Review S14 EP42: Club Battle Finale: A Hero's Outcome!

[Serperiority]

This was a decent episode. Just glad to see the Club Tournament over. I swear, Hearthome Tag Battles are way more interesting than this.

I wasn't really paying attention to the battle because I was preparing breakfast, but I do agree that Iris had a cheap loss. She obviously had the upper hand.

I'm also getting tired of the running gags used over and over again. At first, I enjoyed Bianca and Zorua, but now I'm just plain sick of it.

 

[Grave-E]

I'd have been totally OK with this episode if it weren't for the unforgivable amount of stock footage they used for the final bout of the tournament. While I'm glad Excadrill got a battle and a win, the fact that they squandered Tamagawa's skills was a huge letdown.
Really don't know why they've been resorting to that tactic so much this series, especially when they've weeded out most of the crap ADs at this point.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Axew and Iris move one level up on the badass, meter loved Outrage ^_^

 

[Shinneth]

I was distracted by my mom for a good chunk of the episode, but I did notice how fast the battles prior to Ash/Iris went and how amazingly fucking bullshit Iris/Luke was. Axew, a goddamn baby, learning the most powerful physical Dragon-type move out of nowhere AND getting it right on the first go (yeah, let's just forget how many episodes it took for the goddamn thing to learn Dragon Rage!). What's next, Draco Meteor? Roar of Time? Spacial Rend? Anything otherwise would be all downhill from there, wouldn't it? Why couldn't it just have evolved to Fraxure instead? It still would've been a cheap win, but at least I could suspend my disbelief a little better and accept that convenience.

So was it implied that Ash knew Iris would be using Excadrill for the final battle? Ash had to send out his Pokemon first, so once he sent Pikachu, there was nothing he could really do to help his situation. To Ash's credit, he did put up a hell of a fight for being so horrendously nerfed (the rare instance of a type advantage working in this series and it STILL manages to piss me off), but other than trying to make do with Iron Tail, I didn't see much of a strategy going on for either side. With Ash it's understandable because he can only do so much with two very ineffective moves (at least Electric-type attacks could be used for interrupting energy-based attacks), Iris just had the ball in her court from the beginning, and when your final battle in a tournament is a foregone conclusion, then the writers are doing it wrong. Iris had no fucking strategy whatsoever, it was just barrage with attacks until the yellow rat went down. That combined with the abuse of repeated animation frames just made this final battle a bust.

And no, I am not assuming Iris did any training off-screen. Maybe I've just been spoiled by the way DP did things, but nowadays I like seeing supposed protagonists actually WORK for their damn rewards. Besides that, what point was there in Iris winning? I didn't feel happy for her; the final segments of the episode just felt wrong. All I feel is bitterness from a waste of potential this 4-episode arc was, marred with crappy or rushed battles, DEMs, and jokes that were ruthlessly run into the ground.

At least Cilan and Burgundy weren't utterly ruined with the trainwreck that tore everyone else's credibility apart. That's about the only nice thing I can say for this episode... and the whole arc, honestly. Thank god it's over.

I gotta look over the Hearthome Tag Battle arc again and ask myself what happened repeatedly now.

 

[Torterra Trainer]

The thing that really strikes me the most is when Ash told Pikachu to use Thunderbolt on Excadrill and said that the first move will win it, but then he said that it was a sign that Pikachu was ready to win.

That is complete and total BULL CRAP. Ash, you are such a loser, just admit that you forgot that ground types aren't affected by electric-type moves already, and that you really thought it would work. None of that, 'that was just a sign,' crap.

Anyway, Axew learning Outrage was pretty unbelievable, but it sure beat Golett's metallic butt into the ground. Tré cool. Oh, and mi likie French Cilan, he sounds really cool, at least to someone that wouldn't know fake French from the real thing.

 

[Karamazov]

I noticed that the whole arc's worth is inversely proportional to Jimmy Ray's screentime: the less he appears, the crappier the Club Battle episode will be, kyu. Just imagine the awesomeness it would be if Jimmy Ray was in the finals instead of Ash or Iris.

All-in-all, this arc wasn't that bad, kyu. It had flaws, but it wasn't the worst thing ever. (Don't.) Here's hoping we get another, less clusterfucky Club Battle tournament in the future, kyu.

