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Stategy Begins At Home (606)

WaterShuriken

"I..I..Iron Tail, Pikachu."
The Good
-----------
+ Glameow and Umbreon act reject Piplup. (That obnoxious penguin deserves it too)
+ Dehlia just pushes Prof. Oak out of the way.
+ Bellossum and Croagunk tag team!
+ Ash mentioning Heracross and Bulbasaur
+ Ash having a flashback we never saw before.
+ It was cute how Pikachu threw himself into the little boy's arms.
+ Pachirisu must still be great friends with Sonci teh Hedgehog as he did the Spin Dash again. Seriously why isn't that a pokemon move? (Rollout doesn't count as its Rock-Type)
+ I liked teh Bubble stacking (I thought Pachirisu was going to attack through it using Spark)

The Bad
----------
- Those old people were absolute morons.
- Johanna's pokemon knew the same old moves we've already seen...and they knew the same exact moves.
- How exactly did her pokemon defy gravity?
- Electric Whirlpool has been seen.
- Piplup didn't get electrocuted by Pachirisu.
- Short Battle.
- Jessie releases Feebas even though she's been wanting a Milotic since forever.
- Also why didn't any of Ash's pokemon appear through the TV-Phone?
 

wind21

Well-Known Member
This is a funny episode because of Brock's flirting scenes, although they occur a little too frequently in the end. Other than that, not really much happened. I'm a little surprised that, considering we're in Dawn's hometown, this episode had a good deal of focus on Ash and some of his childhood elements: Professor Oak, his mom, the flashback to a younger Ash, and even a mention of his old Heracross and Bulbasaur (I'm pretty sure he said he "had" them, which stings a little if you were watching back then when he caught them). No wonder Ash thought Twinleaf Town reminded him of Pallet Town.

The contest battle was short, but fair, I suppose; the electric whirlpool from the Arceus movie is here. I'm not exactly sure what Glameow and Umbreon were doing to that whirlpool, first dodging it and then shooting shadow balls that somehow went around the whirlpool. But the 2nd part of the battle was nice, with Dawn's attack and then Johanna using Attract (I liked Ash's reaction) and Swift to win the battle.

I admit, Happiny holding the shovel looked adorable.

Edit:
Well, I watched it a second time, and I actually enjoyed it more. Brock's flirting scenes are entertaining all the way through; they never get boring (just maybe a little predictable). I also now understand what Umbreon and Glameow did in the contest battle when Dawn ordered the electric whirlpool: the pokemon spiraled around the whirlpool and then came to their original position so that they could fire shadow balls. The shadow balls destroyed the whirlpool. I'm starting to have suspicions about the speed of Piplup's whirlpool. That's twice now it's looked pretty slow. Elekid stopped Piplup a couple of times from launching whirlpool last episode, and now Umbreon and Glameon make a complete mockery of it.

Brock is the highlight of the episode, but Ash has great moments as well. His mom's phone call is wonderful, and I liked that Ash had some time to himself in the forest (his smile when he was thinking about how lucky he was to be a pokemon trainer was the smile of being alive and appreciating life; that's a good way to describe this episode, as well).
 
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blueninth

Member
when the flashback happened when ash was a little kids his voice sounded like veronica taylor. do you think that she was uncredited
 

STICKTOPIA

Well-Known Member
How so? They are a wacky bunch in my opinion.
They blasted off as always. Even when they aren't doing anything bad they end up blasting off.
 

Alpha Gamer

Strength & Strategy
This episode wasn't the greatest, but it was nice. The Dawn vs. Mom battle was alright (I didn't know Umbreon and Glameow could learn fly? .::sarcasm::.). The Croagunk and Bellossom gag was kinda funny. And the best part of the episode was the fact that TR didn't take up the last 15 minutes trying to steal Pikachu.
 

thunderblade12

Well-Known Member
It had some funny parts but overall was rather disappointing.

- The battle was too short for one.
- The Twinleaf Festival stuff annoyed me. I think that elderly couple needs to be put in a nursing home already.That scene was seriously annoying. "OMG why should we care where these old geezers put the snack stands? Do we really need to waste 3 minutes on this?"

I really liked the fact that Glameow and Umbreon were presented as powerful pokemon. Take that any one who says Coordinator's pokemon aren't as strong as Trainer's pokemon. The comedy also helped this episode a lot. It was mostly due to Piplup getting rejected and the Brock stuff. And then there were some other slight mentions like Brock (apparently) being a rather good breeder, Dawn's mom having her trophies up, Ash's mention of Bulbasaur and Heracross, etc. It won't keep people with short attention spans interested but the older fans who like stories with developed characters should be happy.


