day 1752 ash vs paul round 2, ash wins and infernape settles the score {dp186-188}
ZOMG and all the other letters of the alphabet! This battle takes up 3 whole episodes, and it's so epic! No really Ash vs Gary may be the most important fight, but this is the best animated? Choreographed? Whatever you want to call it, it's an amazing match. Sadly, an hour long slug fest doesn't leave me with much to talk about, but as is evident I'm sure I can come up with something.
Like for example, Ash decides to reuse his complete Sinnoh team for this one match rather than a more finely tuned one for symbolism reasons. Infernape vs Electivire also has that last swing of the blade/ last bullet in the gun quality to it. In a prime example of his eponymous battle style, when Ash is stalled out by arena hazards... he just decides to make the arena explode, there now no more spikes.
To close out on Paul, for no reason what so ever, he's now a better person. Sure it would have made sense if he hadn't shown up after snowpoint until now, but we see him before the league and the events therein haven't changed his putrid personality at all. Worse yet, he went on being a cantankerous clod while at the league right up until Ash beats him... and then he suddenly gets over himself. With no time for introspection or anything. I'll say this for Paul as a final word I may have hated him and his undeserved treatment by the plot, and feel that we never got a resolution on his character at all, but compared to the absolute torturous rage Unova's early episodes put me in I find myself missing that cunt. (2013) Let me put it this way, with Paul my rage was focused, with Unova, it's pretty much every little thing.
day 1753 ash vs tobias, ash loses {top 4} {dp189}
So, Troll-bias, he has a darkrai on his team. In fact, his Darkrai is the only Pokémon he is known to have because he hasn't just swept just the entire League with the thing but the entire gym circuit as well. The only other time a trainer had been seen previously with any legendary the trainers in question were Frontier Brains and it was an understood fact that the Pokémon were just doing them a favor and weren't actually with them. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that as Ash is registering to compete the audience can see a guy with a heatran and since that's the last we see of him he must not of made it past the prelims. What.
It gets better though, as when Ash finally does beat his darkrai, he just so happens to have a latios waiting in the wings. Hey look there's our confirmation on movie 5! Where did Troll-bias come by these legendairies and how did he acquire their assistance? Well since he leaves the plot as quickly as he comes of course this is never explained.
Concerning Ash's ultimate team of Heracross, Sceptile, Swellow, Torkoal, Gible and Pikachu, the only thing I would have switched out would be Torkoal for Infernape, or maybe give Charizard a call again, and I know I've harped on this but couldn't Pidgeot been his out of nowhere bird choice? What the fuck happened to her?!
So Darkrai is a pure dark type, weaknesses are bug and fighting, both of which make up Heracross's typing. Darkrai is notable for putting things to sleep, so Ash has Heracross learn Sleep Talk... and he still doesn't even get a hit in. No wonder Ash invented the “Fuck You” style, if he doesn't screw the rules and plays normally he gets smacked down. The rest of his team gets put through the meat grinder until Sceptile, being a ninja, takes down the shade.
In the end facing off against a latios at full strength, with the rest of his team down for the count and only Pikachu left, Ash only has one thing left to do. Say the battle hasn't even begun, tell Pikachu to give it his all, and he turns his hat around. The last time Ash spun his cap backwards was in the 9th movie, and before that in the show even, in Johto. So now Ash is super serious you guys and Pikachu is all like fuck your laser Imma run straight through that shit and they both go down in a double knockout. $5 says the rest of Troll-bias's team was a bunch of sunkern.
For the cherry on this idiotic sundae, it is revealed that Tobias won the whole thing and his final opponent couldn't even take down his darkrai, just like everyone else. So not only was Ash the only one to even scratch Tobais's perfect sweeping record, taking down not one but two of his Pokémon both legendairies; proving that the writers have just run out of even plausible ideas and are just godmodding Ash into submission, this feat wasn't even recognized and he wasn't retroactively booted up to second place for exemplarary skill. That way there could have been symmetry between Ash and Dawn's placements, close but no cigar. Instead we get a scenario where the only reason Ash didn't place at #2 or even win the damn League is because the writers of the anime Pokémon, in which he is the main character, hate him and will never let him succeed at anything because they also fear the thought of letting him go.
