Preview JN053: Catch the Legend!? Find the Guardian of Water - Suicune!!

[SlyGecko]

Catch rate in the anime is nowhere near the same as catch rate in the games. This has been established since the OS.
It’s also been well-established that if the Pokémon wants to be caught, as presumably Suicune would in this situation, any ball will do the trick.

That's not always the case. Besides, I don't think the Legendary who is avoiding to be captured by poachers would let some random kid catch it. Don't defend bad writing.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

That's not always the case. Besides, I don't think the Legendary who is avoiding to be captured by poachers would let some random kid catch it. Don't defend bad writing.

This begs a Game of Thrones reference, but I better not go there.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Can we please stop ignoring the fact that Suicune is clearly injured and in distress and stop acting like he caught a completely fresh and healthy one?

Honestly, that kinda makes it worse at least from a writing standpoint due to the contrived nature of it. All the times that they’ve dealt with Pokémon having been captured thanks to TRio and yet here rather than freeing Suicune, Go’s action is to Chuck a pokeball at it to capture it. It just comes across as both contrived and inconsistent towards the very series all so they can say Go caught a Suicune even if he doesn’t keep it.

 

[swiftgallade46]

That's not always the case. Besides, I don't think the Legendary who is avoiding to be captured by poachers would let some random kid catch it. Don't defend bad writing.

Have you already seen the episode? Calling it “bad writing” without even knowing what is going on is presumptuous. Judging by the preview, it looks like Suicune was in a precarious situation where obviously the better alternative was being captured temporarily by someone who was clearly trying to save it.

 

[SlyGecko]

Have you already seen the episode? Calling it “bad writing” without even knowing what is going on is presumptuous. Judging by the preview, it looks like Suicune was in a precarious situation where obviously the better alternative was being captured temporarily by someone who was clearly trying to save it.

Because catching a legendary Pokemon with a single basic Pokeball IS bad writing no matter what the circumstance is. Doesn't matter if it's temporary or not. It's basically saying " Goh doesn't need to train his team to catch a legendary or buy better Pokeballs when he can just toss a single pokeball because he's perfect". So no matter if Goh keeps or releases Suicune, it will still be a poorly written capture. A poorly written capture for a poorly written character.

 

[Eitarou]

And it's a basic Pokeball. It should take alot more than one Pokeball to catch something that high catch rate.

....and? No seriously, what does that even mean?

You can catch pretty much any Pokemon with enough time, luck, and patience. It's perfectly feasible to catch a weakened (key word here) Legendary in one.

It takes me multiple Ultraballs to catch a legendary.

So? I caught Tapu Koko with a single Ultra Ball in my playthrough. Am I wrong because I had an easy time once?

One person can catch a Pokemon in five minutes while another can take fifty.

That's not always the case. Besides, I don't think the Legendary who is avoiding to be captured by poachers would let some random kid catch it. Don't defend bad writing.

That "random kid" who just happens to be trying to save its life.

Because catching a legendary Pokemon with a single basic Pokeball IS bad writing no matter what the circumstance is.

If this were a standard Goh capture, I'd might be inclined to agree, but it's not.

 

[SlyGecko]

....and? No seriously,
You can catch pretty much any Pokemon with enough time, luck, and patience. It's perfectly feasible to catch a weakened (key word here) Legendary in one.

You need extream luck to catch a legendary with the basic pokeball and to do it like Goh normally does with a single pokeball takes even more luck. My point is this, to catch a weakened Suicune in a basic pokeball on your first throw takes a lot of Godly luck. Doesn't matter if it's on one HP, that is nearly impossible to do.

 

[swiftgallade46]

Because catching a legendary Pokemon with a single basic Pokeball IS bad writing no matter what the circumstance is. Doesn't matter if it's temporary or not. It's basically saying " Goh doesn't need to train his team to catch a legendary or buy better Pokeballs when he can just toss a single pokeball because he's perfect". So no matter if Goh keeps or releases Suicune, it will still be a poorly written capture. A poorly written capture for a poorly written character.

