Review JN037: I'm Back, Nice to Meet You, Alola!

[nickdt]

I think Leon is more or less filling the rival role for Ash; a powerful opponent he wants to overcome. But instead of being another competitor like Gary or his successors Leon is already the established top dog.

It's just as well, really; if Ash had a normal rival it would sort of give away this series would probably end with Ash beating them and then losing to someone else in the PWC.

I don't think Leon is the rival. He is more like the final boss Ash is working towards (Basically a Kukui character).

However, Bea has been established as one of his rivals, so is Raihan. This series benefits from having multiple rivals as well, especially since its a PWC format where participants can go up and down depending on wins and losses. Ash got up by defeating Korrina, but went down after losing to Bea and Raihan will be the final hurdle before Leon.

 

[Daren]

The only issue with this is that the feeling is not reciprocated. A good, mutual rivalry brings a lot of interesting interactions and potential for bilateral growth. Obviously Satoshi is pushed by aspiring to beat Dande, but until the close of the series he is unlikely to have any impact on Dande's development whatsoever.

Yeah, Leon is clearly not a normal rival but I think he is intended to serve the same narrative role, which is why we don't have a more standard one as well.
However, I think the Darkest Day--assuming it happens fairly soon as I suspect--would be a good way to make it more two sided. If it goes similarly to how it did in the games it would be pretty easy for it to make Leon suddenly see Ash as an actual threat and begin taking him very seriously.

Of course XY didn't introduce Sawyer until over sixty episodes, and he was pretty much the closest that series got to the traditional rival structure (though like in many other things in XY it was done oddly). We might get long-term rivals for him and/or Gou later.

Thanks friend, pray for us please.

Cause when that happens it will be" The Greatest Pokémon Episode Ever"

I promise.

Other than Wobby I'm not sure if any TRio Pokémon have ever returned after leaving, so that brief scene is already something.

 

[Islander Princess]

These are the type of moments that make Goh more relatable as a character rather than him having unrealistic successes handed to him. These are the moments that make it easy to sympathize and be impressed by Goh rather than his outlandish and contrived goal/path. These are the type of development that he needs and that needs to be built upon instead of being promptly abandoned/contradicted a few episodes down the line.

This is brilliantly put and I want to scream it from the rooftops.

I've said it quite a few times, but I genuinely do not have a problem with Goh as a character; I have a problem with the way he is portrayed. There are some episodes where the writers do a fantastic job, and you can empathize with Goh and actually see him grow as a person. And then there are other times where they just write him as a Pokemon catching machine who never misses, never struggles, and especially with his personality, I feel like it can make him come across not only cardboard, but as someone who is more arrogant than relatable.

This episode, like you said, was the perfect example of the former. His easy captures didn't even really bother me because they were completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things; I was far more focused on Goh's interactions with the Alola gang and how he ultimately stood his ground against Kiawe. I sincerely hope that this becomes more of a constant and not a rare occurrence.

 

[Alola]

Overall, this was a nice heart-felt episode. Now that I can share more detailed thoughts:

