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Review SM133: Bird Battle! Brave Bird VS God Bird!!

You know looking back while Typhlosion and Feraligatr may not have appeared in as many episodes as I would've loved, at least they didn't get treated this badly! Decidueye, my heart goes out to you and your trainer.
Well, since Typhlosion literally held the record of least appearances for a fully evolved starter Pokemon for 20 years, it probably has had it worse than Decidueye.

As a Raichu fan, however, I can understand what Decidueye fans are facing and I’m sympathetic to them.

inb4 Fujisaku is the head writer for Sword and Shield.

That’d be a delight!
 
This was considerable more hype then the league episodes before it!

Rowlett vs Decidueye was really great in the end, the fake out loss was meh but it’s true to Rowlett’s character and the comedic nature of the series.

Did Rowlett actually use FeatherDance or was it Substitute?

Vikavolt vs Charizard is already an exciting battle! Nice touch to show Kiawe taking the PokeRide gear of Charizard. These may only be one on ones but the quarterfinal battles are getting lots of attention!

Melmetal is coming...
 
How can one man be so consistently bad at writing battles? And where are the other writers in times like these?

I pity Hau so much, man. He’s one of my favorite rivals. He’s such a sweet kid. And yet both the fans and the people behind this franchise treat him like garbage.

Edit: Also, thanks for shooting Rowlet’s reputation in the foot, writers. Now people will hate him until the end of time!
 
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Well, since Typhlosion literally held the record of least appearances for a fully evolved starter Pokemon for 20 years, it probably has had it worse than Decidueye.
As a Typhlosion fan, that is nothing short of criminal to me.
As a Raichu fan, however, I can understand what Decidueye fans are facing and I’m sympathetic to them.
As a fellow Raichu fan, I agree.
This was considerable more hype then the league episodes before it!

Rowlett vs Decidueye was really great in the end, the fake out loss was meh but it’s true to Rowlett’s character and the comedic nature of the series.
You're in the minority here. Comedy like that does not belong to battles like this. This was the exact opposite of hype!
Did Rowlett actually use FeatherDance or was it Substitute?
Feather Dance.
 
I really think a lot of you are missing a very key point of information. You're hatred of the fake out seems widely non justified (well subjectively, sure, but objectively?)

FOR one thing, both Decidueye and Rowlet were "knocked out" considering it would be impossible for both trainers not to succeed into the next round, obviously they chose to see who would get up first, the literally only thing you can do in a situation like this.

Decidueye got up, and because Rowlet was "sleeping", Hau was "illegally" declared the winner, which would point to Nanu being a very BAD referee if Hala if anything wouldn't have declared the match over JUST because Rowlet didn't get up, he would've told Ash that Rowlet was sleeping.

The main reason the hatred of this battle is unjustified, logically, is that it makes sense that after such a devastating blow, Rowlet would fall asleep, sure I absolutely HATE that character trait of Rowlet, but it sure as hell wasn't determined by the writer of THIS episode. And it sure as hell wasn't the decision of the writer of THIS episode to keep Rowlet unevolved. And unfortunately once you write such a debilitating character trait, which once again is the fault of the head writers here, not this specific writer, you can't just completely ignore it, for a huge giant battle. If you're going to create this character trait, you shouldn't just cherry pick when the trait is convenient for you or not as a writer. Thus because they wrote that character trait for Rowlet, it had be logically fair game to use during this battle. Like I'm honestly surprised anyone is surprised it happened, like what did you expect, Snorlax who conveniently is able to battle, but god forbid anything else when its fast asleep which really doesn't make sense at least in that context. Hell Rowlet was falling asleep in the previous episode

Would it have been better if Rowlet used Substitute, and Nanu clearly made the wrong call, on a non existent Rowlet substitute doll, yes, because it would've been hilarious to have Rowlet be like "WTF you talking about Nanu?" as he flew onto the field after Rowlet was declared unable to battle, which is honestly what I was hoping.

And while I don't really care for the fake out, it still ultimately made sense. Maybe next time the writers need to stop screwing Ash over by giving him this stupid HORRIBLE comic relief Pokemon from the start. Give it a nice personality, a good personality, a well thought out personality. Don't give it stupid gag personalities that can directly affect its battling, like Oshawott freaking out just because it lost its scalchop. Or Rowlet prone to sleeping just because "HA HA BIRD sleeping in bag CUTE AND FUNNY HA HA"

I'm more pissed that they gave THIS kind of Rowlet to Ash instead of something more befitting of Ash. I mean look at Hawlucha, it had some "funny" moments had a great personality especially when it was with Ash, none of its quirks could affect its battling therefore it battled unhindered. NOW maybe to be fair, if they had actually written Rowlet to be sleepy but always super active during battle, and THIS sort of thing happened, I'd be more understanding if people hating this episode than it stands.

But honestly what were expecting when Ash had "THIS" thing as a Pokemon, they chose to give to Ash for primarily comedic relief. Though some of you were right, Rowlet sleeping wasn't "funny" although given the reactions of the characters, I really don't think it was meant to be a gag or "funny" because NOT one single character in the episode thought it was hilarious. It was more like "Oh great.......Rowlet being Rowlet.......again......"
 
I really think you kids should be tempering your expectations a bit :rolleyes: 133 episodes into the Sun and Moon series, it’s unrealistic to expect Kalos league level battles.

This is still some of the best stuff we’ve had out of this series.
 
Ok wtf was that..

I’m surprised that they allowed this bulljive to happen in the middle of a serious battle, like come on how incompetent can you get?

I did like the episode but I believe that the sleeping gag was unnecessary and had me on the edge of my seat for a moment there..

