day 1977 they get to the league along with stephan, trip, kotetsu, virgil, biaca {bw103}
day 1978 1st round= ash vs trip, ash wins, bianca, stephan, kotetsu, and virgil also pass the first round
Kotetsu didn't know he had to register to enter the League? Really, you're seriously going with that? On top of that, the only reason he was able to be entered at the last minute was because Ash felt bad for the kid and dragged him to the front registry office. If Ash loses to him, it'll be because he was a nice guy and helped him out no less than 3 times and stopped Kotetsu from making career terminating mistakes, and that will piss me off so very very much.
You know, since Bianca and Stephan made it all the way here, something I wasn't expecting at all, I would not be adverse to the situation if they were the ones that beat Ash out, as I'm actually invested in them as characters.
Sorry Trip, your character arc and therefore plot importance ended when you resolved your issues with Alder. You're a pretty okay guy now, but Ash no longer has any reason to pull any punches, cue fast balling an electro ball with iron tail <smack> Home run, your giant snake is out of there. Bye-Bye.
day 1979 2nd round= bianca vs kotetsu, kotetsu wins, ash stephan and virgil also pass {bw104}
Welp, So much for that hope... Bianca's loss was so unfair. Not only was she able to beat the odds and have her emboar beat his samurott, but he only had riolu left and she still lost; because riolu's secret ability is proficiency in judo throws... even though emboar is like 4 higher weight classes above him, and the final blow is dealt by riolu copycatting flame thrower... even though obvious resistances and emboar didn't seem on his last legs before then.
The final topper is that, in the previews for upcoming stuff, it shows riolu evolved as a Lucario. They evolve through happiness/friendship and are part steel making them weak to fire. So he just so happened to be sad enough not to gain a crippling weakness to his much more deserving to win opponent, is that it huh? I know I'm repeating myself once again, but the writers are stupid.
To prove how moronic they can be at times, they decided to make 105 an Axew focus filler episode... in the middle of the League! Do yourself a favor, ignore that pathetic excuse of an animation. They also decided to annihilate any tension in the remaining arc, dispel any notion that the show or at least Ash's journey just might be coming to an end, and bestow upon me cautious hope in the future, all at once too.
How did they pull this off you may ask? After the next episode preview they show him battling Stephan as Riolu hasn't evolved yet that must mean he fights Kotetsu afterward. Following that though was a next arc preview, providing evidence that the show did have a plan for after the League and that Ash will lose to Kotetsu since they wouldn't advertise a new plot if it wasn't right around the corner.
As for the upcoming plot itself, Team Rocket makes a triumphant come back and Holy Shit! N is going to show up! By this point, I sincerely doubt it will be as awesome as I have envisioned, because if one were to leave out the 4 Team Rocket 2 parters (and really Nimbasa + Operation Tempest 2.0 stand out more than OT 1.0 and fossil time-warps) one would notice that as Best Wishes has improved in visuals its declined on its story massively... and honestly, Pokémon can't afford to have bad plot arcs, it's too absurd right out of the box.
As expected, my hope was for naught... but at this point I can't really say I'm surprised or dissapointed, just numb to it all. No matter how shitty XY hopefully won't be, it can't possibly be any worse than this. Forgotten Childhood Friend nonwithstanding, and gosh I can hear my inner shipper griping about that, though as long as she's not Naru from Love Hina I'll still prefer Serena over Iris by default... though Shauna's a better character in-game than your rival is. I wonder how the manga's gonna handle the sudden influx of 5 dex holders?
That's enough stalling I think.
day 1981 4rd round= ash vs stephan, ash wins (it took him this long to see a liepard... weird) {bw106}
day 1982 5th round= ash loses to kotetsu and his newly evolved lucario {top 8} bullshit {bw107+08}
All 3 of these episodes are exceedingly well animated, and the way Ash totally out strategized Stephan without the least bit of worry on his part was great. It shows that he has a functioning brain and well of experience to drawn from after his laundry list of accomplishments. Sadly that whole emotion is undercut with a feeling of futility. Sure hindsight and foresight both say that Ash will never emerge victorious, but in all the previous series they never just flat out spoiled in the previews that he wouldn't win before the battle was even fought.
On its own merits, set apart from what came before it, Ash vs Kotetsu isn't that teeth grindingly stupid. More contrived than Ash vs Harrison yes, but far and away more acceptable than the other 3 final bouts. When put back into context though, it leaves me feeling really bitter.
Kotetsu won without a full team... he forgot to get a 6th Pokémon. We become aware of this when riolu is the 5th and last one standing, while Ash has 3 still active. Unfezant crashed down despite the type advantage, because Ash loses more times when he's by the book rather than against it. Snivy then proceeds to bring the jackal to his knees... before the spontaneous evolution occurs, he regains and doubles his health and strength, and then calmly wipe out the tired dredges of Snivy's, Pikachu's, and Ash's pride. At least Virgil comes in and wins the whole tournament at the end, A slight balm to this blistering end.