Overall it was one of least favorite episodes of the Sinnoh saga. A few random fillers like Three Sides to Every Story can take it's position of "Worst Sinnoh Episode" but overall: 6/10
 
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Typhlosion Trainer

Fire Trainer
The episode was not bad, but there was one thing I didnt like about it. Just like what thunderblade12 said, the battle between Dawn and her mom was to short. I thought it was going to take up at least most of the episode, but it didnt. That disappointed me a little bit.
 

Lorde

Let's go to the beach, each.
They blasted off as always. Even when they aren't doing anything bad they end up blasting off.

Well yeah they did, because they're Team Rocket. That's kinda what they do :p

If they hadn't blasted off, I'd have been pretty ticked off. It's like their signature move (aside from their motto).
 

Brumrha

Banned
What's all the fuss going on in Twinleaf? Let's find out, shall we?

- As Ash & the gang arrive in Twinleaf, they are greeted by a group that tells them that a festival is going to be held here. What it is, I haven't a clue, but I know for sure that it isn't the Grand Festival...
- Another eyebrow-raising fact is that Dawn's mother, Johanna, happens to be the Chairman, or Chairwoman to be more accurate.
- Dawn arrives back at her home, which is pretty damn sizable, & is, of course, greeted by her mom, as well as her caretaker. Johanna has anticipated her arrival, so she cooked up her favorite meals.
- Also, Brock happens to fall head over heels over her caretaker, but with the combined efforts of Croagunk & Bellossom, he is kept in check for the rest of the episode.
- In the meantime, we have a look at what TR is doing. They're in regular civilian clothing, as they've happened to find a way to fill up their virtually nonexistent bank accounts. They had to fish for some Goldeen for a festival game. Problem is, they've managed to catch anything but Goldeen at first.
- Back at Dawn's Home, everybody is feasting on their meals, when Dawn pops the bubble & challenges her mom to a (contest) fight, which is something that Johanna couldn't refuse. Also of notice is the fact that her Glameow & Umbreon are happily eating Brock's Pokemon food. Her caretaker explains that they're both picky eaters, which meant something to him, as she asks for his recipe.
- Back with TR, they are now catching Goldeen left & right, which means they're going to get a big-#@% paycheck, or so they think...
- As the girls are doing dishes, Ash decides to give a shout out to Professor Oak. In their chat, we do find out that he, too, is attending the Twinleaf Festival.
- By the time the dishes are done, Delia makes her presence known as well, but other than that, it's nothing important...
- They head out to Johanna's garden, in which they are discussing their fight with Dawn & Johanna, when she gets interrupted by that same group we saw earlier. Seems to be that they're having some issues regarding which stalls they should use.
- The issue gets resolved, but then another one arises, this time about the location, location, location of everything. So... Johanna decides to give them a hand.
- Since this is going to take a while, Dawn decides to head back inside to discuss her strategies, whilst Ash just heads out.
- As Ash is walking along the wilderness, he finds a wee little kid, who happens to have big dreams of becoming a trainer, much like himself when he was little.
- As Dawn is discussing her strategy, her Pachirisu stumbles upon a collection of her own achievements in the past, most notably the Wallace Festival.
- Now that everything is sorted out, they can finally fight each other.
- WAR START!! Dawn uses both her Piplup & Pachirisu to created an electrified Whirlpool. Unfortunately for her, Johanna's Glameow & Umbreon Quick Attack all over their Whirlpool. It's almost like one of those "Gouge your eyes" fests, isn't it?
- Then, Glameow & Umbreon both use Shadow Ball, which carves through the Whirlpool like it ain't no thing & hits both Piplup & Pachirisu.
- They get back on their feet, & Piplup uses Bubblebeam to create a huge wall obscuring Johanna's team.
- Pachirisu follows up by making like Sonic the Hedgehog with Hyper Fang, which in turn hits both of them.
- Johanna then has her team use Attract on both of them, which also works on both of them.
- With Dawn's team going gaga over Johanna's team, Johanna orders her Pokemon to use Swift, which breaks the hearts of both Piplup & Pachirisu so bad, that it gives both of them a case of Dead.
- Back at TR, they've almost hit their quota, when Meowth snags a Gyarados, which in turn, fires an SBC at them, thus sending them flying off into god-knows-where.

