Preview JN065: Dragon Battle! Satoshi VS Iris!!

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I’ve seen plenty of stories based around the fact that Ash’s “easy mode” league win in Alola came with him being a whole stairwell beneath fellow champions, which made him laughing stock and motivated him to train extra dilligently to make up for it.

If only the writers were willing to take such risks.

I could never see other Champions treating Ash with that kind of disrespect, regardless of the difference in skill level.

 

[Okido]

Oh wow, I didn't even realize this episode was airing tomorrow. It feels like just yesterday it had gotten announced.

I don't really know how to feel yet about Iris being a Champion/potentially having a Goodra, so I'm not gonna say anything on it yet until I see how it plays out in the episode for myself. I'm not really upset by it though, I think it's good that off-screen characters are allowed to do things and progress while they're gone, rather than just stagnate since we last saw them.

Either way... Go Iris! Go Ash! Both of you do your best!

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

I predicted something like this could happen:
Honestly, I suspect the power of the champions is just going to be just toned down when it comes time, rather than Ash to really feel like he's progressed that far naturally.

When was this? Honestly as someone who looooooooooooooooooooooved how slow and natural Ash's development as trainer and person was through out the first decade of the anime this quite honestly breaks my heart.

Back on the topic of the episode itself despite me not keeping up with journeys too closely I'm optimistic about the fight choreography. Maybe just because Ash VS Misty had the best fight choreography in Sun and Moon by far in my opinion.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Iris has a Ground Dragon:

Doryuzu - Fukamaru

A Flying Dragon:

Emonga - Kairyu

Now two pure Dragon:

Kibago - Numelgon

 

[Hidden Mew]

I’ve seen plenty of stories based around the fact that Ash’s “easy mode” league win in Alola came with him being a whole stairwell beneath fellow champions, which made him laughing stock and motivated him to train extra dilligently to make up for it.

If only the writers were willing to take such risks.

As interesting as the concept sounds, it would be really strange and out of character for the other Champions to treat Ash differently like that. Plus, I don't think that the series would look down on Ash winning the Alola League either.

 

[Unireon]

Now that you mention that.....
Maybe Iris will pick on him more if she finds that out.

 

[EternalPokéFanGirl]

DRAGONITE VS DRAGONITE CONFIRMED!!! View attachment 142347

Something tells me that they... will be shipped by the fandom .

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

As interesting as the concept sounds, it would be really strange and out of character for the other Champions to treat Ash differently like that. Plus, I don't think that the series would look down on Ash winning the Alola League either.

I probably should have clarified that the asshats mocking him in these stories weren’t the champions, but the overall public that kept comparing him to them.

 

[Silktree]

The writers should have done a much better job with Iris after B2W2 were released to foreshadow this moment, but oh well. She isn't a companion anymore and the game counterpart became a champion out of nowhere, too.

Ash has no business winning here. She may be Iris, but she's also supposed to be stronger than Alder now, so she shouldn't be that weaker than the Master 8. Ash winning with an untrained Dracovish of all things would be embarrassing for the entire Unova region. Make Iris recurring and let her use a full team when Ash is actually prepared for her.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I've had this thought ever since BW came out but I think it bears repeating: Iris really should have been given at least one other Dragon-type early on in the BW saga that she could properly train to be stronger so Axew could safely remain as the marketable plush without issue. Instead what happened is that the writers made the mistake of stalling for too long, so by the time they realized "wait, this character who is supposed to be a Dragon-type specialist still has only one Dragon-type to her name", the series was already in its later half, so they had to throw Iris a fully evolved Dragonite with an ideal moveset and essentially recycle Excadrill's disobedience arc to keep it from being too much of a powerup. To this day I still don't understand why they couldn't just have let her catch a Deino and/or Druddigon early on. Were those two just not cool or marketable enough?

 

[Hidden Mew]

I probably should have clarified that the asshats mocking him in these stories weren’t the champions, but the overall public that kept comparing him to them.

Ah, that makes more sense. I'm still not sure if they would go in that direction, mainly because it would still involve the anime looking down on the Alola League, but the public comparing Ash with the regional Champions would make more sense than the Champions themselves doing that.

The writers should have done a much better job with Iris after B2W2 were released to foreshadow this moment, but oh well. She isn't a companion anymore and the game counterpart became a champion out of nowhere, too.

I don't think it's quite fair to compare the situation with her video game counterpart. At least video game Iris was a proper Gym Leader and there is a history of Gym Leaders climbing up the ranks in the games such as with Koga and Wallace, which makes it less of a random choice than what they're doing with anime Iris.

Ash has no business winning here. She may be Iris, but she's also supposed to be stronger than Alder now, so she shouldn't be that weaker than the Master 8. Ash winning with an untrained Dracovish of all things would be embarrassing for the entire Unova region. Make Iris recurring and let her use a full team when Ash is actually prepared for her.

