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

I didn't see Raihan taking any selfies. I consider this episode an absolute failure.

Real talk though, this episode was so much better than the absurdly weird episode last week. The battle between Raihan and Champion Leon was great, and Sonia was just wonderful. Great to see we got hints of the Darkest Day also.

The absolute shocker though was Ash catching a Galarian Farfetch'd, which means he's likely gonna have Sirfetch'd eventually. G-Farfetch'd is a great addition to Ash's team and I'm really glad we got to see Riolu in action. I'm so proud of Riolu! This capture has got me worrying Goh is gonna catch Sobble now though, which is a worst case scenario for Sobble knowing how Goh is a collector who doesn't like to battle.

Really great episode though!
 
People are so transfixed on Sobble going to Gou that no one is talking about Rose appearing.
A couple people mentioned it actually. There's not much to say given that we got a speechless cameo and the anime isn't following Galar's storyline.

I'm sure with time, and more substantial appearances, Rose will be a more common conversation topic. As it stands now, a lot of fans are understandably invested in Sobble's fate.
 
I can't believe they travel all the way to Galar to watch a 5 minutes match. Charizard's plot armor is so thick here. That Charizard should not survive a direct hit from a Stone Edge.
I do hope that we'll get a 3v3 or 6v6 matches by the time Ash reaches Master Rank. 1v1 feels like the Alolan League but at least that one showed good character arcs.

Sirfetch would be a great addition to Ash's team. I do feel like that he'll have more than 5 new Pokemon this series so he could have more powerhouse Pokemon to climb the ranks if they decided not to include Ash's past Pokemon.
 
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One thing I appreciate about this episode is showing how well Raihan and Duraludon did against Leon and Charizard before Dynamaxing. It really showed off how strong Raihan was (admittedly doing better than Lance did against Leon).

The G-Max battle was pretty disappointing though. It was another "Leon counters his opponent's Max Moves with his own and only his opponent takes damage." You'd think Raihan would put up a better fight in a G-Max battle given he should be experienced in battling with and against them (unlike Lance)...

On another note, I think G-Max Duraludon went down a bit too easily (even considering Steel Beam's drawback). While it did take a couple of attacks (and a super-effective Dig), it didn't seem to take much from Max Knuckle (the Max Rockfall probably absorbed most of the damage) before falling to G-Max Wildfire.

G-Max Pikachu took two Max Moves (while not very effective) and lasted longer under G-Max Charizard's G-Max Wildfire) than G-Max Duraludon did, and PIkachu took some damage prior to Giganatamaxing as well. I think they did Duraludon dirty in the Gigantamax battle by relying on the idea of Duraludon using up too much of its stamina from Steel Beam.

Too bad G-Max Duraludon didn't get to use its G-Max Depletion, but I guess its effect (and PP in general) would be pretty hard to translate into an anime battle.
About that. I counted, and Duraludon didn't have a single Dragon move. So he couldn't use depletion even if he wanted
 
About that. I counted, and Duraludon didn't have a single Dragon move. So he couldn't use depletion even if he wanted

Yeah, I feel like Dragon Pulse would've been a much better move than Steel Beam; while it would be weaker, Duraludon wouldn't sacrificed so much stamina in using it.

It should be noted that the two Max moves he used (Rock and Steel) can bolsters defenses. Raihan might've intended on beefing up G-Max Duraludon with Sandstorm (boosting Sp. Def) and Max Steelspike (boosting Def), but G-Max Wilfire just says nope to that.
 
Not going to lie, I was kind of underwhelmed by this episode. Don't get me wrong, it was still good, but I thought the battle between Raihan and Leon was going to be the major focus of the episode based on the title and how much they were hyping it up. Instead, the battle didn't even take up half the episode, and it also wasn't that good. In fact, it was pretty boring. I didn't even get into the dynamax portion of the battle (with the exception of the music; that track gets me hyped up like nothing else). Also, no Raihan selfies? Lame.

Now for my favorite parts: ROSE! Wasn't fully expecting to see him here, and Ash looked positively transfixed. I hope this means we're going to get some major Rose involvement down the line (perhaps even an invitation for Ash to participate in the Galar gym challenge? Could help stretch out his storyline a bit).

Also, SONIA! She looked fabulous and I just love her personality! A little bummed we didn't get any interaction between her and Leon, but she did kind of roast him a little bit in relation to the statue, so that sated me for now. I'm very interested that she brought up the Darkest Day and working as an assistant for her grandmother. I think the SwSh storyline would work really well with Ash and Goh, so it'll be interesting to see if they begin to incorporate that.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Ash catching Galarian Farfetch'd. I do think it's good for his team, and I love that it was a total surprise no one saw coming (obvious captures can get kind of boring sometimes, which is one thing this series has been very good at avoiding)...I just thought it felt weird in this episode? Like it literally felt like an entirely different plot point to the first half of the episode (which, in fairness, I guess it was) and just sort of felt out of place. I don't know, it took me out of the episode a little bit. But I am excited to see it as part of Ash's team and am hopeful for an evolution to Sirfetch'd in the future!

