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Review JN053: Catch the Legend!? Find the Guardian of Water - Suicune!!

I watched the subs so lets REWIEW!!!
:bulbaWave:Good Stuff
+ Goh development
+ Raichu and Alolan Exeggutor
+ Drowzee capture was offscreen
+ Suicune in battle!
+ Not too much Drowzee
+ Suicune not accepting Goh from the start
+ Suicune using Ice Beam to defeat Houndoom
:bulbaFacepalm:Bad Stuff
- Suicune's capture. THIS IS A FING LEGENDARY!!!!
- Ash did nothing
- The Hunters
7/10 Good Goh development!
FinnishPokéFan92 said:
I think you mean Exeggutor, not Exeggcute. His Alolan Exeggutor is not a Psychic type, so it's very likely it doesn't know any Psychic moves. As for Cubone, he didn't know he was going to be fighting hunters when he left, so he didn't know to bring it along.
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Did he know that he was gonna need Raichu and Exeggutor?
 
Honestly that wasn't even that bad imo. It showed Goh actually bonding with Suicune and protecting it. He even wanted to release it, knowing how its important to the environment as it's responsible for purifying lakes, thus protecting the nearby pokemon there. This along with last week's episode shows that he's not going for a living dex and he actually considers the pokemon's role in the ecosystem - even leaving the choice of staying with him up to the pokemon itself.

The subs thankfully clarified that Suicune's stamina is wearing down through purifying the water repeatedly because of the interventions by the poachers. So it was somewhat believable that they could weaken and trap it. I still don't get how it stayed trapped in the net for so long the second time, given how it broke free easily afterwards. I wasn't a fan of that offscreen Drowsee capture too. It doesn't sit right with me that Goh owns a legendary pokemon, but thank goodness its not confined to Cerise Park and can roam freely. Ash's involvement here felt rather lacking, but he did help out when needed (I like how he immediately rushed in against the hunters compared to how Goh wanted to stay back initially). Other things like the music and Goh's Raichu+Exeggutor coming back were also good.

Like other people have said, I don't like how clickbaity Journeys episodes have been. It feels pretty unnecessary and blows the situation out of proportion. I don't think Goh's capture here is the end of the world, but I'm wondering just how far they're willing to go with his character. They've spedrun his development so far so who knows where he'll go from here. With all that said, I'll give this a 6.5/10. I've been pretty wary of this one since that Zapdos episode.
 
This is actually an interesting concept. A rare Pokemon you technically "own" so that no one else can claim it (including poachers) but still otherwise acts like a free roaming wild Pokemon that will only come to you when really needed.
 
ehh123 said:
This is actually an interesting concept. A rare Pokemon you technically "own" so that no one else can claim it (including poachers) but still otherwise acts like a free roaming wild Pokemon that will only come to you when really needed.
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Not sure about that last bit, to be honest.
 
Beatsy Ray said:
It's not so much that Ash's experience led him to catching a Legendary, but rather his experience made the fanbase believe he was worthy of getting a Legendary. I don't think Gou is worthy yet, he hasn't struggled, suffered, faced crushing defeats and grown from them like Ash has. Fast forwarding Gou's development like this just makes him look like a wunderkind.

That's to say nothing about how imbalanced it is that Gou is able to command all of his overpowered Pokemon flawlessly, whereas Ash and Dawn had to earn their OP-mon's respect over a long period of time. Gou is using his strong Pokemon as a shortcut to becoming a strong trainer, and that wasn't possible in earlier series'. Not even the games allow you to do that.
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Actually the games DO allow you to do that. Even in Gold/Silver/Crystal. I had a Crystal run a few years ago where I got lucky and ran into Raikou almost immediately after it escaped from the burned tower. I was able to catch it with a fast ball without even damaging it. It obeyed me completely and I steam rolled Morty. Only traded Pokemon don’t obey in the games.

