And it only took 8 years and winning a completely unrelated leagueAnd the lesson Ash took away from it: Get a Lucario cause they're usually an instant win button. And he did!
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SPOILERS! General Pokémon Anime Discussion
- Thread starter Jellicent
- Start date
Speaking of Lucario, do y'all think Ash's Lucario will learn to Mega evolve according to rumors?
I think it's definitely possible, especially after setting it up a bit with Korrina's Lucario. I just think it'd be a bit odd for the Anime's main character to be using a feature you can't even use in the current games, especially if he uses it against Leon. I know Journeys isn't a "Galar" anime, but still. I mean they did it with Z-Moves anyway.
I think it's definitely possible, especially after setting it up a bit with Korrina's Lucario. I just think it'd be a bit odd for the Anime's main character to be using a feature you can't even use in the current games, especially if he uses it against Leon. I know Journeys isn't a "Galar" anime, but still. I mean they did it with Z-Moves anyway.
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You nailed it on Paul.
The writers messed up with that hypocrisy Tauros****. The difference was Ash entered intending to win the Wallace Cup. Paul entered the doubles competition merely to train his Pokemon and had no intention of following the spirit behind the competition. There was a clear difference. But that was DP writing for you. All surface comparisons that fell apart once you thought about it for two seconds.
But that was a common trend regarding Paul. The anime frequently ignored its conventional sentiments to excuse his behavior. Like excusing his abuse and calling it "training." Or letting the heroes (notably Brock) who always displayed zero tolerance for mistreatment of Pokemon to just talk about it instead of actively do something. For example in BW, Ash is ready to throw hands with Pignite's trainer.
At the doubles competition during a match Paul blatantly gives up on ordering Chimchar but is allowed to stay in the competition (because that makes perfect sense in a competition designed to showcase the bonds between Pokemon and trainers and also how is that fair to his human patner in the competition? If I was Ash, I would have marched up to the event planners and demanded action). I also believe he took Chimchar out of the Pokemon Center early and despite Nurse Joy's explicit instructions to the contrary used it in battle. No consequences. He pretty much played Karma Houdini for his actions. He got a lot of praise for being a rival but that was because he was the first rival who actually made frequent appearances and battled Ash. Sorry kids, Gary and his Johto disappearing act doesn't count.
Ngl, it's funny that people are still mad about Tobias and his Diabolus Ex Machina Darkrai.
I can't even disagree tho, come on man, at least have him job to Cynthia or something.
But come to think of it... Didn't he actually mess up worse in Unova? Taking an L to a Darkrai and a Latios is kinda understandable, but what about that guy that didn't even have a full team?
Cameron was a slap in the face to the audience. I am sure the writers thought Cameron and the 6 vs 5 situation was "funny." But we are talking about writers who think their running gags are amusing.
Watching Ash job to an idiot with a deus ex machina Lucario was the anime's low point. It firmly cemented BW as the worst season. Johto got lost in filler hell but it finished with a great league. BW just fell apart at the end.
And you have to love that the BW anime based on games featuring basically all new Pokemon had a league winner without a single Unovan Pokemon.
two episodes with Shinies in a row and of course Go got one.
Also poor Eevee. That hug scared it for life. And Wobbuffet didn't even have it better.
Also poor Eevee. That hug scared it for life. And Wobbuffet didn't even have it better.
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Gary was interesting. In Season 1 he was a pompous jerk with a cadillac and cheerleader team, Gary Motherf-ing Oak... but at the same time we rarely saw his battle prowess and he was outclassed by Ash despite never getting the chance to fight him. He took his anticlimactic defeat at the league seriously and restarted his training again, meanwhile Ash got pretty proud of himself after winning the Orange League and he was confident Gary posed not threat towards him.
He was wrong. Gary's Eevee crushed Pikachu at the end of Season 2, now he's truly a rival to take seriously. The negative is that he didn't get to appear as much during the Johto arc (unlike Paul or even Trip), but when he did it was nice to see he got along much better with Ash and friends, while still keeping his sassiness.
