Iris and Excadrill Against the Dragon Buster! (695)

[Almighty Zard]

I figured she had to have gotten Excadrill as a Drillbur cause there was no way she would've had a powerful pokemon for no reason.

Beartic seems kinda odd looking to me in the anime cool yet strange at the same time.

A nice development episode for Iris, now she can sit back again for a while.

[jscholfield]

serebii i was checking iris bio and it say that iris is related to drayden could you fix it
http://www.serebii.net/anime/characters/iris.shtml

[Caseydia]

People need to stop hating on Langley. If she didn't come along, Iris would have never got Excadrill or her other Pokemon out to battle. And no one ever comes to Ash's defense whenever he, May or Dawn comes up against their mean yet some what annoying rivals. So let Iris handle her own for once.

[Almighty Zard]

People need to stop hating on Langley. If she didn't come along, Iris would have never got Excadrill or her other Pokemon out to battle. And no one ever comes to Ash's defense whenever he, May or Dawn comes up against their mean yet some what annoying rivals. So let Iris handle her own for once.

I'm not hating on her, I thought the battles were good.

Beartic doesn't exactly strike me as an Ash pokemon though, if he got one i'd bet money it would conflict with excadrill which lead to problems between him and iris.

[sunyshore.com]

People need to stop hating on Langley. If she didn't come along, Iris would have never got Excadrill or her other Pokemon out to battle. And no one ever comes to Ash's defense whenever he, May or Dawn comes up against their mean yet some what annoying rivals. So let Iris handle her own for once.

i'll gladly dislike any of this show's rivals/CoTD's whose entire personalities revolve around being utterly dis-likable, hateful or obnoxious :P

the girl didn't have to be a dragon-type racist and a rude, theiving glutton in order for those battles to happen. it wasn't the girl being a completely over the top ******* that did the trick, it was the move-- what was it? rock smash? i don't remember, rock something -- that had defeated excadrill before and then did it again, meaning he had to learn something new to overcome it.

we have rivals like jun, who can be really arrogant and obnoxious but also really funny, endearing and a great friend and supporter to ash, all at once. even shooti isn't a complete jerk, and has his nice little side story (that boy is going to be so shocked when he finds out he totally misinterpreted adeku's advice...).


characters whose personality is "this person defeated me once so my entire life now revolves around hating him" (cabernet and dento) or "a dragon master from ryuu no sato once beat me so now i am a dragon-type racist and my entire life is dedicated to being a really, really big jerk to all dragon-type owners, and stealing and eating three people's breakfasts"... i just don't understand it, and it's so over the top, it's not entertaining at all, it's just stupid and annoying.


so yeah i am going to hate on characters that are really stupid and annoying :P

[gliscor&yanmega]

Got confused at one point. I thought when Iris and Excadrill were training it was a flashback...then Ash and Cilan came in lol.

Wasn't expecting Excadrill to be 100% obedient, only thought it would begin to listen but still have moments where it ignores Iris. Nevertheless, I don't mind this. Excadrill seems much more friendly now.

So what was Excadrill's problem the whole time? It felt like it let Iris down and thought she was disappointed in it? I guess Iris thought the opposite with feeling she let Excadrill down. Sounded like Cilan figured it out for her...he said something and when he speaks it's always important stuff.

Ash took the back seat, didn't really do anything at all. I don't even think he had any comedic moments. Oh well, it was for Iris so it's all good.

Langley is just as I pictured her, design wise and personality wise.

I knew the battle between Beartic and Excadrill would end in a tie, just gives Langley more of a reason to come back to battle again. Clearly she's Iris' rival.

Drilbur debuted in this episode. Iris joins the group of people who caught a Pokemon without a Pokemon, although I don't remember seeing her have Drilbur or Excadrill in a Pokeball in the flashbacks.

The episode didn't have much comedy in it, just a few moments of Langley and Iris trash talking each other and some Iris fails at catching Drilbur, other then that nothing really funny. I like Pokemon comedy, although I'm glad it wasn't present a lot in this episode, doesn't really fit into the plot of the episode.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I enjoy Iris a bit more now, and I'm glad to see more from Excadrill.

EDIT: Forgot about Drayden. Not sure what he said, but he seems like a pretty nice guy. Not sure if he was mentioned to be the Gym leader. His Haxorus is pretty strong, nice to see one in action.

Also, forgot about Beartic, seems pretty cool. Doesn't seem to be like it's trainer though, it looks like a pretty calm cool Pokemon, kind of fitting for an Ice type...not so much for a Polar Bear though. It's interesting I find.

