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Review S15 EP49: Unova's Survival Crisis!

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there was 1 scene where meowth's voice "broke" lol .. and really? "Save the boss!" .. where the hell was the emotion.. it was said soo dry ... and what a shame, no team rocket jingle song at the end
 
Well it's not like any of us really expected the dub to keep the ending theme montage in the first place.
 
It's a bit silly to pretend the trio is gone for good so no big loss really. Jessie's line at the end can easily lead into their return to chasing Pikachu.

For good reason too. That big attack was something I'd expect to see in a Pokémon Adventures finale! The plot isn't particularly strong but the awesome moments made me glad I watched this two-parter.
 
It wasn't silly at the time the episode came out in Japan.

But that doesn't matter here anywhere because the English version never did any of that "Team Rocket's Final Battle!!!!" bullshit they did in Japan.
 
Here we go, grand finale of the season, maybe the grand finale of Team Rocket?

So Operation Tempest was the plan to control the Reveal Glass and the power of natural disasters so that Team Rocket would be the controlling force in Unova and be able to declare themselves rulers. Aren't there kind of a lot of Pokémon that are related to natural disasters? Like Absol? And particularly so in this 5th Gen.

Our heroes rush in from Cynthia's house while Ash and Pikachu escape from their energy box by smashing at it. They reunite and work to stop Team Rocket together. As there hasn't really been a Team Rocket-specific major bid since these Magma/Aqua/GalacticPlasma guys have taken the stage, this is a particularly important moment in Pokémon media.

Two things though, when they met up with Ash, Ridley's interjection about how people throughout time have been trying to harness the power of the Reveal Glass, that means very little to Ash because he wasn't there for the explanation story, just sounded a little weird. Also, Dragonite is STILL disobedient? What a terrible time to go Charmeleon on us! Wasn't the last battle Iris was in enough of a teaching moment for him?

Then Iris and Dragonite had a moment after Dragonite got smacked down. So now are they in sync?

Pikachu lands the decisive blow when he goes "Pokémon of Unova, lend me your power" and Spirit Bombs the Undersea Temple with a gigantaroid Electro Ball. Maybe he was charged up by Thundurus's Electric attack? What's Pikachu's Ability? Could've sworn he had that one that recharges him when he gets hit with an Electric attack.

That freed up Meloetta, but there was still the problem of the Weather Trio, and Giovanni went all Cap'n Archie and lost his sanity, deciding rather than rule Unova, he would destroy it. This was Team Rocket's apparent special moment, the purported swan song, their bowing out piece. Where they rush in at cost to themselves to save Giovanni. They tackle him, and that works. I guess standing in that spot was what made him crazy. Or being in front of the Reveal Glass, I wasn't really clear on that.

So Giovanni's sane, Meloetta's free, now what about the Weather Trio? Easily rectified. Meloetta sings and all is well in Unova once again.

Two more things though, would Jigglypuff's song have worked?

Also, their end goal for Unova was the Weather Trio all this time, right? That's why they went to that shrine earlier in the series, right?

In the end, our heroes and our villains part ways. Giovanni again goes the way of Cap'n Archie and his friend Maxie and realize that in trying to control nature he almost died or went crazy or something, and that it's dangerous to try and do that. That meant changing their ways for Archie and Maxie, does this also mean that for Giovanni?

Our heroes go back to Cynthia's house and say goodbye to Ridley and Meloetta for good. This was the last big battle of the Gen, now Ash must go on to the Unova League. He asks Meloetta to cheer him on, but I don't think Meloetta has a TV. None of the guardian hippies do, I think. Oshawott's heart is broken that he must say goodbye to Meloetta. I believe it was said on these boards that he would know heartbreak like his fightin' buddy Piplup. Was this what they meant?

One final thing though, was Ash surprised that Team Rocket would try to conquer Unova? Isn't that what they do? Is he not familiar with how they like to use Pokémon to conquer things and make money?

So that's it then! That's the end of Rival Destinies? On to the Unova League season of this Gen? Boy, this went by fast. It was quite a different Gen this time around. Change after change was announced. Ash's eyes were different, the region was more modern, the Pokémon Professor was young and a woman instead of being old and a man, no Brock, not even once (that's new right? Gen 3 he was gone for a little while but came back, but this time he's gone for a whole Gen at least)...

And now rumors are going around that Team Rocket and its TRio are packing it in. It smacks of bitter that all these changes must come with no answers as to why these changes were made. The Gen is about to end, Gen 6 is on the way, and it's about to be too late to say "Okay, so why all this stuff? Is Team Rocket really gone?"

But if Team Rocket or the TRio IS really gone, it should carry over into Gen 6, which means we still have warrant to press questions like these. These questions are pretty important to me, anyway.
 
Wait, if Meloetta sank the Undersea Temple, and Ridley's ancestors disappeared from history, does this mean that Meloetta accidentally drowned a bunch of people?
 
Kaljinyu said:
These questions are pretty important to me, anyway.

I don't want to spoil anything for you here (and nobody else do so, either!), but some of your questions will be answered in episodes that haven't been dubbed into English yet.
 
their return to chasing Pikachu.
Something i've been tired of for years, now. Frankly, i like the more serious version of them; coming up with complex plans that build up in the background over several episodes instead of doing the same old lame "catch Pikachu" schtick every episode. Heck, i even liked in DP when they would occasionally go straight and seek part-time jobs, simply cuz it was a departure from the same old crap of chasing Ash & friends. So, yeah, i do not want them to go back to that same old tired formula.

I liked this episode, but I wish TPCi didn't replace so much of the music...
I thought they only replaced vocal songs, which would make sense anyway, since i doubt little kids in the audience would give a crap about hearing something in a language they don't understand. After all, it's not just nerdy 20-something weebo fanboys who watch the show.

Do they actually replace regular BGM, though? I never noticed, but then i've never seen/heard the Japanese version.
 
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