Review JN045: Sword & Shield IV - The Ultimate Sword and Shield

[Knightwolf09]

I gotta say this version of Rose is more villainous than in the games. He's quite ruthless in battle, he full on forgets his plan for Eternatus to be captured and is constantly cheering for it to win, plus he actually runs away from punishment instead of turning himself in like in the games. He's a lot more deranged and driven and honestly can't say I mind this slight change.

 

[ii kanji]

I am also in the wholly dissatisfied camp. I won't rehash the obvious complaints you've all very nicely stated, but I do have one other one. Remember how in Alola the whole bloody region went out and channelled Z-Power to sort their regional crisis out? Well, this two-person "hero" shtick SUCKS after that. I've always hated when Satoshi got special hero status for no goddamn reason, and I was kind hoping we were done with all that: even in XY lots of people had to contribute to avert the final disaster. It's reductive that we're back to this.

And, well, it wouldn't be my post if I didn't also talk about the Rockets. You know what this series feels like for them? It's like they've become ghosts. Like unless they do the motto, they can neither be seen nor heard nor affect the plot in any way. Nyasu became a freaking megalith cat and everyone except his teammates just... ignored him until he conveniently got shrivelled back to size by some random energy? If they wanted to show longcat Nyasu off, I wish they'd saved it for a Pika vs Nyasu episode where he could have actually had some focus for once. Anyway, I'm sick of it. Their lack of presence in the show (even when they are actually present!) makes me feel like I'm watching some kind of photonegative of BW and I hate it and just want to stop.

The one solid positive I took from this episode is that the jazzy music played during the Rose battle was ace, and I'd be happy to hear it again.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Still counts for Go. Even if he didn't keep Eternatus that still opens the door for him to catch more Legendaries

By that logic, each of the Ultra Guardians captures count as the individual catching an Ultra Beast despite the fact that the captures occurred to stop the Pokémon and it wasn’t even kept. It feels like you just like to move the goal posts quite a bit so you can claim your argument is correct without actually considering the context of what happened.

I gotta say this version of Rose is more villainous than in the games. He's quite ruthless in battle, he full on forgets his plan for Eternatus to be captured and is constantly cheering for it to win, plus he actually runs away from punishment instead of turning himself in like in the games. He's a lot more deranged and driven and honestly can't say I mind this slight change.

It’s interesting how with Lusamine, they made her more tame when she was sinister while with Rose who was more tame, they made him more sinister. Quite the contrast.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

By that logic, each of the Ultra Guardians captures count as the individual catching an Ultra Beast despite the fact that the captures occurred to stop the Pokémon and it wasn’t even kept. It feels like you just like to move the goal posts quite a bit so you can claim your argument is correct without actually considering the context of what happened.

That, and Goh needed Ash's help to capture Eternatus, since both threw the Pokeball together. Ergo, it counts as a capture for both boys.

 

[Eitarou]

By that logic, each of the Ultra Guardians captures count as the individual catching an Ultra Beast despite the fact that the captures occurred to stop the Pokémon and it wasn’t even kept. It feels like you just like to move the goal posts quite a bit so you can claim your argument is correct without actually considering the context of what happened.

There's also the fact that Eternatus is a forced capture in the games. You as the player have no choice but to capture it.

They're just following the source material.

This shouldn't be an indicator of Goh suddenly going on a Legendary catching spree.

 

[Johtohfiller]

TR blasted off quick but at least what they got was glorious.

This was paced better than I expected except for Raihan who was barely even there. I would have liked to see more of the dogs too.

More from Rose later?

 

[Craiden]

I am also in the wholly dissatisfied camp. I won't rehash the obvious complaints you've all very nicely stated, but I do have one other one. Remember how in Alola the whole bloody region went out and channelled Z-Power to sort their regional crisis out? Well, this two-person "hero" shtick SUCKS after that. I've always hated when Satoshi got special hero status for no goddamn reason, and I was kind hoping we were done with all that: even in XY lots of people had to contribute to avert the final disaster. It's reductive that we're back to this.

