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Man, Lance's Dragonite was pure, unadulterated badass in this episode. Oh most unlike Iris's "wannabe hardcore so I need to have an angry expression all the time" Dragonite.
I liked that small explanation on how Gold faces pathetically weak guards when the alarms sound... makes sense given there is none other than Lance infiltrating the building. Of course they would send the best guards against him!
But again, I find some sound choices weird. Why does Electrode make sounds as if it were moving any kind of mechanical limb or articulation when it has none of them?
I was somewhat surprised to see Lance was more reserved and professional in this adaptation compared to the famous hyper beam incident that occurred in the games. The voicing was a bit off, and it seems the episode confirms their overall focus is on side characters rather than the child protagonists, but I feel pretty satisfied with this episode. The skip from Blue beating the E4 up to midway in Johto's plot was a tad bit jarring.
But again, I find some sound choices weird. Why does Electrode make sounds as if it were moving any kind of mechanical limb or articulation when it has none of them?
That could be their insides, no? Electrode never really came up to me as something organic to begin with, despite not being a steel-type.
As for the episode, I'm kind of disappointed. The whole premisse of Pokemon Generations is that it would show us stories that were never actually told before, like Giovanni fleeing from Veridian City or Blue taking down the Elite Four. However, this episode only showed us stuff we've already seen ( Lance and Gold infiltration into Team Rocket's hideout ) so it was kind of a let down for me in that regard. It would've been a lot more interesting if they had shown everything in this episode from Silver's point of view imo.
Furthermore, who ACTUALLY lets the Red Gyarados go? lol
We start off with the tree with the radio transmitter, nice touch.
FIRE PUNCH LOOKED AMAZING!
The Rocket's base was faithfully recreated. I really get a feel for how cold and unwelcoming the base, and Team Rocket as a whole, is.
Nice to see the Rockets have CCTV and are, you know, kind of competent...
The Rockets look drunk in the scene where they fight (and get destroyed) by Lance. What's up with them?
Dragonite definitely use Flamethrower this time ._.
Hey, Petrel references Gold as a "diversion". This might mean that in this canon, Lance played more of a role in the Team Rocket saga rather than "hanging back".
Nice remix of the Champion music here. Petrel is destroyed by both the Electrode and Lance.
All in all, a pretty good episode.
i have stayed much in the Dark about Pokemon but im not knew to any generation but all i have seen was ash but then i watch generations and i was amazed but i dont want game freak to change this new wave of movies and maybe start a new tv series not with ash.
Pokemon Generations is likely being made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pokemon (hence why they're using all generations). Don't get your hopes up.
(Watch Episode Here) 0:09: Totally inconspicuous. 0:35: Hey, wasn't there a few more people and events that took place before storming of Team Rocket's base? The Rocket grunt protecting the secret entrance, Lance having Dragonite use Hyper Beam on him (even though in HGSS it just looked like Dragonite tackled/push the guy), and this little known character that was THE PLAYER. 0:38: WHEE! Who knew raiding an evil organizations base would be so fun? 0:55:"That Red Gyarados, it wasn't acting normally". And it was, you know, red instead of blue. 1:12: Nice break room. I especially like the green teapot and pink phone. 1:16:"Isn't that Lance?". "Of the Elite Four?". Shouldn't it be known by now that he has become Champion? I mean it's not to the player but once again there should be a difference between what the player knows (and so needs to be told) and what everyone else should know being part of the Pokemon world. 1:18: OH MY ARCEUS IT'S GOLD/ETHAN! They actually remembers he exists! 1:32: Either the base is slanted, their spines are malformed, or their drunk. What? They're trying to look cool and intimidating. Pfft, everyone knows if you want to look intimidating you bend your arms to make it look like a skull.
You wouldn't look like a tool at all. 1:52: Wait there was 4 grunts who each threw a Poke Ball each, yet five Pokemon came out. Oh, and really? A Magnemite, Grimer, and Golbat against LANCE and his DRAGONITE? At least Raticate and Houndoom are fully evolved (though Raticate doesn't fair any better than the non-fully evolved Pokemon). 2:24: Dead. 2:25: Oh hey, Magnemite is still alive (gotta love that Sturdy. Though I guess that means Houndoom didn't have Flash Fire)... nevermind. Dead again (double dead for the other four). 2:30: Oh, Petrel! I guess around this time Gold/Ethan should be battling Ariana. 3:02:"Dragonite". Lance, is that always your solution? Dragonite, Fire Punch that secret entrance open! Dragonite, defeat these grunt's Pokemon! Dragonite, defeat this Rocker executive's Pokemon. 3:07: Jeez, Dragonite didn't even hype itself up this time, just sent an electric shock from its antenna's like it was nothing. Also not quite sure if Weezing is dead. 3:17:"Your entire operation is finished here". And Dragonite be like, "yo, word up!" 3:27: Wait, so Gold/Ethan has been waiting where we last say him this entire time? Even though in the games the player essentially did everything including getting into the generator room? 3:32:"Don't worry, we'll free you all shortly". By knocking you all out (maybe even catching one of you). 3:49: Is Dragonite smiling? I think its enjoying all this destruction a bit TOO much. 4:16: Dead. Also the Electrode weren't loyal to Team Rocket? 4:33: So Gold/Ethan didn't capture the Red Gyarados? Alright, I mean that is a possible result but still feels like a missed opportunity.