Rowlet may be a lousy Pokémon that sleeps all the time but when it was used in Ash’s Grand Trials it did battle pretty well and took them seriously, let’s not blame a fictional character for what happened and let’s look at the source of the problem!

Whoever wrote this damn episode should be fired and never be allowed to write any more episodes again! Like come on, there’s always a time and place for these kind of jokes, and imo the Pokémon league is not a place for them..

Nanu is a bad ref as well but this episode was not the time to put in a gag because of what was at stake, the battle in general was good and Hau showed that he was able to hang with Ash, that lapse in judgement from Nanu seriously switched the momentum in Ash’s favor and that’s why he won..

Poor Hau got screwed over and neither of them deserved this mess, they should’ve been allowed to have a serious battle to end their rivalry on a high note since we’ve been looking forward to this battle for some time now!

A terrible end to a good rivalry between Rowlet and Decidueye but I’m glad that this episode is all over as we can move on to the next one!

Looking forward to next week :)
 
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Rowlet may be a lousy Pokémon that sleeps all the time but when it was used in Ash’s Grand Trials it did battle pretty well and took them seriously, let’s not blame a fictional character for what happened and let’s look at the source of the problem!

Whoever wrote this damn episode should be fired and never be allowed to write any more episodes again! Like come on, there’s always a time and place for these kind of jokes, and the Pokémon league is not a place for them..

In Rowlett’s battle with Hala- he fell asleep rather than continuing to battle. And Rowlett still beat Decidueye...

Have you lot been watching the Sun and Moon series before now?
 
Ok wtf was that..

I’m surprised that they allowed this bulljive to happen in the middle of a serious battle, how incompetent can you get?

Rowlet may be a lousy Pokémon that sleeps all the time but when it was used in Ash’s Grand Trials it did battle pretty well and took them seriously, let’s not blame a fictional character for what happened and let’s look at the source of the problem!

Whoever wrote this damn episode should be fired and never be allowed to write any more episodes again! Like come on, there’s always a time and place for these kind of jokes, and the Pokémon league is not a place for them..

Poor Hau got screwed over and neither of them deserved this mess, they should’ve been allowed to have a serious battle to end their rivalry on a high note.

A terrible end to a good rivalry between Rowlet and Decidueye but I’m glad that this episode is all over as we can move on to the next one!

Looking forward to next week :)
In Rowlett’s battle with Hala- he fell asleep rather than continuing to battle. And Rowlett still beat Decidueye...

Have you lot been watching the Sun and Moon series before now?

I know that Rowlet is a sleeper but I just believe that the Pokémon league is not the place for gags, even his trainer was like wtf are you doing lol

It’s hilarious but I don’t think it was necessary
 
Hey y'all. It's ok to criticize the episode and all, but the Fujisaku bashing is kinda getting pretty nasty. It's not cool to target specific staff member working on an episode just because you didn't like said episode.

I really think you kids should be tempering your expectations a bit :rolleyes: 133 episodes into the Sun and Moon series, it’s unrealistic to expect Kalos league level battles.

This is still some of the best stuff we’ve had out of this series.
To be fair, aside from Ash vs. Sawyer, the Kalos league was pretty much just eye candy with little to no substance.
 
Would it have been better if Rowlet used Substitute, and Nanu clearly made the wrong call, on a non existent Rowlet substitute doll, yes, because it would've been hilarious to have Rowlet be like "WTF you talking about Nanu?" as he flew onto the field after Rowlet was declared unable to battle, which is honestly what I was hoping.
Now that might have actually been somewhat funny, provided Hau wasn't given long enough to let it sink in that he had won. Like if Rowlet flew back on to the field a second or two after Nanu declared Hau the winner. As it was however the whole thing was mean-spirited, cruel and overall a huge kick in the teeth for Hau, especially when it was his own grandfather who overturned his win. Let's face it, Rowlet had already taken more than enough damage from Decidueye for a legitimate KO anyway, even if it didn't canonically get one.
 
To be fair, aside from Ash vs. Sawyer, the Kalos league was pretty much just eye candy with little to no substance.

I really don’t know what would please you then... In my day, we got a kung-fu Bellsprout beating up Pikachu and we liked it.
 
I really don’t know what would please you then... In my day, we got a kung-fu Bellsprout beating up Pikachu and we liked it.
Aside from some weak moments, and pacing issues I've actually enjoyed this league quite a lot. It ain't perfect, but there's a lot of great character moments for a lot of characters that actually matter.
 
logically, is that it makes sense that after such a devastating blow, Rowlet would fall asleep,
Why does it make any more sense than being overwhelmed and fainting?
By that logic any Pokemon could take a nap instead of fainting and remain in the field infinitely. And Rowlet wanted to prove itself and requested Ash to choose it, so it made sense that Rowlet would take this battle seriously and not fall asleep.

Rowlet also got the brunt of Sinister Arrow Raid, and other moves too.

133 episodes into the Sun and Moon series, it’s unrealistic to expect Kalos league level battles.
I expected something more than Unova, at least.

Hey y'all. It's ok to criticize the episode and all, but the Fujisaku bashing is kinda getting pretty nasty. It's not cool to target specific staff member working on an episode just because you didn't like said episode.
I’m criticising the writer because I’ve literally hated every episode that he’s written. I’m just pointing out the one thing common in the worst SM episodes imo, and its his screenplay.

To be fair, aside from Ash vs. Sawyer, the Kalos league was pretty much just eye candy with little to no substance.
Well, the Alola league is incompetence with little to no substance... Guzma vs Ilima was probably one of the few well written battles.
 
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Who's looking forward to see this battle?
 
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