The Dragon Master's Path! (689)

[Juputoru]

-It's Axew vs Scraggy again! I have to say that I quite like how the writers are handling the weakling babies in BW, since they're actually doing something reasonable for a change.
-And there's Dragon Sneeze again.
-And Cilan just called it a "bitter taste". He's also the only one still standing after the explosion.
-And then a pissed off Druddigon showed up.
-Its trainer shows up, and Druddigon runs off...it has some rope tied around one of its feet. Hmm.
-Iris finds Druddigon and manages to calm it down. Apparently the rope was making it rampage? That doesn't seem like it'd hurt much, but hey, what do I know?
-TR's spying on the twerps. Oh boy!
-Hm, it looks like James has a broken-off piece of rope...$10 says that TR's behind all this somehow.
-Meanwhile, Iris is talking about how dragons are awesome and she wants to be a dragon master and blah blah blah. Ash is impressed(but doesn't seem to really get it, so Cilan launches into more detail about the hearts of dragons and blah blah blah).
-Hey, I just realized that Ash FINALLY got his answer to the "...what IS your goal, anyway?" question from way back when the trio officially joined together.
-COTD girl says a bunch of stuff that I can't decipher at all, other than the bits where she mentions Druddigon.
-Iris starts launching into a "I WANT TO HELP" tirade, and...ahahaha, look at Ash's blank, unmoving 8| expression during all this.
-Apparently COTD girl is named Emi?
-And now it's apparently Ash VS Emi time. Emi uses Druddigon, of course, and Ash sends out...Tepig. Eh, I guess that works.
-One tackle sends Druddigon flying quite a ways back! That was almost comical to watch.
-Druddigon ends up winning, and Pokabu's gibbrish after being KOed is definitely comical to hear.
-Cilan's a bit taller than Druddigon, so he's a bit above 5'03"? lolshort. (Iris, on the other hand, is about a head shorter than Druddigon. But I don't know how tall a head is, so figure out her height yourself.)
-And then James' Yamask started hurling Shadow Balls at the gang. I get a little kick out of how the animators tend to show its creepy mask before panning to the rest of it.
-Oh look, Jessie's Woobat is here too. And Axew, Pikachu, and Druddigon just got trapped by ropes! Looks like it's TR time!
-Druddigon manages to free Pikachu with a Dragon Claw, but Druddigon itself & Axew aren't quite that lucky.
-TR motto time! Now with better music!
-TR still seems to be acting seriously, even though they're back to their old uniforms & "surely Giovanni will recognize us if we grab one or two random Pokemon and give them to him" ways.
-Holy hell Iris can jump high. ...but she can't grab the hovercraft, so down she goes. ...but she somehow lands on her feet, no worse for the wear.
-TR flies off, but there's an odd banging...turns out that Druddigon's trying to Dragon Claw its way to freedom. James is sure that the metal is perfect & thus won't break, but we all know what's going to end up happening...
-Meanwhile, Iris is flashing back to her village, and we get to see the elder telling her stuff while Iris is (presumably?) about to leave on her journey.
-Back on the plane, Druddigon's getting exhausted from its attempts to escape...so Axew charges up Dragon Sneeze. Oh dear.
-...fortunately, the explosion is just what they needed! The aircraft is going DOWN!
-Axew and Druddigon escape! Iris hears Axew calling from the mountains, because she apparently has superhearing or something.
-I love the little touch of Druddigon not even trying to fly at any point during this. (it can't learn Fly in the games for some inexplicable reason, even though it clearly has wings...)
-The twerps catch up with TR, and a battle ensues. During it...Yamask uses Night Shade! Hey, it's better than the Shadow Ball spam from the rest of the episode.
-Druddigon gets pissed off, and...starts charging Draco Meteor! (you just know that somewhere, far far away, Dawn's Piplup felt a twinge of fear without knowing why)-Draco Meteor works as planned, although TR's still standing afterwards...
-Pikachu really seems to have dumped Volt Tackle in favor of Electro Ball. Oh well.
-Iris has the bright idea of making Axew attempt a Dragon Sneeze Rage again...and it works properly?!
-TR blasts off...by fleeing with their jetpacks. Remind me again why hordes of people were assuming that TR had relapsed to being 100% silly?
-Iris is pretty happy that Axew mastered Dragon Rage. I really can't blame her. (although I wonder what direction its training will take now that the Dragon Sneeze gag is over with)
-...did Cilan just call that a "heart & soul" taste?
-And there's that new ending again. GIARU GIGIARU GIGIGIARU.