But you’re claiming it’s bad writing just because it doesn’t match the way it works in the games. I’m saying it never has. If a Pokémon wants to go with someone, then the capture is guaranteed. That’s the way it’s worked since the OS, we just hadn’t seen it on-screen with a legendary until now.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Fakeout or not, I hate that they decided to show Suicune's capture in that preview. It was not a good idea to try and build up hype: the capture of any Legendary is always bound to be controversial rather than exciting, especially if the character doing the capture is controversial themselves, as happens to be the case with Goh. Whether or not it's gonna be a permanent capture doesn't really matter at that point.

I will say this, though: while the apparent context for Suicune's capture does make perfect sense to me (it's clearly injured and would likely take any alternative to being harassed by poachers), I can't say I don't see why people are angry at Goh for pulling the capture off, because while it's true that catching a legendary Pokemon with a low catch rate and a not-so-effective Pokeball is totally a thing that can happen, the fact that it's happening to Goh, a kid who most of his captures have ranged from easy to practically effortless, does make it seem a bit contrived. I think the capture would be easier to swallow if Goh struggled with past captures more often prior to this one.

Like I said, the specific given context seems to make sense regarding Suicune's easy capture here, it's the bigger picture with how Goh's goal has overall been handled that's really where the problem actually stems from.

 

[Islander Princess]

It would also continue the character development seen in this week's episode in that he considers a Pokémon's feelings too regarding where it wants to be.

Honestly, this is something I've always loved with every one of the main characters. Even though they all have different personalities, taking advantage of a sick of injured Pokémon is pretty much out of the question for all of them (heck, Team Rocket are the antagonists and even they wouldn't do something like that!) That kind of treatment is really reserved as a nasty deed performed by poachers and hunters and the like in this show.

Goh "catching" Suicune to protect it from getting further tortured and potentially taken away by force by that particular brand of evil is totally respectable. I don't always love how Goh's development has been handled, but I don't think this particular instance is as big of a deal as a lot of people are making it out to be. Does he catch a lot of Pokémon too easily? Sure. But this is a very different situation specifically crafted for this episode's plot.

 

[SlyGecko]

As I said before, I don't care if it's a temporary capture or not, I'm giving up on the anime for a while because my disappointment for Journeys will turn to hatred. And the last time I took break from the anime was for BW. And that was because I was too buisy to keep up with the series.

 

[Singaporean]

Second preview of the episode:

View: https://youtu.be/X2mS88GlyiM

 

[Johtoo]

I genially believe the anime staff have no idea what they're doing anymore. It's like monkeys throwing darts at a dart board right now. Between the movies making no sense, the anime jumping between different styles, and go catching a legendary when 10 years ago that would have been looked down on. It's astonishing, really... It's also poetic how the entire fandom has erupted over this as well. I have never seen a more universal disliking over an anime character or an episode since maybe Best Wishes.

 

[SlyGecko]

I genially believe the anime staff have no idea what they're doing anymore. It's like monkeys throwing darts at a dart board right now. Between the movies making no sense, the anime jumping between different styles, and go catching a legendary when 10 years ago that would have been looked down on. It's astonishing, really... It's also poetic how the entire fandom has erupted over this as well. I have never seen a more universal disliking over an anime character or an episode since maybe Best Wishes.

Well...I think the writers have admitted they're making things up with Goh. I think they just slapped down Goh goal as "Wants to catch Mew" and had to think of a way to make it happen so they slapped down "Catch every Pokemon" without thinking of the backlash. It's that reason why, to me, Goh feels like a poorly written character. His goal is just so uninteresting and random that I don't want him to succeed. Doesn't help him almost always getting perfect one shot throws on healthy Pokemon.

