Mallow & Lana! A Fully Powered Battle of Friendship!! (1073)

[Deleted member 384931]

I think that this league would be far too easy for reserves, seeing how easy Meltan, a pokemon with not much battle experience, beats Faba.

 

[Lord Starfish]

Observation: Jeekyo the announcer specified that the "first round" was one-on-one single-battles. Hopefully this means that later rounds won't just be one-on-one single-battles. I saw people had been speculating that this might be the case, in the interest of keeping things fair.

Also if I may be snarky for a moment: Oh look, Guzma just KOed a Mega Pokémon that had used Power-Up Punch several times, belonging to a trainer who had previously been in the Kalos League. Yup, this Pokémon League is such a farce; No strong trainers to be found here at all!

 

[Deleted member 384931]

Observation: Jeekyo the announcer specified that the "first round" was one-on-one single-battles. Hopefully this means that later rounds won't just be one-on-one single-battles. I saw people had been speculating that this might be the case, in the interest of keeping things fair.

Also if I may be snarky for a moment: Oh look, Guzma just KOed a Mega Pokémon that had used Power-Up Punch several times, belonging to a trainer who had previously been in the Kalos League. Yup, this Pokémon League is such a farce; No strong trainers to be found here at all!

Lol we dont even know how Ilima did it in the league.

 

[Blue Saturday]

What a lovely way to send Mao some development and seeing her falter but succeed in her own way through the encouragement of her best friend and her Pokemon was a sweet and justifiable way to do it. I’m gonna way until I can rewatch it later to get the full context of each scene. Her insecurity when Icy Wind was there as a countermeasure since she was banking on the type advantage to pull her through was an excellent way of giving her a powerful moment of struggle. She didn’t win the battle but succeeded in her own way by pulling off her first Bloom Doom in such an intimate and sweet manner.

In the end my girl, Suiren, just had more experience with this kind of stuff despite her disadvantage she also likes action and battling. I’m happy for both of them, Suiren won but this was very much Mao’s episode so narratively I would love the next fight for Suiren to be about her. I hope to see Nagisa shine there more than anything. Also excellent way to showcase Guzma’s might as a threat, no wonderboy Eevee but a Mega Pokemon but it still goes down despite that. Plumeri’s injuring it in the previous round paid off, Illima probably would have been better off if he could have used his ace since that Eevee is his Pikachu.

 

[Doppelgänger]

Beating the Mega was less eye opening than how he did it.

If this wasn't a fluke, Guzma is absolutely the most menacing trainer to compete in a league in the past 10 years. He's very different from his game version but it's a welcome surprise. I would be annoyed if Ash beats him only to lose to Gladion, who shouldn't have anything as tanky as Scizor or Golisopod.

 

[Xuxuba]

Meltan and Baby Kanga were cute and all, but overall the episode was just plain underwhelming.

1x1 battles are considerably less exciting (especially when the opponent is one-shoted, like Faba were) and although it was just a scene, i'm still sad they went back to using stoic backgrounds, because it makes the lack of 3d camera on battles even more noticeable.

They tried to make us care about Mallow's losing, but really, what has she ever done to deserve a win? She rarely even trained her pokémon. No wonder there was barely any scenes of her actually battling in her flashbacks, instead of just standing there and staring at Mallow.

Well, at the very least, i'm glad they didn't go for the cheap shock value route of having Lana lose this battle.

 

[Dragalge]

Alright Rodney your day came go ahead.

Rodney Long: AHAHAHAHAHA dude Ilima losing with a Mega to Guzma is so freakin’ funny it makes me want to merge without looking!

*merges and a car behind crashes into a truck*

YEAH ROCKS FELL!