For Paul, they were going for a foil for Ash: someone who doesn't share his training methods and yet still gets them good results. A great part of why he works is that Ash, and the audience to an extent, really wanted to defeat him to prove him wrong. Thing is, Paul is pretty accomplished regardless, and it's hard not to talk against that when the only opponents that scored a win against him prior the league were CYNTHIA AND BRANDON. That's the problem I have with him, his run in Sinnoh was pretty dominant overall to say that Paul needed to learn something from anyone, unlike Gary who got a slice of humble pie, or Drew who we got to see lose a fair amount of times (kinda off topic, but that's also a problem I have with Alain except worse since Ash never got to beat him once).
Most of Paul's character reminds me of AJ, that one shot character with the Sandshrew from a filler Kanto episode: AJ also also harsh training methods (that vest really looks like a Macho Brace) that give good results and it's pretty arrogant about it at first. There are two differences: Ash was an arrogant novice at this point of the story, so AJ came at a time in which Ash needed a shake up to lower his ego. Secondly, and this is more of a personal opinion, AJ shows more care for his Pokemon in one episode than Paul does for the entirety of the DP arc. Man, AJ really needed to become a recurring character...
He was wrong. Gary's Eevee crushed Pikachu at the end of Season 2, now he's truly a rival to take seriously. The negative is that he didn't get to appear as much during the Johto arc (unlike Paul or even Trip), but when he did it was nice to see he got along much better with Ash and friends, while still keeping his sassiness.
For Paul, they were going for a foil for Ash: someone who doesn't share his training methods and yet still gets them good results. A great part of why he works is that Ash, and the audience to an extent, really wanted to defeat him to prove him wrong. Thing is, Paul is pretty accomplished regardless, and it's hard not to talk against that when the only opponents that scored a win against him prior the league were CYNTHIA AND BRANDON. That's the problem I have with him, his run in Sinnoh was pretty dominant overall to say that Paul needed to learn something from anyone, unlike Gary who got a slice of humble pie, or Drew who we got to see lose a fair amount of times (kinda off topic, but that's also a problem I have with Alain except worse since Ash never got to beat him once).
Most of Paul's character reminds me of AJ, that one shot character with the Sandshrew from a filler Kanto episode: AJ also also harsh training methods (that vest really looks like a Macho Brace) that give good results and it's pretty arrogant about it at first. There are two differences: Ash was an arrogant novice at this point of the story, so AJ came at a time in which Ash needed a shake up to lower his ego. Secondly, and this is more of a personal opinion, AJ shows more care for his Pokemon in one episode than Paul does for the entirety of the DP arc. Man, AJ really needed to become a recurring character...
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Early Pokemon had some really good characters that really needed to come back more often like Richie, Dublica, AJ.
I also like how they handled Gary. But that "I want to be a Pokemon Professor" came out of nowhere.
Btw reminds me how the Best Wishes Rival who is a discount Paul got really shafted since his lost against Cilan. Like his Conkurdurr or whatever it was called lost every battle it participated. It could be his own meme.
He was the worst major rival. So glad Ash's Snivy humiliated it. Tho it lost the second time they fought, but then Pikachu utterly destroyed it in the finals. Like wasn't Pikachu like acting as if it was struggling?
I also like how they handled Gary. But that "I want to be a Pokemon Professor" came out of nowhere.
Btw reminds me how the Best Wishes Rival who is a discount Paul got really shafted since his lost against Cilan. Like his Conkurdurr or whatever it was called lost every battle it participated. It could be his own meme.
He was the worst major rival. So glad Ash's Snivy humiliated it. Tho it lost the second time they fought, but then Pikachu utterly destroyed it in the finals. Like wasn't Pikachu like acting as if it was struggling?
Gary was a great character just utterly underused. He and Ash only battled once before the Johto League and he only appeared 3/4 times in Johto before the League itself. As great as their rivalry could be, it felt undercooked because he rarely appeared.
