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Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoilers

StellarWind Elsydeon said:
... Seriously, Precita. Enough with the whine. We get it. Nobody cares. Move on.

I care!! And I agree completely with Precita, Brock did nothing in the story line, he just made them food and thats it... he was quite boring, oh and the repeating love thing.... what a loner brock is
 
While it might be true that Brock's presence in the anime decreases with every season (and ultimately ends in him being written off completely for the BW reboot) he in fact does contribute to the anime from time to time. There are several episodes revolving around Brock, and even one in particular which begs the question of what Ash and his companions would do if Brock wasn't around to feed them and more importantly, take care of their Pokemon. He also notably takes part in the Team Galactic Plot as the one Yuxie chose to help save Sinnoh from the impending disaster. He serves an important role as the big brother and mature member of Ash's team, and he does it well.

Besides, if the anime isn't about Ash, Dawn or Brock, its mostly about whatever Pokemon is appearing for that episode. In this case, Ash and co. play as meaningless a role as Brock does in general: being there to further develop the plot revolving around the Pokemon of the day. In the end, its not so much that Brock doesn't have much character development, more as that's simply how the anime it: It focuses on several characters from time to time, but never truly devotes any and all episodes to one character. Ash just happens to have more episodes focused on him because he's the poster boy for the anime series.

tl;dr: All the human characters are just foils that add exposition to the Pokemon, the main stars of the anime series.

Now that that's out of the way, can we please drop this redundant discussion and get back to discussing about the anime and its current route?

Such as Ash's latest additions to his team. While I don't really see Palpitoad being used anytime soon (or rather, I see it being used for the gym battles against Elesa and Clay given its type advantage but boxed for every other instance) Roggenrola, having developed a kinship with Ash, will probably be part of the box-switch trio (It, Swadloon and Tranquill) One has to wonder why Ash doesn't at any point want to box Scraggy. My guess is that its because unlike the other four Pokemon Ash has caught and box'd, Scraggy has no real battling ability yet. Here's hoping it gets to learn a new move at some point in the near future as I'd rather not wait until after the Victini movie for it to suddenly become useful.

On a side note, it's also my theory that the reason Ash is catching so many Pokemon is because he's in a region seperated from the past four. If you'll notice, rather than sending his captures to Oak, he sends them instead to Prof. Juniper, hinting that transferring Pokemon overseas is either very difficult to do or is so far impossible (they don't have GTS it seems xD) We probably won't see any Gen 1-4 Pokemon returning for the Unova League, which is a shame because I'd love to see Ash's current team interact with his older ones (Mijumaru and Buizel comes to mind |D)
 
With Ash capturing so many new pokemon this saga, it reminds me a lot of what the Hoenn saga was 9 years ago. Ash only used his Hoenn Pokemon + Pikachu throughout the entire saga and league, and didn't bring back his old pokemon till Battle Frontier started.

In a way, Unova seems to be doing the very same thing Hoenn did nearly a decade ago. A new region that's "far away" from the others, Ash starting fresh and not using any old pokemon, and new travel companions, this time being Iris/Cilan instead of May/Max.

Heck, if Brock didn't come back for Hoenn, you could have said it also had an almost complete fresh cast. And that's a lot of what BW is doing now. I know a lot of people feel the Best Wishes anime is similar to Kanto with the group dynamics and stuff, but it also feels a lot like Hoenn to me, just minus the contests.
 
It´s true that Ash sends his pokemon to Juniper instead of to Oak. This supports RX´s theory on long-distance shipping, or maybe Oak is simply still not back in his lab. If I´m not mistaken, he was on holiday when we saw him last. So if he´s still on that holiday (with Ash´s mother nonetheless), perhaps Trace doesn´t have the time to collect Ash´s pokemon with all the other pokemon to look after. So maybe this is only a temporary setup that would allow for Ash to call upon some of his past generation pokemon in the league, which is unlikely I´ll admit. I just want to see more omnomnom Gible action :p

So yeah, now we´re up to nine pokemon, with two appearing one after the other. I wouldn´t be surprised if Ash fufilled the whole "gotta catch ´em all" thing he promised to do way back when he started, but never remembered to do before he went off on another adventure.
 
