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Review S15 EP13: Battling the King of the Mines!

garrison-san

someone in the dark
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BW061 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Ash is excited to finally have the chance to face off against Driftveil gym leader Clay, who specialises in ground-type pokemon. Clay starts by sending out his Krokorok, while Ash chooses to start the battle with Oshawott, giving him a type advantage. Things get more complicated, however, when Clay orders Krokorok to use Sandstorm, blinding Oshawott and making it difficult for him to land a hit against the Desert Croc pokemon. Can Ash devise a cunning strategy to counter Sandstorm and stop Clay in his tracks?
 
Still a kinda lackluster gym. Oh Cilan, you don't know Ash as well as we do. Attract is totally not in Ash's character.
 
You got that right.

Because of this episode, I will now forever imagine Clay as Yosemite Sam.

Great.

"Oooooh, ah hate that rabbit!" Oh my God, you're right!

That said, this battle was crazy. Several Horn Drills to the face and Roggenrola's still standing. Anime physics at work.
 
Good battle. Episode does make me wonder what Clay says to his female challengers....


"No! No! No! No! That attack is totally unbecoming of a young lady! You need finesse and daintiness DARLING!"

Anyway, onto the positive and negatives....

+DAT EVOLUTION ANIMATION!
+Snivy flatout wrecking Palpitoad
-Come on Animators! I know the animations you have for Snivy are nice, but GIVE HER SOME NEW ONES!
+Clay's freakout after Palpitoad's loss
-Wish that maybe Oshawott had finished a bit stronger.
 
Okay, Eitarou and NoodleChefKyle said what I was gonna say. And yes, it was derpy that Roggenrola survived a half-dozen Drill Runs and a Horn Drill and was still able to evolve and take out Excadrill with a few Rock Smashes.
 
Y'know, with the way Clay was designed, I think I would have been disappointed if he DIDN'T have that over-the-top Yosemite Sam voice. If he had a normal voice it would have been much more... weird, I think.

It was kinda refreshing to see Ash utilize type logic for once, seeing as he was so adamantly against it for no explained reason for most of the series up to this point. Though that was kinda thrown out the window with Roggenrola. It was kinda nice to see Ash utilizing a defensive strategy, but the way Sturdy is displayed in the anime is total bullshit because it just turns that one-time ability into a stereotypical plot device. Roggenrola really couldn't do shit on its own until it evolved, so that didn't necessarily reflect positively on it. And like I claimed before, learning Rock Smash is so underwhelming because it's a move we've seen a dozen times before. There were plenty of viable Gen V moves that hadn't been shown off that could've debuted here, but... nope. Just Rock Smash. Whatever. Toppling over Ash doesn't really establish a personality for Boldore; tons of past Pokemon had done that before and had more personality than that. And blah, evolving during a gym battle, we've all seen that before.

Clay's backstory was neat for what we got, at least. Shades of the Ash that Ash should be during the episode was nice, if fleeting. I am noticing that Iris and Cilan's conversations during gym battles are awfully generic and repetitive, though. Not sure why they're bothering me in this particular series, but...
 
This was a really entertaining gym episode. Lots of intensity.

Clay is such an awesome man! It just got to be his accent.

Ash's Pokemon did great. Oshawott fought hard and Snivy was in her old, epic ways.

The new evolution animation sure is epic. I like how Roggenrola/Boldore had those angry red eyes during his evolution.

Boldore sure had a hard fight with Excadrill. Very intense.
 
Oh gosh, I've never seen a Boldore look so badass before! That evolution sequence was incredible...and I loved how it was all shiny after it evolved, too. :D

Excadrill's use of Rapid Spin and Horn Drill was...interesting. o_O I never expected Rapid Spin to work like that.

Speaking of Excadrill, he sounded really underwhelming, especially when he was first sent out. I mean...really. ._.

Overall, I am still disappointed that Ash won using a Pokémon that had a major disadvantage, but...I guess it was a good episode. :x

And lol at Clay getting mad because Ash didn't "fight fair."
 
Amazing episode, clay's voice actor was really over the top and it suited his character
 
Was it just me or Sarah sounded much more cheerful in this episode, it was like she isn't just following the lines but was into the character. She sounded better than usual.
 
I really wish I have this Roggenrola in my team:

-A pokemon that despite being rock type and weak against Ground types,Ground-type moves has no affect on it.

-No matter how many times it get hit,its ability Sturdy is still activated.

-despite having no experience in battles it still can beat fully evolved pokemon with high levels with only 2 hits regardless of type disadvantages.


WOW !! I think Ash can become the champion easily using only this unbeatable Boldore.
 
I guess it's less of an insult to the intelligence that way, given where it cuts off to a commerical break.

"GO EXCADRILL!"
"EXCADRILL!!!"
"WHO'S DAT POKEMON?!"
Gee, I wonder.
 
First of all, I'm glad to see (hear?) that a lot more of the music was kept than I thought, though the music that was replaced seemed extraordinarily unmemorable. I will never remember the dub music played during the elevator ride, but I remembered - all the way back to when the episode was aired in Japan - the gym battle music that played right when Ash sent out Oshawott and commanded an Aqua Jet. The music really set the mood for the rest of the battle.

