Review JN027: Legends of Heroes! Dande's Greatest Battle!!

[Adil]

In the beginning of this episode, Ash told Riolu to use Hakkei (はっけい) (a.k.a Force Palm).
He also told it to use Force Palm once when it fought G-Farfetch'd.

Yeah, you're right about the first battle.

 

[Egakor]

Yeah, you're right about the first battle.

Ash clearly said Hakkei (はっけい)) at this moment in the battle with Galarian Farfetch'd.

 

[Adil]

Ash clearly said Hakkei (はっけい)) at this moment in the battle with Galarian Farfetch'd.

Ah, my mistake. Yes he does indeed say Force Palm there as well.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

Is my impression or this felt like two completely different episdes into one again?

As for Farfetch'd, well he is an interesting Pokémon and it can have some nice battles due to his unique battle style when he evolves.

Riolu battling instead of Pikachu is also good I hope he battles in future PWT matches.

I was more surprised with Rose appearence in this episode. The anime made an awesome villain like Lusamine good are they going to make Rose superevil instead?

 

[Black&White]

RIP Ash's Sobble

 

[Eclipsical]

I wanted Ash to catch Galarian Farfetch’d, but now I’m worried that Sobble will end up going to Go, unless we’re getting back-to-back capture episodes.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The narrator's ending line where he says something like "...and then there's Gou, who didn't manage to get anything" and then Gou makes an annoyed face and runs off was kind of perfect.

And then Sobble shows up. Foreshadowing if I've ever seen it.

 

[Kurolegacy]

I had a feeling there would be a bait n switch with Farfetch'd/Sobble. I'm happy with how this turned out, Ash already has four Water starters rotting away so I didn't see a need for another one. The main strength of this series is how it does away with tradition and I'm happy that Ash is using different Pokemon that aren't really similar to ones he's used in the past. I think it cuts down on redundancy within his team, and frankly makes it more likely that he will start using some reserves later down the line. And for Sobble fans, I'm pretty sure it will still join Raboot as a series mascot under Gou.

Having two fighting types on his team is interesting though, I hope Farfetch'd isn't ignored in favor of Riolu/Lucario.

So rather than giving Sobble a trainer who would actually train it and has been shown to bring out their true strength even when others couldn’t (here’s looking at you Infernape), you’d rather it go to a trainer who literally does absolutely nothing other than just being there and who leaves most of their Pokémon to rot at a lab just for the sake of breaking tradition? Even if it does actually become an active member of Go’s team for a change, what is it even going to do to really show it off given that Go’s goal and blatant refusal to battle most of the time leaves very little for his Pokémon to do.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

How can Dynamax battles be exciting?

Probably if they allowed for more mobility by increasing the size of the stadiums (don’t they pretty much look the same? Stadiums featuring giant Pokémon should be larger. Or maybe they could scale down Dynamax size increase a little to allow for some movement that isn’t clunky.

Compared to how scripted Ash’s Alola team felt, him not just catching the “obvious” picks are more satisfying than him getting starters.

Scripted? It was probably the most unorthodox Ash team in a long while. He didn’t have a regional bird, he gets an Ultra Beast that evolves, and a Mythical Pokemon which evolves too.

 

[Eclipsical]

Ignoring the “Who Will Catch Sobble” debate, Farfetch’d has a lot of personality and potential! Looks like he’ll be Riolu’s training partner.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Probably if they allowed for more mobility by increasing the size of the stadiums (don’t they pretty much look the same? Stadiums featuring giant Pokémon should be larger. Or maybe they could scale down Dynamax size increase a little to allow for some movement that isn’t clunky.


Scripted? It was probably the most unorthodox Ash team in a long while. He didn’t have a regional bird, he gets an Ultra Beast that evolves, and a Mythical Pokemon which evolves too.

On that aspect yes, but it rather bothered me that every single pokemon he got there was “special” in some way.

Rowlet and Litten are both starters (and therefore rare), Lycanroc is a one of a kind form, Naganadel is an Ultra Beast from another dimension and Melmetal is a Mythical relic.

I kinda missed Ash getting “commoner” pokemon, if you see what I mean.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

So rather than giving Sobble a trainer who would actually train it and has been shown to bring out their true strength even when others couldn’t (here’s looking at you Infernape), you’d rather it go to a trainer who literally does absolutely nothing other than just being there and who leaves most of their Pokémon to rot at a lab just for the sake of breaking tradition? Even if it does actually become an active member of Go’s team for a change, what is it even going to do to really show it off given that Go’s goal and blatant refusal to battle most of the time leaves very little for his Pokémon to do.

