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The Semifinals IV: Impact (1214)

Kuzehiko

That moment I found a lifetime treasure
So Cynthia took back what she said and she won't retire. I don't get what's the point of the writers doing that. It was unnecessary to begin with.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
>>Retiring thing was stupid
>>Cynthia calling Mega Evolution her strongest might only to use a Dynamax Togekiss and have it be a fake tank was…why?
>>Cynthia’s outfit looked cute in those flashbacks
>>Nice that Greninja returned
>>I have peace knowing Garchomp jobbed to MEGA Lucario
>>Oak and Delia crying for him and his team cheering him on was nice
>>Infernape nothing being there still feels rough but I’ll get over it
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Boy. It was a good battle but her Dynamaxing Togekiss just to lose quickly and leave base Garchomp to lose to Mega Lucario

They did a whole bait in switch about Cynthia using Mega Evolution and cost her the match

Still a good battle

Gave me peace.

Her togekiss had already sustained quite a lot of damage before dimaxing from lucario not to mention it didn't faint instantly after reverting back from dimaxing but still had few attacks after that, though they made garchomp fall in its base form instead of mega form might justfy that garchommp is more stronger than base lucario, so i think it was good writing so that people donr complain.

Anyways it was good to see greninja again he must've sensed lucario's mega aura sphere.
 

MegaSalamence05

Well-Known Member
I didn't mind the ending at all.

Getting into a full on fist fight with Cynthia's Garchomp is pretty insane strategy dude.

The battle between Togekiss and Lucario being a tad longer makes for a lot sense in hindsight. Dynamax vs Mega aside. Cynthia's strategy being to focus on Flinching for Togekiss with Serene Grace and Air Slash. Sleep for Spiritomb. While Garchomp waited in the wings more or less as in the ace in the hole. With Ash's Lucario being confirmed to have Inner Focus as it's ability. Togekiss strategy is now over which led to the comeback.

As no living thing until now has beaten Cynthia's Garchomp. I finally realized what the point of Greninja's appearance in the entire Lucario subplot was to sync heart beats with Ash. (As Greninja's ability is different because it does it automatically). Sirfetch'd cracked Garchomp's impervious armor and Mega Lucario finished it. I'll admit I was wrong about Dragon Pulse.

The one thing that I was surprised by is no Dawn appearance to my knowledge.

Well done.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
I thought the stream cut out but no the battle was just done. That was kind of underwhelming? Togekiss felt like more of a final boss than Garchomp. Also the retiring "plot" was obviously going nowhere.
 

vondecayle

Well-Known Member
So Cynthia took back what she said and she won't retire. I don't get what's the point of the writers doing that. It was unnecessary to begin with.
I think it’s to show us that Ash’s battling spirit and bond with his pokemon can inspire others to do the same. Her battle with Ash reignited her passion for battling. She has probably sit at the top for too long and maybe her past challenges as a champion didn’t ignite this kind of emotion. Hence why she wanted to retire, but battling with Ash shows that there are still things to learn for her and battles to be had. This is not the end of the road for her. There’s still more even when you reach champion level. At least that is my interpretation of it.
 

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
I just have very high standards that don't involve cheap cop-outs, and when I mean fake tension, I wasn't even talking about the defense buff. God forbid someone says even the slightest bit critical thing, even if it's their opinion, and they get piled on by people with low standards for writing.

Play some RDR2 and raise standards of excellence in writing, please.

EDIT: Mind you, my stream was behind a few minutes and I didn't realize that Togekiss had already fallen by the time I made that post.
LMAOOO this whole post feels like a copypasta parody, you have some inflated ego for a man who nitpicks Pokemon of all things
Again, criticise all you want but bro how is it fake tension when Max Airstream would logically hold up Lucario and Lucario would try to evade it and then go directly and attack it when it uses Sky attack, overpowering it. How is it fake tension? I could still maybe see your point with last weeks episode and the emphasis on Lucario flinching, but this week? Nah, seems like a buzzword for you at this point
Pretty good battle altogether. It seemed weird that we didn't see Lucario use Steel Beam and Garchomp use Draco Meteor considering how much Cynthia loves to use it.

