Review XY061: Decisive Battle in the Badlands! Fight, Numera!!

[Adil]

XY061 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia


The opening and the title card were updated:

Spoiler

Updated parties: https://twitter.com/hirari1989/status/568357633557544964

via love_prelive

 

[Kairyu]

Goddamn can the music guys stop playing fucking Volt every damn time something exciting happens?? I initially loved the song but slowly and steady my hatred towards it has increased...

Also, scumbag Grumpig. I thought it was the best pokemon of the day we've seen so far in x/y.

 

[Gabo2oo]

I really thought this time that the opening was going to be updated every time a party change ocurred. But nah, I think those days are definetly over, they just prefer to update it once and spoil everything. It kinda sucks...

 

[Misty-Moo]

I found some more screenshots on https://twitter.com/Story_terror

Spoiler

Goomy doesn't like bullies.
Chespin is good at something other than being greedy comic relief.
Overall, it was a nice little "on the road" episode, a standard "Pokemon of the day" story wrapped around a evolution.

 

[Alola]

Goddamn can the music guys stop playing fucking Volt every damn time something exciting happens?? I initially loved the song but slowly and steady my hatred towards it has increased...

Also, scumbag Grumpig. I thought it was the best pokemon of the day we've seen so far in x/y.

I agree, it seems like Volt is the de facto XY evolution music. It is getting tiring.

Also this episode was alright, but there were several quirks too many that kept me from enjoying it fully:

~Why didn't Ash just call on Hawlucha to break the rocks or cage? It's a fighting type for a reason. Having Frogadier spam Water Pulse just seemed ineffective and a waste of time...

~Team Rocket leaving Ash and friends there (with the key mind you), by themselves, with all their Pokemon, several who are perfectly capable of escaping (Dedenne, Goomy, Bunnelby, etc)

~Chespin taking forever to pick the lock. It was a nice idea it had, but it quickly lost relevancy and novelty when it only managed to jimmy the lock after everything was all said and done

~Jessie not catching Grumpig. Here's a Pokemon that is strong, apparently has a foul attitude (a la Seviper), and was able to give Ash & Co trouble. Isn't that usually up the TR alley? Why did they show no interest in capturing it? Especially when it literally was grovelling at Jessies' feet

~The easy forgiveness Grumpig receieved. I don't care, I would have blasted that fat pig all the way back to Hoenn. Mind controlling a species, repeatedly abusing a species and just utterly taking advantage of said species is not okay. Besides, how do we know it just won't pull the same stunt again? Even without Team Rocket influence?

~Ash once again needlessly putting himself in the way of danger for his Pokemon. Frogadier was right there or he could have summoned Fletchinder/Hawlucha, rather than take a direct Iron Tail and proceed to glare at the wild threat.

I have to say, the real MVP of the episode was Dedenne. It stepped up to plate and battled valiantly against Grumpig (it even had its first on screen knockout). Especially in the scenes where we couldn't see the battle, but we could hear everything all the same. I like that Bonnie is more actively commanding Dedenne now too.

Overall, it was a pretty meh episode.

 

[Mareepy]

The Opening! What can I say except I LOVE it!

I am so starting to love the relationship between Goomy/Sliggoo and Dedenne. (Professor Dedenne and his Apprentice number one Goomy I called it, playing Professor Layton currently lol, kinda made up this in my mind)

I mean, why is Dedenne taking hits always the trigger for Goomy going battle mode? That was a good touch though. I don't mind it. (Except Professor Layton is too cool to take hits lol, but Dedenne did act as a mentor to Goomy in terms of battle spirits)

And Ash taking hit for this time is cool. And that would be the trigger for evolution.

That Dragonbreathe......... TOO OP too much? The blast literally fitted the whole cave.

But this episode disappoints me. Really disappoints me. To an extent I have to say this is one of the worst episode in XY so far.

Pokemon X Pokedex - 'It drives away opponents by excreting a sticky liquid that can dissolve anything. Its eyes devolved, so it can't see anything.'

Pokemon Y Pokedex - 'Its four horns are a high-performance radar system. It uses them to sense sounds and smells, rather than using ears or a nose.'

Now you see why. Goomy shrug off the blindness like nothing happened. Atleast in this episode. I really hope that Sliggoo failed to see Grumpig for a while before finally get into using the horns. Like trying to see for a while before finally sensing Grumpig's location with its radar. Sliggoo even jumped up high and hit TR like can see their location, and even looked back at Ash. I mean srsly? Sliggoo even blinked at that scene.

