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Review BW093: The Junior Cup of Farewells and Meetings!

Oddly enough, the Pikachu Vs. Quilava battle reminded me of DP's battles far more than anything in the actual Junior tournament.

You know, back when battles were actually good and fun to watch.
 
It was a pretty average episode, but it got the job done in some aspects.

-Shooti, I'm glad he finally got his battle with Adeku that he has been wanting for sometime now. Shooti seems to have developed as a character and that's a good thing, though the development felt kinda quick. I mean he already is friendly with Satoshi? That seemed weird, all because of Adeku's words with him no less. It just seemed too quickly done, imo, and should have been more gradual. Subtle-gradual character development is one of the best kinds of character development in my opinion. Some development is better than no development though, so that's something to be glad for. I liked his emotion during the battle as well as how he hung his head in embarrassment when Adeku mispronounced his name. The battle itself wasn't amazing, but Buffron really was a beast what with sponging all of Jalorda's attacks like that and retaliating with a one-hitter quitter Afro Break.

-Adeku Keychains, that is all. I really liked that participation prize. That's a piece of Pokemerch I would buy for sure if it existed in real life, those little trinkets were epic.

-The departures of Langley, Cabernet, and Shooti were quick as always, but it was nice to see Langley is still pushing Iris to become a Dragon Master and get Kairyu under control. Cabernet's sassy goodbye was pretty cute and Shooti's goodbye to Satoshi seemed a bit sudden with how he acted, but sufficed.

-Hikari and Satoshi's battle was great, a nice friendly contest of agility and quickness, since Pikachu and Magmarashi are similar in that regard. I guess Eruption was erased from Magmarashi's memory banks in favor of Flamethrower, I don't mind, it differentiates her's from Satoshi's. That Flame Wheel was animated nicely and I liked how Satoshi used Thunderbolt to clear away Smokescreen. Iron Tail not slicing through Flamethrower and overpowering Pikachu was nice, made more sense than it did back during DP's first gym and Tsutarja's Leaf Blade against Baokkie. The battle was getting good up until the Shirona commentary, it sucks it had to end in a tie because I would have liked a definite winner and I liked how Satoshi didn't rely on Elecball much at all. I don't mind and don't care that Pikachu didn't squash Magmarashi with ease. I look at it from another view, sure Pikachu has more experience as a Pokemon, but those two have similar battling styles and moves and Magmarashi is no slouch either and is evolved and a second-stager like Pikachu too. Plus it doesn't work that way with athletes, you can be stronger than someone in the beginning, but it's surprisingly not that hard to catch up, especially when said person doesn't train or battle as much as they did before.(As Pikachu did in DP) Strength and speed is never going to stick permanently to an athlete, you have to work-out regularly to maintain what you've gained thus far. Pikachu's moveset also is downgraded a bit without Volt Tackle. I liked the music that played during the battle.

-Hikari's goodbye was done good enough. Her farewell and along with Mijumaru's and Pochama's goodbyes were cute and I liked how they played the Route 201(?) music during her departure and Meleotta's singing enhanced the goodbye scene's emotion.

-Kotetsu, this kid is the new rival we've been speculating about since those days in May? :p Kotetsu, for the most part, is pretty okay with me. He hasn't done much and we've only seen his comedic side. Depending on how he's handled and his interactions and parts in the show are I think I might like him more than Jun. Jun was comedic, sure, but was made out to be a complete joke overall and never really went anywhere and I was still waiting for a sort of plot-line with his being a Shinji fanboy and action usually beats comedy in my book. I mean Jun only was ever able to beat Satoshi's newly caught, tired Fukamaru with his Emparte. Kotetsu might be comedic, but he seems like a character that might actually mean something. I also liked his Riolu, it was adorable. Next episode it looks like he gives it a good battle against Shizui, I hope his Riolu battles, but doesn't evolve.
 
I am curious, just what did Cabernet/Burgundy say to Cilan before she left?

The two of them strangely didn't get much interaction in this tournament, but she didn't seem too bothered.
 
Okay, I know Alder is the champion and all but did it REALLY have to be OHKO? What's worse is that they failed to give Bouffalant a new move and had it use Head Charge yet again.

The only things I liked about this episode was the small piece of Trip development and the Piplup parts. That Ash and Dawn battle could have been better if it weren't for Cynthia stopping it. Goodness I wish she'd leave already... *killed by Cynthia fans* As I feared Dawn's appearance was left at less than what I expected from her return. We could have done without Kotetsu all together. He's basically a Morrison copy though I think Morrison was a bit smarter than he was. So yeah... not good episode for me.
 