The animation was great, I thought. The gym was very well-designed and the use of the entire field was pretty sweet.

Like Shinneth said, I would have been disappointed if Clay hadn't received an over-the-top Southern accent, simply because his design practically begs for it. When I first met Clay in the games, I pretty much read his dialogue in an accent very much like the one he was given. So I thought that was very well done. (Though I wish he'd come up with a few synonyms for "whippersnapper" so he didn't use it so often. Seriously, I think of Clay in like his mid/late-forties so I don't even think he'd be old enough to justify use of the word. xD I did however enjoy his use of the word "son" when referring to Ash.)

I completely sympathize with Clay on the whole Attract thing. Seriously, who hasn't yelled at their game at least once when their Pokémon was under the spell of Attract? I know I have.

Oshawott vs Krokorok. That battle was what I want to see out of Ash for the rest of the series. Not only did he properly use type advantage but he remembered that he used to be pretty good at unexpected improv moves with the whole "spinning Water Gun into a Rain Dance substitution" to wash the water out of Oshawott's eyes. That was clever, and the battle was awesome.

It was kind of nice to see the difference between Hydro Pump and Water Gun in the Palpitoad/Oshawott battle. So often, crappy moves are made to look stronger than they are. (I remember having seen Fire Spin hold off Flamethrower in the past, which bugged me, so this was refreshing to see that there's a clear strength difference between the moves.)

Snivy vs Palpitoad was not as good as the first battle. I think Palpitoad should have gotten a few hits in before Attract froze it for the rest of the fight. Especially given how it destroyed Oshawott. I just think Snivy got too easy a win out of it.

Excadrill was really awesome against Snivy. Rapid Spin was a great way to cover its defenses while attacking at the same time. I'm glad Attract has its downfalls, though it's still odd to me that it can be physically countered like that. Oh well.

It was in the Roggenrola/Excadrill fight that I got annoyed. I counted no fewer than seven Drill Runs that scored direct hits on the thing. Seven. Seven. Then after it evolved, it got another Drill Run right in the face before miraculously taking out Excadrill with one Rock Blast - not very effective against a ground/steel type - and everyone's favorite Rock Smash. Sturdy is nice and all but no rock type - NONE - can take seven direct ground type moves and survive (and then another after it evolved). Anime logic at its worst here.

Also:

Iris: That Palpitoad looks a lot stronger than Ash's!
...
Iris: That Excadrill is huge!

That Excadrill looks a lot stronger than yours, Iris!

Maybe Clay's Palpitoad looks a lot stronger than Ash's because Clay's a gym leader who's probably trained that Palpitoad for a long freaking time? Iris and Cilan could have stayed silent during this match and I would have been just fine.

Overall a great gym battle, barring the whole invincible Sturdy thing. I wish we get to see Clay again in the future, since he's a very entertaining character with an interesting backstory.
 
During the first two rounds I was thinking that this gym battle would turn out to be the best one in BW so far. The battles were action-packed, intense and, what's even better, Ash FINALLY showed some strategical thinking. Not only did he come up with a plan how to drive Excadrill out of his hole, he also acted like a clever trainer with foresight when choosing Snivy instead of carelessly sending out the next best Pokemon that comes to his mind (as he seemed to do in in the past sometimes)
Unfortunately, however, the writers couldn't keep up their good performance for the rest of the fight. Sure, the way Roggenrola's evolution was animated was truly excellent but the battle itself ended up being rather disappointing. First, you could argue that Roggenrola already had to endure too many hits by Excadrill in order to be still able to defeat it, but I'd say that's questionable and can't really be solved anymore although the way Sturdy was shown off didn't feel right to me to be honest.
But what actually bugged me was the fact that Boldore managed to defeat its opponent with relative ease. If it's true what Clay said about his partner (and why should he have been lying in the first place?), then how come a newly evolved Pokemon that is doubly weak(!) against Excadrill can defeat it with an attack that actually shouldn't do a thing to a Steel/Ground-type. However good the first part of the match was, I'm afraid the final showdown was a bit of a letdown.

Apart from the aforementioned inconsistencies, it was a very good gym battle nevertheless,
 
Pretty good episode, and tied with Lenora for my favourite Gym Battle of BW so far. I'm a little upset Clay probably won't appear again after this, he was so much fun. I couldn't wait to see his rant in English, and it didn't disappoint me at all. XD It's good to finally see Ash become more competent and rely on type advantages again, (For the most part) even though it feels like it's come out of nowhere. I loved Oshawott high-fiving Ash & Pikachu and seeing Snivy's return to glory after her disastrous appearance at the last Gym.

Iris: "Why would Ash use a move like Attract?"
Cilan: "Why? Because it's a typical Ash move, that's why!"

What are you hinting at, Cilan?
 
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This episode kept 10 out of 17 pieces of Japanese music, if anyone's wondering.

I liked Clay calling Ash out on his Attract abuse. It's getting repetitive at this point.
 
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