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Fire & Ice! (078)

Mrs. Oreo

Banned
Eh, there would've been plenty of time for two whole Ash-centric League battles here if the TR thing hadn't occurred. That's what wasted the most time..

Yea I guess it's true that Team Rocket's whole fake Pokemon Center plan here was kind of unnecessary in hindsight since it didn't serve a major purpose. It was still fun to see Team Rocket here however, although I wish that they had just made cameos.
 

Alloutℯ

Banned
Poor Ash got side-tracked by the TRio here, although I liked how we saw him out on the town and how the parade played that Viridian City song. Ash vs. the Arcanine dude was fun in that the terrain melted.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Kingler vs. Cloyster was good, though not as intense as Pikachu vs. Arcanine. I liked how Pikachu made smart use of the melted ice and water to electrocute the opponent's Arcanine.

I found Kingler versus Parshen somewhat depressing, however. While it was nice to see Satoshi's Kingler get another win, I found its use of Crabhammer to be sort of morbid, because it actually shattered a bit of Parshen's shell. The episode played it off as being no big deal, but that nonchalance bothered me.
 

Cíconne

Banned
I wanted to know who else Ash used in his first round battle against the Nidorino kid. It's also weird how Ash was back in the old days. He expected free food.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I wanted to know who else Ash used in his first round battle against the Nidorino kid.

Given how Satoshi was down to just Zenigame when he faced Nidorino, I'm guessing that whatever the other two Pokemon he faced were must've been extremely tough.
 
When Ash went to look for a restaurant and instead got scammed by Team Rocket again, it felt like a waste of time. It totally cut into the ice field battle.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
When Ash went to look for a restaurant and instead got scammed by Team Rocket again, it felt like a waste of time. It totally cut into the ice field battle.

That segment of this episode did seem unnecessary, and I'll admit that Satoshi even seemed selfish since he left his injured Pokemon behind at the lodgings.
 

Daizy

I call you honey
When we saw most of Ash's second Indigo League match skipped I was livid. We didn't need to see Team Rocket's Poke Center scam sub-plot, so why couldn't that have been cut out?
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Daizy said:
When we saw most of Ash's second Indigo League match skipped I was livid. We didn't need to see Team Rocket's Poke Center scam sub-plot, so why couldn't that have been cut out?

I guess the writers preferred showing us a funny side plot instead of focusing too much on the battles, which I find unnerving since this was a League arc and we needed to see Satoshi's battling skills with no interruptions.
 
I just love this episode because unlike most fans I like episodes where we just see the cast relax and unwind a bit. So seeing Ash go out at night to find a Pokemon Center and get distracted was fun. The battles were okay too even though the one on the rock field was too short. At least the ice field match had more going on and Ash won by being smart enough to use the water to his advantage.
 
The episode had some of the worst pacing out of all the Kanto episodes because most of Ash's second battle was skipped and then we spent a long time just watching Ash's fruitless journey to find a Pokemon Center which took away time from the rest of the episode. I liked that Ash's third battle at least wasn't ignored and that Ash was being smart when he had Pikachu dodge Fire Blast so that the ice would melt instead. That was a good plan. 7/10
 
I didn't like how Ash was way too cocky at the food court. Ash and co are stupid for not recognizing Team Rocket. Kingler is still a beast.
So I thought that the water, ice, rock, and grass rounds each where in the same rounds but they are in different rounds? Are they part of the prelims?
 

MAC Daddy

New Member
This is my favorite episode even though young me never forgave the writers for cutting parts of awesome battles that were pivotal in the development of ash and his team at this point in their journey.
 

beanDude

Reviewer
Really REALLY REALLY underrated episode. I know only parts of each of the two battles were shown, but every second of this episode is just pure bliss. The tension of whether or not Ash would win his first battle was broken, now it's time to see how he handles his newfound success and being in the middle of his dream before things get harder. This is Ash on Cloud 9, in its purest form, and the episode explores that to its fullest which was absolutely the best thing to focus on. This is a stage in his character development that could never be captured again, as he just gotten an extremely clean win in his first ever competition match, and it is before reality sets in that he is inevitably going to screw up given his inexperience. Oh, and Team Rocket shows up for a little bit, but it takes up so little of the episode that it's not worth talking about.

For what is shown of the battles, there are some really cool shots in there.

In hindsight, my favorite thing about the Indigo Competition episodes was how little they focused on the battles compared to Ash's character development. Having so much of it occur WHILE Ash is living out his dream is such perfect writing.
 
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