I recall that in the early days, Legendaries considered to be nigh-unbeatable. You simply can't beat one without cheating, hence why the bad guys tend to use unorthodox methods to catch them.
But at the same time, in the Japanese version, it is implied that you could catch a Legendary with a Poké Ball if Misty's rant against Lawrence III was any indication.
Goh: [takes her up on that challenge]
The Protomen enhanced my life."Ash has beaten Legendaries" only excuses him getting a Mythical; it doesn't do anything for Goh.
Granted, Suicune is a Junior Legendary only one step above psuedos like Dragonite. On a side note, I'd say that being hug happy in most cases, coupled with what happens when you get on Ash's Dragonite's bad side, makes for a deeper personality than being "rebellious".
Then again, Iris' Dragonite is a surprisingly good measuring stick versus Suicune because they were caught around the same time in each trainer's respective tenure: around the 5th cour. And, despite what I just said about having a shallow personality, Iris' Dragonite did say something concrete about Iris: It was a sign of how far Iris still had to go, both in training Pokemon in general and dragon types in particular.
Suicune, by contrast, is effectively a trophy. Even though Goh has caught a lot of Pokemon, his actual team consists of just Cinderace and Sobble. Even Gary Memetic Oak, whose rate of capture in Kanto seems to match Goh's, (theoretically) traveled with a battle squad. The way Goh captured Suicune may be a testament to his kindness, but little else. And now that Suicune is "caught" it'll either hang around the Cherry Blossom lab or have a Sequel Episode where it gets released.
And that may actually be more damning than my original critique of this capture: That a year's worth of production time is not enough to merit a Legendary, even a Junior like Suicune. Goh needed to "pay his dues", only meriting a Legendary later in the series. Yes, you could say the same about Lillie with Magearna and especially Mallow with Shaymin. But those acquisitions were in the 3rd and final year of "Sun & Moon"; those girls were on their way out and Mallow didn't do much in the series. Goh theoretically has a year or two left to develop.note There's still a good bit of time for Goh to "prove himself".
Then again, the writers may "give" Mew to Goh this time either next year or the one afterwards. Which will be enough time to show that Goh didn't have a plan for life after Mew. And that's the sort of twist that would strike me as completely accidental; much like Ash "growing" throughout Tomioka's tenure was accidental: The writers have been improving as of late, but I believe that intending such a subtle long-term twist is still beyond them. (Such accidentally great writing should have been what the reaction "[the writers] Plotted A Perfectly Good Waste" was about, as opposed to the opposite, which TPAPGW redirects to.)
Ketchum's corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced tactic is indistinguishable from blind luck.Edited by MsCC93 on Mar 3rd 2021 at 2:00:47 PM
Goh let it roam free since it has a duty to do and he's not the type of person to keep it as a trophy. If he did, Suicine would still be at the laboratory.
There was never a rule that said normal trainer couldn't catch a Legendary. Hell, it's not even a rule in the games otherwise a lot of people that play Pokemon games are essentially hypocrites. Besides, Goh and Ash have had a lot of journeys and experience at this point between 8 regions. This was a major step towards his as a trainer, and for someone planning to catch ALL 900 Pokemon, he can't just catch them all in the third cour of the show. That'll be like if Ash got his first gym win in episode 60.
I'm so done with this argument from people being mad about anime rules that don't exist in the first place. Catching up with the last episodes.
- 55: Glimwood Tangle looks beautiful animated. At least Koharu's getting solid focus.
- "where a Gallop was being healed." Yeah, they're going to need it after the Troubled Production of VRAINS. Wait, wrong anime.
- Opal just pulled up to troll Goh and Ash. Cinderace actually looks great in Pink.
- Wait was that All Just a Dream or did they fall asleep and come back? Yo that's so sketch.
- 56: We followed the Farfetch episode a lot faster than we thought. Heck Scyther wanted in on the action and they even made a joke about how long it's been since Goh's used him. To the Elite Four of Kalos, Wikstrom we go!
- Wikstrom is a lot more expressive than I thought. I like how Pikachu wanted to go with the trial, and the man just picked him up like "no, you and Lucario have already gotten enough screentime, just watch Ash and Farfetch do their thing." Plus the balance of Ash and Goh felt just right. Goh helped out Ash, but it mostly on Ash and Farfetch starting to value his trainer more.
- A sword battle between Ash/Gou and Wikstrom while Scyther and Farfetch fight Aegislash? Okay, THAT WAS AWESOME! And the swords aren't too deadly to humans. The fact they had armor suited for all trainers and humans is a stretch, but a fun one.