 

[Bandit Keith]

Did Luke's Golett learn a new move off-screen? Let's count...Shadow Ball, Shadow Punch, Mega Punch, Double Team, Gyro Ball?!

Why is nobody harping on that discrepancy?

That's more unrealistic than Axew's Outrage or Iris winning the tourney.

Iris and Axew are at least seen training once in a while.

When does Luke, who is a film maker, train his co-director Pokémon to use a new move while making a documentary, battling in said documentary, and protecting Zorua from Bianca?

How about that for a isshuXD nobody realized because Iris haters focus on Iris?

(I'm just walking away...)

 

[alypkm]

AAAHHH and finally these ridicules don shit tournament is over,I hope they never do it again (unless they change the writers )

and again pikachu loses,I dont have any problem with iris winning,but...I just can't understand why pikachu is losing over and over and over again ?!? I feel like they want us to hate him.

I wish we would never see another silly gathering of the characters,because its too much for us to see the worst of every single character in one episode. this is like a punishment.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

Hey, blame the writers and not the characters they write.

You can look at it that way, but then we might as well drop all the ongoing debate topics and just blame the writers for everything we dislike, shouldn't we?

Plus, there are a lot of factors that drove this arc to the ground other than Iris. Bad gags, rushed battles, time constraints, little character development and overall bad writing. If the arc took it's time and set things up better, we wouldn't have so many problems.

I, personally, didn't mind most of those too much (at least not to the point where they would have ruined the whole tourney).

- Bad gags? Didn't really mind those, unlike most. A minor nuisance, anyway.
- Rushed battles? Not the first time we've had those, and the writers can only do so much in four episodes. Extending the tourney isn't a necessary option either.
- Time constraints? See above.
- Character development? I'll give you that one, but the one character who needed that more than anyone else was... Iris (which actually furthers my point than anything else). Instead of spending all of her time outside of battles bickering with Georgia -which by itself is still a good thing to build her chemistry with her rival- why not take some time here to develop her character to make up for the lack of it up to this point?

All of those points pale in comparison to Iris winning a whole tournament when she did nothing to deserve it. She had no on-screen training (aside from training Axew with Scraggy, which is done more for comic relief than anything else and not enough to earn Axew any legit wins) and had an Emolga that did whatever she wanted until she just decided to listen to Iris just because it was a convenient time for Iris. There was zero foreshadowing or development leading up to this victory. So why go that route?

Not to mention that Axew learning Outrage was no different than other Pokemon learning more out of nowhere. Why single this one out?

Because unlike other Pokemon when they pulled new moves from nowhere, they didn't just get an insta-win; they still had to fight their way to victory. When Squirtle learned Hydro Pump, when Noctowl learned Confusion, or when Buizel learned Water Pulse, they didn't just plow through their opponents until they were KO'ed, they still had to put in some effort to win. With Axew, as soon as he learned Outrage, he just effortlessly pummels Golett with no struggle and without Iris giving the command, as I already mentioned. Another reason why that was an undeserving win: Iris did not actually win that battle; Axew, and Axew alone, did that. Instead, Iris just stands there watching Axew pound Golett while commenting on what he's doing without doing her job as Axew's trainer.

Also as I already mentioned (how much of my post did you actually read?), the real issue is how Axew was able to effortlessly learn one of the most powerful Dragon-type moves -and at the most convenient time, no less- when it took a lot of time and effort just trying to perfect Dragon Rage. Not to mention Axew winning his first real battle and has never been shown to be very good at battles at all in the first place. Too good to be true, if you ask me.

I don't hate Iris but she could've been so much better. If she was a girl who liked to act tough and brag only to get her comeuppance, I'd be fine. Finer if the writers used this to develop her. At least let her bad traits mellow out over the episodes. It's like the writers just don't care anymore.

She just needs proper development, period.

Did Luke's Golett learn a new move off-screen? Let's count...Shadow Ball, Shadow Punch, Mega Punch, Double Team, Gyro Ball?!

Why is nobody harping on that discrepancy?

Uh, because Luke is not a main character and therefore can't be expected to have on-screen development (not like how they do, anyway). Otherwise, everyone's victories outside of those who are in the main cast would automatically be non-legitimate. And you're assuming Golett learned most of those moves just prior to the Club Battle Tourney, or acting like it pulled those moves during a battle at the most convenient time.

