowbelle City's theme if a sad moment revolves around the other main characters or their Pokemon.

personally i also think the night version of iki town has a kind of sad/nostalgic sort of feeling. they've used a couple times already though.
 

KingMinun

Dawn/Sinnoh Fan!
Some great character interactions in this episode, it was nice to see Sophocles actually interact properly with some of the other members of the cast (Lana and Kiawe in particular). We've only seen him interact properly with Ash, so it was nice to see him interact with others, and even nicer that it was Lana and Kiawe (2 of the other lesser characters in the group).

Also, cool, Ash went out and caught a pokemon for someone else (not in the pokemon sense). Quite surprising that Soph's was the first character in the cast to actually capture a second pokemon first, really thought it would be Kiawe (would have been Mallow if Bounsweet hadn't evolved not that long ago).
 

Inarjollyhound

Mystery Dungeonee
I was worried this was gonna turn into a situation where they get mad because they found out that Sophicles was leaving on their own. (An overused story plot.)

I'm really glad it happened this way instead with Sophicles figuring it out on his own, and feeling the relief of knowing that his friends are happy to have him even if he did give them a big scare.

Yeah, it's a kind of story that's been done before, but it was done WAY better than other shows that try this moral with forced outrage and stuff.

Their friendship seems a lot more legitimate and I really felt emotional seeing how his friends tried to make the best of their time even when he found out he wasn't moving far. (though that did lessen the impact a good deal.)

I gotta say, I have high expectations for when it's time for Ash to go back to Kanto, as he does.

If they can up the emotional impact of that episode much higher than this one, it's gonna feel downright tragic.
 

Navin

MALDREAD
Mal's Review - Sun&Moon Edition

Yay, friendship!


Pros:

* A bunch of good-natured kids being sweet friends

* Ash handing over the Charjabug


Cons:

* Sophocles didn't actually leave (=P)


Thoughts:

* Still don't care too much about Sophocles, but he belongs as a member of this group


It wasn't bad. I just don't care for unnecessary episodic SOL kid drama.

3/10


Last ten episodes ratings: 7/4/4/5/3.5/8.5/3/3/4/4.5
Average of episodes 11-20: 4.95/10
Average of episodes 1-10: 6.6/10
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
So who else thought Ash was going to run into, and fail to catch, a Dunsparce during his Charjabug search

Still, it's not Grubbin, it's its evolved form. If Ash caught the Charjabug as a Grubbin then we could have said that the opening turned out to be true. The scene in the opening possibly refers to Ash's failed capture in SM004.

They better change the intro soon, lest we be reminded that Ash did have the Grubbin family, albeit for a second.

See, guys? The opening didn't lie.

Ash actually caught a Grubbin...'s evolution....for Sophocles.

So it's sort of technically but not really accurate!

... people are still talking about this...?

But then again, it's not Grubbin, it's its evolved form Charjabug. A Charjabug can never become a Grubbin again. :p

I have a trading card called Hyper Devolution Spray

Lana's raspberry.

What's a raspberry? Like a literal raspberry or something else? I certainly didn't notice



so basically after this episode, people who liked sophocles like him even more and people who hated sophocles hate him even more.

I hated Sophocles before this episode and wanted him to leave. Now I love him. I think a lot of people misunderstood this episode as dman_dustin laid out

He didn't lie, actually. It was still the truth that he was moving, but he didn't really reveal to them that plans had changed. So he was hiding it.

There's no point in this episode at which plans had changed

Lana was hoping to do it with someone else.

.

Cue Sarah and Harper: "are you suuuuuuure he's not your boyfriend ;)"
 
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Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
Oh please Ash, you'll be leaving Alola in a year or so.
It was sweet what Kiawe, Ash, and Mallow did for Soph.
I did like how this wasn't packed with slapstick moments like most episodes are, but it's still hard to care that much when he's the least developed character. And Ash will be leaving him someday anyways.

At least Soph got a Pokemon out of it though. But they really missed an opportunity for Ash to dig up a Dunsparce by mistake and try to catch it while he was looking for Charjabug.
And Kiawe's sister returned! The only <10 year old character I can stand, glad a certain pair of twins didn't show up.

7/10 - And most of that is being generous since they didn't make Ash look like a fool for forced humor.
 

AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
Looks like Sophocles is hard at work at Sophocles' Lab.

Well, he stuck behind with them. Now Ash's Alolan Harem can be distracted by two other guys.

And would you say the whole story to your child, Sophocles' Dad and Sophocles' Mom!

