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VS Cynthia! Iris' Road to Dragon Master (1206)

DuquÊ?

DuquÊ?

Too lazy to pick a pic
Well, everyone already talked everything.

Good episode in general. Dunno why is this called "road to dragon master" when the term was never called in the episode, anyway. I didn't like how a half of the dialogs were about Iris constantly saying how inspiring Cynthia is and how she will win, but, WELL, standard dialog.

The first battles were decent enough and very game oriented, mostly ok, with bets like horn drill to take gastrodon out of the equation quickly. Things just get real when haxorus comes to play. The final battle was definitely worth of it. I don't think Cynthia actually needed mega evolve to win, it was more out of respect and recognition.

Now, really, I didn't really liked Iris character in BW (between a lot of things), but, they actually made a good work with her here. She became someone composed enough to fight a champion in the same battleground. As a whole, it was nice. Let's see if the rest of the M8 won't ruin that.

About Ash: for all intentions, he knows her better than everyone there, he was there in the hall when she was vulnerable, comfortable to breakdown. He comforted her in a way she wouldn't feel ashamed. It wasn't different of May losing in the GF (sans shoulder pat).

Now, let's wait until Ash defeat Cynthia, but, at first, let's fight Steven and his Crystal Gems.
 
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Almighty Zard

Almighty Zard

He has returned.
hop's getting to be annoying with his reactions towards Ash.

Watching it subbed only hit me harder, made me feel so sad for Iris losing.

I kind of have to agree with those who've said that Cynthia had the match in control to an extent cause it sure felt like she did.
 
vondecayle

vondecayle

Long gone are the days
DragonKahuna said:
One thing that caught my attention was when Iris said to Cynthia: When she became a champion, Haxorus was the one who finished the battle. We need more backstory on this.
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I noticed that too! This little details add so much more to the story.
 
vondecayle

vondecayle

Long gone are the days
Almighty Zard said:
I kind of have to agree with those who've said that Cynthia had the match in control to an extent cause it sure felt like she did.
Click to expand...
They managed to make Iris look good, while holding up that Cynthia is a very strong champion. I think it fits well into the narrative.
 
lolipiece

lolipiece

Pictured: what browsing Serebii does to a person
Staff member
Moderator
Christ, Dragonite, what happened to you in the past nine years? You took down Mamoswine so long ago, but a single Disarming Voice brings you to your knees? I thought you were supposed to be bulky.
 
British Soul

British Soul

Top Hat Regulator
Not an essay time:
I have to say, I wasn't expecting Iris' Dragonite to job that hard tbph, utterly disgraceful, but in fairness someone had to be the fall guy. Iris' Excadrill put up a pretty good fight, overcoming a type disadvantage, even under Rain Dance too. Sure it unalived Gastrodon with Horn Drill, but it was a good back and forth nonetheless. What I will say is that of course Team Rocket would find some way to take credit for Excadrill's win, citing the many times the Unova crew encountered them in BW.
Not gonna lie though, I do think that after Milotic defeated both Excadrill and Dragonite, Cynthia had the advantage, especially with Garchomp left to fight and the fight between Haxorus and Garchomp was pretty good, you could feel the intensity, especially when they went in for their final attacks, and you could feel the respect that Iris and Cynthia had for each other during the battle as well. Iris was certainly more composed here since she became Unova Champion.
One final thing I want to bring up is the cameos. I fully expected Georgia to watch the match, since she is Iris' rival, though I'm not sure why it felt weird to me not seeing Burgundy as during the PWT Junior Cup, the two were interacting with each other. At least we got to see Alder though as well as Trip, meaning that all of Ash's main rivals and all current/former Champions have appeared in JN. As for the Sinnoh cameos, I wasn't expecting to see Reggie tbph, however I would've liked to see the likes of Barry for example watch the match, but y'know hopefully we'll see him watch the semi-final clash involving Cynthia.
 
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Mythical-Moonlight

Mythical-Moonlight

I just ran, I ran all Night and Day ~
lolipiece said:
Christ, Dragonite, what happened to you in the past nine years? You took down Mamoswine so long ago, but a single Disarming Voice brings you to your knees? I thought you were supposed to be bulky.
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Iris should've never caught that thing

Trying to tame his disrespectful and disobedient ass clearly had absolutely no pay off

He's done nothing but be an absolute hindrance to Iris ever since she met it

And everything he tried to do, Ash's Charizard did 1000x better

Iris deserved a better Dragonite to be her 2nd in command
 
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Twilight-Kun

Twilight-Kun

Pokemon World Champion
So...what was Iris's plan of not attacking garchomp when it was wide open after firing off Draco Meteor the second time?