- Finally, I was waiting for Scyther to evolve
- 57: Kikuna is legit in love with a Psyduck and it was the thing that helped her cope with her depression and inspired her to keep going. I respect that. It was a simple, but sweet episode. Although we need more Gengar. Out of the six, okay five before he caught Dracovish, we've seen Gengar the least out of the five. I miss my boy.
- 58: I feel like these two 11 segment episodes exist just to save animation time for more intense fights.
- Ash and Goh holding hands...cute. I've never liked Gulpin but a horde managed to swallow a Snorlax. Whoa. They honestly could've died had it fell on the Institute.
- A Chewtle and Turtwig race....Ash's Turtwig would run circles around these two.
- I've missed some episodes but when did Team Rocket get a sassy Rotom phone.
- Torkoal too. Okay.
- What the, Warturtle, Turtonator, Torterra, Grotle, where the hell did all these turtle Pokemon come from....oh they all have a trainer...with like 9 Blastoises. Well that'll make an interesting gym leader one day. I keep hearing people wanting the Gyms to be themed based more than just typings, I'd be with it: Ninja themed gyms especially, speedsters, defense themed.
- 59 Grookey's finally showing up...and judging by that preview it's going to be owned by Goh. Alright sure. I can cope with it.
So Grookey was revealed to be a Gatcha Pokémon from Team Rocket, but it took a liking to Goh and thus pulled a Charmander.
Damn Gacha. Always giving out these R’s and never the SSR that I want.
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.I'm glad Ash has no starter this series, yet another long-running rule the anime broke for the first time. It's honestly something I never thought they could drop (since he's the main character and all), and it makes Go a throwback to Ash in the OS.
Its the first time ever he hasn't gotten a single starter huh.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I'd say it makes sense. The focus isn't on the latest region in the same way, and Goh's focus is on the actual Pokemon catching instead.
It's a different formula overall. I mean, he could still get one, sure. But there's more than enough advertisement via Goh as is for Gen VIII. Ash is also getting a lot of powerful Pokemon usually reserved for other trainers, including Psuedo-Legendaries. It seems like they want to buff his options up more than ever. Not simply unique forms(like Ash-Greninja) either. Or having him befriend multiple Legendaries/Mythicals(which at best aren't always shown in the tv show's continuity alone, but the movies are supposed to be canon either way? It's kind of awkward when very few are directly tied into show itself, that is, having straight continuity after the movie) to show he's a very special individual. It still exists in the show too, it's just more common in the movies. Enough that Meloetta was a traveling companion for a while, as close to being a caught one as you can get(and this is also at the time where a caught Legendary was super rare. That, and I think Meloetta was supposed to be a much bigger than one than Darkrai as is. Albeit, the formula/design is clearly different from before, hence Goh catching a Suicune, but he's also different from other trainers by being a personification for advertising Pokemon Go, where catching is much much easier, and catching Legendaries is a normal thing).
Even then, the anime made catching Legendaries a bad thing compared to the games. It's just the first time it's subverting its own unique spin on it. Though to be fair, since many are forces of nature and help keep the world go round, all they did was take the Dex entries seriously and added more world building. That's not a bad thing. Especially if "you can fully catch certain ones, but it's important they can roam free to keep the world spinning right" too is still implemented. Pretty sure it was noted Suicune isn't kept hidden away in a ball and is constantly moving around, despite being a legit capture(not simply befriended).
...It's weird having so many websites and no way to properly display now, lol.Ash still has Gible and Goodra was part of his team, so it's not like there was something against him getting pseudos. The weird point was him getting two fully evolved "powerhouses" for his team, which ties back to my own personal nitpick for this season.
‘My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’Given that Legends is a thing, odds of him bringing back his Quilava for a short while?
Wake me up at your own risk.It's more his current team is a lot more powerful than before, not just Pseudo-Legendaries alone. Though yeah, I forgot about Goodra. Gible isn't that powerful and never evolved, so barely counts for "overpowered" in that sense. Goodra definitely would count, though I think they intentionally made it not having a massively strong showing, but being decently powerful instead. I honestly only remember Gible doing poorly in some battles, but yeah.
