• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Review S15 EP10: A Call for Brotherly Love!

garrison-san

someone in the dark
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
5,154
Reaction score
137
BW058 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Ash and friends are surprised to run into Chili, Cilan's brother, who has left the Striaton gym in order to better himself as a trainer. He challenges Cilan to a battle to test how much he has grown since their last encounter, but when Cilan's Pansage defeats his Pansear, Chili and Pansear each blame one another for the loss, resulting in a bitter falling out between the pokemon and trainer. Can Cilan help Chili to repair the bond, and to tap into his true potential as a trainer?
 
OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDddddddddddddd

/pees

I just. I can't. I had feels. All of the feels. all of them. AAL OFOKEPsdlfjkgrshodfl
 
Didn't really care when I watched the originally watched this episode. It was a nice to see Cilan interact with his brothers, but it felt kinda empty. Don't know why, but I actually really liked the dub. Maybe it was because Chili's voice actor really shined here. Maybe it's because I didn't realize all the charming personalities in the episode.

Few spare thoughts
-Chili and Pansear combinations did actually make for a pretty decent battle, even if the animation was pretty stiff.
-It would have been nicer to see draw, or even better, Iris battle Chili.
-Rocky references were cool.
 
I got the Rocky motif also. It's interesting because during the training montage, I told my sister that they should've played the Rocky theme, and then we saw Pansear running up the steps, at which point I broke down laughing. Now that I think about it, they also should've played "Eye of the Tiger" during the battle between Pansear and Oshawott.
 
As I said in the last review thread, I can say that I like that Chili was given a plotline involving a losing streak, considering he has seemingly been portrayed as the weakest leader of the Striaton Gym even prior to this episode - and I'm sure no one saw this coming. Always good to see follow-ups.
 
Iris (to Chilli): You sound like a kid when you say that.

Lmao! How straight forward =P

I got everything that I asked for, remarkable!
 
I really liked the story in this episode - especially as it's one of the few BW episodes to be heavily focused on training but at the same time being used well to both anchor Cilan's reason for travelling with Ash and giving some backstory to him - like Chilli's love of rice balls. It's all really well handled, especially with the similarities between Cilan/Chilli and their monkeys. That alone makes me want to see a Cress episode to see how Panpour's personality turns out. Hopefully that Water Gym for BW2 gives an opportunity if not sooner.

However, this is one of the few times I really found the dub to be lacking. It's not something that concerns me very often, but the scene with Pansage/Pansear on the tree having a chat was painful with how lacking the dubbing of their speech is. The Japanese version by contrast made much better use of the different sounds as well as effectively using tone changes. They seem intent on always getting out the whole name of the Pokemon instead of making use of the wider variety of sounds that they can make. Even when the dub does make use of it, it is almost always just the first syllable - Oshawott says 'osha-osha' fairly often - when 'wott-wott' would make a lot of amusing lines. It isn't usually a problem, but in episodes like this with extended conversations between Pokemon it really shows the lack of variety.

That said, it pales compared to how terrible and out of character Team Rocket sounded. James sounded part crazy with the noise he made pulling out that thunderbolt shaped rock would have been the worst thing, if it weren't for Meowth's follow up. Not looking forward to the cloud-Pokemon double with the way that preview segment went.

An interesting dub point of difference was that they worded Cilan's explanation of movesets to not mention at all the 4 move limit concept, and to downplay 'replacing' moves. I'm not sure on this one - it solves the problem that the Japanese version had by introducing that concept but not dealing with the ssues that making that limit obvious has for the show.

Speaking of moves - it'd be nice if there was some slight water effect or something that would demonstrate exactly why Razor Shell is a water type move. In the games I just assumed it was just so it got STAB, but when animating it - it looks just like a plain old physical normal move. A little bit of water splashing off the blade or something would both explain the move's typing as well as help show the weakening of Pansear. Doing that more would help put Oshawott in a slightly better light, these sort of battles don't help the fairly random nature of Oshawott's strength, it should really be showing Tepig-like improvements to its strength and battle ability.