Brendan Savem said:
o if he´s still on that holiday (with Ash´s mother nonetheless), perhaps Trace doesn´t have the time to collect Ash´s pokemon with all the other pokemon to look after.

Tracey doesn't seem to be around anymore. In the first Best Wishes episode we only saw Oak and Delia at Pallet, and Tracey was mysteriously absent. Meanwhile every past Pallet ep has always had Tracey there.

It seems to me the older some characters get, like Misty and Tracey, the more the writers decide to forget about them. I also found it quite telling that nobody bothered to visit Ash at Pallet town when he came home from Sinnoh. I guess Misty and Tracey are such minor, short-lived characters in the anime now that the writers figure they no longer hold any importance, and thus don't appear at all anymore, not even when a saga comes to an end.

I think Ash is leaving pokemon with Juniper now for the time being. Also I highly suspect Oshawott will be evolving shortly after the movie, as it seems to be Ash's star this saga, much like Sceptile and Infernape were.
 
Thing is, precita, the DP series ended with Ash on the road overlooking Pallet Town, so for all we know, by the time he actually arrived at his house, Tracey and Misty would've been there waiting for him. Rather than the writers forgetting Tracey and Misty exist, its more like we accept that they're already there, just off-screen. Misty is a busy gym leader, so she can't just go off whenever she pleases and leave the gym closed
(coughlikefantinacough) and Tracey was probably busy looking after Ash's Pokemon at the lab since Oak was going to Unova with Ash and Delia.

Your bitching about the little things in the anime is seriously beginning to irk me. So how about you focus on the current anime and accept that the past is past, eh?
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
RX said:
Still, this episode is adorable, simply because of Oshawott.

This. |D

I am completely biased this generation. Maybe it truly is better than previous seasons, but I doubt I'd even notice. This season has Mijumaru. That alone would keep me watching, because everything about Mijumaru is beyond adorable and gods I love that thing so much now. Hands-down my favorite new Pokemon of Ash's crew. x3

But I'll give credit where it's due. I absolutely adored the Dragon Buster episode and was really happy to finally see what happened in the past to make Excadrill the way it is (or was). The entire flashback sequence in general surprised me greatly, because I didn't realize Excadrill was basically Iris' starter. I thought it had been given to her by family, as a protector of sorts. It's almost sad discovering this now after we've seen her bond with Axew. To think she'd been that close with Excadrill in the past and their entire relationship had been shattered for years and years. It'd be like Ash losing his connection with Pikachu. =o

It's really cool that Ash keeps catching new Pokemon this season, and I definitely approve of his capture of Roggenrola after that touching episode. It's quite cute for a living bolder. :3
 
Wow.

Ash is really getting lots of new pokemon. I think this is the most he's ever caught in a season? I especially liked his most recent capture, Roggenrola. But... That's not what im here to talk about.

Im here to talk about his team.

First, I'll start with oshawott:
Oshawott is really young, And it'll take awhile till he evolves. In the Paplitoad episode, he was sared to open his eyes. Shows how mature he is. :p But I Think he will evolve into Samurott.
Next... Snivy :

Meh, I think snivy will evolve into Servine. Kinda breaks the cycle if he fully evolves, being full grass and what not. I Think he'll only evolve once.

Tepig :

Tepig might ( MIGHT! ) barely evolve into Pignite. No doubt that he's strong and what not, but he might not evolve. It's 50/50

Tranquil :

Obviously, she will evolve. All of Ash's birds evolve to there last form. No Doubt!

Scraggy :

Well... Scraggy may evolve. He just hatched from the egg about 10 episodes ago, so he's only about level 10. Usually if you hatch from an egg you take forever to evolve. He might evolve around Brycen's Gym.

Swadloon :

Swadloon most definitely will evolve.He/She already evolved at a low level. but... He/She kinda cancels out Servine from evolving into Serperior because shes Bug/Grass so... yeah.

Palpitoad :

Palpitoad doesnt really need to evolve. I mean, It would be cool if he did because seismitoad is sweet! But also it isnt exactly neccesary. He's also very tough and might pull a Charizard for awhile.

