Shinneth
Gonna be a tl;dr Master!
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2007
- Messages
- 1,241
- Reaction score
- 18
re: BW 085 "Sing, Meloetta! The Melody of Love!!" Review Thread
The problem I still have with this scenario, even if it's confirmed that Cynthia was going easy on Iris (which does make this battle a bit easier to stomach), is that Iris is an arrogant kid who needs to be knocked down a peg in her own right. She doesn't come off that way to Cynthia, of course, which explains why Cynthia pretty much gave her a hand-out, but Iris is pretty haughty and convinced that her methods are the best way to go without taking on anyone's help, even though her pace is that of a near-dead slug's. Even with the uberlame excuse that everyone does their Pokemon training off-screen in BW, it's shown through Axew's mannerisms during the rare times it does battle that it has made very little progress since the series began almost 2 years ago.
It's heavily implied that Iris is aware that she's been pretty damn negligent in her duties as an aspiring Dragon Master because of Axew's lack of progress (because learning three moves, two of which it had no business learning in the first place, hardly counts as progress given how they were actually learned, i.e. deus ex machina plot magic), and I don't think it's coincidental that she's suddenly much more chipper in these recent episodes now that she doesn't have to face Drayden in Opelucid City. As of right now, Iris dodged having to own up to her flaws and evaded her imminent serving of humble pie; she completely got of scot-free. This is very likely to change once the tournament rolls around, but right now Iris has been terribly overdue for being knocked down a peg herself. Not once has this series addressed these flaws (except the lampshading through Georgia, which I suspect the writers don't expect us to take her seriously), and in every Iris-centered episode, the skills she already possesses are glorified rather than having her learn something new or realize that she needs an adjustment to how she's raising her Pokemon.
This episode would have been a great opportunity for Iris to actually, like, learn something new for once. A one-second squash followed up with a genuine training routine that would have enabled Axew to learn its new move would have been a much better course to take, even though it really shouldn't have learned Giga Impact, as others here point out. It just doesn't make much sense to put a crazy-powerful move with major recoil on a little babby who logically wouldn't be able to make good use of it because it has babby stamina. I really do wonder why the writers flat-out refuse to let Axew learn Dual Chop and opt to give it old moves that we've seen before, rather than an actual Gen V move that is (mostly) unique to its evolutionary line.
tl;dr: Iris needs a real Break the Haughty scenario; I believe she needs it much more than Paul ever did. Even if her attitude in this episode didn't warrant that, it doesn't change how Iris has generally behaved for the majority of the series. I can only assume that, if they ever do give Iris this much-needed development, they're intentionally holding off for Drayden to do. But still, Iris lacks any real dramatic backstory with Drayden, so I don't see how this can only be done through him properly. It's times like this where the writing of the BW series becomes grating.
The problem I still have with this scenario, even if it's confirmed that Cynthia was going easy on Iris (which does make this battle a bit easier to stomach), is that Iris is an arrogant kid who needs to be knocked down a peg in her own right. She doesn't come off that way to Cynthia, of course, which explains why Cynthia pretty much gave her a hand-out, but Iris is pretty haughty and convinced that her methods are the best way to go without taking on anyone's help, even though her pace is that of a near-dead slug's. Even with the uberlame excuse that everyone does their Pokemon training off-screen in BW, it's shown through Axew's mannerisms during the rare times it does battle that it has made very little progress since the series began almost 2 years ago.
It's heavily implied that Iris is aware that she's been pretty damn negligent in her duties as an aspiring Dragon Master because of Axew's lack of progress (because learning three moves, two of which it had no business learning in the first place, hardly counts as progress given how they were actually learned, i.e. deus ex machina plot magic), and I don't think it's coincidental that she's suddenly much more chipper in these recent episodes now that she doesn't have to face Drayden in Opelucid City. As of right now, Iris dodged having to own up to her flaws and evaded her imminent serving of humble pie; she completely got of scot-free. This is very likely to change once the tournament rolls around, but right now Iris has been terribly overdue for being knocked down a peg herself. Not once has this series addressed these flaws (except the lampshading through Georgia, which I suspect the writers don't expect us to take her seriously), and in every Iris-centered episode, the skills she already possesses are glorified rather than having her learn something new or realize that she needs an adjustment to how she's raising her Pokemon.
This episode would have been a great opportunity for Iris to actually, like, learn something new for once. A one-second squash followed up with a genuine training routine that would have enabled Axew to learn its new move would have been a much better course to take, even though it really shouldn't have learned Giga Impact, as others here point out. It just doesn't make much sense to put a crazy-powerful move with major recoil on a little babby who logically wouldn't be able to make good use of it because it has babby stamina. I really do wonder why the writers flat-out refuse to let Axew learn Dual Chop and opt to give it old moves that we've seen before, rather than an actual Gen V move that is (mostly) unique to its evolutionary line.
tl;dr: Iris needs a real Break the Haughty scenario; I believe she needs it much more than Paul ever did. Even if her attitude in this episode didn't warrant that, it doesn't change how Iris has generally behaved for the majority of the series. I can only assume that, if they ever do give Iris this much-needed development, they're intentionally holding off for Drayden to do. But still, Iris lacks any real dramatic backstory with Drayden, so I don't see how this can only be done through him properly. It's times like this where the writing of the BW series becomes grating.