(And Primarina knowing Icy Wind out of the blue was dumb. Togedemaru is at least excusable because it only had one move the entire series until now)

 

[Blue Saturday]

(And Primarina knowing Icy Wind out of the blue was dumb. Togedemaru is at least excusable because it only had one move the entire series until now)

Keep in mind Icy Wind was meant to be used a plot device to have Mao falter during the fight, if Ashirene had used it on screen there’s no suspense or surprise factor because it makes no sense for Mao to be taken off guard by a move she had already seen, it was a narrative choice that Suiren had this move in her back pocket. Icy Wind came from a story telling perspective as a way to inspire Mao to stand down so Suiren and Amajo could then help motivate her to keep fighting and successfully pull of a Z-Move despite the odds not being so favorable for her.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

(And Primarina knowing Icy Wind out of the blue was dumb.)

Is it though? Throughout the various series its always been the norm for pokemon to learn new moves offscreen (whenever Ash used any of his Oak'd pokemon for instance they were pretty much guaranteed to have new moves), and this is even more true if the pokemon does not belong to Ash. Episodes where we are shown the pokemon learning or being taught a new move tend to be popular with viewers, but they aren't the norm.

If nothing else, Lana teaching Primarina a move to counter one of its weaknesses at least makes sense from a training perspective. She wouldn't have to have known she'd be facing Mallow, she could just have wanted it to use against Grass types in general.

 

[dman_dustin]

Would it have killed them to at least have Tsareena at least make a good hit on Primarina, I know Lana is stronger, but I feel like the whole confidence thing was rather meaningless if Tsareena never did any damage to Primarina. Like one good Trop Kick would've knocked out Primarina, is that what they were implying?

(And Primarina knowing Icy Wind out of the blue was dumb. Togedemaru is at least excusable because it only had one move the entire series until now)

I disagree on the sole basis that everyone was training for the league obviously they would have new moves. If you mean icy wind as a counter to a grass type, then still no because its weak to grass types, having a move that can counter them makes sense.

If however if you mean solely as a counter to Tsareena, then MAYBE but I doubt they did it JUST because of Tsareena or at the very least Lana could've easily assumed she could have battled against Mallow and would want to have a counter to grass types. As for Ash's Pikachu, well it takes neutral damage to water types, so its not that necessary to have a counter to Pikachu.

 

[Akkipeddi]

Icy Wind surprising Mallow might've been the narrative intent, but they should've shown Primarina learning it to the viewers. I really don't think it would've been so difficult to show a small segment in an episode where Lana was training alone, and realised that Primarina learned Icy Wind. The viewers would've been aware, while at the same time, would've been a surprise in the league against any of the classmates. The problem with Primarina revealing Icy Wind in this league episode is that it feels extremely plot convenient, almost as if it was tacked on for the sole purpose of Lana's match against Mallow.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Mallow is honestly just so pathetic, she seriously got on my nerves in this episode. Seriously, repeatedly attempting to return your Pokemon amidst an ongoing battle where Tsareena made it pretty clear more than once that it was ready to continue further? Guess this is what happens when you allow a bunch of novices with close to 0 battling experience in the League. Still glad that she ultimately got vanquished by Lana though, she totally deserved that after the pathetic attitude she displayed in the battle. Z-moves Bloom Doom and Oceanic Operetta stalemating each other were honestly pretty cheap, but...whatever. Don't really expect much better considering how much of a dip in quality the SM battles have been. Also when the heck did Primarina learned Icy Wind? These kind of cheap asspulls are totally baffling TBH.

Ash vs Faba was............a freaking joke, I really don't wanna say anything about it TBH.

The highlight of the episode was undoubtedly, Ilima vs Guzma. Loved seeing Mr. Gary Stu and fangirl favourite Ilima getting his butt kicked by Guzma despite using a Mega. That battle was pretty tense and well-spaced out. Guzma is a badass, you can't deny that!

Overall, it was pretty average for a League episode. I would've given it a 2 or 3/10, but Ilima vs Guzma saves it the grace, so 5.5/10.

 

[p96822]

What a lovely way to send Mao some development and seeing her falter but succeed in her own way through the encouragement of her best friend and her Pokemon was a sweet and justifiable way to do it. I’m gonna way until I can rewatch it later to get the full context of each scene. Her insecurity when Icy Wind was there as a countermeasure since she was banking on the type advantage to pull her through was an excellent way of giving her a powerful moment of struggle. She didn’t win the battle but succeeded in her own way by pulling off her first Bloom Doom in such an intimate and sweet manner.