I don't know if they'd really care about Ash winning with an untrained Dracovish, let alone how it would be embarrassing for the entire Unova region. A part of me still thinks that they made Iris into a Champion just so beating her would make Ash look more impressive than it would be otherwise. Making Iris a recurring character so that they can have a full battle rematch does sound neat, but I wouldn't expect that to happen. Although, I'm still leading towards the battle being a draw.

I've had this thought ever since BW came out but I think it bears repeating: Iris really should have been given at least one other Dragon-type early on in the BW saga that she could properly train to be stronger so Axew could safely remain as the marketable plush without issue. Instead what happened is that the writers made the mistake of stalling for too long, so by the time they realized "wait, this character who is supposed to be a Dragon-type specialist still has only one Dragon-type to her name", the series was already in its later half, so they had to throw Iris a fully evolved Dragonite with an ideal moveset and essentially recycle Excadrill's disobedience arc to keep it from being too much of a powerup. To this day I still don't understand why they couldn't just have let her catch a Deino and/or Druddigon early on. Were those two just not cool or marketable enough?

I'm sure at least Deino was marketable enough considering its evolved forms. My guess is that they didn't want to give Iris a Deino because it was already associated with Ghetisis in the games. Druddigon was a single stage Pokemon and aside from the Pikachu clones, they usually aren't too interested in single stage Pokemon for the main cast. I think that giving her a Dragon Master goal when there were so few Dragons in the fifth generation and they weren't able to use older Pokemon until roughly halfway into BW on top of it was just a really bad decision. It really limited what Pokemon she could get and how many of them would tie into her goal.

 

[Unireon]

They promote Iris to Champion in order to make Satoshi look better after he defeats her.....
Now, I really want him to lose. Winning would imply a Deus ex Machina and I already was critical of Kibago's Outrage.
The rematch route seems unfeasible, and a bad idea, after seeing how the staff handle the PWC.

The Monozu incident still upsets me. I was cheering on her getting it.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I'm sure at least Deino was marketable enough considering its evolved forms. My guess is that they didn't want to give Iris a Deino because it was already associated with Ghetisis in the games. Druddigon was a single stage Pokemon and aside from the Pikachu clones, they usually aren't too interested in single stage Pokemon for the main cast. I think that giving her a Dragon Master goal when there were so few Dragons in the fifth generation and they weren't able to use older Pokemon until roughly halfway into BW on top of it was just a really bad decision. It really limited what Pokemon she could get and how many of them would tie into her goal.

Personally, I think only Hydreigon by itself is really the one that has the strong Ghetsis connection rather than the whole line, as Deino and Zweilous are kinda cute-looking whereas Hydreigon is the only one whose design that can truly be called intimidating (albeit in a cool way), so I think it would have been safe to let Iris catch a Deino and then have it evolve only into Zweilous and leave it at that stage for the rest of the saga. It would have made sense too, since in the games the Deino line reaches its final stage remarkably late even by pseudo-legendary standards (to put it into perspective, by the time Deino evolves into its middle stage, Bagon has already fulfilled its dream to fly). Besides, anime Ghetsis didn't even use a Hydreigon (instead Cameron of all people is the one who gave the species its biggest role), so I think the concerns about it being too strongly associated with a main villain to give even its pre-evolved forms to a main character are rather moot regardless. But oh well, hindsight is 20-20, I guess.

 

[Silktree]

I don't find Deino very marketable, but as far as off-screen developments go, Hydreigon would have made more sense than Goodra.

The rematch route seems unfeasible, and a bad idea, after seeing how the staff handle the PWC.

Unfeasible how? It's what they've done with Bea... twice. Not to mention Leon.

 

[Unireon]

Saito's plot is stalled. Not moving in the slightest.

Adding another opponent to rematch would be so much for the staff.
They're already struggling with the pace and development.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

They promote Iris to Champion in order to make Satoshi look better after he defeats her.....
Now, I really want him to lose. Winning would imply a Deus ex Machina and I already was critical of Kibago's Outrage.
The rematch route seems unfeasible, and a bad idea, after seeing how the staff handle the PWC.

The Monozu incident still upsets me. I was cheering on her getting it.

Given Iris's skill level as a trainer, promoting her to champion only for her to lose to Ash only weakens the title of champion

...granted, given Alder's appearance in BW, Iris is technically an improvement...

 

[game3524]

Saito's plot is stalled. Not moving in the slightest.

Adding another opponent to rematch would be so much for the staff.
They're already struggling with the pace and development.

I don't know how you can say they are struggling with pace and development without knowing how long the series will go on for. Also, the Bea plot hasn't stalled at all. He will face her again in the hyper class.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

There’s one thing I haven’t seen pointed out as well- where’s Excadrill? The champion's starter Pokémon isn’t something that can disappear so easily.

YES I NEED EXCADRILL OR I WILL CRY

 

[Schemer99]

I don't find Deino very marketable, but as far as off-screen developments go, Hydreigon would have made more sense than Goodra.


Unfeasible how? It's what they've done with Bea... twice. Not to mention Leon.

BTW, where's your profile pic from?

 

[Ricbolog]

BTW, where's your profile pic from?

Isn't it from M22 - Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution?