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The Rainbow & The Pokémon Master (1236)

SunGodNika1997

You can call me Tanner.
...Wait, if a Pokemon Master means befriending all Pokemon, were all the battle episodes filler, while the filler episodes were canon episodes?
Well that might explain why they took their sweet time letting Ash become champion.
 

Cyclone

^ where it all began
I didn't expect very much from the finale, but this was pretty underwhelming. Pidgeot appearing was my favorite part, but it was so shoehorned and momentary I couldn't fully enjoy it. Nitpick point, but I actually felt bad for all the cute Pidgey & Pidgeotto that were following it as their leader, and Ash just takes it back from them on a whim, just for us to not even see it one more time? Okay... Also Butterfree would have been a more symbolically apt choice to return over Pidgeot, as it has the distinct title of the first Pokemon Ash caught. Would have been a better "full circle" moment for the finale, but I am happy either of them returned at all.

Ash's goodbye with Misty and Brock was so impersonal. I've frequently felt that about the other human-to-human goodbyes throughout the anime. It's very odd to me, because the mission of the Pokemon Company appears to be encouraging human contact and relationships (for example its new slogan "Pokemon Together"), so to represent the human relationships as feeling inconsequential is a confusing choice. Clearly the anime producers don't feel that sensitive/dramatic human moments are appropriate for their younger audience, which I think is actually antithetical to children's development, but I'm getting off on a tangent. It was just a very hollow moment for them to be like "okay byeeeee" and that's it.

As people stated above, to not bring Ho-Oh back despite having a rainbow scene... is honestly angering. Ho-Oh arguably symbolizes the journey to becoming a Pokemon Master which was the main theme of this episode. For it not to even just reappear as Ash was leaving or something is so symbolic of all the years of missed narrative & fanservice opportunities that the anime producers always neglected. It's almost better this way, so that the anime ends on the consistently disappointing note that it's always delivered. It's more fitting of reminding us of what amazing adventures this anime could have been but rarely were.

Final criticism, way too much focus on Ash & Pikachu. Would have much preferred a final shot of Ash & Pikachu surrounded by every single Pokemon they've "befriended" (as that was the newly decided qualification of a Pokemon Master, right?). Would have been a beautiful image, that's been done before throughout the anime. Would have much preferred that Ash stayed with all his Pokemon, mother, and hometown and did some kind of established job with Professor Oak or his mom, so that we have a consistent final image of "where Ash is". On the other hand, knowing that Ash's journeys are continuing could serve as a mechanism for him to reappear in the new series arcs from time to time. If they don't follow up in that manner, then knowing Ash and Pikachu are just wandering down roads dictated by thrown sticks is a very amorphous, unsatisfying final image for our protagonist.


Pikachu thunderbolting Ash in tub was an unfortunate shot lol
I KNOW! I thought the same thing. Extremely unfortunate to the point where it almost seemed purposeful or subliminal lol
 

DuquÊ?

Too lazy to pick a pic
Nitpick point, but I actually felt bad for all the cute Pidgey & Pidgeotto that were following it as their leader, and Ash just takes it back from them on a whim, just for us to not even see it one more time? Okay...
To be fair, pidgeot made sure they could take care of themselves and the pidgey & pidgeotto wanted pidgeot goes back with Ash.

You can just see pidgeot is actually happy that its foster parent duties are over (greninja wishes he could stop the gardening).

Yeah, I think no one disagrees it was very abrupt and shoehorned, but, after endure months without nothing new as a last addition to Ash's team, it's good to see mah boy pidgeot come back for good.
 

Cetra

Ash got 26 years, Liko won't, recency bias fanboys
Almost half a day passed already ...

Pokémon has shown us how time can fly in the last 25 years. Never waste it.

EDIT: And with this, exactly 12 hours after the last episode began I will begin Ash's journey in Kanto again.
 
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Cyclone

^ where it all began
The more I think about this episode, the more I feel it suffered from a bad rewrite.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ho-oh was originally conceived to appear to Ash during the rainbow scene, validating to him that he is a "Pokemon Master". It is the most natural and seemless resolution to Ash's inner conflict that they set up in this episode, and the only way to explain why a randomly shoehorned storm & rainbow made it into the title of the final episode.

But instead, they must have changed the concept, presumably underestimating their viewers' intelligence (as usual) and figured that a stereotypical anime "non-ending" ending would be a softer landing for their younger viewers. Ho-Oh was removed, and that's probably why we have this random return of Pidgeot to replace it, which is otherwise completely inconsequential and random to the rest of the episode.
 

GohMaster!

Goh Gettem!
The more I think about this episode, the more I feel it suffered from a bad rewrite.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ho-oh was originally conceived to appear to Ash during the rainbow scene, validating to him that he is a "Pokemon Master". It is the most natural and seemless resolution to Ash's inner conflict that they set up in this episode, and the only way to explain why a randomly shoehorned storm & rainbow made it into the title of the final episode.

But instead, they must have changed the concept, presumably underestimating their viewers' intelligence (as usual) and figured that a stereotypical anime "non-ending" ending would be a softer landing for their younger viewers. Ho-Oh was removed, and that's probably why we have this random return of Pidgeot to replace it, which is otherwise completely inconsequential and random to the rest of the episode.
It's probably because Ho-oh was already at the end of JN
 

AARTX

Dead inside…
His version of fixing things is blowing up entire civilizations so maybe that is for the better lol
That or Xerneas counts too, cuz y’know it’s the Life pokemon and all that. Maybe it can fix the root problems XD

Speaking of which Xerneas or Yveltal never made an appearance in the main anime aside from a silhouette and a movie LMAO.
 

Kabuto

little punks!
This was definitely the best of these 11 episodes. Would argue that the other 10 were almost completely unnecessary lol. Would've liked to see the other 10 be a little more ambitious with their storytelling, but this was such a wholesome note to end on that it's hard to be mad. Will miss you Ash and Pikachu <3.
 
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