• It was audibly delightful to hear all of those Alolan pieces, given what Pocket Monsters has usually been applying. It makes you wonder why we don't hear the respective regional music whenever Ash & Go step outside Kanto or Galar. I'm a bit miffed nothing battle-related played, such as when Go was chasing Grubbin (I loved the callback Ash made by mentioning how it would eventually burrow underground; that continuity) or battling Kiawe, but it's minor. My favorite part was when Iki Town~Night played when Ash met Lei for the first time; very beautiful, imo.
• Omg, Lei. They had a baby, y'all. A baby Kukui is certainly something. Speaking of which, I love how Ash was already aware of Lei-not only did that save animation time, but it indicates that he still keeps in contact with his Alolan family and friends off-screen; usually I would like to see such correspondence, but it did not feel contrived here.
• Admittedly, this reunion really stood out to me due to the familial aspect Ash had with Kukui's family, his classmates, and Alolan Pokemon; it wouldn't have been as good without it. It was wonderful to see everyone and the closeness they all share. Like others have said, Burnet referring to Ash as Lei's big brother was ridiculously heartwarming-I think it's the first time we've seen something like that said regarding Ash and another character within the show (he's never referred Brock, Cilan, Max, or Clemont as a "brother" before, iirc). Such a simple phrase really reinforces how much Ash means to Kukui & Burnet; tears started to well up again, like they did when he left them not long ago.
  • Ash seeing his classmates, and their Pokemon, again was great-it felt like we had not even left Alola! Not a beat was missed, and Lillie including Ash in the letter (which is notable as she may or may not have known he was going to even visit) was also sweet; they're all such a good group of friends. And did anyone else adore Gladion's brief smile where both of his eyes were visible?
  • Strangely, I enjoyed seeing RotomDex too despite how annoying I thought he was during his saga; naturally, he had to upstage the Rotom-Phone when they were identifying Alolan Exeggutor. It does beg the question why Rotomdex is more expressive than the Rotom-Phones despite literally have the same functions. Perhaps the phones utilize Quiet-natured Rotom?
  • Kukui fawning over Goh's Galarian Pokemon was a neat world-building piece; I like when a species' region of origin is referenced; it reaffirmed that while a kind man, who recently became a father, Kukui is still a Pokemon Professor.
  • Ash's Pokemon, despite having a brief cameo, were also enjoyable to watch. I still can't get over how personable Incineroar is now...and still we have no clear shot of it nor a battle. One can only hope at this point.
• I also enjoyed Go in this episode, for the same reasons Panky and Islander Princess have provided. I may not say this enough, but on a personal level, Go feels the most relatable (to me) out of all of Ash's peers. And this episode was an example of that. Rather than automatically becoming buddy-buddy with whomever Ash introduced to him to, Go, while polite, still struggled to make connections with Ash's peers; I could totally relate to being left alone with friends of a friend and the awkwardness that could cause. I also enjoyed how he remained steadfast in his position regarding Kiawe's bizarre insistence that Go should be Ash's rival; while he couldn't match Kiawe physically in a Pokemon Battle, his emotional resolve is just as strong as any other of Ash's friends.
  • Speaking of which, Kiawe was just annoying for me. Why would Go be Ash's rival? And on the basis of Kiawe's logic, wouldn't that apply to Mallow, Lillie, and Sophocles as well? Who rarely battle? It just seemed contrived and I wasn't fond of the resolution; the whole thing could have been written better. For example, Go could have insensitively said or done something to trigger Kiawe, that they would have hashed out through battle instead. Rather than having a one-sided argument about who loves helps Ash more...
  • I loved the awkward ways Go said "Alola" to Ash's friends. Another relatable moment but also humorous as the phrase is usually said with confidence and compassion.
  • I haven't read through everyone's comments yet, but I did notice a couple that were concerned with what Go said regarding helping Ash with his dream. Personally, I didn't have any problems with it. The way I understood it, was that while you can support your friends as a friend, you don't necessarily have to substantially support their livelihoods; ultimately, it is up to the individual to make that happen-which is realistic, imo.
• I was surprised by how well the episode went despite all that was going for this reunion. However, the "battle" suffered a result. To add to the chorus, this should have been a two-parter; I mean, the trip to Kanto from Alola was, in which similar beats were followed, so why not here? I was genuinely looking forward to Raboot engaging in a proper Trainer Battle and seeing how far Go had come as a Trainer; realistically, he shouldn't have won-but it was the effort I wanted to see (and possibly a new move). That cop-out from Kiawe's Z-Move annoyed me too; like, what was the point? Go literally steeled his resolve and indicated he would take the blast, come what may...only for Kiawe to say "sike" despite complaining for 50% of his dialogue about battling. Goh's annoyed expression and disdainful "nani" after the event had me chuckling; I probably would have reacted similar, and that's what I like about him. Anyway, as we will return to Alola, there's hope for proper battles and more; at least no screentime will have to be wasted regarding introductions, unless Lillie returns.
• Speaking of Lillie, it would be neat if Ash & Go could help her and her family search for Mohn; as Ash and Goh travel anyway, the setup is there.
• Team Rocket's Pokemon cameo! I still miss Mimikyu dearly, my goodness-but, I am glad to see them all doing well and still sticking together.
• With this episode as a precedent...I am really hoping to see the likes of Serena, Dawn, etc. again.

