Fire it Off! The Twin Gigavolt Havoc of Friendship!! (1044)

[345ash-greninja]

Yeah this episode was really good, full of some intense action throughout with a serious and intense vibe within it throughout. Ash's training session with Dia was nice, with Ash's interactions with Dia being subtly and nicely depicted overall; Dia sort of seemed like an elder brotherly figure for Ash who was helping out Ash and Pikachu improve their battling skills, primarily it seemed like that Ash and Pikachu were trying to improve the timing and accuracy of their moves.Both the Pikachu vs Zeraora fights in this episode was done really well, despite the fact that they didn't have an outcome, the move iterations and clashes really looked epic and prolific both of those 2 fights, and I was glad that Pikachu was able to put up a much better performance this time compared to the last time, fighting almost on equal footing.

The fight with Guzzlord was quite intense in its own right, with Guzzlord portrayal as a freaking destructive, ferocious and powerful monster being really consistent with last week's episodes, hardly surprising that it really proved a seriously tough foe/opponent to defeat/subdue; Ash/Pikachu and Dia/Zeraora fought valiantly and strategically, with their Electroweb + Plasma Fists + Thunderbolt combination almost doing the trick, but being the freaking OP monster Guzzlord is, it still managed to endure and withstand that combo attack and overwhelmed Pikachu/Zeraora via its superior strength afterwards. It required Tapu Koko's intervention with it trapping Guzzlord with Electroweb and powering up both Ash and Dia's Electrium-Z, and subsequently their twin Gigavolt Havoc combo to finally push Guzzlord through the wormhole in order to save the day (have to say that the moment of Pikachu and Zeraora's twin Gigavolt Havoc was superbly animated and looked really badass). I have to admit though that Ash being transported back to his own world via electricity/lightning looked sort of cheap though as it logically didn't make much sense(just like how he was transported into this alternate world back in last week's episode via Tapu Koko's electricity).

But above all these, the best part/highlight of this episode was undoubtedly the Ash-Greninja theme playing!!! That came as such a pleasant surprise, pretty no one amongst us expected something like that here, I was literally overjoyed at the moment when it started playing. That theme is just so intense, energetic and pure hype, it just made the Pikachu and Zeraora vs Guzzlord moment seen way more epic and intense than it actually was. Literally no theme in the Pokemon can top the amazing vibes that particular theme gives in my book, this episode (which was already quite good) would get some more plus points from me just simply because of that theme playing.

Oh, and lastly it was a real plus point that the comedy in this episode was literally kept to a minimum which actually conveyed and emphasized the serious and intense tone this episode was supposed to have (just like last week's episode).

Overall, a really good episode this, a really fitting and exciting finale this to end this Guzzlord/Zeraora two-parter, it pretty much more than just lived up to the expactations of last week's episode. 9/10.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Nice to see that Pikachu has once again reached Mythical Pokémon power levels, which means it's all set for the League

Can't wait for it to lose in some contrived fashion against an opponent it should effortlessly thrash

Hopefully this means the focus will shift to giving the rest of his team some actual development and not just use all the brief training scenes to justify their growth in power

 

[shoz999]

Guess that just leaves with Pheromosa and Kartana. Why do I have a strange feeling the Pheromosa episode is going to be a Lusamine-themed episode?

 

[OnceUponATime]

This episode is cool, though throughout I wanted more from it. I appreciate that it is character-focused and trying to develop Dia and his world, but I wanted just a little more umph, I guess. Overall not bad though and a good conclusion to the first part!

 

[Vipsoccermaster]

Fine episode. Was nice to learn a bit more about Dia and Zeraora, but that's all there is to it. And letting Guzzlord go back into the wormhole. Only Ash knows what happened, for his classmates were clueless on what he was talking about. He didn't even realize that it had only been minutes during his time in the alternate dimension. Good to see Dia going to put his best effort to bring Alola in the alternate dimension back to normal.

 

[Bguy7]

Wow, great episodes (this and the previous one). Easily the best episodes in all of Sun and Moon. Just goes to show that this series can be good when they actually try. This would have even been a stand-out two-parter in the more serious series. The Ultra Ruin is one of my favorite pieces of lore in Alola games, if not all of the games, so I'm very happy to see the show do an interpretation of it. I figured that they would just skip over it altogether. This version wasn't quite the end of the entire world like it was in the games, but it was still a doomed Alola, so still interesting. Their dimension-hopping mechanic was a bit bizarre and senseless, but I suppose those sorts of things typically are.

Question though, did Ash seem goofier than normal (by Alola standards?) or was it just the seriousness of his situation made his silliness stick out more? I want to say he seemed worse than normal, which was my only real complaint about the episode, but I'm not confident enough that it wasn't just the contrast. Man, these episodes with a more serious Ash would have been amazing.

So, are we assuming Dia is supposed to be an alternate version of Ash? Dia as a kid seemed to look pretty similar to Ash.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Question though, did Ash seem goofier than normal (by Alola standards?) or was it just the seriousness of his situation made his silliness stick out more? I want to say he seemed worse than normal, which was my only real complaint about the episode, but I'm not confident enough that it wasn't just the contrast. Man, these episodes with a more serious Ash would have been amazing.

So, are we assuming Dia is supposed to be an alternate version of Ash? Dia as a kid seemed to look pretty similar to Ash.