Paul only losing to Cynthia and Brandon soured me. As faulty as Trip was (mostly because BW was a mess), I liked how he lost to other trainers. It felt realistic. Like you said, it is hard to argue that Paul needed to learn anything from Ash since he was so dominant (despite not winning a league, he blew through Gym Leaders and whacked trainers 3-0 at the League). Yeah, he lost to Cynthia and Brandon but Champions at that point were portrayed as untouchable by normal trainers and Brandon used three legendaries. Even his loss to Ash was more due to stupid tactics (sacrificing two Pokemon to scout an opponent that you claimed to know so well isn't smart, it is idiotic and it cost him. Seriously, Paul. You knew that Ash is an idealistic guy who is going to roll with his Lake Acuity. Keep the same team except for one change and roll. And it sucked not seeing his Torterra fight. We spent the whole saga watching that beast and it doesn't show up for the League fight?) and unnecessary taunting. If I was Paul, I am not seeing Ash's training beliefs as my downfall but my own avoidable mistakes.
AJ was a tough ass but he trained hard with his Pokemon and clearly cared for them. I know plenty of successful coaches like that.
Best guess for the end sequence is showing the light restored after Necrozma was captured. The starters appearing was because the only 7th gen pokemon we had seen were Cosmoem/Lunala and Necrozma. Funny they seemed determined not to show the PC's face but at least she wasn't wearing the stupid rooster hat....I hate that hat.
Fun little episode.
Fun little episode.
been a while since I played so forgot that look...much better.
Another great episode. First non-anime animation for Alola, yay!
I have been thinking about the stories in the Alola games recently and the more I have think about it, the more I appreciate the story in US/UM. I still like the story in S/M better, but I think the story in US/UM might be a lot better than I remember (though I might be wrong as I am basing this purely on my memories of playing through US/UM). One thing I really liked in US/UM was Necrozma's "character arc", if you can call it that. But the story had other positives as well, like this episode showed.
Either way, I liked this episode. Seeing Lillie and Lusamine was great. The battle was intense, and the music was amazing. I love that theme to start with and hearing it again here was fantastic, it suited the situation so perfectly. I was surprised to see that they went with UM over US here, it means I can't make a "Sorry Lunala" joke, but I guess I can live with that. They also used the female protagonist here, I hope the series will feature a mix of the male and female protagonists in the remaining episodes as well.
Eclipse is a great title, I wish I had given that as a nickname to one of my Necrozma in the Alola games. It suits Necrozma perfectly. If I had just thought about it back then... oh well, they got other nicknames instead and some of them turned out great too, Daybreaker and Nightflare being my personal favorites.
On the whole, Evolutions is still great. Like with the previous non-anime animations, I really like how the Pokémon make more realistic sounds instead of just saying their names like in the main anime. Looking forward to the next episode, which will be about Kalos, nice! I'll probably not make a post about it here in this thread though.
I have been thinking about the stories in the Alola games recently and the more I have think about it, the more I appreciate the story in US/UM. I still like the story in S/M better, but I think the story in US/UM might be a lot better than I remember (though I might be wrong as I am basing this purely on my memories of playing through US/UM). One thing I really liked in US/UM was Necrozma's "character arc", if you can call it that. But the story had other positives as well, like this episode showed.
Either way, I liked this episode. Seeing Lillie and Lusamine was great. The battle was intense, and the music was amazing. I love that theme to start with and hearing it again here was fantastic, it suited the situation so perfectly. I was surprised to see that they went with UM over US here, it means I can't make a "Sorry Lunala" joke, but I guess I can live with that. They also used the female protagonist here, I hope the series will feature a mix of the male and female protagonists in the remaining episodes as well.
Eclipse is a great title, I wish I had given that as a nickname to one of my Necrozma in the Alola games. It suits Necrozma perfectly. If I had just thought about it back then... oh well, they got other nicknames instead and some of them turned out great too, Daybreaker and Nightflare being my personal favorites.