We just...ignoring the harshly-dropped Special Attack or...?

Also what move did Haxorus use that caused it to confuse itself, because that wasn't Outrage, was it?
 
Zweilous

Zweilous

Go-ing for Gold
Iris's Dragonite is a jobber, but the Pokemon isn't useless by any means. He's been pretty reliable and cool outside of official battles, and his losses in Journeys were only because Haxorus needed wins. I can't fault him for that. And back in the PWTJC, he scored her two wins against very strong Pokemon.

On to the episode itself.

The Good
  • A lot of references to Best Wishes. Love it.
  • Shobu/Shannon didn't get a cameo.
  • Iris and Cynthia's past meaning gets brought up a lot, and how much it meant to Iris. Cynthia herself actually closes her eyes and smiles when she hears Iris talk about it.
  • Cynthia is so powerful and commanding during this match. A real Champion act. But she was speaking softly when she was complimenting Iris, showing her caring side.
  • Iris, by contrast, is very expressive and childish. She's very fun to watch.
  • That dang boss music, wow.
  • Ash and Pikachu were really into this match. Like, really into it.
  • Team Rocket's additions were once again great.
  • Iris took down 2 of Cynthia's Pokemon and pushed her to use Mega Evolution. Iris came close to defeating the second-strongest trainer in the world. This is an amazing accomplishment, and it shows just how much she deserves to be in this tournament. Good for her.
  • After the match, Ash is less cheerful and goes to meet Iris. I would have liked a hug or some encouraging words (yes, I read the arguments about this earlier), but I loved seeing their friendship be prioritized here. It was a nice moment.
  • Iris breaking into tears was nice, too. I wish people in this show had more emotional reactions to losses, instead of the same "disappointed, but otherwise fine" attitude we get 90% of the time.
  • Goh isn't left out of this, either. He comments about Iris and roots for her, as well. And now they're going to cheer Ash on together? They haven't had much time together, but I like the little friendship that they're starting to develop.

The Meh
  • I would have liked to see more variation in the background Pokemon. We didn't need two Slowpoke. I'm also mixed on Slowpoke being in Unova. On the one hand, it's not a Pokemon native to the region, and the show has been fairly consistent with stuff like that. On the other hand, Slowpoke can be caught in the Unova games, albeit through special circumstances.
  • Goh butting in on Ash and Iris's special moment. Gotta make sure Iris doesn't weasel her way back into his friend group and usurp Goh's position as the dominant friend.

The Bad
  • No Cilan? Don't save him for just Ash or anything, Iris is also his friend.
  • We needed a jobber, but Dragonite shouldn't have gone down that easily. One of its most recognizable traits is its insane durability and stubbornness. According to that one dubiously-canon game event, it even has Multiscale. You couldn't have become one with Dragonite, too, Iris?
  • I felt that the final fight was anticlimactic. Like Dragon Pulse didn't do anything but make a pretty light show? Iris and Haxorus becoming one didn't make much of a difference? What?
 
KukuiFanatic501

KukuiFanatic501

Well-Known Member
Pepsi_Plunge said:
Speaking of regional characters appearing it would have been nice to see some more Sinnoh characters for Shirona besides the bros, and Shinji and his brother. Oh and I would have like to see Scraggy watch his buddy Haxorus.
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My guess is since Cynthia advanced, they’ll show other Sinnoh characters later when she fights again.
 
janejane6178

janejane6178

Kaleido Star FOREVER in my heart <3
DragonKahuna said:
So, after watching the episode with subs, I have to say that it was quite great overall. Journeys has decreased the battles a lot, so for its standards this was a very good battle, but not as good as Lance vs Diantha. But, when was the last time we had such a battle from a female companion? Her ace being a freaking dragon? And against another powerhouse female champion?

One thing that caught my attention was when Iris said to Cynthia: When she became a champion, Haxorus was the one who finished the battle. We need more backstory on this.

I still think having Goodra/new dragon instead of Dragonite and a Z move/Dynamax for Iris, would have made this episode totally amazing.
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Iris doesn’t need a gimmick to be OP
 
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