The Ice Queen and Glaceon (1176)

[Soniman]

Yeah, a CotD and for 5 seconds. We haven’t had a female protagonist win a proper fight against a male character since Iris in BW, and that’s problematic.

Serena beat James in a tag battle

 

[Dephender]

what was wrong with Micie's health though, is it just old age??

Hypothermia as a result of Blizzard overuse.

 

[Sham]

Ugh, remember the good old days when girls from the main cast were allowed to battle and have more than one Pokémon before somehow the writers decided to fall like 50 years behind and give us male chauvinism conforming gender roles?

You mean DP and at the very latest BW?

 

[Dephender]

btw I was looking at a Japanese fan review of the episode here that made some pretty legit criticism of it:
*The themes of bullying, transferring to a new school and Trainer/Pokemon codependence are rather heavy and probably would've worked better by making Regina a recurring character with a running subplot instead of having to neatly wrap everything up in 20 minutes, which felt awkwardly convenient.
*The recurring characters mostly just stand around in the background as the plot happens around them. It was Micie collapsing that led to Regina opening up, not anything Koharu or anyone else said or did, and that would've happened no matter what.
*The scene at the end with the ice playground really just came across as the other students thinking the playground was cool rather than them wanting to be friends with Regina, which isn't the best way to resolve a story about bullying.

They're good points, can't really disagree with them.

 

[Risrhayne]

This is another dialogue-heavy one, but the story still comes through; While I thought this episode was good, I do hope Regina comes back because she was waaaay too sophisticated a character to just be a CoTD designed to give Eevee another inspirational trinket. This episode was less about the three mains and more about her. I really appreciated Chloe stepping up to befriend her though. She’s come such a long way from that aloof girl that wanted nothing to do with anything.

I DO always find the concept of school in Pokémon to be weird. I get that not everybody wants to be a Pokémon trainer and regular careers are a thing, but there’s something so ridiculous about flying into school on a Tropius and being told to leave them in the garden because you have to learn algebra. Like I imagine Goh getting chewed out for not doing his book report and he’s like “I’m sorry Mrs.Gretchen, I was busy catching the NORTH WIND and tending to their wounds from hunters, I didn’t exactly have time to read Huckleberry Finn.”

 

[Poke Master 7]

Oh hi Arctozolt. I see you’ve awoken from your 3000 year slumber now that the writers remembered you exist.

 

[Almighty Zard]

ok so i'm left with two questions.

1. why exactly did Ash go to the school and get laughed at? was it cause of goh?

2. was Regina's school transfer only temporary? cause at the end it really looked to me like she was in another region.

 

[Soniman]

btw I was looking at a Japanese fan review of the episode here that made some pretty legit criticism of it:
*The themes of bullying, transferring to a new school and Trainer/Pokemon codependence are rather heavy and probably would've worked better by making Regina a recurring character with a running subplot instead of having to neatly wrap everything up in 20 minutes, which felt awkwardly convenient.
*The recurring characters mostly just stand around in the background as the plot happens around them. It was Micie collapsing that led to Regina opening up, not anything Koharu or anyone else said or did, and that would've happened no matter what.
*The scene at the end with the ice playground really just came across as the other students thinking the playground was cool rather than them wanting to be friends with Regina, which isn't the best way to resolve a story about bullying.

They're good points, can't really disagree with them.

Valid complaints but seeing as Pokémon has never really explored the concepts of serious bullying and the mental toll it takes I'm surprised they even tried. A for effort I guess

 

[KirliaToon50]

I wonder if there are any funny moment in this episode and I wished it would have a fun moments.

btw I was looking at a Japanese fan review of the episode here that made some pretty legit criticism of it:
*The themes of bullying, transferring to a new school and Trainer/Pokemon codependence are rather heavy and probably would've worked better by making Regina a recurring character with a running subplot instead of having to neatly wrap everything up in 20 minutes, which felt awkwardly convenient.
*The recurring characters mostly just stand around in the background as the plot happens around them. It was Micie collapsing that led to Regina opening up, not anything Koharu or anyone else said or did, and that would've happened no matter what.
*The scene at the end with the ice playground really just came across as the other students thinking the playground was cool rather than them wanting to be friends with Regina, which isn't the best way to resolve a story about bullying.

They're good points, can't really disagree with them.

This is a good criticism, I don't disagree with them either but I do wonder if Regina will come back as a recurring character rather than a straight-up COTD.
I Don't know how to feel about this episode anymore.

 

[AznKei]

Tbh, this is a emotional episode because of the theme of bullying which is a serious issue regardless if it's from a COTD or one of the main cast. Those kids in the flashback are nasty, a major contrast to Chloe's class students who wanted to befriend Regina when the latter got introduced.

But Glaceon should have "told" the students to stop bullying Regina, like most rational people would do to defuse the situation, instead of straight freezing them to the point that in the mind that Pokemon, people approaching her equals bullying.

