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Review HZ112: Roy—Training

Okay start to the Kalos mini-arc though the Lucario bit may ironically be the weakest part of the episode since it all feels rushed. Not a good start for the jackal who I haven't been too fond of. Mayonnaise is such a fun character to have around, wouldn't mind seeing him again in the present day.

Good to see Liko and Dot appear at the start so this isn't a nearly Liko/Dot free month after all and not only the ever cute Cap sneezing gag again but also confirmation that Roy's only taking care of him.

Also Crocalor's holding an Everstone? R.I.P. to it becoming a Skeledirge? Unless he drops it by accident or it just magically disappears?
 
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First episode of prologue to start on following two week break for showing how Roy and Uruto meet. Considering as before the storm. Battling against the shiny Lucario. Ultimately loss. Also glad to show how other Mega Evolve by Gardevoir and Slowbro. Never gets old.

Overall rating: B+
 
It is kind of neat seeing Roy and Ult's interactions for the first time. Although, it really is just their banter from the start of the third arc of the series but a little more abrasive. Master Mayonnaise seems like an exuberant enough of a character that I hope that we get to see a bit more of before the end of this flashback. It may also be too early for this, but RIP to any hopes of Yellow Blast having more of a character than we originally hoped.
 
Poke Trey said:
That cameo from the ED theme is totally mot gonna be talked about to death, I promise you.
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What cameo are you talking about, if you may ask? I just rewatched it and didn't notice any special cameo character. Though I did notice this scene and I think Roy and Ult are going to fight against an Escavalier/Accelgor duo in the upcoming two episodes.
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I feel like nothing super deep happened in this episode, just small interesting details. Like, I appreciate that Ult's stone collection has a new meaning, as he's usually collecting trash for money and Sableye likes stones, and somehow he found a mega gem that way.
I didn't like the interaction at the cafe though, like if Ult is a native from Lumiose, write him as one... I don't think he should be that weirded out by coffee with cream.

Roy looking to make Crocalor mega-evolve is a fun goal. I'd keep an eye on that, maybe the 3 Paldea starters could get mega-evolutions in the Z-A DLC. In term of animation, the difference of time and budget allocated to mega evolution was felt through this episode, at the start we get the full scenes of Lucario and Sableye transforming, but then when it was time for Gardevoir and Slowbro, it took less than a second for them to pop out fully transformed.

I'm really hoping Lucario gets a backstory and isn't simply that random speed demon the characters must train to beat. But the next episode will focus on Emma, and I'm having hope for her to tell us the story of why Yellow Blast is here. She's a detective, she probably would have investigated that case (she looks like she has read about the RVT disbanding and quickly figured out who Roy is). Mega Ampharos appearing will be the cherry on top.
 
Doubl - Echo said:
What cameo are you talking about, if you may ask? I just rewatched it and didn't notice any special cameo character.
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The end credits has a scene of Roy and Uruto with Emma. There's a photo that can be seen that has Emma alongside Looker with his Croagunk although it's blurred.
 
It Ends on a Downer but hope the next 2 weeks get better

Liko and Dot/Nidothing cameos really made my day

End of Volume 3: Chapter 1 1/2: Part 1
 
Ha. Just goes to show Roy is nothing without the writers hand holding. Very cathartic to watch him get put in his place. Otherwise. A rather boring episode without much happening besides the mega battle at the start
 
RetroPokeFan said:
The end credits has a scene of Roy and Uruto with Emma. There's a photo that can be seen that has Emma alongside Looker with his Croagunk although it's blurred.
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Oh, I see. There's even another blurry picture of Looker alongside it.
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For me, the main thing that this episode has accomplished is make me want to finally draw magical girl Uruto & Roy.
Othet than that... it was an episode, I guess? Uruto being a trash collector is very fitting, it is nice to see his bond with Yamirami, although i still did not like how, well, unnecesarily confrontational he was to Roy here tbh. Roy was just doing his best and was enthustiastic about learning. Acchigator MVP. I do wonder if the paldea starters do get mega evolutions.
 
I was really excited for this, but honestly I just found it okay. Like I dunno, it was still fun enough but I found myself being a little bored for some reason.
I was also a bit disappointed that there were no eyecatches or post episode segment.