Ash's antics were pretty tame compared to other series

And Dia isn't alternate Ash since Dia's actually from Alola whereas isn't

 

[Bguy7]

Ash's antics were pretty tame compared to other series

Other series? Like pre-Sun and Moon? I'll admit he has his goofy moments from time to time, but these episodes had it non-stop, and almost never has it been this out of place. I'm willing to believe that it was normal fair for Sun and Moon, but not for other series.

And Dia isn't alternate Ash since Dia's actually from Alola whereas isn't

Was that directly stated? Regardless, in an alternate universe, Ash could be from Alola too.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Was that directly stated? Regardless, in an alternate universe, Ash could be from Alola too.

Directly shown, as young Dia had a Litten for his starter

And I meant earlier episodes of SM rather than series in terms of Ash's goofy antics

 

[Bguy7]

Directly shown, as young Dia had a Litten for his starter

Ash has a Litten too. It's not like there was any context to tell us how Dia got the Litten in the first place. For all we know, he got that Litten in the exact same way Ash got his.

And I meant earlier episodes of SM rather than series in terms of Ash's goofy antics

Okay, fair enough. It was probably just that his actions were so out of place in this context then.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Ash has a Litten too. It's not like there was any context to tell us how Dia got the Litten in the first place. For all we know, he got that Litten in the exact same way Ash got his.

You're overcomplicating things and putting way too much time and effort into trying to make a parallel universe bend in line with the "base" universe

 

[Bguy7]

You're overcomplicating things and putting way too much time and effort into trying to make a parallel universe bend in line with the "base" universe

Not anymore than you're bending things to make them not parallel. We don't simply know what the origin of the Litten is. It could be a starter, it could have been obtained in a different way, making the Litten not able to be used as evidence for any direction. So unless you have something else to suggest he's not Ash, that leaves us with the fact that Dia is a guy from a parallel dimension, who looked extremely similar to Ash as a kid, went to the same school as Ash with kids that vaguely resembled Ash's schoolmates, was part of his universe's version of the Ultra Guardians, and had similar Pokémon to Ash. That alone should be enough to suggest he's a parallel version.

To look at things a different way, this is a parallel universe, and we have someone who looks like Ash. Why would the writers and animators include someone so similar to Ash in a parallel universe and not make him a parallel version of Ash?

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Why would the writers and animators include someone so similar to Ash in a parallel universe and not make him a parallel version of Ash?

Because he's absolutely nothing like Ash from a personality standpoint?

He's more like Gladion

 

[Bguy7]

Because he's absolutely nothing like Ash from a personality standpoint?

He's more like Gladion

He's nothing like Ash after five years of living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. That would harden anyone. From what little we saw of him at Ash's age before Guzzlord, he seemed to be exactly what we would expect of Ash.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

He's nothing like Ash after five years of living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. That would harden anyone. From what little we saw of him at Ash's age before Guzzlord, he seemed to be exactly what we would expect of Ash.

You know a parallel universe would have them be the same age, right?

Does Dia look ten to you?

 

[mehmeh1]

You know a parallel universe would have them be the same age, right?

Does Dia look ten to you?

time passes faster there (both episodes were just a few seconds/minutes in the main timeline)

 

[Bguy7]

You know a parallel universe would have them be the same age, right?

Not necessarily. A parallel universe can have any number of events that lead to Ash being born earlier. By the very nature of an infinite multiverse, there will be universes where any given person is born at any given time. In fact, we already have an example of this in Pokémon series, where Ruby and Sapphire takes place concurrently with Red and Blue, while Omega ruby and Alpha Sapphire takes place after X and Y, which in turn takes place years after Red and Blue, yet all the characters are the same age.

And that's assuming that there wasn't time travel involved. Seeing as Ash reappeared home only seconds after leaving, there very well could be time travel involved. Actually, that means time travel explicitly was involved.

 

[mehmeh1]

Not necessarily. A parallel universe can have any number of events that lead to Ash being born earlier. By the very nature of an infinite multiverse, there will be universes where any given person is born at any given time. In fact, we already have an example of this in Pokémon series, where Ruby and Sapphire takes place concurrently with Red and Blue, while Omega ruby and Alpha Sapphire takes place after X and Y, which in turn takes place years after Red and Blue, yet all the characters are the same age.

And that's assuming that there wasn't time travel involved. Seeing as Ash reappeared home only seconds after leaving, there very well could be time travel involved. Actually, that means time travel explicitly was involved.

oras takes place before xy, mr bonding is errrr..........created in oras

 

[Bguy7]

oras takes place before xy, mr bonding is errrr..........created in oras

I don't remember what it is, as it's been much too long since I've played, but I remember there being something in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire that places it after X and Y. Could remembering wrong though. Perhaps it was just something that places it around the same time, so maybe just before?

Regardless, original point still stands.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I don't remember what it is, as it's been much too long since I've played, but I remember there being something in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire that places it after X and Y. Could remembering wrong though. Perhaps it was just something that places it around the same time, so maybe just before?

Regardless, original point still stands.

ORAS is set at the same time as its GBA counterpart - it's just part of the Mega Evolution timeline

ORAS also introduced Faller Looker, as he doesn't know who he is, which isn't properly followed up on until SM