I'm still partial to the World Championships episodes, so I'd still take this over quite a few of the other JN episodes, but this was probably among the weakest of the bunch in terms of the WC thus far.
 
I really enjoyed this episode, although it's hard to put my finger on exactly why. The pre-Dynamax battle was decent but it wasn't too interesting afterwards, despite Gigantamax Duraludon being one of my favorite Gigantamax forms. I felt like Ash's characterization was especially strong in this episode, and his interactions with Gou were more dynamic than usual. An awesome Ash capture at the end doubled with the first proper Riolu battle was really nice. Sonia's introduction was also perfect. I guess it was a mixed bag but it had a lot of things that I wanted in it.
 
so we are getting the dark hour plotline and the first on screen showing of both raihan and chairman rose, ash new pokemon is giving me hawlucha level of teachers for a small pokemon (noivat and riolu) also raihan not taking selfies i think is due we didnt see his rotom phone
 
Ok , you know I don't like Leon at all (to put it mildly) but after this episode even the big Leon fans will have to admit that so-called champion does not deserve that hype at all. He might be a strong trainer, no doubt about it, but that's it! No "ultimate trainer", no "supreme monarch" or whatever they call him in the intro. Let's look at the battle in more detail:
Notice how ordinary the "champion" is when his Charizard is not gigantamaxed! Leon and Raihan were evenly matched and I'd even say Raihan slightly had the slight upperhand! Leon's Charizard however is pretty ordinary when normal-sized.
Then the next flaw: As the writers realized Leon can't win without gigantamaxing, they pull the well-known Deus-ex machina-card and Charizard all of a sudden turns into a beast.
And probably the worst and cheapest aspect about Leon's "winning streak" is that after gigantamaxing, all those ultra strong Masters Eight trainers magically turn into little school boys, incapable of coming up with a way to counter Dai Hellfire. That isn't a God-given, almighty move but just one of many Gigantamax-moves! As if neither Lance nor Raihan could have predicted Leon using it and weren't able to come up with a strategy....
Don't you agree with me this is really really bad writing just for the sake of promoting that self-regarding entertainer called Leon who's nothing special without Gigantamax ... Leon basically equals Dai Hellfire and that's it. How dull!

What saved the day for me was seeing our awesome little Riolu making rapid progress. I'm looking forward to seeing great achievements from him!
 
Ok , you know I don't like Leon at all (to put it mildly) but after this episode even the big Leon fans will have to admit that so-called champion does not deserve that hype at all. He might be a strong trainer, no doubt about it, but that's it! No "ultimate trainer", no "supreme monarch" or whatever they call him in the intro. Let's look at the battle in more detail:
Notice how ordinary the "champion" is when his Charizard is not gigantamaxed! Leon and Raihan were evenly matched and I'd even say Raihan slightly had the slight upperhand! Leon's Charizard however is pretty ordinary when normal-sized.
Then the next flaw: As the writers realized Leon can't win without gigantamaxing, they pull the well-known Deus-ex machina-card and Charizard all of a sudden turns into a beast.
And probably the worst and cheapest aspect about Leon's "winning streak" is that after gigantamaxing, all those ultra strong Masters Eight trainers magically turn into little school boys, incapable of coming up with a way to counter Dai Hellfire. That isn't a God-given, almighty move but just one of many Gigantamax-moves! As if neither Lance nor Raihan could have predicted Leon using it and weren't able to come up with a strategy....
Don't you agree with me this is really really bad writing just for the sake of promoting that self-regarding entertainer called Leon who's nothing special without Gigantamax ... Leon basically equals Dai Hellfire and that's it. How dull!

What saved the day for me was seeing our awesome little Riolu making rapid progress. I'm looking forward to seeing great achievements from him!
The problem is Gigantamax, not Leon in particular. No Champion should rely exclusively on their mascot, but Lance is the only exception.

This episode was saved by Ash's Farfetch'd.
No. Queen Cynthia is right this time.

If they had made this comment prior to this match then it wouldn't have meant much but now when you notice it, it's somewhat of a repeating pattern where Leon/Charizard are being thrashed and then G-Max comes into play and Leon somehow wins easily. I've already written about this in depth in my review write-up.
 
