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VS Zapdos! Legendary Raid Battle!! (1129)

CMButch

Kanto is love. Kanto is life.
It was ok episode but some rhetorical questions occur:Why didn't Go use his other 4 Pokemon. Why did Raboot's attack inflict that much damage on Zapdos, did Zapdos free himself in the end or those electric Pokemon did, or some random thunder/lighting from sky did?
Also, if Go caught Zapdos I would like to see those reactions here :D
 

Lord Starfish

Fond of owls
I don't know what you've been seeing.
The animation has been a step down from Sun & Moon, but honestly aside from episode 3 and 20, it's been fine. With moments of being pretty dang good, like every time Takeshi Maenami shows up. Which, sadly, hasn't happened since episode 22 so I really hope he hasn't just completely moved on to other things...

This episode was also perfectly competent. Not really anything exceptional, but I don't see much actually wrong with it either. Just because it isn't the Gotcha music video (which is a level of quality the show simply cannot have) doesn't mean it's bad.
 
The animation has been a step down from Sun & Moon, but honestly aside from episode 3 and 20, it's been fine. With moments of being pretty dang good, like every time Takeshi Maenami shows up. Which, sadly, hasn't happened since episode 22 so I really hope he hasn't just completely moved on to other things...

This episode was also perfectly competent. Not really anything exceptional, but I don't see much actually wrong with it either. Just because it isn't the Gotcha music video (which is a level of quality the show simply cannot have) doesn't mean it's bad.

Sure, I mean it's functional. But like with SM, this series relies a lot on its character moments and character interactions to make it entertaining which logically means there should be good character animation. There isn't even a lot of that with this series.
 

satopi

Life doesn’t end, …it changes.
This episode was really stupid. The only saving grace is that Go didn’t catch Zapdos. Not happy at all.
 

lemoncatpower

Cynical Optimist
It never fainted.


Seems it is not only on twitter...

Zapdos after escaping pokeball for the 2nd time: look fresh, can summon massive thundercloud, can heal Pikachu and share electricity to multiple electric pokemons.

Meanwhile Raboot and Flygon cannot even stand.
it may not have fainted, but it was temporarily knocked out for over 10 seconds while Go had the chance to throw a pokeball at it. It just woke back up after realizing it was in a pokeball trying to be captured. A lot of pokemon wake up second after being knocked out in official pokemon battles and we still call those being knocked out.
 

Blue Saturday

Unfurl your Blessed Wings!
We rarely see a ton of happy emotion from Rabbifoot so seeing its look of satisfaction after it managed to Blaze Kick Thunder...whooo boy. From beating Flygon, taking on Bakugames, and now Thunder a legendary Pokémon. They really are setting up the bunny with some cool scenes and moments thus far. Always liked the thematic transition of rookie —> pro player so it just works. Blaze Kick it also a move we don’t see spammed a ton so that’s nice.
 

Almighty Zard

He has returned.
Why did Raboot's attack inflict that much damage on Zapdos, did Zapdos free himself in the end or those electric Pokemon did, or some random thunder/lighting from sky did?

it's easy to damage something (Especially when you catch it off guard which is what Raboot did), but beating it is another story.

I'm getting noivern vs zapdos flashbacks from comments like these, since back then, people complained about the fact that a "baby" was able to score such a powerful blow...but in the end Zapdos recovered pretty quickly.
 

CMButch

Kanto is love. Kanto is life.
it's easy to damage something (Especially when you catch it off guard which is what Raboot did), but beating it is another story.

I'm getting noivern vs zapdos flashbacks from comments like these, since back then, people complained about the fact that a "baby" was able to score such a powerful blow...but in the end Zapdos recovered pretty quickly.
I never said beating it. Lol. I said inflict that much damage since Zapdos seemed to be on ground closing his eyes instead of immediately flying. Raboot is not "a baby" and I never complained anything lol. I was merely asking a question since it didn't make much sense. Only that would make is that Raboot and Noivern are strong which they are.
 

JennaJayfeather

Gangrenous Creature
Wow. Wow. I really enjoyed this episode.

I actually found myself more invested in Gou's goal more than Ash's rofl, which could be from general burn out from Ash's battles, but another reason could also be that one of my favorite things in the games is to collect Pokemon, so seeing him battle a legend like that was nostalgic to myself trying to capture legends in game.

In the future, I'd really like Zapdos return and Goh catch it.


Also Goh and Ash's dynamic melted my shipper heart. Like htis episode did such a good job with their dynamic, you can really tell how close of friends they are now.
 
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Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
Praise Helix that Zapdos wasn't caught! Goh doesn't deserve a legendary Pokemon, especially when Ash doesn't even one yet
About time he experienced failure and finally after what feels like an literal eternity, there's an episode where he got nothing! Best part of the episode, his senseless capture streak was ridiculous and annoying. Hope that carries into the next episode...

I like when Team Rocket works alongside the twerps but wasn't a fan of how short this one lasted solely to make this yet another episode of the Goh show. The Gacha machine really kills the Twerps and Team Rocket teaming up moment too... and really, again with Ash acting stupid? -_-

2/10 More Ash episodes please
 

Ace-Barn

#Tokio&Nickit
It was okay in the Aerodactyl episode but I'm not liking this trend of separating Ash and Goh by using Team Rocket. Especially when Ash looks like he's super cornered despite the fact that he has Dragonite, Gengar, Riolu, and Farfetch'd. Since it is a Goh episode, it must be mandated that he only beat them with Pikachu. I'm starting to miss the days where TRio were used for training battles for the newer captures.

