Review S15 EP19: Cilan Takes Flight!

[Iteru]

BW67 - Cilan Takes Flight!http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/BW067

While arriving in Mistralton City, Ash, Iris and Cilan go to the Mistralton Gym in order for Ash to have his 6th gym battle. After waiting in a queue, Ash learns that he has to reserve a time for his battle and so gets a slot for the afternoon. The Gym Leader Skyla shortly arrives and starts to battle her morning challengers, however it turns out that all the battles are decided by what she thinks the results will be after seeing the challengers' Pokémon! Outraged by the thought of such "battles", Ash and Cilan tell Skyla of this and Skyla even accepts a challenge by Cilan to a real battle even though Skyla predicts that he'll lose. Will Skyla be right in her prediction?

 

[Paulisthebest]

Episode was good of course, her "Air Battles" remind me of the games where you can predict how to win like the Battle Arcade in the Battle Frontier of Platinum and HG/SS. When your 3 Pokemon and the Pokemon of your opponent shows up on a screen and mentally, I know I'm not the only one to do this; predict how the battle will go.

As for the battle, he should have been using Rock Slide to make it harder for her Pokemon to dodge, but in most cases she didn't give commands or her Pokemon just stood there and took the attacks.

Pansage was pretty much the fall-guy. Now would have been a good time for Rock Tomb to have been in its move-set you know? Wish Swanna was that good in the games! Poor Stunfisk, will it ever get a win?

 

[Hellwarden]

A pretty strong ep, dubbed well. I liked Skyla's voice, suited the laid back, almost careless attitude of hers. Seeing her pretty much just shrug off Cilan's antics was pretty amusing. And jeez, Cilan, don't take it so hard, she had plot armor.

Poor Stunfisk still hasn't gotten a win though, but again, Cilan, plot armor.

 

[Moe]

I'm still not sure about Skyla's voice, I do get how it's kinda fitting for her character, but it is a bit annoying. I can't think how to put it other than it reminding me slightly of how Misty's sisters were dubbed and given that airhead sounding personality.

The main thing that stood out is how they seemed not to actually point out the main reason why 'air battles' don't make sense - the otherwise drilled into us idea that type advantage isn't everything, yet there was next to no mention of it. Ash just calling the idea 'boring' is hardly a well reasoned argument against it, from someone who has constantly beaten the odds on type matchups, you'd think he could actually say something about that? Cilan kinda mentioned it, but only in the context of the shell smash stat boost.

Beyond that, the battle was set up to basically forget the fact Cilan was the Grass-type Gym leader, and while it's bad seeing Stunfisk go down so easily, it's worse seeing the Pokemon he supposedly would have trained up to reach Gym Leader level be defeated in a minute. It's also bad that while Crustle got defeated trying to use Shell Smash, it wasn't because of the inherent risk of that move, just a matter of Skyla having noticed his strategy. Of course if Cilan had more than one strategy when using Crustle that might help.

Something else a bit strange is the idea that Skyla had never met another Gym leader - I don't get this aspect of the anime, the idea that somehow Gym leaders live in bubbles and don't know anything about eachother. It's bad enough that Gym leaders don't have to successfully beat other Gyms to become a leader, but you'd think at the very least they would occasionally see eachother, or even train together. More reason why it's a shame that it sounds like the anime will fumble the World Tournament idea and not include (m)any Gym leaders.

Likewise, when a lot of the filler episodes about the Cerulean and Pewter Gyms were based on the premise of being shut down over minor violations of a Gym code of some variety, you'd think that it wouldn't be up to Ash and Cilan to be convincing someone to have Gym battles.

 

[Adil]

Lol, I just noticed. When Skyla introduces her Swanna... Skyla's Japanese voice can be heard.

Anyway, it was indeed a very well dubbed episode. Skyla and Cilan's cockiness had a unique flavor in the dub

 

[Hellwarden]

Lol, I just noticed. When Skyla introduces her Swanna... Skyla's Japanese voice can be heard.

I actually doubt that was an error, it seems to me that they combined Swanna's original voice with an English one.


Also, on the subject of pokemon voices.....is it just me, or does dub Stunfisk grunts of pain....actually.....really sound painful?

 

[Adil]

Lol, I just noticed. When Skyla introduces her Swanna... Skyla's Japanese voice can be heard.

I actually doubt that was an error, it seems to me that they combined Swanna's original voice with an English one.

I guess you didn't read my post properly.

I said:

Lol, I just noticed. When Skyla introduces her Swanna... Skyla's Japanese voice can be heard.

 

[Jukain]

Does the QR code from Ash's dex go anywhere?

 

[DracoMan]

Anyone else notice the parallels to that boy from Pokemon Tech? Or the Scizor trainer from Johto? (Found in the eps "The School of Hard Knocks" and "Wired for Battle" respectively. There, I've gotten the source material out of the way.) I guess the new Poke-fans needed an ep of their own to show that simulated battles are useless compared to the real thing.

 

[Kaljinyu]

If Brock was still travelling with Ash, this episode would've ended a lot differently. And began a lot differently. Nice flight outfit, Skyla.