I guess the issue is that Suicune did not have an arc of disobedience with Gou, who technically should not be experienced enough to handle it like he did. He couldn’t even deal with G. Farfetch’d a handful of episodes back. And it took Ash about 60 episodes to get his Charmander evolution line to obey him. But I think its a mixture of bad writing and a also that it’s not Suicune’s personality, it distrust humans and is powerful, but is stoic more than its wild and arrogant of its power.

The issue with Gou is that he’s whatever the writers need him to be when they need him to be, when it comes to things positive. Earlier when he lost his first battle, there was no development from it. He was basically like “I like catching Pokemon more anyway!” And just thought Pokemon battling wasn’t that bad when he saw how Ash was able to bring out Mr. Mime’s potential and do interesting things with Pikachu. He rarely struggles, and when he fails at something its not dwelled on or there is no arc. Ash lost to Bea and it effected him for several episodes. Gou failed to catch Zapdos and it was like nothing happened.

It feels more like they can’t handle a real dual-star show and Ash is mainly there because they aren’t completely confident in transitioning the show to a new character and can’t get rid of Pikachu. Ash is not being handled well disappearing from episodes for no reason when Gou needs development, while Gou still is present and relevant throughout most of Ash’s episodes.
 
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ehh123 said:
This is actually an interesting concept. A rare Pokemon you technically "own" so that no one else can claim it (including poachers) but still otherwise acts like a free roaming wild Pokemon that will only come to you when really needed.
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It’s not even the first time that that’s happened given Naganadel was shown to still belong to Ash when it returned for the battle against Kukui. Even with it having gone home again, Ash never released it, just let it leave.
 
Queen Cynthia said:
They're not blaming Go. Instead they're blaming that poor story writing where a newbie is given everything for free, even legendaries. The writers decided to do a world tour? Fine! But if you ask me, it seems they're realizing they'll be running out of time if they don't speed up things ... at the expense of quality, logic and credibility. That's the real dilemma they seem to be in right now.
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Oh no, some people are definitely blaming Goh. Suicune was literally a trending topic on Twitter yesterday and there were some serious rage tweets against Goh. I was laughing at a lot of them, because they were just so dramatic. Honestly, it's not that deep.

The reception here does seem to be more on the show's actual writing, which is much more fair. There's plenty about Journeys I've critiqued myself. And like I said before, I still don't really like the idea of legendary Pokémon getting captured. But at least this was executed in a way that I can live with, even if how it came to pass is a little bit iffy.
 
My take on the episode...

In the world of literature, and movies, there are lots of stories that, while technically really, really well created and designed, they have really, really bad intentions. That describes how I feel about this episode: Pretty well told, quite believable - But the intent of the writers was the worst thing ever to put upon the anime, as it has broken the whole ethos of the series in my eyes.

Legend Poachers are quite a staple in this series, and Ash has encountered them several times. But no matter how hard the situation, he would not impulsively try to catch a Legend as a way to 'save' it. Somehow, they justified having Goh do it, and also made it look incredibly believable, given his known personality of catching anything new on a whim.

Then, they used all the powers of storytelling to justify the catch - and even secure the catch. And part of this involved degrading Ash's ability and experience of actually handling the crisis. Goh seemed to battle the Poachers a lot better than Ash for some reason, and they never even let Ash use many of his other Pokemon. It was all intentional by the writers - the episode was about Goh more than him.

In other words: This episode was Goh Propaganda through and through by the writers. In fact, I bet the writers knew that the catch of a legendary by Goh would be quite controversial - So they had to build a story that tried to weaken the blow and make the case for why he deserves to catch one. Given many of the comments here, such propaganda was quite effective, wasn't it?
 
Lanstar said:
My take on the episode...

In the world of literature, and movies, there are lots of stories that, while technically really, really well created and designed, they have really, really bad intentions. That describes how I feel about this episode: Pretty well told, quite believable - But the intent of the writers was the worst thing ever to put upon the anime, as it has broken the whole ethos of the series in my eyes.

Legend Poachers are quite a staple in this series, and Ash has encountered them several times. But no matter how hard the situation, he would not impulsively try to catch a Legend as a way to 'save' it. Somehow, they justified having Goh do it, and also made it look incredibly believable, given his known personality of catching anything new on a whim.