Really I have to ask 765 episodes later, why can't Ash just win something important other than the Orange League? It's not like that would end the myth arc, in his own mind Ash Ketchum is still far from considering himself a Pokémon Master, all that would happen was that he'd get another trophy and move on before anyone could congratulate him or press him for an interview. As shown at the end of Battle Frontier and to a lesser extent Sinnoh, Ash can and does defeat or almost defeat amazing odds and yet he still thinks of himself as a run of the mill sort of trainer, not that far off from a beginner, and thus refuses to settle down and slow his travels/training.
If it's a question of what they could do with the anime in light of that event, here's 3 possible options. For starters, they could just act as Ash normally does in the face of something spectacular happening, ignore it or treat it like an everyday thing and then move on to the next league/challenge. They could do a post-script not league related arc as they appear to be doing with Best Wishes: N! {Of course, they'd have to do this— well and not as a scramble to fill time, but that should be obvious.)
Or considering they foreshadowed the hell out of it with showcasing the entire Sinnoh elite 4+Cynthia and explained the structure of the elite+champion level finally, but then decided to bring in Troll-bias to make those confrontations impossible... why don't they do that? 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? Whenever the new and improved TR would show up, Ash showed that he could drop the idiot ball and still had all his 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.
The status quo wouldn't shift, it would just be elevated... and OK if you're really never doing that, and we stay at this level till Doomsday, fine whatever. Ash Ketchum, a man who never fulfills his dream, a guy that whether by authorial design, in character obfuscating stupidity, in character actual stupidity, or just sheer dumb terrible luck, can't ever just be #1.
However, all fan theories aside, his actual exploits outlaid on paper... When he is allowed to/he wants to be he is top tier and even when he's an also-ran he's always consistently been better than the hundred+ or so people who also ran the gyms and didn't make it that far. Also, the kid's obsessed with (regression) inprovement. I doubt in-story most people can clear/walk through a region in a year, let alone consecutively, let alone while getting lost and helping random bystandards, and having set aside time to annually keep the world intact/beat down terrorist groups. Ash Ketchum might be an idiot-savant overall, and he might have picked the wrong career/ Tragic Dream, but hey at least when set-back from his goals he accomplishes other stuff in the meantime unlike say my favorite punching bag Naruto.
If the world was in crisis and I had my pick of fictional character... I wouldn't just immeadiately default to Goku/Superman/The Avengers/Kamina/insert your own here, that's all I'm saying..
Apoligies for basically repeating the same points and rant as I did at the end of Sinnoh, but in light of how this travesty ended, I had nothing else new to add except for more contempt.
day 1988 return to Nuvema town, TR comes back with a new frillish + amoonguss {bw109}
Jessie, James, Meowth, it's been ages! How'd the month off treat you guys? What's that, doth my ears deceive me, could it be the original Japanese motto? Wonders of wo nders, if the dub follows suit with “Prepare for Trouble”... against my better judgment... I might really start hoping for something good to come out of Unova, now that we're past the League and all the asinine plot twists and rail roading. They still haven't brought Wobbufett and the rest back yet, on the other hand they “blasted off” for the 1st time in forever so there's always hope for the return of his comedic timing hopefully without eroding Team Rocket's threat level again.
(after finishing BW) Yep, that's it then... 97 episodes of competency + 1 ep for later and everything is back to what passes for normal for TR. The one thing I was fully prepared to thank and congratulate the writers for doing, and of course by bringing the funny back they just had to lose all credibility right? Right. Kalos can't come soon enough... my hope will either die or be reborn within a week.
Anyway, Ash helps out a beginner choose her starter and Cedric Juniper mentions Reshiram, Ash explicitly says he can't wait to meet Reshiram... so yeah, now both versions of m14 and m15 (because he remembers them there) have now been rendered completely non-canon to Best Wishes which sucks because the Victini flick was one of the few things I liked about this series. Unless one assumes Ash is lying so as not to appear knowledgeable about all the legendary Pokémon any given random trainer would be unlikely to encounter. I mean it's not like there's anything special about Ash Ketchum. Whatever I don't care anymore, on to the meeting of the minds.
Next time... Philosophical arguments that are resolved in 3 minutes, Megalomanical villians that don't have enough time to ham it up or be credible, Ghetsis's and N's relationship completely glossed over, a nostalgia cameo return that amounts to little more than the worst kind of time wasting fan pandering crap with no impact on the plot, a really great theme song to contain it all and a movie to cap it off that airs in a week that hopefully won't suck.
Stop! Plasma Time! movie16 + Eps 110-122
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