[Geodude]

So what was Excadrill's problem the whole time? It felt like it let Iris down and thought she was disappointed in it? I guess Iris thought the opposite with feeling she let Excadrill down. Sounded like Cilan figured it out for her...he said something and when he speaks it's always important stuff.

Read the thread, it's been explained several times.

[Platinum fan.]

And so now Iris's Excadrill has become a obedient Pokemon. If she was more battle oriented I would say she's going to be a beast in future battles, but who knows when she'll ever battle again? Speaking of the battle, I really liked that brat Langley or whatever her name was. She was annoying, true, but she also seemed strong so I hope we see her again. Though I hope she battles someone else like Ash or Trip just to see how she measures up. Best of all she taught Ash and friends a lesson, never leave your breakfest laying out XD. I don't mind that Excadrill obeys Iris fully or at least it seems, not like she had a battle quest waiting for development so it doesn't matter. Also good to see more of Iris's past. She might not be a major battler in the series but Iris is without a doubt getting developed and I think I finally really and truly care for her character now.

Overall a good episode. I liked Langley the Beartic using, breakfest eating, brat! And Iris's development is really shaping up quite nicely. We need more episodes like this.

[Mr.Munchlax]

I'm ok with Excadrill obeying Iris because he was never really disobedient in the first place. Unlike Charizard & Mamoswine, Excadrill still loved Iris and was ashamed to show his face around her and whenever he was being disobedient, it was probably he thought he had to win at all costs and was blinded by shame & frustration. It was kind of like one of those fallen hero stories when you think about it. I now think Excadrill is one of the most noble pokemon I've ever seen

Also, I think Langley was just one of those characters who were created so people would love to hate them, like Gary or Harley

[Blazicken]

excadrill rocks!
Have to say that haxorus was pretty darn powerfull, but it looks like drayden saw Iris as the potential next gym-leader. Hence she got the mission to raise Axes and become a dragon-master.
Though It looked like Axcadrill was trying to tell Iris that the move she kept commanding wasn't a good call
(realized it after the 1st attack), hence it got frustrated to lose so badly while being on a badass winning-streak since day 1.

[PokemonOwn]

Personally, I think Excadrill was a nicer Pokemon than we thought. It was actually sorry, for what it did, and didn't want to show it's shame, and huddled into a Drill. It didn't want to make Iris unhappy.

[Jash Thor]

characters whose personality is "this person defeated me once so my entire life now revolves around hating him" (cabernet and dento) or "a dragon master from ryuu no sato once beat me so now i am a dragon-type racist and my entire life is dedicated to being a really, really big jerk to all dragon-type owners, and stealing and eating three people's breakfasts"... i just don't understand it, and it's so over the top, it's not entertaining at all, it's just stupid and annoying.

They are stupid, they are annoying, but they're also real. Some people are plain inconsiderate. Kudos to the writers for willingly adding an unsympathetic character. By venting your frustration, you've played right into the anticipated reaction. You should be angry. I think we'd all be a little concerned if you liked her. So, I agree she's a detestable person, but that doesn't make her a detestable character. If anything, this gives you even more incentive to root for Iris in a future battle. Langley is mean and rude, and her inevitable comeuppance will be incredibly satisfying.

Also, Excadrill is just awesome. I'm excited we finally get to see him battle a little bit. I was really surprised by his personality. There was real pain behind his disobedience. Best Wishes continues to impress me. I hope we see a lot more of him in the near future.

[Raichu:)]

awwww poor axew, he got beaten bad (can't help with his ice type fear)
drayden looks wierd, he has no mouth quite creepy.
i've decided cilan is like slim in of mice and men, what he says is true and can't be argued with. lol.
go excadrill, he is soooo cool now that he is bad *** n that he will participate in her battles, just emolga to become a proper non 'stick up the a***' pokemon

overall love it <3 best ep. yet for me

[Haunter227]

This is definetely one of my favourite episodes so far mainly because Excadrill is a sick character.

Personally was quite dissapointed that the disobedience/ashamed Excadrill attitude is over already, hardly ever saw it really (4/5 episodes).

If they had made another episode much like 'The Bloom Is On Axew' and then have this episode resolve Excadrills attitude then i would of been more satisfyed.

Anyway it was interesting to see that Drilbur was Iris's first pokemon and they were best mates, shame Axew has taken the main pokemon placement in her team...

Now all I want to see is Ash's Charizard vs Iris's Excadrill Ahaa.

10/10.

[Locormus]

Excadrill rocks!
Have to say that haxorus was pretty darn powerfull, but it looks like Drayden saw Iris as the potential next gym-leader. Hence she got the mission to raise Axew and become a dragon-master.