And, well, it wouldn't be my post if I didn't also talk about the Rockets. You know what this series feels like for them? It's like they've become ghosts. Like unless they do the motto, they can neither be seen nor heard nor affect the plot in any way. Nyasu became a freaking megalith cat and everyone except his teammates just... ignored him until he conveniently got shrivelled back to size by some random energy? If they wanted to show longcat Nyasu off, I wish they'd saved it for a Pika vs Nyasu episode where he could have actually had some focus for once. Anyway, I'm sick of it. Their lack of presence in the show (even when they are actually present!) makes me feel like I'm watching some kind of photonegative of BW and I hate it and just want to stop.

The one solid positive I took from this episode is that the jazzy music played during the Rose battle was ace, and I'd be happy to hear it again.

Tbf, Ash in particular quickly discounts that notion, restoring credit properly to the dogs.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

This is it, the grand finale of the Darkest Day-arc!

Although I wasn't sparing with criticism for less successful episodes in the past, I must say that I'm actually very happy with the conclusion of this arc! I remember when last week many of us were concerned this episode might be very rushed. Sure, we knew there wouldn't be much time for all the subplots but, to my surprise, it was all handled very well.
The human vs. human battles were dealt with very fast. But still, it made sense to me. Raihan's battle wasn't that significant, so we only got to see a few battle scenes. What's much more important is the fact that Go's and especially Ash's battle (the most important one) got sufficient screentime.
Speaking of Ash's battles: It was done really, really well and I loved how both opponents showed some considerable amount of strategic thinking. Of course, my absolute highlight was Riolu evolving into Lucario! Finally, Ash has got one of my all-time favorite Pokemon. Yes!!! It certainly was about time Ash gets a Lucario! How long have I been waiting for that!

As the first part of the episode was over pretty quickly, there was still enough time for the main plot with Eternatus. I understand that some users wanted this to be a two-parter and it sure would have been nice and even more exciting, but considering the time reserved for the battle, it was still handled very well. First, we saw Ash 's and Go's desperate and brave efforts to fight back Eternatus, then we had the pretty impressive entrance of the legendary wolves, crowned by an pretty epic final battle where Zacian and Zamazenta proved to be superior! Very well done!
Yes, we could argue whether or not it makes sense to catch a legendary Pokemon in an ordinary, super-sized Pokeball, but I'd call it artistic license. What worries me more is the fact they decided to seal away such a dangerous Pokemon in a relatively small safe. If you ask me, I would have taken greater safety measures.

Also, it was good to see Sonia finally reached her goal of becoming a Pokemon Professor. She deserved it.

As a side note: I think Ash and Go returning the ancient sword and shield to the Slumbering Forest and not keeping them showed they've both got strength of character. I wonder if Zacian and Zamazenta will return later as some kind of "guardian angels" for Ash and Go?

Hold up! Did Raihan ask Sonia on a Date? XD

He did. And I'd love to see if Raihan will finally get the change to invite her because it was more than obvious he's got a crush on Sonia.

The real MVP of the episode was the tower where the final fight took place, though. That thing took a ridiculous amount of punishment without crumbling, including supporting Eternamax Eternatus's entire weight.

I was thinking the very same. Good old buildings made of stone, they were built to last for ages.

All in all, a more than worthy conclusion of the arc. The rushed scenes weren't as bad as previously feared. On the contrary! Everything fitted in very well.
And, yes I can't stress it enough, Ash finally got an awesome Lucario !!

 

[Rocket Messiah]

I am also in the wholly dissatisfied camp. I won't rehash the obvious complaints you've all very nicely stated, but I do have one other one. Remember how in Alola the whole bloody region went out and channelled Z-Power to sort their regional crisis out? Well, this two-person "hero" shtick SUCKS after that. I've always hated when Satoshi got special hero status for no goddamn reason, and I was kind hoping we were done with all that: even in XY lots of people had to contribute to avert the final disaster. It's reductive that we're back to this.

And, well, it wouldn't be my post if I didn't also talk about the Rockets. You know what this series feels like for them? It's like they've become ghosts. Like unless they do the motto, they can neither be seen nor heard nor affect the plot in any way. Nyasu became a freaking megalith cat and everyone except his teammates just... ignored him until he conveniently got shrivelled back to size by some random energy? If they wanted to show longcat Nyasu off, I wish they'd saved it for a Pika vs Nyasu episode where he could have actually had some focus for once. Anyway, I'm sick of it. Their lack of presence in the show (even when they are actually present!) makes me feel like I'm watching some kind of photonegative of BW and I hate it and just want to stop.

