Review JN027: Legends of Heroes! Dande's Greatest Battle!!

[Daren]

Yeah, I don't mean to deflect criticism of Leon's battles so far, so much as wondering if it's being done as the anime's version of his "previous game protagonist" status.

 

[Nicolas721]

It really bugged me the transition from one plot to another, it's a real disservice to the Galar characters. Would it have hurt if both Farfetch'd and Sobble had been caught in the same episode? Or if Raihan and Sonia would have commented on the Farfetch'd situation?

But besides that the battles were ok and fun to watch. I guess we learnt more about Galar's culture. I was expecting more personality from Raihan, he was just a punching bag.

And speaking of battles, does this episode hold the title of the most varied moves used overall? I counted at least thirteen...

Wow, I think you underestimated the series a bit. Remember that we've seen full battles that have spanned through an episode an a half. A quick look through the Alola League reveals that SM142 had 28, SM140 had 30 and SM130 had 25 and that most Hoenn League episodes were over 20.

Rose raised Leon?

My subs said the same thing. This lowers Bede and Hop's chances of appearing dramatically, but it could be an interesting story.

 

[Alola]

Wow, I think you underestimated the series a bit. Remember that we've seen full battles that have spanned through an episode an a half. A quick look through the Alola League reveals that SM142 had 28, SM140 had 30 and SM130 had 25 and that most Hoenn League episodes were over 20.

Looks like I did and soundly misspoke! Thanks for correcting that. However, admittedly, I wasn't thinking of League Battles when I wrote that. League Battles, where the expectation is that a Pokemon's strength is fully exhibited, tend to have a lot of move usage-that's a given. We'd probably be pretty disappointed if Ash's Pikachu got through rounds primarily with Thunderbolt and the occasional Quick Attack, or any other Trainer's Pokemon for that matter.

How often, outside of them, do you see an equally full demonstration of skills? Especially as of late? That's why this episode stood out to me. The fact that Raihan, Leon (who changed most of his Charizard's move-set too), and Ash's Riolu utilized their entire four-slot moveset in a relatively low-stakes episode is impressive to me.

 

[DynamicFusion]

yikes... these Leon Battles are going to be really insulting aren't they. There gonna keep on making his opponents look like Chumps till Ash beats him in the end. At least the Capture of this Episode wasn't predictable.

 

[RileyXY1]

Not going to lie, I was kind of underwhelmed by this episode. Don't get me wrong, it was still good, but I thought the battle between Raihan and Leon was going to be the major focus of the episode based on the title and how much they were hyping it up. Instead, the battle didn't even take up half the episode, and it also wasn't that good. In fact, it was pretty boring. I didn't even get into the dynamax portion of the battle (with the exception of the music; that track gets me hyped up like nothing else). Also, no Raihan selfies? Lame.

Now for my favorite parts: ROSE! Wasn't fully expecting to see him here, and Ash looked positively transfixed. I hope this means we're going to get some major Rose involvement down the line (perhaps even an invitation for Ash to participate in the Galar gym challenge? Could help stretch out his storyline a bit).

Also, SONIA! She looked fabulous and I just love her personality! A little bummed we didn't get any interaction between her and Leon, but she did kind of roast him a little bit in relation to the statue, so that sated me for now. I'm very interested that she brought up the Darkest Day and working as an assistant for her grandmother. I think the SwSh storyline would work really well with Ash and Goh, so it'll be interesting to see if they begin to incorporate that.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Ash catching Galarian Farfetch'd. I do think it's good for his team, and I love that it was a total surprise no one saw coming (obvious captures can get kind of boring sometimes, which is one thing this series has been very good at avoiding)...I just thought it felt weird in this episode? Like it literally felt like an entirely different plot point to the first half of the episode (which, in fairness, I guess it was) and just sort of felt out of place. I don't know, it took me out of the episode a little bit. But I am excited to see it as part of Ash's team and am hopeful for an evolution to Sirfetch'd in the future!

I'm still partial to the World Championships episodes, so I'd still take this over quite a few of the other JN episodes, but this was probably among the weakest of the bunch in terms of the WC thus far.