Roggenrola :

Roggenrola will evolve. It's Just because he wants to get stronger, and there will probably be some special episode for it. But im not so sure about Gigalith. I dont know if pokemon evolve without trading in the Anime.

Pikachu :

Pikachu will stay the same! If he evolves this season with the thunderstone I'll be pissed. They'd also lose alot of viewers. Well. Comment on what you Think!
 
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InFerNapE-KiD said:
Wow.

Ash is really getting lots of new pokemon. I think this is the most he's ever caught in a season? I especially liked his most recent capture, Roggenrola. But... That's not what im here to talk about.

Im here to talk about his team.

First, I'll start with oshawott:
Oshawott is really young, And it'll take awhile till he evolves. In the Paplitoad episode, he was sared to open his eyes. Shows how mature he is. :p But I Think he will evolve into Samurott.
Next... Snivy :

Meh, I think snivy will evolve into Servine. Kinda breaks the cycle if he fully evolves, being full grass and what not. I Think he'll only evolve once.

Tepig :

Tepig might ( MIGHT! ) barely evolve into Pignite. No doubt that he's strong and what not, but he might not evolve. It's 50/50

Tranquil :

Obviously, she will evolve. All of Ash's birds evolve to there last form. No Doubt!

Scraggy :

Well... Scraggy may evolve. He just hatched from the egg about 10 episodes ago, so he's only about level 10. Usually if you hatch from an egg you take forever to evolve. He might evolve around Brycen's Gym.

Swadloon :

Swadloon most definitely will evolve.He/She already evolved at a low level. but... He/She kinda cancels out Servine from evolving into Serperior because shes Bug/Grass so... yeah.

Palpitoad :

Palpitoad doesnt really need to evolve. I mean, It would be cool if he did because seismitoad is sweet! But also it isnt exactly neccesary. He's also very tough and might pull a Charizard for awhile.

Roggenrola :

Roggenrola will evolve. It's Just because he wants to get stronger, and there will probably be some special episode for it. But im not so sure about Gigalith. I dont know if pokemon evolve without trading in the Anime.

Pikachu :

Pikachu will stay the same! If he evolves this season with the thunderstone I'll be pissed. They'd also lose alot of viewers. Well. Comment on what you Think!


Are you sure? Most of the time, ash has a hard time evolveing pokemon...
 
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You really think so? I mean Ash is pretty stupid at times , Sometimes more than others , But he truly cares about pokemon and can fill the requirement to where they can fully evolve if they wish.
 
purplesnorlax said:
Are you sure? Most of the time, ash has a hard time evolveing pokemon...

Are you being serious? Ash has been evolving the majority of his Pokemon since the beginning of Hoenn.

Its only in the Johto days Ash barely evolved his Pokemon, (only evo in said saga was Chikorita to Bayleef).

In Hoenn and Sinnoh his teams were almost all fully evolved but the water type. Gible was a late capture which I'm sure will evolve just like Phanpy did if Ash brings it back.

Truly the best thing about the show after Johto is that Ash's teams no longer suck. Granted I do love the Kanto team of Bulbasaur/Squirtle/Charizard, but I feel his Hoenn and Sinnoh teams were better.
 
New Japanese Episode, only one phrase with a matching photo to sum it up.
DetectiveTime.jpg

It´s Detective Time!!
He would look absolutely fabulous if he had a coat or something, because the hat and the waiter outfit don´t really match. Small steps though, small steps.

Either way, this is definately a look I´d want to see more of. Heck, I hope he wears it in the next chronilogical episode (since the next episode however is going back to the missing Rocket vs Plasma triology, we´ll have to wait for that). Either way, I shall now steal this image and use it as my avatar, because it is definately suited for Charms Mafia
 
Ahh In Australia they are still showing Shinnoh episodes. Where up to the leauge where Ash versed Nando
 
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So the end of the tournament happened in Japan, Iris won the whole thing and beat Ash in the finals with Excadrill.

Iris is the first main girl to ever beat Ash in the finals of a tournament, and only 44 eps into a series too. This certainly beats that cheap way Misty beat Ash in the Whirl Cup all those years ago, just by having Psyduck get a headache.

