Ampharos King
MEGA F'ING AMPHAROS!!!
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2009
- Messages
- 5,607
- Reaction score
- 8
BW105 (Axew Gets Lost/Lost at the League!) is currently the worst Best Wishes episode, in my opinion. Not only did this episode take place during a league competition (which was already devoid of character development and screentime), but the plot itself was easily resolvable and could have been avoided altogether if Iris kept a close eye on her Axew. As a result of this episode's creation, Ash and all of the recurring characters still in the competition had less time to interact with one another, and there was far less time for what Pokemon League competitions SHOULD be about: battles.
Man, the battle in this episode wasn't even one: Scraggy one-shotting a Darumaka with Headbutt. A DARUMAKA! An unevolved pokemon that Ash had already fought once before in a tournament. One of the best parts about Pokemon League competitions, in my opinion. is that most of Ash's opponents had powerful and fully evolved pokemon while most of the pokemon he uses aren't. Fighting with this disadvantage tests Ash's skills as a trainer and makes his victories over his opponents much more rewarding. I felt the writers treated this on-screen battle like a chore, an obligation for Ash to use all of his Unova reserves once in this tournament. Since the writers planned one 1-on-1, one 3-on-3, and one 6-on-6 for Ash in this tournament, with Pikachu being used twice for his own sake, one of Ash's pokemon had to be left out. Scraggy triumphing in a twenty-second match-up against a Darumaka in the second round of a pokemon league competition that was hyped up for over 2 years was perhaps one of the worst moves the writers ever made.
And now about the actual plot of the episode. Oh goody, this episode introduced a relatively minor league opponent who was eliminated by Virgil. Wow, Virgil and Bianca were actually cooperating with the main characters. It didn't help that Bianca never sent out her pokemon to help, and Virgil didn't do anything until the very end (despite being the leader of a rescue team). And speaking of Virgil, his answer to resolving Garbodor's justified rage against Oshawott for stealing its food was a Soothe Bell, an item that Ash had in Diamond and Pearl. With its focus on comic relief moments, Ash's unevolved pokemon working together to solve an immediate problem at hand, and a conflict against angry pokemon, this sure felt like a taste of Da!. That'd be fine and all, if this actually took place in the Decolora arc and not during a league tournament! Keep the "filler" episodes out of canonical storylines.
Alas, BW105 could have been spent giving Bianca or Trip a better battle and sendoff, or more appropriately, since the first few and last minutes of the episode focused on Ash's upcoming battle against Stephan, focus on their "rivalry." But no, it seems that character focus and Best Wishes don't mesh together so well, even up to the very end.
Man, the battle in this episode wasn't even one: Scraggy one-shotting a Darumaka with Headbutt. A DARUMAKA! An unevolved pokemon that Ash had already fought once before in a tournament. One of the best parts about Pokemon League competitions, in my opinion. is that most of Ash's opponents had powerful and fully evolved pokemon while most of the pokemon he uses aren't. Fighting with this disadvantage tests Ash's skills as a trainer and makes his victories over his opponents much more rewarding. I felt the writers treated this on-screen battle like a chore, an obligation for Ash to use all of his Unova reserves once in this tournament. Since the writers planned one 1-on-1, one 3-on-3, and one 6-on-6 for Ash in this tournament, with Pikachu being used twice for his own sake, one of Ash's pokemon had to be left out. Scraggy triumphing in a twenty-second match-up against a Darumaka in the second round of a pokemon league competition that was hyped up for over 2 years was perhaps one of the worst moves the writers ever made.
And now about the actual plot of the episode. Oh goody, this episode introduced a relatively minor league opponent who was eliminated by Virgil. Wow, Virgil and Bianca were actually cooperating with the main characters. It didn't help that Bianca never sent out her pokemon to help, and Virgil didn't do anything until the very end (despite being the leader of a rescue team). And speaking of Virgil, his answer to resolving Garbodor's justified rage against Oshawott for stealing its food was a Soothe Bell, an item that Ash had in Diamond and Pearl. With its focus on comic relief moments, Ash's unevolved pokemon working together to solve an immediate problem at hand, and a conflict against angry pokemon, this sure felt like a taste of Da!. That'd be fine and all, if this actually took place in the Decolora arc and not during a league tournament! Keep the "filler" episodes out of canonical storylines.
Alas, BW105 could have been spent giving Bianca or Trip a better battle and sendoff, or more appropriately, since the first few and last minutes of the episode focused on Ash's upcoming battle against Stephan, focus on their "rivalry." But no, it seems that character focus and Best Wishes don't mesh together so well, even up to the very end.