 

[P_S_B]

Now that I've seen it subbed I'm still disappointed that it had so much Gou focus, but now it's not because it didn't belong but because it should have been a 2-parter so there was room for both the Gou focus and the level of Ash reunion focus I wanted, which there wasn't because 22 minutes is simply not long enough to setup a story, tell a story and conclude a story as important as this one. The Gou focus was necessary as he provided the audience surrogate for the viewers who started with Journeys and didn't see Sun and Moon, therefore don't know the characters and reintroducing them through his eyes helped those viewers to connect with him and the story better. It also allowed for the first half of the episode to have a ton of callbacks to the first Sun and Moon episode only with Gou experiencing all the things Ash experienced back in the day.

Kaki came across way too strong here and probably intimidated the crap out of Gou instead of exhibiting a proper welcoming Alola attitude. Sure, he didn't die, but he's not going to forget that his introduction to Kaki was an heated battle demand that ended in a Jupiter-size fireball charging at his face. I like to think Kaki got told how not cool he was being as soon as Ash and Gou left earshot. Kaki has always been somewhat passionate about battling and worthiess, but I don't recall him ever being this bad. You can have a battle with him if you want but you don't have to traumatize the poor chap, come on, man, what would Hoshi say about that sort of behavior?

I'm inclined to think the episode was almost (Aicholtz' "NICE!!!!!" and Kaki being unnecessarily threatening with no visible consequence dragging it down) as good as it could have been with a 22 minutes limit, but the 22 minute limit should absolutely not have been imposed on something as important as the much anticipated 'throwing a bone to previous series fans' episode and whichever network executive or whoever insisted it be imposed needs to learn to make better calls in the future or pack their job in and give it to someone who understands their audience.

I still enjoyed seeing Lei and the Alola music.

I'll bump it up to a low A-, but it would likely have been at least a full A if it was 44 minutes and had more of what I wanted.

 

[PokeFan2005]

Ash will probably return to Alola for the 2nd league to defend the title or for a exhibition match. I think so.

 

[Gligarman]

This episode just made me realize how much I miss the Sun and Moon anime. Especially the music!

 

[Egakor]

New illustration from the official Twitter.
Look like they don't get along.

View: https://twitter.com/anipoke_PR/status/1305748182639362048

 

[BigDocFan]

With this episode being so rushed, I really hope we get more episodes in Alola with Ash and his Alolan team, Kukui and family and more of Ash's classmates.

I really loved the scenes with Ash, Burnet, Kukui and Lei, especially Ash being referred to as Lei's brother, helps make them a proper family than Ash and Delia lol.

Ash barely spent time with any of his Alolan team which is a shame as I love seeing Ash reunite with his old Pokemon, we barely had any scenes featuring his Journeys team interacting with his Alolan team

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Speaking of which, Kiawe was just annoying for me. Why would Go be Ash's rival? And on the basis of Kiawe's logic, wouldn't that apply to Mallow, Lillie, and Sophocles as well? Who rarely battle? It just seemed contrived and I wasn't fond of the resolution; the whole thing could have been written better.

I guess Kaki is seeing him as a replacement for himself: a friendly rival who constantly battles and trains Satoshi and his pokémon. A role not suitable to Gou.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Burnet having a baby makes sense when you realize that there was a multi-year timeskip between PM001 and PM002

 

[ht14]

Trivia: Not counting the Oak episodes when reserves appeared for obvious reason, this frame has 15 out of the 18 types present at once. (Ground, Psychic and Ice are missing). Has this ever happened before for main cast Pokemon?

Spoiler: Large image

Speaking of... I just noticed that Mimey isn't there. So it was pretty much a one-off, Mimey being Ash's, hmmmm. (Also, since Ash only has five Pokémon on him, Rowlet could totally sneak in his backpack if he wanted hahaha.)

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Speaking of... I just noticed that Mimey isn't there. So it was pretty much a one-off, Mimey being Ash's, hmmmm. (Also, since Ash only has five Pokémon on him, Rowlet could totally sneak in his backpack if he wanted hahaha.)

Ash still owns Mimey. It just isn't in his party.

 

[Nicolas721]

The first 15-16 minutes were excellent. Instead of a Hawaii commercial we got an interesting story about learning to accept new friends, with loads of Alolan continuity and references, and very interesting updates on what happened to some characters like Lillie (the train looked very Galarian btw) or the teachers.

