Anime & Manga General Discussion

[nickdt]

It depends who Ash is facing in the Masters Eight, since not everyone is confirmed yet.

I can see Mustard being in the Masters Eight as well and Raihan most likely will be the final hurdle before facing Leon, just to create some tension between them. I think Ash is gonna replace either Mustard, Lance or Rinto (I expect him to be in the Masters Eight, since it kinda seems he is build towards being in it).

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

It's sort of weird that not only is Charizard no longer associated with Ash but that it ended up with a rival he never defeated and the current rival there's a decent chance he never beats, too.

I have a dumb conspiracy theory: at first, the hyper-popular mon that Ash never seemed to be able to defeat was Lucario. He was only able to draw against Maylene's, who must be noted defeated two of Ash's Pokemon singlehanded before tying with Buizel. Then there was that infamous moment at the Unova League where Cameron's Riolu/Lucario wiped out half of Ash's team all by itself. The message here was clear: Ash was cursed to never be able to have a clear win against a Lucario. The curse finally started to break in the Gym match against Korrina, where even then her Lucario took down two Pokemon before falling to Pikachu and prior to that had defeated the electric mouse twice. the curse was further broken in the battle against Kukui, where not only did Ash defeated a Lucario, but he did so without losing any Pokemon against it. And now he finally has a Lucario of his own. The Lucario Curse is not just broken, it's been completely turned on its head.

So what does this mean? Well, apparently there just needed to be a new hyper-popular mon to become the new unbeatable juggernaut for Ash, and it looks like Charizard is it. And to be fair, what the hell else were they gonna use? Eevee is in no way a credible threat with Ash's current experience level due to being a basic-stage mon, Mewtwo is kind of unavailable as a signature rival mon for obvious reasons, and Greninja... well, it literally has a special form themed around Ash, so that bridge has been burned before it could even be considered. In short, Charizard was the only realistic option left

(in case it's not obvious enough already, this is a joke)

 

[Daren]

I have a dumb conspiracy theory: at first, the hyper-popular mon that Ash never seemed to be able to defeat was Lucario. He was only able to draw against Maylene's, who must be noted defeated two of Ash's Pokemon singlehanded before tying with Buizel. Then there was that infamous moment at the Unova League where Cameron's Riolu/Lucario wiped out half of Ash's team all by itself. The message here was clear: Ash was cursed to never be able to have a clear win against a Lucario. The curse finally started to break in the Gym match against Korrina, where even then her Lucario took down two Pokemon before falling to Pikachu and prior to that had defeated the electric mouse twice. the curse was further broken in the battle against Kukui, where not only did Ash defeated a Lucario, but he did so without losing any Pokemon against it. And now he finally has a Lucario of his own. The Lucario Curse is not just broken, it's been completely turned on its head.

So what does this mean? Well, apparently there just needed to be a new hyper-popular mon to become the new unbeatable juggernaut for Ash, and it looks like Charizard is it. And to be fair, what the hell else were they gonna use? Eevee is in no way a credible threat with Ash's current experience level due to being a basic-stage mon, Mewtwo is kind of unavailable as a signature rival mon for obvious reasons, and Greninja... well, it literally has a special form themed around Ash, so that bridge has been burned before it could even be considered. In short, Charizard was the only realistic option left

(in case it's not obvious enough already, this is a joke)

Charizard started being handed out to other people in the same series Ash's reserves were sent to the Phantom Zone.
Coincidence?
I think not.

..Come to think, Ash's Charizard was long seen as his single strongest but is now looking like one of the weakest prominent Charizard next to Alain and Leon. Funny how that worked out.

 

[Adelon]

After the Suicune episode Goh has become God.

He's now unstoppable. He can accomplish anything.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Pokémon Adventures contains many matchups that many fans have hoped to see. For example, in the Gold, Silver & Crystal saga, an exhibition tournament is hosted at Indigo Plateau between Kanto and Johto's Gym Leaders.

Spoiler: Matchups and results

Brock vs. Jasmine: Jasmine wins
Misty vs. Whitney: Misty wins
Sabrina vs. Bugsy: Sabrina wins
Blue vs. Chuck: Blue wins
Lt. Surge vs. Morty: Draw due to Destiny Bond
Erika vs. Pryce: Pryce wins
Janine vs. Falkner: Falkner wins as Janine forfeits
Blaine vs. Clair: Blaine wins

Final results: Kanto wins with 4 wins, 3 losses, and a draw.

Admittedly, the last match was fought during a battle against Neo Team Rocket and Blaine won because he had Entei with him at the time, but it was still counted.