The one solid positive I took from this episode is that the jazzy music played during the Rose battle was ace, and I'd be happy to hear it again.

You hit the nail there. Now after the Mewtwo episode we are going to have two episodes with Team Rocket involved. This should made me happy untill I remember that the gatcha exist....

This are dark times for Team Rocket fans. The good thing is that a year have passed already.

By that logic, each of the Ultra Guardians captures count as the individual catching an Ultra Beast despite the fact that the captures occurred to stop the Pokémon and it wasn’t even kept.

I forgot that and you're right. Catching does not equal having. Since you can catch a Pokémon and give it to someone else for example. Go catched it but It's not of his propierty.

It’s interesting how with Lusamine, they made her more tame when she was sinister while with Rose who was more tame, they made him more sinister. Quite the contrast.

Wasted oportunity not having Abusive mother Lusamine in the anime. Mad Chairman Rose is a step up for the games for me.

 

[Black&White]

By that logic, each of the Ultra Guardians captures count as the individual catching an Ultra Beast despite the fact that the captures occurred to stop the Pokémon and it wasn’t even kept. It feels like you just like to move the goal posts quite a bit so you can claim your argument is correct without actually considering the context of what happened.

It’s interesting how with Lusamine, they made her more tame when she was sinister while with Rose who was more tame, they made him more sinister. Quite the contrast.

Sorry I still think Go can catch Legendaries. My stance on that won't change

 

[El Squibbonator]

That's actually a big issue I had. Why should Goh be the one to catch it? Do the writers really disrespect Ash that much? I mean, he already has a Mythical Pokemon-- a Melmetal-- so having him catch Eternatus shouldn't be too big a leap of faith. The more stuff Goh does that was once unique to Ash, the more I feel like Ash is getting the short end of the stick in this series.

 

[pengugeneral]

That's actually a big issue I had. Why should Goh be the one to catch it? Do the writers really disrespect Ash that much? I mean, he already has a Mythical Pokemon-- a Melmetal-- so having him catch Eternatus shouldn't be too big a leap of faith. The more stuff Goh does that was once unique to Ash, the more I feel like Ash is getting the short end of the stick in this series.

I'm pretty sure that catch meant "Black Night is done", not "Goh caught a Legendary".

 

[L-05308]

I think the Galarian Yamask 1) proves that the Stow-on-Side Stadium is a Ghost-type Gym in the anime (i.e. not Bea's Gym), and 2) probably belonged to Allister.

I even expect this Yamask to later be revealed to be Alister’s when he appears - it’s so random otherwise.

 

[Sobble Bubble-O-Seven]

That's actually a big issue I had. Why should Goh be the one to catch it? Do the writers really disrespect Ash that much? I mean, he already has a Mythical Pokemon-- a Melmetal-- so having him catch Eternatus shouldn't be too big a leap of faith. The more stuff Goh does that was once unique to Ash, the more I feel like Ash is getting the short end of the stick in this series.

Let's be real here. Goh is the writer's pet and he's gonna continue to get this special treatment.

 

[Beary]

Let's be real here. Goh is the writer's pet and he's gonna continue to get this special treatment.

For real. Even his pokemon have mad plot armor. It makes no sense how his raboot can just withstand any attack even if they’re super effective and justs get up and somehow is at full energy. Did goh ever even lose a battle yet?

 

[Beatsy Ray]

A decent episode, although it definitely doesn't hold up to the last three. Ash's battle against Rose was good with some pretty sweet (and quite rare these days) double battle strategy, shame it was so short. Rose telling his Pokemon to "crush" Riolu was a wonderfully dark moment. Riolu's garnered some bad will recently due to overexposure and limelight hogging, but it's surreal and a bit exciting to see Ash finally own a Lucario. Gou's battle was a complete disaster, not much more to say that hasn't already been said.

You have to give Meowth some credit for being the only rampaging Dynamax Pokemon who had the willpower to regain their consciousness (all for the love of Sakaki-sama). I was really hoping he would participate somewhat in the battle against Eternatus, so it's a bummer he and the others were blasted off instantly. It was kind of subtle, but I guess Meowth somehow absorbed the Dynamax energy that Leon was about to use, which is a little confusing since he was already Gigantamaxed by time he got to the roof. I guess it's the "only one Dynamax Pokemon per battle" rule in play.