That's the worst part though, the writers had even written themselves a nice way out of this catch-22 and still didn't take it. See in Diamond and Pearl, they finally got around to explaining how the elite4 challenge works in the anime verse, only qualifers must win a league tournament before they are able to challenge any member and following their defeats the champion as per usual. Considering they foreshadowed the hell out of it with showcasing the entire Sinnoh elite 4+Cynthia I have to ask, why bring in Troll-bias to make those confrontations impossible?
Ash has already proven he can handle Brandon and the like, why not move him up against equally top tier opponents for the next 5 years instead of forcing him to struggle and lose against people who in no way have his level of experience when the next series starts? Ash has shown by now that he can drop the idiot ball and have all this know how and ingenuity, so why don't the writers throw him and the audience a bone and at least give him some progression recognition before we move to the next decade?
It's not like they couldn't milk that scenario for an ever expanding # of episodes, the end-goal wouldn't even change, as Ash would still consider himself far from being the best yet. Hell, you could have even had him win and then just have him move on to Unova anyway, if all that mystical bullshit happening around him doesn't pause his Wandering the Earth schtick why should winning one region's league when there are still all those other places, Pokémon, and competitions, he has yet to find or try out?
Enough of my useless griping though, let's put this puppy to bed. In the fall out to Ash's latest defeat, Ash+Dawn renew their vows to pursue greatness, but Brock starts to doubt and worry about his goals in life.
day 1756 brock's happiny evolves into chansey {dp190}
day 1757 they all say ther goodbyes and go their seperate ways {dp191}
So yeah, after 5 years, or 13 years, or 650 episodes depending on how you look at it, Brock finally figures out that he enjoys taking care of the health of Pokémon and making sure they stay strong rather than raising them to be that way so whilst in dp190, happiny finally evolves and Brock decides to become a doctor instead of a breeder, a logical choice considering Brock's character both past+present even if it admittedly does come somewhat out of left field.
Dp191, much like Ag192 and ep273+4, is a nice send off to the whole procession before it. The farewells are heartfelt, and Ash acquires a new sense of purpose after watching Flint unsuccessfully try to defeat Cynthia, returning to Pallet this time without Brock.
On a more interesting note, it is revealed that TR has played up and embellished their roles in the destruction of Team Galactic and Hunter J's organizations on top of them doing the same with the magma+aqua debacle to Giovanni. Therefore his secretary, Matori, has a new assignment for them. Brock is finally gone, Dawn has failed to hold on to the presumed Pokémon Master, and Team Rocket has brand new orders straight from the top. When Ash Ketchum walks out of his house again, the world is going to look a whole lot different. If it isn't obvious, I'm stalling... nothing for it, on to Best Wishes!
Character Bios:
Ash Ketchum (15): Thanks to the impetus brought about by Paul and the passage of time Ash is markedly different from when he set out, even ignoring my theory about varying battle skills. He, to stress the point, becomes confronted with someone who is not his better, a la Gary, but his opposite. Same goals just different methods. I half expected them start yelling at each other about justice, war, peace, or at least abuse rights... but then I realized this wasn't a Gundam anime.
DP Ash is still a moron when it comes to the arena of the feminine or basic cartography but discounting that (especially the former as just a basic shonen relationship trope) he's gotten a pretty solid head on his shoulders. Knows the ins and outs of battling a variety of foes and has saved the world enough times to claim double digits.
Yes, Ash is in a great place. His fiery temperament is now tempered by an adherence to tactics, his philosophy was tested and proved strong and true, and he has 2 mentor-ships under his belt one of whom mirrored his younger OG self. Shame about the lobotomy the writers are about to give him.
