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Review JN064: The Detested Absol

Dude, Cinderace was right there, not more than just a few feet way. Yes, it's an Fire type, but I honestly don't think it would've minded the heat too much, especially when it was the one to cool the hot Pokéball down.
Water is still water. Fire types don't like water.
And even if Cinderace didn't mind the water, I doubt it could've blocked off the water well enough to protect Absol completely.
... Just a shout?

Instead of taking the time to take a ball and aiming.
That hardly takes any time at all. Especially for Goh, who's an expert at throwing them.
 
Instead of taking the time to take a ball and aiming.
Actually, I don't even think Goh was aiming. And considering how he has a tendency to just constantly throw balls without thinking, this actually made sense. I actually remember a time when some boiling hot water was going to fall on my little brother-huh, actually similar to the steam situation...-and I had literally no time to think whatsoever. The boiling water, if it fell-which it did-would've spilled everywhere, made a mess, and probably would've splashed on me and my brother both-burning as both-anyways. Naturally, my first instinct was to grab my brother and just pull him away from the water-I didn't even think twice about it.
Not the best analogy, but my point is that Goh's first instinct was to throw the Poke ball, since it was already previously established he had a tendency to do so. It's like how Ash jumped off a cliff for Talonflame as a Fletchinder instead of just recalling it back into its Poke ball, despite it being more effective, safe, and smart-both Ash and Goh did something that was natural to them: Ash has consistently jumped off of things for other pokemon and Goh consistently just throws a Poke ball without thinking(like the Dewgong capture). (Actually, this is probably a better analogy.)
 
And even if Cinderace didn't mind the water, I doubt it could've blocked off the water well enough to protect Absol completely.

That hardly takes any time at all. Especially for Goh, who's an expert at throwing them.
Honey just let this shit die already please I'm so tired of this discussion. It's been 3 days.
 
Again, this is an anime where if the plot demands something, even if it makes no sense, it will happen. Remember in early DP when Pikachu hit the ground after falling from a tall height(from TR's balloon) and it was treated very dramatically? This was the same Pikachu who everyone saw smashing into rocks before and coming out unscathed, so why would they be concerned and why was it necessary to have Pikachu get injured in the first place? The plot said that the steam was a threat, so therefore, the steam was a threat.

As for people having an issue with HOW the capture was handled...it reeks of laziness, yes, but it still isn't all that different from other instances where characters do something that doesn't make sense. Again, even if Goh's capture in this situation might have been significantly worse of an instance of plot-convenience, it still is just as lazy as any other instance where this occurs.

Why is Team Rocket dumbed down as a threat at times and other times are the worst people to face? Why did those Rhyhorn all flock to Serena in one of her performances? Why were all of Ash's pokemon taken out so easily except Greninja and Pikachu? Why didn't Alain take out his pokemon? All of these have one thing in common and that is convenience-whether it be convenient animating/drawing or a convenient way of pushing the plot forward(which happens more often) it's all because of convenience and/or laziness.
And that’s still an issue no matter at what point it happens or to whom. The fact that it turns into an e tire debate of whataboutism only serves to prove the point of why it’s an issue. Like I said, the plot required that Go capture Absol, that’s fine. But it’s seriously getting irritating with the how they go about it and simply so that they can set up for Absol to want to be the Pokémon of this stranger it knew for all of 5 seconds and it’s becoming a noticeable pattern with Go. If the writers want something to happen, don’t be lazy and contrived about it.
 
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Contrived is also how the ball caught Absol, if Gou didn't have the time to set up and aim for it.

At this point it's becoming tiring, how much bad writing we have to endure....
 
Actually, I don't even think Goh was aiming. And considering how he has a tendency to just constantly throw balls without thinking, this actually made sense. I actually remember a time when some boiling hot water was going to fall on my little brother-huh, actually similar to the steam situation...-and I had literally no time to think whatsoever. The boiling water, if it fell-which it did-would've spilled everywhere, made a mess, and probably would've splashed on me and my brother both-burning as both-anyways. Naturally, my first instinct was to grab my brother and just pull him away from the water-I didn't even think twice about it.
Not the best analogy, but my point is that Goh's first instinct was to throw the Poke ball, since it was already previously established he had a tendency to do so. It's like how Ash jumped off a cliff for Talonflame as a Fletchinder instead of just recalling it back into its Poke ball, despite it being more effective, safe, and smart-both Ash and Goh did something that was natural to them: Ash has consistently jumped off of things for other pokemon and Goh consistently just throws a Poke ball without thinking(like the Dewgong capture). (Actually, this is probably a better analogy.)

Ouchh..

Problem is the Talonflame example makes no sense, since what Ash was doing (Jumping for it), was faster than pulling the Pokeball of its belt and opening it.
 
Contrived is also how the ball caught Absol, if Gou didn't have the time to set up and aim for it.

At this point it's becoming tiring, how much bad writing we have to endure....
At this point, Go might as well become a pro baseball player with how he can hit a target dead on in the heat of the moment without even thinking about it.
 
Imagine if this is how we say goodbye to his character just like how Cilan left for an fishing competition.
At least he'd had outgrown his fixation.

They just threw away Dent, unceremoniously.
 
I finally got around to watching this episode, so I decided to read through this thread and holy s***, my eyes and brain hurt. I actually had to leave my computer to get my head straight.

I won't reply to any one user or comment in particular, but I will say this. I for one cannot wait for Goh to be gone from the anime as a main character. I'm just so tired of things always going his way without many problems and I'm tired of seeing him throw a (regular) Poke Ball at pretty much everything. It's so annoying in my opinion. Goh is the main reason why I haven't followed this anime very much. I've come to expect him to catch at least one Pokemon in almost every episode and I know those Pokemon probably won't get much meaningful screen time because Goh's main goal is to catch every Pokemon leading up to Mew. I just want him to catch Mew already so the writers can retire this writers' pet, this Mary Sue. No more of this walking Pokemon Go advert. I just want him gone from the anime forever. I don't like Goh's goal, I don't like his personality, and I certainly don't like his trigger happy tendencies whenever he comes across a new Pokemon he hasn't seen before. That and his goal come across as greedy to me.

I also want Goh gone because of all the drama and negativity surrounding him. I'm tired of it. I know I'm not helping much here given what I've already said, but Goh's such a polarizing character that it has me wanting Journeys to end as fast as possible so we can finally move on from him, hopefully.

I know there are people who like Goh and that's fine. However, this episode really reinforced my negative opinion on Goh. People have already mentioned other better ways of handling the Absol situation that resulted in it being caught by Goh. With those methods in mind, Goh doing what he does best by throwing a Poke Ball at Absol once again came across as greedy when Absol could've been saved by Gengar using Psychic on the steam or Dragonite using Hurricane on the steam. It was nice to see Goh give Absol the choice to leave, but I still think he was greedy for catching it.

I don't have anything else to say other than this thread really made my brain hurt and I'm worried some of the things I said in this post don't make sense, lol. I guess this series will do that to people.
 
It really wasn’t him being greedy. He was trying to save Absol. I agree it wasn’t an original capture setup since it was done similarly with Suicune, but it doesn’t serve to characterize him as greedy.
This scenario does come off as weird to people since it’s specifically engineered by the writers to make the protagonist good no matter what and at the same time having a Pokémon stuck from being in danger to being under the ownership of Go, and our protagonist is so nice and kind that somehow every Pokémon decides to stay with him.

This kind of capture makes me uncomfortable for reasons I can’t articulate.
 
Please note: The thread is from 3 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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