The Lightning that Blocks Wind! Its name is Zeraora (1043)

[MidnightMelody]

Misty and Brock literally were ones who inspired Kukui to build a league (with them giving Kukui and the others info on how one enters a league and all that I think). Of course he knows what it is.

That doesn't mean anything. We don't know if he actually sat down and talked to them about it. There is a difference between seeing something quickly and wanting to do it verse actually looking into it and doing it. His definition of a league might just be a big tournament of 1vs1 with no requirements to enter. With that said I guess each league can do whatever it wants since I think Hoenn started with double battles. However if he was inspired by Kanto I'm guessing if anything it would be that style which would be nice since I did like the fields they used back in that one

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I'm glad that Dia isn't an alternate Ash (too serious, and lacks the birthmarks)

Definitely closer to Red in characterization and design

I wish they could redo the Aether, Ultra Guardians, and Necrozma arcs with this level of seriousness

 

[Kintaro]

Dia will definitely beat Ash in the Alola league, there's no one else. Unless Hau pulls a Cameron, but I doubt it.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

Nice episode, but I'm really missing the rest of the cast. Ash isn't all that interesting on his own, I miss the quirks of the rest of the cast. Ash and Dia have a bit of a cliché dynamic, it's the overly enthusiastic goofball with the overly serious guy that gets annoyed by the former dynamic, it's cliché. We don't even get to see the rest of the cast actually looking for Ash or wondering where he disappeared off to when he didn't arrive at school.

 

[Lord Starfish]

Dia will definitely beat Ash in the Alola league, there's no one else. Unless Hau pulls a Cameron, but I doubt it.

...We have no reason to assume Dia will even be in the show after next week.

 

[Akkipeddi]

The Ula Ula arc already hinted at this, but this episode just confirmed the fact that the classmates just ruin episodes. This was a fantastic episode and it maintained the perfect tone throughout the episode.

Firstly, the music in this episode was on point. It was wonderful use of the Regi battle theme when Zeraora was battling Guzzlord, and the Totem battle theme was a good choice for the Pikachu vs Zeraora battle as well. Speaking of Guzzlord, it definitely got the episode it deserved. No nonsensical comedy or stupidity, just a straight up menacing threat, with a dark and eerie atmosphere. Also, so true Dia, Ash you may have fought against other UB's, but Guzzlord doesn't even compare to the other UB's in terms of the scale of danger and destruction, and Dia telling Ash to go home further emphasized this point, and it's probably one of the only few times where Ash realised it was not all fun and games (other time being the Litten episode) in Alola.

Overall, the episode is a 8.5/10. This is the operation Tempest of Alola (in terms of being one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bad series), and it has already surpassed the Necrozma arc for me.

 

[Doppelgänger]

Here's my ten cents.

Ash ended up in Ultra Ruin because Tapu Koko/Shiny Tapu Koko used the same move, at the same spot in spacetime in their respective universes. It's a recurring plot device in Japanese science fiction that that you can shift between parallel worlds by creating an invisible line between them, and that line is usually some kind of synchronized action.

Dia is the grown-up Ash from the alternate dimension

As a lot of people picked up on, Dia is probably the grown up version of the Ultra Ruin Ash-clone, and Zeraora is Pikachu's counterpart. There are several hints to this:

-his main Pokemon is an electric type
-Zeraora has the same pet peeve of electrifying anyone who annoys him (shown by Pikachu earlier in the episode to remind the audience)
-Zeraora knows Quick Attack, which along with Flame Charge is a pseudo signature move of Ash that he teaches to multiple Pokemon he owns that can learn it
-flashback Dia has SM Ash's pants, but Red's black undershirt and a solid red, pocketless vest (which no prior art has exactly)
-in the flashback, young Dia also owned a Litten
-he is a member of the Ultra Rangers (equivalent to the Ultra Guardians), with red colouration
-his hat is identical to the one in the flashback
-the hat resembles SM Ash's, but with a filled in logo and a white bill
-the old picture of the Pokemon School features counterparts of the current class, and young Dia stands in the front
-he is voiced by Yamadera Koichi, who is usually reserved for important characters (legendaries or main villains) in the movies

Of course, most of this could be disproven next episode: perhaps the young Ash clone merely left the island, and the Dia relationship is a red herring. This is a heavy possibility if only because it's strange that this is "the future" of the current timeline in Alola, wouldn't it make more sense to be around the same time?

Anyway, I would wager that Dia has lost his way or given in to despair at never beating Guzzlord, and Ash was brought her to give him some inspiration (and Z-Crystals). We'll see!

