Pathways to Peformance Partnering! (853)

[Lord Trollbias]

My only possible answer is that they may want to make it a surprise for her event debut, but it still wouldn't make sense, since they showed Nene's full performance and she'll be back for events, why would they hide Serena's performance like they did here? Could there be something in her routine that writers don't want us to see?

Writers are clearly saving the full thing in her actual first Tripokalon, they won't showcase it now especially in this animation.

Hit the nail on the head. No point in spoiling the whole thing now. Though I do wonder the actual first one will be?

 

[Janovy]

Do you mean what or when haha?

I DO hope her actual performance is more acrobatic since Serena CAN dance. Plus she totally stole the fireworks finish from Elle

 

[Lord Trollbias]

Do you mean what or when haha?

I DO hope her actual performance is more acrobatic since Serena CAN dance. Plus she totally stole the fireworks finish from Elle

A mix of both to be honest. I'm getting impatient now. I really want to see it. I think she'll incorporate some of her dancing skills into the Showcase, the ED and the fact that she claims she's a great dancer, are hints of it IMO. I'm guessing Nene can be added to the list of potential rivals: the only ones currently being Shauna and Miette

 

[Ash.mx]

She shot two attacks in the air and they created pretty sparkles. She did the same exact thing as a Contest appeal.

I'm not sure why the writers are beating around the bush when everything Serena is doing resembles a coordinator.

It's odd we are seeing Serena working on her performance, when we have yet to see the full thing and what it really consist of. I expected the concept to be stretched a bit more here, but instead we got unecessary TR/Chespin's antics that lead nowhere, they even could've used this to give some Serena/Clemont "interactions", but they consisted pretty much on them just standing together. Still, Nene and her pokemon were nice characters, I find it surprising she wanted to trade her pokemon without hesitation. Poor Farfetch'd. And the performances were actually good, eager to see Serena's full on-stage performance.

Wondering how they'll handle the overall competition though, will participants just show off their performances and then the judges simply decide who did the best? Maybe they do plan to add in some mechanics like working with different types of attacks and themes or something. Or rather than the actual activity, episodes will focus around the drama behind the scenes of the idol world? idk, I'll wait until we get to see the full event before passing judgment, but it's kind of hard to imagine how they'll keep this being interesting after a while. They should've had Serena become a full coordinator imo. At least the Skiddo's ep implies she's getting focus outside performances in the future too.

 

[LizardonX]

The dancing is boring anyways.

The only reason people liked contests was for the rigged battles where the bars go down arbitrarily depending on what the plot wants.

 

[nameman]

It's odd we are seeing Serena working on her performance, when we have yet to see the full thing and what it really consist of. I expected the concept to be stretched a bit more here, but instead we got unecessary TR/Chespin's antics that lead nowhere, they even could've used this to give some Serena/Clemont "interactions", but they consisted pretty much on them just standing together. Still, Nene and her pokemon were nice characters, I find it surprising she wanted to trade her pokemon without hesitation. Poor Farfetch'd. And the performances were actually good, eager to see Serena's full on-stage performance.

Wondering how they'll handle the overall competition though, will participants just show off their performances and then the judges simply decide who did the best? Maybe they do plan to add in some mechanics like working with different types of attacks and themes or something. Or rather than the actual activity, episodes will focus around the drama behind the scenes of the idol world? idk, I'll wait until we get to see the full event before passing judgment, but it's kind of hard to imagine how they'll keep this being interesting after a while. They should've had Serena become a full coordinator imo. At least the Skiddo's ep implies she's getting focus outside performances in the future too.

They didn't want to reveal the entire performance then and there. They're saving it for the first time Serena actually gets on stage. Also, TRio actually had a good episode for the first time since XY029. They were necessary this time, even if it was just for not showing Serena off so soon. I liked Jessie still having an obsession over Smoochum and the fact that they actually felt like themselves again. This episode had the feel of the early XY episodes before the Grant gym battle: crisp, well-written, and well-characterized. 9/10 definitely.

 

[Graham Aker]

This episode almost felt kinda pointless? Yes, we got to see Serena's contest (because that's what it looked like) performance, it was overshadowed by unecessary TR antics with Chespin and Pancham. The former of the two Pokemon has just been popping out of it's ball ala Oshawott a lot lately. For all the time Chespin and Pancham spent fighting Serena and Clemont still didn't really interact, so I'm wondering where people are getting the idea they had great interaction from.

One thing I did find interesting was Ash seem to give Nene advice, which I guess could be seen as him keeping his knowledge of contest in the past. Yeah, that's reaching. The only real high-light of the episode for me was the Chespin dancing machine. Hopefully her upcoming episode is better, because after Pancham's great capture episode this one felt bland.

 

[Lorde]

Such a standard filler; I'm starting to feel that this is a new trend in Serena episodes. Pancham and Chespin's rivalry was such a waste of time in my view, but my God, Nene was great. I loved that she was a nice girl with performance skills of her own, and I loved her Farfetch'd. Too bad that TR ruined the momentum here imho.

