#xy131

[wild-battlebond]

what’s up with this sassy pose…

[wild-battlebond]

kalos crisis arc notes! the kalos crisis… is always cooler than expected.

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given that the mega evolution energy (i think that's what they shoot at it) overclocks Z2's dislike for humans, did lysandre ever really have control over it at all? or does that just reflect and therefore resonate with lysandre's distain for humanity (latter probably makes more sense because mega evolution?)

hooray overgrowth representing destruction 👏👏👏

it is pretty unique (for the anime at least) to have the evil team's plan overlap the league

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like in other similar crises throughout the series, it's trainers who have the capability to keep the vines at bay and protect other people (this, too, is "balance"… it's people and pokémon working together that can protect others)

james points out that it doesn't look like a natural disaster. which, again, is fun contrast given that it's vines

i do think that alain going dead silent while ash gets kidnapped is kind of compelling. also don't they try to crucify ash

WHERE'D TEAM ROCKET GET A HELICOPTER FROM

basically he took control of a god & took away its free will and now says that it just so happens to be doing exactly what he'd like it to be doing. like basically he's displaying himself to the world as a messenger of a god when he's the one controlling it. he refers to zygarde as a being of creation 🤔 (which is kinda more xerneas's thing? are life and creation the same thing… could be an instance of a team leader getting the function of a legendary pokémon mixed up? although zygarde does destroy then create, a form of balance. and then you could also say one core is creation & the other is destruction etc etc…)

"we have forgotten how to share" maybe you should have just funded a new care bears show or something then. instead of all this

i think alain could have been more effective if he was written as more of an older brother-type character instead of a brooding mean guy. oh well.

lysandre calls the people he's keeping the "chosen ones" - implying an ancient legend, except it's something he made up

i also think squishy's cries out to Z2 are compelling. trying to contact one's other half that won't respond (and is destroying a city)

it's also sweet how bonnie can sense what squishy's doing

yknow this is kind of like a worse gates to infinity

THEY DO CRUCIFY HIM HAHAHAHA. GABUMON MOMENTS

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how does alain's mega ring even store the mega evolution energy. it's so small. anyways this is on him for being kind of a tool

it is pretty messed up that he shoots ash (and greninja) with a beam that has an effect. and tries to make them the chosen ones of a new world. and the fact that he breaks out just through the emotion of loving the world… another rare xy cinema moment. it's like hugtto precure.

SO TRUE!!

this really seems like a him issue. like yeah I'm pretty sure that people do have a right to welfare. i think you're just bad at running a charity

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thus far it doesn't seem like they're doing anything with it but i do find it interesting that ash's team (and alain's charizard i guess) are battling again only a few hours after the league match… it must be rough well i guess they do start dropping like flies as an indication of this, but i mean like if they had visible signs of exhaustion or hindrance by untreated injuries.. so forth. but maybe that would have made this too complicated

it's nice that clemont gets a Moment. the youthful ideal of a world where people only build things that benefit others…

BOO I FORGOT STEVEN SHOWED UP. GO BACK TO ROCK CAVERN

ALSO SO TRUE.

it really is so awesome that bonnie is so closely tied to a legendary pokémon like zygarde

(GUY WHO'S ONLY SEEN APPMON VOICE) WOW THIS IS JUST LIKE APPMON. because this is similar to appmon it stings a lot more than the first time i watched this episode

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it's kinda weird chespie becomes the center of the Giant Rock

the sundial came from space… so mega evolution is tied to space?!

frogs who can sense things

'serena! stay here and watch over the kids' shut up for real

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getting the gym leaders involved is cool. also a first for the anime & i do like 'sacrifice relay' kinds of things where everyone gets picked off to let the protagonist through

oh was everyone saying "let's go" originally ikuze. like in the song

oh i forgot lysandre survived jumping off the building

100% forme… is actually cooler looking than i remembered. (is this, too, due to the impact of digimon…? did xros wars make me too used to incredibly ugly giant mech-things)

100% forme being a fusion of the two cores is an extention of XY's theme of two binaries fusing to become one (e.g. mega evolution and bond phenomenon)

it's kind of awesome that the cores say they want to rest IN the sun

[musashi]

Are there any moments in the pokemon anime that you think a win from a battle, contest, or showcase should have gone to the other character?