A pretty nice episode overall, even if it's mostly notable for continuing the trend of Iris doing stuff(I guess my "they'll give Cilan a bunch of episodes, then focus on Iris, then go back to focusing on Cilan..." theory was right?). Okay, I guess it's also notable since Axew finally got Dragon Rage right, but time will tell whether it was mastered 100% or if Axew's still going to have Dragon Sneeze moments.

[The Great Butler]

I hope the horrific artwork in this isn't some new art style for the Rockets. This might be the worst Iwane episode ever made, it looked like something Kinoshita would have done.

[Haunter227]

Very good episode, finally Axew has mastered Dragon Rage *Cough Dragon Sneeze*.

Druddigon was pretty interesting, it's sudden appearance into the episode was a bit rushed if you ask me.

Tepig and Druddigons battle was good, just a shame to watch Ash's pokemon yet again get beaten up, im not saying it should have beaten Druddigon considering how powerful it is, but the writers could have made Team Rocket interupt the battle or something.

Finally it was good to see that team rocket did no blast off and just use jet packs.

Overall 8/10.

[gliscor&yanmega]

He has a Pikachu that just beat a gym leader's Leavanny and a Snivy that can defeat it's evolved form. I think he had plenty of better choices.

Or he could had just not battled at all. He could had thought, "Yikes, a big scary powerhouse dragon, I'll get creamed if I try to fight that thing considering my team is still inexperienced. Maybe I should just sit this one out so I don't end up with a fried ham."

The fact that some of his Pokemon still need some experience(Such as Tepig), would probably be enough for Ash wanting to send it in battle to train it and get more experience apposed to sending in a Pokemon with lots of experience(Such as Pikachu and Snivy) or not battling at all.

Trainers don't always have to win, losing can be more beneficial most of the time anyways.

[Arcamenel]

He has a Pikachu that just beat a gym leader's Leavanny and a Snivy that can defeat it's evolved form. I think he had plenty of better choices.

Or he could had just not battled at all. He could had thought, "Yikes, a big scary powerhouse dragon, I'll get creamed if I try to fight that thing considering my team is still inexperienced. Maybe I should just sit this one out so I don't end up with a fried ham."

I got the impression the battle was more for Druddigon and it's trainers benefit. He could've used snivy or pikachu I don't think that would've given Druddigon or it's trainer the confidence it needed. It's one thing to lose in a close battle, it's another to be completely annihilated by a clearly superior opponent. Pokabu got a few good hits in and I think without Iris' coaching it would've had a different outcome. The trainer clearly lacked experience and confidence.

[Sushi]

I got the impression the battle was more for Druddigon and it's trainers benefit.

This. Thank you.

This was Emmy's first battle with Druddigon. It was just a short and casual sample to show her what battles are like and what she needs to pay attention to while commanding her Pokémon.

I'm not saying that Ash lost intentionally, but he had a secondary role here. His main task was to attack so Emmy could defend or counterattack accordingly, not to mercilessly kick her butt.

[Shneak]

An okay episode. Not bad, but not great. I liked Druddigon. I appreciate it's (weird) design more, and it was kind of cute at times, for being a big monster. Axew's Dragon Rage looks awesome. Probably because Dragon Rage never really had a design (except for that weird Gyarados tornado in Kanto.)

[Ciccone]

Well, this episode was actually pretty decent. I thought that it would be boring but I actually enjoyed Emmy and Druddigon. I've never warmed up to the latter before now, but I have to admit that it's a pretty awesome Pokemon. I'm glad that Axew mastered Dragon Rage since it needed a powerful attack. It looks like Iris is one step closer to having Axew evolve. At least, that's what I think her goal is. That is her goal, isn't it? Eitherway, it was a pretty good character development episode. 6/10.

[_Taidow_]

Good episode. I think Scraggy needs to learn Hi Jump Kick and Low Kick now... Axew is pulling ahead, but it makes sense due to Axew having two evolutions and Scraggy one.

[EmiiChan]

Oh yay, a character has my name finally. xD Too bad it's just a COTD though.
Anyway, after reading everything and spoiling the episode for myself, it sounds pretty good. So off to watch it~

[FlyAsADunsparce]

While I was watching this episode I suddenly thought to myself: Wow James's Yamask sure sounds a lot like Bayleef, and then I found out they have the same voice actor lol.

