Review S19 EP41: The Right Hero for the Right Job!

[Neo Blaze]

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Please keep future events in spoiler tags. Thanks.

 

[Sakuraa]

Oh boy, this arc just keeps getting better and better.

Man I miss the days when Hyper Beam actually required users to recharge... Anyway, I liked how Noivern sacrificed himself to save Pikachu...but at the same I'm annoyed that he once again got blown out of a fight super early. I did enjoy Hawlucha taking on his dad role again...right before he got knocked out. Ok, the Gyarados is a monster. I'm glad Bonnie is still trying to save Squishy.

Damn, did Clemont just have Luxray electrocute those 2 grunts. Geez. I love how Clemont distracted Xerosic so Clembot could start his work shutting everything down. Well, at least Serena got to fight a little before Steven came out of nowhere to blast Mabel.

Ok, that MGyardaos is seriously a boss. And poor Goodra, he's just been getting knocked out since he came back. I thought when they showed Ash's original Kalos 3 that things were about to get serious. But no, Talonflame just gets knocked out the second he finally got to attack Am I the only one who thinks it’s funny how Lysandre’s Gyrados doesn't know a single move of its type. I was surprised to see Malva show up opposing Lysandre. I thought she'd appear later as his back up. I'm glad she actually has some sense to realize that there's no reason to destroy the world just to create some changes within it

There's something really messed up about Steven showing up randomly in the middle of this and taking on Team Flare with Ash and Serena while Diantha is still back in the city central guiding the people on the ground imo. She's the Kalos champion, so she should be taking on Team Flare. The rivals and police should be able to handle what going on on the ground (since it seems no one else in Lumiose has any Pokemon to defend themselves or run to a safe location on their own), Diantha should be out there directly defending her region.

I'm really surprised that Sycamore and Mairin left Serena to fight the grunts while they got Chespie. I thought the girls would go for Chespie while Sycamore stayed out. But hey, the more screen time for Serena's other Pokemon the better. But really Mairin? Chespie's fine. Okay, if the fact that he's still in a coma glowing bright green qualities as "fine" to you, who am I to argue.

Damn that was an epic save from Meyer. That wasn't Blaiken Man, that was full on Papa bear mode. He took a damn root to the chest. And Bonnie's song...that was amazing. Probably my favorite part of the episode. Once again, I teared up myself.

I'm incredibly disappointed that Clemont's battle was glossed over through the entire episode. Hell, for a Clemont episode, he barely showed up until the end. I did lol at the fact that Clembot's solution to get rid of Xerosic was to have in fall through a trap on the floor. I appreciated Clemont's scene with Clembot much more in the dub. I actually felt for him more since I could understand the encouraging words Clembot was saying. I still feel that Bonnie and Squishy's scene was done better personally. Dedenne and Blaziken were supporting and protecting Bonnie the entire time, while Clemont's Pokemon just acted like statues the entire time he was having his moment. The scene was fine, but it could have been better. RIP Clembot..you're the really MVP here.

Alright, now let's see what Lysandre's got planned next. This is becoming one of the best villainous arcs. 8.7/10.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

WOW! What a great episode. It sure was worth the wait! There's basically one word that describes it perfectly: Super-intense!

Although I never really liked Bonnie that much, I must say the little girl had one of the most intense scenes today. Even I was moved by her song and her courage!

Another highly emotional moment definitely was Clembot encouraging Clemont and finally sacrificing himself for the greater good! The music when everything was exploding was just overwhelming.

Then Steven appeared, looking really cool. I really liked how he easily took on the Team Flare grunts and protected the others. He's a worthy champion (still far behind Cynthia, of course )

There's something really messed up about Steven showing up randomly in the middle of this and taking on Team Flare with Ash and Serena while Diantha is still back in the city central guiding the people on the ground imo. She's the Kalos champion, so she should be taking on Team Flare. The rivals and police should be able to handle what going on on the ground (since it seems no one else in Lumiose has any Pokemon to defend themselves or run to a safe location on their own), Diantha should be out there directly defending her region.

That's just another proof that she's simply not in the same league as Lance, Steven and the Queen herself!

Ironically, it was the main battle between Ash, Alain and Lysandre that I have to criticize, though. First, I didn't like how Ash's Pokemon, who did so well in the league, were easily taken out one after another while Mega Charizard and Ash-Greninja never really got a chance to shine! Sure, Mega Gyarados was strong but this is Alain who just won the league with his beast of a Charizard and Ash-Greninja whose power was said to reach new heights! What I want to say is I really missed the Ash/Ash-Greninja spirit and the mega Water Shuriken today because if they had shown it, Gyarados and Lysandre would already have been beaten...
Well, I think I can't understand everything the writers come up with, but apart from that little disappointment, it was still an intense and great episode!

 

[Muur]

Lysandre is very strong taking out all those guys from the runner up of the Pokemon League although none of them had swirly eyes so I suppose the didn't actually lose.

Some awesome battles, Steven appearing! Malva turning was quite the shock... especially since it's quite different than the game as well. That admin is dumb lol, how'd he not realise that his machine was being wrecked.

The part where Bonnie saves Squishy was pretty emotional and damn, her Dad right up just jumping into the way. It's a good job that song worked (or more likely the machine being weakend was the true reason ) or else they all kinda would've died there. With two champions and Elite four member, A Timelord and two Legendaries, Lysandre is probably pretty screwed here.

The part where Clembot 'died' was pretty lame though. Not like you can't just reprogram his memories, it's robot.

 

[NeoMiniTails]

Lol Clembot didn't have a cloud service, did it?!

I really liked this episode, much more than the previous dubbed episode. Bonnie (Eureka) stole the show for me in both the JP and English version.

