Fighting Ire With Fire! (631)

[NES]

Yeah, Infernape can't be taller, in the pokedex that seems to be it's height, most fully evolved pkmn are about the size of the trainer.

[ChaosMage]

Hmm... does anyone think maybe Azelf and Wake might make a reappearance at Lake Valour? I wonder how long they'll be there, cause there's a few possibilities...

[Thriller]

I'm now expecting CyberCubed to make a thread hoping to discuss why Ash and his friends did so much backtracking...

[CyberCubed]

I'm now expecting CyberCubed to make a thread hoping to discuss why Ash and his friends did so much backtracking...

I'm just hoping that Infernape doesn't suffer what I call, "Sceptile syndrome."

[ZgonDuck]

So yeah, Valor Lakefront - Azelf - the pixie connected to Ash in the anime - site of the Wallace Cup - also know as Lakeside Resort. That's where The Big G is being held. With a location like that, the plan to head to Sunyshore (for the Gym), then to the Grand Festival, THEN to the League (provided its still in the same place as the games) won't cause much travel time, since they have to essentially backtrack twice. It's rather smart of them.

Fixed. Mesprit is connected to Dawn, and Azelf for Ash.

So basically they have to go to Sunnyshore, then back around the corner for the GF, the go forward around the corner past Sunnyshore. Alright. Seems pretty boring going back and forth though, but I guess we're in the home stretch so its alright.

[Magical Needle Smash]

Awesome. Shinji's attitude is exactly what I expected it to be after the full battle: Calm and collected rather than overtly hostile and abrasive. He even somewhat politely declined Jun's challenge, whereas the Shinji from the beginning of the series either would have made an insulting remark or kept on walking without saying anything.

As an aside: The reason he declines Jun's challenge is because his current team is in the middle of being refined before the League, and he doesn't want to degrade their condition. At the end of the episode, he remarks that Reiji seems to want to see another full battle between him and Satoshi, so he promises to face Infernape at the League.

Also, he doesn't just dislike Nagisa Gym, he outright refuses to acknowledge it as a Gym

[Rizardon]

I'm just hoping that Infernape doesn't suffer what I call, "Sceptile syndrome."

Which is...?

[Dax]

You're expecting the tiniest fully evolved starter Pokemon to be big?

...

It's still as tall as Ash or taller, and no one argue because it wasn't standing straight up, it was still hunched over. Assuming it could stand fully erect, it's looks likely to be taller than Ash.

So it's at least bigger than in the games.

Has the anime ever been consistent with sizes? Ash's Staraptor was taller than him when it evolved yet Staraptor's are not that big. Now Staraptor is smaller than Ash again for some mysterious reason.

Because of their inconsistency expecting Infernape to be big is nothing out of this world. It's not a big deal but I just wanted to point it out.

[jolteonjak]

Which is...?

He's wondering if Infernape will have problems after evolution like Sceptile (lost its attacks) and Charizard (that whole disobedience thing).

On another note, someone mentioned in this and the Flint thread that Paul was disgusted to take the Beacon Badge. If he was so disgusted, why did he take it? Why not go to an anime-only gym?

[Juputoru]

Doot doot doot I'm not reading any of the three pages of comments(going by my superior "twenty posts per page" forums setting) before watching this doot doot doot.

