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Review DP189: Shin'ō League Semi-Finals! Enter Darkrai!!

My guesses on the silhouetted pokemon:
1st- Granbull
2nd- Empoleon
3rd- Magnezone
4th- Zangoose
5th- Mismagius

Even if I am wrong, it doesn't matter at this point. Takuto still won the final battle with just Darkrai and won the Suzuran Conference.

Disappointed that we didn't get to see more of Takuto, he looks like a very interesting character. Not really evil as I thought, but rather more experienced and mystical.
 
Great D. Liver said:
Edit: Comparing it to Iteru's picture, I'm sure it's not Empoleon. The collar's thicker, and its just off. I know it's something though, just can't think of it.
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Couldn't it just be an animator thing, I mean seriously no other Pokemon fits, and its not likely they threw a silhouette of a 5th gen Pokemon on the screen. It might not look right but there can be no doubt that it's Empoleon. Just chalk it up to the animator not caring about the Silhouttes of defeated Pokemon.

Oh and you may be right the 4th Pokemon might be Zangoose.
 
Snake Bandage said:
This is cheaper than Ash's loss to Richie all the way back in the Indigo League.
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Quoted for massive LOLs.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in this thread. And that's saying a lot, because people are crying that Takuto has legendaries, but they would GLADLY accept Ash wielding legends if he had the ability to catch them instead of just meeting them. :lol:

Stop being so two faced, people. There are better trainers out there than Ketchum.
 
I think it's funny to be honest, all this hype around Darkrai and then low and behold takuto pulls out another movie pokemon who died.

I guess he has a Celebii and Lucario too, that just leaves his last two slots lol.
 
dman_dustin said:
No seriously, Ash is at a disadvantage from the start, and when he beats that disadvantage you immediately call it B.S.
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It's not the fact that he overcomes the odds it's the how. That's what killed this battle. Ash has a Darkrai in front of him... how does he defeat him? By divising a strategy? By showing his ability to think under pressure? By showing the variety in his training style? Noooooooooooooooo cause then the battle might have actually made the tiniest bit of sense and feel like an actual achievement.

You know, Sceptile isn't that cheap considering Heracross and Gible laid some hurt on Darkrai too, but still it wouldn't have hurt to actually throw some strategy in there instead of having Ash put his brain on mute and just call attacks for half an hour... Though nothing beats Pikachu... Mr. Can't beat an Aggron, Mr. Can't beat Paul's Electivire, Mr. Barely scrapes by to beat a Froslass... That Pikachu... can now tie with legendaries... Seriously, it was barely more believable than Regice...

Takuto was the definition of Deus Ex Machina.
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Educate yourself before throwing words you don't understand around...

Let's face the facts here, had Takuto not shown his mysterious face, Ash would've won the league.
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Yeah, he would have won it like he won against Conway and Paul, with strategy, with using the opponent's tactics against him, with improvisation. Tactics, improvisation, believable satisfying conclusion... things that were missing from this episode....

I'm cool with a trainer using legendaries in a League battle, that doesn't cheapen the battle, but when the Legendaries are shown to go down to 4-5 hits, most of them without type advantage... just saying...

I know you really like Ash but I'm sorry, had that been any other character you would have been the first one to call BS on a similar match. You've called BS on non-Ash matches for far less so come off your high horses...
 
Abaddon said:
Quoted for massive LOLs.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in this thread. And that's saying a lot, because people are crying that Takuto has legendaries, but they would GLADLY accept Ash wielding legends if he had the ability to catch them instead of just meeting them. :lol:

Stop being so two faced, people. There are better trainers out there than Ketchum.
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I would've been just as pissed if Ash had a legendary. Same with pseudo-legendaries. I was able to withstand Gible only because it never evolved and was the stupidest Pokemon I have ever seen.
 