Truthfully I don't really care much for Sobble so I'm not too concerned. That said I think that's a bit of a double standard, if it was switched and Ash got Sobble, you could argue that Farfetch'd would never reach it's true potential. Ash can't train everyone.

And who knows, maybe Gou will do a good job with Sobble. I won't hold my breath but we should give the guy a fair chance. At the very least I'm positive that he will make Sobble a permanent member of his party.

 

[Egakor]

I'm still surprised that the writers let Ash have a Pokemon with 2 Dark-type moves that are not Bite or Crunch.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Truthfully I don't really care much for Sobble so I'm not too concerned. That said I think that's a bit of a double standard, if it was switched and Ash got Sobble, you could argue that Farfetch'd would never reach it's true potential. Ash can't train everyone.

And who knows, maybe Gou will do a good job with Sobble. I won't hold my breath but we should give the guy a fair chance.

Well there in lies a major problem with their usage of Go, his Pokémon really never will believably reach their potential because he doesn’t do anything with them. And even then, why does it even need to be switched? Go can literally catch everything in sight for multiple episodes, yet Ash can’t get 2 in a row, especially Pokémon that could very well benefit from him? Because honestly, both narratives work better under Ash vs Go in which under Ash, Farfetch’d is guaranteed to become stronger and under Ash’s care Sobble would be guaranteed to grow more confident. Neither of these things are something we can guarantee with Go and that’s a huge issue considering they bill him as co-protagonist.

And I think at this point, we are far past the ‘just give him a shot’ stage. They’ve trimmed the cast down to 2 people and in the span of 27 episodes have managed to do nothing noteworthy with Go or his Pokémon which is really bad for someone dubbed co-protagonist. There’s a reason people are getting upset about the prospect of Sobble going to him.

 

[90'sPokéfan]

Maybe Sobble doesn't have any battle ambition.

But this discussions makes me sad. Remember the time we thought Cubone would become a permanent member on Goh's team?

 

[CometCartoons]

Rose's debut and Ash catching the Farfetch'd were both things that caught be by total surprise.

Riolu's new moves were Force Palm, Double Team, and... I don't think I quite got the third one. Farfetch'd used Night Slash and Brutal Swing.

EDIT: Riolu's third new move was Reversal.
[/

I see no point in Ash having Galarfetch'd/Sirfetch'd, since its gonna get overshadowed by Lucario anyways since they are both Fighting types with the same fighting style.

I would figure would get at least one pokemon of each type. And lucario could cover ash's steel type.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Maybe Sobble doesn't have any battle ambition.

But this discussions makes me sad. Remember the time we thought Cubone would become a permanent member on Goh's team?

Problem with that prospect is that that basically raises the question of what they’re even supposed to do with it then. Unlike Hoenn, Sinnoh and Kalos there’s no other activity for Pokémon who prefer things other than battle and sagas like SM basically has nothing to do for the Pokémon who didn’t belong to a cast member that was battle oriented. With this, it’s basically sitting in a void that’s above jokemon like Chespin but below the Pokémon able to be shown off meaningfully.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

if it was switched and Ash got Sobble, you could argue that Farfetch'd would never reach it's true potential. Ash can't train everyone.

It’d hopefully trigger some development for Go acting for the passion of his Pokémon. Raboot was supposed to have ambition but is now background fodder for some reason, and Scyther was a one trick pony. With Gurkinn describing Go's drive as "greed" and some very prominent Pokemon which have more ambition, it could've kick started some character development in Go.

 

[Kurolegacy]

It’d hopefully trigger some development for Go acting for the passion of his Pokémon. Raboot was supposed to have ambition but is now background fodder for some reason, and Scyther was a one trick pony. With Gurkinn describing Go's drive as "greed" and some very prominent Pokemon which have more ambition, it could've kick started some character development in Go.

Honestly this is a problem that I’ve been having with Go’s side of things. Every development for him just rings completely superficial due to them hammering things home at him that should at least have him look at things differently, possibly question if he’s doing thing right as a trainer only for status quo to just set things right back to point A again with nothing learned.

Him failing to capture Farfetch’d here shouldn’t be compensated for with him catching Sobble next episode as the disappointment could serve as good character development in which he learns that, even if his goal is to capture all of the Pokémon, it doesn’t mean that he has to always capture a Pokémon and sometimes it’s better suited for someone else rather than him, hence helping him with his drive of greed.

It’d be great if they could even give him a moment of considering why he really want to capture Pokémon and if it really does even link to his goal for Mew. He could be a much better character but the writers are dropping the ball badly.

 

[Eclipsical]

Didn’t Gurkinn say that Go’s “greed” wasn’t a bad thing?