The fully evolved part does matter too, Pseudo or not. They really buffed up his team a lot more than before as is. It's not like he needed it, cause most of the time, his losses at a Pokemon League were grade-a bullshit factors or it was a close call at best. There's no way he could've beaten Tobias. Not with two legendaries. Darkrai was one thing. Then Latios? Jeez. It still was slightly notable cause nobody else could beat Darkrai, meaning Latios was seen once and Ash still beat him. First Pokemon League? Oh, great, he fell asleep. Auto-lose. That was way worse than Tobias cause it was applying really stupid rules instead. Especially since Dream Eater is a move. Orange Islands wasn't a regular league fight, but it was definitely a good battle, even if he didn't win it overall.
I'm trying to remember the ratio of close call VS bullshit loss too. I remember Kanto, Sinnoh, and Black/White(can't remember the region name) being bullshit losses. Johto, Hoenn, Kalos felt like much more fair losses in comparison. Mega Charizard X is arguably as an unfair loss, but I'm pretty sure it was down to all their last Pokemon, so it was still a good fight. I felt like it might've been better if Ash-Greninja beat Mega Charizard X but another Pokemon was able to win due to the former being too tired. It would've seemed more bullshit in a sense, but it would also make Ash-Greninja look way better.
That said, Black/White's was far worse than Tobias, who was using blatantly overpowered Pokemon. Lucario evolves and sweeps Ash's team hard. Worst part? The character(I forget his name) didn't even have a Team of 6. Tobias was presented immediately as overpowered, despite less buildup too. But we damn well knew in advance Ash had almost no chance against Darkrai as is. Latios being added to it didn't sweep the entire team, but still lost too. Tobias just had 4 more Pokemon, so he won by default. This is actually... pretty damn normal in the games for anyone using Legendaries, so at least it wasn't the worst plausible showing. It's still badly written, but better than the other guy. And what'shisface from B/W loses right after, which really did not help at all. If he still lost near the end in a decently good battle, sure. But I think they barely showed the battle, which just worsened the character usage.
Ash has had an evolved Pokemon sweep a team, but it also was 3 on 3 only and Ash still had the proper amount. And it's still poor writing than Kingler was able to do so, so it's not like it's without criticism. It's slightly less notable because the protagonist is often given more leeway.
I do not remember the filler tournament very well during Master Quest, other than Misty suffering a loss(but she beat Ash in a pretty good battle). I can't say I remember if it was bullshit or not, though.
...It's weird having so many websites and no way to properly display now, lol.Gible might be unevolved, but was still considered strong in it's own right in the same way for Ash's other unevolved powerhouses
Also Ash's team started out powerful this season (though Gengar has been questioned), but Riolu/Farfetch'd-G weren't and Dracovish is still untested AFAIK. It also feels like this is why trying to understand the internal logic as to not giving Ash any of the starters falls by the wayside.
This season has been playing with what's been considered the general formula, but imo it's a result of a shaky structure. There are familiar beats however due to (what I think is) the intended structure it ends up off, so to speak.
‘My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’I wonder if we're gonna get a Legends anime now that you bring that up. New M Cs for it? Some time travel shenanigans?
Secret SignatureWonder how they'd handle the Legends protagonists given that they are basically ninja Dawn and Lucas.
Although at least I'd expect some kind of OVA or something for it.
Wake me up at your own risk.It’d be an OVA with Ash Ketchum’s ancestor that looks just like him probably.
It's been 3000 years…Ok ash now has a fully evolved team minus pikachu. Think its only the 2nd time it happened after kalos. 3 Kanto 2 galar and 1 sinnoh
It's a surprisingly good team too for competitive.
Gengar, Dragonite, Lucario, Dracovish...
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."Real-world competitive. Results in anime may vary.
‘My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’It's definitely one of his strongest. It took us over twenty years for him to get some of the fan favourites like Dragonite, Lucario etc.
Seem that the anime just saying fuck the game plot and doing what they like means they aren't pulling their punches with him anymore.
One Strip! One Strip!Which is weird since the Sword/Shield plot looks like it would have worked well with the anime's normal format. As is, this season feels more unfocused than usual.
Also, is it weird that I wasn't really hyped by the captures? They were surprising, but it didn't have same impact for me
‘My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’I'm just assuming after the debacle with X and Y, they're just done bothering with the games plot.
And there were always pretty loose with them before hand anyway. It was the league that was the real meat to them, and they often sped through the game plots quickly.
I think it's just even more blatant now.
One Strip! One Strip!Even then, X and Y was more like them adapting the unused Z plot, really.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Not sure how "Ash has beaten Legendaries" is intended as a defend. The Arceus point seems to ignore the measures used to take it down and how difficult the actual battle with it was.
‘My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’