Review JN044: Sword & Shield III - Mugendina

[Max1996]

I'm not sure how Goh's Raboot is supposed to win against Oleana's Milotic when it's already probably tired from battling that mook's Gigantamax Garbodor and has a type disadvantage. Even if a mid-battle evolution takes place, Raboot/Cinderace is literally fighting a very uphill battle.

I guess we'll find out next Friday?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

+ Raihan yesss. But man, I was half expecting Sonia to send out Yamper and actually try to battle a bit herself. Would have been cool to see.

My guess is she doesn't have a Yamper in the anime because Chloe already has her spot as the major Yamper owner.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I'm not sure how Goh's Raboot is supposed to win against Oleana's Milotic when it's already probably tired from battling that mook's Gigantamax Garbodor and has a type disadvantage. Even if a mid-battle evolution takes place, Raboot/Cinderace is literally fighting a very uphill battle.

We know that evolution completely heals a pokemon thanks to Ash vs Cameron, so that's likely how it gets a second wind

Unless you're Ash's Torracat, for some reason

 

[Pulsaro23]

Well, haven't been around here in a while. But, considering I'm going through what I'd call "Pokémon fatigue" atm, especially when it comes to the anime, I'd say it's probably for the better. Not gonna do a proper review of this episode, since I really don't feel like watching this series anymore. However, I do wanna chime in and comment on how Rose's character and his plan were handled in the anime compared to the games.

So, in the games, Rose plans on awakening Eternatus and bringing forth the equivalent of armageddon because all sources of energy in Galar will be depleted "a millennium from now" and he thinks he's the only one capable of stopping it. A completely imbecilic plan, whose mastermind's motivations are so shallow they might as well be non-existent. So, what does the anime do with that? Well, they actually give Rose a proper backstory that explains why he'd be willing to unleash the Darkest Day, which makes his actions a bit more understandable. Turns out, he grew in poverty as a child and lost his father to an accident while working in the mines that supply Galar with its current main source of energy. So, in order to not only keep Galar prosperous as a way of thanking the region for helping him grow out of poverty, but to also make sure that no one else would lose a parent because they're forced to work a dangerous job in order to keep Galar running, he decided to awaken a being capable of acting as an infinite source of energy, which would also help solve Galar's coming energy crisis that he recently discovered it would happen in the future (talk about hitting three Pidgey with one stone).

Okay, so now it's a bit more understandable why Rose would awaken a literal monster. Buuuut, the fact that Galar's power outage won't happen for over a thousand years still makes his decision extreme and his worries needless. Thankfully, the anime changes one little detail that drastically improves all this: instead of happening eons into the future like in the games, in the anime the energy crisis is gonna happen in the "near future". So, now that the great event that will leave Galar powerless doesn't happen "a millennium from now" (which, you know, would be more than enough time for the entire region to prepare for an eventual energy shortage and find solutions to the problem that don't involve starting an end-of-the-world style scenario that could be more disastrous than a lack of electricity) and, instead, is supposed to happen in the nebulous "near future" (which ranges anywhere from 50 to 10 to even 5 years from now), it makes sense that Rose would be desperate enough to start a cataclysmic event in order to stop a crisis that he views as far more dangerous. Plus, they still included the line about the "for a thousand years", except, this time, instead of it being used literally, Rose is using it to boast about Eternatus' abilities as a living battery. Also (and this isn't really related to Rose), gotta love how, in the anime, Leon openly opposes Rose's crazy scheme the moment he learns of it. Far more fitting of Leon's character than what happened in the games if you ask me, since in those he not only knows about the whole plan and what it entails, but the only reason he's not fully onboard with that nonsense has nothing to do with the entire region being endangered and possibly destroyed by the Darkest Day and, instead, it's about how Rose has to interrupt the match for the title of Champion and can't wait even a second when it comes to issues that won't affect the region for thousands of years. …Have I ever mentioned that the latter half of Sword and Shield's story (post-game not included) is mostly garbage? 'Cause it really is.

Tl;dr Rose's scheme, motivation, backstory and character are all far better in the anime than they are in the games, and it was a pleasant surprise that the writers went and improved on one of the poorer aspect of SWSH's story. Too bad that the rest of this arc isn't that great. Not surprising, considering that they took a story that's supposed to about 40 hours long in the games and condensed it into four 20-minutes episodes. Now, if you'll excuse me, those Crystal Desert bounties aren't gonna hunt themselves down, so toodeloo.

 

[Esserise]

Well directly it can’t, but indirectly it showed Rose working towards a legitimate energy issue, but it’s so ridiculously far into the future that it could be used to discredit actions to reverse climate change as working too far into the future.