-We begin in the generic Sea of Stock Characters Who Are Excited at Something.
-Barry already. Yes.
-He's facing a Mothim. ...now that I think of it, did the anime ever cover the effects of gender differences in Burmy evolution? Not that I really care, but I have to wonder.
-Barry wins, world ends.
-And he's happy to see Ash. He must be in the "manic" stage of his manic-dep...wait, he's ALWAYS in the manic stage.
-In today's pan shot, we see children playing SOCCER, a game that is NOT POKEMON. As of this writing, Nintendo has sent a legal team to deal with the writers and hope to negotiate a very large settlement for this oversight.
-Ahahaha I love how Empoleon's sitting. It's so obvious the animators realized that this thing was NOT created with sitting in mind.
-I also love Empoleon's little laugh. It brings the whole "big penguin with squeaky little voice" thing to its obvious conclusion.
-Dawn mentions Paul for some reason. Oh yes, this is gonna be good.
-Look guys! The new opening let me recognize the word "saikou" as "greatest!" YOU TOO CAN LEARN JAPANESE BY LAZING AROUND AND READING SONG TRANSLATIONS!
-Meanwhile, TR is in a random cabin...and on one of the shelves, there is a mug with a map of the Shinou region on it?! (or possibly just a green blob with some brown in the middle)
-James is trying to convince Meowth and Jessie to follow his plan...using very well drawn pictures!
-I love how the Pokemon Centers don't even try to look like hospitals anymore.
-ALERT. ALERT. PAUL DETECTED.
-WARNING. WARNING. BARRY HAS DETECTED PAUL. CRITICAL INCREDIBLE IS IMMINENT.
-...aaaaaaand there goes all of the seriousness of this scene, in ONE poorly drawn shot.
-Barry is THRILLED to be meeting the actual, real, honest-to-goodness Paul!
-Barry does not comprehend why Paul doesn't want to battle him. This can only end in hilarity tears.
-Paul is clearly fed up with the random blonde loser who suddenly started yelling at him for a battle, and fobs him off on Ash.
-Paul is NOT impressed with the Sunyshore gym.
-Barry decides to battle Ash after some blathering between them, and...POKEMON CONTEST ON TV!
-GRANDO FESTIBARU NYUUUUUSSS!
-I have no idea what Whateverthehellhernameis-an said other than "resort"
-Screw the contests, IS THAT JAMES IN HIS OLD ROCKER OUTFIT FROM VARIOUS KANTO EPISODES?
-JESSIE TOO. AWESOME. and meowth is in some big yellow wig thing I guess
-Contest Lady, shut up. We have some TEAM ROCKET ROCKIN' to see!
-I love how Barry's too spastic to realize that he should probably be sad at his idol just brushing him off without a second thought, instead launching into HEY DAWN GRAND FESTIVAL AWESOME GO FOR IT HEY ASH BATTLE WOOOOO!
-Hey look, the writers remembered that Dawn got a Coin Toss app in DP 3.141 and bothered to use it for some reason.
-It took half the episode, but we'll finally get to see some magic animals beat each other up for the entertainment and grandstanding of humans!
-Meanwhile, Paul's strolling along and notices Ash and Monferno on the battlefield.
-Ash gets the upper hand...until Empoleon fires Hydro Cannon RIGHT INTO MONFERNO'S FACE!
-Man, that monkey got some AIR TIME.
-Barry is just mildly embarassed at launching Ash's Pokemon into the forest like that.
-Team Rocket used one Giant Plastic Ball! *wiggle* *wiggle* *wiggle* *click* Gotcha! ASH was caught! Give a nickname to the caught ASH? [Yes/No]
-I hope TR put airholes in there. Or that Ash gets out in the next couple of minutes. One of the two.
-Damn, look at Team Rocket catching all those people without even weakening them first. They must be pressing Down+B as they throw the Giant Plastic Balls.
-Brock has Happiny try to break him out of the ball, with rolling results!
-HE JUST KEEPS ROLLING.
-Suddenly, the fire giant Surt awakens to burn everything and begin Ragnarok!
-Or it might just be Monferno(Red Eyes Forme)
-I have to say, TR's plan was working well aside from the unforseen circumstance of FLAMING ANGRY MONKEY DESTROYS EVERYTHING.
-Paul suddenly decides to pitch in with his Electabuzz. ABOUT TIME, JERK.
-Ash tries to restrain Monferno(again), and gets engulfed in flame for his efforts. Curiously, this does not seem to bother him.
-Paul is understandably impressed that Ash is withstanding being on fire..
-Protect breaks, but Monferno is Ready to Go! (kill me now, before the Pun Virus infects all of humanity)
-Apparently bringing all the captured Pokemon down in a WHIRLWIND OF FIRE is safer than just letting them fall. The only explanation for this and Ash not suffering from Monferno's out-of-control tail flame is that the Chimchar line's body flames are not hot.
-I like how they didn't even bother to use a cut-away shot of Paul from the front for their little "Ash, Barry, and Paul are gonna be at the shinou league!!" scene.
-I'm still not sure whether to be disappointed or amused that Barry was too busy being easily distracted to realize the horrible truth about Paul. (I AM disappointed that TR's rocker uniforms didn't figure into their scheme at all!)

[Netbug009]

Okay, looking more into this episode... it's not as bad as I acted like it was earlier. I think I just put my hopes too high, expecting another Tears For Fears of Evolving Strategies. It was still really cool in its own way. xD

BTW, does anybody know what Ash said to Monferno that finally got him to cool down enough to go help Electrabuzz out? Just curious.

Oh, also Juputoru, I LOLed at your show notes. That was greay. 8D

[Almighty Zard]

He's wondering if Infernape will have problems after evolution like Sceptile (lost its attacks) and Charizard (that whole disobedience thing).

Considering that it's unown if Blaze is truely controlled by now, that might be the case.

On another note, someone mentioned in this and the Flint thread that Paul was disgusted to take the Beacon Badge. If he was so disgusted, why did he take it? Why not go to an anime-only gym?