On the whole, Evolutions is still great. Like with the previous non-anime animations, I really like how the Pokémon make more realistic sounds instead of just saying their names like in the main anime. Looking forward to the next episode, which will be about Kalos, nice! I'll probably not make a post about it here in this thread though.
That was a good episode. USUM's story isn't as good as SM's execution wise, but this still made for a good watch. The Necrozma vs. Lunala sequence was fantastically animated, and seeing Lunala in action was nothing short of magnificent.
Lillie is a great, great character and a highlight of why I like the Gen 7 games but this episode really highlights her character arc and the peak of it all, especially since she spent so much of her life confined under Lusamine's expectations and image, and especially Lusamine constantly putting Lillie down in a sense, but it is thanks to the player that she builds the courage to really face off against Necrozma in the Ultra games alongside the player, and really stand on her own even if she was never a Trainer beforehand. They used Ultra Moon and Selene as the protagonist this time around, which is a nice change of pace.
A great episode all in all. Also the voice acting is damn solid here, especially Lillie's whose voice is more fitting and natural in this episode than her voice in the main anime (no disrespect to Laurie Hymes who voiced her in the main anime, but Lillie's anime voice just always sounded a bit off to me). A really nicely done dub for this episode.
Lillie is a great, great character and a highlight of why I like the Gen 7 games but this episode really highlights her character arc and the peak of it all, especially since she spent so much of her life confined under Lusamine's expectations and image, and especially Lusamine constantly putting Lillie down in a sense, but it is thanks to the player that she builds the courage to really face off against Necrozma in the Ultra games alongside the player, and really stand on her own even if she was never a Trainer beforehand. They used Ultra Moon and Selene as the protagonist this time around, which is a nice change of pace.
A great episode all in all. Also the voice acting is damn solid here, especially Lillie's whose voice is more fitting and natural in this episode than her voice in the main anime (no disrespect to Laurie Hymes who voiced her in the main anime, but Lillie's anime voice just always sounded a bit off to me). A really nicely done dub for this episode.
From the trailer we know next week will use Calem (he's in the footage) and that the Hoenn episode will use May (she's in the concept art), at least.
Generations used Brendan for its the Hoenn episodes so maybe they used May for here for that reason. If so maybe we'll see Lyra in the Johto Episode, since Ethan was used in the Lake of Rage episode.
Oddly none of the Generation sinnoh episodes had a player character at all. Even the one depicting Platinum's climax atop Spear Pillar. I guess either Lucas or Dawn could show up there.
Skimming through these I completely forgot that the BW2 Climax episode changed it entirely, with Hilbert riding in on Zekrom to save N instead of, like, Rosa or Nate with their normal Pokemon lmao. Since N seems to be attacking Alder with Zekrom, it'd be an easy swap to have Hilda show up in Evolutions.
I don't see it ever happening
The new Evolutions episode is interesting. From the start it seemed it was going to follow the "regular" SM arc, but it actually shows the USUM arc episode where Necrozma takes over Lunala (in this case, since we see the female player char that is iirc called Moon).
An interesting choice though since differently from Leon's episode (while both are focusing on a "charachter growth moment") this one is showing a darker part of the story, which ends with Lilie's resolution to chase forward.
I wonder if next episode is going to be still on the gen 7 arcs (maybe the rescue of Nebby?) or they will keep going backwards in generations.
Btw shoutout to the Litten at the end, cuteness overload moment.
An interesting choice though since differently from Leon's episode (while both are focusing on a "charachter growth moment") this one is showing a darker part of the story, which ends with Lilie's resolution to chase forward.
I wonder if next episode is going to be still on the gen 7 arcs (maybe the rescue of Nebby?) or they will keep going backwards in generations.
Btw shoutout to the Litten at the end, cuteness overload moment.
