Run, Kiawe! Surpass Yourself!! (1050)

[playerking]

I like that Kiawe got something....
But Flying really isn't right for him
What sucks is that this probably killed any chance he had of getting an actual third Pokemon. When he's the one that could use a new Pokemon the most, apart from Mallow anyways as their teams are completely done and pretty much nothing to do with them. I'll never see fluffy doggo on the cast.... -.-

Well, it seems Charizard might be his third Pokemon with how it was used here, even if it is mainly used for transport. And I think Lillie needs another one as well, to show how comfortable she now is with Pokemon. One was good for development to ease her towards being comfortable with them and to give her at least one Pokemon. And Lillie could also use another one, seeing as she has become more comfortable with battling and a second one would be good so that she doesn't keep using the same one.

Also, Torracat? I'm glad to finally get confirmation of your full moveset, but please, lose Ember and replace it with a non-Fire-type move. I'd suggest a Ground-type for the upcoming Grand Trial, but alas, Game Freak has denied you of that possibility. But hey, Ash isn't required to get the Groundium Z.

Exactly. Torracat can lose Ember and I hope it does soon. It has enough Fire-type moves.

Wait, so if that was Hapu's grandfather... are we expecting another death next epiode!?

What do you mean? He's dead. Or do you mean that there will be another dead person appearing next episode?

Also, I didn't expect to see Kiawe's grandfather also appear here, but due to how much effort Kiawe put into that task from Tapu Fini and Sofu, and the flashback of Kiawe with his grandfather, it makes sense. It was nice to see him again and get confirmation that he is also dead and to see him with his friend, Sofu.

 

[DatsRight]

Also, I didn't expect to see Kiawe's grandfather also appear here, but due to how much effort Kiawe put into that task from Tapu Fini and Sofu, and the flashback of Kiawe with his grandfather, it makes sense. It was nice to see him again and get confirmation that he is also dead and to see him with his friend, Sofu.

Perhaps it was Kiawe's Gramps who asks Sofu to test his grandson. As mentioned there seemed to be no real malicious intent with Tapu Fini's trial, they just knew with that motivation, he would work things out with his old Charizard, especially when it re-enacted an old scenario the two had together.

 

[lemoncatpower]

What do you mean? He's dead. Or do you mean that there will be another dead person appearing next episode?

Also, I didn't expect to see Kiawe's grandfather also appear here, but due to how much effort Kiawe put into that task from Tapu Fini and Sofu, and the flashback of Kiawe with his grandfather, it makes sense. It was nice to see him again and get confirmation that he is also dead and to see him with his friend, Sofu.

Ah, I didn't get that Sofu was dead, I thought he was alive the whole time in the episode, so I thought he was going to die next episode to catch up with the plot, but that makes complete sense that he's already passed away and that he was just an apparition.

 

[Dragalge]

Unlike Alain’s Charizard, Kiawe’s hasn’t been shoved down our throats and thus I’m able to tolerate it a hell lot more (still tolerated Alain’s but yeah they liked it a lot!)

 

[DatsRight]

Unlike Alain’s Charizard, Kiawe’s hasn’t been shoved down our throats and thus I’m able to tolerate it a hell lot more (still tolerated Alain’s but yeah they liked it a lot!)

The only problem I have with Kiawe's right now is lack of character interactions. I can accept it's experienced given its age and token displays of good strength, so getting some comical moments with Turtonator and Marowak to balance things out would be fun.

 

[lemoncatpower]

Unlike Alain’s Charizard, Kiawe’s hasn’t been shoved down our throats and thus I’m able to tolerate it a hell lot more (still tolerated Alain’s but yeah they liked it a lot!)

That is true, it really hasn't had any spotlight. I do hope that it doesn't become Kiawe's ace and that Turtonator is still his strongest pokemon though. One thing I do appreciate is how it has a bit of unique personality compared to other charizards.

 

[Kintaro]

Kiawe remains one of the best characters of SM, and also one of the best handled male characters overall. Stuff like this really makes it obvious how underused and developed Brock was in the show despite being in 600+ episodes, the writers just treated him as an exposition character explaining battles or his repetitive flirting gag for humor. Can you guys imagine if Brock was actually developed trainer wise or character wise? It really puts into perspective how poorly handled Brock was over the course of the anime, at least after the OS ended.

 

[AznKei]

I like the struggle that Kiawe go through in this episode and it seems that he's going to use Charizard in a more active role other than a ride Pokemon. It's a good thing that Ash didn't steal a spotlight since it got trapped with his Pikachu, Torracat, Kiawe's Marowak and Turtonator by Tapu Fini's move.

Even though it's mainly Kiawe focused episode, I'm kinda mixed on how they priotize the cast, like Ash & Kiawe are into battling, Lana wants to be lonely practicing with Brionne's bubble and the rest are just food chilling with Hapu, especially that I would like to see them battle or practicing to improve their Pokemon abilities more.