Still - taken as a whole, a great episode.
 
A decent episode! The idea of having the weakest brother of the three get angry over his losing streak and go out on his own journey was indeed very interesting and I particularly enjoyed the mature conversation between Cilan and Chilli. I've got to say that the underlying concept of this week's episode was really well thought-out!

What I disagree with,though, was the message Cilan wanted to convey with his advice to Chilli. Although he didn't say it explicitly, Cilan more or less made it clear that a balanced moveset is only of secondary importance as long as you stick to your battling style no matter what. If that was true, no trainer would ever have to learn anything new but just continue doing what they always do. What would be the use of strategy and planning then?
Of course, and this goes without saying, a trainer's personality is one of the key factors in a Pokemon battle, but it's certainly not the only one. So if you only stick to what Cilan said, for example blindly relying on your fiery temperament and offense and totally neglecting defense, you'll end up as an ordinary trainer at best. But if you really want to be successful, you know how to reconcile a balanced moveset and clever tactics on the one hand and your own personality on the other. That's what makes a great trainer! I'm sure Cynthia sees it the same way.

Also, there's another thing I have to criticize: If someone had watched Pokemon for the very first time today, I'm sure they would've said that Cilan is the protagonist due to his wisdom and experience while Ash is just a random friend or COD. The way Ash was treated today, especially his embarrassing loss, was more than symptomatic of his constant decline in BW. It's hardly believable that this is the very same Ash who was among the four best trainers in the Sinnoh League and who had such intense and great battles with Paul not so long ago. It hurts, it really hurts to see that...

DracoMan said:
I got the Rocky motif also. It's interesting because during the training montage, I told my sister that they should've played the Rocky theme, and then we saw Pansear running up the steps, at which point I broke down laughing. Now that I think about it, they also should've played "Eye of the Tiger" during the battle between Pansear and Oshawott.
DracoMan, I totally agree with you. Wouldn't it also have been nice if the had played "Hearts On Fire" from Rocky IV during said training montage? ;)
There's something else I realized: If I remember correctly, Philadelphia, the setting of the Rocky movies, is called the "City of Brotherly Love". With that in mind, don't you think the title of this episode is more than pure coincidence?
For all those who are not familiar with Rocky, here's the relevant scene that was alluded to in the episode:
[video=youtube;GWFjD_e9OAg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWFjD_e9OAg[/video]
(I still remember visiting Philly but I didn't get the chance to run up those steps...)

Anyways, a nice episode with a few elements that were worth criticizing but all in all, it was a good one.
 
Queen Cynthia said:
What I disagree with,though, was the message Cilan wanted to convey with his advice to Chilli. Although he didn't say it explicitly, Cilan more or less made it clear that a balanced moveset is only of secondary importance as long as you stick to your battling style no matter what. If that was true, no trainer would ever have to learn anything new but just continue doing what they always do. What would be the use of strategy and planning then?
Of course, and this goes without saying, a trainer's personality is one of the key factors in a Pokemon battle, but it's certainly not the only one. So if you only stick to what Cilan said, for example blindly relying on your fiery temperament and offense and totally neglecting defense, you'll end up as an ordinary trainer at best. But if you really want to be successful, you know how to reconcile a balanced moveset and clever tactics on the one hand and your own personality on the other. That's what makes a great trainer! I'm sure Cynthia sees it the same way.

I think that what Cilan was explaining to Chili was that different people have different styles of battling; since Chili is so used to battling head-on offensively with no regard for defense, telling him to use defensive moves instead wouldn't have either fit Chili/Pansear's personality or battling type and would probably be counterproductive. Instead, Cilan explained how to use offensive moves in a defensive way - Flame Charge, for example. It showed in Chili and Ash's battle that Flame Charge, which speeds up the user, was used to help Pansear raise its speed in order to dodge and counterattack more efficiently. Adding Solarbeam helped cover its weakness to water-type moves. This episode showed Chili that it's possible to have an offense-based battle style while still maintaining some defensive techniques while also expanding your move pool to cover more than just fire-type moves. So I don't think it's like a personality-trumps-effectiveness scenario to battling; more like a using-your-style-more-effectively scenario. Cilan didn't want Chili to change his battle style - just figure out how to make it work more efficiently.