 

[MizuTaipu]

I still don't mind the fact that Iris won, probably because no body really expected her to win from the start. Her VS Luke win, however, brings back Haruka's-Zenigame/Eevee-learns-a-new-move-at-the-last-second memories. Her sudden character derailment is also a bad bonus. :-(

This episode is just another testament to the wish that Akihiro Tamagawa should really be the series's top animation director. I seriously love his character designs, especially the way he draws the characters' eyes! :-D His animation is really a breath of fresh air considering the other animation directors use the boring carbon-copy Sugimori character designs.

 

[Dogasu]

I hope everyone paid attention to the Team Rocket scene this time around.

Seriously. It was really annoying how people ignored it when this episode first aired in Japan and then acted all surprised to learn that Meowth was doing exactly what he said he was doing in this episode when the Battle Subway two-parter comes around. He makes his scheme super obvious here, but people still acted surprised.

Pay attention this time around, please.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

Granted, Ash winning the tournament would have been a tad too predictable, but he still deserved to win it more than anyone else -and certainly more than Iris.

Ah yes, May's infamous Squirtle. Now there's a Pokemon who magically pulled a powerful move at a convenient time to escape a dangerous situation-Ice Beam to escape a Spider Web and freeze Ariados. And yet, look at how much hate that little guy got during its run. What makes Axew any different?

 

[matt0044]

You can look at it that way, but then we might as well drop all the ongoing debate topics and just blame the writers for everything we dislike, shouldn't we?

I just don't feel it's right to place the blame on characters whose actions are controlled by real people. As Tsutaja said, you guys tend to treat characters like real people and it feels a bit weird to me. Not that debating is bad...

- Bad gags? Didn't really mind those, unlike most. A minor nuisance, anyway.
- Rushed battles? Not the first time we've had those, and the writers can only do so much in four episodes. Extending the tourney isn't a necessary option either.
- Time constraints? See above.

Well, it is pretty subjective so I won't argue on that. But I still wish it was more than just 4 episodes. Like the writers really took their time to set things up and plan things out instead of taking the easy ways out, making this 10 episodes or more.

- Character development? I'll give you that one, but the one character who needed that more than anyone else was... Iris (which actually furthers my point than anything else). Instead of spending all of her time outside of battles bickering with Georgia -which by itself is still a good thing to build her chemistry with her rival- why not take some time here to develop her character to make up for the lack of it up to this point?

All of those points pale in comparison to Iris winning a whole tournament when she did nothing to deserve it. She had no on-screen training (aside from training Axew with Scraggy, which is done more for comic relief than anything else and not enough to earn Axew any legit wins) and had an Emolga that did whatever she wanted until she just decided to listen to Iris just because it was a convenient time for Iris. There was zero foreshadowing or development leading up to this victory. So why go that route?

Okay, I agree. They really should've took the time to develop Iris as well as Ash and Cilan (and perhaps Trip and the others) but, then again, this is the Pokemon Anime and Best Wishes at that. Real character development and good storytelling is scarce these days so this arc was no different.

Because unlike other Pokemon when they pulled new moves from nowhere, they didn't just get an insta-win; they still had to fight their way to victory. When Squirtle learned Hydro Pump, when Noctowl learned Confusion, or when Buizel learned Water Pulse, they didn't just plow through their opponents until they were KO'ed, they still had to put in some effort to win. With Axew, as soon as he learned Outrage, he just effortlessly pummels Golett with no struggle and without Iris giving the command, as I already mentioned. Another reason why that was an undeserving win: Iris did not actually win that battle; Axew, and Axew alone, did that. Instead, Iris just stands there watching Axew pound Golett while commenting on what he's doing without doing her job as Axew's trainer.

You have a point buuuuutttt Outrage seems to be a powerful move and Axew seemed to have been out of control.

Also as I already mentioned (how much of my post did you actually read?), the real issue is how Axew was able to effortlessly learn one of the most powerful Dragon-type moves -and at the most convenient time, no less- when it took a lot of time and effort just trying to perfect Dragon Rage. Not to mention Axew winning his first real battle and has never been shown to be very good at battles at all in the first place. Too good to be true, if you ask me.

