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Review PG03: The Challenger

The Elite Four are so ugly-looking here, wow. Plus some of the line readings (especially from Bruno) were so awkward. I think Lorelei did the best, though.

It was a so-so episode. Just stuff we already knew about, without much creativity thrown in. It's a let-down from the last episode.
 
So Blue was just as arrogant as always I see... Kinda interesting to hear the Agatha bit, but even more surprising there wasn't a official Champion until Blue won
 
but even more surprising there wasn't a official Champion until Blue won

We'd sort of known that all along - when you beat Lance in the games, he says that you would have become the Champion right then and there if not for Blue having beaten you to it.

I can't watch the episode with audio yet so I don't know if anything in it contradicts this, but as I pointed out in the first Generations thread, I get the implication from the games that the Kanto League only just got up and running pretty recently. There is an e-mail on Oak's computer which says this:

> "Finally! The ultimate trainers of the Pokémon League are ready to take on all comers! Bring your best Pokémon and see how you rate as a trainer! -Pokémon League HQ, Indigo Plateau. Professor Oak, please visit us!"

Plus, that would explain why nobody knows who the Viridian Leader is - Giovanni hasn't been in the position for very long, and nobody's gotten that far in the Gym Challenge yet.
 
I liked this episode. Still wish it was longer.

Also, a bit of research tells me that Blue's wearing his FRLG outfit.
 
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Blue's ego was Kaiba sized, (either Sub, Dub, or Abr, whatever Kaiba was more arrogant), and it was neat.

Do wish it was a bit longer, but it's a side effect of the short formula.
 
Hahaha, Army of Dragons in the regions where there's only 4 actual Dragon-types. Lance is a few years too early to be saying that.

@Esserise So that would mean the Indigo and Johto leagues are very young compared to say...Hoenn and Sinnoh. IIRC there's no indication that theirs were recently established.
 
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This is exactly what I expected of it, which isn't much. Nay, it was even less. Some neat tidbits from it: Apparently there ARE only 8 gyms in Kanto. (I refuse to accept that answer) Some interesting banter with Agatha that is also exactly what you would expect between them. It seems she wasn't the only one disappointed Samuel fell from prestige as a trainer. We see all 3 pokemon that are always on his team regardless of his starter. Two of them are actually good choices for fighting nearly all the pokemon of the E4 they were used on. I imagine Alakazam was just so we would see it, though it's good against a lot of things even without type advantage. This is exactly how I would've expected him to have fought through them. This version could have you insert Origins right after it and it wouldn't be out of place. I guess they just like this version of Blue, this is the third time they've used him, if you count the anime's Gary as being yet another Squirtle chooser.

This was never the one I fought, though. Mine always had Charizard, because I was not choosing a Grass type other than Venusaur, and I never will. Truthfully, I cannot choose between Venusaur and Charizard, and would rather have both.

EDIT: I misheard. Her exact words are "it has been a while since anyone has collected 8 gym badges". There could still be more.
 
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This episode felt very cheesy. I know Pokemon is cheesy, but this was just a little bit over-the-top.
 
Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Blue has Blastoise when Red had Bulbasaur in episode 1?

Also incomplete battles yay!/s
 
I wish the battles can be longer. I knew that Generations is short videos just for a few minutes, THAT'S WHY IT IS NOT ENOUGH! I like the art style and battles portrayal in here. I want a longer and more detailed battle!
 
Still better paced than Origins (?)

"It has been a while since anyone has collected 8 gym badges."

If game fans want to count the shorts as canon, then the theory that the Kanto league is new is debunked. It seems more likely that two events happened:

a) The previous champion stepped down his/her position.
b) The war or some other event caused Pokemon training to become an impopular career.
 
I when I first heard "the league is new" thing I interpreted it as the League as being reinstated after a hiatus. This would explain why there is a hall of fame but no champion before Blue.
 
What I liked about the previous episode was that it filled in the gaps and explained things. This episode did the opposite. It doesn't explain anything and some of these parts were seriously miscast. Bruno sounded cheesy and Agatha was just plain miscast. I wish this had been broken up into four separate shorts, one for each E4 member. The animation quality also seemed much lower than Origins.
 
I was looking forward to an episode that explained how Blue/Green beat the elite four. Unfortunately, we only got an episode where he did beat the elite four, let me explain. I never really though Blue was good enough to beat the elite four and I was expecting him to break out some crazy strategy. But he just muscled his way though. This was really an insult to the four heavenly kings who just got tossed aside like they were nothing.

Other than that I liked this episode it was a fun little romp into the way the elite four work. The animation was spot on and there were some odd things that intrigue me. Like the angel statue, that seemed out of place in the Pokemon world. Also that conversation with Agatha really solidified Blue as an asshat but I sort of like that even though it makes him a rather shallow character.
 
So that would mean the Indigo and Johto leagues are very young compared to say...Hoenn and Sinnoh. IIRC there's no indication that theirs were recently established.

Indeed. In the Hoenn games, they say that Flannery's grandfather used to be an Elite Four member (granted, they don't specify that it was in the Hoenn League, but it's an easy assumption to make in the face of having nothing else to go off of), and in the Sinnoh games, Rowan says that it has been a very long time since he was in the Hall of Fame, and Cynthia reaffirms that, saying that it would have to have been a long time if the last time he entered was when she became the Champion.

That being said... well, see my next comment.

Still better paced than Origins (?)

"It has been a while since anyone has collected 8 gym badges."

If game fans want to count the shorts as canon, then the theory that the Kanto league is new is debunked. It seems more likely that two events happened:

a) The previous champion stepped down his/her position.
b) The war or some other event caused Pokemon training to become an impopular career.

I when I first heard "the league is new" thing I interpreted it as the League as being reinstated after a hiatus. This would explain why there is a hall of fame but no champion before Blue.

Ah, that is true. But a hiatus could work. In fact, why don't we fuse the two theories - the League went on hiatus during the war.

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Blue has Blastoise when Red had Bulbasaur in episode 1?

Episode 1 was probably a non-canonical overview using Red as a stand-in for any protagonist.
 
I found this episode to be very meh. The Elite Four looked so creepy, evil almost. They're supposed to be the strongest Trainers in the region, not a group of evil people. Futhermore I felt it was mostly just people shouting "I AM STRONG AND YOU ARE WEAK, MUHAHAHA" at each other. Very cheesy and cliché.

One thing I like though is that they chose a different approach than Origins by showing Blue challenging the Elite Four instead of Red.
 
Episode 1 was probably a non-canonical overview using Red as a stand-in for any protagonist.

If the first episode was non canon even to episode 3 what was the point?

They threw the impartiality thing out the window by making Blastoise Blue's starter. If they wanted to be impartial they could Alakassam beat Lance because gen 1 psychic types and had Exeggutor beat Bruno since that would only rule out one of the player's starter choice that while popular wasn't on boxes of Japan's first two games or canon in anything adaption I can think of other than ssb Brawl's story mode. Hell they could have had blue use a Pokémon not on his original champion team like Raticate Machamp or Aerotactyl or if using gen 2 Pokémon like Herracross and tyranitar is off the table

Bulbasaur wasn't on screen that long they could have had Pidgey fill the role.
 
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