Ok , you know I don't like Leon at all (to put it mildly) but after this episode even the big Leon fans will have to admit that so-called champion does not deserve that hype at all. He might be a strong trainer, no doubt about it, but that's it! No "ultimate trainer", no "supreme monarch" or whatever they call him in the intro. Let's look at the battle in more detail:
Notice how ordinary the "champion" is when his Charizard is not gigantamaxed! Leon and Raihan were evenly matched and I'd even say Raihan slightly had the slight upperhand! Leon's Charizard however is pretty ordinary when normal-sized.
Then the next flaw: As the writers realized Leon can't win without gigantamaxing, they pull the well-known Deus-ex machina-card and Charizard all of a sudden turns into a beast.
And probably the worst and cheapest aspect about Leon's "winning streak" is that after gigantamaxing, all those ultra strong Masters Eight trainers magically turn into little school boys, incapable of coming up with a way to counter Dai Hellfire. That isn't a God-given, almighty move but just one of many Gigantamax-moves! As if neither Lance nor Raihan could have predicted Leon using it and weren't able to come up with a strategy....
Don't you agree with me this is really really bad writing just for the sake of promoting that self-regarding entertainer called Leon who's nothing special without Gigantamax ... Leon basically equals Dai Hellfire and that's it. How dull!

What saved the day for me was seeing our awesome little Riolu making rapid progress. I'm looking forward to seeing great achievements from him!
In the games, he helps people and keeps the region safe. That is a good thing?
 
This episode can be summed up as the virgin Goh vs the Chad Ash.

The Pros:
-Riolu got stronger
-Charizard has a different moveset, this will help battles with him seem less boring.
-I like how Farfetch'd's cry sounded like "come on" even though it's just saying its name
-The new music was *lit*
-
Farfetch'd faints standing up, I hope this stays a trend

The Cons
-Dynamax battles are really boring
-Sobble baiting

Overall Rating: A-

I also like the shield wall during the fight, it was a nice bit of worldbuilding. It would also be nice to see in the future Farfetch'd challenging some of Ash's Pokemon back at the lab in order to get stronger.

I’m glad I’m not the only one that absolutely hates dynamax battles. Sooooo boring!! It’s by far the worst “gimmick” they’ve come up with. Much prefer mega-evolution and even z-moves are better.
 
No. Queen Cynthia is right this time.

If they had made this comment prior to this match then it wouldn't have meant much but now when you notice it, it's somewhat of a repeating pattern where Leon/Charizard are being thrashed and then G-Max comes into play and Leon somehow wins easily. I've already written about this in depth in my review write-up.

I think that if we ever get a 6v6 with Leon (Unlikely but still), he will be in the same boat as Alain was. His other members are weak because he focuses to much on one Pokemon.
 
I expect Leon's big match with Ash will be a full battle but I doubt we'll see him have one before then.

As for Leon's Gigantimax comebacks--I think the big reason is probably because his role in the story is different from Cynthia or other champions. Ash was never gonna have a serious full battle with Lance or Cynthia or so on, but Leon is being set up as Ash's big final plot-relevant boss this time.
It does match a comment I made earlier that they were probably going to make Champions seem less powerful in this series. We'll probably never have anything more concrete than "Take our word for it; Leon is the strongest" unless they do something like have Alain show up and Leon 6-2's him.

But there may be another reason...
If they had made this comment prior to this match then it wouldn't have meant much but now when you notice it, it's somewhat of a repeating pattern where Leon/Charizard are being thrashed and then G-Max comes into play and Leon somehow wins easily. I've already written about this in depth in my review write-up.
You know, I'm probably overthinking this, but...
Part of the idea behind Leon in the games is that he was basically the protagonist of an unseen previous game--ten year old won the championship and remains undefeated with his beloved starter.
So maybe it's intentional he's coming across that way? It's very protagonist-like to struggle heavily until pulling out your trump card.
 
You know, I'm probably overthinking this, but...
Part of the idea behind Leon in the games is that he was basically the protagonist of an unseen previous game--ten year old won the championship and remains undefeated with his beloved starter.
So maybe it's intentional he's coming across that way? It's very protagonist-like to struggle heavily until pulling out your trump card.

I don't think you are. Putting aside the fact that he's had years to come away from that style of battling and develop as a regional Champion though, the problem is with how jarring the "turn around" comes out. During his match with Lance, Charizard was somewhat even with Gyarados before completely curbstomping it when everyone Dynamaxed. Against Raihan, Charizard was losing against Duraludon, before (again) completely curbstomping it when everyone Dynamaxed.

This frustration isn't new either; when Ash, Dawn, etc. have pulled off similar feats, there was criticism here as well at how they were "magically able to turn things around" easily despite all the damage their Pokemon took, etc. Mind you though, this was only when their wins didn't have a quality back-and-forth.

That's poor writing if Leon's strength can't be articulated in a more even manner. It also makes him look dependent on a regional gimmick in regards to his Pokemon's strength, which isn't impressive to me personally. Lastly, it undermines who he's fighting as well-you mean to tell me that the, alleged, top 8 Trainers in the world are incompetent when it comes to Dynamax Battles (from what we've seen)? Even more so than Ash's Pikachu? Thus, they need to do better with Leon's battles-I have no problems with him winning; they just need to make the win more substantial. Even Alain's Charizard took hits, some heavy, while Mega Evolved despite having a near flawless win ratio.
 
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