Anyways, good episode. It would be great if they keep the rate of focused character episodes in a more consistent way than having them staying in the background as spectators while Ash is mainly doing the activities by itself.

 

[p96822]

This episode pacing was awful. I would have cut Hapu and the other scenes all together for more Kaiwe moments or more moments from the battle between Tapu Lele and Charizard.

 

[Ignition]

Flynium Z should’ve been saved for another episode IMO. Episode was ok. I liked the battle between Ash & Kiawe and Kiawe getting a new Z Crystal give Ash your Firium Z but eventually else was boring in comparison

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Hurray, let's give the Fire-type specialist a Flying-type Z-Crystal.

Methinks this was sort of a weird decision. I guess, if Kiawe ever faces Ash, he'll just use his default Z-Crystal.

 

[mehmeh1]

they shouldn't have had that many non-kiawe classmates/hapu scenes here, the beginning was ok, but the rest of their scenes felt like padding, great episode otherwise, and I love ash's dynamic with kiawe

 

[Lightning Bolt]

Hurray, let's give the Fire-type specialist a Flying-type Z-Crystal.

Methinks this was sort of a weird decision. I guess, if Kiawe ever faces Ash, he'll just use his default Z-Crystal.

So you're telling me Kiawe should have a single Z-Crystal for the rest of the season??? No thanks. That's just wasted potential.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

So you're telling me Kiawe should have a single Z-Crystal for the rest of the season??? No thanks. That's just wasted potential.

I gueeeeeeeeess if we want to be technical about it, you need air to fan the fire.

 

[AznKei]

So you're telling me Kiawe should have a single Z-Crystal for the rest of the season??? No thanks. That's just wasted potential.

I'm afraid that the producers are going to waste his potential nonetheless based on how they treated most of the past companions (Sorry, I just don't trust them that they could really deliver). Although, I would favor the classmates having their shares of Z-Crystals than Ash having them all, along really put them in use.

 

[DatsRight]

Kiawe having Fireium Z for MOST of the series made sense to maintain his Fire typing specialty, but having an alternative to give him some extra versatility certainly works. Most of Kiawe's development has revolved around resolving being a 'one hit wonder' after all.

I admit besides a compressed team, Kiawe has been okay as a type specialist. His Pokemon maintain the same theme, but are all dual types with very different styles.

I'm wondering if Lana might enter the league after all. Facing a water specialist (his recurring 'nemesis' at that ) would be an interesting way to show how Kiawe has developed past his speciality weakness.

 

[mehmeh1]

btw, is it me or is this the first time a companion has 1v1'd a legendary?

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

It was a solid episode. Dunno why people can't just enjoy that. Kiawe got some good development and a new Z-Crystal, his Charizard has proven itself still capable of battling despite its age, we got good battles for Kiawe vs Ash and Kiawe vs Tapu Lele, we got some set up for next week's episode, and Mallow and Lana also got a little bit of development.

It looks like people don't know what they want sometimes. "We never see Lana or Mallow do anything for their goals". They show them advancing and working towards those goals here. "It took away from the episode." While I guess they could throw Mallow a bit more hardships in her goal, her goal isn't really that much pokémon-related and there's only so much you can do with a restaurant goal that stays entertaining and also understandable to a wide audience. We've already had a contest, we've already had conflicts in the family, we've already had missing ingredients. I don't mind them keeping Mallow around as a supporting character to facilitate storytelling and get things going, she's great at that. Here in Poni she's facilitating Hapu growing closer to the main cast after her less than friendly start with Ash. And I'd rather have them do this than try to force more restaurant things in there that would get forced or stale quickly if overdone.

This Poni arc is turning out to be really solid so far. Everybody's getting things out of it. Ash not yet but he will once he gets his Grand Trial obviously. Sophocles and Lana got evolutions, Lana also got a Z-crystal, Kiawe got a Z-crystal, Mallow got new recipes. Lillie hasn't gotten anything concrete yet but she met with Gladion and I'm fairly sure that things with her dad are still coming up. They're setting up a lot of things to pay off later, there's a nice flow in these episodes.

 

[British Soul]

Not gonna lie, the main premise of the episode reminded me of the Biggoron Sword sidequest in which Kiawe had to do a fetchquest, but had a limited time to deliver the goods.
Though I wasn't expecting Kiawe to use Supersonic Skystrike (I was also expecting Kahili to showcase it). Despite that, I did appreciate that his Charizard could still hold its own in battle despite its age (ala Tracey's Scyther).

 

[dman_dustin]

So you're telling me Kiawe should have a single Z-Crystal for the rest of the season??? No thanks. That's just wasted potential.

No but he could've gotten the ghost Z-crystal or even the dragon Z-crystal.

Why would he get the Flying Z-crystal when Kiawe barely uses Charizard anyway?