The fact that what Rose talks about is so far in the future is what cuts against it being read as a climate change narrative, though. Climate change in the real world is bearing down on us right now, so Rose's prediction doesn't really equate. The whole point of conflict in the games is that it would be totally reasonable to wait until a better moment to test Rose's solution. You really have to read against the current of what's happening in the game story in order to arrive at a pro-climate denialist stance. (Granted, climate denialists excel at interpretations that run counter to evidence, but I don't think they're likely to be looking toward Pokémon for validation in the first place.)

I think what people don't understand about Rose in the games is that he's supposed to present a flavor of techno-utopianism, equipped with a god complex and recklessly messing around with a dangerous energy source. He's there to exacerbate, not be identified with. He's not meant to be a sympathetic environmentalist like Archie/Maxie with some dime-a-dozen tragic backstory - he's more like the Mark Zuckerbergs and Christopher Pooles of the world; tech-savvy entrepreneurs poised to unfurl their utopian vision on the world in the form of social media networks without stopping to consider the consequences.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

The fact that what Rose talks about is so far in the future is what cuts against it being read as a climate change narrative, though. Climate change in the real world is bearing down on us right now, so Rose's prediction doesn't really equate. The whole point of conflict in the games is that it would be totally reasonable to wait until a better moment to test Rose's solution. You really have to read against the current of what's happening in the game story in order to arrive at a pro-climate denialist stance. (Granted, climate denialists excel at interpretations that run counter to evidence, but I don't think they're likely to be looking toward Pokémon for validation in the first place.)

I think what people don't understand about Rose in the games is that he's supposed to present a flavor of techno-utopianism, equipped with a god complex and recklessly messing around with a dangerous energy source. He's there to exacerbate, not be identified with. He's not meant to be a sympathetic environmentalist like Archie/Maxie with some dime-a-dozen tragic backstory - he's more like the Mark Zuckerbergs and Christopher Pooles of the world; tech-savvy entrepreneurs poised to unfurl their utopian vision on the world in the form of social media networks without stopping to consider the consequences.

The problem with that interpretation to his character is that it arguably comes off as way too subtle because the games go really out of their way to emphasize Rose's affable nature and how he's "only doing what he thinks is best for Galar". I do agree that Rose's impossibly idiotic and reckless actions peg him more as a megalomaniacal entrepreneur than a sympathetic well-intentioned extremist, but the fact of the matter is that his characterization clashes way too badly with his actions (unlike Maxie and Archie, who are so ridiculously over-the-top that it's hard not to enjoy how insane they are). Sure, you could argue that perhaps the intention with Rose was to show that just because someone is nice it doesn't mean that they're necessarily a good person, but it's honestly not that well done...

 

[Emmy]

I swear one of these days I will make a blog post of a complete breakdown of Rose's character in the games, going through all the evidence from dialogue, actions and the League Cards since as a (former) student of psychology I completely see what they were going for and how to the average player it might seem underwhelming compared to past Pokémon villains.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I swear one of these days I will make a blog post of a complete breakdown of Rose's character in the games, going through all the evidence from dialogue, actions and the League Cards since as a (former) student of psychology I completely see what they were going for and how to the average player it might seem underwhelming compared to past Pokémon villains.

Sounds nice. And once you do, please post the link to that post somewhere on this forum. I'd be really interested to read it.

 

[Emmy]

Sounds nice. And once you do, please post the link to that post somewhere on this forum. I'd be really interested to read it.

Sure thing, gotta buy the DLC first though since I want to have the clearest picture of what's going on once I factor in Peony's presumed connection to Rose.

 

[Esserise]

The problem with that interpretation to his character is that it arguably comes off as way too subtle because the games go really out of their way to emphasize Rose's affable nature and how he's "only doing what he thinks is best for Galar". I do agree that Rose's impossibly idiotic and reckless actions peg him more as a megalomaniacal entrepreneur than a sympathetic well-intentioned extremist, but the fact of the matter is that his characterization clashes way too badly with his actions (unlike Maxie and Archie, who are so ridiculously over-the-top that it's hard not to enjoy how insane they are). Sure, you could argue that perhaps the intention with Rose was to show that just because someone is nice it doesn't mean that they're necessarily a good person, but it's honestly not that well done...