But then the battle came The main part lasted like 20 seconds, and Kiawe's seriousness was definitely overplayed. During the second half of SM he always saw Ash as an equal, he should respect his choices. It'd have been better if Kiawe just was interested on Raboot as a Fire-type, or if Go had proved his worthiness by catching a dangerous Pokemon. Well, at least Marowak got some characterization. And who cares about goodbyes, let's teleport to Kanto to promote regional forms again!

8.5/10, they should have polished the final scenes more but it's still cute and memorable.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Speaking of... I just noticed that Mimey isn't there. So it was pretty much a one-off, Mimey being Ash's, hmmmm. (Also, since Ash only has five Pokémon on him, Rowlet could totally sneak in his backpack if he wanted hahaha.)

Seems pretty obvious that Mimey was never meant to be more than a one-off temporary party member especially considering that every time that they advertise Ash’s PM2019 team, it never includes him. Ash using Mimey was pretty much just the writers not wanting to hit the continuity button so early on by having him use a reserve (of course what they ended up doing was much much worse given the can of worms they caused with Mimey).

 

[SKYRYAN]

The Other thing is although we got the tracks "Come Along", "Festival of Iki Town", and "Pokemon research Lab" uploaded by Felipo Depot, we didn't get to clean version of the tracks "Kiawe's trial", "Iki town (Night)", and "Adventure begins here".

 

[Karatekid5]

The Other thing is although we got the tracks "Come Along", "Festival of Iki Town", and "Pokemon research Lab" uploaded by Felipo Depot, we didn't get to clean version of the tracks "Kiawe's trial", "Iki town (Night)", and "Adventure begins here".

I really hope we get a clean version of Kiawe's Trial soon, I need it for my Civ 5 mod!

 

[VetProf]

whereas the Phone Rotoms are… just there to be no more than any generic electronic devices without any traits to them.

Counterpoint: The Rocket trio's Rotom Phone. While it doesn't have as much freedom as the Rotom Dex, it definitely has a personality of its own.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

How can people say that Gou's Rotom phone has no personality.

 

[Pulsaro23]

So, I think I already mentioned that I prefer waiting for the subs to come before writing about an episode (unless there's something particularly... let's say exceptional, that makes me want to write a post). Mainly because it doesn't hurt to actually know what the characters are saying before commenting on their actions. But also because, in some cases, I hope that the dialogue might improve an episode that's otherwise not that great. And, sometimes, it manages to do that. Unfortunately, this is one of the cases where it doesn't.

As always, let's start with the beginning of the episode, which goes like this: Yamper brings a random Leaf Stone he found somewhere → Go sees his Exeggcute and decides to evolve it → Ash comments on how he wishes to show Go what Alola's Exeggutor look like → We jump to them heading off to Alola. That's... a random set of events (and a rushed one, at that). All done for the sake of explaining why Ash and Go are going to Alola all of a sudden. Why? As others have pointed out before, why couldn't they tie this episode in with last week's and have Ash's "little" slump be the reason he visits Alola, so as to clear his head, train with his former classmates and Alolan Pokémon and come up with a counter for Octolock (with Go tagging along after hearing him mention all the incredible Pokémon and regional forms that live in Alola)? At least, then, the writers wouldn't have to come up with such a contrived reason for them to go there.

Anyways, they arrive in Alola and Ash reunites with Kukui and Burnet. Which is a nice reunion, though a bit too short (a recurring theme this episode). I wasn't as... ahem invested in Burnet's baby as everyone else around here, so him appearing isn't something I'm ecstatic about, but Ash interacting with him was still pretty cute (and it was really sweet how Burnet even called Ash Lei's "big brother"). And Ash's reunion with his Alolan team, and how they joyfully jumped to hug him, was just wonderful. Though I'm still confused by the fact that, as soon as they notice Go, they leap to hug him as well. Now, I do get that Alola is supposed to be the land of fellowships and friendships and all kinds of other ships. But none of them got this overly affectionate when they met Brock or Misty or Delia or even Oak (all of whom are also like a family to Ash (or, in Delia's case, literally family)). So for them to be like this hyper-friendly with Go (who already gets showered with compliments from other characters), but not with any of Ash's other friends or family (who are arguably way closer to Ash than Go is)... it's jarring, to say the least. Sure, it's a nitpick, but it still bothers me nonetheless.