Its nice to have a main girl who doesn't totally suck at battling at first, or never had many good battles in the first place like Misty.
 
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Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

*has caught up with the anime after avoiding it for some time

It's quite nice being able to watch a bunch of episodes all at once.

Anyways, with the latest episode, Ash goes for his fourth badge by battling le supermodel Gym Leader Elesa (who is rocking a runway remix of Cheren's theme too) And I have to say...

This is Ash's crowning moment of stupid.

It was that bad. He started off the night before by planning a strategy. And the next day, he decides to bring Palpitoad in to fight Elesa's Electric posse. Pretty sound thinking, right? Well, it was until you realize Ash didn't bring anyone else on his team BUT Palpitoad. (A rather annoyed Pikachu was left at the sidelines to watch) Who, while able to defeat a Zebstrika, was pwn'd quickly by, of all things, an Emonga.

And it gets worse.

Ash actually runs out of the gym and returns moments later with his next Pokemon, Snivy. He decides to try using Attract on Emonga, which fails because as it turns out, both are female. (oh Ash, how long are you going to stay absolutely clueless?) To make things worse, he FORGETS Emonga's part flying type, and poor little Snivy can barely put up a fight against the squirrel. (Geez Ash, are you that ignorant of your friends' pokemon?) Were it not for Pikachu forcing Ash to battle with him, he probably would've had to spend a second night at Nimbasa for a rematch. (Pikachu: he knows he's hax, so he expects to be in every gym match from now on xD) Needless to say, Ash wins by the power of friendship, and spends the remainder of his trip partaking the NImbasa sights.

Sooooo, this episode is kind of funny. Everyone's over-the-top expressions were indeed entertaining. But man, after seeing such epic battles in Sinnoh, BW is really disappointing in terms of gym matches. Still, the show on the whole is still fairly entertaining (the TR-battle subway arc that came out several episodes prior was very epic) Will Ash ever obtain the brain cells he left in Pallet Town? Will Cilan ever admit that cafemochashipping is canon? Will Iris's near infinitessimal hair ever be fully explored? We'll just have to wait and see!
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Caught up with my subs again yesterday, and while the Sawsbuck episode strongly reminded me of Snap/Todd from first season... what a beautiful episode. I found myself smiling like a fool by the end of it. There's just something about Pokemon that can take an uneventful filler and make it completely gorgeous conceptually.

The rest of the show has been going swimmingly too. I'm loving that Ash has caught so many different Pokemon and how often he rotates between them. It's really refreshing, and hopefully we'll start seeing more evolutions in the second half of his badge collecting journey.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

So in the latest ep Iris doesn't keep the Deino from the daycare center. Oh well.

I am just glad Iris got another episode, she's really being left on the sidelines a lot.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

First, let me clarify... I wish I was following the Best Wishes variety these days rather than simply the english dub... However, the english dub alone is just as much as I can follow at this time. Nonetheless, I will discuss this current episode that I just finished, and will continue when I can.
--------------------------------------------
Quite simply, a Purrloin, who Cilan has a reasonable disdain with due to a previous encounter that suggests...many things, is running rampant and, after charming both Meowth, who has been travelling with them since last episode, AND Oshawott (Cheating on his love for Emolga? Or is he just moving on?), as well as Iris for a bit, who tries to catch the Purrloin in order to turn it 'good'.

It then promptly brings everyone to a cavern BUT Cilan, who refuses to follow it due to being the only one WHO ACTUALLY GETS WHAT IT IS TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH, and after getting them in a...compromising position, Purrloin purloins Ash's backpack, which everyone should have really seen coming.

Outside, Cilan meets Purrloin's trainer who probably got attacked by those random pokemon, considering she LEFT HER ONLY POKEMON AT HOME, and both of them rush to go find Purrloin.

Back inside, everyone who got screwed over by Purrloin suddenly discover there is conveniently quicksand masquerading as the cave's floor. After many foolhardy attempts, which result in Purrloin's trainer and Cilan joining the party in the quicksand as well as a snapped rope, Purrloin returns with the flock of Tranquil that it deceived earlier in the episode, all of which seems to have turned the other cheek with the first showing of a BEATING HEART, so that the protagonists and its trainer will live for another day...