But "doing what he thinks is best for Galar" goes right in line with what I'm saying about him. He basically made the region what it is today, so he's got a deep personal investment in seeing it continue to thrive. It's not about what the people of the present need, and I don't think it's even really about what the people of the future need. Modern Galar is his creation, and it will be his legacy, and he thinks that Eternatus's power can be used to cement it for thousands of years to come. People think his predicted scenario for the future needs to be backed up by some kind of evidence, but it really doesn't - he's not supposed to be a Cassandra figure, speaking the truth when no one will listen. It's not even really an "ends justify the means" dynamic like with Lysandre, who was willing to commit mass murder to create what he saw as an ideal world. Rose has just sunk so much of himself into developing Galar that he identifies it with himself, and worries about what'll happen if he's not there to provide for it. After all, it's not like he awoke Eternatus thinking that it would be free to destroy the region - Galar's mythology implies that Eternatus is not unstoppable, and Rose thought he could handle it, and felt he could rely on Leon to back him up even if things did get dicey. Mostly he's just guilty of insufficient cost-benefit analysis in the pursuit of his vanity project.

And yes, they do emphasize him being affable, but I also feel like the scenes where we interact with him put him at somewhat of a distance that obscures any particular sense of relatability. He's always having to cut the conversation short because he's got business to attend to. He comes off to me as a bit enigmatic, in that way. He's a mannered businessman who knows how to be approachable, but it's not like he's a bleeding-heart humanitarian or anybody's best friend. Furthermore, while they're emphasizing he's affability, they also make note of his impatience and ego on a few of those same occasions.

 

[R1ke]

This one definitely had less action than I was anticipating. I figured we'd get the whole Ash and Rose battle here, rather than next episode. That and I'm pretty surprised Ash didn't beat G-max Meowth on the way to the stadium.

This episode still had good dialogue and character moments though. As several others have pointed out, Rose is way more fleshed out now than he was in the games. They really fixed his character compared to the games, using ironically less screentime to do so. The poverty and energy crisis arc is a compelling idea, it just wasn't executed well in the games (or at all). That revelation of him sponsoring Leon for that reason was a big surprise too, that'll surely leave a mark on Leon's character. The music during his whole monologue was incredible, and it was clever seeing the safety barrier being used to contain Eternatus. Really good to see how they're both handled here, and Ash staying back to battle him. I like the parallels they've made between Ash and Leon in this arc, really strengthens their relationship and makes their eventual battle all the more enticing.

Eternatus was genuinely creepy to watch, and I didn't mind the CGI look on it. That being said, it did stick out when it was next to Leon or the other characters in general. I'm still kinda confused on how it went from roaming Galar in episode 12 to being confined in a cage like that. Feel like I'm missing something here, or they need to tie up this loose end.

Not much else I can say about the episode to be honest. Hammerlocke looks beautiful once again and it was nice seeing Goh and Sonia head back to the slumbering weald to revisit Zacian and Zamazenta. That remix was good too. I like that Raboot actually struggled against Garbador as well, shows that Goh isn't invincible when it comes to battles like this. I don't see how Raboot will beat Milotic though, even with an evolution. Riolu and Pikachu I understand, but Raboot will seem more contrived. Nice parallel they got here though. Seeing Raihan show up is pretty hype too.

I'll give it an 8/10. Rose was the main highlight here and was handled really well. I liked the way everything else was set up, and I'm hoping it all comes together next week without feeling rushed. I'm surprised that the Mewtwo episode is even happening though, right after a climax like this.

 

[Greninjaman]

Perhaps Rose was able to capture and put it in there?

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

But "doing what he thinks is best for Galar" goes right in line with what I'm saying about him. He basically made the region what it is today, so he's got a deep personal investment in seeing it continue to thrive. It's not about what the people of the present need, and I don't think it's even really about what the people of the future need. Modern Galar is his creation, and it will be his legacy, and he thinks that Eternatus's power can be used to cement it for thousands of years to come. People think his predicted scenario for the future needs to be backed up by some kind of evidence, but it really doesn't - he's not supposed to be a Cassandra figure, speaking the truth when no one will listen. It's not even really an "ends justify the means" dynamic like with Lysandre, who was willing to commit mass murder to create what he saw as an ideal world. Rose has just sunk so much of himself into developing Galar that he identifies it with himself, and worries about what'll happen if he's not there to provide for it. After all, it's not like he awoke Eternatus thinking that it would be free to destroy the region - Galar's mythology implies that Eternatus is not unstoppable, and Rose thought he could handle it, and felt he could rely on Leon to back him up even if things did get dicey. Mostly he's just guilty of insufficient cost-benefit analysis in the pursuit of his vanity project.

And yes, they do emphasize him being affable, but I also feel like the scenes where we interact with him put him at somewhat of a distance that obscures any particular sense of relatability. He's always having to cut the conversation short because he's got business to attend to. He comes off to me as a bit enigmatic, in that way. He's a mannered businessman who knows how to be approachable, but it's not like he's a bleeding-heart humanitarian or anybody's best friend. Furthermore, while they're emphasizing he's affability, they also make note of his impatience and ego on a few of those same occasions.

