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insaneladybugI finally got around to watching the other Orange Islands episode not included on the DVD set, which was presumably removed for the ridiculous reason of a non-purple Jynx being present for one minute. Seriously? Color her purple in those few frames if it's going to be such a problem! The Prima character was really interesting and I basically liked her, although I thought she was rather rude to Misty and Tracey at the beginning and I did not like how she decided to deal with Team Rocket. Encasing them in ice and then blasting them off like that? At least you saw the ice was melting so they weren't trapped like that, but that seemed pretty brutal. Not that all the electric shocks aren't brutal, but at least I'm more used to that method of getting rid of them and I know they can seem to deal with it pretty well. Encasing them in ice ... ugh.
Of the two episodes absent from the set, Stage Fight! is definitely the better one. It was sweet seeing the Trainer trying and finally succeeding in bonding with her Raichu, and I loved that when one of the Pokemon hurts James, Jessie goes ballistic and gets protective. "How dare you hit my friend?!?!!!"
I also finally got around to watching the Sabrina episodes again. I've put them off since I really wasn't fond of them due to so many tropes I hate. But they were among the last Indigo episodes I hadn't re-watched, so I finally decided to see them. I'd already watched the Tower of Terror one before, but it's sort of the middle part of the Sabrina trilogy even though she's not in it. I'm not crazy about it because Team Rocket seemed to be treated especially bad in it by the writers. It felt like a Warner Brothers cartoon with all the times Ash accidentally hurt them without even realizing they were in there. That doesn't generally happen. If it did, there's no way I'd watch the show.
Sabrina is one disturbing person. On the one hand, I guess I feel a little sad for her being lonely and wanting friends, because I think her bottled-up feelings were mostly sorrow and regret over missed opportunities, and that's always sad. But mostly I think, "Hey, you chose that path yourself, Honey. Deal with it." I mean, she deliberately pushed everyone away because she wanted to hone her psychic powers. She hurt people with her powers over and over. And she freaking turned her mother into a doll. And both her parents are all, "Oh, she's really not a bad girl." **headdesk.** Well, it would have been nice to have seen some indication of that. At least with Team Rocket, we're shown their good sides very often. If we weren't, they wouldn't mean anything to me. With Sabrina, you just don't see it. She's just this cold-hearted brat who apparently has a split personality, but the other personality, who looks maybe ten years younger, isn't very glowing either. It looks like she only helped Ash and company because she wanted to entrap them. Little kid antagonists are just really really creepy. And the older personality finally laughs and that breaks the spells over the people she hurt and that somehow makes everything okay. She should have at least showed regret or sorrow for all the pain she caused to so many people. There was no indication she felt bad at all. Even Team Rocket shows sorrow and regret for some of their plots.
Haunter was quite a jerk too, really. He promised Ash repeatedly that he would help, and then he kept disappearing. When he finally showed up to make Sabrina laugh, I definitely had the feeling that he was doing it for kicks and not to help Ash. It's debatable if he stopped Team Rocket's Pikachu plot to help Ash or if that was also just for kicks. But honestly, he could have just stopped when he foiled their plans. He didn't have to deliberately make them fall, especially when they were all afraid the drop was too much to survive. (And ugh, Jessie wanting James and Meowth to let go so at least she would survive.... I wonder if she says that in the Japanese. Regardless, I doubt she really meant it, since we do see that when they're hurt, she's upset. But it was a nasty thing to say.) Haunter is sadistic. He likes seeing people get hurt. He laughed when Ash and Pikachu got electrocuted and trapped under a chandelier! Ugh.
And then Ash's naivete ... oh gosh. I'd forgotten how stupid he came across in those episodes. I don't get it, either, because while yes, he has small moments of not knowing this or that in other episodes, it's not as bad as the Sabrina episodes make him seem. Just ... ugggh. If he'd been like that in every episode ... oh the horror.
And poor Team Rocket.... I guess they didn't fare too badly in the first of the three episodes, but the other two.... All the enhanced slapstick crud in the second one, and then in addition to the Haunter problem in the third one, some idiot comes to fill up the hole they made by crashing through the sidewalk and doesn't even check to see if anyone's in there first. So they're calling for help and Ash thinks he hears them, but no one else seems to (a running gag, but worse here). Ash doesn't hear them calling for help, but he's sure he hears them. Had he not been influenced to not worry about it, he would have come to investigate, seen the problem, and tried to get them out of the hole before they were cemented. He's shown that when he is aware that there's life-threatening danger, he will help them in spite of their constant stalking of him and trying to get Pikachu. The problem is, he usually isn't aware of it. They do thankfully manage to get out of the hole before the cement sets, and hopefully they find some way to get the cement off of them before it hardens, but seriously, ugggh. They probably could have sued the moron who was filling the obviously person-shaped hole without even looking in it first.
So yeah, I still don't like those episodes and having re-watched them once, I don't think I'm likely to get them out again at all. I like the basic plot idea of "Hey, let's have Ash go up against a psychic." But it could have been handled sooo much better.