The only things I liked about this episode was the small piece of Trip development and the Piplup parts. That Ash and Dawn battle could have been better if it weren't for Cynthia stopping it. Goodness I wish she'd leave already... *killed by Cynthia fans* As I feared Dawn's appearance was left at less than what I expected from her return. We could have done without Kotetsu all together. He's basically a Morrison copy though I think Morrison was a bit smarter than he was. So yeah... not good episode for me.

I think its quite telling that Dawn's goodbye ep, (probably forever?), had to be shared with a Trip/Adeku battle and the introduction of Kotetsu, the latter of which definitely could have been saved for its own episode.

I still find it highly amusing that Dawn's Togekiss proves what a useless/pointless Pokemon it actually was, and the writers decided to have it not do anything upon Dawn's return.
 
I know Alder is the champion and all but did it REALLY have to be OHKO?
Cynthia*Cough* Garchomp*Cough*


Since Cynthia OHKO'ed Paul's entire team it wouldn't make sense to make another champion seem less-powerful, it's the writers way of saying "there is no strongest champion, all of them are equal in power".
 
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The Champions are not equal in power.
Cynthia OHKOed four of Paul's Pokemon and Garchomp only took one hit that didn't do a thing. By contrast Bouffalant took several hits that looked pretty painful and only defeated one Pokemon.
Except for when it battled Axew and took plenty of hits - just about everyone put that down to her testing Iris' strength, no reason to think that Alder wasn't doing the same with Trip.

If you don't need to battle all out, it's best not to. Against Paul, Cynthia was proving a point, she understood the implication of what she was doing, knowing full well the extent of her own power.

Unless we get the proper World Tournament like it is in the games, we'll never find out how powerful the champions are in comparison to eachother and even then losing/winning one battle doesn't define strength.

But there's no reason to think Alder is particularly weak from what we've seen - he just has a different personality. I am sure that in BW we will see him battle all out against Ash someone and he will demonstrate just as much strength in battle as when Cynthia faced Flint.

There's no real reason why the Anime would make any champion stronger than any other, especially as it would serve the weaken the validity of the goal to defeat each region's champion that trainers like Ash have when travelling around the world.

What I'd like to know is whether Cynthia defeated Tobias or not? It's a shame that that, and indeed everything besides Ash knowing her, was totally ignored in Cynthia's return. The anime brought back Dawn and Cynthia, only to spend most of the time on Iris and Trip.
 
Oh how nice. It seems that my entire post has been deleted because some users obviously felt "offended" by one little remark. So what about all those other posts about Cynthia talking cr** and so on? We as Cynthia's fans felt really insulted by them as well but nobody seems to be doing anything about it...

The Champions are not equal in power.
Cynthia OHKOed four of Paul's Pokemon and Garchomp only took one hit that didn't do a thing. By contrast Bouffalant took several hits that looked pretty painful and only defeated one Pokemon.
Except for when it battled Axew and took plenty of hits - just about everyone put that down to her testing Iris' strength, no reason to think that Alder wasn't doing the same with Trip.
There was a long discussion about that battle against Iris and I'm sure you still remember my opinion on that terrible episode.
Besides, I don't think that Alder wanted to test Trip. As opposed to Cynthia's training(!) battle against Iris, this was an official tournament battle and only a very silly person would not take it seriously. So, I'm sure Alder did battle seriously (even I don't think he could be that mad not to consider the match important) but I'm also convinced he just couldn't do any better and that as a consequence, Bouffalant really had to take all those hits ;) By contrast, Cynthia and Garchomp just did it to help Iris train.

What I'd like to know is whether Cynthia defeated Tobias or not? It's a shame that that, and indeed everything besides Ash knowing her, was totally ignored in Cynthia's return. The anime brought back Dawn and Cynthia, only to spend most of the time on Iris and Trip.
There are only three possibilities:
Either that battle hasn't taken place yet, or the battle won't take place because Tobias has already been defeated by a member of the Elite Four or the battle has already taken place. In this case it's clear that Cynthia won, otherwise she wouldn't be the Champion anymore.(Something that, by the way, won't happen until hell freezes over)
 
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Besides, I don't think that Alder wanted to test Trip. As opposed to Cynthia's training(!) battle against Iris, this was an official tournament battle and only a very silly person would not take it seriously. So, I'm sure Alder did battle seriously (even I don't think he could be that mad not to consider the match important) but I'm also convinced he just couldn't do any better and that as a consequence, Bouffalant really had to take all those hits ;) By contrast, Cynthia and Garchomp just did it to help Iris train.
While I don't know exactly what was said, the fact that Alder talked to Trip about his Pokemon afterwards and seemed to get through to him about whatever he was saying, suggests that he certainly did have some other intention in the battle and proved his point doing so. If Alder was anywhere near as weak as to have to take those hits, the battle skills shown by Caitlin would mean she would be able to easily defeat him to become champion. She hasn't, so he isn't.
 