Conclusion: Sliggoo ISN'T EVEN blind!

Sigh.............. I really hoped that Ash can spend some time to let Sliggoo cope with the blindness, and maybe using the second that Sliggoo finally overcome it to be the new breakthrough, evolving into Goodra. But...... ugggh.

XY has been way above my expectations in most episodes. But this two recent episodes just... errrm. They are not bad (Serena episode is IN FACT, very well done), but they are not above my expectations. (sigh, learn to lay low your expectations eh? I wish I don't have to, that is if they can do better than what I hoped)

 

[PokePete]

Decent filler episode. Without the evolution of Goomy, this episode would have been pointless.

-been a long time since Spoink was in an episode (I believe AG was the last time)
-that Grumpig sure was an a** to those innocent Spoink even though Team Rocket was part of it
-poor Dedenne tried to put up a fight against Grumpig but was no match and got KO'd
-Would have loved to see more of Goomy but I guess the weakest dragon-type needs to evolve into Sliggoo to become a stronger battler and learn dragon breath is a nice bonus
-Nice to see Sliggoo beat Grumpig
-Would have liked to have Sliggoo blast off Team Rocket instead of Pikachu for payback of how Team Rocket treated Goomy in the past
-Grumpig is lucky that those Spoink forgave after how it treated them. If I was those Spoink, I wouldn't be that forgiving.

Can't wait for the subs so I can have a better understanding of this episode.

 

[R!ck]

The updated opening was awesome :unworthy: guess the next update will be Goodra...

 

[Sakuraa]

I loved this episode for a few reasons. One, I love Spoink and Grumpig, but especially Grumpig. Two, I love Sliggoo.

So first of all, updated intro. I like it. I liked how Ash let Goomy have a practice battle with Pikachu at the beginning of the episode. But moving on to the plot, I honestly thought TR's plan was good, stupid, and dickish all at the same time. How? Well it was good because they made Ash give up Pikachu to them. It was dickish and stupid because TR constantly had Grumpig attack the Spoink to make Ash give Pikachu up. Why not just have Grumpig "brainwash" Pikachu like he did the Spoink and make Pikachu come to them instead? Also, they left the key to the cage where Dedenne and Goomy were easily capable of getting it.

Anyway, I was greatly surprised by Chespin. He actually came up with a plan to save Pikachu. Why can't he be more like this most of the time? I loved how once again Dedenne got into battle and that Bonnie was giving him commands. Additionally, I liked how when Ash brought out Froagadier to break open the cage, everyone's attention went towards him expect Bonnie who kept her eyes on the battle. If there was anything else I liked, it was Grumpig doing some dance-like moves a few times when he attacked at when he dodged Goomy's attacks since the Pokedex speaks about how it dances to attack.

I liked how Goomy was able to relate himself to the Spoink since his home was taken over as well. It was also nice to see him stand up to Grumpig after Dedenne was knocked out. I personally would have preferred for him to remain a Goomy for just a bit longer and get more development before such a rapid evolution here, but at the same time I thought the way it was done was good. Plus Sliggoo is adorbs

And TR is defeated, and Grumpig is forgiven, and they live happily ever after, the end. Though I personally don't understand why Grumpig was afraid of all of the Spoink at the end. Clearly he is strong enough to defeat them in battle. Not to mention the fact that he can control their minds. But whatever. I give this an 8/10.

 

[Lukah]

Such a lazy episode. The first one that I actually dislike in XY.

First of all, I'm not a fan of Spoink and Grumpig. So bringing them back, just like the ice cream Pokémon, made me not care about them being saved which was basically the plot of the whole episode. And the TR connection was so flimsy, felt so out of place. They only put them in to fill the episode with more nothing, because even the cute details that the writers are usually so good at in XY were missing. The episode could have been better if TR wasn't it, because they didn't add anything to it, but as I said, lazy lazy episode.

And Goomy can only recognize that they like him when they sacrifice themselves jumping in front of him? It happened in all three Goomy episodes, this being the second time Ash does it! I know that in almost 900 episodes you can't be original all the time and there are tried and true plot devices that work. But this just screams sloppy writing, not caring about the whole arc to write the episode. And if what I'm thinking turns out to be true and Goodra leaves Ash's team in a little while, at least we could have had a great thought out arc instead of bad writing in a evolution episode. Shame.