I was about to be so annoyed if Goh managed to catch Zapdos. Glad Zapdos cheated. Dos thumbs up.

Any cut to TR screen-time is a blessing since they only exist to fail to catch Pikachu, which has nothing to do with Goh. It's just too bad that Ash had to catch up with him before the fight ended like the Aerodactyl episode. Let Goh show progress without needing Ash around.
 

Almighty Zard

He has returned.
Any cut to TR screen-time is a blessing since they only exist to fail to catch Pikachu, which has nothing to do with Goh. It's just too bad that Ash had to catch up with him before the fight ended like the Aerodactyl episode. Let Goh show progress without needing Ash around.

except in this case if Ash hadn't shown up and convinced him to keep going, Gou would've backed down.

there's a part of me wondering if Ash pulled his Z-ring out against TR...i know it's a long shot but hear me out.

1. Ash blasting off TR so quickly after Gou left, stunfisk aside you expect me to believe Pikachu could blast a Rhydon into the air with Iron Tail alone? Besides we all saw the move destroy a giant energy golem made of the earth, I don't think standard pokemon would fare much better.
2. Ash showing signs of fatigue when he caught up with Gou, which we know is a side effect of using Pikashnium-Z
3. Ash's facial expression of nervousness when they were talking about thunder clouds at the end, which are produced by that move.

know it's abit of a stretch, but it's got me thinking.
 
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Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Random bit of trivia: with the show changing timeslots on Japan, now it's airing back-to-back with Yokai Watch. Coincidently, both aired episode 40 today despite Pokémon having started earlier if I recall correctly. And the fact YW didn't had (that many) breaks/re-runs like Pokémon did because of Covid. And both are done by OLM!

-----------------

Now for today's random though....

Zekrom zaps Pikachu, he gets sick and out of energy. Zapdos zaps Pikachu, he gets good and fully recovered. C'mon, I thought Reshiram was Zekrom's opposite....

All in all, solid episode. I like it set up some nice development for Goh by having cope with the idea it's not every time he'll get a capture in the first try and that sometimes the pokémon might just run away. Still, a part of me feels like this episode should have come sooner. I'd place it a bit before Ash's first match against Bea so when Goh inevitably tries to cheer Ash up on the Flygon episode, things tied up more nicely.

Don't get me wrong, it worked here. What I'm saying is that a simple placement change would make the aforementioned episodes stronger in narrative. And all of that without changing a thing.
 

LucarioFTWs

Well-Known Member
Am i the only one who thinks this episode is great? First it explained why the legendary was there and not just some random raid battle like Lugia. Goh actually had some growth here and actually failed to catch something he tried so hard to catch. I’m just really glad he didn’t catch zapdos and the writers continue the main characters don’t catch legendary trend. It was just way to early and it shows here. Goh isn’t mentally strong enough to take on a legendary right now. He also learned that legendaries are not just super strong pokemon but they also help other pokemon. I’m also glad they let zapdos break free from its own thunder as it shows and reminds everyone how powerful legendaries are in the anime. One thing i didn’t like though was that zapdos was just kind of staying in one spot but i honestly don’t care because goh didn’t catch zapdos. However i like that he got development here. Kinda sad that ash got sidelined here but i understand for once. Next episode i hope ash catches marshtomp
 

British Soul

Top Hat Regulator
Not gonna lie, I was in the same boat as Koharu regarding the ice machine at the beginning of the episode, but in all fairness I feel that she was being a bit too serious given she is talking to two 10 year olds.

Onto serious thoughts, even though he failed at getting Zapdos, at least Go got something, albeit a new move for Raboot, but also he learned that he won't always get stuff first time, and I think a Legendary was a good way of teaching him that lesson. In any case, I do like the fact that Zapdos being able to freely control lightning played a factor in breaking Zapdos free from the ball.
Though I will say that I liked the part when TR thought they were going to beat a legendary and then immediately after that, the gatchamons fluffed their attacks (you couldn't have made it up, but since this is TR, it was to be expected). Ash being a butt-monkey was also to be expected tbf when battling TR, but I do not want to know how he sent TR blasting off (but that's the dark side of my mind talking, so bear that in mind).
On a less serious note, it was fun watching the episode and pretending (keyword being pretending) to not know that Thunder was Zapdos' Japanese name so I could go around thinking that Ash and Go are idiots when talking about Zapdos and thunderclouds. ("You think Thunder lives in Thunderclouds?" "Yes that is how weather works.")

One thing I wasn't expecting was the previous ending for this series coming back.
 
it may not have fainted, but it was temporarily knocked out for over 10 seconds while Go had the chance to throw a pokeball at it. It just woke back up after realizing it was in a pokeball trying to be captured. A lot of pokemon wake up second after being knocked out in official pokemon battles and we still call those being knocked out.
Zapdos is not knocked out (KO'ed = fainted), it is merely knocked down.

Knocked down = down but conscious.

Notice that it still open its eyes after Blaze Kick, it only close its eye in pain after falling but not unconscious/KO'ed/fainted.

There are a lot of instances pokemon got knocked down in official battle but they rise again to continue the match because they have not fainted/KO'ed. Example: Naganadel after got hit by Lucario's Extreeme Speed; Ash's Pikachu and Cameron's Lucario after Iron Tails collision.
Goh isn’t mentally strong enough to take on a legendary right now.
Even jumping through Draco Meteor to perform Blaze Kick is Rabbifoot's own idea, notice that Goh is surprised to see Rabbifoot jump around the Draco Meteor.
 
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