(Also, since when does a psychic have the ability to do horrifying magic things like turning people into objects? Makes no sense. For my crossover, since I did not want that kind of thing to be possible, I had Misty say that the anime did that but in real-life, Sabrina could only hypnotize people into thinking things like that had happened to them.)
Then I was fooling around on Google Search looking for a picture of Jessie and James pretending to be Hawaiian girls from the first Sabrina episode and it showed me an XY episode where they pretend to be Ash and Serena. WTH. So I watched some of that. It looks like after the experiment in having them darker and serious in Best Wishes (why did the U.S. version call it Black and White?), XY went back to the old standard formula of silly plans and defeats. Gotta say, though, dressing up as Ash and company and getting everyone mad at them seems like the slimiest trick they've ever pulled. And I think that in past seasons, James wouldn't have liked the idea. Chalk another one up for Classic Era.
Then my book arrived and it seemed like it had been seriously misnamed. Team Rocket, honestly, isn't even in the book that much, which is a total WTH, and they're not able to come to the rescue. They hold their own at first, but then get blasted off by Team Flare, who takes the Pokemon. I may change my mind and return it, but for now my mindset is that I suppose I will keep it for the pretty pictures, and since I didn't have to pay that much for it, but it's one of those cases of "Had I been able to see it first, I probably wouldn't have bought it." But at least I was skeptical from the beginning, although I was definitely expecting more than I got. I was thinking Team Rocket would be the main characters throughout and that they would indeed get to save the day, even if they ended up blasting off at the end.
The shirt also arrived and it looks great! It's sealed in plastic and I don't think I'll open it up until Christmas, but the design is very big and it looks like it's ingrained into the shirt instead of being a lame iron-on that can crack and peel off. Awesome! I can't for the life of me imagine why that lady at the local T-Shirt shop would tell me that their new, more expensive process was so much better. All it was was making a raised design that can peel and crack. In what universe is that better than their old way, which ingrained the design in the shirt so that won't happen?!
Of the two episodes absent from the set, Stage Fight! is definitely the better one. It was sweet seeing the Trainer trying and finally succeeding in bonding with her Raichu, and I loved that when one of the Pokemon hurts James, Jessie goes ballistic and gets protective. "How dare you hit my friend?!?!!!"
I also finally got around to watching the Sabrina episodes again. I've put them off since I really wasn't fond of them due to so many tropes I hate. But they were among the last Indigo episodes I hadn't re-watched, so I finally decided to see them. I'd already watched the Tower of Terror one before, but it's sort of the middle part of the Sabrina trilogy even though she's not in it. I'm not crazy about it because Team Rocket seemed to be treated especially bad in it by the writers. It felt like a Warner Brothers cartoon with all the times Ash accidentally hurt them without even realizing they were in there. That doesn't generally happen. If it did, there's no way I'd watch the show.
Sabrina is one disturbing person. On the one hand, I guess I feel a little sad for her being lonely and wanting friends, because I think her bottled-up feelings were mostly sorrow and regret over missed opportunities, and that's always sad. But mostly I think, "Hey, you chose that path yourself, Honey. Deal with it." I mean, she deliberately pushed everyone away because she wanted to hone her psychic powers. She hurt people with her powers over and over. And she freaking turned her mother into a doll. And both her parents are all, "Oh, she's really not a bad girl." **headdesk.** Well, it would have been nice to have seen some indication of that. At least with Team Rocket, we're shown their good sides very often. If we weren't, they wouldn't mean anything to me. With Sabrina, you just don't see it. She's just this cold-hearted brat who apparently has a split personality, but the other personality, who looks maybe ten years younger, isn't very glowing either. It looks like she only helped Ash and company because she wanted to entrap them. Little kid antagonists are just really really creepy. And the older personality finally laughs and that breaks the spells over the people she hurt and that somehow makes everything okay. She should have at least showed regret or sorrow for all the pain she caused to so many people. There was no indication she felt bad at all. Even Team Rocket shows sorrow and regret for some of their plots.
Haunter was quite a jerk too, really. He promised Ash repeatedly that he would help, and then he kept disappearing. When he finally showed up to make Sabrina laugh, I definitely had the feeling that he was doing it for kicks and not to help Ash. It's debatable if he stopped Team Rocket's Pikachu plot to help Ash or if that was also just for kicks. But honestly, he could have just stopped when he foiled their plans. He didn't have to deliberately make them fall, especially when they were all afraid the drop was too much to survive. (And ugh, Jessie wanting James and Meowth to let go so at least she would survive.... I wonder if she says that in the Japanese. Regardless, I doubt she really meant it, since we do see that when they're hurt, she's upset. But it was a nasty thing to say.) Haunter is sadistic. He likes seeing people get hurt. He laughed when Ash and Pikachu got electrocuted and trapped under a chandelier! Ugh.
And then Ash's naivete ... oh gosh. I'd forgotten how stupid he came across in those episodes. I don't get it, either, because while yes, he has small moments of not knowing this or that in other episodes, it's not as bad as the Sabrina episodes make him seem. Just ... ugggh. If he'd been like that in every episode ... oh the horror.