Gible said:
It's not the fact that he overcomes the odds it's the how. That's what killed this battle. Ash has a Darkrai in front of him... how does he defeat him? By divising a strategy? By showing his ability to think under pressure? By showing the variety in his training style? Noooooooooooooooo cause then the battle might have actually made the tiniest bit of sense and feel like an actual achievement.
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Again blame time, but don't blame the Pokemon for actually getting wins.

You know, Sceptile isn't that cheap considering Heracross and Gible laid some hurt on Darkrai too, but still it wouldn't have hurt to actually throw some strategy in there instead of having Ash put his brain on mute and just call attacks for half an hour
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Again time was against the battle. It was rushed there was no time for strategies, and could you really expect anything with Sceptile's move set. And Ash did use strategy with Pikachu but failed rather miserably except the ending move. I mean come on they are over powered Pokemon, how the hell was any strategy going to work. Did you see Heracross get raped even though Ash had something up his sleeve for when Heracross was asleep. Kind of hard to pull successful strategies, when the opponent wouldn't be phased by them.


Educate yourself before throwing words you don't understand around...
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Oh in that case Pikachu vs Regice wasn't Deus Ex Machina then since Volt tackle sure as hell didn't come out of nowhere. And if we go by the definition of Deus Ex Machina, it doesn't say unbelievable wins count for Deus Ex Machina, only the method of how a certain "win" is achieved, yes I guess thunder armor is the perfect example of Deus Ex Machina. But Pikachu vs Regice wasn't if you want to go for the proper definition.

And are we sure Deus Ex Machina only counts for Protagonists. Because it seems to me that using legendaries to win and beat Ash, is a serious ass pull to me. It looks like like Deus Ex Machina to me. Latios sure as hell wasn't foreshadowed, I might give you Darkrai since it was revealed I think in the VS Nando match, but I can't give Latios, the definition of Deus Ex Machina covers Latios. Since it came out of nowhere and was Takuto's way of beating Ash. Not sure why DEUS EX MACHINA should only apply to protagonist, since that's completely unfair.


Yeah, he would have won it like he won against Conway and Paul, with strategy, with using the opponent's tactics against him, with improvisation. Tactics, improvisation, believable satisfying conclusion... things that were missing from this episode....
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Nando, Conway were 3 on 3's and definitely had the time. Paul was covered in over how many episode. Why would you think a full battle in one episode would be anything more than OHKO's is kind of beyond me. I don't see how (even if you cut out Team Rocket) it would've worked.

I'm cool with a trainer using legendaries in a League battle, that doesn't cheapen the battle, but when the Legendaries are shown to go down to 4-5 hits, most of them without type advantage... just saying...
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So it's okay for the opponent to OHKO a protagonist's Pokemon but the Protagonist needs to hit the opponent like infinite amount of times before its acceptable. Bull Shit legendaries or not.

I know you really like Ash but I'm sorry, had that been any other character you would have been the first one to call BS on a similar match. You've called BS on non-Ash matches for far less so come off your high horses...
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No I wouldn't have. What are you talking about the protagonist still lost. Do you mean a Protagonist doing this to some other character? Maybe depends on the opponent. But when a Protagonist loses 6-2 (the second being a tie), I would never call it B.S. on the Protagonist's side. Where you got that is beyond me.

Oh do you mean if it was like Dawn vs Takuto, and she had the same results? Of course I would call it B.S. on Dawn's side, Ash is how much more experienced? And what did Ash accomplish just the previous episode. I can see Dawn beating Takuto in a contest battle (of course her Pokemon would have not get hit) but a straight up knock out battle. Hell no. I mean if you think I should get off my high horse because I would call it B.S. on Dawn's side, then you must loathe Ash that he can even be compared to Dawn in terms of normal Pokemon battling. Which is B.S. in of itself. Dawn would not be able to beat Ash at all in a battle, Ash is just to strong for her. Dawn would probably kill Ash in a contest battle, no doubt, but a regular battle, no. Though I admit Mamoswine might be a challenge,
 
There's so much whining here...

