#sm134

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

the girl who always smokes

Hibiki Tokiwa

[smilingperformer]

Eeeeeeh I’ll have to wait for tomorrow when subtitles drop for SM134. The dialogue is so advanced, I have no idea what the most interesting bits are saying.

But damn, Guzma is an antagonist in a way that he’s not in the league to have fun, but he’s out there to destroy the competitors and..... I kinda got the vibe that he feels the need to prove himself the strongest, from this scene alone:

Like, a little after he’s got Ashirene beaten up real bad with constant poisonings and such, he looks at Kukui and I think he’s sort of asking him ‘did you see that, Kukui?‘. Like, he wants Kukui to acknowledge his strenght here. But then, Kukui’s action seems to throw him off.

Kukui first glances at Guzma, but then changes his view to Suiren instead, as if to ignore him. And the face Guzma has after this is like...

How should I read this face? It kinda looks like he didn’t expect that reaction from him as is in mild shock?

And when Ashirene gets up? Oh now I get it, Guzma thought he had KO’d Ashirene already, but Kukui knew it’s not over, and that’s why he’s in mild shock. He thought he had finished his student already. Ooooooh I like this!

He even kicks the ground the moment he realises he hasn’t KO’d Ashirene yet. Oh boi Guzma is so good in Pokeani! He even gives off this kind of face when Ashirene manages to nullify his Gusokumusha/Golisopod’s Pin Missile attack with Surf.

He didn’t expect that. :D He also kinda shows anger and impatience when the match isn’t over as fast as he thought it’d be, shouting at his Golisopod during some points of their match as well. Oh boi he got anger issues.

Also, his Golisopod is badass, cutting Ashirene’s signature Z-move in half.

With Liquidation move. Holy cow. And Suiren’s face tells it all, she wasn’t expecting that, and she was so shocked by it she didn’t have to command Ashirene at all.

She’s just standing there..... I was hoping for more, but at least she’s shown to be in a shock stance, and she does sound like it too.

What feels very unleague-like, is that Guzma is announced the winner of the round, but no one is cheering! The whole audience is silent. Then Skull Gang breaks the silence but you get my gist. This is why Guzma is a villain. He’s not there to have a good time. He’s there to make the league’s atmosphere the absolute worst. And if he won the league, that would mean the end of the Alola League. Forever. Because letting a un-sporty person win the league wouldn’t feel very sporty, now would it?

Y’know what intriques me about Suiren’s dialogue afterwards thou? She seems calm and all but.... she seems to also acknowledge that despite Guzma’s tactics being brute, cruel and ruthless, he’s not breaking any rules? Mao and Lilie seemed to accuse him of it but, Suiren and Kaki say otherwise? (I actually just got a confirm on this being the actual dialogue on twitter. Glad to have understood it.) Suiren also acknowledged Guzma as a stronger trainer than her, that’s... actually really mature of her. She’s fine with the loss, because she knows she did her best. Y’know... that’s actually what we should expect from her, since she is sorta similar to Satoshi in that regard. Seeing the actual loss scene again, she did show shock in losing the battle. And her voice said so as well. I think the main problem I had with her loss scene was that her face didn’t say it enough.

ANYWHO, some thoughts on their battle. I enjoyed it a ton, as I expected to. I was terrified, due to Golisopod’s gruesome tactics (and being a bugfobic so a bug-type doing something so gruesome just doesn’t help it lol), but I’m also real impressed with the level of strategies Guzma and Golisopod are using. It.... reminds me of both Satoshi and Shinji. Heh. Also impressed with the level of strats Suiren used with Ashirene.

So, what’s up next? Kaki vs Gladion, so the theme there is big brothers. Then Guzma vs Satoshi, theme revolving around the Alola League’s future. I have no doubt in my mind, that Satoshi will beat the crap out of him. Mao did tell Satoshi to revenge Suiren’s loss. :D

[soveryanon]

[rohanite]

Welp, can’t help but be disappointed by that episode, no reference to Ashirene’s past with Team Skull and Suiren’s reaction to her loss is just “Oh well I did my best I’ll just keep training” or something along those lines. I mean it’s respectable, she handled herself in a cool way and I love that moment where Guzma looks at Kukui hoping to see concern over his student

but he instead shows full confidence in Suiren

who then reveals to have been setting up a trap for Guzma all along and manages to pull out a full power Z-move despite Ashirene’s injured throat, she’s the coolest! A big fear of mine was that Ashirene would just get brutalized the whole time, playing into the trope of the female being shown to be helpless against the villain to garner as much sympathy from the viewers as possible and then having the males come and save the day. But Suiren remained badass and did not ask for help or anything, her role in this arc was very much an honorary one, reserved for sidekicks who we view as strong even if they don’t get to save the day. But yeah, the fact that it doesn’t seem to be leading into any development or reflections implies that there are no further plans for Suiren’s character, which really hurts cause again characterization wise she’s pretty much my favourite female Pokemon character like, ever. I’ll never stop loving her for all the fun moments that lead up to here but looking back at Sun&Moon knowing my favourite character was never really meant to get the full package treatment is going to feel bitter. Here’s hoping she gets some kind of meaningful closure episode at least. Screw villain arcs I want the whole post league section of SM to be dedicated to the character’s personal lives and resolutions.

[theplayerking]

New Episode Title and an Update Episode Title

SM134: Everyone’s Super Full-Force! The Road to the Semifinals!!

SM136: Blazing Fire! There’s More That One Rival!!

SM136 will air on August 25.

Kiawe and Sophocles’s battle will conclude and Lana and Guzma’s battle will start (and maybe finish) in SM134. Team Skull will attack Mimo, only for Gladion to save her in SM135. That could lead to a conflicted Kiawe when he battles Gladion in that episode. Kiawe and Gladion’s battle will be concluded and Ash will battle Guzma in SM136.

[soveryanon]

[soveryanon]

[smilingperformer]

I only have one wish for next week.

...Let Suiren suffer from the loss ok? Not be happy, just.... actually show her devastated?

Please?

That’d be good for her character?