Thread: S15 EP25 "Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown!"

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Ash and Scraggy have reached the semi-finals, but do they have what it takes to beat Montgomery and Throh? Plus, Stephan and Bianca are still going strong, but only one will advance to the finals. Who will emerge victorious?

I wish Ash could have sent Ash in to battle against Throh. His Leer was probably about as effective and unlike Scraggy's Focus Blast, he can control his Aura Spheres.

Otherwise, the episode is pretty good, the battle between Throh and Sawk was nice and believable and was probably about the best example of battle tactics so far in BW. The stuff on the sidelines seemed to be in good moderation, allowing a lot of focus on what was a good battle.

This episode did make me dislike how the robe thing covers Sawk's feet (wasn't as obvious with Throh), it makes it look like his foot bends at an odd angle - which combined with Bulk Up makes Sawk one of the more creepy Pokemon. Particularly when it eats out of a dog food bowl at a table sitting like a human.

Speaking of food, it would have been nice to have Burgundy comment a bit about Cilan's cooking, or just flash to her eating a bit of it once everyone had left for the final battle. Though I've got to wonder why they all seem to think it needs to be in a tournament to actually battle each other - half of them had nothing better to do after being eliminated, why not just challenge their supposed rivals?

Equally odd is that Stephan/Bianca weren't going to Iccirus City. In fact it's odd that their badges didn't come up at all - it would have been a nice check on their progress. As was the fact Ash was the one talking about battle strategy and surprise moves, if only he could learn something from Ash.

Overall though, apart from the stupid name, this tournament was much improved over the first one, though still a few too many niggles. I still want to see more of Stephan's Pokemon before the league - there's way too much focus on Sawk - does he even have a starter?

Thank god the Clubsplosion is over. Only interesting part of it for me was Bianca. I loved the fact she beat Trip. Hopefully now we can move on to Ash's 7th gym.
How far behind Japan are we?

Good episode could have been better but I did enjoy it.

Like it was mentioned above, Ash probably could have done a better job with Leer and "Aura Spheres" haha I will say that all of those Focus Blasts missing was a bit unbelievable. Regardless of lack of control, it would have been cool for one to blow up in front of Throh creating a smokescreen so Scraggy could successfully launch a surprise move like Hi Jump Kick or Headbutt.

Ash should have payed attention to the other matches because he would have known how Throh could defend against Hi Jump Kick from its first match.

Was it just me or did Scraggy look a bit smaller during the match?? It was kind of David vs. Goliath to begin with but still.

I'm not really getting how Superpower is utilized in the anime. Throh glowing blue just to throw its opponents? For a part Dark type to take so many Fighting moves is a bit unbelievable but I guess for the sake of Ash not being beat within 15 seconds like Throh's other opponents it had to be that long.

If I battled Bianca, I'd want to end it ASAP, she complains to much when she is losing but its kind of funny "Dodging is for cowards!" "Dodging like that is cheating!!!" well last time I thought about it launching a barrage of moves before your opponent can react isn't that much of a good sport either.

I was a bit annoyed by how everyone was shocked at Karate Chop that knocked out Emboar. I mean it was a "Double Karate Chop" rather than a standard one handed chop. Not to mention Sawk had used Bulk Up twice to raise its Attack power.

Seeing Sawk at the table with the trainers but eating out of a dog bowl???

The final match was good but I wanted a more hand to hand intense match. Bind being the "secret move" was a bit disappointing to me I wanted Storm Throw its signature move or something more impressive than a Bind.

Sawk breaking out of the nearly unbreakable Seismic Toss kind of reminded me of that old cartoon "Ultimate Muscle" where Kid Muscle broke out of Kevin Mask's Big Ben Bash during the final match of the series. Anyone remember that?

That final Close Combat was nice along with Sawk turning its back after bowing knowing the match was over.

Kind of ironic that Sawk has a trainer that is built and bulky and Throh has a trainer that has a slim build. Vice versa to their own body types. Guess its one of those metaphoric elements of the anime.

Iris saying that she wishes she made it to the finals...I'm not even going to touch that with a 10-foot-pole

The back and forth taunting between Georgia, Burgundy and the others was kind of bland considering what they were contradicting themselves in a way. Like Georgia not knowing the meaning of losing even though she lost and Burgundy saying she was better even though she lost in round 1. Oh well, whatever fills in that gap left open when TR left the scene. I just wish more focus was placed on the matches but this episode most of the dialogue was about the battles I will say that much.

Cilan wishing the rivals "Best wishes" made me smile :)

Don George messing up Stephan's name after he clearly told them how it was pronounced was uncalled for, the name gag is old writers please get rid of it. For someone intelligent like Cilan to constantly mess up is disturbing enough along with everyone else...even the narrator.

A strong finish to a pretty good tournament.

Poor Scraggy didn't stand a chance against Throh. I liked how Georgia called it out as a longshot, and how Iris got annoyed at her for it. That was a nice little touch.