My personal opinion is that the Togekiss vs Lucario should've been cut a little bit to prolong Lucario vs Garchomp

Edit: On another note; I'm assuming Cynthia's strategy to Dynamax Togekiss might have to do with the Surprise Element or likely even to abuse Togekiss's Flinch Hax potentially (Considering she focused on stacking its speed up).
Lucario replaced Steel Beam with Bullet Punch
- Aura Sphere
- Double Team
-Bullet Punch
- Reversal
As a battle overall with every aspect combined, it still sits far below Ash vs. Paul and Ash vs. Kukui, maybe on par with Ash vs. Alain/Sawyer. One thing that bugs me is the lack of cameos throughout all 4 semi-final episode, what gives?
Id say the same, it ranks below Paul and Kukui definitely but I think it may have usurped Alain and Sawyer, idk will have to rewatch this battle as a whole with subs and then those XY battles to judge. The climax of those battles were definitely better but this was intense as well and overall it was more smartly written and the non ace battles were much better than some cope outs during Sawyer and Alain.
As for cameos, I guess they really wanna blow their whole load on Ash vs Leon and so didnt wanna saturate the specialty of cameos here and just keep it to Ash's pokemon. I do think they could have atleast shown Paul and Sakuragi lab rather than Morpeko x4
Unrelated but Cynthia’s outfit when she was earning her title was really nicely designed. I wish we got more back story ON THAT than that children half filler thing
My headcanon is that she beat Palmer to become champion considering she was battling a Rhyperior
Also yes, her outfit slayed! It looked SO GOOD
The Cynthia fanservice has been incredible
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Ash spammed bullet bunch, this was a head to head battle rather than one with a lot of strategy.

Well cynthia's constant switching was a strategy on her part to avoid ash for setting his pace in the match, as a result he was catching up in the entire match until the end
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Her togekiss had already sustained quite a lot of damage before dimaxing from lucario not to mention it didn't faint instantly after reverting back from dimaxing but still had few attacks after that, though they made garchomp fall in its base form instead of mega form might justfy that garchommp is more stronger than base lucario, so i think it was good writing so that people donr complain.

Anyways it was good to see greninja again he must've sensed lucario's mega aura sphere.
Dynamaxing kinda provides endurance though. Togekiss shouldn’t have fallen that quickly because Dynamax would increase it’s endurance (health bar). I don’t think they let base Garchomp fight Mega Lucario because it was “realistic” Ash was winning this regardless. This just came off that she made a bad call and Garchomp fell because of it
 

AJ97

Well-Known Member
Lucario replaced Steel Beam with Bullet Punch
- Aura Sphere
- Double Team
-Bullet Punch
- Reversal
Oh yeah. Forgot about the double team.
Id say the same, it ranks below Paul and Kukui definitely but I think it may have usurped Alain and Sawyer, idk will have to rewatch this battle as a whole with subs and then those XY battles to judge. The climax of those battles were definitely better but this was intense as well and overall it was more smartly written and the non ace battles were much better than some cope outs during Sawyer and Alain.
As for cameos, I guess they really wanna blow their whole load on Ash vs Leon and so didnt wanna saturate the specialty of cameos here and just keep it to Ash's pokemon. I do think they could have atleast shown Paul and Sakuragi lab rather than Morpeko x4
Disagree. All of the battles have their own strengths.

I would argue the Kalos League battles are still > In terms of animation and the fast-paced choreography.

Ash vs Cynthia felt a lot more comparable to Ash vs Paul in terms of battle choreography.

That said; I can see Ash vs Kukui and Ash vs Cynthia being overrated a lot more considering the external factors around the battles. (With Cynthia being Cynthia and Battle against Kukui solidifying Ash's place as the strongest trainer of a Region).
 
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