Once again, I don't disagree with what you're saying. I just don't think the games communicate this very well, and you can't exactly blame the average casual player for assuming that Rose is a poorly done well-intentioned extremist instead of a self-aggrandizing entrepreneur when so many of his character and story beats are nearly identical to those of actual well-intentioned extremists, and I think the narrative of "Rose sees himself as Galar" comes off as way too subdued, and that's honestly a shame, because SWSH's overall theme is clearly something along the lines of "new generations taking over the old ones and upholding their legacies in their own unique ways", and Rose's plot of trying to provide infinite energy for Galar that'll secure his own legacy for generations has a really strong connection to that. Unfortunately, I just don't think the games make that very clear, and honestly I don't think you can blame casual audiences for "missing the point" of Rose's character. You have to remember that Pokemon's main target audience is still children, and that the games are simple enough that kids as young as 5 or 6 can play it no problem, and if so many people misinterpreted the villain in a children's game, then I'd say that probably means his writing just wasn't executed well.

 

[Eclipsical]

I find it funny that Regieleki’s Pokédex entry says that even in it’s contained form, it can produce all of Galar’s energy. Apparently Chairman Rose never looked at a Pokédex before.

 

[Epic Spheal]

Once again, I don't disagree with what you're saying. I just don't think the games communicate this very well, and you can't exactly blame the average casual player for assuming that Rose is a poorly done well-intentioned extremist instead of a self-aggrandizing entrepreneur when so many of his character and story beats are nearly identical to those of actual well-intentioned extremists, and I think the narrative of "Rose sees himself as Galar" comes off as way too subdued, and that's honestly a shame, because SWSH's overall theme is clearly something along the lines of "new generations taking over the old ones and upholding their legacies in their own unique ways", and Rose's plot of trying to provide infinite energy for Galar that'll secure his own legacy for generations has a really strong connection to that. Unfortunately, I just don't think the games make that very clear, and honestly I don't think you can blame casual audiences for "missing the point" of Rose's character. You have to remember that Pokemon's main target audience is still children, and that the games are simple enough that kids as young as 5 or 6 can play it no problem, and if so many people misinterpreted the villain in a children's game, then I'd say that probably means his writing just wasn't executed well.

Agreed! I think @Esserise 's interpretation is spot but like you I think the game really didn't communicate it well at all. I mean you have a good portion of the fandom thinking Rose is a complete abusive jerk on the level of Ghetsis and a different portion thinking he's a good guy who just made an oopsie when it reality he is in the middle.

 

[R1ke]

I know they’re different medias, but Rose having lost his father as a child would explain why he sponsored Bede in the first place. They grew up in similar circumstances. It makes that line he says at the mural ‘I saw myself in you’ (something like that) have way more depth to it.

By the way, is this the first confirmed character death in Journeys? Granted, we never saw his Dad on screen, but I’ll give them props for handling this topic again (like how SM did) in a relatively mature way.

 

[Esserise]

Once again, I don't disagree with what you're saying. I just don't think the games communicate this very well, and you can't exactly blame the average casual player for assuming that Rose is a poorly done well-intentioned extremist instead of a self-aggrandizing entrepreneur when so many of his character and story beats are nearly identical to those of actual well-intentioned extremists, and I think the narrative of "Rose sees himself as Galar" comes off as way too subdued, and that's honestly a shame, because SWSH's overall theme is clearly something along the lines of "new generations taking over the old ones and upholding their legacies in their own unique ways", and Rose's plot of trying to provide infinite energy for Galar that'll secure his own legacy for generations has a really strong connection to that. Unfortunately, I just don't think the games make that very clear, and honestly I don't think you can blame casual audiences for "missing the point" of Rose's character. You have to remember that Pokemon's main target audience is still children, and that the games are simple enough that kids as young as 5 or 6 can play it no problem, and if so many people misinterpreted the villain in a children's game, then I'd say that probably means his writing just wasn't executed well.

I mean, do we really have a clear bead on what the casual audience thinks of Rose? They're not really what come to my mind when I'm talking about people who seem to have misunderstood the intention. I've seen a lot of people in the online fandom take issue with Rose, but those are usually more dedicated fans, and that's more who I'm referring to. And in that regard I'd say it's not even just about Rose, because personally I feel like Internet fandom has been regularly misinterpreting the game villains for a few generations now.

I also think children are kind of a different ballgame. I think typically they don't have much of an eye for deeply subtle nuances, but in my experience, they're usually pretty good at absorbing information that is presented through larger or more generalized gestures.