And who who's ever read the FireRed & LeafGreen chapter could forget this legendary battle?

Spoiler

 

[GrookeyFan77]

Pokémon Adventures contains many matchups that many fans have hoped to see. For example, in the Gold, Silver & Crystal saga, an exhibition tournament is hosted at Indigo Plateau between Kanto and Johto's Gym Leaders.

Spoiler: Matchups and results

Brock vs. Jasmine: Jasmine wins
Misty vs. Whitney: Misty wins
Sabrina vs. Bugsy: Sabrina wins
Blue vs. Chuck: Blue wins
Lt. Surge vs. Morty: Draw due to Destiny Bond
Erika vs. Pryce: Pryce wins
Janine vs. Falkner: Falkner wins as Janine forfeits
Blaine vs. Clair: Blaine wins

Final results: Kanto wins with 4 wins, 3 losses, and a draw.

Admittedly, the last match was fought during a battle against Neo Team Rocket and Blaine won because he had Entei with him at the time, but it was still counted.

And who who's ever read the FireRed & LeafGreen chapter could forget this legendary battle?

Spoiler

View attachment 139379

I knew all of these! They were so cool!

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Okay, so Goh is shaping up to becoming possibly the most controversial companion since Iris, and it's evident that a lot of the problems people have with him are related to how he's treated compared to Ash: Goh's goal has been given comparatively more focus, and his development looks especially rushed compared to Ash's, who took over 2 decades to win a League. I think the problem boils down to this: Ash is the underdog in his own story, while Goh is not the underdog of his, largely due to the fact that unlike Ash, there really isn't much in the way of believable competition (I mean, how many people in the world would honestly be insane enough to try and catch every single animal there is?).

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with this; it just makes sense for an underdog character to struggle more, but it's easy to see why it at first glance would look like Goh is being given favoritism. It certainly doesn't help that even as strong and experienced as Ash has gotten, the series really doesn't want him to lose that lovable underdog status even though he really shouldn't be one by this point. I think the point where this "Ash MUST be the underdog in the story, no ifs or buts about it" problem started to become especially egregious was in the BW saga, where the writers made Ash, a seasoned veteran with four regions of experience under his belt, the underdog to an Arceusdang rookie fresh out of the lab. However, even after BW, Ash has still been the underdog in the majority of his rivalries. It's just that the writers have made sure that nearly every rival he faces is conveniently older, more powerful, and more experienced than him: Ow The Edge and Uberzard, Dandelion and Uberzard 2: King of the Monsters, Karate Kid releases the Kraken, and most recently Totally Not Wally. The only exceptions to this rule have been Sawyer and Hau, who were outright stated and shown to be less experienced and therefore the underdogs to Ash, and even then only Sawyer had any prominence, whereas Hau could have been replaced with a random CotD and not much would change. It certainly doesn't help that literally all of Ash's rivals in Journeys have been of the "older, stronger, more experienced" type. This does make sense, though, as I think it serves to emphasize just how tough the competition in the World Championship is, but of course it's going to feel jarring when the co-protagonist doesn't seem to face anywhere near as many hurdles.

It's not necessarily because the writers are trying to make Goh "better" than Ash, it's just that Goh's goal requires considerably less effort: throwing Pokeballs at things is hardly a unique and difficult skill, after all. It's like seeing an okay but not outstanding swimmer excel at the kiddie pool next to a highly-trained and seasoned one compete at the Olympics and falling short of getting the medal: of course the former is going to come off looking better at first glance if you ignore/forget the vastly different contexts that these two individuals are in.

 

[KrspaceT]

The Goh issues are never just one episode but something that's built up over time and multipler smaller incidents. There are ways to mitigate it, but they aren't doing them.

(More little Ash WCB battles, more Ash focused episodes, more stuff for Ash to do in Goh episodes....that sort of thing)

 

[Daren]

I think the point where this "Ash MUST be the underdog in the story, no ifs or buts about it" problem started to become especially egregious was in the BW saga, where the writers made Ash, a seasoned veteran with four regions of experience under his belt, the underdog to an Arceusdang rookie fresh out of the lab.

For me it was DP where I thought it was getting silly; he went from defeating the Frontier Brains and going toe to toe with legendaries in AG to getting curbstomped by the first Gym Leader and failing to beat a Magikarp.

Ow The Edge and Uberzard, Dandelion and Uberzard 2: King of the Monsters,

It's gonna start looking downright conspiratorial if/when Ash loses to Leon.

