Review S12 EP24: Pillars of Friendship!

[Ampharos King]

In this episode, Ash and co. follow Brandon to the Snowpoint Temple. While there, they encounter Pokemon Hunter J.

- The priestess and Brandon's referee brief the group on the situation. Ash and co. insist on going along. Team Rocket overhears and, of course, they follow them as well.
- Reason unknown?
- Ash is oblivious to any legends involving legendary pokemon in the main series anime.
- Regigigas legend.
- Team Rocket blasting off, eh, falling off the Battle Pyramid. lol
- There are just so many steel-type pokemon. And somehow, they were easily fended off.
- Ash and co. arrive in the temple. Apparently the henchmen outside decided to let them in because their pokemon couldn't stop them.
- J destroys the three pillars. Regigigas is finally awake and goes berserk.
- Too many Hyper Beams; can't Regigigas use anything else?
- Epic clash between the Regirock/ice/steel and Regigigas.
- Regigigas is paralyzed and all Brock has to say is that "it felt that..."?
- Brandon is no different; he wants to capture Gigas too.
- The three Regi are being controlled by Regigigas. While the first three Regi died, Brandon's three Regi are now the new pillars.
- Tean Rocket blasted off a second time this episode.
- Every episode must have a Brock lovescene. This was a plan?
- Somehow J's machine won against FOUR legendary pokemon?! That's not right. Oh, here's the finishing blow.
- One by one, the Regi are being turned to statues. Brandon then turns to a statue.
- Regigigas then saves itself and the group. J leaves because her clients "were scared by the commotion."
- That's Hidden Power?
- Regigigas turns itself back to a shining stone. Have the Regi become the three guarding pillars? Those pillars can easily be destroyed again. It would be pointless.
- And at long last, the Snowpoint Arc finally ends. To Be Continued

 

[ashfangirl]

Oh good God, J again?

*sigh* well let's go then, I guess.

-I'm gonna guess J's going after Regiggigas?
-Why do they all ask everything in sinc???
-I love the dramatic 3-D effects for the Battle Pyramid taking off.
-I'll never get tired of the opening!
-Oh dear God. Here it comes, another legend telling...
-Seriously, this episode has alot of cool 3-D effects.
-Wait, in Lucario And The Mystery Of Mew, didn't Ash say Reg-ee-ice, but now they're saying Reg-ice?
-They should know by now if someone says a legend in this show, it's obviously true...

 

[Jukain]

Wow, my notions of the purpose of the Regis was right, sort of. Dag at the army of Steel types. A flying car. What were you going to do by running towards the Hyper Beam? Wow, a legend's power supercedes that of the pokeball's return power. "This is awfully early for a blast off" No, it's not. XD, they thought Brock intended to have Croagunk jab him. Brandon sacrificed himself to calm Gigas. o.o Yes! Something smashed the gold beam. Hidden Power does NOT do that. Brandon's going to park his pyramid at Snowpoint to defend Regigigas? That was a neat ep.

 

[Luna Tiger]

God, I hate Ash's enthusiasm. "HAY GAIS, LET'S GO FACE THIS ISSUE."

J/Brandon - prior meeting? 8D

LOVE J EPISODES. They make the most of the dramatic action sequences.

For all your shouting, Brandon, You aren't doing SHIT to stop her. Come one, come on, this could have been so awesome! Missed opportunity says what?

Oh dammit, the steel pillar and the rock both missed squishing Ash. x.< Annoyed.

Spoke too soon Brock.

Ash is so still annoying. Why does he have to be the one that goes, "N, STOP!" because they're so going to to listen to a little insect like you.

So if it wasn't angry when it went to sleep, and it PUT itself to sleep...um, it shouldn't have a reason to be all RAGECAP HYPERBEAMING. Stupid plotpoint is stupid. Make a legend that makes sense for its reaction, pls.

Holy crap, DID YOU SEE how Brock just bumped Dawn out of the way during the love sequence?

OH GOOD GOD, NOT AGAIN. But least it wasn't Ash. Or if it was, I demand his statue be shattered.

Brandon's suggestion to Maria? That sounded like a marriage proposal. Shibby. *except Samuel would be jealous...of Maria, not Brandon* So is he staying in Snowpoint forever? Sucks for the Battle Frontier.

 

[Piplup]

they thought Brock intended to have Croagunk jab him.

"Thought"? As far as I remember, Brock clearly did intend on Croagunk attacking him so he'd get free
But it was months since I watched this so I might be wrong...

 

[Lugnut]

I like J episodes, they always seem to have a good ammount of action. To bad she never eally is sucessful in her captures. Good all around episode, but I did think Ash was a little bit dense here. Could have done more then shout "hey, stop" to Regiggigas, like its gonna listen.

 

[TheArsenalRisen]

First episode I've seen in a while, pretty cool! I enjoyed it, even if I came in halfway through. Hunter J episodes seem interesting, though I wasn't pleased to see Brandon again (for some reason, I just don't like him).

 

[Sleet]

That was a pretty good episode. I especially liked Brock getting freed by Croagunk. If it was intentional, it was awesome. If it wasn't, it was funny. It's good either way.

Also, add this to the huge and constantly growing list of episodes in which Team Rocket shouldn't have appeared.

 

[Musashi]

Brock getting poison jabbed was intentional. Not sure why there's confusion on that.

Sigh, more dub music. They sure do love replacing music in epic episodes.

This episode didn't really work for me. All everyone did was just shout at J to stop it seemed.

Also, add this to the huge and constantly growing list of episodes in which Team Rocket shouldn't have appeared.

QFT. Their comic relief in the middle of the episode was especially jarring and unneeded.

 

[NoodleChefKyle]

QFT. Their comic relief in the middle of the episode was especially jarring and unneeded.