Something I liked about this episode (apart from the awesome Rocky reference - I showed my sister the Rocky clip before we watched the episode and told her to keep it in mind, and she just laughed at how similar they were) was that we got to see Cilan do a real evaluation. A real one, where he takes into account personality types, abilities, and move types, and uses all these things to help a person bond better with his Pokémon.

On a different note, ugh, Team Rocket didn't need to be in this episode. >_> They keep ruining funny, feel-good moments with their uselessness. They could have put the scenes of them destroying the Kami trio's shrines in the Kami trio episodes, heck, even as a flashback in those episodes as to why the Kami trio are loose and wreaking havoc. And those sounds James was making when he was breaking the stone thing were unnecessary. I lift heavy things all the time and I maybe make a small grunting sound if any sound at all, not "NRRGH UNNNNNGH UUUUUUUGNNGNGN UHH!"
 
DracoMan said:
I got the Rocky motif also. It's interesting because during the training montage, I told my sister that they should've played the Rocky theme, and then we saw Pansear running up the steps, at which point I broke down laughing. Now that I think about it, they also should've played "Eye of the Tiger" during the battle between Pansear and Oshawott.
DracoMan, I totally agree with you. Wouldn't it also have been nice if the had played "Hearts On Fire" from Rocky IV during said training montage? ;)
There's something else I realized: If I remember correctly, Philadelphia, the setting of the Rocky movies, is called the "City of Brotherly Love". With that in mind, don't you think the title of this episode is more than pure coincidence?

The Bulbapedia page for this ep pointed that out. And just to clarify, the song I was actually hoping for was called "Gonna Fly Now." The did that once on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, just FYI.

And since the whole offensive/defensive thing has been brought up, there is one thing that came to mind (which is one more reason the BW reset annoys me): the Counter Shield. Ash and Pikachu could've showed Chili and Pansear how to do that, and it would've gone perfectly with what Cilan was aying, as it it both an offensive and defensive technique. Of course, Pikachu hasn't used it since the end of DP, and none of Ash's current lineup learned it.
 
I'm glad they changed one thing in the dub though: in the original, Chili thanks Cilan, Ash AND Iris for helping him when Ash and Iris really didn't do squat. In the dub, he just thanks Cilan it seems, which I find much more appropriate.

plus the whole episode made the Omertashipper in me very very happy indeed. Cress's worrying about Chili was so sweet and I just aaaaaaa they are flawless okay
 
I'm glad they changed one thing in the dub though: in the original, Chili thanks Cilan, Ash AND Iris for helping him when Ash and Iris really didn't do squat. In the dub, he just thanks Cilan it seems, which I find much more appropriate.

plus the whole episode made the Omertashipper in me very very happy indeed. Cress's worrying about Chili was so sweet and I just aaaaaaa they are flawless okay

Isn't it kind of wrong to ship brothers together? Especially triplets.

I thought the episode was a bit lacklustre. Cilan gave bad advice, about not needing to be balanced and just keeping with offence. And it was pointless filler, just want them to get on with the Driftveil gym and the cloud trio arc
 
I could go into a huge tirade about it but I won't. In short, I ship what I want, do not get into that subject with me.

It's not pointless filler. It gave development to a part of Cilan's character we hadn't seen at ALL, not even really in his first episodes: the bond he has with his brothers. You know, the people he is RELATED TO and runs a gym with, who it took 52 episodes for him to even mention again. Heaven forbid an episode not be all about legendaries flying around.
 
Yeah, this definitely isn't the place to be questioning who someone may or may not choose to ship, and such discussion certainly has nothing to do with the episode at hand, so let's just leave it there.
 