There are a few interesting observations that I've made about this episode. One of which is that Johanna's garden reminds me of the Gracidea Meadow over at the Glacier in Movie 11. The second is that both Johanna's Glameow & her Umbreon both have the exact same move-set. If one of her opponents can find a counter for that move-set, that would be able to counter both of these. Lastly, is the fact that Dawn lost against her own mother, yet she managed to beat Johanna's rival over at Celestic Town. My theory is that either Dawn got lucky against her, or that she's getting a bit... rusty, & I'm betting on the latter.

Well, that's enough for me.
 

wobbanut

Team Awesome
Although the episode was a bit slow, I enjoyed it. I loved the running gag with Croagunk and bellossom both threatening Brock, that was hilarious. :) Ash reminiscing about his Heracross was great too, even if Heracross was never one of my favorite pokemon. At least Team Rocket was successful in their running gag, but too bad they still had to get blasted off in the end. :( I was confused about the twerps suddenly heading back to Twinleaf Town, though, and not bringing up the Lilypad contest again. Is the Lilypad contest going to be the one that's a... ahem, drag... ;) , or does this mean that Dawn is going to miss the Lilypad contest?
 

AstralEon

The one and only.
It was an OK episode...

What got me most annoyed were those two elderly people chatting off unable to decide their stance on the festival attractions.

I was happy to see some appearances of Prof. Oak and Delia. As well as Ash mentioning his old Pokemon.

I was hoping for a much better battle between Dawn and Johanna. Sadly, it turned out to be a drag. Wish it was longer and unique; both Glameow and Umbreon knew the same thing....

TR surprisingly fished up some nice catches in the beginning. Too bad they release them back... those could had proven useful. In the end, it didn't matter because here comes Gyarados firing his laser, sending TR sky high. Won't be much of an episode if theres no 'blasting off' ;)

Also, what Brumrha mentioned, the garden looked a lot like the Gracidea Meadow.

Normally, I give it a 6 but seeing my favorite Pokemon in action ups it up to a 7/10.
 

Locormus

Can we please get the older, old forum back?
This episode showed the difference in power between Dawn and her mom, I liked that. They should've made some move here about stepping out of her moms shadow.

I don't remember if this came up at one point in the animé.. but it 'd be a nice goal for Dawn to have. Like Ash has his defend his way of training goal. That could have made for a nice Rival as well, which would constantly belittle Dawn on the fact that she's just lucky to be Johanna's kid, and that she has no real talent.. but no, she gets Zoey and Kenny who are bland.

The rest of the episode was fun, and I liked the animation of the double battle. Umbreon and Glameow worked well together, teaming up on Piplup to destroy it's ego! xD
 

Rebeccag

Well-Known Member
Good episode to start off the twinleaf festival. I enjoyed all the small things like brocks breeding being brought up again, Prof oak and Delia appearing again, Ashes old pokemon being mentioned and Ash being all nostaligic. The battle between Dawn and Johanna was ok as well but the old people annoyed me.
 
Three words: Rock-Paper-Scissors
Lily(or whatever her name was from the Celestic contest)>Johanna>Dawn>Lily. They made a perfect chain by doing that.
Man, if TR wanted to get Giovanni to appreciate them, why don't they just catch a bunch of pokemon fishing? Come on, they were super excited with the opportunity to send him a Yanma; but they didn't even consider that he would have any interest in Crawdant, Barboach, Whiscash, Finneon, or Feebas? Seriously, they could easily have wrangled a ton of pokemon to send to Giovanni and nobody would be able to complain about it because the pokemon would've been caught fair and square.
 

Locormus

Can we please get the older, old forum back?
Three words: Rock-Paper-Scissors
Lily(or whatever her name was from the Celestic contest)>Johanna>Dawn>Lily. They made a perfect chain by doing that.
Man, if TR wanted to get Giovanni to appreciate them, why don't they just catch a bunch of pokemon fishing? Come on, they were super excited with the opportunity to send him a Yanma; but they didn't even consider that he would have any interest in Crawdant, Barboach, Whiscash, Finneon, or Feebas? Seriously, they could easily have wrangled a ton of pokemon to send to Giovanni and nobody would be able to complain about it because the pokemon would've been caught fair and square.

They caught a Crawdaunt??? SEREBIII !! If you're out there... Why isn't this in the Character Bios xD

The episode was good.. nice animation with the double battle.. Dawn got screwed :0
 

KGB13

Man of Mystery
I knew Dawn was going to lose to her Mom from the very beginning, she's just not a battler. Johanna's Glameow and Umbreon have good synergy and worked quite well together. Nice episode.
 
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