You're right and the writers really could've made the battle better. You also could apply that statement to the whole saga.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Well, I’m not going to lie up front I’m one of those users (that saw when this episode came out in Japan) who talked about how Iris was like that spoiled little brother or sister that gets their way no matter what, and that was what it was in this tournament for Iris; Emolga obeyed her without question, Axew learns one of the most powerful Dragon-type moves and wins its first official battle against a trained Pokemon (aside from those practice ones with Scraggy) and Excadrill wins the tournament for her sort of like when they won in that tournament in the Village of Dragons in the past.

The one thing that got me to thinking about how Pikachu vs. Excadrill was a good match is this; how many times in the past against a Ground-type did Pikachu actually put up a descent fight?

Think about it Pikachu with only Iron Tail and Quick Attack to actually do damage (very little if any damage that is) got creamed and quickly by Katie’s Dugtrio, Jasmine’s Steelix, Morrison’s Steelix and others (let’s not include battles where Electric moves magically did damage to Ground-types). It got knocked out quickly but here I guess it lasted longer for the sake of the final battle not ending in less than a minute.

Scratch on a Ghost-type? Oh Iris, you are such a kid!

 

[J J M]

I noticed that the whole arc's worth is inversely proportional to Jimmy Ray's screentime: the less he appears, the crappier the Club Battle episode will be, kyu. Just imagine the awesomeness it would be if Jimmy Ray was in the finals instead of Ash or Iris.

All-in-all, this arc wasn't that bad, kyu. It had flaws, but it wasn't the worst thing ever. (Don't.) Here's hoping we get another, less clusterfucky Club Battle tournament in the future, kyu.

You mean directly proportional. *shot*

 

[Moe]

Scratch on a Ghost-type? Oh Iris, you are such a kid!

This.

While there's other flaws here, my main complaint is that there is no reason that justifies Ash, knowing all the Pokemon Iris has, to not have picked Palpitoad? For Pikachu - Excadrill is resistant against all of the moves it can do, for Axew the best is doing normal damage, for Emolga it has one resistance and no super effectives. Except for Excadrill, Snivy is about the same; but Palpitoad has two super effective types over Excadrill and at least equal to Snivy/Pikachu on the others (especially as Emolga doesn't know any flying type moves). It's not like he was battling someone who could surprise him with a different Pokemon. The only way Ash could have chosen worse than Pikachu would have been Roggenrola. I'm surprised Ash didn't just yell out 'aim for the horn'.

That said, both battles were at least entertaining, regardless of the other issues, Axew vs Gollet was hilarious. I'm okay with Axew learning a new move there, extreme pressure is a case where people can do things they didn't think they could, I think it's fine that the same happens with learning a new move. I also thought the Cilan/Burgundy thing was well handled. Bianca was annoying again, but didn't take up too much screen time. Pikachu spinning was good though, a slight glimmer of hope Ash will start battling like he used to, even if it wasn't a true counter shield.

 

[Likeitornot.]

I will talk about other elements in this episode before I discuss the topic of to Iris' battles:
- Although we all knew the CoTD Dino would lose to Ash, rthat was a non-brainer, as the last CoTD in the whole Tournament, he shouldv'e had a bit more to say. Or a better character. Or transform into Watchog Man.
- "Homestretch"? Is that some American phrase? Because I've never heard that being said over here...
- I loved the scenes with TR. They were very suave, and sinister.
- Poor Luke. He should know better than to entrust his camera and sound equipment to Bianca. However, I did love when Bianca riled him up about not being a proper Film Director if he would allow to be restricted. It was a slight Zorua free moment, and it was cute.
- Oh, Cilan and Burgundy. I remember watching this back in August and I did dearly hope that they would keep in their scenes in the Dub. They were so cute! I love how Cilan asks her to join them for Dinner, but I wished her stomach would've grumbled when she told them that she already had a fabulous dinner.
However, the Sommelier showdown! Or the Connoisseur Battle, as you like. Their TR-eqsue Tasting motto won my adoration, and this time around, it was no different.
Still, I think that Cilan's phrases are more eloquent in the original. I could be wrong, though. I love Burgundy's little confession to herself that Cilan really is. It's one step closer to love a beautiful rivalry, and they're very compatible. Also, Cilan talks in French to her, how cute.