QFT? What does that mean?

Anyway, I never expected Regigigas to be all ragey right off the bat. I thought it would take a minute because of Slow Start.

I LOVE Hunter J episodes! She's even meaner than Paul! That's what a villain needs to be!

 

[Piplup]

QFT? What does that mean?

Quoted For Truth

 

[Meowth]

I thought this was a cool episode. The only think that sort of annoyed me was all the dub music. I always enjoy the Hunter J episodes. They have a good amount of action. And, I guess I've been pronouncing "Regigigas" wrong all this time. I say it differently than they did in the episode. xD Is Brandon just going to stay in Snowpoint forever? What about the Battle Frontier? :O
7/10

 

[Thingamajig]

Decent episode, could've benefited from being a two-parter, especially with that rushed ending.

The especially liked the music this time - I don't know which was Japanese or dub, but t all fit the mood. And that silence when J was briefing her men in the canyon was very intense.

Title card remains without Badge 7

 

[Queen Cynthia]

(Only one page in this thread so far? I'm somewhat surprised)


Today, I'm writing this preview with mixed feelings to be honest. Normally, you would expect that this kind of episodes should make me perfectly happy, but, I'm afraid that today's episode didn't quite live up to my expectations. Let me explain why:

On the one hand, last week's epic feeling continued and the episode sure was breath-taking in terms of action. But on the other hand it didn't feel as epic as it could have, firstly because it was too rushed and secondly because I realized too many inconsistencies. Let me explain that in detail:

I would have wished that this had been a two-parter. Only one episode was definitely too short and thus inapproriate, yes, I dare say even unworthy for such an epic plot. hdear:
Secondly, and thia is what actually bothered me, the episode had conspicuously many mistakes in terms of consistency:
- Hunter J was portrayed way too strong. I mean she and Salamence were hit by the attacks of ALL THREE REGIS and were still able to fly and fight. These were the same three Pokemon who defeated Paul's Pokemon with one or two attacks at the most and now we're expected to believe that Salamence was able to take three attacks simultaneously without being knocked out??? No that's cheap and highly implausible. J isn't a member of the Elite Four after all... She didn't even fall off...that's at least what you would expect after the impact of three powerful attacks... No, no ,no I won't put up with that! Neither is she that athletic nor can her Salamence be that strong. No...:complain:

-But unlike Hunter J, Regigigas was portrayed too weak. According to the Pokedex entry, it can even move whole continents. Sure, we mustn't always trust the Pokedex information entirely, because it tends to exaggerate a bit sometimes, but, nevertheless, it's the "Super-Regi" and you'd normally expect his power to be a teensy bit more impressive and not just limited to Huper Beams which didn't do that much damage either. I mean , Regigigas's attacks didn't look much different from those of the other Regis. Entirely unacceptable, however, was the fact that 4 legendary Pokemon couldn't effectively defend themselves against a flying machine made by humans... I can't help it but that was pretty disappointing storytelling.

-

Regigigas turns itself back to a shining stone. Have the Regi become the three guarding pillars? Those pillars can easily be destroyed again. It would be pointless.

Believe it or not, but that's exactly what I thought as well. If you ask me, this was pretty confusing and didn't round off the episode at all. On the contrary, it somehow left the audience with a strange, unharmonious feeling

Well, despite the negative aspect mentioned above there were great scenes as well, of course. Regirock, Registeel and Regice fighting and almost defeating Regigigas was another impressive battle after last week's one (though it also proved how weak Regigigas was actually made by the writers hdear, Brandon sacrificing himself in order to protect Regigigas was a perfect example of how to act heroicly and all those action scenes really fascinated me.

All in all, I don't quite know what to make of today's episode. I haven't decided yet whether the negative aspects outnumbered the positive ones or vice versa.

So, a somehow clueless Queen Cynthia is giving
6.5/7 out of 10 points

 

[Shift]

Entirely unacceptable, however, was the fact that 4 legendary Pokemon couldn't effectively defend themselves against a flying machine made by humans... I can't help it but that was pretty disappointing storytelling.

A quibble, but weren't the Regis themselves created by humans? (What I got from the Braille message in Ru/Sa.) Maybe the ship was more, y'know, advanced?

 

[Cybersai]

This is basically as action-packed as the anime gets outside the movies, so I see no reason not to love this episode.

Yeah Hunter J eps are often rushed, but that's because the writers still have no clue how to pace a story arc.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

So that's three for three. Three gigantic airships that go crash in the pursuit of a legendary. And frankly, J, the odds of your smaller craft surviving the Coronet plot don't look good with that kind of track record.

 

[J J M]

Meh, it could have been way better. Not saying it was bad but it didn't feel all that impressive. This ep particularly needed to be a two-parter. Oh well.

The music wasn't all that bad. It had some good ones as well, both dub and Japanese, so really can't complain with that one.

Brandon's suggestion to Maria? That sounded like a marriage proposal. Shibby. *except Samuel would be jealous...of Maria, not Brandon*

I noticed that as well. Maria's reaction didn't help things either. Too bad she's a nun (or maybe that's what she wants you to think )

EDIT: According to the All-Knowing List, Brandon X Maria is Mamorushipping. Chalk another one up to the list of weird but awesome ships.

 

[Gligarman]

This is the first time I've watched the dub in a while because I initially refused to watch it because it was being broadcast in the wrong aspect ratio. I'm glad to see it's in widescreen finally.

 

[Luxio2k8]

Overall it was a fun and enjoyable episode. Hunter J episodes are also action-packed. Brock’s Crogunk poison jab scene was funny and I was surprised to see that Pyramid King Brandon had a hovercar. I didn’t think those existed in the Pokémon Universe. Maybe you have to be superrich or something to own one?