Review JN068: A Rival for Go!? The Road to Mew!!

[Ricbolog]

I'm curious to see if Gary will become a recurring character in this series as it happened in DP.

 

[L-05308]

I'm curious to see if Gary will become a recurring character in this series as it happened in DP.

It does seem that way - and I really hope so!

I did think the Alola cast would continue to make appearanceseach time Ash went back to Alola (which he hasn’t done yet) since it’s hard to remove them from Alola stories. With Project Mew being an arc moving forward, and Gary taking part - surely he’s set to appear more!

 

[nickdt]

Well, considering one has the advantage of being able to fly, no. Also, Infernape did land a hit.

Ummm no he didn't.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Ummm no he didn't.

Flamethrower hit, although admittedly it hardly did anything.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Well, considering one has the advantage of being able to fly, no. Also, Infernape did land a hit.

Flamethrower got absorbed, Mach Punch didn't hit, Flare Blitz got repelled

First hit was Hydro Pump

 

[CyberKitten05]

Flamethrower got absorbed, Mach Punch didn't hit, Flare Blitz got repelled

First hit was Hydro Pump

Didn't Hydro Pump get vaporized?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Didn't Hydro Pump get vaporized?

It hit. It just produced vapor upon impact.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Blastoise was the MVP of the Moltres battle IMO. Despite the loss, it was doing a pretty solid job and Gary using VERY good strategies! I'm not disappointed, but surprised he doesn't have the Mega Stone for it. Who knows maybe it can Gigantamax. I know it was Infernape's desire to battle the rubber chicken, but imagine if Charizard was there to team up with Blastoise against Moltres!

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Flamethrower hit, although admittedly it hardly did anything.

Flamethrower got absorbed, Mach Punch didn't hit, Flare Blitz got repelled
First hit was Hydro Pump

Didn't Hydro Pump get vaporized?

Flamethrower was absorbed by Moltres and Hydro Pump simply got vaporized upon contact. So, I guess we can't say that Infernape and Blastoise landed a "hit", because Moltres didn't even try to dodge them at first, probably because it knew it could just deflect those moves. The first attack that managed to deal any damage was Blastoise's Water Pulse (although admittedly, the way it was animated it looked more like a dual Hydro Pump)

I guess what I'm saying in short is that now I understand why some fans don't like Goh, as those of us who sorta act like him IRL can actually come across as annoying or tiresome to deal with. So whether you like him or not probably depends on how much you can relate to him, or empathize with him.

You put it pretty well.
The way I'm seeing it is that Go's massive introversion and his "I'm strange and I know it"-attitude can get on your nerves real quickly. I'd say the vast majority of characters in Pokemon are extroverted and active and people like to see characters like Ash and Gary much more than somebody who's constantly carrying their problems around with them and acting all like "Just leave me alone". Those characters can be a welcome change every now and then, but in the long run, they will get on your nerves because they'll drag you down (My personal opinion).


There's something important I just realized. I couldn't quite understand what Professor Oak was saing at the end (Provoking Go was Gary's way of encouraging him to take part in Project Mew). Here's why:
Let's just pretend for a moment we're Gary. Throughout the episode Go neither contributed anything useful to the search for Moltres nor did his Pokemon have a chance to shine against the legendary bird. So, from Gary's perspective, what reason would he have to promote or encourage Go in the first place? Knowing Gary I'd say he must consider Go a pretty ordinary guy who happens to be Ash's travel companion.

 

[Beary]

Blastoise was the MVP of the Moltres battle IMO. Despite the loss, it was doing a pretty solid job and Gary using VERY good strategies! I'm not disappointed, but surprised he doesn't have the Mega Stone for it. Who knows maybe it can Gigantamax. I know it was Infernape's desire to battle the rubber chicken, but imagine if Charizard was there to team up with Blastoise against Moltres!

if charizard can take out articuno he can take out moltres

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

I find even stranger how Infernape stopped Ash from getting closer, as a sign of intent that it was going to keep going, yet it didn’t do anything else for the rest of the fight...
And this is what I meant by an appearance, that doesn’t lead to anything, changing the perspective of a character - Infernape is now getting compared to Talonflame, as opposed to Charizard and Greninja...great.

 

[swiftgallade46]

I find even stranger how Infernape stopped Ash from getting closer, as a sign of intent that it was going to keep going, yet it didn’t do anything else for the rest of the fight...
And this is what I meant by an appearance, that doesn’t lead to anything, changing the perspective of a character - Infernape is now getting compared to Talonflame, as opposed to Charizard and Greninja...great.

Well yeah, they’re both going to be compared because they’re the only two that fought Moltres. But that doesn’t make them automatically equal to one another. You’d still have to look at their battles as a whole, especially since the end result for both of them in the Moltres fight was the same.

Like I said, I do still think the appearance had some merit given how it added a bit to Infernape’s characterization. I do wish it did better in the battle though.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

Well yeah, they’re both going to be compared because they’re the only two that fought Moltres. But that doesn’t make them automatically equal to one another. You’d still have to look at their battles as a whole, especially since the end result for both of them in the Moltres fight was the same.