 

[DracoMan]

Oh, here's another parallel to a previous ep: Skyla had a little bit of Flannery in her, in that she had inherited the gym from her grandfather, but wasn't living up to his standards. At least this grandpa was more straightforward with his concerns.

 

[CherryXCilan]

"Cilan Takes Flight!" is a most favorite episode of mine, especially out of the English versions. I admire how the voice actor of Cilan is really convincing in this episode. Cilan is sooo sexy when he is mad! XD So even he has his dark side. I admire how he confronted Skyla and then formally challenged her in a classy way.<3 He really held up his pride for his gym leader title. I see Satoshi is still determined regardless of Cilan's loss. Looking forward to more episodes likes this. In fact, I'm going to go watch this again now. Well done!

 

[Taiyou]

Oh my god Cilan. XD He's borrowing his brothers rage when dealing with Skyla.

Also Skyla's REALLY obnoxious. Like to the point I want to punch her. :I

 

[Morgil]

Does the QR code from Ash's dex go anywhere?

Lol I was wondering the same thing.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

Sheesh, that sure is a lot of challengers for the Mistralton Gym at one time. Are there really generally that many everyday? Is there something special about that gym or what?

I did like that we got to see a different side to a gym leader; now there's an original idea before a challenge. I of course was also reminded of game players when it came to Skyla's method. I guess it's nice to see references like that pop up once in a while.

 

[Ambipom666]

This was a nice episode. I feel that Stunfisk got gyped though, it didn't perform as well as should it have against Swanna. It doesn't help that the writers had Aqua Ring get rid of the burn.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Being able to watch dubbed episodes somewhat consistently again is nice, sure the Japanese version is nice, but nothing beats waking up on a Saturday morning and watching Pokemon. Even if it is dubbed, since I frankly don't mind. This was a pretty fun episode. Skyla's dub voice is pretty, "bubbly" I guess.

I like how they retained her nickname, "Highflying Girl"(Yes, the games actually spell it like that). I liked her airplane catchphrases, they weren't too overused though, but they were good. Which makes for three good catchphrases for Gym Leaders in a row, "______the Bright Light is On You!" by Elesa and "Okay___let's get to work!" by Clay. "Come fly with me my winged beauties!" I like how she called her Swoobat, "The Sweetheart of the Sky", "The Shooting Star, Unfezant", and lastly "The White Wings of Grace, Swanna". "Let's take off for Flight!", "Come Fly With Me!"

The concept of "Air Battles" seemed like a pretty interesting premise, but it was very lazy and ignorant at that. Skyla wasn't even all that cocky and arrogant in this episode, Cilan easily took the award in that department. She was pretty nonchalant and uncaring most of the time. I honestly think that if Cilan wasn't so pissed off, most people with be a-okay with Skyla as a character. Because this isn't the first time this has happened, Volkner gave out badges similarly but no one gave him as much flake as Skyla got, then again Volkner was all emo depressed. My main problem with how Skyla's character was handled this episode was Cilan was made out to be completely right while Skyla was pretty much made out to be a one-dimensional creep with zero substance or redeeming qualities whose sole purpose was to antagonize Cilan and make Ash's gym battle about teaching her a lesson then actually earning a badge. I actually felt slightly bad for her character, because I saw where she was coming from to an extent, they kinda wanted you to hate her, sure Cilan is energetic about these things but he could have been the least bit more respectful. I at least liked her laid-back attitude, because otherwise things could have gone much worse.

I commend her for staying calm and cool like that, since I certainly would have gone berserk since not many people would stand there and take other people yelling at them and telling them they're wrong. "Air Battles", not saying they're a good idea, but I can understand that since it must get pretty boring to have so many challengers she does get bored and, like Cilan, she does want to enjoy her hobbies a.k.a flying her plane. With Volkner he was called out by Paul and Ash was annoyed by him, but Ash did something about it. This whole episode was pretty much designed around people shitting on Skyla for being a horrible person because Cilan was unnerved by her behavior. I understood Cilan and Ash's anger at first, but the latter part of the episode seemed to tailor-made for non-sexual Cilan fanservice and Skyla being nothing but an unlovable enemy.

Skylaoesn't all that talking make you tired?

That actually made me laugh. I like how she points out how Cilan does his long-winded(pun not intended) lectures during battles when he should be battling, next time shave off a few minutes from those lectures and devote them to the battles so they actually are more compelling. I at least liked Cilan's description of a badge being truly a trophy for a challenger.