The animation was not the best as well, Volt was once again used for the evolution and for the first time got on my nerves. So the tecnical aspects were lacking as well. The only thing that I liked really was when Chespin left the pokéball and was cute for the first time in ages. When he's with Pancham he gets annoying so it was good seeing him doing his thing solo and helping others.

 

[dman_dustin]

And the TR connection was so flimsy, felt so out of place. They only put them in to fill the episode with more nothing, because even the cute details that the writers are usually so good at in XY were missing. The episode could have been better if TR wasn't it, because they didn't add anything to it, but as I said, lazy lazy episode.

I disagree here. For the first time, I even have to admit if it wasn't for Team Rocket this episode would not have happened. The plot occured because of Team Rocket, they just weren't shoehorned into the episode like many other episodes. This whole thing started because of Team Rocket.

Now I don't speak Japanese so I could be wrong, but hopefully I gleamed enough context from the images to understand what was going on. Grumpig was a hungry Pokemon and starving, and Team Rocket saw this, as well as saw that Spoink had a bunch of fruit. Team Rocket gave food to the starving Grumpig and promised food beyond its wildest dreams if it obeyed them and did what they wanted. Hence Team Rocket had Grumpig attack Spoink to gather fruit, and then had Grumpig force Ash and co into the cave with a cage.

Since that all occurred, Team Rocket facilitated the plot as well as Goomy's evolution. Had Team Rocket been ill or non existent than this plot would probably be about Ash and co helping a human with some problem without evolution. This is definitely better than if this had been about a mean Grumpig, and Team Rocket showed up to get Pikachu and others and then have Goomy evolve by battling Team Rocket.

And Goomy can only recognize that they like him when they sacrifice themselves jumping in front of him? It happened in all three Goomy episodes, this being the second time Ash does it! I know that in almost 900 episodes you can't be original all the time and there are tried and true plot devices that work. But this just screams sloppy writing, not caring about the whole arc to write the episode. And if what I'm thinking turns out to be true and Goodra leaves Ash's team in a little while, at least we could have had a great thought out arc instead of bad writing in a evolution episode. Shame.

Let's be fair here, Goomy was literally abused in the past by other Pokemon forced out of its home by invading Pokemon. It might "like" certain Pokemon or trainers, but I doubt it will fully trust said Pokemon or Ash. This was probably the first time that Goomy realized it could trust Ash completely that nothing bad would really happen to it if Ash was there. So it's not like Ash would tie Goomy up and torture it.

And seeing Ash go so far as to what Ash did, is what gave Goomy the energy to evolve.

 

[Moe]

Until Pikachu counter attacked, I was thinking Goomy was using Rain Dance just to cool Pikachu down a bit.

Could Team Rocket stop walking away from captured Pokemon? At least leave Meowth as a guard cat or something, there's enough members of Team Rocket to not have all of them go off to do something else. You could still let them escape by using Pikachu to distract Meowth while Chespin picked the lock, but at least it would look like they tried.

Why didn't Bunnelby just dig them out?

Now that the Goomy arc is essentially resolved, does Dedenne just revert to not doing much again? I wonder how much it will be constrained in growing as a Pokemon by not having a real trainer? The logical solution there would be for Bonnie to give it up at some point down the track, because its potential is going to be limited by being treated as a pet rather than a Pokemon. Seems to me like Dedenne was the one making more progress than the Pokemon that evolved in this episode.

It should have been a slower process towards Goomy's evolution, this felt rushed and without much justification.

 

[Galactic_V]

Nice episode. Really liked Numera evolving and he learning Dragon Breath, however... Numeil looked really overpowered when he fought Buupig, like almost all times when a Pokemon from the main cast evolves.

Othern than it, Volt's played... AGAIN. Really, can't they at least use Mega Volt? Have it always to be Volt? I'd rather they played no music... And left a background one than having to use Volt every single time something major happens.

 

[Mareepy]

I can't believe the problem to most people is V Volt overdose. I am quite neutral to that song. It is an excited song after all, fits the moment its used on.

I dunno why, my mind kept spinning on the fact that Spoinks were made the victim of this episode.

Is it the way the writers basically say 'Pokedex? We dont care!' ? I seriously can't tell.