Who knows, we won't know more until two weeks from now.

Rewatching the episode i noticed a few intresting things.

1. So Happani can lift frozen lakes and stop charging pokemon ten times it's size with ease, yet can't get brock out of a glass bubble?

2.What are Ash's clothes made of? to take that kind of heat and not get charred is insane.

3.it's pretty obvious now that Empoleon is on the same level as Pikachu and Piplup, heck considering the look on Empoleon's face after they were rescued by Infernape makes me wonder what would've happened if they had continued the match.

4.Paul's many expressions throughout the episode, priceless.

[V Faction]

Totally forgot about Brock and Happiny. Which is odd since I loved that part! As soon as they caught got I was thinkin', "Okay, now is the time to pull out your Pokemon to see if they can break it open." And he did!

Brock always struck me as a 'roll with the punches' type of fella.

[Corzola]

Very good ep. Infernape is awesome and now Ash clearly has a powerful TEAM instead of just some few great fighters. The song moment was perfect for the scene and made it seem more emotionel. And whoa, Pauld did bother to help Ash & CO (but of course waiting till the last minute), that was something out of the blue.

[HoennMaster]

You guys do realize that according to the Dex Infernape's are just under 4 Feet? There not suppose to be tall.

so what exactly does Paul say to Barry anyway?

Me thinks Grotle's evolution may be same time away. Maybe not untill after the League.

The new opening shows Ash in the league stadium with Torterra, so it should happen before the league.

[Ash-kid]

Has the anime ever been consistent with sizes? Ash's Staraptor was taller than him when it evolved yet Staraptor's are not that big. Now Staraptor is smaller than Ash again for some mysterious reason.

Because of their inconsistency expecting Infernape to be big is nothing out of this world. It's not a big deal but I just wanted to point it out.

Well I think that the writers wanted to make Ash's pokemon height more balanced between all of them. in the last episodes Monferno and Gible made Ash's team very low, now it's not so different because Infernape is a short pokemon relative to all the big starters. (and Fire big starters in particular)

[SoulSilverMstr411]

That quite isn't the whole story. You need to take a few more things into consideration. Think about it this way:

DP002: Ash catches Starly (3 team members)
DP005: Ash catches Turtwig (4 team members)
DP013: Starly evolves (11 Episodes)
DP051: Chimchar joins up with Ash (5 team members)
DP055: Aipom is traded for Buizel
DP064: Ash catches Gligar (6 team members)
DP085: Gligar Evolves (21 episodes)
DP100: Turtwig evolves (95 Episodes)
DP118: Staravia evolves (105 Episodes)
DP132: Chimchar evolves (129 Episodes, 81 with Ash)
DP154: Gliscor goes away (5 Team members, 90 Episodes total)
DP157: Ash gets Gible
DP163: Monferno evolves (31 Episodes)

Personaly, I think the sudden development of Ash's team is making up for the dry spell of development that lasted for more than 30 episodes between the point Starly evolved and the time Ash got Chimchar.

I just realised I compleatly forgot about Gliscor. Maybe 'cos it wasn't around for very long and it's gone now.

[Umbilical Noose]

-Ash tries to restrain Monferno(again), and gets engulfed in flame for his efforts. Curiously, this does not seem to bother him.
-Paul is understandably impressed that Ash is withstanding being on fire..

A little fire doesn't harm Ash anymore. Charizard has already used a full powered Flamethrower on him numerous times.

Controlling Blaze means remaining controlling itself when that monstrous Blaze activates so most likely Monferno controlled Blaze by the end and that means Infernape can control Blaze too.

Paul is shown to be a little amazed or angered when Monferno evolves. It can be due to two reasons:
1) Paul thinks he wasn't able to make Chimchar control Blaze but Ash's stupid method did the same things and also made Chimchar al way upto Infernape.
2) Paul thinks that Ash's team is developing now and he is scared that Infernape will kill his Electabuzz in the battle so next time we see Paul, Electabuzz will most likely be a Electivire.

As for height thing, Infernape has same height as Staraptor and being the smallest starter its supposed to be like this.

[anothername]

yeah I think ash is now kind of 'not harmed by fire at all'...

c'mon all that fire and he goes with no second degre burns??? and they were even worried about that little fall of team rocket´s mecha over their pokemons when team rocket itself is sent 'blasting off again' every single episode???

lol the worst way possible to make an infernape evolution ever.

[streetlightdsb]

Wow. Props to Ash for taking two Flame Wheels! If Infernape doesn't learn Flare Blitz (which I want it to) I honestly wouldn't mind. Flame Wheel looks so powerful now.