Dawn (13-14): So, how is Miss Dawn similar to Kanto era Ash? Well she wakes up late on her first day, has a single parent, mother obviously, gets into a situation where her new starter (who doesn't like her yet) has to save her from a group of hostile Pokémon, she initially has no idea at all what she's doing and she's so gung-ho about everything. That seems awfully familiar...
Where these two differ though is telling, Kanto Ash doesn't fail, not really. Sure there's some minor set backs with the gyms and they get lost a ton, but he faces no definitive adversity until Ritchie shows up and that one official can't call a game to save his life. Dawn though, she loses hard. She has confidence issues, she has performance anxiety, she fears that she will never be good enough.
These early stumbling blocks serve to kind of break her in a way, so that halfway though she's just going through the motions and faking on a brave face. Getting past her issues by series' end shows real growth and shows that Ash is a good role model. (or at least that affection can crowd out depression or something like that)
Might as well put this here where no one will care enough to read this far into the blog. I like Misty, May, and Dawn equally. They each mesh with Ash in different ways so... OT3+1 Fightlove-shipping FTW! I'm probably the only person ever to ship this seriously and not as an excuse for shoddily written lemons, still even though my cards are now on the table, it doesn't mean any of you care, so I'll refrain from going into details on the whys and hows.
Brock (20): I'm not happy to see him go, I'm happy that he was allowed to leave at all. 5 or so years stuck caring for your family because your parents are terrible, 5 or so years on the road exploring life, and nature, and getting into then fixing various catastrophes. Yep, twenty years old perfect time to study for a medical residency, maybe settle down with that Holly chick or the frontier brain Lucy, or that Nadia ripoff from the 9th movie, or obviously a Joy or Jenny, and get your brother to take over the gym + clean up after your parents. Paging Dr. Brock, at least someone in this anime got a happy ending
Paul (16-18): There isn't anything else to say about him. I've laid it all out in black and white. If you must know, go back up and read my rants, or just watch the series. I want to point out that chibi Paul as seen in Reggie vs. Brandon flashback was obviously starting out, i.e. 10. As he looks much older in DP years must have passed, and owing to his supposed maturity and rampant cynicism I've placed him as slightly older than Ash but younger than Brock. Proving again that time has passed since ep1 dammit!!!
Themes: The Diamond and Pearl rap song, well at least it gets the point across I guess and its better than Battle Frontier at least, still sucks tho. We Will Be Heroes and Battle Cry – (Stand Up!) are the by now standard power anthems but are enhanced by being sung by a woman. So it's almost like Dawn's perspective on D+P's events. We Will Carry On! brings the focus back to Ash and the League obviously but can also be a metaphor for how far he's come in 657 episodes.
Sinnoh 467-657
53/491 (staraptor,infernape,torterra,buizel,ambipom,gliscor,gible,quilava) out of 493 + 2 unova (zorua+zoroark) missing pory2+pory-z
- times ash should have died= 9 (hunter j's seven murder attempts, reverse world gravity, regigigas rage)
- of battles/badges ash won on technicality or cheating 0/0
- of battles/badges ash won fair and square 42/8
- of battles lost 14
- times ash saved world 5 (stopped space-time dimensional rift related calamities x4, help saved regis)
Best Eps IMO: dp45 "Ill-Will Hunting!", 46 "A Maze-ing Race!", 71+72 "Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu!" 75-79 Wallace Cup arc, 92 "A Lean Mean Team Rocket Machine!", 115 "Stealing the Conversation!", 117 "Noodles! Roamin' Off!", 125-133 the Snowpoint arc, 141 "Challenging a Towering Figure!", 146 "Dressed for Jess Success!", 150-152 TG finale, 177 "A Grand Fight for Winning!", 179 "The Eighth Wonder of the Sinnoh World!", 186-191 Ash vs. Paul to the end. Wow! That's a lot of stand out moments.
Next time... There's a shadow creeping over me and whatever good quality this show has, and buddy it's not just Zekrom's. BW 1-3
Comments