I hope I wasn't the only one to think of this when I saw it!

 

[Twilight-Kun]

We don't even get to see the rest of the cast actually looking for Ash or wondering where he disappeared off to when he didn't arrive at school.

The end-of-episode scene shows that time doesn't flow at the same rate between the worlds, since it's only been a few seconds in Ash's Alola whereas in Dia's Alola, it goes from morning to night

Pity that the dub isn't going to learn that crucial fact

 

[Dragalge]

The Ula Ula arc already hinted at this, but this episode just confirmed the fact that the classmates just ruin episodes.

I definitely agree that there are times that they are not needed (like the Olivia episode. Stop talking ffs and let the battle go on!) but I don't think they ruin every episode as if they're the plague. The Palossand episode was a good one in that the classmates were all utilized to some degree well while having a somewhat spooky Pokemon who was ready to eat Kukui's home too imo!

 

[MidnightMelody]

The Ula Ula arc already hinted at this, but this episode just confirmed the fact that the classmates just ruin episodes. This was a fantastic episode and it maintained the perfect tone throughout the episode.

Been saying this since Day 1 Worst companions Ash had ever had.

 

[DatsRight]

I don't think the companions are all bad in SM, they can at least hold some episodes through their own character and some of the ensemble episodes like the UG ones are pretty good. A lot of them also have good chemistry with Ash, which wasn't always true with previous ones. The only one I think really tops previous dead weight companions is Mallow, who hasn't done anything remotely interesting since the series started.

I think a key problem right now is that Ash feels kinda stronger a character in this series, not just because his experience is demonstrated better, but because they seem more willing to make him more flawed and challenged in what he does, he has personal obstacles, while with some of the others they hit a wall expanding on their agendas. You have more than half of them as non battlers but rather than putting much development into their non-battling ambitions, they just get lamer battles for their quota. The same character agency isn't quite there.

It's not like they were the first companions to fall victim to this however, in fact most of them were stuck getting TR fillers as their quota whenever they didn't get a secondary arc like the contests.

I think it's a shame SM doesn't experiment with other characters getting sole spotlight at times really. The only ones who really got this was Lillie (during the Poni Island episode) and Mallow (which ended up padded excessively by TR anyway).

 

[KurashiDragon]

Guzzlord is one of the few Ultra Beasts that presents an actual threat to those around it. It's not inherently evil. None of the Ultra Beasts really are. All of the Ultra Beasts are just aliens suddenly finding themselves in an alien world *to them* and acting as such. They do things their own way. Guzzlord itself is just doing what it usually does which is literally eat everything because of its everlasting appetite. That in and of itself isn't evil, it's just a huge threat to everything around it. This is pretty much what everyone asked for who asked for the ultra beast saga without actually realizing what the ultra beasts actually are. A genuine threat.

As for the rest of the episode, I enjoyed Zeaora. It's the stoic serious type that doesn't really play which works well in the situation its in and is a good contrast to the general tone of the whole anime. It also presents an actual challenge to ash as it should. Also, did anyone else love when Ash pulled Pikachu's cheeks to check if he was awake? I didn't really realize why he was doing it initially but then it clicked on me that he was trying to shock himself by messing with Pikachu which I thought was really cute and funny. Why don't they have more interactions like this in the series as a whole? They've been together for all this time and yet they don't really mess with each other as best friends should.

I do have a small gripe though. During their battle, Pikachu started using electric attacks against Zeraora and yet it used slash to cut the Electric web and dodged the thunder bolt rather than Volt Absorb. I don't get why that wasn't even a factor in their battle. It would've just as easily shown Zeraora to be a BAMF if it just literally didn't care about Pikachu's electric attacks and shrugged off all of its other attacks. Eh..... just a small gripe.

Overall solid episode 8 / 10

 

[Kintaro]

Been saying this since Day 1 Worst companions Ash had ever had.

The Ula Ula arc already hinted at this, but this episode just confirmed the fact that the classmates just ruin episodes. This was a fantastic episode and it maintained the perfect tone throughout the episode..

Disagree entirely, Kiawe and Lana at least are great and unique characters. The problem with the SM cast is just it's too large.