Right... moving on to the battles...
- I love how Golett itches himself lazily after Axew uses Scratch with no effect. That is hilarious.
- As soon as the dramatic music comes on with Golett's Gyro Ball, one would think that Golett was going to win, even Cilan knows that Kibago's moveset hasn't a chance. Especially when Kibago used "the flee from the Golett" tactic. If Golett wasn't so slow, he would've crushed him in that scene. And if Kibbago didn't suddenly learn a new move, gee thanks, Writers. However, I'm glad they displayed that Outrage causes confusion from fatigue.
- Exadrill is a formidable opponent, and it was clear that he would win. Still, it was nice to see that Pikachu kept in there.
- I wished she didn't mail those "beautiful seven top-class driftveil wing-set" to her home. It would have been interesting if the Anime showed their uses, and it would also show that Iris is a dedicated trainer somewhat at least, by curiousity to the wing-set's Powers for her Pokemon.

Really, the only aspect that made this episode enjoyable for me was Cilan and Burgundy. I nearly didn't care who won, due to them.

 

[Thingamajig]

Thank god! That onslaught of poorly dubbed rival character quirks which almost made me pine for the days of rhyming, alliterative Team Rocket is finally over! I don't know if he's entirely to blame - but Tom Wayland's ADR direction for characters that have an unusual manner of speaking, catchphrases or running gags sounds so forced, and it really shows in this arc where every quirky character introduced over the last 8 months comes together. Burgundy's French, Stephan's "SAY MY NAME RIGHT", Georgia's vendetta against Iris - the delivery all sounded so rigid. At least it's back to just Cilan's awkward insertion of food references into everything next week. (and maybe DP Meowth *shudder*)

Anyway, that's all over for now, and so is the Club Battle tournament. I don't think it's so wrong for Iris to have won - Excadrill has been shown to be a fairly powerful Pokemon, and regardless of how amazing Pikachu's meant to be - all of its attacks were resisted to some degree by Excadrill. Besides, Ash winning a filler arc tournament doesn't really add anything to his character, he's won plenty of stuff like this before. Iris needed it more to further establish that she's actually a competent battler.

Axew going batshit psycho on Golett was pretty cool, too.

 

[Caseydia]

If they do another mini tournament, I hope the scrip won't be as bad as this again. This is the worst since the bug catching contest.

 

[Idon'tcare]

What a magnificent battle, it was fabulous and had lots of flare. It was truly the battle of the tournament.....

Seriously the Cilan vs Burgundy Pokémon Connoisseur battle was amazing, I look forward to their next round.














Oh and Ash vs Iris was cool as well. I liked the nod to Sinnoh with Pikachu's spinning Iron Tail. And well done to Iris, she has come a long way from earlier in the series.

Yeah I can see why people had a problem with Axew suddenly learning Outrage out of the blue and her Emolga suddenly obeying Iris without question. But other than that, Iris's battling problems stopped from the moment Axew finally mastered Dragon Rage and Exacadrill finally opened up to her. By the way I completely forgot about Axew learning Outrage until I saw it mentioned somewhere because it's been a while (in the upcoming episodes) since he used it again. Iris and Excadrill both put up a good fight, as did Ash and Pikachu, I would have been happy if either Ash or Iris won and I would have even been so if it was a tie. I thought Iris's battle in the final round made up for that one particular problem which bothered most problem in the semi-round battle between her and Luke.

While the battles weren't anything special or magnificent, I did enjoy the interactions between the characters. In fact I swear this tournament was more focused on the character interactions than the actual battles. It's a shame Trip missed out on it all, but he isn't the kind of person who would be easy to interact with, plus the writers want to develop Trip's character slowly due to him being Ash's main rival. Also I never got tired of the gags in this arc as I don't look too much into what I watch. Plus the name gimmick for Stephan didn't really have the same entertaining value as it did with Butch and Dr. Namba (maybe it's how he reacts towards it?). By doing that I find it's much easier to enjoy the show. I always except what the writers do as I know I have no way of changing it even if something did bother me.

Burgundy now understands Cilan being an A-Class Pokémon Connoisseur actually means something. The Pokémon Connoisseur battle is the first time Burgundy experienced Cilan's evaluating close hand, when previously she hated him so much that in her mind she was always convinced he sucked at evaluating- yelling in rage and making lots of snide comments. Despite the fact that she paid the most attention to it as was seen in last week's episode. And now Burgundy finally sees Cilan's evaluating is indeed suited for an A-Class Connoisseur and she realizes his evaluating tops hers. Now both Cilan and Burgundy are on friendly terms with each other and the shippers couldn't be happier.