I think that if anyone's doing the Gym Challenge it's Gou.

 

[90'sPokéfan]

I just thought about something. When Ash his Farfetch'd will arrive at the dome, will he be more relaxed or will he challenge every pokémon who is present? At least with Riolu and maybe even Scyther he'll have Pokémon who would like to accept the challenge. And he'll have his training sessions with Ash... I think he'll be fine at the dome. And maybe the prof will take this opportunity to study the differences between the Kantonian and Galarian Farfetch'd?

 

[Eclipsical]

I assumed the line “Rose raised Leon” meant that he was the one who originally endorsed him and got him to where he is today.

I wouldn’t mind Ash taking on the Gym Leaders for badges as long as it also helps raise his rank in the WC. He can always just travel to whatever town or city the gym is in since he’s not going on foot this time.

 

[RileyXY1]

I assumed the line “Rose raised Leon” meant that he was the one who originally endorsed him and got him to where he is today.

I wouldn’t mind Ash taking on the Gym Leaders for badges as long as it also helps raise his rank in the WC. He can always just travel to whatever town or city the gym is in since he’s not going on foot this time.

I think that Gou will challenge the Gyms instead.

 

[Eclipsical]

I think that Gou will challenge the Gyms instead.

It’s definitely a possibility! It would be cool to see him form unique teams using his collection to counter certain gym leaders.

 

[RileyXY1]

It’s definitely a possibility! It would be cool to see him form unique teams using his collection to counter certain gym leaders.

Ash is too busy with the PWC to worry about Gyms, so I think that Gou will take the PC's role in the anime adaptation of Rose's arc. Gou has all the time in the world to challenge the Galar Gyms.

 

[Eclipsical]

Ash is too busy with the PWC to worry about Gyms, so I think that Gou will take the PC's role in the anime adaptation of Rose's arc. Gou has all the time in the world to challenge the Galar Gyms.

It’s also possible that Gym Battles could count towards your PWC ranking, which would give Ash an incentive to challenge them. I’m fine with either, tbh.

 

[lonerlotad]

Then the next flaw: As the writers realized Leon can't win without gigantamaxing, they pull the well-known Deus-ex machina-card and Charizard all of a sudden turns into a beast.
And probably the worst and cheapest aspect about Leon's "winning streak" is that after gigantamaxing, all those ultra strong Masters Eight trainers magically turn into little school boys, incapable of coming up with a way to counter Dai Hellfire. That isn't a God-given, almighty move but just one of many Gigantamax-moves! As if neither Lance nor Raihan could have predicted Leon using it and weren't able to come up with a strategy....
Don't you agree with me this is really really bad writing just for the sake of promoting that self-regarding entertainer called Leon who's nothing special without Gigantamax ... Leon basically equals Dai Hellfire and that's it. How dull!

Cynthia's Dynamaxed Garchomp would seriously tank that Dai Hellfire like its a freakin' ember. I don't want to see another Leon Master Class battle episode if he'll just use Charizard again because I'm getting tired of it and I don't want to hate Charizard.

 

[Eclipsical]

I don't want to see another Leon Master Class battle episode if he'll just use Charizard again because I'm getting tired of it and I don't want to hate Charizard.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they hide his full anime team until Ash finally battles him.

 

[jbmasta]

I wouldn’t be surprised if they hide his full anime team until Ash finally battles him.

We didn’t find out Gary’s starter until his second league tournament. As long as a six on six with Leon doesn’t reveal half his team is legendaries/mythicals and pseudo legendaries.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

it's somewhat of a repeating pattern where Leon/Charizard are being thrashed and then G-Max comes into play and Leon somehow wins easily. I've already written about this in depth in my review write-up.

Right! That's why I don't want to see another one of his battles, because it will just be the very same pattern again.

It's very protagonist-like to struggle heavily until pulling out your trump card.

Is it ? Maybe that was true for Early-Ash, but not now. Would be a pretty poor protagonist if you ask me. Or were you referring to Leon? (He's not a protagonist though)

It also makes him look dependent on a regional gimmick in regards to his Pokemon's strength, which isn't impressive to me personally.

