- Joined
- Jan 22, 2014
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- #61
I have mixed feelings about this episode.
I guess we can talk about what I liked first. While I adore and crave battle episodes, I do like episodes that feature character development as well as humanization for the main characters. For what it was, this episode did do that. Ash and Go escape to Hoenn for a "research" trip, for an interesting total of four days; while cramming four days in one episode isn't the best idea, I do appreciate that the narrative establishes that Go's feelings about Raboot are spread out over several days (rather than achieving understanding between the two over the course of a...say, an afternoon). There were a lot of quiet moments that helped accentuate the bond between Ash and Go; the two certainly act brotherly at this point, and that shoulder bump from Ash was sweet. I like seeing that; reminds me of his relationship with Clemont. The other thing I liked were all of Go's sad facial expressions and noises; admittedly I found them cute, amusing, and relatable (ever had your dog walk past you and go sit with a sibling? sad face indeed). And that selfie at the end was just adorable; we need more heartwarming moments like that. That's about it though, for the praises I have.
On to the stuff that matters.
Okay, first off-they took a train to Hoenn? Last time I checked, Hoenn and Kanto aren't attached...Unless they flew in and then took a train...Sorry, but that immediately broke the immersion for me. I was also going to comment on Ash's crude drawing, due to the previous artwork he's displayed, but Panky made a good point about the differences between drawing on paper and on a smartphone; all is forgiven.
Like everyone else, I had hoped that this episode would finally address the elephant in the room-how Raboot truly feels about Go, in light of the frustrations it had in its recent evolution episode. Unsurprisingly, all the plausible causes and rich development we thought up was simply smacked aside in favor of just having Raboot be moody. Or tsundere. Tomato, tomato. Now, it's not to say the writers did that wrong-they're actually capturing Raboot as a species really well, according to lore. But, they really missed out on an opportunity to have Go reevaluate his relationship with Pokemon, both in how he catches (although kudos to him not ruining the Beautifly moment by trying to encapsulate one of them) and raises them. I really thought Raboot was mad at Go for everything, if not most of, we listed before, but I was clearly wrong.
In regards to how Go handled it, that sucked too. Rather than proactively try to understand the issue between himself and Raboot (or, you know, ask his friend with years and 50+ species worth of Pokemon raising experience for advice), he just whines about it sporadically through the episode...and then, on a whim, decides to flat-out abandon Raboot (in a completely different region, nonetheless) over some new Pokemon friends it made. Just because it smiled with others and not him.
Whoo boy, if my parents had his mentality, I would have been abandoned before I ever hit middle school.
Not even the contrived "rebellious" advice the apple lady gave him half-way through the episode influenced his decision. Ash, rightfully, calls him out on how the decision was made, that Go needs to at least be upfront about it rather than taking the easy way of just leaving...which is a roundabout way to my original point of talk to your Pokemon. And before someone responds "but he did, when he told Raboot it's been acting strange"-no. Those were complaints addled with, understandable, frustration-no attempts to rationally figure out what's going on between Pokemon and Trainer.
I like what they tried to do in this episode, but I feel that the pacing and certain plot elements were off; having a B-story didn't help as well as the Beautifly scene ate up too much screen time (how many times do we have see butterfly-like Pokemon fly off towards the sun or moon) in lieu of the central conflict. We could have had a new move debut here as well, sigh. And yes-Raboot's dancing was completely random (though the Coordinator in me thought "enter it in a Contest, stat!"). I wouldn't say it's lost its interest in battling though, or that that has been forgotten-we can be more than one-dimensional. Still, it felt forced and out-of-character. Now, Raboot sneaking away into an underground fight club? Like Rockruff? That's something I can get behind.
There's always the next focus episode.
I guess we can talk about what I liked first. While I adore and crave battle episodes, I do like episodes that feature character development as well as humanization for the main characters. For what it was, this episode did do that. Ash and Go escape to Hoenn for a "research" trip, for an interesting total of four days; while cramming four days in one episode isn't the best idea, I do appreciate that the narrative establishes that Go's feelings about Raboot are spread out over several days (rather than achieving understanding between the two over the course of a...say, an afternoon). There were a lot of quiet moments that helped accentuate the bond between Ash and Go; the two certainly act brotherly at this point, and that shoulder bump from Ash was sweet. I like seeing that; reminds me of his relationship with Clemont. The other thing I liked were all of Go's sad facial expressions and noises; admittedly I found them cute, amusing, and relatable (ever had your dog walk past you and go sit with a sibling? sad face indeed). And that selfie at the end was just adorable; we need more heartwarming moments like that. That's about it though, for the praises I have.
On to the stuff that matters.
Okay, first off-they took a train to Hoenn? Last time I checked, Hoenn and Kanto aren't attached...Unless they flew in and then took a train...Sorry, but that immediately broke the immersion for me. I was also going to comment on Ash's crude drawing, due to the previous artwork he's displayed, but Panky made a good point about the differences between drawing on paper and on a smartphone; all is forgiven.
Like everyone else, I had hoped that this episode would finally address the elephant in the room-how Raboot truly feels about Go, in light of the frustrations it had in its recent evolution episode. Unsurprisingly, all the plausible causes and rich development we thought up was simply smacked aside in favor of just having Raboot be moody. Or tsundere. Tomato, tomato. Now, it's not to say the writers did that wrong-they're actually capturing Raboot as a species really well, according to lore. But, they really missed out on an opportunity to have Go reevaluate his relationship with Pokemon, both in how he catches (although kudos to him not ruining the Beautifly moment by trying to encapsulate one of them) and raises them. I really thought Raboot was mad at Go for everything, if not most of, we listed before, but I was clearly wrong.
In regards to how Go handled it, that sucked too. Rather than proactively try to understand the issue between himself and Raboot (or, you know, ask his friend with years and 50+ species worth of Pokemon raising experience for advice), he just whines about it sporadically through the episode...and then, on a whim, decides to flat-out abandon Raboot (in a completely different region, nonetheless) over some new Pokemon friends it made. Just because it smiled with others and not him.
Whoo boy, if my parents had his mentality, I would have been abandoned before I ever hit middle school.
Not even the contrived "rebellious" advice the apple lady gave him half-way through the episode influenced his decision. Ash, rightfully, calls him out on how the decision was made, that Go needs to at least be upfront about it rather than taking the easy way of just leaving...which is a roundabout way to my original point of talk to your Pokemon. And before someone responds "but he did, when he told Raboot it's been acting strange"-no. Those were complaints addled with, understandable, frustration-no attempts to rationally figure out what's going on between Pokemon and Trainer.
I like what they tried to do in this episode, but I feel that the pacing and certain plot elements were off; having a B-story didn't help as well as the Beautifly scene ate up too much screen time (how many times do we have see butterfly-like Pokemon fly off towards the sun or moon) in lieu of the central conflict. We could have had a new move debut here as well, sigh. And yes-Raboot's dancing was completely random (though the Coordinator in me thought "enter it in a Contest, stat!"). I wouldn't say it's lost its interest in battling though, or that that has been forgotten-we can be more than one-dimensional. Still, it felt forced and out-of-character. Now, Raboot sneaking away into an underground fight club? Like Rockruff? That's something I can get behind.
There's always the next focus episode.