 

[Soniman]

The dancing is boring anyways.

The only reason people liked contests was for the rigged battles where the bars go down arbitrarily depending on what the plot wants.

Yes..that's how writing things works? I don't even know what you're complaining about, literally everything that happens in a fictional story happens because that's what the plot demands.
'

Such a standard filler; I'm starting to feel that this is a new trend in Serena episodes.

It's not really a trend if it only happened once and was directly preceded by an important episode for her

 

[CyberCubed]

This episode wasn't very good. An uninteresting rival shows up, Serena spends 10 seconds doing a Contest appeal, and the rest is usual TR stuff.

The Contest training episodes back in DP were a lot better.

 

[Janovy]

I hope Nene returns, she was fun and so were her Pokemon.

 

[CyberCubed]

Also why is Serena so good at appeals already? This is her first try really and its already better than half the appeals in AG and DP.

Its almost like she's become a prodigy already.

 

[Mau-Kun]

Also why is Serena so good at appeals already? This is her first try really and its already better than half the appeals in AG and DP.

Its almost like she's become a prodigy already.

She said she was good for dancing, however that doesn't explain how could she do that Pokémon juggling that good at the first try, specially when she caught Pancham just like 3 episodes ago.

 

[Lorde]

It's not really a trend if it only happened once and was directly preceded by an important episode for her

I respectfully disagree. This episode just proved to me that she can't ever have anything good going for her without something getting in the way (i.e. Team Rocket, Chespin, etc.).

 

[Cresselia92]

Also why is Serena so good at appeals already? This is her first try really and its already better than half the appeals in AG and DP.

Its almost like she's become a prodigy already.

Remember that she has trained off-screen in the Lapras episode, just like Ash trained his Pokemon and Clemont did his usual stuff. So it's not so strange that Serena has made a decent performance already.

And what if that's her natural talent? I bet that she will mess up some things in the future. It's not like she will be portrayed as the perfect Performer... right?

 

[DotKU]

This episode was a lot better than I expected. I liked the teamwork that Pancham and Chespin had and I really liked Farfetch'D and Pancham's personalities. I actually didn't mind TR this time and I feel like it did a good job of showing the TR group dynamics

 

[WJG12345]

Yea Team Rocket was not as bad as they were in other episodes. Pancham and Chespin were pretty funny this episode. Though I really wish they would give Fenniken more development already.

 

[nameman]

Yea Team Rocket was not as bad as they were in other episodes. Pancham and Chespin were pretty funny this episode. Though I really wish they would give Fenniken more development already.

They weren't bad at all. This episode is an example of why TRio can still be good when written right. The problem is they're not written well more often than not.

 

[Navin]

Mal's usual episode review. Here it is.

Pros:
* Clemont: "WAKARIMASHITA" Chespin: ....shi-
* Chespin/Chesbot dance - top kek
* First bit of Fennekin/Pancham 'dance' looked promising
* Poor Farfetch'd - I'd never trade you bro
* Chespin pushing Pancham to be traded away - top kek
* Chespin/Pancham OP teamwork is, I swear, better than some of Ash's double battles
* A rivalry that exceeds any TR-defeating-reconciliation-activity

Neutral:
* Ehh...these 'dances' heavily resemble Contest Appeals, but hopefully they'll show more differences in actual shows
* That Nene design...
* Did I miss out on some training because Serena looks pretty good at this out-of-the-blue?

Cons:
* Rocketto-Dan being repetitive as always...
* Cutting away the rest of Serena's performance to focus on Rocketto-Dan...
* Wasn't this supposed to be a Fennekin episode too?

Fairly good episode. Entertaining. 7/10.

 

[Squirtle_007]

- Mama Serena and Papa Clemont scolding their Childrenmon was kinda cute, I hope this leads to some kind of interactions in the future
- I hope Pancham won't always show up with his sunglasses
- Nene was nice, but her "I-barely-know-you-trade-with-me" attitude was weird
- Jessie's obsession with Smoochum traveled all the way from Hoenn
- Jessie said the word "queen" like 10 times in this episode, it's only a matter of time to see if she will be an annoying rock on the road like she was in Hoenn/Kanto or a "serious" rival with a dorky dress like she was in Sinnoh
- It has been almost 3 months since the Torai Pokémon was revealed and I still don't really know what it is as a whole, this episode didn't helped
- If Chespin goes to Serena, the outrage in the forums will be massive XD
- Farfetch'd was the real star of the episode, it's face when Nene suggested the trade was priceless
- Fennekin being tired of Chespin and Pancham's s*** is an A in my book
- Chespin/Pancham battle combo > Froakie/Hawlucha battle combo
- I wished Serena and Clemont battled a little more with their Pokémon, but it was great seeing them taking the spotlight