Looking at the arc as a whole, I'm pretty happy with it. They got a lot of mileage out of the Ash/Leon and Gou/Sonia pairings, and the build-up to the climax was pretty solid. They did a better job than most of us expected them to, so kudos I suppose. Now we have the next episode to look forward too, before the impending ocean of filler.

I think the Galarian Yamask 1) proves that the Stow-on-Side Stadium is a Ghost-type Gym in the anime (i.e. not Bea's Gym), and 2) probably belonged to Allister.

Doubt it, they've already established her as a Gym leader, they aren't going to take her Gym away. It's a safe bet that the final Ash/Bea rematch will take place there. As for the Yamask, there's an abundance of them on route 6 (outside Stow-on-Side).

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

@PkmnTrainerV, you called it lmao.

Faith in humanity officially lost in perfect 2020 fashion.

Goh is ofc given plot armour as usual and I think Ash’s evolution was handled pretty well

You can find a thousand posts of mine on how Gou's given stuff on a platter, but this time I think Ash is the more guilty party... Tbh both Ash and Gou get plot armor this episode, but it was more jarring with Ash. Specially since as far as resource utilization goes. Gou had fewer resources to work with and uses them better.

Ash: Has two more fully healthy Pokémon and a wounded Dragonite, still puts himself in a situation vulnerable enough that his youngest Pokémon has to become a living shield to protect him. If Riolu hadn’t evovled Ash would've been toast. He has Pokémon but DELIBERATELY puts himself in such a situation which puts everyone at risk. When a crisis which might destroy everything is involved.

Even though his strategy of using Pikachu and Riolu's smaller size was brilliant, Gengar should've been called the moment Pikachu got wounded.

Gou: Even though he catches a lot of Pokémon, and probably should've brought Flygon too, I’m not too peeved at him since he didn’t expect to battle. Poor guy wanted to research in Galar and got thrown into a world crisis. He’s at a type disadvantage and then his analytical side kicks in and he thinks of using the lanterns. Which is imo a brilliant strategy. If Oleana used some other Pokémon it’d have worked better though.

Gou has less at his disposal and uses it more effectively, while Ash uselessly puts everything at risk when he has a lot more firepower. Riolu's Evolution was pure, unadulterated plot armor whereas Gou's for a change was plot armor with a sprinkle of well deserved action.

Sorry I still think Go can catch Legendaries. My stance on that won't change

You’re free to keep the stance but the justification that he can catch legendaries because he caught Eternatus is factually illogical.

 

[Kurolegacy]

For real. Even his pokemon have mad plot armor. It makes no sense how his raboot can just withstand any attack even if they’re super effective and justs get up and somehow is at full energy. Did goh ever even lose a battle yet?

Not in this arc he didn’t. Which is especially strange considering that he’s never won an onscreen battle that wasn’t against TR, yet suddenly can take in the likes of Oleana and her subordinates. It’s not really a believable skill curve.

 

[Craiden]

Gou's Cinderace has good showings (and a good offscreen showing) vs the Dojo Master, Flygon, and Zapdos (somewhat). So, especially the grunt, I thought the showing was fair, and the tactics against Olive were fine (when they decided to quit sending Ember directly at it). That being said, unlike Ash, who was winning his battle against the Chairman (though you are also right to point out that he should've sent Gengar in after Pikachu went down) Raboot spent most of his battle getting soaked (though I do like it being able to take those, as he doesn't have a vital place for the water to strike), so I don't know how his evolution was "more earned" than Riolu's (which I thought was the 2nd best part of the episode, though Raboot evolving was good too).

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Okay one major problem I had with Raboot tanking those attacks from Milotic is that Raboot has been One-Hit KO'd by Super Effective attacks before (Aerodactyl) yet NOW he's somehow able to withstand them?

Talk about inconsistent writing.


And wth was up with Riolu's Evolution?
Riolu's Evolution requires it to level up with Max Friendship during the DAYTIME.
So why did Riolu evolve at Night?
The writers just straight up tossed logic out the window for the sake of hype. It's literally Goodra and Rain Dance all over again smh