We know every episode, they revealed them all when they first unveiled Evolutions. They're going backwards from gen 8 to gen 1 (well...the gen7 version of gen 1)
From the article:
- September 9, 2021: “The Champion” featuring the Galar region
- September 23, 2021: “The Eclipse” featuring the Alola region
- October 7, 2021: “The Vision” featuring the Kalos region
- October 21, 2021: “The Plan” featuring the Unova region
- December 2, 2021: “The Rival” featuring the Sinnoh region
- December 9, 2021: “The Wish” featuring the Hoenn region
- December 16, 2021: “The Show” featuring the Johto region
- December 23, 2021: “The Quest” featuring the Kanto region
....I just noticed there's nothing in November.
W....wouldn't yo uwant to air the Barry episode in November...?
Interesting Evolutions episode, with the highlight being the Lunala vs Necrozma fight, but I think I prefer the first one since it explores a side we don't see much of Leon (aside from his defeat animations), while Lillie is a character that gets so much spotlight and we know her development and personal struggles so well at this point. Also ngl, I really was hoping for an animated Ultra Necrozma battle.
A Torterra vs Torterra fight would've been great, especially since Paul's Torterra advised Grotle to adapt to a slower, tankier battle style (that...really didn't do much to improve his winrate but it's the thought that counts lol).
Also, seeing a Gliscor hurt by poison puts a smile on my face...
A Torterra vs Torterra fight would've been great, especially since Paul's Torterra advised Grotle to adapt to a slower, tankier battle style (that...really didn't do much to improve his winrate but it's the thought that counts lol).
Also, seeing a Gliscor hurt by poison puts a smile on my face...
Well, it looks like Ash is gonna play around with Mega Evolution! Could be my bias but it'd be pretty cool if it were his Gengar that played around with Mega Evolution instead, but I mean it feels like Lucario has gotten more focus in one scene compared to Gengar in the entire series so it's to be expected. Have we ever seen a Mega Gengar in the anime? I think there's been one in the movies but I dunno about the main series.
I wonder if they're gonna do something with Greninja, since Ash-Greninja is essentially a Mega (don't lie to yourselves)
Also seems weird the main character of the series is using a mechanic we aren't allowed to touch. It may be the copium talking (I mean my opinion towards Megas has shifted a bit towards the negative side recently but still) but Ash is using a Mega Evolution for a Gen 4 Pokemon, and he's gonna battle Cynthia soon. I think if we see a Mega Garchomp that could be a good indicator for Megas in BDSP, although I still don't think that's gonna happen.
Also let me know if I need to do these spoilers or if it's fine to stop them
I watched this Pokemon Evolution stuff recently.
Leon Episode was good. Nice to see his mindset a little and being a bit 'humbled?' by failure.
The latest one was fine too. Wish they played out a little bit more with Lunala taking over the fight for a little. To me it looked way too one-sided. After that Moongeist Beam, they could have acted like they won only for some kind of surprise attack.
That's a small nitpick tho. Not like a complete story for us to get invested in unless we get to play the games. And USUM has a worse story than SM.
Leon Episode was good. Nice to see his mindset a little and being a bit 'humbled?' by failure.
The latest one was fine too. Wish they played out a little bit more with Lunala taking over the fight for a little. To me it looked way too one-sided. After that Moongeist Beam, they could have acted like they won only for some kind of surprise attack.
That's a small nitpick tho. Not like a complete story for us to get invested in unless we get to play the games. And USUM has a worse story than SM.
0:37: Oof, the scene of the Spearow attacking Nebby looks way nastier, especially with the one stomping on it.
1:56: Wait, wasn't Guzma supposed to run past and jump into the Ultra Wormhole too? We saw him in the background a few seconds ago.
2:31: I like how they used the female playable character, so often it feels like they default to the male.
2:40: Ugh, what's with that water? I never got the feeling that water was anything special in the games, but here it's apparently its a liquidy goo you can walk on.
4:01: This scene always bring a tear to my eye (except in the main anime where it kind of felt undeserved).
4:29: Oh, Guzma did go with her. I guess a second Ultra Wormhole opened up out of view and he jumped into that one.
5:33: OH SHI-! Nebby is actually putting up a pretty good fight up against Necrozma!