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These designs go crazy.
I did find seeing all the background Pokemon fun though and the Roy Ult dynamic's pretty good.
The new opening/ending theme's a banger too

RetroPokeFan said:
Also Crocalor's holding an Everstone? R.I.P. to it becoming a Skeledirge? Unless he drops it by accident or it just magically disappears?
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To me, I interpreted that scene as Crocalor just picking up a random stone. I don't think it's an Everstone lol, but maybe I'll be proven wrong later on.

Side note, this episode has some pretty crazy trivia on Bulbapedia.
According to the trivia section on it's page, this is the first time Amnesia's been used since EP066!
1,278 episodes ago and that episode will turn 29 years old on the 15th! It took nearly 30 years for Amnesia to be used again, that's crazy. I wasn't even born when Amnesia was last used
 
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The episode starts with Ult and Roy Mega Evolving and battling each other (no result shown), and then, after a brief conversation, the flashback to their training starts with Roy flying to Lumiose, carried by his Kilowattrel. Roy is quite impressed by the city. Meanwhile, Ult, who is from the city, is picking up cans in an alley. Roy passes by, completely lost, but they don't meet just yet. Cap is encountered by a couple of random women who find him and his hat very cute. Cap, being Cap, sneezes and runs off with Roy following. Roy and Ult then literally run into each other by the Prism Tower, leading to their first argument. They then watch a Pokémon battle where both participants use Mega Evolution (Mega Gardevoir vs Mega Slowbro, Gardevoir wins). Roy is quite impressed with Mega Evolution, while Ult expresses a lack of interest.

They then hear some weird guy selling random stones as Mega Stones (with a few actual Mega Stones mixed in). The crowd he gathered notices that most of them are just rocks and wanders off. Roy and Ult, on the other hand, ask him about Mega Evolution simultaneously (their second argument ensues). It turns out the weird guy is named Mayonnaise (though he insists on being addressed as "Master Mayonnaise" as if that somehow makes being named after a condiment cooler). The three of them go to a cafe (Ult supposedly prefers black coffee but doesn't mind coffee with cream after trying it), and Mayonnaise explains about Mega Evolution, gives Roy and Ult Mega Rings, and tells them about a Pokémon nicknamed Yellow Blast. It just so happens that Sableye found its own Mega Stone at some point, while Roy decides to become the first person to Mega Evolve a Crocalor (Mayonnaise is apparently unaware that only fully evolved Pokémon can Mega Evolve, and so Roy doesn't know either). Crocalor finds a random rock, and Mayonnaise instructs him to keep it (this may be relevant in the future, but it's probably just a rock).

Roy and Ult eventually end up at the Mayo-Maze Palace, where Yellow Blast can be found. After wandering the, expectedly hard to navigate, palace, they find Yellow Blast, the yellow Lucario that Roy will eventually catch. Roy and Ult battle it (Crocalor and Sableye vs Lucario) without gimmicks (it apparently not occurring to Roy to use Terestal and Ult not realizing he should be able to use Mega Evolution already) and lose almost immediately (Lucario being much faster than it will be after capture). For some reason, Roy is really depressed about this minor setback. The episode ends at this point.

In short, Ult is apparently French, and some stuff happened. We more or less know how this is going to go, but it's entertaining enough, I suppose.
 
This was a fair episode, but Ult's hostility towards Roy certainly isn't helping at all as someone who isn't a fan of the former. Hoping parts 2 and 3 will be better; but I'm keeping my expectations low just be safe (wasn't a huge fan of the XY Mega Evolution specials either). Some stuff was just out there (somehow Roy held onto Kilowattrel's legs all the way to Kalos), and part of me is hoping that "Master Mayonnaise" ends up being another one of Gurkinn's disguises to test their character and skill. As for Emma being close to Ult and Roy in age when the game they're promoting shows she's gotten older since she last appeared, I think that most likely snuffs out the last cinders of HZ being set in the games' timeline (the creative license taken with SV+ Teal Mask already made that a bit murky, why I'm also keeping expectations ebb for Rise Again adapting Indigo Disk). The "Yellow Blast" curb-stomping the leads makes sense (saw the stats and move pool of the event DLC), but Lucario being my favorite Pokémon aside (nothing I haven't heard lately that I didn't about Charizard in years' past); it's still tiresome to see the mains take yet another L. Honestly hope they make the Generation X anime closer to the games and use their cast as opposed to using the one for HZ.
 