Sawk is kinda creepy to be honest. There's something vaguely uncomfortable about a humanoid pokemon that sit at a table fine, yet still eats like dog......

That said, the finish where Sawk just bowed and walked away was badass.

Is it just me, or are all the women in Best Wishes very catty? They get offended at everything, and love to insult each other.

By the way, this episode kept a fair amount of the original music if I'm not mistaken. That improved the episode too.

Wonderful episode. Stephan was clearly the best and he deserved to win. The writers could use more incorrect pronunciations of his name instead of just using "Stephen" all the time. That would make this gag not so dry in the dub.

Sawk was amazing too, of course. I just love his attitude throughout this whole thing. Letting Bianca fawn over him and looking at her like "Are you done yet? I'd like to eat please." lol His battle with Throh will always be my top favorite battle of the Best Wishes series. I also like how Sawk stopped the battle when he realized Throh didn't have anymore fight in him, as he didn't want to cause him anymore pain. He didn't have to go in overkill mode unlike some Pokemon *stares at Excadrill* That says a lot about this Pokemon's morals.

And Montgomery's "Guilty as charged" made me laugh. In a good way though. I really hope we see him again. Anyone who loses with grace like that deserves to show up again.

Why did Montgomery say "Guilty as charged" anyway? : p

At last the Clubsplosion is over.

As was rather predictable from the first episode in this mini arc, the final came down to Stefan and Montgomery.
The whole getting Stefan's name wrong is really not funny anymore, it was mildly humorous the first time with Butch in Team Rocket, even then it seemed random and forced as no one had this problem before, and then it suddenly became an Isshu (see what I did there)

The battles themselves were rather boring, not enough explosions and sparkle to keep me interested.
I was also disappointed how easily Bianca lost to Montgomery, for me she was the star of the Clubsplosion. Her surprise win against Trip was a lovely twist and one of the few times I didn't predict the correct winner. She really developed and stood up to the plate in this one. Ash again continued to disappoint, I know their was a "tradition" of choosing fighting types, but Iris didn't use a fighting type, so why did Ash, especially when all he has is Scraggy? It seems despite his early popularity, Oshawott has been all but forgotten by the writers, and Axew seems now to be taking the mantle of Gen 5 mascot.

Overall this mini arc was a good filler, although some of my comments seem quite critical (they are) I would still rather a battle filler like this, than some of the Johto saga, and Sinnoh Saga fillers. That is one big success of the BW series, they have got much better fillers.

Also I'm confused now who is Stefan's main rival, is it Ash or Montgomery?

So, I finished watching the Clubsplosion episodes today (I'm behind others in the anime because I watch dubbed episodes, not subbed ones. I'd much rather hear words that I understand rather than read them on a screen, plus I often find that English voice acting is way better than all that shitty Japanese crap. Maybe I'm just used to hearing English, who knows), and I have to admit that Stephan's Sawk is epic. That battle against Montgomery's Throh was the best battle of the whole BW series so far, if you ask me! I also like Sawk's personality and his funny reactions to Bianca's obsession over its muscles. :P

Yes, I believe I officially like Sawk as a Pokemon too. Always thought it was cooler than Throh anyway. :3

EDIT: Why was the thread prefix removed? Isn't it allowed? o_O

Originally Posted by Kelleo

EDIT: Why was the thread prefix removed? Isn't it allowed? o_O

I removed it because it wasn't necessary when there's already a review thread for the episode you're talking about here and I don't think that this warrants its own thread for a review discussion. So, I'm just going to merge this thread with the recent dub thread discussion instead. If you want to talk about another episode in the future and you don't see it sticked, then please check the episode previews/reviews archives to see if it's there.

Originally Posted by Hidden Mew

I removed it because it wasn't necessary when there's already a review thread for the episode you're talking about here and I don't think that this warrants its own thread for a review discussion. So, I'm just going to merge this thread with the recent dub thread discussion instead. If you want to talk about another episode in the future and you don't see it sticked, then please check the episode previews/reviews archives to see if it's there.

I guess so, but I wasn't specifically talking about an episode. I was talking about a character's Pokemon.

Originally Posted by Kelleo

I guess so, but I wasn't specifically talking about an episode. I was talking about a character's Pokemon.

That's true, but even so, I didn't think that a topic just on Sawk warranted its own thread when it was more relevant to this particular episode, mainly with the Sawk vs. Throh match comment.

Originally Posted by Hidden Mew

That's true, but even so, I didn't think that a topic just on Sawk warranted its own thread when it was more relevant to this particular episode, mainly with the Sawk vs. Throh match comment.

Well, alright then, fair enough.

The only thing I would have liked to see is Scraggy evolving. I mean, it knows strong moves like Focus Blast and Hi Jump Kick now, so it's time for the little guy to evolve into Scrafty! It would be super strong then with those powerful moves.

9 out of 17 pieces of BGM were kept in this episode. Thankfully, most of the original music for Sawk vs Throh was left intact, so that's a plus.

This episode taught me that dodging is for cowards who want to win. How dare someone try to win.