6:43: But unfortunately one cannot fight canon destiny.
7:19: Why are they hiding Selene's face (or rather her eyes)? It's obviously the female playable character from USUM and its her default appearance (white skin with brown hair), there's no ambiguity here.
7:26: Man, Lillie looks so determined... too bad soon after being defeated by the player Necrozma retreats back into an Ultra Wormhole and only the player can follow behind, leaving Lillie behind to talk things out with her mother OFF SCREEN while the player defeats Ultra Necrozma, frees Nebby, and releases Alola's light (you know instead of having Lillie go with the player to Ultra Space to face her mother where we see Lillie tell her mother off finishing her character arc on screen. THANKS USUM).
7:34: Wait there's a post credit scene? This looks to be Seafolk Village... alright some kids are playing with the Alola Starters... a Murkrow watches them and flies off... and that's it. Good use of our time, no way could have used that time for anything else important about Lillie's character.
Final Verdict: Like the USUM game itself, this was disappointing. It started off good. The scenery was lovely, the music are nice remixes, and they covered the important moments for Lillie up to that point with how she's feeling. But it then all goes wrong as soon as they divert from the game.
I'm on two thoughts about the Nebby vs. Necrozma fight. On one hand it's awesome and nice to see a timeline where Nebby didn't get immediately bodied and absorbed... but on the other hand it ultimately serves no purposes and wastes time. These episodes are only 8 minutes, that's not a lot of time to cram in an entire character arc. And here I don't feel like they used their time wisely as Lillie's arc here is pretty much still left wide open.
I know I keep harping on it, but it's an important point. Had they instead done the original SM where Lillie went to Ultra Space to confront her mother, even if we end on Lusamine turning into the Mother Beast, for Lillie it would still have shown the conclusion of her character arc which is what Evolution is supposed to be about. But here we waste several minutes watching a battle with a forgone conclusion, Nebby gets absorbed, Lillie acts scared but then looks angrily at Necrozma... and that's it! I guess we're supposed to take that angry look to being the climax of Lillie's character development according to Evolution?
Here's an idea: cut the battle short, skip to the Ultra Recon Squad sending the player off into the Ultra Wormhole (they don't even need to speak, this series was pretty much made mainly for those who played the game so it's not like anyone who didn't play the games will get lost if they aren't already; at most you'd just need to have Phyco tell the player "If you hope to follow after Necrozma, you must make for the white warp hole"), and then show us the discussion that Lillie had with Lusamine off screen. Heck, you could have even kept it as the "mother you're horrible" speech, though this time instead of shrugging it off you could have Lusamine actually be affected by it and realizing the terrible things she done. I would then time skip to the moment Alola has its light returning and Lusamine, seeing Lillie being shined down upon, muse to herself "Lillie, when did you start becoming beautiful". But no, I guess it was more important we just saw a batch of kids we don't know play with the Alola starters.
TPC: Oh, because we don't want to spoil what happens in BDSP.
(Totally not out of touch with the fanbase)Chadlad50 :
Would be neat if Ash actually Mega Stones for all of his Pokemon that could Mega Evolve: Lucario, Gengar, Charizard, Heracross, Sceptile, Glalie, Pidgeot.
That would be cool as hell. We've never seen someone use more than one Mega Pokemon (in the Anime and in between battles), and it'd be so cool to see Ash bring back his old Pokemon and wreck shit with them with Mega Evolution.
Of course there's a 99% chance Lucario is the only one we'll see Mega evolve. Which is fine I guess, even if it means Lucario will take even more attention from Ash's other Pokemon...it's Greninja all over again
Of course there's a 99% chance Lucario is the only one we'll see Mega evolve. Which is fine I guess, even if it means Lucario will take even more attention from Ash's other Pokemon...it's Greninja all over again
In the 19th movies, Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel, the main villains all have Pokemon that Mega Evolve and the big bad, Alva, has a staff that can release a "Mega Wave" that forces them all to Mega Evolve and obey him.