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finally got to watching the episode! it was... fine? battles were pretty good (i am not the arbiter on this, i don't even really watch horizons for the battling) but i am definitely hoping this is just the exposition dump more or less and stuff gets more interesting with emma in the next two, and i have faith that it will. i don't understand the doomposting in this thread about the lucario not being given any character, i'm not saying they are definitely going to characterize it more, but i also don't see any reason to believe they won't... roy has to bond with it and capture it and train it somehow and these entire special episodes serve to give backstory to the thing. i'm sure we are going to learn a lot more in the next two weeks. we will just have to see!

it was also fun to see roy and ult's first interactions. now that ult is an established part of the cast, i don't actually mind him being super abrasive, because i know that he grows later. i also think the dynamic is just interesting to watch because for the vast majority of the show's runtime, roy has been paired with liko and dot who are comparatively non-confrontational and compassionate. i would not enjoy it if this was their dynamic for the rest of time forever but ult has already started integrating with the RVT back in "present day" so that's not really a concern. for this brief period of time, i think it is entertaining to see.

roy is a kid who used to live on an island and who up until now has been travelling with a found family of supports, including a lot of adult support, which blessed him with the confidence to be able to travel to a big city alone and be excited about being there, but as soon as he gets there he meets someone he actually squabbles with... and yet there's that undercurrent of the similarities between them with how they want to get stronger, and are headstrong about it. even without having seen the next two episodes yet, it is easier for me to imagine roy being hardened a little bit by his experiences in this city, and with ult.

in speaking of being hardened by his experiences, i was struck by roy being so distressed about losing to this random lucario. a lucario that was hyped up, but a random lucario he has no prior connection to nonetheless. not that he's never taken losses hard - his battle with ryme back during terastal debut was pretty rough on him - but roy typically takes winning in stride in most scenarios. he is always optimistic and trying to get better at what he does. i do think his reaction is partially due to the turmoil after friede's "death". i wonder if that's why he's seeking out mega evolution, wanting to become stronger to make up for the ways in which he could not protect friede or the RVT, either during the showdown against gibeon and spinel or when friede fell off the brave asagi. but hey, that's just speculation. and well, even if they don't canonize it, it's at least a headcanon for me...

some quick other thoughts: little to no interest in master mayonnaise (what is with masters being named after condiments, i'm looking at you master mustard from the isle of armor dlc) but he was fine, i would have preferred seeing the tower of mastery show up but i guess being in lumiose city instead makes sense because this is basically a Z-A advertisement. i think it's possible that achigator picked up an everstone, but even if it is, i highly doubt he will have it forever, if anything it would just be justification for roy having his starter still unevolved after all his training and time away lol... and i was happy to see liko and dot at the start of the episode even though we probably won't be seeing them for the next two. thank you for showing me my blorbos before i have to wave goodbye to them for a little bit, OEM

i'm tired so this post may have been a little brain soup-y, my apologies lol, i hope i still conveyed a little of what i thought alright
 
Ok so naturally I'm a little biased (Roy fan right here) but I really liked this episode for a lot of other reasons. First off, Ult (Blegh, my brain is hardwired to say Uruto) is canonically french... okay XD. Second, I love a lot of the background city folk, they look a lot like real people! It felt like it was actually well populated with people that look like actual people in the Pokemon style. Ult was a bit of a jerk, as I expected. I ended up liking Master Mayonnaise WAY more than I thought I would lol. The maze segment I really liked. I'm surprised Roy was so distraught after losing to Shiny Lucario, considering he usually takes an optimistic approach to winning AND losing, with the only notable exception being his loss to Ryme. Also something that was weird is, the complete absence of Friede falling off the Olivine. I'm not saying he should have been walking around depressed but he didn't seem to have any reaction to it, I mean, Liko kinda stagnated, and the rest of the RVT disbanded, so Roy kinda just walking past it was weird. (I mean everyone has different coping mechanisms but still) All in all really good episode to me, not my favorite, but it does a good job making me excited for the next 2 episodes and then the next arc!
 
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