Moving on, we get a couple of call-backs to the first episode of SM (the first Alolan Pokémon Go encounters being a Pyukumuku (which, I really hope it keeps its animosity towards Raboot, as that tweet implied), Ash and Go chasing after a Grubbin (with Ash even telling Go not to let it burrow as they chase after it), Ash getting lost in a forest while searching for said Grubbin, Go getting fished up by Lana...), which, while I'm not particularly interested in (considering my dislike of the series and my disdain for the first episodes of SM), I still find it nice that they did them. And we even got a cameo from the TRio's Pokémon. That was quite the unexpected surprise. Too bad they had to be left behind in Alola, considering this series' focus on the entire Pokémon world, rather than just a single region (making it perfect for the TRio (and Ash) to keep their previous Pokémon). Still, a cool neatpick nonetheless. And then the Rotom Dex appears. Which, was it just me, or was he surprisingly less annoying than before? He was still slightly irritating, just not as much as I remembered him to be (guess the fact he barely does anything in this episode has something to do with that). Gotta love Rotom Phone's unintentional burn of Rotom Dex, though. Meanwhile, Go's interactions with Ash's classmates were... fine, for the part. They weren't terrible at all, but they weren't something mind-blowing either. It was nice to see some of Go's social-awkwardness again (especially considering it's been brought up in like, what, 7 episodes out of 37?), yet I can't help but be confused by it, considering he's interacted with dozens of complete strangers through most of this series, and he had no trouble talking to them, nor did he have any problems when people were complimenting him or were awestruck by him or his Pokémon. On a side note, I chuckled at Sophocles' line about wanting to "dissect" the Rotom Phone.

And then we hit the first major bump in the road: Kiawe wanting to turn Go into a proper rival for Ash. Why? Because he thinks that, as Ash's friend, he should be strong enough to be able to help Ash reach his dream. ...okaaay? I... don't disagree compleeetely? Friends should be strong enough to be able to help each other out when they need to. But them needing to be rivals in order to do so? Since when was that a thing? No, seriously, I mean it. Back in Sun & Moon, you had Lillie, Lana, Sophocles and Mallow, who were supposed to be Ash and Kiawe's closest friends in Alola and, yet, they rarely did anything to help Ash and Kiawe become stronger in order to become a Pokémon Master or a strong Fire-type Trainer/Island Kahuna, respectively. Kiawe and Ash did help Sophocles train once in order to participate in the Alola League (which had nothing to do with his dream of becoming an astronaut). And, while the classmates often supported each other, outside of small instances here and there, they were rarely active in helping each other achieve their dreams (heck, some of them didn't even have any dreams for over half of the series). And even when they did help each other out, they rarely did it through battling or i don remember them ever doing it because they were rivals. Heck, even when it comes to Kiawe's rivalry with Ash, that whole thing didn't start because they were friends and wanted to help each other grow stronger. It was because he was surprised that one of the Tapus gave Ash a Z-Ring and a Z-crystal and because Kiawe didn't believe that Ash had what it takes to use a Z-move. Over time, they start to respect each other and often train together in order to help each other grow and become stronger, sure. But it sure as heck didn't start that way. So for him to claim that Go needs to be Ash's rival in order to help him become a Pokémon Master comes off as hypocritical, considering his own rivalry with Ash didn't start that way or the fact that he wasn't so critical of the other classmates, nor did he push them to become stronger battlers in order to have them help him achieve his own, nor did he actively help them in achieving their goals that much.

Gonna have to put a pin in that, however, 'cause Ash finally made it to the Pokémon school, leading to a nice (but a bit short) reunion between him and his former classmates. They spend some time enjoying Mallow's cooking and talking about her dream of bringing people and Pokémon closer through her food, they bring up Sophocles's visit to Mossdeep City and his goal of becoming an astronaut and they even had Lana reading a letter from Lillie (complete with a flashback, as well), where she says her family's getting closer to locating her father. And even Ash's current party appears, enjoying Mallow's food the all the Alolan Pokémon (too bad that's as far as interactions between the classmates' Pokémon or Ash's Alolan Pokémon and his current team go). But, of course, the good times have to come to an end, since, as soon as Ash asks Kiawe for a battle, the latter immediately reminds Go of his challenge earlier and demands that they start battling now. ...man, even the classmates are pointing out how off the rails Kiawe's being. That's no good.