If they follow the Pokedex, Sliggoo will be blind and have more character development and struggle for the story. BUT! We will get a lot of dead Spoinks this episode.

Spoink's entry - 'Using its tail like a spring, it keeps its heart beating by bouncing constantly. If it stops, it dies.'

........ I really wonder they intentionally used Spoinks as the victims to basically shout out that they don't give a **** about Pokedex.

And that denied a good chance for a potentially good development for Sliggoo... sigh.........

 

[Duosion]

Cool ep, I thought Goomy's evolution was cool, TR were really surprisingly evil in the way they essentially totured Spoinks just to get pikachu.

The spoinks sere the highlight tho, god that design is just stupidly adorable.

 

[Dogasu]

V (Volt) hasn't reached Ready Go! levels of overuse yet but I can still see why people might be getting sick of it. On the other hand, what else can they do? They likely only have the rights to use V (Volt) for a limited amount of time so I'm sure they're just trying to get their money's worth out of it.

I also don't know why anyone would think it would be in-character for this show at all to deal with a topic as heavy as sudden onset blindness.

 

[dman_dustin]

If they follow the Pokedex, Sliggoo will be blind and have more character development and struggle for the story. BUT! We will get a lot of dead Spoinks this episode.

Spoink's entry - 'Using its tail like a spring, it keeps its heart beating by bouncing constantly. If it stops, it dies.'

........ I really wonder they intentionally used Spoinks as the victims to basically shout out that they don't give a **** about Pokedex.

And that denied a good chance for a potentially good development for Sliggoo... sigh.........

Except Sliggoo being blind is a lot easier to adapt into the anime than the Spoink dying simply because it doesn't bounce, which makes no logical sense whatsoever.

I mean it wouldn't make sense for a Pokemon to land on its back and die instantaneously just because it stopped bouncing.

And what about an unconscious Spoink? Are they suddenly dead too?

Sliggoo on the other hand, has underdeveloped eyes and uses its "horns" as a radar to see.

 

[Mareepy]

I also don't know why anyone would think it would be in-character for this show at all to deal with a topic as heavy as sudden onset blindness.

And no one thought it will be in character for this show to repeatedly mention death too... It is mention multiple times, in Espurr episode, Lapras episode, and atleast one more.

Except Sliggoo being blind is a lot easier to adapt into the anime than the Spoink dying simply because it doesn't bounce, which makes no logical sense whatsoever.

I mean it wouldn't make sense for a Pokemon to land on its back and die instantaneously just because it stopped bouncing.

And what about an unconscious Spoink? Are they suddenly dead too?

Sliggoo on the other hand, has underdeveloped eyes and uses its "horns" as a radar to see.

Ofcourse no one wants the Spoinks to die. And I really hope they did adapt the blind part.

We often see Pokemon unable to handle their new body when they evolve. Torterra did struggle at first too. Sliggoo either handled the radar like it has been using for a long time or isn't blind at all. Thats what I am not happy with.

 

[Dogasu]

The English dub shies away from death all the time, yes, but in Japan the topic was never taboo. Your comparison doesn't work.

 

[dman_dustin]

The English dub shies away from death all the time, yes, but in Japan the topic was never taboo. Your comparison doesn't work.

Forgive my lack of Japanese culture, but is being blind really more shocking and controversial than death?

Because we have dealt with lots of temporary blindness episodes, from something like sand attack or some attack that lowers accuracy.

That I can't imagine a Pokemon having to rely on radar and would be at a disadvantage would really be so controversial.

============

However I do have to point out to the person who said the question of

"I have a problem with a Sliggoo either adapting too quickly to the radar system, or not actually being blind"

To be fair, there are some examples of Pokemon who have evolved and drastically different bodies, and adapted just fine, and others that they had trouble adapting to their new form. I'd say that it actually might vary depending on the Pokemon itself. Perhaps it would be like human skills and traits, where some people are apt to certain skills and traits but others struggle but in the end might adapt just fine.

It might be that with Sliggoo, in that Sliggoo adapted so quickly that it was not a problem.

Of course however is one other thing to take into consideration:

When would Sliggoo's blindness have made sense within the episode (at least in regards to chronologically) since there was little time left in the episode when Goomy evolved. It would make more sense to focus on its apparent blindness in a future episode, if it needs focus at all.