 

[Johtoo]

Well...I think the writers have admitted they're making things up with Goh. I think they just slapped down Goh goal as "Wants to catch Mew" and had to think of a way to make it happen so they slapped down "Catch every Pokemon" without thinking of the backlash. It's that reason why, to me, Goh feels like a poorly written character. His goal is just so uninteresting and random that I don't want him to succeed. Doesn't help him almost always getting perfect one shot throws on healthy Pokemon.

Honestly, just reboot it. I don't care anymore. I'll take Ash going through Kanto with Brock and Misty again over this.

 

[SlyGecko]

Honestly, just reboot it. I don't care anymore. I'll take Ash going through Kanto with Brock and Misty again over this.

I'd rather did with a full Galar journey. Maybe with Hop and and Marnie as traveling companions. We'll get to ser more Dynamax battles, a beter pased story, and most importantly, more Sonia.

 

[Johtoo]

I'd rather did with a full Galar journey. Maybe with Hop and and Marnie as traveling companions. We'll get to ser more Dynamax battles, a beter pased story, and most importantly, more Sonia.

Pokemon Sword and Shield have so many fascinating characters, that it astonishes me that they went in this direction. It also trips me up that we will never have a proper Galar anime now.

 

[SlyGecko]

Pokemon Sword and Shield have so many fascinating characters, that it astonishes me that they went in this direction. It also trips me up that we will never have a proper Galar anime now.

Yeah. It feel more like a Pokemon Go anime then a SwSh anime. I mean they could hace Goh but as more of a rival to Ash. He could be the cocky kid who always brags about how he can catch any Pokemon without battling or befriending them and always has a different team on hand. Everytime he shows up, he challenges Ash to a Catching contest to see who can catch a certain Pokemon. He could even still have his Cinderace.

 

[Hidden Mew]

On one hand, I can understand the backlash to a degree. Goh being able to capture Pokemon relatively easily has always been a big complaint regarding his goal. Even though Suicune is clearly injured and weakened, I can understand why on the surface it would still bother people with how Goh already captures Pokemon with little to no problem to do that to a Legendary Pokemon.

But on the other hand, I also think that people are basically falling for a clickbait preview. Goh obviously isn't going to be keeping Suicune if they spoiled it in the preview. Making it a temporary capture is still different from Goh always having a Legendary Pokemon on standby. Plus, being captured by seemingly generic hunters is a pretty big sign of just how weak it is, which would also explain why Goh's Pokeball would work easily on a Legendary Pokemon. I could understand the anger towards this decision a bit more if it also another case of people painting Goh in a more antagonistic light. It honestly baffles me whenever that happens because Goh does clearly care about Pokemon and it isn't a new development either. The problem is that the writers are more focused on quantity than quality with Goh's Pokemon more than anything about Goh himself.

 

[Johtoo]

On one hand, I can understand the backlash to a degree. Goh being able to capture Pokemon relatively easily has always been a big complaint regarding his goal. Even though Suicune is clearly injured and weakened, I can understand why on the surface it would still bother people with how Goh already captures Pokemon with little to no problem to do that to a Legendary Pokemon.

But on the other hand, I also think that people are basically falling for a clickbait preview. Goh obviously isn't going to be keeping Suicune if they spoiled it in the preview. Making it a temporary capture is still different from Goh always having a Legendary Pokemon on standby. Plus, being captured by seemingly generic hunters is a pretty big sign of just how weak it is, which would also explain why Goh's Pokeball would work easily on a Legendary Pokemon. I could understand the anger towards this decision a bit more if it also another case of people painting Goh in a more antagonistic light. It honestly baffles me whenever that happens because Goh does clearly care about Pokemon and it isn't a new development either. The problem is that the writers are more focused on quantity than quality with Goh's Pokemon more than anything about Goh himself.

I think one of the criticisms is how this capture was done. This is the first legendary (if you're not counting Ash with Nebby since that isn't a legendary) that is being caught. There is no build up up here, this is just another self-contained episode that rushes through everything. Had this been a 3 parter where we got to see an emotional connection between Goh and Suicine, then i'm sure the criticism wouldn't be as loud.