In the end my girl, Suiren, just had more experience with this kind of stuff despite her disadvantage she also likes action and battling. I’m happy for both of them, Suiren won but this was very much Mao’s episode so narratively I would love the next fight for Suiren to be about her. I hope to see Nagisa shine there more than anything. Also excellent way to showcase Guzma’s might as a threat, no wonderboy Eevee but a Mega Pokemon but it still goes down despite that. Plumeri’s injuring it in the previous round paid off, Illima probably would have been better off if he could have used his ace since that Eevee is his Pikachu.

I disagree with that point. I don't think that Mallow devlopment was need here because this is her field of what she does best. If this was a cook challege that Mallow was competing in I would have care more. Plus Mallow got everything without working hard at all. It was super easy barely an inconvenience for her. I think they did this idea of a friend insececurities better with Morrison when he faced off Ash. Everything that Mallow tried ended in failure. I also can say that this battle has the opposites of the characters of what they did. While Mallow never worked for anything, Lana worked for everything she was given.

 

[Blue Saturday]

Icy Wind surprising Mallow might've been the narrative intent, but they should've shown Primarina learning it to the viewers. I really don't think it would've been so difficult to show a small segment in an episode where Lana was training alone, and realised that Primarina learned Icy Wind. The viewers would've been aware, while at the same time, would've been a surprise in the league against any of the classmates. The problem with Primarina revealing Icy Wind in this league episode is that it feels extremely plot convenient, almost as if it was tacked on for the sole purpose of Lana's match against Mallow.

It clearly was meant for the fight and story telling aspect of Mao’s development but it was not meant as a way to glorify or give an unfair advantage to Suiren since the battle was more or less a foregone conclusion, Icy Wind only served to help Mao realize her own development with using Bloom Doom. Though I can understand the annoyance with a new move being learned off-screen, the characters have been proactively training for a while now and we got many little scenes showing that. Characters getting new moves off-screen has been a thing for a while now, Dent’s Yanappu’s Rock Tomb, Satoshi’s Lucabull’s X-Scissor, etc. The difference between those times and this one is it didn’t decide anything, Luchabull would have lost to Mache if not for X-Scissors breaking Trick Room and Luchabull having it. Icy Wind serves in no way to save Suiren from a loss but as a writing choice for Mao’s own growth as a character and trainer.

Plus, ngl, I like seeing the Pokemon get some cool new weapons as a result of their training, Spiky Shield and Icy Wind offers some much needed variety and coverage to Mamane and Suiren’s Pokemon’s moveset.

 

[Sonnas]

So was Lana’s battle with Mallow basically a curbstomp? Because if so then good since I felt like she didn’t deserve to be in the League to begin with and her just giving up at the slightest difficulty was pathetic.

 

[p96822]

I think they really screwed this one up with Mallow. Mallow was do the opposites of Serena of Mallow giving up and not the opponent

 

[CMButch]

1. Battle with Ash and Faba sucked. Really, one Flash Cannon?
2. Battle with Ilima and Guzma was good, but what's up with reused animations?I like strategy, but I felt no impacts of Scizor's hits. Also, poor baby K.
3. Battle with Oak and Hau was better than Ash vs Faba. Lol.
4.Battle with Lana and Mallow was good, I'd give first place out of these 4 to Guzma vs Ilima, but Z moves from Mallow/Lana kinda saved it.

Overall: Lana vs Mallow > Ilima vs Guzma >> Oak vs Hau >> Faba vs Ash.

So far, league has been on par with Kanto league(my worst league if we don't count Orange League) or even worse. First episode was bad. Second episode was meh/bad. This one is Ok/Ok+, could've been better. I hope third episode is good.

 

[CabochonJaw]

Goodbye Mallow. You tried to make the match short, but Lana was just too much for you. Grass types had a tough time in general today.

 

[p96822]

Tsareena never hit Primarina at all.

 

[Deleted member 384931]

Tsareena never hit Primarina at all.

Really sad tbh... Even worse than Trio battles