Exactly! I'd love to see him probably struggling hard as soon as he isn't allowed to battle in Galar or in the Shoot City Stadium in particular ... ha ha ha

 

[Daren]

Come to think about it, Charizard struggling before maxing is a bit amusing to me since in the games his Charizard would be his least dangerous party members if he didn't Gigantimax it.

Or were you referring to Leon? (He's not a protagonist though)

In the games Leon seems intended to be a stand-in for a game protagonist--his backstory lines up, and I believe his poor sense of direction is a joking reference to players tending to wander a lot in games doing sidequests or talking to every NPC instead of going straight where the story says they're supposed to.
--like Barry running into people in gen IV being a joke about players moving their characters carelessly and bumping into NPCs.

My suggestion is they're doing the same thing in the anime, but the tropes are different because games and television are a different medium. So Leon is being written with leftover protagonist elements just like in the games, and it's quite common in fiction for protagonists to be struggling and then win at the very end, including in the Pokémon anime--like Dragonite Vs Lucario just a few episodes ago.

 

[The Amazing Popplio]

In the games Leon seems intended to be a stand-in for a game protagonist--his backstory lines up, and I believe his poor sense of direction is a joking reference to players tending to wander a lot in games doing sidequests or talking to every NPC instead of going straight where the story says they're supposed to.
--like Barry running into people in gen IV being a joke about players moving their characters carelessly and bumping into NPCs.

My suggestion is they're doing the same thing in the anime, but the tropes are different because games and television are a different medium. So Leon is being written with leftover protagonist elements just like in the games, and it's quite common in fiction for protagonists to be struggling and then win at the very end, including in the Pokémon anime--like Dragonite Vs Lucario just a few episodes ago.

I like that theory, but I have an issue with it. If Leon is supposed to be struggling shouldn't he show it, you know, with emotions? Whenever Ash struggled in a serious(or not) match he always showed it with his face expressions. He has panicked, he's been afraid,angry and sad. He always showed that he knew he was struggling and needed to do something smart and quick if he wanted to win. With Leon, though, it's completely different. No matter what happens, he always smiles arrogantly, like he knows he's gonna win no matter what. Maybe it's because he thinks that when they dynamax their pokemon he's unbeatable(which so far is correct, although badly wtitten). If that's the case then it's really true that he depends on dynamax too much and he is not something special without it and probably he'd be floored if he faced a strong opponent in another region where it's impossible to dynamax. Since they promote him as the strongest in the world, the main obstacle and the one Ash needs to win this generation, they should make him tougher when he battles without the gimmick. Both his opponents in the championship so far had the upper hand against him and their pokemon took minimal damage, while his charizard kept losing. Until of course dynamax came where charizard took no damage and completely obliderated his opponents. They should start making him put up a fight before dynamax happens and maybe even force his opponents into dynamax in order for them to have a chance if they want to show him as a serious threat. The only time they did something like that was with his match against Ash. We need more of those.

 

[dawn dusk]

JN027: Legends of Heroes! Dande's Greatest Battle!!

Till now I hope that Ash is the one who catches Galarian Farfetch'd. Here's my Assumption how it would happen? After the battle (Leon vs Raihan) Galarian Farfetch'd challenges Ash. So Ash sends.... OK.... He sends Pikachu. Then Then Then JN030: The Reluctant Pikachu So Pikachu is sad because...

forums.bulbagarden.net

Sirfetch'd and Ash are made for each other.

I think no one expected that Galarian Farfetch'd will go to Ash except me.(I told it twice.)
I got reactions.
At last he caught. May be God listened to my prayers of the sunday morning.

 

[Cresselia92]

The way I see it, I think Leon’s Charizard could be considered a one-trick pony. Maybe Leon focused so much on maximizing the power of the GMax form that he didn’t polish Charizard’s skills in regular form. It could be considered a case of excessive optimization geared only toward the GMax power, which could kinda explain why regular Charizard isn’t as intimidating.

 

[KenzeyEevee]

I swear if they give Charizard a new form in gen 9.... 3 gens of Charizard back to back is enough