For those disappointed about not seeing Blue battling Lance, ARE YOU KNOW PLEASED! Awesome episode, getting to see what Lance was doing while raiding the Rocket HQ with the player. Okay, sure it was pretty much the same thing as the player (actually this was more an alternate take on the events where Lance pretty much did everything... thinking about it why was Gold/Ethan even there? I'm kind of expecting an extended version of this scene ending with the reveal Lance is actually retelling the story to the Pokemon League, obviously making himself looking like he did all the work), but hey we got to see Dragonite being awesome and just steamrolling his way through.
Though since these are a retelling of events we were there for I would have maybe preferred to see Lance's investigation leading up to the Rocket HQ raid. They could still have him battling Rocket grunts and maybe another of the Rocket admins (like Proton), it would just be somewhere else like looking at another of the "hidden" radio towers.
1. The Chase 2. The Challenger 3. The Lake of Rage 4. The Adventure
3:02:"Dragonite". Lance, is that always your solution? Dragonite, Fire Punch that secret entrance open! Dragonite, defeat these grunt's Pokemon! Dragonite, defeat this Rocker executive's Pokemon.
If you had a massive orange dragon that can break down sturdy walls and doors with a single Fire Punch and it's so badass it can make other badasses from the Pokemon series get scared, why wouldn't it always be the solution? :P
Okay, now I understand how the Rocket Grunts in that base were such pushovers in the games. They were rambling, shambling drunk and could barely stand on their legs.
The animation budget is still showing, especially in the multi battle scene where the moves used were all "glittering beam while the Pokémon stands completely still", but at least they had the resources to give Dragonite some well-deserved time in the limelight.
Also loving the reaction of that executive near the end: Lance: We're finished here. Now leave! Rocket: What?
Just imagine his thoughts at that moment: Leave?!? Why the hell isn't he arresting me? He breaks into here, destroys my grunts, wrecks the place and then says I'm free to go?!?!? What kind of hero is this?
He must be so baffled that he can't get anywhere. Lance then walks away from him, Dragonite spends a good fifteen seconds breaking the Electrode free, and the Rocket guy is still lying on the floor when they start levitating into the room.
By the way, really nice to see Electrode move like that? I thought they were ground-bound and rolling, but they work surprisingly well as "floaters" too.
lol this was actually the one tidbit I enjoyed the most. It always bugged how everyone and their mothers assumed the Gyarados was forced into evolution simply because it had a different color scheme, which coincidently just so happened to be the same as it's pre-evolution, Magikarp. So, Lance noting that something was amiss due to Gyarados' behavior instead makes much more sense given how now we know its shininess has actually nothing to do with whatever it is that Team Rocket did to it.
This was a great episode. I think this captured pretty much everything that people were expecting from pokemon generations. Dragonite was such a badass, he knew he was the strongest mon in the building and he was acting the part.
I think it's implied Gold had battled Petrel beforehand, and that's why he said "So that kid was just a distraction/decoy?" and he only had one Pokemon. I never played Gold/Silver though, so maybe the player never battles him.
I think it's implied Gold had battled Petrel beforehand, and that's why he said "So that kid was just a distraction/decoy?" and he only had one Pokemon. I never played Gold/Silver though, so maybe the player never battles him.
You need to battle Petrel in order to get into the generator room, so had Gold did what his game counterpart did they would have battled Petrel by now.
Of course that was an odd thing about this episode, it felt like they rewrote it so that Lance did everything while Gold just stood there in a hallway. When getting in Gold nor the Rocket agents were seen (probably so they wouldn't need to show Lance attacking someone with Dragonite... even though later we see him do that exact thing to Petrel), Lance is able to waltz into the generator room without needing a password, and was able to destroy the entire generator without needing Gold to take one side of the generator. Seriously, why was Gold even there?
Though after re-watching that part on Youtube, I also remembered something they completely skipped over: Lance's battle with Silver. In the Rocket HQ, you meet up with Silver who says Lance wiped his entire team than leaving. So instead of the Silver battle which would have been awesome to see (a part of), we got a few rocket grunts and Petrel. *Sigh*
Some people says Blue's Elite Four run was disappointing since we didn't see him defeat Agatha's Gengar or Lance's Dragonite but at least we saw him battle every Elite Four member (and also got character development concerning his thoughts on Professor Oak). But this episode honestly feels a bit less as they changed things to purposely exclude Gold's involvement, skipped over some stuff like Silver's battle, and it doesn't feel like we got to know anything more about Lance. Honestly I think this episode needed to either more focus on the events of the games (have Lance helping the player get into the HQ, maybe fighting Ariana and a few grunts to know where to go, fighting Silver and telling him to start caring about his Pokemon, meeting up with Gold and splitting up to shut down the generator (maybe he can meet Petrel than, defeating both him and shutting down the generators at the same time)). Or maybe show us his investigation before meeting up with Gold (fighting with the Red Gyarados, finding the other radio towers and battling Rocket Grunts who saw him snooping (maybe adding in an admin like Ariana or maybe Proton), you could maybe even have the Silver battle happen here).
This episode was ok, though there were a lot of clear issues / inconsistencies namely:
Rocket grunts having 5 Pokemon despite there only being 4 trainers
The way the Rocket Grunts approached lance (their movements were so unnatural)
Dragonite's Thunderbolt OHKOing Petrel's Weezing, but leaving Petrel himself unscathed
With that aside, the episode was overall still enjoyable. Really liked how the animators portrayed Dragonite. It acted as if the Team Rocket Grunts and their Pokemon were just a minor nuisance rather than actual threats, slowly walking and OHKOing their Pokemon easily. Definitely made the mon seem a lot more threatening and scary than its appearance portrays it to be.
