Thank goodness some other people agree with me about Bianca. She's okay in small doses, but god she gets annoying if she spends too much time on-screen. Some lunatics in another thread were implying she'd make a better regular character than Iris. I adamantly disagree.
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I've only just begun Battle Frontier, man. I still have a long way to go.
Compared to what you've gone through, the BF and DPP eps will be a cinch.
From what I know/remember BF has some bad filler as always, but the battle episodes are the f***ing bomb and then you have DPP which has easily the best storytelling etc, so my guess is you'll get through DPP faster than you normally would any usual set of 191 eps >_>
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"I have a place to live because of FFXI, I lost my virginity because of FFXI, and that's why it's my #5 game of all time" - RPGLord95
Numero Uno Articuno "Out of all of our brilliant but not-so-well-thought-out plans, has a single strategy ever worked?!" Score: 7/10
The heroes are setting up camp when they see a biplane and an Articuno.
Both the plane and Articuno disappear, and that's it. They don't bother following up on this at all, they're just like "Oh, it's an Articuno. That's pretty unusual. I wonder what its deal is?" and then they don't mention it again. Because if I was driving to Fresno and I saw Merlin in an Escalade, I would be like "Woah, it's Merlin, and-- oh, dammit, my Duran Duran CD is skipping again."
The next morning, they run into Scott, the Battle Frontier guy, who takes them to his car and drives them to the Battle Factory. Yes, remember all of those times the heroes had to hoof it, how they only got to ride in cars when time was a major factor (like when they were chasing Team Rocket with Lance), and normally, the best they could hope for would be a tram up a mountain? Nope: Car.
When they reach the Battle Factory, they're nearly killed by an out of control tank owned by Noland, the Frontier Brain, and I have to ask: Why is Noland building a tank. Why is Noland allowed to build a tank? Isn't Noland just some dude? You're telling me the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are going to be fine with some dude building a tank?
Well, in any case, after the tank stops, Noland explains the rules: he'll present a variety of pokemon, and Ash must choose one to fight. He has such exotic pokemon as Venusaur and Rhydon, and Ash can't choose, they're all so rare and cool, because he's never fought a Venusaur before, especially not when he fought Drake, the Champion of the Orange Islands.
Meanwhile, May and Max wander around the Battle Factory and bump into the biplane and Articuno. Articuno freaks out when it sees them and flies to Noland, who admits that it's his. He recounts how saved it when its wing was hurt while flying, and they've been friends since. Noland has been keeping it a secret and only going out at night with it, which is why when Max asks if he can join Noland on a flight right now during the day, Noland is fine with it, and Ash sneaks off to make a phone call.
Team Rocket attacks, so Noland does the only logical thing.
He could have just had Articuno fight them for him, but nope, crashing a plane into a giant robot works too. He only has Articuno finish them off, and seeing this, Ash is now absolutely certain of which of Noland's pokemon he wants to fight, and a few hours later, he challenges Articuno and points to Charizard. Yes, Charizard flew from Johto to Kanto in a few hours and isn't tired at all. Charizard greets Ash by using flamethrower, and May awkwardly says "Not again!" even though she has never seen Charizard before. Max I'll accept knowing about Charizard because he watched the Silver Conference on TV, but May?
Regardless, this episode has a lot of good build-up. Let's see if it pays off.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
The Symbol Life "Even bad guys eat sometimes." Score: 7.5/10
Ash practices with Charizard for a bit, and it quickly establishes itself as even more powerful than before.
Scott takes the heroes to the Battle Factory arena, which looks like a regular gym arena, and mentions that "the construction and the lighting were designed specifically for that purpose," so... I'm not really sure what's going on here. Aren't all arena lighting systems designed for arenas? Is there really a gym so cheap that it repurposed a garden lighting system for its arena? What's extra weird is that the ceiling can open for flying pokemon, so the lighting system is of no value here since the sun drowns it out, but they went out of their way to draw attention to the lighting.
Articuno shows up and Max mentions that he's "never seen a more awesome pokemon," yep, you remember the talking, telepathic Jirachi Max swore he would always be friends with? Forget that ****. Brock mentions that he's never seen "these two battle," but since he actually has seen Charizard battle and an Articuno battle, I guess he means literally a Charizard versus an Articuno. Well, okay, I've never seen a Cobalion fight a Manectric before.
Team Rocket attacks, and you can just imagine what Charizard is thinking.
They're defeated in short order, and the battle begins.
Charizard's flamethrowers are more powerful than Articuno's ice beams, but while Articuno has trouble tanking the attacks, it can recover almost instantly and it can dodge most of them because Articuno is well known for its amazing speed.