After Meowth does some explaining, and both him and Oshawott provide MYSTERIOUSLY OBTAINED roses, the trainer reveals that Purrloin...is MALE. This is a kid's show and they insert THAT plot twist? Quite dodgy indeed...

Also, I forgot. Team Rocket is doing great without Meowth, and the Battle Subway seems to be their next target. I will take a wild guess, as I haven't read ahead, and say that their intent behind that involves using the subway to tranfer pokemon to that random jet they summoned to Anville Town.

Next episode... Beheeyem and the Dream Thief. In other words, this is going to be a GREAT episode, hopefully with temporary brainwashing or mind control.

And on top of that, THE BLACK VICTINI MOVIE! Definitely my first pokemon movie in many years that I will actually catch. Will talk about it and the episode in a week.

~Drakkon
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil


The new Ending Song for Best Wishes reveals quite a few spoilers regarding the main cast's teams. (Also why isn't there a new Opening Song yet? :<) With three badges left, it looks like Ash's team is shaping up nicely. Still, there's plenty of time for new acquisitions; and I certainly hope this will be the case. Not just for Ash, but for Cilan and Iris as well. Iris, in particular, needs to get at least one more dragon on her team imo.

Also, Team Plasma has been a no show for a good 65 episodes now. I'm starting to get a bit anxious to see them (and most especially, N and Ghetsis.)
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Good lord, I just gave the ED a watch. Then I had to watch it again. And again a few more times. It's just so darn beautiful. This is easily my favourite ED since Advance Generation's first. ;-;
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

The spoilers in the ending were pretty much a given. Nobody is going to be shocked that Ash's Pokemon evolve, they've all been evolving since the Hoenn days with the exception of a few.

We sure have come a long way from the Johto saga when Ash would only evolve like 1 Pokemon. It amazes me to this day how horribly handled the Johto seasons were with all those fillers and poorly handled Pokemon.

I am surprised Iris isn't getting anything new. She's turning into DP era Brock, she's mostly been ignored and hardly battles or captures Pokemon. Dare I say it, even Misty got better treatment than that.
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Whoo. I finally caught up to the Driftveil gym battle epi. Haven't watched it yet, but will later this evening!

The episodes involving the legendary flying-type trio were actually really good and quite touching near the end. But there are two things regarding the first episode that made me frown:

a. Why was Iris hopping like that? :|
b. Why did the characters insist on attacking the partial/full flying-types with Grass and Fighting-type moves?

Just... why... XD
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Sewaddle, Roggenrola, and then Tranquil.... Will ash stop evolving pokémon in gym battles this generation?!

let's glaze over the fact he's apparently forgotten everything he ever knew about pokémon because otherwise i'll start ranting and no one wants that...

There have been so many pluses about this generation so far, but ash really should have used his boldore against skyla, it's been completely ignored practically since capture =(

I'm assuming either tepig or swadloon will be evolving in the donamite competition coming up, hopefully we'll have at least snivy and oshawott in their middle stages before the league, I don't know if I want him having all 3 final forms. Frankly as I'm not a fan of any of the gen 5 final stages, i'll be happier if everything else evolves and he has 3 middle stages, although i'm guessing we'll be seeing emboar sometime soon, probably because ash at least knows how to train a fire/fighting type.


-Edit- just seen the Donamite competition rules, my bad, Ash uses Scraggy, so definitely not an evolution going through there... Oh well, soon.... sooon.... *finger pyramid of doom*
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

That's what happens when the writers gave Ash so many pokemon, they're all not getting much screentime besides the starters.

Anyone else feel like Iris is being ignored in favor of Cilan? It feels like Iris is very rarely showcased in any way while Cilan is getting a constant stream of episodes.