The Champions are not equal in power.
Cynthia OHKOed four of Paul's Pokemon and Garchomp only took one hit that didn't do a thing. By contrast Bouffalant took several hits that looked pretty painful and only defeated one Pokemon.
I thought Garchomp took two hits. Sky Attack didn't do a thing but Giga Drain did?
 
This episode proved one thing without a doubt. Adeku is not only the strongest Champion that ever appeared in the Animé, but he's also the wisest. You can tell that he was really insightful by the way he battled Shooti to teach him something through battle and his words of wisdom were vibrant afterwards.

To have Shirona come after that and just spout her usual bs just proved how inferior she was to Adeku.
 
I know Alder is the champion and all but did it REALLY have to be OHKO?
Cynthia*Cough* Garchomp*Cough*


Since Cynthia OHKO'ed Paul's entire team it wouldn't make sense to make another champion seem less-powerful, it's the writers way of saying "there is no strongest champion, all of them are equal in power".

It's more of how it went down which is why I found it a little unreasonable. Okay, they want to make them equal in power. That's reasonable. But Paul's Pokemon weren't shown blowing through a Pokemon competition in the prior three episodes with relative ease like Serperior did. In fact, all of the battles he had prior to Cynthia didn't go as smoothly as Trip and Serperior in the Junior Cup. And aside from Torterra, most of the ones he used were relatively weak and Garchomp is a pseudo-legendary and all. It was also Torterra's debut so we didn't get to see its strength before hand. To get to the point, it's really not about the champion's power but the Trainer's Pokemon resistances to that power. Being that Serperior withstood three fire-types and a bug-type to get through the competition, I would expect for it at least to take two hits.
 
I find it amusing how Dawn's departure was so low-key that they had to introduce a new rival in the same episode. Looking back its such a change from how much damn promotion Dawn got back in the DP series.
 
A shocking episode. Swapping "Farewells and Meetings" with "Horrors" or "Bad Writing" would have been a much more fitting title...
 
This episode proved one thing without a doubt. Adeku is not only the strongest Champion that ever appeared in the Animé, but he's also the wisest. You can tell that he was really insightful by the way he battled Shooti to teach him something through battle and his words of wisdom were vibrant afterwards.

To have Shirona come after that and just spout her usual bs just proved how inferior she was to Adeku.

You're kidding, aren't you? (Sure you must be, everything else wouldn't make sense...)
Do you have ANY arguments for this opinion? What exactly about the way he battled was more insightful or better than what Cynthia does? Tell me! Alder wanted to teach Trip a lesson? So did Cynthia with Paul! And the reason why Trip obviously accepted Alder's advice immediately was because compared to Paul, he's still a relatively new and inexperienced trainer and a less stubborn one, too. It's not that Alder was more convincing but that Cynthia's words of wisdom were just too mature for stubborn and arrogant Paul to understand.
So again my question: Where did Alder do something that was superior to Cynthia?? Let me remind you that it was his Pokemon Boufallant that got tossed around by Serperior pretty badly before it finally got the chance to attack.
To be honest, Alder's battle looked nothing like what you expect from a champion. And if it hadn't been his duty to battle the winner of the Junior Cup, I guess he would probably have fallen asleep again.

It's more of how it went down which is why I found it a little unreasonable. Okay, they want to make them equal in power. That's reasonable. But Paul's Pokemon weren't shown blowing through a Pokemon competition in the prior three episodes with relative ease like Serperior did. In fact, all of the battles he had prior to Cynthia didn't go as smoothly as Trip and Serperior in the Junior Cup. And aside from Torterra, most of the ones he used were relatively weak and Garchomp is a pseudo-legendary and all. It was also Torterra's debut so we didn't get to see its strength before hand.
But we also learned that Torterra was Paul's very first Pokemon and that he had already traveled through several regions, meaning that his Pokemon must have got plenty of training and experience in the meantime. So it's safe to assume that Torterra is way stronger than Serperior because the Unova region is Trip's first journey. If you ask me, the writers just made Seperior appear extremely strong in order to give the Junior Cup a touch of excitement. We all know they often change the power level of Pokemon arbitrarily, case in point: Pikachu.

And finally, the way Garchomp finished off Torterra looked much crueler and more superior than Bouffalant, which by the way had to resort to Sap Zipper, something Cynthia would never have to rely on because of her pure power
 
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