I liked this episode. It wasn't like super cool but it wasn't bad either. It was a typical filler to me, some might say it wasn't because Axew mastered Dragon Rage sorta, but that's not really that big a deal.

[ringuma]

Why are team rocket wearing white outfits again? I don't know if they've been demoted back into being losers but they still seem serious and they still haven't gotten a blast off by Ash...

[Venomfang]

Why are team rocket wearing white outfits again? I don't know if they've been demoted back into being losers but they still seem serious and they still haven't gotten a blast off by Ash...

Maybe the white outfits are more easy to wear?

[DarkWobbuffet]

The trainer clearly lacked experience and confidence.

Hahaha, confidence huh? FD

"Oh, I don't have any confidence in me to use a giant ferocious dragon to decimate a weak little baby pig! Somebody help me!"

Why don't we ever see experienced trainers help the main characters when they have trouble, outside of everyone just chanting "NEEDZ MOAR TRAINING!" ?

And don't say the Elite Four members. Their idea of helping a trainer is to completely massacre their whole team with OHKOs.

[Geodude]

Maybe the white outfits are more easy to wear?

"I like shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear!"

[MidnightMelody]

While I was watching this episode I suddenly thought to myself: Wow James's Yamask sure sounds a lot like Bayleef, and then I found out they have the same voice actor lol.

I liked this episode. It wasn't like super cool but it wasn't bad either. It was a typical filler to me, some might say it wasn't because Axew mastered Dragon Rage sorta, but that's not really that big a deal.

Yamask learned a new move. This is not filler

[streetlightdsb]

Yamask learned a new move. This is not filler

There's a difference between learning and revealing a new move. Personally I think the Litwick episode was filler as it only revealed Shadow Ball, it didn't go through development to learn it. But I don't want to open that can of worms again. Regardless, this wasn't filler because Axew mastered Dragon Rage.

[Squirtle_007]

Finally watched the episode:
- Another Scraggy vs. Axew training battle, looks like Scraggy is becoming stronger, or maybe it was just the flinch effect of Headbutt
- Iris is totally awesome, I was kinda skeptical when I saw that sketch last year but now I just love her, it´s great to see a girl that is not a damsel in distress. (May was an excursionist in All in a day is Wurmple eating berries and climbing mountains but became a little princess later... a cool little princess)
- It was nice to see a CotD girl not getting harassed before telling her name
- Druddigon looked cooler in the anime than in the game
- Team Rocket´s mechas we´re always annoying, but that surprise attack from Yamask and Woobat was simply great
- I hope Axew masters Dragon Rage totally, so it can learn more attacks I mean, by now it just have Scratch (or Fury Swipes) and Dragon Rage
- So, Iris´s goal is becoming a Dragon Master, does that means she will train Axew and only Axew or will she be able to catch more dragons eventually?

Anyway, I love the developement the writers are giving to the trio, equally for the three, I hope they keeps that good job

[playerking]

While I was watching this episode I suddenly thought to myself: Wow James's Yamask sure sounds a lot like Bayleef, and then I found out they have the same voice actor lol.

I liked this episode. It wasn't like super cool but it wasn't bad either. It was a typical filler to me, some might say it wasn't because Axew mastered Dragon Rage sorta, but that's not really that big a deal.

Um, Axew perfected a move and Yamask used a new move, this and the previous episode weren't fillers, just going to C/P what Sabonea said in another thread.

The Litwick episode we learnt of one of Yamask's attacks. And please don't come back going 'Well apart from that they're filler' because apart from the bit that makes them not-filler, every episode is filler.

But anyway, I thought this episode was nice, Druddigon was nice to see and I'm glad Axew wont be as pathetic now.

[G50]

This episode was alright. It was great to see Crimgan for the 1st time. It was awesome to see Kibago FINALLY master Dragon Rage attack. Pokabu battled Crimgan and was able to land a few hits, but unfortunately Crimgan was able to knock him out easily after Emmy figured out how to have Crimgan battle. We find out in this episode that Iris is trying to become a Dragon Master, that explains how she knows so much about Dragon Pokemon. TR did very well when stealing the Pokemon and battling the Gang. It was cool to see Crimgan learn Draco Meteor. Kibago vs Zuruggu was a very cool battle.

50/100