day 1373 paul loses horribly to cynthia {sinnoh champ} {dp40}
39 is a pointless filler, but its not exactly bad... watch it if you want some cutesy schmaltzy stuff as it is a Pokémon only episode. Mmm Yes, Paul your loss of 0-4 in a 4vs4... it is delicious, sadly this still won't knock you off your high horse.
On the one hand, Paul does forfeit the battle early curtailing further injury and wasted effort on the part of his team. On the other, he gets irrationally agitated at his chimchar for not being able to land a hit on Cynthia's Garchomp... her best Pokémon, who then proceeds to sweep his entire team, what. On top of that he starts walking off into the distance, and has to be forcible reminded to go the Center for healing.
At the center he reveals to Ash that in his opinion and I'm paraphrasing here “healing injuries too soon after they occur will make my team weaker because they won't learn from the pain and become coddled and lazy.” Man, Paul really isn't a nice person at all is he?
We also learn that Paul's fully evolved torterra is his starter marking him as a Sinnoh native, specifically from veilstone, but that he competed in the Hoenn/Kanto/Johto leagues first so that the audience might rightfully think he's a cunt, but at least he's well versed in Pokémon stuff on paper about as well as Ash is, making his battles with and attitude towards Ash make sense retroactively as he thought he was a n00b. Now though, he just hates Ash because of his personality, and what appears to be in Paul's mind his sheer dumb luck wins, as Ash doesn't train the <ahem> right way.
What is it about Paul that just makes me go on and on... Oh that's right, it's because I hate the son of a bitch, and it's fun and cathartic for me to clinically tear into him so as to properly elaborate on my opinion, dp50-52 is almost here folks. (2013) Burning hatred for a character is still better than the listless ennui that the next region will bring though, Paul has that going for him.
41 has Zoey reappear, neatly showing how a healthy rivalry is supposed to function, in contrast to the borderline antagonism between Ash and Paul, beyond that it's a generic training episode, good stuff.
For something completely unrelated Cynthia's dub voice is also Dawn's, which makes the latter fangirling over the former even funnier. I also find it heartening, how she tries to teach Paul a lesson about kindness and acceptance, but of course it doesn't take. It's also really kinda sad that she goes on this tangent about how she's been researching the Sinnoh myths for such a long time, and sincerely wishes to see palkia and dialga (don't forget giratina), when Ash is about to do just that.
day 1387 ash helps darkrai save alamos town from palkia+dialga {m10}
Instead of calling it The Rise of Darkrai (eng version) or Dialga VS Palkia VS Darkrai (jap version) The 10th movie should be titled Pokémon the theatrical anniversary: recycle the movie: haven't we done this already? Not to say that it's a bad movie just really derivative and the cgi looks off kilter sometimes.
Let's run down the #s: A Pokémon with dark powers and seemingly evil designs (m1), a magical song helps resolve the plot (m2) also there is a kinda sorta prophecy (m2+6) time-space dimensional fuckery occurs (m3) the action centers around an otherwise unremarkable city (m5) A character's deep connection/friendship with the title Pokémon is important to the plot (m6+7) someone tries to make the ultimate sacrifice (m1,5,6,8) the whole plot starts because of a misunderstanding (m7 kind of 8) and of course, if Ash does not help in some way, the fate of the world might be in jeopardy (all except 8, maybe 5)
Canonical evidence includes the foreshadowing from dp36 I already mentioned, but a more explicit tie comes later wherein Dawn shows that she still totes around the cresselia feather bracelet keychain (Lunar Wing) she got in this movie. Time-line wise, Ash has to have heard about the creation trio from Cynthia but before they get to hearthome city, because of plot-centric reasons.
In other news, 42 is bad filler but TR get one of their nice moments. 43 is meh quality, good if you want a laugh otherwise skip, and 44 has no redeeming qualities at all in my opinion... silly dumb hippo.
day 1415 hunter J shows up again and so does gary {dp45} day 1424 after helping mira, she teleports them to hearthome city {dp47}
Aw yeah, Gary's back. HOOR— and so is J... aw fuck that ruins it. Anyway Ash escapes murder attempt #4-ish and Gary helps take the poacher down. I wish this was the minimum standard quality for all eps, but with long runners that's kind of a forlorn hope. Also Dawn associates Pr. Oak's fame as being from his really corny english translated Pokémon themed haikus, and not you know any of his research. Now that's funny. Also get used to seeing Mt. Coronet, its kind of central (ha-ha geography pun) to the plot.
A big missed opportunity throughout D+P was that Paul and Gary never met, or that Paul was never included in one of the hunter j/team galactic eps. As much as Paul fulfills that “less I have to see him, happier I am” niche it would have been awesome on a personal level if Ash's real rival had taken him down a peg or two, and on a thematic level to see how Paul would have dealt with characters who are actually designated to be evil/villains by the plot, and not just come off that way through personality.
Incidentally... as an audience member I find it disconcerting that the woman who is an international criminal who deliberately tries to murder the hero and a man who created his own country wide cult with the express purpose of subjugating what amounts to gods in order to destroy free will/emotions and recreate the universe is less rage inducing and an irritant to my personal “this is what a character can do and still remain sympathetic” guidelines than the guy with a perfectly normal job of Pokémon trainer/designated new rival. Just a couple more episode summaries and you'll finally find out why.
Now for something completely different in dp46, the gang all gets separated in a giant labyrinth! Why is it there? I have no clue, but that doesn't matter. Paul shows up, but that can't ruin my good mood either, because when everyone is scattered and begins looking for each-other Pikachu, Buneary, and Happiny are stuck by themselves, and the adorableness of it all, daww it's so sweet <ahem> good filler, even if the plot of the episode makes no sense. Really though, is it filler? Paul does make his final appearance before it happens...
dp47 follows in the tradition of the zubat eps, it's not bad filler solely based on one tiny thing that advances the plot as stated above. Man, at least with abra using teleport Ash has a legitimate reason to be in a completely different city, also wow that cut down on travel time. Finally, as an avid consumer of Japanese fictional media I am inoculated against reacting to strange hair colors/styles at least until they reach Yu-Gi-Oh levels... but Mira's hair deserves a mention. One side is long enough to trail down her body, and the other is tied in a loop, well alrighty then. Dp48 is a second clip show recap episode... for Pokémon of all things. Get that mess outta here.
Next time... "Hearthome: The place where all the bad, dark, angsty, rage inducing stuff happens. I forgot Pokémon could even have a serious side outside of series finales and movies. Eps 49-53
