70 episodes - 6 badges. WOW.
How is it that Tranquil gets to be the gym battle 'star' yet Muku never got that honour? I mean, yeah, it got more fights in general and was better in pretty much every conceivable way, but-...wait. Just what am I complaining about again?
So is this it for Skyla, then? I figured she'd be around a little longer.
So Satoshi's most boring flying type EVER gets to battle Géraldine's Unfezant? Colour me surpirsed...well, not really.
I wonder how this battle turns out. You guys know what would be cool? Satoshi's Tranquil might evolve during the gym match!! That would be an awesome twist and something different in a saga where...who am I kidding...
Fuuro is my favourite gym leader this gen so I hope the writers will showcase her as an interesting character at least.
Guess who's the animation director? HELL YEAH :D
Screenplay: Junki Takegami
Storyboard & Assistant director: Yūji Asada
Animation director: Masaaki Iwane
Ah! Shame Takegami never writes good battles, though.
I laughed, I cried,
I puked a little in my mouth.
At this rate, Satoshi'll have all eight Gym badges by the end of this year. D: I wonder how the writers plan to kill the last two years until Generation VI? Anyway, trying to get back on topic...
I guess the writers have something against the female gym leaders this time around (Aloe notwithstanding); she and Kamitsure have only appeared in two episodes apiece, whereas every other Gym Leader so far has appeared in at least three.
At least Fuuro's main Gym episode has Iwane animation...
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Nah, this is BW - where Gym Leaders exist solely for the purpose of inevitably handing Ash their badges and get little, if any focus on their character to distinguish them from CotDs. What Skyla's getting (assuming this is her last episode) is on par for the course of the Unova Gym Leaders. DP this ain't; if Skyla got four episodes to feature in that would be astounding by today's standards. Who was it, just Clay and Chili who had anything done with their characters on the exposition/development deal so far? Even then, how many Unova Gym Leaders have lasted for at least 4 episodes (which was like the MINIMUM for Sinnoh's Gym Leaders besides Byron and Crasher Wake)? Even Skyla's pseudo-Maylene plot twist doesn't serve to make HER look engaging based on what we know.Originally Posted by Grave-E
But yeah, saw Unfezant vs Tranquill coming from a mile away. I'm not sure if the cliched fully evolved opponent vs its NFE counterpart is worse or better than pulling a Winona and making the Unfezant shiny; then again, thanks to massive gender differences, they wouldn't have had to resort to that anyway. Who's placing bets on whether or not Tranquill will evolve here? Cuz I kinda got a feeling this battle here will be the last time we'll hear from Ash's Tranquill in a long time (wouldn't be surprised if it didn't show up again until the League).
Sure, in retrospect I realize Staraptor getting denied a chance to star in a Sinnoh gym was not cool, but on the plus side Staraptor actually existed and did things now and then. And it was a total badass. The most "badass" thing we've seen from Tranquill so far is that it's immune to Snivy's Attract. ... Which was at the beginning of the series.
Unless the combatants have been revealed already, I'm calling Swadloon and Scraggy to be used here. That's how Ash likes to roll, right? And based on the last episode's premise, this seems to be another horribly misguided plot that's telling Ash to throw logic and proper planning out the window because no one EVER wins battles that way here in BW. The Clay thing was a fluke (and only partially a fluke given who starred in that battle).
Predictably, Hatoboh's gonna evolve in this battle. And, Masaaki Iwane animating's always a good thing.
Oh god, I sure this is not going to be yet another evolution during a gym battle. On the bight side though Iwane is animating.
Finally, Tranquill gets some well deserved screen time. I just like the species in general.
In her first few episodes, pidove totally showed some personality... it's just that she wasn't used afterward at all, and that's what made her boring :/
I think they will! She doesn't seem like the type that would go down without a good fight.Fuuro is my favourite gym leader this gen so I hope the writers will showcase her as an interesting character at least.

Well, Takegami did write the previous gym battle, so chances are that an evolution might very well take place here. Considering that Skyla's Unfezant is male and Ash will use his female Tranquill against it, more likely than not that Tranquill's situation in this gym battle will be just like all of the other pokemon that have been shafted in screentime over the course of this series.
I am also hoping that Pikachu isn't used here, either. It doesn't do the rest of his pokemon any good if Ash decides to send out his Pikachu once again, even if he has a type advantage over Flying-types. I am hoping that Boldore and Krokorok will be the other two choices, honestly. Both of them can use Rock-type attacks that are strong against Flying-types, while also having a type disadvantage against Swanna's Water-type attacks.
That's also the same writer for Elesa's gym battle, where no evolutions happened. So we'll have to wait and see.
I also wouldn't mind Boldore and or Krokorok, plus, who knows, Swanna might not use any Water type attacks, but I hope it does. Well, assuming she does have a Swanna/she uses it here.
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