Review S18 EP37: A Legendary Photo Op!

[PokémonGamer]

XY086 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Discuss the dub here. Future events go in spoiler tags.

 

[Sakuraa]

Great episode this was.

I was surprised to see that Pikachu and Dedenne recognized Trevor's Charmeleon. Omg what is it with this dude firing flames at everybody. Looks like he hasn't changed much since the Summer Camp. But seriously, he’s only doing that just because he wants to have a battle? That’s a bit much. Nice battle between him and Fletchinder even though it was short and Charmeleon went down pretty quickly. I'm just glad, Fletchinder won. But what the hell was Clemont talking about? Well trained? What well trained Pokemon spits fire at people just because it wants to have a battle?

Wow so Tierno told Trevor about Serena’s new appearance. That’s pretty cool. I love that they both had really similar reactions. Lol at Trevor’s super-fast explanations of his “extremely rare” Pokemon pics. That was hilarious. And lol at Clemont's expression while they were walking. Oh boy, another invention…please don't blow u). I love how that Crustle just keep casually walking away even with some kid screaming behind him. Trevor's photo spamming and analyzations on how rare the Pokemon were was hilarious.

Well, the bad news is that the invention blew up. The good news is that it wasn't caused by Clemont, it wasn't completely destroyed, AND it blew up in TR's annoying faces. Omg, Clemont's face at seeing his damaged creation. Holy crap, I didn't expect the thing to fall in the lava! Geez, why was Ash just playing the dodge game with TR? I was sitting there just waiting for Fletchinder to attack, but he never did. Whatever, seeing Moltres blast them into space was a nice make up for it. I like how Bonnie went to Serena for protection right before Moltres appeared.

Damn, that Water Pulse just evaporated before it could even touch Moltres. That bird is HOT! I like how Pikachu and Trevor were pulling Ash back from trying to go to Fletchinder, because seriously, how did he plan on getting over there. And damn, Fletchinder's evolution was amazing. He flew at the speed up a bullet to match the speed of Moltres's Flamethrower just to try to save Ash and crew. That was amazing and probably the best evolution ever. Talonflame was so badass taking on Moltres. But let's not leave out Ash diving into the volcano to catch him after Moltres's Fire Bast and MVP Frogadier saving them both with frubbles. Lol at Pikachu scolding Ash afterwards.

This episode was awesome. 9/10.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

This was a dream come true.

I remember back when the Japanese version of this episode aired, and I saw some people denounce KiraKira as being an unfitting music choice for Fletchinder's evolution into Talonflame. It made me happy to see acknowledgement that the Japanese version can (and in this case did) mess up badly. So I've been looking forward to the dub of this episode to see how that would be handled, seeing as how the original music choice made me think "and dub music is what gets martyred??".

Once again, the Japanese version has been shown up.

The instrumental version of "Be a Hero" turned out to be a perfect fit over that evolution scene, and the tense BGM fit Ash's Leeroy Jenkins volcano dive. So, no doubt about it; the dub wins again in my book. And I'm adding this to my ever-growing list of examples why I think music replacement is only only justifiable, but sometimes even necessary.

Now that I got that out of the way, this was a great episode. Trevor still spoke at the speed of Speed Racer about his album, which was nice to see kept. Though I have to admit Talonflame sure ought to take it easy on the shouting.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

This was an epic episode without a doubt! Not only did we get to see a legendary bird (and I think Moltres is the second best after Zapdos), we also got Fletchinder's evolution, a Pokemon that is usually limited to search and rescue missions from the air. Now, it finally got the focus it derseves!

But first things first. Is it only me or is there anynody else here thinking that Charmeleon's rude behavior was meant to be an allusion to Ash's Charizard and how he changed after evolving? I was so hoping that Ash would remember his old friend and one of his best Pokemon. Of all people, Ash would have been of great help to Trevor because he could have said something like "Charmeleon / Charizard have a fiery temperament and their change in personality requires the trainer to get stronger, too" or something like that. But instead they solved it with a Pokemon battle. Not a bad solution but as I said before, I personally would have loved to get a reference to Charizard.

Then we got Moltres' appearance which was done in a both mysterious and awe-inspiring way. Great job this time, writers! I loved Moltres' deep, growling voice and that you could clearly see why it's called a legendary Pokemon. But almost equally epic was Fletchinder's efforts to save its friends. And if that hadn't been enough, it got a totally impressive evolution right in the middle of Moltres' flame. I agree with @Sakuraa that this was probably one of the best evolutions in the show so far. Really touching and impressive alike!