I still think Unfezant is a pretty boring and bland final form early route bird Pokemon, its design is still pretty unlikable to me. I've been pretty indifferent toward Swoobat, but this episode made me at least care for it enough to actually want to raise one. I liked seeing Swanna since I raised one in Pokemon Black and they have a pretty nice design. Add Crustle to the list of Pokemon names I've been pronouncing wrong since I've been pronouncing it with a soft "t" when it is pronounced "CRUST-Tol". XP

The battles were quick and pretty uninteresting, I loved the animation though. Air Cutter looked like it was dicing Cilan's broccoli monkey, which fits the attack's name. Swoobat letting itself get hit by Rock Wrecker despite being praised for its amazing speed one minute ago against Pansage was stupid. Same goes for Ufenzant, he didn't even do anything the whole time he was on the field. He let himself get wrapped up by Shell Smash + X-Scissors and Rock Wrecker. Crustle didn't even lose because of the Defense drop from Shell Smash, just cause Skyla knew Cilan would try the same strategy twice. I liked how Skyla criticized Stunfisk when Cilan dared to hit one of "her" Flying-types with anything less than a Thunderbolt. Hurricane looked epic, nice strategy with using Scald like that. Also liked Swanna and Skyla's small heart-to-heart scene with overcoming the Burn with Aqua Ring, even though the move most definitely should not do that.

This episode also taught me that Crustle lost Protect because his shell is impervious to many attacks already. I kinda wish Stunfisk had gotten at least one win here, even though it might have been on the tad forced side. Kinda funny that Skyla's Swanna's endurance toward weaker Electric-type moves is so high, since in-game Electricity fries Pokemon like Gyarados, Pelipper, and Swanna like flapjacks on an oiled skillet. Good enough episode, looking forward to next week's.

 

[Hitomi]

My main problem with how Skyla's character was handled this episode was Cilan was made out to be completely right while Skyla was pretty much made out to be a one-dimensional creep with zero substance or redeeming qualities whose sole purpose was to antagonize Cilan and make Ash's gym battle about teaching her a lesson then actually earning a badge. I actually felt slightly bad for her character, because I saw where she was coming from to an extent, they kinda wanted you to hate her, sure Cilan is energetic about these things but he could have been the least bit more respectful. I at least liked her laid-back attitude, because otherwise things could have gone much worse.

I strongly disagree. Skyla did not come across as "antagonistic" at all to me; merely annoyed and bored with the challenges she'd been given. She didn't have time for herself anymore, she had no challenges anymore, so she came up with a new badge system to save everyone's time and energy. Cilan, as a Connoisseur and former gym leader himself, felt that this undermined the bonding experience between trainer and Pokémon, as her method was built almost entirely on type advantages instead of personal potential. Further, he felt she wasn't doing her duty as a gym leader in testing that bond. He expressed his disagreement. They battled so he could try proving his point. His point was not proven, as he lost. In fact, to Skyla, her point was proven.

Ash jumping in at this point wasn't just because Cilan was mad. He wanted a gym battle to prove his abilities. Skyla would undermine that opportunity for him by refusing to really battle, since we all know Ash wins without really adhering to type advantages quite often in this series.

It wasn't the writers' way of glorifying Cilan, nor was it their way of making Skyla out to be the bad guy. It was a clash of personal philosophies, nothing more.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

This was an episode I really liked for a change, mainly due to its interesting concept (It's sure been a while since I last said that)

The idea of having a gym leader getting bored and consequently change the rules of how to acquire a badge is great and it already worked fantastically in the first few episodes with Volkner. However, I'm afraid this week's episode was a whole new ball game and I guess the concept wasn't put into practice equally well as in it was back in said Sinnoh episodes.
Volkner didn't feel like having gym battles because he suffered from a serious depression and had no goal in his life anymore. By contrast, Skyla just wants to enjoy her hobbies and thus knowingly neglects her duties as a gym leader. This, however, is an unacceptable behavior, especially for a gym leader because if you want to be a trainer, gym leader or not, you have to live almost entirely for what you do and devote yourself to your Pokemon completely. (That's also one of Cynthia's messages). If your hobbies are more important to you, you'll have to give up your career as a trainer. Period.
Also, having no free time anymore due to the great number of challengers is probably the lamest excuse I've ever heard! Skyla is certainly not THAT strong or popular and there are definitely much stronger gym leaders, so according to Skyla's logic, those gym leaders would have to battle 24/7, which has never been the case in the Anime so far. Now it'll become clear why I initially said that the concept behind this episode was good but was put into practice poorly.

Given all these points I just mentioned, I was totally standing behind Cilan all the time and it was great to see him in such a rage. Especially the change in his voice was impressive, wasn't it? But now I have reached a point where I can't make up my mind. On the one hand I so wanted to Cilan to win and prove his point against arrogant, lazy Skyla, but on the other Cilan winning and simply convincing Skyla of his philosophy would have been way too predictable and just a relapse into the old, well-known plot schemes. To be honest, the way to episode went, even though I didn't like the outcome, surely added to the overall tension, or as Cilan would put it, it added some spices to the recipe A very interesting twist indeed!

Finally, I'd like to agree with the user who said that Ash could have been more convincing. For a trainer who couldn't care less when it comes to type advantages and who's never made such considerations part of his strategy, you would expect Ash to find some wise words in order to convince Skyla. If you ask me, Ash was staying way too bland and calm throughout the episode. But let's wait and see what happens next week.

All in all, a really good episode with decent twist and turns and a nice way to build up excitement for the gym battle.

 

[Garren]

At least this grandpa was more straightforward with his concerns.

He reveals his true colors in the episode after the Gym Battle...and it's great.