I honestly wonder if Iris is going to be dropped from the anime after the 8th Gym, but Cilan will stay on for the next arc about BW2.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

I think it's more likely that cilan will be dropped and Iris will stay, I only say this because Kibago isn't evolving until at least after the next movie, and the dream smoke episode from the start of the series showed it wanting to evolve into haxorus, unless it gets left as an unfinished story arc, I can see Iris being around for a while.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Cilan, unless B+W2 is going to be the first part of a continuing franchise, and we'll have both of them following ash for a few years akin to brock and misty being there 'til hoenn, I'd rather see Cilan go south than Iris leaving. She has a lot more potential as a dragon trainer than Cilan and his constant douchebaggery "I'm a fishing connoisseur" "I'm a subway connoisseur" "I'm ash's first openly gay friend" well ok the last one was fake but we're all thinking it.

Iris travelling with ash could last for at least a couple of generations as the anime stresses how hard it is to train dragon types, we could end up with her training kibago and later fraxure whilst also training dragons from other generations like a bagon for example. In fact, if a gen 3 remake is in the works, I'd be very happy to see her training a bagon =)
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

To be honest I think Cilan will last longer because he was much more successful at replacing Brock than Tracey was. I think the writers regretted keeping Brock for DP, which is why he was ignored for that entire saga and lost his role on the show. It honestly seemed like Brock had no real purpose to be in DP other than to explain battles.

Cilan is much more active as a companion and Iris seems to be getting very little screentime. The writers also like bringing in a new female protagonist every gen so I'll have trouble seein Iris staying when they can bring in the next girl over her.

The only reason Misty lasted as long as she did was there were no girls to replace her with at the start of Johto. Had Kris existed in GS instead of Crystal we might have seen Misty leave right after Orange Islands. The writers even confirmed they never cared for the character.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

I think they develop the two characters very differently, Cilan they've fleshed out to show he has skills in areas other than just pokémon and cooking, in a way replacing the idea that all brock did was cook and flirt with girls (hense why Cilan has shown no interest in a woman, ever).

Then again, looking at the way they've introduced Bianca to the series, I could imagine keeping Iris around at least until kibago is a haxorus, and having the next female companion appearing on and off like bianca.

I just really want to see Cilan get hit by a bus or something, he's just so awful.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Yay~RLRL's back! :D Hopefully the Anime discussion thread will be more lively now ^^

RLRL said:
There have been so many pluses about this generation so far, but ash really should have used his boldore against skyla, it's been completely ignored practically since capture =(

I think it's sort of Ash's way of saying "screw typing, Pokemon battling is all about enjoying the carnage of wild animals forced to fight each other to the death." Skyla became bored because she didn't like people bringing Pokemon that would specifically have a type advantage against her. Ash defeating her with Pokemon that would seemingly have no advantage against her own (except maybe Pikachu) was probably meant to be symbolic. Besides, fighting by the book has never been Ash's thing.

RLRL said:
I just really want to see Cilan get hit by a bus or something, he's just so awful.

Maybe he'll get cornered in a warehouse by the International Police and shot down as he admits he was the killer all along? :D

But seriously, anime Skyla is the worst Gym Leader ever. Whoever says otherwise or supports her in any way should be strung up by their thumbs and forced to eat wasabi through their nose.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

^_^ I'll try and keep it as lively as possible, I tend to be really OTT when it comes to the anime, heck, I'm still annoyed with Ash for using such a terrible team for his final sinnoh league battle... But that's irrelevant.

Makes sense he didn't use boldore if Skyla was getting all emo about type disadvantages, shame he still used pikachu really, would have been better to see him beat her with scraggy then, I would have said Snivy, but we had that in Hoenn with grovyle, and apart from unfezant, attract probably wouldn't have worked...

Donamite will be fun, looking forward to seeing Trip's conkeldurr, and the mienshao that's participating. All the Simi's don't overly appeal, but they'll be worth seeing in battle I assume.
More importantly, I really am looking forward to seeing Ash's brycen match which should be in about 12 weeks, maybe longer because of donamite, I'd hope his team will be Pignite (assuming tepig will evolve by then) Scraggy, and Pikachu. I'm only saying Pikachu because he's pretty much guaranteed to participate, hoping for boldore or palpitoad is probably asking too much.

I'm quite shocked that I actually quite like ash's palpitoad, I hated that pokémon when I first saw it, both in the games and the anime. I thought it was so odd how it was mean in the wild, then as soon as ash catches it and throws it out into battle it became such a happy little critter! All I can think of when I see Palpitoad is that I want it to pull an epic face!