Of course, Glaceon wanted to protect her friend so much that it overused its power and fell ill. So in the ice playground part, the twerps sent their ice Pokemons to build the playground alongside Glaceon so that the latter doesn't have to use too much power on its own and get along with them at the same time, something that Glaceon & Regina had to get through. And Eevee had to Copycat Glaceon's move because why not? The former wanted to help the latter.

Yeah, Regina becoming a Pokemon trainer while Chloe is still barely train & battle, despite her part-time main character status. is dissapointing. But since Regina declared it on the mail letter to Chloe means that it's pretty much a send-off for her and she's likely not come back in the future episodes.

Anyways, good episode. But it's kinda like a "I've seen it once, I've seen it all." episode. There isn't much memorable scene to rewatch it. It's mainly Glaceon & Regina overcoming their past bullying trauma and it's dialogue heavy.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Boy, was this a really poor take on bullying. An easy way to solve something so deeply ingrained for a long while.

I wonder if the bullying episode in BW was better than this.

 

[Soniman]

I think expecting Chloe's arc to result in a battling Pokegirl is setting oneself up for disappointment. To me that's not where her arc is headed so I kinda accepted that a long time ago. But I understand the frustration because it's been three consecutive Gens in a row without a consistent battling Pokegirl

 

[LazySpy]

And they wondered why I dislike CotDs or the very concept of one-time use characters, especially if they take priority...

You legit can't tell any proper story within the scope of ~20 minutes no matter how tearjerking you make it.

Counterpoint:
Cowboy Bebop.

 

[Dephender]

But Glaceon should have "told" the students to stop bullying Regina, like most rational people would do to defuse the situation, instead of straight freezing them to the point that in the mind that Pokemon, people approaching her equals bullying.

Micie fended off the bullies multiple times before it started getting so cautious, it wasn't a one time incident.

Yeah, Regina becoming a Pokemon trainer while Chloe is still barely train & battle, despite her part-time main character status. is dissapointing. But since Regina declared it on the mail letter to Chloe means that it's pretty much a send-off for her and she's likely not come back in the future episodes.

She said in the letter she'd come visit next vacation.

 

[Soniman]

Counterpoint:
Cowboy Bebop.

Or the first ten minutes of UP or the various short films with half or even a third of the run time of a Pokémon episode that are able to tell even more emotional stories in less time

 

[LazySpy]

Or the first ten minutes of UP or the various short films with half or even a third of the run time of a Pokémon episode that are able to tell even more emotional stories in less time

Twilight Wings would also be a good counterexample.

It's clearly about what you do with the time you have rather than how long the story is.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

She said in the letter she'd come visit next vacation.

So, never, then.

 

[AznKei]

Micie fended off the bullies multiple times before it started getting so cautious, it wasn't a one time incident.

She said in the letter she'd come visit next vacation.

I see. Still, what Micie did wasn't really an effective solution. It just creates another problem.

I still have doubt she will come back especially when there's already past COTDs who wrote & said similar things and yet didn't re-appear so far. If she do re-appear that would be great.

 

[Zoruagible]

You know it's sad when Dracovish appearing is the highlight of the episode lol

Ugh, remember the good old days when girls from the main cast were allowed to battle and have more than one Pokémon before somehow the writers decided to fall like 50 years behind and give us male chauvinism conforming gender roles?

Remember when they were allowed to own Pokemon that weren't cute or feminine in design? Pepperidge Farms remembers

Misty had Gyarados, May had Blaziken, Dawn had Mamoswine and Iris had Excadrill but since every Pokemon the female characters get is either cute or feminine. Problem could have been fixed for Serena if Pancham evolved, could have had the usual blast off split up and she got stuck with Greninja or Inkay, not like the anime's been 100% faithful to how evolution works.

I know the odds of it happening are low(And as the series progresses I'm beginning to doubt she'll get anything!) but in my fic, I gave her an Omastar to fulfill the powerhouse role while she also has a Nidoqueen. The only 'cuties' are Eevee and Togepi and as it progresses, I plan on giving her an equal number of both.

Yeah, a CotD and for 5 seconds. We haven’t had a female protagonist win a proper fight against a male character since Iris in BW, and that’s problematic.

Yeah well I fail to see how that matters, if they made Ash lose to Chloe now then he'd look even more unworthy of entry to the top 8. So she'd have to beat Goh.
Besides Lana constantly outshined Kiawe in SM when it came to non-battle stuff and the poor guy never got some payback. And all of Ash's 'major' opponents up to Volkner were all women and he lost to one of them!

Them not having a female character and making it two dudes instead is an issue however, I pray the next saga is just Ash and a girl. "Shipping" still happens regardless, just look at Ash/Goh shippers, so there's nothing wrong with that. Chloe has so much potential but they insist on Goh hogging 80% of the screentime!

 

[janejane6178]

It seems like it was a nice ep