Ash, why can't you EVER be this hard at work catching Pokemon? Gary wouldn't have made fun of you before if you did.
 
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Frozocrone

Miraculous!
I thought this was a great episode.

Dubbed in particular. Thankfully they remove Snowbelle City which I highly disagreed with in the raw version.

I missed the Welcome to Alola theme as I think it's one of my favourites but I was happy with the new soundtrack.
 

Bguy7

The Dragon Lord
I've never really liked Sophocles as a character, and this episode only served to make things worse. He just comes off as very obnoxious to me. Normaly I enjoy the nerdy, computer geek types, as that's me, but Sophocles just rubs me the wrong way. I found him to be at his most annoying here. He is quickly becoming one of my least favorite Pokémon main characters.

And honestly, I think this episode was just demanding that Team Rocket come in and try to take that Charjabug from Ash before he could deliver it. They could claim to want to use it as a battery to power their machines. It would have helped give the episode a little bit of action. Say what you'd like about Team Rocket, but at least they ensured we had at least one battle in nearly every episode. I'm getting tired of them being under utilized.
 

Ryu Taylor

Unwavering beliefs. Richter Taylor is my name now.
Thankfully they remove Snowbelle City which I highly disagreed with in the raw version.

Haven't seen this episode's JP self, but considering the last scene that track ruined, I fully agree.

The dub soundtrack was just standard good. Ed Goldfarb has always been good with emotional stuff. But I do wish a new composition could've come up.

Now for the most important stuff: the plot was just a standard Shaggy Dog Story kind of thing, but an enjoyable one at that. And Sophocles got a new Pokemon out of it, so it wasn't entirely meaningless. I hope that Charjabug evolves into Vikavolt. He'd be a force to be reckoned with with one of those.

I can see why Alyson Rosenfeld was hyping this episode up on social media, because she did great in this one. Best turn as Sophocles thus far.

["]Looks like Sophocles is hard at work at Sophocles' Lab.["]

...Really, narration[?] It's bad enough my subs named his parents Sophocles' Dad and Sophocles' Mom.

At this point, I'd like the show to be as narrated as "Pikachu's Rescue Adventure" was (i.e. not at all).
 
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Vipsoccermaster

Well-Known Member
It's a good episode, but it's the usual misunderstanding plot. This episode was very good in keeping focus on Sophocles, I'll give it that. It is a shame that Sophocles couldn't bring himself to tell the truth until the very end. Just to show he's very concerned about his friends' reactions upon telling the truth. It's nice of Kiawe to take Sophocles to Wela Volcano for a secret area that only Kiawe knows (I think his grandfather and Olivia knows this area, too) and then Lana taking Sophocles out to the ocean for a Wailord show, which is apparently Lana's favorite spot to go at times. With all that said, it's great that Sophocles now have Charjabug from Ash and told everyone the truth.

I liked Lana's suspicions about Sophocles, because compare to her friends, she really knows what's really going on, even if not completely. And speaking of her, she's the one who's worried about Ash for being really late, more than any other main cast character, just before the party started.

Sophocles isn't a character I really enjoy, but it's nice to have a focus on him.

And Popplio practicing its balloons with Pikachu - I liked that moment! Shows that they care for each other and Pikachu is more than willing to assist Popplio in practicing to make Lana's dream come true!
 

Pokemon Fan

Knuckle Trainer
This episode was overflowing with cuteness and charm, which made it enjoyable despite the rather mundane subject matter.

I also liked how they explored that while pokemon do understand human speech, they may not understand it completely. Namely how Sophocles had to twice use visual aids to get Togedemaru to fully understand what he was talking about.

Looks like Sophocles is hard at work at Sophocles' Lab.

...Really, narration. It's bad enough my subs named his parents Sophocles' Dad and Sophocles' Mom.
I find it amusing to think that those are just the official names of everything regarding Sophocles.

Ash, why can't you EVER be this hard at work catching Pokemon? Gary wouldn't have made fun of you before if you did.
To me this episode is just another bit of proof of what we've known for many years. Namely that Ash could have caught hundreds of pokemon by now if he wanted to, but despite the advertising slogan he's hasn't shown an interest in "catching em all" since near the very beginning of the series. Instead he's for ages only ever caught pokemon that first caught his interest in some special way or who decided on their own that they wanted to be with him.
 
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1rkhachatryan

Call me Robert guys
Hey guys, so I have a question...was there a scene where Charjabug is running on Sophocles's wheel here?? I saw it mentioned in places but I just watched but the dub and raw and didn't see a scene like that :/...
 
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