Though It looked like Excadrill was trying to tell Iris that the move she kept commanding wasn't a good call (realized it after the 1st attack), hence it got frustrated to lose so badly while being on a badass winning-streak since day 1.

I really have to agree to your first paragraph. The nod Drayden gave to the elder who was lurking in the tent was a big sign, also.. NO AXEW in the flashback.. Meaning that Drilbur was Iris' first pokemon, and then got Axew. Meaning we will be getting another flashback of Iris sometime in the future, probably when we'll get to Opelucid City when Iris and Drayden will have their rematch.

It wasn't necessarily the attack Iris kept commanding against Haxorus.. If I'm right, she ordered four different attacks: Metal Claw, Slash (or Fury Swipes), Dig and Drill Run..

It was Excadrill that thought that Iris had put him up against an opponent he couldn't possibly hope to win against, and that Iris did so because she thought that Excadrill was capable of doing so. Of course it lost, and got upset at Iris for not listening to him when it said to her that he couldn't beat Haxorus, right before Iris ordered Dig/Drill Run, and at the same time ashamed that it lost and betrayed Iris' trust in it..

Then when the sleeping scene happened Iris basically said something along the lines of: 'I don't care if you lose, we'll overcome it together.' Thus they start training to counter the move that caused it to lose twice: Rock Smash.. Funny though how such a weak move in game gets such focus in the animé.. Gible had it as well.. Weird..

They are stupid, they are annoying, but they're also real.

Real my butt.. Writers of kids shows don't put real characters in this show. They put over the top characters in this show because coarse characters are easy to understand for the little kids.

Take Dawn for instance: I loooooove cute little pokeymonz!
-> About halfway through the saga she gets one of the bigger pokemon: Mamoswine, and it immediatly becomes her problem. The little kids would go: 'oh well, that's understandable as she only likes little pokemon', when that's completely illogical when you think about it... But it makes sense for the little kids, hence Suny's frustration..

[Juputoru]

-My computer is a useless piece of shit that crashed in the middle of writing this. You're getting jack shit for the first several minutes of the episode other than a basic summary, since I'm too pissed off to bother rewriting everything. There's nothing all that interesting in the first chunk of the episode anyway.
-Langely shows up immediately. Axew loses horribly to Beartic. Excadrill gets woken up by being attacked, and also loses. Iris goes into recap mode. Blah blah blah injured Patrat blah blah blah Drillbur hoarding berries blah blah.
-Little Iris fights Drillbur by herself. She tries four times, and gets beaten up four times. But on the fifth time...she blocks a Metal Claw! And then more stuff happens leading up to Drillbur getting strung up on some vines dangling over a cliff.
-Iris saves the day(or course), and...awww, Drillbur's so cute when it's embarassed.
-After that, Iris and Drillbur fought(and won!) a whole lot of battles. And then there was some sort of battle tournament. Drillbur fought a Crimgan, and...then it evolved! And won, of course.
-It's The Most Incredible Beard! ...I mean, Drayden. The anime handles his amazing beard by having no mouth be visible while he talks. (although you can see his beard move depending on the angle!)
-Iris challenges Drayden to a battle. This...isn't going to go well, is it?
-Drayden sends out Haxorus. This...really isn't going to go well.
-Yeah, it's not going well. One Dragon Tail to the face gives Excadrill a "oh god THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA I AM GOING TO DIE" look. But Iris foolishly encourages it to go on anyway.
-That was quite a loss. Well, losing to someone much stronger than you seems to be a recurring lesson in this series and...oh wait, Excadrill isn't taking this very well.
-Dento immediately sees that Excadrill was kind of shocked at getting such a big loss right after evolving, and Iris demands more details. You...you seriously didn't figure this out before? Goddamn, Iris. It shouldn't take a Sommelier to figure that out! EDIT:Okay that's apparently not accurate, but I write these before even seeing the thread, so .
-Then we get another flashback where Iris did seem to blame herself? I don't even know what's going on here anymore. Wait, is this the present? I CAN'T TELL. Although after looking more closely, I think it is?
-Yeah, this is totally the present. I blame all that on the sudden cut to Iris tearfully going "IT'S ALL MY FAULT ISN'T IT" to Excadrill.
-Excadrill comes out of its shell and starts wandering off. Hmm...
-It went off to train a move all by itself! And...it's apparently trying to learn Focus Blast!
-Iris gets excited, and starts helping it train. Excadrill is totally going to start obeying this episode, isn't it?
-LANGLEY ATE THEIR BREAKFAST. ALL OF IT. THAT BITCH.
-Iris challenges Langley to another battle, and...she makes fun of Iris! THAT BITCH.
-The battle goes well for Iris. Excadrill even manages to break out of being frozen!
-Oh hey, I just noticed they're using Victory Is Right Before Your Eyes!(the "GL's last Pokemon music") as the BGM. Awesome!
-Oh no, Excadrill is down! ...but so is Beartic! It's a tie!
-Apparently leaving with some huffy words and a "bye" is Langley's thing.
-On Oak's Live caster, we get...Basculin?! I guess they showed up in the fishing episode we never got to see? This is almost as cruel as not getting to see any of the episode at all!