Noland boasts that legendary pokemon are just plain more powerful than regular pokemon. Hey, remember when Celebi got its ass kicked by an ordinary Scyther and Houndoom?
Articuno lands a direct ice beam, but Max explains that it should have no effect on a fire type, because Charizard is definitely not part flying. Articuno then lands a steel wing, which knocks Charizard to the ground even though it's more resistant to steel than it is to ah screw it.
Articuno then starts busting out water pulse, one of the weakest of all water attacks, but this is treated like a huge deal. Scott explains that Noland is always a move ahead, because you need a direct hit for water pulse to be effective and he's been predicting Charizard's movements this entire time. Charizard gets hit by another ice beam, and although it deals no damage, it freezes its wing to slow its flying, which we learn was Noland's plan all along.
Ash realizes Charizard is too weakened to continue battling for much longer, and he has a flashback to when he was practicing with Charizard that they didn't bother to put in the episode itself. That's like-- that doesn't count as foreshadowing, guys. I don't even know what it counts as.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
Ash waits for Articuno to close in for a kill, and then has Charizard bust out overheat, which he'd been saving as a surprise kill shot. I love how much build up there is to this: like a solid minute is of people talking about overheat and how powerful it is, only for Articuno to easily disperse it with water pulse and then use steel wing on Charizard, so it was of no importance at all. Charizard manages to grab it during a second steel wing, however, and use seismic toss. Articuno is unable to handle the 1-100 damage and finally collapses, and Charizard stands back up, victorious.
As the epic battle ends, Ash recalls the time Charizard tied with a Chikorita. Okay, maybe not. Ash is given the Frontier Symbol, the Knowledge Symbol, because nothing says "knowledge" like factories, perhaps the most dehumanizing buildings humans have ever created. Scott tells Ash to go to the Battle Arena next, and Noland promises Ash that he can't lose if he keeps battling like this. That's true, so Ash will proceed to use Charizard precisely one more time during this arc because otherwise there would be no drama.
But don't worry. Ash still has Phanpy and Corphish, so what does he need with Charizard?
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
Hooked on Onyx "That's not only a mean and diabolical plan, it's also a lazy one!" Score: 4/10
The heroes are walking through yet another scorching desert. How many individual deserts does Japan have, anyway? Well, anyway, through a series of unfortunate events, Squirtle accidentally attacks some Geodude, which separates it, Phanpy, Pikachu, Corphish, and Munchlax from the heroes. The heroes are concerned about Pikachu, Corphish, and Munchlax (but they don't mention the others), so they take Mudkip to search for them. Not Swellow, who can fly, but Mudkip.
The Geodude run to their leader, an Onyx, and Team Rocket (through Meowth) tells them that the heroes will capture all of them and the only thing to do is to capture the heroes first.
Squirtle and Phanpy anger a horde of Beedrill, and I love how they run away from the like twenty Beedrill, until they find Pikachu and Corphish, who deal with the problem in about eight seconds total using bubblebeam and thunderbolt. Gee Ash, good thing you took Phanpy instead of, you know, one of your useful pokemon.
After a long scene of nothing except pokemon speech, Team Rocket captures everyone except Ash, and then gives their motto in front of all of the Geodude and Onyx. Remember that their motto is basically just bragging about how evil they are and their deception depends on the Geodude believing they're good and the heroes are evil.
Ash runs to Onyx and tells it that Team Rocket are the evil ones, and Onyx decides the most logical method of determining the truth is to battle Ash, and if Ash wins, that means he's telling the truth.
Well of course.
Ash sends out Grovyle, and leads off with quick attack in an attempt to be as stupid as possible. Eventually he remembers that Grovyle is allowed to grass attacks and easily defeats Onyx. Realizing the jig is up, Team Rocket inexplicably attempts to capture Onyx and not the already captured pokemon, so the rock pokemon and the heroes stop Team Rocket, and Onyx gives the heroes a ride through the rest of the desert.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
In a forest, the heroes meet Mitch Mitchem, whose parents apparently hated their son and wanted to curse him with the worst name. Mitch is hunting for something, but before he can explain what, it appears: a Jigglypuff. Mitch attempts to battle Jigglypuff, but his Loudred is easily defeated.
He explains that his four year-old wants nothing for her birthday except for a Jigglypuff, so he took some time off of his job as an executive to spend some time hunting for one. Even though, as an executive, he could surely just hire someone to do it for him. He's spent six months in this forest, yes, he thinks his daughter wants a Jigglypuff more than a goddamn father. By the way, remember when Max let Ralts go because he was too young to have a pokemon, even though he's older than Mitch's daughter? Mitch believes that Jigglypuff enjoys the chase and tormenting him.