Hopefully there will be some extra BW2 plotlines coming through possibly after Ash does the league, if anything, the sinnoh league seemed very rushed, and then just suddenly, after an epic(ish) battle against darkrai and latios, ash just mooses off to unova without even a pause, forgetting everything in the process. Maybe it's a set up for a filler season in Hoenn again, but Unova is moving along a lot faster than Sinnoh, and I'm personally a lot happier about that.
I'll even be happier if, just as a continuation or something, Ash goes around challenging his old rivals to rematches for a season, although personally I'd like to see him participate in another past league. They normally allude to the idea the league tournaments happen annually, Ash only used his Hoenn pokémon in the hoenn league, I presume it'l be the same in Unova, but if he then went to Hoenn and competed with his unova pokémon there, it could lead to some fun battles, and as I've said before, Iris getting a bagon =)

Ah wishful thinking... Maybe I should try and get a job writing for the anime...
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Best Wishes is a fresh start, I doubt any old character will appear this time around. Gary was brought back for DP and he only ever got 3 episodes over that entire series, and now he's likely gone from the show again.

And sadly I doubt we'll ever see Paul again, even though he was the best rival of the show.

I don't know why people constantly think characters from the past will return, the writers usually constantly move forward and older characters fade away into the past. I am willing to also bet that Best Wishes will be the first saga without any old main character getting a cameo.

I agree that Ash was regressed in Best Wishes. He feels like the way he was in Johto again, where he was better than he was in Kanto but not a strong and experienced trainer like he was during the second half of AG and DP.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

I agree it's very unlikely any old character apart from possibly Gary will ever show up in Unova, even then it's more likely Ash will either talk to him during the league, or he'll just be seen in a cut scene watching the league from pallet with the prof, tracey, and ash's mum.
Any chance of seeing old characters would only be on the off chance of a battle frontier style series in Hoenn, depending on what happens in BW2. That'l be the best indication of whatever will happen next.

Better idea, N and Ghestis will be antagonists for a Unova series before the league lasting at least a 10 episode story arc. That's probably more wishful thinking than any other rival showing up but y'no

Also, Tripp is a better rival than Paul, but I'm biased because he both looks like, and shares the name with my friend, who also always has his camera on him =)
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

I think the funniest part of Best Wishes is the fact that Team Rocket haven't even appeared in roughly half the episodes. Before this saga TR were in every single episode since episode 2...and they NEVER missed an episode.

Now in Best Wishes they actually don't appear in roughly 50% of them. I really wonder if the writers are finally going to have Jessie/James/Meowth leave the show after all this time. It does seem to be building up to an epic TR conclusion with Giovanni at the end of the saga.

Kind of strange in a way, if TR really do leave then Ash/Pikachu will be the only remaining characters from the beginning of the show, since everyone else is now gone.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

The Donamite battle I'm looking forward to the most is Dewott vs Excadrill 8D

Also if it's any consolation regarding the old characters, Tracey was mentioned in an earlier episode. He was supposed to talk to Ash on the phone before the episode's plot started getting underway and he was unfortunately cut off xD

I don't know what to think of Trip right now. At first glance, people think he's the new Paul, owing to how he always looks down on Ash and is an obnoxiously intelligent trainer. But with the Alder episode, he's pretty much set as the anime equivalent of Cheren; and Cheren really bugged me in the game. Mostly because compared to him, Bianca was character development done right.

Anime Bianca on the other hand is just Barry in a dress, so it's rather annoying, too. Ash seriously needs a better female rival; one who's actually serious about becoming league champion like he is, but has enough differences with him that they can both develop, kinda like Paul.
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

I love that TR have pretty much left the anime, they got too repetitive in Johto, I had hoped they'd be dropped as characters in Hoenn but instead we've had them for 2 more generations. I'm very glad they've actually gone back to their original ways of actually being villains rather than just being comic relief, by the end of Sinnoh I was so uninterested in TR I'd normally just skip through their battles.