I think how much Ash actually does by the end of JN will determine if Gou really is a writer's pet or if they're just making the main characters accomplish more this time around and Ash is taking longer to do things by virtue of his goal requiring more buildup. I'd argue Gou's equivalent of winning a league has already happened, so if Ash doesn't do something big in JN it'll look like Gou is being favored heavily. But we probably won't have an answer to that until next year at the earliest.

 

[Emmy]

Yeah, Ash having to start over AGAIN really grinded my gears this time since him having to battle scrubs and slowly build up his Rank in the PWC just isn't interesting to watch.

You know who handled this idea of a powerful combatant entering a world tournament better? Medabots. When the Grand Prix was announced you had to be in the top three rankings of your country in order to participate on the world stage and Ikki having battled so many evildoers by that point was declared #3 from the get-go. Thus instead of having to climb up in rank it's more of a title match sorta deal as everyone's gunning for him and when he loses at a critical juncture and falls into a losing streak it becomes a race against time in order to climb back up before the Grand Prix deadline starts which leads to a climactic moment whereby Ikki is forced to choose between a Ranked match to gain third place once again or sacrifice it to save some innocent people from the Rubber Robo Gang. Ultimately his virtue was rewarded and he got both outcomes.

So yeah, the way the PWC has been handled in Journeys has been so disappointing after people have been wanting to see the concept of a World Tournament ever since Black and White 2.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

For me it was DP where I thought it was getting silly; he went from defeating the Frontier Brains and going toe to toe with legendaries in AG to getting curbstomped by the first Gym Leader and failing to beat a Magikarp.

I've always interpreted that to be because the competition was just that much steeper in Sinnoh. Ash wasn't preforming worse, he was just playing with the big boys now. This is backed up by the fact that only 64 trainers even qualified for the League, compared to the 100+ from previous series'.

 

[Daren]

I've always interpreted that to be because the competition was just that much steeper in Sinnoh. Ash wasn't preforming worse, he was just playing with the big boys now. This is backed up by the fact that only 64 trainers even qualified for the League, compared to the 100+ from previous series'.

That may have been the intent but Paul getting so badly clobbered by Brandon made it hard for me to buy. Plus new trainers from Sinnoh should have been utterly doomed but Dawn did fine.
Edit: Now I'm not saying you can't explain any of this; it's just for me DP is when I felt "wow, Ash is not allowed to make permanent improvement, is he?" and found it hard to really care about Paul rivalry for that reason.

 

[MeteorFalls]

What's the name of the soundtrack that plays during Riolu vs Galarian Farfetch'd battle? Can't seem to find it on the album.

 

[ii kanji]

I can't read 14 pages of review thread rn, can someone please summarise the bmgf reaction to the last episode/Suicune getto daze?

 

[Hidden Mew]

I can't read 14 pages of review thread rn, can someone please summarise the bmgf reaction to the last episode/Suicune getto daze?

It's mixed to say the least, but I don't think that the reception was nearly as negative as the preview thread was by comparison. There are more positive responses to the episode than I expected as well.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

We got a new Scan from Pokefan.

I don't think the Sobble and Chloe blurbs tell us anything we don't already know.

However it seems like Goh's Scyther will be playing a role in the Wikistrom Episode

And the Psyduck Episode is about Kikuna/Chrysa and a Guy she's crushing on who owns a Psyduck

Hopefully Gou and Scyther only have a small role to play.
I don't want them to distract from Ash and Farfetch'd Vs Wikistrom

Of course I'm going to wait for a more accurate translater to come out and confirm this

 

[GrookeyFan77]

However it seems like Goh's Scyther will be playing a role in the Wikistrom Episode

They both evolve?

And the Psyduck Episode is about Kikuna/Chrysa and a Guy she's crushing on who owns a Psyduck

Kikuna focus! Yaya!

Hopefully Gou and Scyther only have a small role to play.
I don't want them to distract from Ash and Farfetch'd Vs Wikistrom

Me too

 

[Greninjaman]

Why do most of the Gym Leaders end up just being the Character of the Day for that episode? They are important characters.

 

[Nicolas721]

I can't read 14 pages of review thread rn, can someone please summarise the bmgf reaction to the last episode/Suicune getto daze?

I'd say there's 3 camps:

1. Some hate Goh with a passion and say that his character now can't redeem himself from a Mary Sue status.
2. Some think that some parts were cute, but that the writing is still forced to justify Goh receiving a legendary.
3. Some find the idea of catching a legendary weird but think that the episode was heartwarming and that Goh's bond with Suicune was geniune.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

So what do you guys think about Goh's Kakuna?