Well, Mitch's daughter's birthday is tomorrow, and he fears he's going to fail, so the heroes agree to help him. Meanwhile, Team Rocket runs into Jigglypuff.
This isn't important, they have no effect on the plot, and they soon blast off again, but I wanted to include that image.
Even though previous episodes established that pokemon only respect humans if they capture them fairly (although this has been ignored many times, I admit), Ash helps Mitch by attacking Jigglypuff two-on-one. Jigglypuff is still too strong (yes, the Pikachu that took down a Dragonite is weaker than this Jigglypuff), so they decide to bait it using food and outsmart it. Even though they've opposed Team Rocket doing almost this exact thing dozens of times in the past. Jigglypuff is too smart for this, however, and gives me a new reaction image.
Finally, Max decides that if they can put Jigglypuff to sleep, they can catch it. What's the best way to put it to sleep? Putting on Avatar, of course: the visuals will be breathtaking but the plot and characters will be complete ****. It's either that or trap Jigglypuff in a metal box with Pikachu and trick it into using sing so the sound will echo off of the walls and put it to sleep.
Either way will work.
Mitch now has Jigglypuff helpless, but can't bring himself to catch it. He now thinks it belongs in the forest, and it's happier being chased than anything else, and instead decides to give his daughter his Loudred. Jigglypuff wakes up hours later and realizes Mitch will never return.
The next morning, Mitch returns to his home, and his wife says "It's so good to see you" in the same tone that you would use to say " I got tickets to a midnight screening of Captain America" even though she hasn't seen him for half a year. His daughter is disappointed but accepts the Loudred happily. Just then, Jigglypuff appears (having somehow followed Mitch even though it can't possibly have known where he would go), and indignantly informs him that it liked to be chased. Since Mitch can no longer spend time with it, it agrees to stay with his daughter, who excitedly screams "We caught a Jigglypuff!"
I bet it would suck to be that Loudred. "Aw yeah, I've got a great owner who'll definitely pay constant attention to me and awwwwww....."
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
Anagram posted... I bet it would suck to be that Loudred. "Aw yeah, I've got a great owner who'll definitely pay constant attention to me and awwwwww....."
Ah ha ha ha ha.. awwwwwww...
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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster It's probably easier to just not break the rules. - SmartMuffin
Hmm, based on my definition of pure filler, I'd say only seven episodes after Castelia's gym battle qualify. And those would be the fishing, Litwick, Cottonee, Elgyem, Audino, Archen, and Zorua episodes. All the others either had someone catching a Pokemon, rival battles, or else someone's Pokemon learning a new move or other kinds of development. Although, the Oshawott episode could probably fit into my description of filler, too, since nothing really came of it. It wasn't like the episode where it finally mastered Aqua Jet.
Okay, so yeah, eight episodes. The two episodes set to air after the mini tournament sound pretty fillery too, though. They do both also have Meowth in the title, so who knows. One also says Scrafty, but I think it's a safe bet to assume Ash's Scraggy isn't evolving anytime soon.
I honestly don't know where to rank Tranquil, it has yet to battle and even as a Pidove it didn't do much battling either. I don't think Oshawott is that far in strength compare to Tepig, but he has main character power-ups that lets him gain wins against stronger pokemon. It's better to be weak and win than to be weak and lose.
Based on what I've heard Palpitoad is ranked at around Snivy/Swadloon level and Roggenrola is around Oshawott/Tepig/Tranquil level
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BOP Results: http://charmander6000.webs.com/GotD%20BOP.xls Congratulations to Black Turtle for winning the guru contest.
And yeah, Tranquill is hard to gauge. It pretty much only ever battles Team Rocket. Swadloon also hasn't battled since Castelia, I think. (I haven't seen any of the Don episodes yet)
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http://i50.tinypic.com/23qx00.jpg "First time I got punched in the face, I was like "oh no", then I was like "this is a story"."
Palpitoad only had one battle under Ash's ownership too, but it looks pretty competent. He's probably going to get used in the battle against Elesa though, so we'll see.
-- SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo. BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.
I just watched the Litwick episode this morning. Holy crap, that was pretty intense for a kid's show. I mean, they kind of have to avoid words like "kill" and "die", but it was fairly obvious what the episode was implying what Litwick and Lampent wanted to do. Those little things are eeeeevil. Doesn't Tripp (sp?) have a Lampent? What does that one feed on?
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You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster It's probably easier to just not break the rules. - SmartMuffin