The good was the entire Ludlow sequence. That man is a crazy sailor and knows how to pilot a ship. This makes sense as the Brave Olivine used to be his small fishing boat, after all. Seeing Chansey rolling around and Murdock sliding from side to side was a treat to see. I do hope that we'll get a proper Ludlow backstory episode some day; I’d love to learn what sort of person he was in the past, before he became the regular fisherman that he is now. The part where his Quagsire used Surf was great. I think the last time I saw Surf used efficiently was back at the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition back in the Diamond & Pearl era.
I also thought they handled well the part where Diana asks Liko and Roy whether Lapras is good or bad for stealing food. To humans, what Lapras is doing might be bad, but for Lapras and its friends, they’re doing it to survive. Good and bad are simply not applicable to the Pokémon’s standards and situation, for them it's simply a question of survive or die. I do appreciate this that sort of more nuanced writing.
I also liked the part where Lucius finally makes his proper debut. Now that we've finally seen his face, it's interesting how much he looks like a male version of Liko. It seems like either he's a direct ancestor of Liko, or that they're otherwise related, with Liko descending from another close member of Lucius’s family. Lucius is voiced in the Japanese version by Daisuke Namikawa, who also voices Dot’s Quaxly. The memories Lucius's Pokémon have of him end with him at the entrance to Rakua, promising that he won’t die and that he would return — but then he never did. This explains why Lapras was so upset; and also why Galarian Moltres was upset when Liko and Roy first met it. This just continues to build up the mystery behind what Rakua actually is, and what happened to Lucius that meant he never came back.
I can acknowledge though that giving Lapras and its band of pirate Pokémon food was the best thing to convince Lapras to join. I just want to know how Lapras ended up in that situation to begin with. Did it get those scars before, or after its awakening? Since Horizons focuses more on the people part of the Pokémon world rather than the Pokémon themselves, I guess Lapras’s scars will remain a mystery for a while to come.
The Terapagos’s adventure segment this week has the little turtle exploring the basement of the ship where Fuecoco and the other wild Pokémon sleep. Terapagos has cute interactions with all of the Pokémon, but especially Fuecoco. It’s nice to see Terapagos interact with the starters, while still maintaining their personalities.
Now that Shiny Rayquaza has shown up, I do wonder what’s going to happen next. The episode preview for next week shows Amethio fighting the dragon with Ceruledge. All I know here is that Rayquaza is going to wipe the floor with them. It was nice knowing you, Ceruledge. What are your thoughts on this episode? How easily do you think things are going to go for Liko and the other Hero Pokémon moving forward?