I actually like that Stephen showed up. It really showed the intensity of the situation going on. Yes, I would've loved Cynthia and Looker to be there... but we've had a lot of them for the previous two series. Also, he has a much more "fighter/heroic spirit" than Diantha so it fits that he was fighting rather than her.

Diantha is still doing heroic actions, protecting the civilians. This cannot be undermined.

Very awesome episode.

 

[Syrinaris]

I liked the English dub just as much as the original JP episode. I thought the English VA cast did a very good job. I especially thought Bonnie's VA Alyson R. and Ash's VA Sarah N. brought the emotions of the characters through really well.

I was disappointed that Lysandre basically blew through most of Ash's team with very little effective push-back. And poor Goodra, it gets guillotined during the league arc, and now it gets hyper beamed. In spite of that, I thought the dialogue centered scenes were well written, and came off very well. Malva having an attack of conscious and coming to the rescue was an interesting twist. And Ash's soliloquy here, really stood out for me. You know Lysandre has done a lot of posturing rambling on about everything that's wrong with the PokeWorld, but Ash is just as good at posturing when the occasion calls for it, and what he had to say was a heck of a lot more important than the unhinged blatherings Lysandre was spouting.

I'm surprised that Meyer allowed Bonnie to run off after Squishy like that. I would have thought he would put his foot down and try harder to restrain her. And then he actually takes her into Zygarde's path and deposits her directly in front of it. I mean, Squishy isn't a little core anymore. The size difference is rather noticeable. When her attempt to cut through the mind control fails and Zygarde attacks her, with Meyer taking the hit, it seemed to finally dawn on her that it is not going to be so easy to break down the barrier with just talk. And then she does the only thing she can think of anymore to do. She starts singing. It seemed to me that she might have been singing more for herself than Zygarde. Perhaps trying to bring back the memories, through song, of how her relationship with Squishy was before it all went in the dumper. I thought I would not be quite so affected as I had already seen this, but nope, got me right in the feels again.

Steven sailing down on Metagross was pretty awesome. He says that he realizes Lysandre fooled him, and the world to boot. This suggests to me that he might have been keeping tabs on the news in Kalos and got wind of what had happened with Lysandre's attack on the city. I do agree that it would have been nice if Diantha had been showcased here as taking a more active role in beating back the attack but, based on the scenes of her that we saw during Ash's soliloquy, she's still in the city trying to get most of her citizens out of direct harm's way.

I wish Serena, Augustine, and Mairin would have had more to do than just running through the halls at TF's lab, although it was nice to see Serena doing her best to stave off the TF attack while Mairin & Augustine retrieved Chespie. Very fortunate that Steven showed up, once again, just in the nick of time to assist them.

So watching Clemont & Clembot working together, discussing the situation, and plotting to take down Xerosic was great. It was so nice to see Clemont finally be given some scenes in which he can play hero in his own right. Even though we weren't shown much of the battle between them, I felt the dialogue driven scenes were more important. I love how Clemont stood up to Xerosic and railed against him about the harm his twisted inventions were bringing to the region.
Installing that trapdoor was a pretty nifty bit of inventing. It's such a shame that Clembot couldn't somehow have been separated from the internal system. And I guess, from the way Clembot spoke about his memory being wiped, that Clemont doesn't have a back up system that Clembot was linked to that stored all its experiences in case something would happen. It was so sad to see Clemont struggle with this decision knowing what the end result would be when he pushed that button. I do wish, though, that the animators would have put a little more thought into applying some movement to Luxray, Chespin, & Bunnelby instead of just leaving them static like that.

For me this was another great episode in the TF arc. I look forward to seeing the next dub episode.

 

[Harryghost]

Man, that Mega Gyarados is a beast, single-handedly taking down four of Ash's Pokémon. Even that Charizard of Alain's was having a tough time against it. Also, now that it see it, just how huge is that thing?

I never thought I would see the day when Electric Terrain would knock a person; I know An electric current runs around the battlefiled! when the move is used, but come on writers, it is status move; it must not be used to deal damage. Also, Xerosic is the most chill guy I have seen in this arc.

Wow, Steven Stone finally shows up in the arc. HELL YES! Mable, you don't know when to quit, do you? I am afraid but you cannot beat a Champion with a single Weavile! And am I the only one who freaked out in excitement, when Team Rocket removed their disguises to confront Celosia. Man, I love them when they are serious! Loved them in BW; love them now. Go, go, Team Rocket!!!

Malva's entry was pretty epic. And I was glad and surprised when she sided with Ash and Alain. Poor Lysandre is having it rough with all these betrayals, isn't he? Though, I was/am a bit disappointed that she did not do much to help out the boys.

Coming to the two major parts of the episode (yeah, Serena's group rescuing Chespie is major too, but...), Bonnie causing Squishy to snap out of Team Flare's control by singing Puni-chan's Song was just AMAZING! The entire scene was such beautifully written, and did a brilliant job in representing the connection between not just Bonnie and Squishy, but also with Dedenne and her father. I awed when Squishy let Bonnie stroke it on its head. Just wonderful! Good job there, writers!

Now down to Clemont and Clembot. The entire scene was pretty moving (barring Xerosic being thrown out of the Gym ) and clearly shows how much attached one can be to their non-sentient and artificial beings. Of particular note, the scene when Clembot disconnected from Team Flare's device and started short-circuiting and falling back, combined with the background music, was pretty emotional by my standards, and I legit felt bad for Clemont when he sat on his knees by Clembot and started to weep...

Spoiler: Click at your own risk...

though I know I would have enjoyed it even more, had I prevented me from spoiling myself about Clemont rebuilding Clembot after the Team Flare arc.

WONDERFUL! JUST WONDERFUL! An episode so epic, it deserves nothing less than 10/10.