We then get treated to a very mediocre battle (actually, it's more like a quarter of a battle, since, by the time we cut to Go and Kiawe's match, it appears to have been going for quite a while and Kiawe is shown to be getting ready to end it with a Z-move), which, in turn, leads to the stupidest thing in this whole episode. After Kiawe calls Go "Ash's rival" again, Go starts to go on a rant about how he's not Ash's rival and how he has (and I quote) "no intention of helping Ash reach his dream", believing that dreams are something you should achieve with your own strength. ... Okay, so, I partially agree with that last part, that your goals should be achieved thanks to your own efforts and resolve and not because someone else did all the hard work for you, that your accomplishments should be something that you yourself achieved. But that doesn't mean that your friends can't or shouldn't be helping you from time to time, you absolute douche. That's what friends do, they help each other when in need and, when faced with a problem, help you overcome it without outright solving it for you. How can Go even say such a thing?! Especially when Ash has been helping him with his goal this entire series. He helped him search for all the Kanto Bug-types and even gave him some small advice. He helped him catch Golurk in that Raid Battle. He helped him reel in that giant Magikarp. Heck, in this very episode, Ash was helping him chase after a Grubbin and was even trying to come up with a plan for him to catch it. So for him to come out and say that he has no intention of helping Ash reach his dreams and that dreams should be achieved on your own, with your own strength and with no help form others, when he's been getting help this entire time without complaining at all... cognitive dissonance, at its finest. And you just gotta love that scene after the battle ends, where Go reiterates his dream of catching every species of Pokémon in order to catch Mew and then gets applauded by everyone there. Huh, so I guess the writers' aren't intent on rethinking for a second how his entire goal makes no lick of sense whatsoever and they're not even gonna try to rework it so as to have be more logical. Nope, they're just gonna have him repeat it and have people praise him and admire him and hope that's enough for people to accept it and care about him .

And then, just like how it started, the episode ends with a rushed, sudden random set of events: Go, Ash and the classmates are chilling on Treasure Island, with Go battling and catching an Alolan Exeggutor → Rotom Dex butts in to read Exegguntor's Poké Dex entry → Ash and Go teleport to Kanto and compare regular regular Exeggutor and its Alolan Form → The End. In the words of certain movie director: "It's like poetry, it rhymes". To bad, in this case, that leads to them repeating the same problems the beginning had. We have an entire episode's worth of plot crammed in the last minute and a half of an already bloated episode, leading to a very abrupt ending. Also, on a another side note, gotta love how Professor Oak's random Exeggutor from Alola, Kanto! had more personality when seeing its Alolan Form than Go's those.

Overall, this episode was... average, at best. Ash's reunions with everyone in Alola and the classmates' interactions with Ash and Go were great (if we ignore Go's flip-flopping personality this series, that is) and I wish we would've spent more time on those, but the mediocre battle, coupled with all the nonsense surrounding it and the terrible beginning/ending of the episode really bring the episode down. As most have been saying here, this episode would've been infinitely better as a two-parter. Have this be the reunion episode, where Ash, Go and their Pokémon are reuniting with and/or bonding with Kukui, Burnet, the classmates, their Pokémon and Ash's Alolan Pokémon, and have the next episode be about Go's search for an Alolan Form, about him battling Kiawe (except they're doing it for fun, rather than for the sake of testing Go to see if he's fit to be a rival) and about Ash preparing for his eventual rematch with Bea. Seriously, even the reunion suffers by the fact that this episode being crammed with a lot of stuff. We don't get to hear how Kiawe's Island Challenge's been going, we don't know what Lana's been up to lately, none of the classmates or Kukui learn about Ash's participation in the PWT and none of Ash's current Pokémon interact with the Alolan ones. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Alola, Kanto arc from Sun & Moon was way better than this episode. At least, in that arc, we got some quality interactions between Ash and Brock, Misty and his OG Pokémon and it actually pushed Kukui to finally work on a proper Alolan Pokémon League. ...God, I really hope the time slot change is gonna lead to an improvement in storytelling and to an increase in multi-episode story arcs (or, at least, more two-parters), 'cause, with the way things have been going this series, the story's disjointed and the character development leaves a lot to be desired.