Review JN066: Flabebe's White Flower

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Imo it’s the bare minimum of expectations. Making buildings look recognisable is literally the only visual indicator of a location, so messing that up would be something.

That’s like saying that XY has good continuity because Ash looks similar to how he did in BW: like scraping at the bottom of the barrel to find something.

I wasn't saying it's anything major. Just that it's continuity.

 

[DarkraiKnight]

Personally, I’d say that keeping buildings/locations consistent is going the extra mile in terms of continuity, especially with places like the Pokémon Centers of each city.

Can you honestly say that you remembered how the PM Centers in Odale and Shalour were shaped before the Journeys episodes with those in them aired? If you did, then I’m actually impressed, but I’m willing to bet that most of us didn’t; after all, it’s such a minute detail. It’s not as though the Pokemon Centers are integral to the identity of those locations. And yet, despite that, the staff chose to keep the designs consistent for the sake of continuity.

 

[Rockapheller]

My expectation for this episode was seeing a boring filler along the way, but I really enjoyed watching this one. This is one of those times Goh is showing himself to be a caring trainer for his Pokémon and taking a good care of them at the lab when he makes time for it. I also really enjoyed Goh's dynamics with the Flabébé, and how she was attached to him until she felt safe again with the white flower that she found.

I am kind of lost about the complaints in general, like when Goh doesn't interact with them, it is a problem, but when he does, it is also another problem for some reason? At this point, I feel like it is impossible for the staff to please a certain percentage of viewers until the end of the series, no matter what they do.

 

[DarkraiKnight]

My expectation for this episode was seeing a boring filler along the way, but I really enjoyed watching this one. This is one of those times Goh is showing himself to be a caring trainer for his Pokémon and taking a good care of them at the lab when he makes time for it. I also really enjoyed Goh's dynamics with the Flabébé, and how she was attached to him until she felt safe again with the white flower that she found.

I am kind of lost about the complaints in general, like when Goh doesn't interact with them, it is a problem, but when he does, it is also another problem for some reason? At this point, I feel like it is impossible for the staff to please a certain percentage of viewers until the end of the series, no matter what they do.

Part of it has to do with the specific way in which the staff go about things, but given the response to certain episodes, I also agree that there’s no pleasing some of these viewers.

 

[swiftgallade46]

I’ve felt sentimental during plenty of PotD episodes in the past. Agreed that it would have been more impactful if Flabebe had actually been a main team member, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be anything emotional or sentimental about what happened.

 

[Unireon]

My issue is that the staff tried to make the release impactful/significant/emotional.
Had they just dropped Floette without any fanfare and it'd be far better.

There was no need to force the viewers to feel anything about that moment.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

My issue is that the staff tried to make the release impactful/significant/emotional.
Had they just dropped Floette without any fanfare and it'd be far better.

There was no need to force the viewers to feel anything about that moment.

They did the same thing with Mallow's mom back in Sun & Moon, where she shows up for one episode, speedruns character development, and then vanishes and nothing changes for the character the episode was focused around for the rest of the series

At least with PM19's longform adaptive format that can keep going indefinitely, there's actually a chance for Go to meet his floette again - bonus points if it evolves offscreen

 

[swiftgallade46]

My issue is that the staff tried to make the release impactful/significant/emotional.
Had they just dropped Floette without any fanfare and it'd be far better.

There was no need to force the viewers to feel anything about that moment.

How…would this even work exactly? It’s well established that Goh cares a lot about his Pokemon even if we wish more of it were shown onscreen. So how would he not be sad at all about releasing it? That just doesn’t fit his character.

I’m also not sure what you mean by “force viewers to feel anything”. It’s pretty obvious that people are allowed to feel what they want? I just don’t understand what you’re saying here.

 

[Unireon]

The whole scene tries to appeal to people's feelings, why not avoid doing that.
Removing the soundtrack and shortening it.

What if the release were off-screen, as it was the capture, that's what I call a parallel.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The whole scene tries to appeal to people's feelings, why not avoid doing that.
Removing the soundtrack and shortening it.

What if the release were off-screen, as it was the capture, that's what I call a parallel.

If it was off-screen, it would lose all the emotional impact.

 

[swiftgallade46]

The whole scene tries to appeal to people's feelings, why not avoid doing that.
Removing the soundtrack and shortening it.

What if the release were off-screen, as it was the capture, that's what I call a parallel.

I don’t see any reason not to at least try to make the episode entertaining, though? It did appeal to some people’s feelings. We’ve had PotD get this same treatment before.

 

[Unireon]

If it was off-screen, it would lose all the emotional impact.

If only there were any, to begin with.