Like I said, I do still think the appearance had some merit given how it added a bit to Infernape’s characterization. I do wish it did better in the battle though.

And the comparison hurts me. As much as I love the Kalos squad, there’s the undeniable aspect that if Infernape is being comapred in the same ball-park as Talonflame, and despite me still knowing Infernape is stronger than Talonflame, there’s going to be people that make the comparison. And quite clearly, Greninja is stronger than Talonflame, so putting two-and-two together...some people may look down on Infernape.
I know it’s daft to think strength holds any value to a Pokemon by the way, so maybe it’s best if I let this go.

I agree with everything else you said, and those reasons are why I don’t consider Infenrpae’s appearance to be worthless/click-baiting, as it at least leads to some moments where it shows off its development from being afraid of Zangoose, all the way to challenging a monster like Moltres.

 

[KrspaceT]

Hey, Ash got grumpy about Goh getting distracted by a Pidgeotto while looking for Infernape! Hooray(?) Also Goh why not train your Pidgey and evolve it if you are apparently bad at catching Pidgeotto?

Also my take is that the animators just only drew some of the Ash team and the overall roster is still all around, they just didn't want to doodle them all in motion versus a big still like at the end of BW.

....Is Gary meant to be a strawman to those who don't like Goh? At the very least is he just wagging his finger at those of us who don't like Goh. At the very least I can appreciate the dynamic and glad Gary and Ash are still pretty on level with each other.

Burn Up!?

Battle could have used work

The Project Mew Trainer, Asahi, my guess is that she's going to get popular....you know, in that way that female characters get.

 

[swiftgallade46]

And the comparison hurts me. As much as I love the Kalos squad, there’s the undeniable aspect that if Infernape is being comapred in the same ball-park as Talonflame, and despite me still knowing Infernape is stronger than Talonflame, there’s going to be people that make the comparison. And quite clearly, Greninja is stronger than Talonflame, so putting two-and-two together...some people may look down on Infernape.
I know it’s daft to think strength holds any value to a Pokemon by the way, so maybe it’s best if I let this go.

I agree with everything else you said, and those reasons are why I don’t consider Infenrpae’s appearance to be worthless/click-baiting, as it at least leads to some moments where it shows off its development from being afraid of Zangoose, all the way to challenging a monster like Moltres.

Again, that’s totally fair. Honestly, there’s always going to be people making those kinds of comparisons, I wouldn’t let it get to you. People were doing it long before this episode and they’ll probably continue doing it after. But no matter what you’ll still have your own view of Infernape and that’s what matters.

 

[Beary]

Can we all just agree that we’re happy that when goh used cinderace that it didn’t do a pyro ball and OHKO moltres and then he throws a normal pokeball and catches it

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Flamethrower was absorbed by Moltres and Hydro Pump simply got vaporized upon contact. So, I guess we can't say that Infernape and Blastoise landed a "hit", because Moltres didn't even try to dodge them at first, probably because it knew it could just deflect those moves. The first attack that managed to deal any damage was Blastoise's Water Pulse (although admittedly, the way it was animated it looked more like a dual Hydro Pump)

Hydro Pump did hit. It just produced some steam upon impact.

Can we all just agree that we’re happy that when goh used cinderace that it didn’t do a pyro ball and OHKO moltres and then he throws a normal pokeball and catches it

Moltres has already taken damage by that point anyway, no longer would've resisted Fire moves because it used Burn Up, and Goh obviously was only attempting to record a video of Moltres, not catch it.

 

[Kurolegacy]

You know, this episode created a minor plot hole with an earlier Journeys episode. Back in the Dragonite Island episode, Go wasn’t able to catch any of the Dratini evolution line because he had wasted them all on attempts at capturing Dewgong yet here when he failed to capture Pidgeotto, he used the same pokeball to try to capture Onix thus showing that even a ball that fails to capture a Pokémon is still usable unlike the games. So given that, how did Go run out of pokeballs?

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

You know, this episode created a minor plot hole with an earlier Journeys episode. Back in the Dragonite Island episode, Go wasn’t able to catch any of the Dratini evolution line because he had wasted them all on attempts at capturing Dewgong yet here when he failed to capture Pidgeotto, he used the same pokeball to try to capture Onix thus showing that even a ball that fails to capture a Pokémon is still usable unlike the games. So given that, how did Go run out of pokeballs?

I’d imagine they sank to the bottom of the sea when it bounced off Dewgong, evidently creating more global warming and pollution, and harm towards other water-types, problems in the process.

 

[Kurolegacy]

I’d imagine they sank to the bottom of the sea when it bounced off Dewgong, evidently creating more global warming and pollution, and harm towards other water-types, problems in the process.

Don’t think that’s it because it even showed a growing pile of pokeballs floating on the water’s surface. Plus we’ve seen numerous times in the past that pokeballs can float.