Unfortunately, there was one thing that annoyed me, though. Ash not knowing what Brave Bird is, was totally unnecessary. I really feel sorry for Staraptor who must be sitting in Oak's laboratory right now feeling sad about Ash obviously not remembering him and his attacks anymore. But oh well, that's our boy...somethings a bit forgetful.

Apart from that, it was a great episode and it's definitely been the best one for months!

 

[technickal]

Anyone not digging Charmeleon's new VA? I know it was a mandatory change because of what happened with Tom Wayland, but the replacement sounds completely different than the Charmeleon I was used to.

I did love Moltres's voice, though. It's as epic and intimidating as I imagined it, instead of M02's generic bird squawks. They kept the Japanese voice, no?

 

[Ryu Taylor]

Anyone not digging Charmeleon's new VA?

I like it, but I'd like it more if it had more of a growl to it. It kinda did, but as a result of not trying hard enough, it just sounds like a rolling "r" right out of the Spanish language.

 

[DS0308]

I did love Moltres's voice, though. It's as epic and intimidating as I imagined it, instead of M02's generic bird squawks. They kept the Japanese voice, no?

No, they didn't, which I'm a little bit baffled by. There really wasn't a reason to change it, both of the versions didn't say it's name in the cry anyway. It's the same issue I had with the dub using a different VA for Florges when the Japanese name for it is the same and the original cry still said "Florges" often (not to mention Garchomp in XY068 using the Japanese VA even though I could swear it had its own dub voice). I prefer Moltres' cry from the Japanese version, the piercing scream with the booming echo behind it sounded soooo menacing.

On Charmeleon, I agree that it sounded a little Spanish-y. It's not bad though, just weird after hearing Tom Wayland for however long.

Change in music for the evolution worked, not sure if the piece that played before Be A Hero was really fitting, just seemed a little off to me. But the battle had better fitting BGM. Although I thought the original version using KiraKira wasn't bad in a sense that it kind of reflected the emotions/actions of Ash and Talonflame during that scene, they were willing to put their bodies on the line for each other because of their bond. Not that it actually fit the action that was going on in the scene too well.

All that aside the episode was quite nice. TR were a bit stupid though, they're like "hey let's use their machine to find Moltres for ourselves" yet they had no idea how to use it. Genius plan, guys. Not to mention the whole idea that they thought they could catch Moltres was laughable. Also Trevor's a bit mental, lol.

 

[The Infidel]

ash suffering from amnesia again, didnt recognise moltres despite seeing numerous, didnt remember brave bird. didnt mention how his charmeleon/charizard misbehaved to trevor

 

[Shadowlarvitar]

This episode made Trevor my favorite of the XY rivals. Back in the Summer Camp arc he was...... meh(I actually forget how he acted back then, he was that forgetable especially how he only just came back now). And they made him extremely likeable. I loved how he got distracted with his desire for pictures even when fighting Team Rocket. I wonder if he'll actually make it to the league.

And part of me wonders if this Moltres is the same one from the Ritchie episode of Chronicles.

 

[technickal]

I did love Moltres's voice, though. It's as epic and intimidating as I imagined it, instead of M02's generic bird squawks. They kept the Japanese voice, no?

No, they didn't, which I'm a little bit baffled by. There really wasn't a reason to change it, both of the versions didn't say it's name in the cry anyway. It's the same issue I had with the dub using a different VA for Florges when the Japanese name for it is the same and the original cry still said "Florges" often (not to mention Garchomp in XY068 using the Japanese VA even though I could swear it had its own dub voice). I prefer Moltres' cry from the Japanese version, the piercing scream with the booming echo behind it sounded soooo menacing.

On Charmeleon, I agree that it sounded a little Spanish-y. It's not bad though, just weird after hearing Tom Wayland for however long.

Ditto on Charmeleon (no pun intended). I bet it's H.D. Quinn due to him giving a similar accent to Hawlucha.

I don't know, I was quite fond of Moltres's and Florges's dub voices. The quality of them was so good I thought they kept the Japanese voice until proven otherwise.

And I swear I could hear a deep "Moltres" coming out of the dub voice. Don't know about Moltres, but the likely reason why Florges was changed was because it was pronounced the Japanese way ("Florgesu"!).

This episode made Trevor my favorite of the XY rivals. Back in the Summer Camp arc he was...... meh(I actually forget how he acted back then, he was that forgetable especially how he only just came back now). And they made him extremely likeable. I loved how he got distracted with his desire for pictures even when fighting Team Rocket. I wonder if he'll actually make it to the league.

Shauna's still my favorite, but Trevor's a close second. Sorry, Tierno.