The writers were way more interested in having an epic action-packed Pokémon battle, and Latios needed an anime appearence at some point.

Besides, this is the third last episode of the series, and there's a cosmic deadline. So of course it's going to be rushed.

I thought the episode was a fitting end to the Sinnoh League. The Latios/Pikachu fight was extremely intense, and alot more interesting then Darkrai shooting Dark Void and Nightmaring six times in a row.

Oh, and the correct term for a Dues Ex Machina where the protagonist is destined to lose is called a Diablous Ex Machina.
 
Zeta said:
Also, you'd think the Pokemon League would disqualify people for using Legendaries. You know, like they do in real-life tournaments, and the Battle Frontier, etc.
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I guess it's almost unheard of for most people in the world of the anime to even encounter a legendary, much less having a few at your beck and call. So naturally they wouldn't have rules like that in place because they never thought about needing to enforce them.

To be honest, I really detest the high pedastal Legendaries as a whole are placed on. They should be treated like any other Pokémon, and I'm kinda glad that the anime is going in this direction.
 
Gible said:
I wouldn't say craziest as much as boring and predictable. I don't know what to say, I don't think I've ever been that angry while watching a pokemon episode. It was just that bad.
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That whole rant of yours and subsequent bitching has really turned me off.

PDL puts it nicely. It's all about action-packed sequences against a cosmic deadline (that's a nice term) or timelimit. If you want crazy logistical strategies, go play the games themselves. The best part is you have all the time in the world to plan out your moves!

I enjoyed the episode because I knew what we were getting into, with little surprises along the way that were a treat for me.
 
Zeta said:
Also, you'd think the Pokemon League would disqualify people for using Legendaries. You know, like they do in real-life tournaments, and the Battle Frontier, etc.
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That's what I've been saying since Takuto and his bloody Darkrai came to the audience's attention. There should be rules about this sort of shit.
 
Zeta said:
Takuto is actually the definition of Diabolus Ex Machina:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DiabolusExMachina

Also, you'd think the Pokemon League would disqualify people for using Legendaries. You know, like they do in real-life tournaments, and the Battle Frontier, etc.
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From an in-universe perspective, the league probably thinks that if a trainer has been able to capture a Legendary they deserve to use it.

I do think Legendaries are sometimes portrayed as TOO strong in the anime. I mean, they're stronger than normals but not really THAT much stronger than high-end "regulars". I mean, in-game my Slaking handled two of Brandon's Regis, and I've beaten other Legendary using enemies with non-legends, not even necessarily things with Dragonite-level stats.
 
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Abaddon said:
Quoted for massive LOLs.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in this thread. And that's saying a lot, because people are crying that Takuto has legendaries, but they would GLADLY accept Ash wielding legends if he had the ability to catch them instead of just meeting them. :lol:

Stop being so two faced, people. There are better trainers out there than Ketchum.
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Um, no. I'm well aware that there are people better tham Ash. What REALLY gets me is how Diablos Ex Machina Takuto's character was. Want to wield Legendaries? Fine, Takuto's boss, Ash can't fuck with that. What WOULD have been nice would be an explanation - even a short one - as to how Takuto caught Legendaries that Ash has previously met. Didn't Latios even save Ash's life? And here he acts as if he doesn't even know it.

Say what you want to make everyone look bad for not liking Takuto but he's a Stu, plain and simple.
 
Snake Bandage said:
That's what I've been saying since Takuto and his bloody Darkrai came to the audience's attention. There should be rules about this sort of shit.
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Why? If a trainer is skilled enough to capture a legendary pokemon then they should be able to use it in the league. Otherwise anyone who beat them wouldn't have beat them at their strongest. Takuto is a skilled enough trainer to capture two legendaries and have them listen to him in battle. That says something about his quality as a trainer. If you don't like it thats fine but Takuto isn't being cheap by using strong pokemon that he captured in a league competition
 
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