Then, they used all the powers of storytelling to justify the catch - and even secure the catch. And part of this involved degrading Ash's ability and experience of actually handling the crisis. Goh seemed to battle the Poachers a lot better than Ash for some reason, and they never even let Ash use many of his other Pokemon. It was all intentional by the writers - the episode was about Goh more than him.

In other words: This episode was Goh Propaganda through and through by the writers. In fact, I bet the writers knew that the catch of a legendary by Goh would be quite controversial - So they had to build a story that tried to weaken the blow and make the case for why he deserves to catch one. Given many of the comments here, such propaganda was quite effective, wasn't it?
Click to expand...

Oh please, propaganda? Don't be so dramatic.
 
Islander Princess said:
Oh no, some people are definitely blaming Goh. Suicune was literally a trending topic on Twitter yesterday and there were some serious rage tweets against Goh. I was laughing at a lot of them, because they were just so dramatic. Honestly, it's not that deep.

The reception here does seem to be more on the show's actual writing, which is much more fair. There's plenty about Journeys I've critiqued myself. And like I said before, I still don't really like the idea of legendary Pokémon getting captured. But at least this was executed in a way that I can live with, even if how it came to pass is a little bit iffy.
Click to expand...
One thing that I’d like to know though is that, given that the writers have now shown that they’re willing to allow a legendary to be caught, how are they gonna manage to not make it feel cheap? Because you might be able to get away with something like this once or twice but if you keep doing it, it’ll definitely feel ridiculous. I’m not quite sure these writers are ready for the Pandora’s Box they’ve now opened, especially if they don’t start reigning in Go some.
 
BlazingPyro77 said:
Did he know that he was gonna need Raichu and Exeggutor?
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He read the script ahead of time - same as he does every time he pulls out the pokemon most convenient for the plot-mandated obstacle to reach the minimum episode length requirement

He even left a slot open because he had to catch something to deal with poison-types

Instead of, ya know, actually using Raichu and Exeggcutor offensively
 
Wow, this sure is an intense thread :lapras:

Hidden Mew said:
I guess it shouldn't surprise me that people would use that moment to complain about Goh stealing the show from Ash some more. That seems like a needlessly harsh way to view it. Goh wasn't trying to push Ash out of the spotlight. He was trying to save his friend, something Ash has done countless times without being belittled for like that. It shows how much he cares about Ash. Using it to just further complain that he's trying to steal the show from Ash or that he shouldn't be saved by someone like Goh just rubs me the wrong way.
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Adelon said:
Imagine vilifying a fictional character by willfully reinterpreting him trying to protect somebody he cares about in a selfish light.

I apologize in advance for the bluntness of my response but of all the reasons to hate Goh, this is what you went for?

At least you didn't call him a simp, I guess.
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I'm afraid you're missing my point here, but maybe I didn't make it clear enough. It's not about one friend saving another friend (Only a fool would complain about that, I guess). It's about the massively flawed concept of Go in general. Let me explain:
Look at Ash's former companions, most notably Brock, Misty, May, Dawn and Serena. Look at how much time was spent on their character development. Look at all their emotions and struggles to get where they are now. And now compare them to Go, a guy who's been around for only 50 episodes. A guy who already seems to know everything and seems to be good at everything. A guy who's violating all the core principles of the show that everybody has followed so far (e.g. properly battle a Pokemon and don't just throw Pokeballs at it, treat it like a companion and not just as a souvenir etc.) And as "reward" he's now even been given a legendary Pokemon ... after only 50 episodes! Wouldn't you agree that, especially when compared to the companions I mentioned before, Go's story seems forced, lacks plausibility and is thus starting to devalue our precious show?

Let me ask you a question that, admittedly, is meant to be provocative: What's the difference between Go and those hunters in the episode? Both catch as many Pokemon as they can get and while the hunters might even have a reason for doing so (evil though those reason might be), Go still hasn't come up with a plausible explanation for having to catch them all. Being obsessed about catching Mew doesn't necessarily mean you need to catch all the other Pokemon as well. He could just leave them alone and solely concentrate on looking for Mew. Also, both the hunters and Go lock their Pokemon away. While the former are using cages made of steel, Go is basically locking them away in a huge "cage" of glass (Sakuragi Park) and doesn't really seem to care for most of them anymore. So, apart from being the friendly version of a Pokemon poacher in disguise, I can't see what Go could possibly contribute to the show.

And there is another, more subtle (and I'd also say a more "evil") aspect about Go: You might not agree, but I'm telling you that in a subtle yet recognizable way, the writers have been trying to force Ash to take the back seat more and more since they introduced Go. It started with more and more episodes being centred around Go. The next step was that Ash has turned into an ordinary character in many episodes who wasn't even allowed to contribute anything of relevance to the plot. And now we've reached the point where Ash seems to be an ordinary trainers who even needs to be protected be Go while his Pokemon are hardly allowed to do anything. Sorry, for the harsh words, but this behavior of Go reminds me of a parasite that the writers use to slowly but surely drive Ash out of his role as the main protagonist.

Hidden Mew said:
Ash still has Melmetal. I know that people debate over Mystical and Legendary Pokemon, but I've never seen Mythical Pokemon as anything but extra special Legendary Pokemon, so I'd say that Melmetal counts as Legendary Pokemon
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I'd say there's a big difference between Ash getting a Melmetal (which I'd call a mythical or pseudo-legendary Pokemon) and Go getting the legendary Suicune: Ash had been working and struggling hard for over 20 years until he finally got such a Pokemon, while it took Go only 50 episodes (a ridiculous number compared to Ash) to get a real legendary. However, catching a legendary should be a reward for a life as a Pokemon trainer who's been working hard for many years. Since the introduction of Go, however, Pokemon seem to have become prizes in a lottery that anyone can get. I guess there's no need to further explain why this is not only completely unfair and forced but also lacks any plausibility. In my eyes, it's just another result of "parasite Go" doing his destructive work.

Islander Princess said:
I was laughing at a lot of them, because they were just so dramatic. Honestly, it's not that deep.
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Well, Pokemon is a show that has impacted the lives of many fans very much. So, I can understand why fans are taking it seriously. (If they didn't, what else would this thread and discussions in general be other than a big waste of time in the first place ?)

Lanstar said:
Then, they used all the powers of storytelling to justify the catch - and even secure the catch. And part of this involved degrading Ash's ability and experience of actually handling the crisis. Goh seemed to battle the Poachers a lot better than Ash for some reason, and they never even let Ash use many of his other Pokemon. It was all intentional by the writers - the episode was about Goh more than him.
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Very well said. Thank you!
 
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Reminder that OLM degraded legendaries a long time ago (in Johto) when they made them non-unique. Go was able to catch Suicune because the hunters had worn it out, but at least he had good intentions. Since he didn't get to keep it (nor did he want that), I don't see why it matters that he lacks Ash's record. By the way, Ash could have easily befriended Meltan back in OS had it existed then.

Also, the idea of Ash not standing out in Go-focused episodes should have been accepted by now. I don't recall him doing much during Dawn's contests or Serena's showcases.
 
Silktree said:
I don't see why it matters that he lacks Ash's record. By the way, Ash could have easily befriended Meltan back in OS had it existed then.
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It's all about actually deserving a legendary Pokemon. I remember countless episodes where Ash helped or helaed mythical or legendary Pokemon, yet none of those Pokemon considered Ash worthy of being their trainer.
But because it's "Saint Go" we're talking about, everything is different.

Silktree said:
Also, the idea of Ash not standing out in Go-focused episodes should have been accepted by now. I don't recall him doing much during Dawn's contests or Serena's showcases.
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Dawn's and Serena's contest took place every one in a while, so it didn't matter if Ash took the back seat for one or two episode. That was a welcome change back then.
But look at how at least every second episode is solely dedicated to Go now. It even looks like next week's episode will once again focus on him (and Sobble) alone. The same mess once again.
 
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