I think Ash went the wrong way about even trying to talk to trip in the first place, and the writers decision to make Pikachu lose to a level 5 snivy was a terrible decision, instantly giving him more of a reason to have a superiority complex over ash. Your comparison to Cheren is pretty valid though, I just wonder if Cheren will make an appearance, if he does, I want him to lose to Ash so badly he packs up his pokéballs and mopes home to mummy. Cheren is the most annoying rival in the games so far, even more annoying than barry's "THUDD" bits.

I agree Bianca is barry in a dress, they'd make a pretty cute couple though :p I wonder if she'll even participate in the league? More likely is if she gets in she'll be just like barry and get knocked out early on and just sit around cheering, then running into things repeatedly.
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
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Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

RLRL said:
Also, Tripp is a better rival than Paul, but I'm biased because he both looks like, and shares the name with my friend, who also always has his camera on him =)

No. Just no. Keep your bias! Paul > Tripp. You know this in your heart to be true. ;)

You've guys have been writing up a storm so I'll need to fully read everyone's posts laterz, but I will comment on the idea of TR leaving indefinitely... (Rant Mode go!)

I personally would hate to see the trio leave if the writers aren't going to step it up again and give us new antagonists. During the Sinnoh saga we had Team Galactic, Paul, Hunter J, and TR (whenever they were actually being antagonists), but so far for Best Wishes we've had ... erm, sparse appearances of TR and Tripp? As much as I disliked the radical personality changes of the TR trio during the first half of Best Wishes, they were much more interesting then than they are now. I really appreciated how they broke things up. In that same light, Anime!Skyla might have annoyed the crap out of me but at least she provided some great conflict for both Cilan and Ash.

While I'm loving this saga overall, lately it is starting to feel rather boring. As interesting as Ash's badge quests are, I tired of them being the major focus back in Johto. The inclusion of contests, while unrefined in the beginning, was refreshing and something new to enjoy. I wasn't sad to see them go because Sinnoh did such a great job fleshing them out, but now? Eh... Cilan and Iris can only do so much. The decision to not mirror Team Plasma's plot throughout the Unova saga was likely to stay true to its Indigo League-ish feel and make Best Wishes stand apart, but I think it would've been a lot more interesting with N randomly popping up as another an ongoing rival for Ash.

tl;dr, I wouldn't mind TR leaving the show if something else replaces them, but as things stand now it'd be a bad idea. :?
 
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Linkachu said:
While I'm loving this saga overall, lately it is starting to feel rather boring. As interesting as Ash's badge quests are, I tired of them being the major focus back in Johto. The inclusion of contests, while unrefined in the beginning, was refreshing and something new to enjoy. I wasn't sad to see them go because Sinnoh did such a great job fleshing them out, but now? Eh... Cilan and Iris can only do so much.

True, but between May and Dawn they did pretty much everything they could do with the Contest storyline. If you combine them together, we sat through over 30 Contest episodes and 3 Grand Festivals.

The problem is there's nothing to replace them. The Pokeathlon and Musicals only got 1 episode fillers because they're not something you can turn into a long story arc. And anything else like the Battle Frontier falls under battling, so its something Ash will do.

Its obvious BW is a "back to basics" approach. Iris and Cilan have almost the exact same roles that Misty/Brock did with only minor differences. Ash is the sole star of the show again with Iris having a smaller role than past female stars.

I think these "Don battle tournaments" are essentially the replacement for contests now, which is why we see Iris and Cilan compete in them instead of just Ash.
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Re: Weekly Anime Discussion - You bet your ass there's spoil

Admittedly I don't know much about these Donamite battle episodes you three have been mentioning. The most recent episode I've watched was Ash vs Skyla which, for the record, was an amazing Gym Battle and likely the best example of aerial battling the entire Anime series has ever produced. It completely made up for the fact that Skyla needed to be slapped, repeatedly! =D

I think these "Don battle tournaments" are essentially the replacement for contests now, which is why we see Iris and Cilan compete in them instead of just Ash.

Could be just as you say, which I'm quite happy with. Tournaments like these give everyone an excuse to get fired up! :3

I just hope that between now, the Unova League, and whatever comes afterwards that we'll see a new, ongoing sub-plot emerge that shakes things up a bit more. Doesn't need to be much as long as it's entertaining. :)
 
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