Cilan gave bad advice, about not needing to be balanced and just keeping with offence.
I really disagree - Cilan established exactly why he gave that advice, acknowledging that he usually would go for balance but that his travels with Ash (who almost never uses defensive moves, and only in BW seemed to start using status moves) made him appreciate the different approaches trainers have. Especially considering in the anime you can just dodge everything without specific defensive moves there's even less reason to teach them when it goes against Chilli's style.

His advice was both right and helped demonstrate why he's on his journey - though I agree with DracoMan about Ash's Counter Shield being a perfect strategy in this sort of case and that in general Cilan would have learnt much more if it were from DP Ash's battle style and moves.

As for being 'filler' - the TR part was the most boring element of this episode - if that's substance I want filler.
 
This was a brilliant and well written episode, I can easily list my favorite moments:

The bromance.
Cilan's evaluating.
Character development.
Chili being a huge woobie.
Ash being a terrible referee.
Seeing Ash training his Pokémon.
Chili's comfort food being doughnuts.
Pansear and Chili having a lot in common.
Cilan revealing what he has learned about battles.
Pansage and Pansear acting just like their trainers.
That heated bro-handshake between Chili and Pansear.
Pansage's and Pansear's (and Panpour's?) close friendship.
The Solarbeam training with the Rocky-style training montage.

Cilan saying how precious his relation with Chili and Cress is was really sweet, their brotherly love is strong.

It was great to see Cilan using his Pokémon Connoisseur skills to help with his brother's and Pansear's bond.

Who knew Chili's constant loses were actually leading to somewhere and weren't coincidence? I felt really sorry for the poor guy, Chili was easily loveable - and, I must say, quite adorable - in this episode. And we know it was not a filler as it focused on developing a relative of Cilan's (plus a Gym leader) as well as revealing Cilan's development.

I really enjoyed Cilan's explanation of his views on Pokémon battles. Saying that he used to have a tendency to put balance above everything else up until he started traveling with Ash and Iris were he learned what's more important is the personalities of the Pokémon trainers and their trust and compatibilities with their Pokémon. As that can really bring out their hidden tastes depending on how each move is used. Finding out how much Cilan has developed was great.

Among other things, I loved Ash's often excited behavior in this episode. Such as him happily exclaiming "They're just like you guys!" Also have to give the dub props for this- "It's close combat time!" Cilan's phrase must have really rubbed off on Ash.
 
It's not pointless filler. It gave development to a part of Cilan's character we hadn't seen at ALL, not even really in his first episodes: the bond he has with his brothers. You know, the people he is RELATED TO and runs a gym with, who it took 52 episodes for him to even mention again. Heaven forbid an episode not be all about legendaries flying around.

Cilan's character wasn't really developed, it was more Chilli and Pansear who developed, and we likely won't see them for another 52 episodes, unless their the shadow triad. Unless you call Cilan's step backwards in thinking that it is ok to just attack attack attack rather than be balanced as progress. Every other person in a position of respect, gym leader, e4 etc, always stress not to focus on one thing, usually Ash is missing X from his strategy and needs more of it to balance out etc.

Cilan gave bad advice, about not needing to be balanced and just keeping with offence.
I really disagree - Cilan established exactly why he gave that advice, acknowledging that he usually would go for balance but that his travels with Ash (who almost never uses defensive moves, and only in BW seemed to start using status moves) made him appreciate the different approaches trainers have. Especially considering in the anime you can just dodge everything without specific defensive moves there's even less reason to teach them when it goes against Chilli's style.

His advice was both right and helped demonstrate why he's on his journey - though I agree with DracoMan about Ash's Counter Shield being a perfect strategy in this sort of case and that in general Cilan would have learnt much more if it were from DP Ash's battle style and moves.

As for being 'filler' - the TR part was the most boring element of this episode - if that's substance I want filler.

The TR part was on for about 10 seconds, they saw the rock and pulled the lightning stone out, if you got bored during that your attention span must be tiny.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Please note: The thread is from 12 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom