Review BW042: Decisive Don Battle! Satoshi VS Iris!!

[Aestivate]

For me personally, it's not so much the anime as a whole that bothers me, just the way this tournament was written and how the characters were portrayed (or... nor portrayed. I'm looking at you, Shootie. except not.)

For the most part I enjoy the cast, it's just the tournament in and of itself was so appallingly bad and such a fiasco that it stands in huge contrast with the rest of series.

Fingers crossed that the Nyarth episodes restore my faith in the writing.

 

[Masurao]

You know I'm all with freedom of speech and constructive criticism, but if the anime bothers you guys that much, why do you guys still watch? Complaining won't fix anything.

I've been fine with the anime for a while, it wasn't really till after episode 36 of Best Wishes that my interest in Iris as a character started to greatly waver. I like good story-telling, and Iris getting all these conveniences thrown her way in this tournament, especially in the finals, is just not good writing. Plain and simple.

 

[Lafayette Excadrill]

The only thing I'm upset with is all the gags that they played to death (Bianca/Zorua, Cilan/Cabernet, Kenyan, & Iris/Langley). I'm not upset with Iris winning because at least someone on the main cast won (which rarely happens) and her win might play a huge role in the future. But all the time they cut away from the battling to have those other useless scenes in every episode was just crazy.

 

[Ampharos King]

Looks like everything came true, and that's just sad. This tournament didn't contribute anything to the story at all, because no really grew or developed at all.

Well, this is not entirely true. A lot has happened during this tournament that should be noted as either development or leading into future development:
- Ash uses Palpitoad for the first time in battle during this tournament. If it wasn't for the Don Battle Tournament, who knows when Palpitoad might have been used. We should be grateful that the writers didn't force Ash to use Tepig or Oshawott in this tournament, as they would have been the most likely choices after Snivy and/or Pikachu.
- Ash and Trip bonding somewhat during the second episode of the tournament. Trip surely wasn't the main focus of this story arc, but his loss against Cilan proves that he is a still a beginning trainer.
- Iris's Axew learns Outrage. This will possibly lead into Axew getting more screentime as it learns to either control Outrage or Iris feels confident enough that it might be used in future battles as a result of it learning Outrage.

This tournament had a lot of excellent battles that must be accounted for. If we didn't already know the winners of such battles, we would have looked at this tournament differently. The battles and animation during this story arc were superb. This story arc more than makes up for the lack of appearances by the recurring rivals. In fact, these recurring rivals have appeared so much in this tournament that some of us may already be sick of their presence. A lot of great battles took place in this story arc and we got a lot of different character interactions between those rivals that we may never see again together.

This is not to say that there weren't some things in this tournament that I didn't approve of, but I'll take the bad with the good and hope that the writers will showcase each and every one of these rivals individually in the future. This series is still young and we do not know how long it will last.

Now that this tournament is over, the writers can focus on less important issues like showcasing Ash's other pokemon. Iris may have received the golden treatment during the tournament, but Ash will be the one who will come on top since his gym battle is coming up.

 

[Iteru]

This tournament didn't really contribute anything to the story at all, because no really grew or developed at all. It was just the Iris show.

I agree pretty much with all you said. The tournament overall was very anti-climatic and it feels as if the writers didn't really know what they wanted to do due to all of the re-used gags, some of the short and lackluster battles, as well as a final match that ultimately made Satoshi look pretty bad against a character who isn't one of his rivals.

I think the main benefit this tournament had was that Langley was allowed to show more of a comedy side compared to her debut, as well as Kenyan and Carbernet showing that they're still interesting characters who will likely be around till the end of the saga.

Overall, the whole thing was disappointing in my opinion. Arguably I think this is the most disappointing part of Best Wishes so far as the potential was there to fix ongoing problems (like the rivalry with Shooty, lack of screentime for some of the rotationals) but instead it gave more focus to Iris who in my opinion didn't need it at this point in time.

I'm looking forward to moving on to what appears to be a better arc next week, and hoping that this tournament will mark a period of focus on developing Satoshi's Pokémon and Dent, with a break for Iris.

 

[Geodude]

Excadrill's primary type is Ground and is the one Ash has to deal with. (And this applies to other Ground Pokemon as well...)

Steel isn't even Super Effective.

Uh, what? The point is, a Fighting type move would help Ash against Rock and Steel types. Excadrill is Ground/Steel, so it would be supereffective. Grass Knot would do normal damage.

 

[TPrower]

Honestly, I had a feeling Iris was going to win. There wasn't much Pikachu could have thrown at Excadrill. What I'm not understanding is what's up with Langley and Burgundy? Are they giving up their rivalries or something?

 

[Vulpixtail]

where do you go to watch these episodes?!

 

[Masurao]

There wasn't much Pikachu could have thrown at Excadrill.

Which is exactly why this battle just felt extremely cheap. Yeah, Pikachu put up a somewhat decent fight but when you limit one of the two finalist to only two moves while the other get's all four of theirs, plus a severe typing advantage...it's too much. Especially if you're not going to let the character with the extreme disadvantage win.

 

[Chronos]

Hooray for Iris, I guess. *throws confetti into the air*

I am so glad this thing is FINALLY over! They need to make Iris go away for a few episodes so people won't have to post tl;dr posts about how much Iris is badly written or whatever else. I think if we all got a break from Iris for a while, it'd give us a chance to cool off. I think there should be an ep about Iris getting captured by Team Plasma.

Since the above will likely not happen, they need her to just be in the background a little. Everything she does gets scrutinized by some anyways, so I dunno why she should even be given screentime. Btw, I still think the finals should've been Ash vs. Luke, but whatever!

P.S. Tag Battle Tournament was better tbh

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

What I'm not understanding is what's up with Langley and Burgundy? Are they giving up their rivalries or something?

I wanna know what happened there also. But I notice that Kenyan(Bulbapedia states his dub name is Stephan) seemed to have a little involvement with Cilan and Burgundy and suddenly they're doing aTRio-esque-motto and acting a bit more friendly.

 

[Ashfangirl22]

Its hard for me to say this, cuz I've been a Pokemon fan since the 90's but I freakin give up now. What those Pokemon people did here is just sad. They could have done sooo much if they had let Ash won, they could have changed what Iris thinks of Ash as others said, with her winning I didn't see the point, really did nothing. On top of that, having Ash loose in front of tons of rivals? Come on people. Now I'm sticking with shows like One Piece, at least Oda knows how to write Luffy. Good-bye Pokemon, sad but this was what did it for me and FYI if I did stay here I'd be an Iris hater, she by no means deserved to win here, she just got all this by luck. If they were going for the luck card, why not have a tie here? Makes no sense at all.

 

[Hassel]

I wanna know what happened there also. But I notice that Kenyan(Bulbapedia states his dub name is Stephan) seemed to have a little involvement with Cilan and Burgundy and suddenly they're doing aTRio-esque-motto and acting a bit more friendly.

I don't know what they said, but it was really nice seeing Cabernet softening up to Dento a little bit. Makes me wonder if she will be a more important part in Dento's story later in the series, becoming friends with him and possibly sommeliering together after BW has ended. These two have awesome chemistry and I hope we see more of them together.

 

[Karamazov]

Iris won. Welp. Not what I really wanted, but I won't dread over it unless Iris chants "Kodomo ne" even more now. Seriously, if she does...I think all my hair will fall out. Please, Iris, no more. No more...!

Also, Dent had a pretty rose. I was kind of hopping he would prick himself on a thorn and pass out due to blood loss.

I really don't like the fact that this tournament was so Iris centric though, I mean Kibago learned a new move...and she beat Ash. Wat. It just seemed like everything went her way.

Don't you see? Dent might be voiced by Mamoru Miyano, but Iris is the true Light Yagami.

 

[MizuTaipu]

This is kinda controvesial, but are the writers trying to avoid racism by having Iris win the Don Battle? They made Satoshi lose to Aloe on his first try if anything else. Iris should have lost to Luke in the first place. That was a pretty bull victory if you ask me.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I don't know what they said, but it was really nice seeing Cabernet softening up to Dento a little bit. Makes me wonder if she will be a more important part in Dento's story later in the series, becoming friends with him and possibly sommeliering together after BW has ended. These two have awesome chemistry and I hope we see more of them together.

They definatley seemed more friendly and I think they were actually agreeing on something, taste wise. As BW progresses I'm hoping as well we'll be seeing more between Cilan and Burgundy. I can definatley see it being possible as well that by the end they'll become friends and agree to work together as Pokemon Connoisseurs.

 

[CommanderPigg]

Aw, I promised myself I'd stay away from this to prevent myself from being spoiled, but alas, VMs are the defeat of me once again.

Iris won. *commits seppuku*

Team Rocket? We don't need no Team Rocket!

Spoiler

Seriously, loved this.

^Oh shit, he has a rose. *dies*

 

[Super Chao Maniac]

Well, Ash, time to go teach Pikachu Grass Knot!

Since that's the only move that Ground-Types are weak to that Pikachu can learn...

Not to mention the Surfing Pikachu with the move Surf from the events. Ground types are also weak to water you know!

And Iris won because of type advantage. Wow.

 

[Ranger Jack Walker]

Hopefully, this will lead to Ash battling Iris for the 8th badge but that might wishing for too much.

And Pikachu needs to learn Surf. Forget lame old Electro Ball, Surf is where the shit is.

 

[Bandit Keith]

I am so dejected, I literally took a shower.

MARY SUE, DEM, TROLLBIAS, THATS IRIS!!!!!​

@MizuTaipu, you are right. To avoid the wrath of Carol Boston Weatherfield and other "racism watchdogs with OCD and too much time on their hands", they did exactly that.

At least I have chicken.