- honestly, a ton of jessie’s showcase performances in kalos, but i get especially salty about her coumarine show

it’s not even that i wanted jessie to win it, but the reception she received was so pointlessly negative. like, there was no reason for it to be so negative?? she could have just... lost by a few points and the story wouldn’t have changed, but they made it a total flop??

the challenge was pokemon styling and while the girls went for cutesy themes, jessie crafted what was essentially a halloween costume for pumpkaboo. jessie’s a coordinator so she’s using coordinator’s tactics here--you accentuate what your pokemon does best, and so she accentuated the menace of her ghost type. but kalos isn’t for coordinators, kalos is a Girls Only club of conventionally attractive pokemon to sit around looking pretty and conventionally attractive all day and fuck you if you want to try to push those standards or show off what makes your pokemon unique. no. cute and pretty only.

literally LOOK at this shit it is phenomenal???? 

HOW WAS THIS EVEN A CONTEST... BUT NO KALOS THE LAND OF NO JUDGES LET THE AUDIENCE DECIDE MOTHERFUCKING AESTHETIQUE ASS HIPSTER BLOGGER PREP ASS FRENCH FUCKING TWERPS

i really, really, really hate showcases.

- jessie also should have won her contest battle round against harley by technicality in saffron city. vivian giving BOTH of them yellow cards is the most foul shit i have ever seen. there is no reason jessie should have been penalized for harley’s actions or her responses or HAVING A WOBBUFFET. god im so mad.

basically harley refused to attack, locking them into stalemate. wobbuffet can’t attack unless first dealt damage, harley took advantage of this and gave saffron city the most boring contest battle ever, and for some reason both him AND jessie got punished for this??? i dont understand why the judges fucking let that fly liKE.... HOW WAS JESSIE SUPPOSED TO RESPOND!!!! HER POKEMON IS A WOBBUFFET!!! 

everything that happened after that was clever on harley’s part but the beginning of it makes me so fucking mad.

- i am a kalos league anti, but my reasons for it aren’t butthurt at ash losing a league or thinking XY is the best series or what have you. i am more than fine with ash losing leagues forever, actually! i mean, he’s my boy and i’m rooting for him, but to me leagues are just one way he can succeed and grow, they aren’t the be all end all of his character.

the lead-up to ash’s loss at the kalos league + how it ended was bad fucking writing! plain and simple. ash had a tried and true breakdown in kalos, one that had been building for the whole leg of the anime. he’s surrounded by friends who idolize him, sometimes to a fault, he’s partnered up in a new and strange way with a pokemon who has a history of deeming its trainers not worthy, and by the time he’s going for his eighth badge? ALL his rivals are surpassing him. sawyer started following in ash’s footsteps, and right before ash challenges snowpoint, sawyer beats him. ash is confronted dead on with the fact that in no time at all one of his rivals has surpassed him. like it was nothing. couple that with the fact that ash has NEVER won a battle against alain--alain comes out on top, every time. in the months leading up to the league, ash’s losses mount and mount and mount and he breaks down and runs away, something UNHEARD of from someone like him. the story frames it as though all these losses are the precursor to a triumph--that’s what you do in storytelling. you drag your protagonist down low, the lowest you can get them... and then, through hard work and true grit, you allow them to defeat the odds and overcome their struggles.

but kalos didn’t do that. kalos whittled ash down to nothing and then made him lose again to the person he’d been losing to for the entire anime. no matter how satisfying that battle with alain might have been, it wasn’t enough to make me feel like ash got the good ending he deserved in kalos. i am very happy for all that the alola league did to remedy his past losses... but i still do feel like we were robbed beyond belief.

- more of a general thing, but i think jessie should’ve won at least one hoenn contest! i think she should’ve had a better shot. it sucks to watch her in hoenn and know she’s just kinda wasting screentime because they wouldnt allow her a win. also would have liked harley to win a little more onscreen, but narratively i understand why they only gave him ag160 and god what a fucking battle that was i still think about it all the time. its in my dreams.

[jadeazora]

We’re all disappointed Ash lost due to status quo being the God of the Pokemon anime universe, but honestly, at least it wasn’t against someone as ridiculous as Tobias and his legendaries (that he just had, no questions asked) or someone as dense as Cameron and his Deus-Ex-Lucario. Alain has been shown to go head-to-head with Legendaries and elite trainers; his badass cred is established. I think they had this whole thing planned, and introduced Alain early on to alleviate these types of complaints.

[jadeazora]

Praying for Ash to win the Pokemon League and have the writers throw the kid a bone in an awesome way!

Ash-Greninja vs. M-Charizard X looks like its gonna be incredible!