 

[mehmeh1]

The end-of-episode scene shows that time doesn't flow at the same rate between the worlds, since it's only been a few seconds in Ash's Alola whereas in Dia's Alola, it goes from morning to night

Pity that the dub isn't going to learn that crucial fact

they probably will the next episode

 

[i2i]

Nice episode, but I'm really missing the rest of the cast. Ash isn't all that interesting on his own, I miss the quirks of the rest of the cast. Ash and Dia have a bit of a cliché dynamic, it's the overly enthusiastic goofball with the overly serious guy that gets annoyed by the former dynamic, it's cliché. We don't even get to see the rest of the cast actually looking for Ash or wondering where he disappeared off to when he didn't arrive at school.

I'm sure we'll probably get all that in the next episode.

 

[Redstar45]

Ehh this is A Satoshi episode of week and i am agree with that main cast is hold his own character back sometimes

Been saying this since Day 1 Worst companions Ash had ever had.

 

[JC317]

After watching this episode, I kind of feel like Ash has become too reliant on Z-moves, to the point where it is hindering his ability to fight normally.

As seen in the episode where Ash fought Hau the first time, as well as this episode where he fought Guzzlord, whenever he fails to execute a Z-moves, he just panics.

In the past, even if Ash fails to execute a move (such as Pikachu failing to use Iron Tail at the Rustboro Gym), he wouldn't just stand there and do nothing. Even in the infamous Pikachu vs Snivy fight, Ash quickly found his bearings once he realized Pikachu couldn't use electric attacks.

While I doubt that Ash would make the same mistake in the league, I hope the anime could take some time to address this underlying issue, perhaps by having Ash acknowledge this during the probably-happening Poni Island Trial mini arc.

 

[Lord Starfish]

After watching this episode, I kind of feel like Ash has become too reliant on Z-moves, to the point where it is hindering his ability to fight normally.

As seen in the episode where Ash fought Hau the first time, as well as this episode where he fought Guzzlord, whenever he fails to execute a Z-moves, he just panics.

In the past, even if Ash fails to execute a move (such as Pikachu failing to use Iron Tail at the Rustboro Gym), he wouldn't just stand there and do nothing. Even in the infamous Pikachu vs Snivy fight, Ash quickly found his bearings once he realized Pikachu couldn't use electric attacks.

While I doubt that Ash would make the same mistake in the league, I hope the anime could take some time to address this underlying issue, perhaps by having Ash acknowledge this during the probably-happening Poni Island Trial mini arc.

In both these situations he didn't exactly have much time to formulate another strategy though. And here the Z-Move pretty much was his backup plan. Against a beast that seemed fully intent on killing him.

 

[Satomine Night]

This was an excellent episode all around, that's for sure. It had a nice balance of humor and seriousness. Ash's reactions to everything going on around him were both in-character and realistic for Ash. He purposely tried to get Pikachu to electrocute him to test whether or not he was dreaming. He freaked out when he realized he was facing a sentient vacuum cleaner against whom Pikachu's attacks didn't work, and when he thought they were trapped and doomed, his first instinct was to protect Pikachu. He didn't hesitate to offer his help to Dia and Zeraora once he understood the situation.

I'm not complaining about how the other Ultra Beasts were handled, but I appreciate just how menacing Guzzlord is. It literally eats everything in sight, and actually destroyed an entire town. The seriousness with which it was treated was more in line with a post-apocalyptic series than what most of us have come to expect from the SM series. This just goes to show that SM is not limited to slapstick and humor, that it's perfectly capable of taking itself seriously when it needs to.

I'm really looking forward to the next episode after this one.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

After watching this episode, I kind of feel like Ash has become too reliant on Z-moves, to the point where it is hindering his ability to fight normally.

As seen in the episode where Ash fought Hau the first time, as well as this episode where he fought Guzzlord, whenever he fails to execute a Z-moves, he just panics.

In the past, even if Ash fails to execute a move (such as Pikachu failing to use Iron Tail at the Rustboro Gym), he wouldn't just stand there and do nothing. Even in the infamous Pikachu vs Snivy fight, Ash quickly found his bearings once he realized Pikachu couldn't use electric attacks.

While I doubt that Ash would make the same mistake in the league, I hope the anime could take some time to address this underlying issue, perhaps by having Ash acknowledge this during the probably-happening Poni Island Trial mini arc.

Ash isn't being overly reliant on Z-Moves

Ignoring the fact they're the gimmick of this generation for a moment...

During the Hau fight, Ash's decision to use a Z-move wasn't thought out, hence why his crystal wasn't already prepared - it was a snap choice that backfired when he dropped the crystal due to being excited to fight a new opponent

As for Guzzlord, he's literally backed up against the wall with no other option and I honestly wonder why it didn't trigger (Did Guzzlord already absorb the Ultra Aura in that place? How's he going to pull off a Z-move next episode?)