I don’t see any reason not to at least try to make the episode entertaining, though? It did appeal to some people’s feelings. We’ve had PotD get this same treatment before.

It was entertaining. Some gags were funny.
Never denied any of those statements.
Back to the similar XY episode, that one conveyed feelings in a better way.
I was concerned about that Flabebe and the couple that she belonged to.

Here the writers rushed development that should have happened on-screen in order to give more emotional meaning to the release.
And last, so they take Flabebe out of the limbo, attempting to turn her into a character, and in the end she got shafted even worse than before.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

If only there were any, to begin with.

There is definitely emotional impact there, thanks to all the buildup through the episode.

 

[swiftgallade46]

It was entertaining. Some gags were funny.
Never denied any of those statements.
Back to the similar XY episode, that one conveyed feelings in a better way.
I was concerned about that Flabebe and the couple that she belonged to.

Here the writers rushed development that should have happened on-screen in order to give more emotional meaning to the release.
And last, so they take Flabebe out of the limbo, attempting to turn her into a character, and in the end she got shafted even worse than before.

What you said was that they should avoid appealing to people’s feelings…that’s the whole point of any and every episode. Even if you’re talking specifically about sad feelings, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t at least try to make the viewer feel something for a goodbye. You may not have felt anything, but plenty of people did.
Getting released was the opposite of “shafted”. It’s what needed to happen because it was what was best for Floette.

 

[Unireon]

Then I should have said wasted.

No, appeal to feelings when the development of a character is progressive.

 

[swiftgallade46]

It wasn’t wasted if many people still enjoyed it.

And, no. An appeal to feelings does not have to only occur with permanent characters.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Just because it worked for some doesn't make it a flawless episode that could've been better with improved writing

Did we really need two offscreen night walks for bonding, the vast majority we still didn't get to see?

Use the one to show Go learning about his flabebe instead of cutting away to the next day where they repeat it for mew-only-knows-why

Why did they wait until they were in Kalos for a day to call Sakuragi about the flower instead of telling him before leaving so he can contact people during the offscreen time of Ash and Go flying to Kalos?

Why not just go to the convenient flower shop in Vermillion to learn about flabebe flowers and find one in Kanto? They could've picked up a gracidea for Go's shaymin and find the Eternal Flower so Go could get himself the Eternal Flower Floette

 

[swiftgallade46]

Just because it worked for some doesn't make it a flawless episode that could've been better with improved writing

Who said it was flawless…?

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

What's this~? Two amazing episodes in a row~? From Journeys??? Hey, I don't want to jinx it, but I think Journeys might actually be improving. (And who scored this episode? Because the score was freaking amazing!!!)

One thing I especially liked about this episode is sheer amount of subtle world-building and background. The fact that we see all these different kinds of scenery in a single episode, Ash and Goh actually acting like research assistants(Ash specifically, in the manner that he isn't unnecessarily made out to be dumb or a joke), and the simple conversations between the two. The hotel room, the information on the Flabebe evolutionary line, the regular conversations with Professor Sakuragi, a simple of a set-up as Ash and Goh just casually talking while eating...without having any emphasis on the food itself! This entire episode just felt NORMAL. It felt like I was actually watching Ash and Goh on a journey as proper research assistants. They automatically figured out the problem without asking any obvious questions-like what they usually have Ash do, they were still in character throughout, and the emphasis of the episode was on Flabebe...which were all essential to making this episode good.

Aside from the background, the lighting was just A-MA-ZING~! All those super pretty shots...especially at the ending scene...quick, short, sweet...they didn't need to spend much time on the goodbye nor did they rush it...the goodbye was done just as paced as the bonding it had with Goh was. All in all, it was pretty even. The lighting in the greenhouse especially felt super realistic, the small moments throughout the episode like Ash and Pikachu awkwardly glancing at each other, Grookey and Pikachu sharing a bowl of food, Flabebe's facial expressions throughout the episode...ACK, I love this episode...

It's not perfect, sure, since the episode itself felt a little rushed, but thinking on it...they don't really need to spend too much time on anything here. The point of the episode was to find Flabebe a flower, so it's only natural they whizzed through everything. The beginning montage was a little humorous, before the episode spent a bit longer on the walks Flabebe had with Goh(which actually was foreshadowing), and the time spent in the greenhouse didn't feel unnecessarily long. They were there to get that women's expertise. They got it, and then the scene switched back to them searching again, in a realistic manner.

All in all, the entire episode put a small smile on my face, as I genuinely enjoyed this. I think, like the Iris episode, I might actually put this on my "watch again" list~

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Who said it was flawless…?

The people who neatly sidestep constructive criticism levied towards their favorite show

In other words, throw a dart at reddit or twitter - you'll hit triple digits before it hits the ground