Overall, this was a pretty awesome episode. Heaping amounts of d'awww combined with heaping amounts of awesome can't really go wrong. I may also be biased since I really like the Drillbur line.

[Ash6K]

I must say this episode is one of my favorites. I was very neutral towards Iris as a character but after this episode, I just love her story with Excadrill and their relationship. It was really nice to see all that background with her catching Drilbur and then its evolution and battle with Drayden's Haxorus. It was also touching how Excadrill still had love and care for his trainer and wasn't like any other disobedient pokemon in the past. I felt there was a bit more depth to its character and I liked that and it really worked well with this episode.

So glad to see Iris and Excadrill as a team. It's going to be awesome to see those two in more battles.

As for Langley, she is just such a...let's just say I wanna see her get crushed by Iris by the end of BW. She's definitely a character I would love to hate I guess you can say lol. Since Iris was able to battle with Excadrill and Axew against her, I'm assuming she's got more pokemon that we could see from her in the future (if she's not a COTD, hope she's not). I personally would love to see her with a female pokemon. Just so I can see a three way catfight between whatever pokemon she has with Emolga and Ash's Snivy. That'd be entertaining

Oh yeah, I forgot, Drayden's appearance was awesome too. Hmm, after Iris' battle with him, was the old lady that was shown the lady that gave Iris Axew? If so, hopefully that means Iris can sorta be like she is in the games and be somewhat of an apprentice to Drayden as a Dragon Master. And hopefully that also means Iris has a chance of battling Ash for the 8th badge. But I guess that's another subject for another thread lol.

Overall great episode! We get a possible Iris rival, Iris' backstory with Excadrill, character development, and more. I totally enjoyed watching this episode!

[G50]

This episode was good. It was cool to see an Ononokusu again, this time in a flashback. It was cool to see Gym Leader Drayden for the 1st time. Ononokusu was very strong! It can use Reversal which is really powerful against Doryuuzu. It was cool to see Tsunbeaa for the 1st time. Tsunbeaa is strong, and can also use Rock Smash! It was cool to see Icicle Crash attack for the 1st time, very well animated. It was great to see the background of Iris as a young girl, with Doryuuzu back when he was only a Mogurew. Mogurew was 1 tough Pokemon, being a big bully and stealing Minezumi's nest. It was very funny when Iris was swinging from a vine and kept trying to attack Mougrew, but kept getting knocked out over and over. Eventually Iris was able to succeed and actually sent Mogurew flying on the 10th try, unfortunately getting caught in vines over a cliff. It was great to see Iris save him, and then they both became friends, practicing, and battling together, especially the tournament she was in. Mogurew vs Crimgan was very cool. Unfortunately when Iris battled Drayden her Doryuuzu wasn't strong enough and was knocked out easily. Doryuuzu was so upset about failing that he stopped listening to Iris. Iris had a long talk with him while in a sleeping bag in the middle of the night, and eventually got through to him, and Doryuuzu finally started listening to her again, and learned Focus Blast. Langley was definitely very mean to Iris, and taunted her about Doryuuzu, very glad Iris tied with her the 2nd time. She even ate the gang's food. She was helpful however, if it wasn't for the 1st battle, Iris wouldn't have told her story, and made things right with Doryuuzu. It was cool to see all of Iris' Pokemon friends from when she was a young girl.

70/100

[uber gon]

So Superpower is basically a big energy punch? I was kinda hoping something like the Spirit Bomb from DBZ.

[Champion Jared 14]

So Excadrill didn't want to do disappoint Iris in battle and still loved her...And seemingly didn't always see eye to eye with Iris' battle strategy after that loss? Wow, what a bitter pill to swallow...So Excadrill must be Iris' first pokemon, and like it was said, the old woman and Drayden must've saw potential in Iris to become a Dragon Master, so that's why she got Axew. Loved the relationship with Iris and Drayden, and Excadrill as a young Drilbur.

Wow, Excadrill is such a strong and powerful pokemon, it's got some impressive moves. I think Iris has the strongest pokemon in the main cast now.