And poor Team Rocket.... I guess they didn't fare too badly in the first of the three episodes, but the other two.... All the enhanced slapstick crud in the second one, and then in addition to the Haunter problem in the third one, some idiot comes to fill up the hole they made by crashing through the sidewalk and doesn't even check to see if anyone's in there first. So they're calling for help and Ash thinks he hears them, but no one else seems to (a running gag, but worse here). Ash doesn't hear them calling for help, but he's sure he hears them. Had he not been influenced to not worry about it, he would have come to investigate, seen the problem, and tried to get them out of the hole before they were cemented. He's shown that when he is aware that there's life-threatening danger, he will help them in spite of their constant stalking of him and trying to get Pikachu. The problem is, he usually isn't aware of it. They do thankfully manage to get out of the hole before the cement sets, and hopefully they find some way to get the cement off of them before it hardens, but seriously, ugggh. They probably could have sued the moron who was filling the obviously person-shaped hole without even looking in it first.
So yeah, I still don't like those episodes and having re-watched them once, I don't think I'm likely to get them out again at all. I like the basic plot idea of "Hey, let's have Ash go up against a psychic." But it could have been handled sooo much better.
(Also, since when does a psychic have the ability to do horrifying magic things like turning people into objects? Makes no sense. For my crossover, since I did not want that kind of thing to be possible, I had Misty say that the anime did that but in real-life, Sabrina could only hypnotize people into thinking things like that had happened to them.)
Then I was fooling around on Google Search looking for a picture of Jessie and James pretending to be Hawaiian girls from the first Sabrina episode and it showed me an XY episode where they pretend to be Ash and Serena. WTH. So I watched some of that. It looks like after the experiment in having them darker and serious in Best Wishes (why did the U.S. version call it Black and White?), XY went back to the old standard formula of silly plans and defeats. Gotta say, though, dressing up as Ash and company and getting everyone mad at them seems like the slimiest trick they've ever pulled. And I think that in past seasons, James wouldn't have liked the idea. Chalk another one up for Classic Era.
Then my book arrived and it seemed like it had been seriously misnamed. Team Rocket, honestly, isn't even in the book that much, which is a total WTH, and they're not able to come to the rescue. They hold their own at first, but then get blasted off by Team Flare, who takes the Pokemon. I may change my mind and return it, but for now my mindset is that I suppose I will keep it for the pretty pictures, and since I didn't have to pay that much for it, but it's one of those cases of "Had I been able to see it first, I probably wouldn't have bought it." But at least I was skeptical from the beginning, although I was definitely expecting more than I got. I was thinking Team Rocket would be the main characters throughout and that they would indeed get to save the day, even if they ended up blasting off at the end.
The shirt also arrived and it looks great! It's sealed in plastic and I don't think I'll open it up until Christmas, but the design is very big and it looks like it's ingrained into the shirt instead of being a lame iron-on that can crack and peel off. Awesome! I can't for the life of me imagine why that lady at the local T-Shirt shop would tell me that their new, more expensive process was so much better. All it was was making a raised design that can peel and crack. In what universe is that better than their old way, which ingrained the design in the shirt so that won't happen?!
no subject
Date: 2017-12-22 11:18 pm (UTC)Stage Fight is awesome and I will be forever bitter that it was left out due to the minimal Jynx appearance. Yeesh, that one was so plot-irrelevant that they could have just cut out her scenes and released that version!
"Tower of Terror" was the first episode I ever saw in full, so it has a fond spot in my heart for that reason, but yes, it is awfully cartoony compared to the other eps.
And yes, Sabrina is horrifying--and she was not a sympathetic character to me, either. *shudder*
And huh, I never have much thought to Haunter being sadistic, but you're absolutely right. That means Brock was right all along to distrust him, oyy. I think that deserves a drabble where Ash admits to him after it's all over that he should have listened to him....
And yeaaaah, the cement thing... so unrealistic and horrible.
And yeah, a psychic shouldn't be synonymous with sorcerer! It was my understanding that psychics deal with the mind alone, and moving things with telekinesis. The hypnosis angle in your fic works as a good explanation! In Tracey West's adaptation, she had used her telekinesis to keep Brock and Misty from moving rather than the doll thing, which made far more sense to me (and would probably be even more heartwrenching for Ash, since he'd have to watch them stand there the entire time). She also had Haunter catch Team Rocket in their fishing net and deposit them in front of Ash rather than have them crash into the concrete. A vast improvement on both counts!
The Best Wishes/Black & White thing... Starting with Sinnoh, they named the seasons after the games directly (Sinnoh was Diamond and Pearl, Unova was Black & White, Kalos was X&Y, and now we have Sun & Moon). I haven't seen/followed much of Unova or Kalos, so I can't comment on that episode in question, or the book (bleh at it being a disappointment).
Yay for the shirt, though!
no subject
Date: 2017-12-23 12:50 am (UTC)I remember Lance, but I have no memories of the other members offhand.
Totally! That was just stupid and lazy. Such a nice episode, deserving of a DVD release! Maybe I'll watch it again.
Yeah, one's first episode generally does have a special place! I wish I could remember what my first Pokemon episode was, LOL. I know it was season 4 Johto, because that's what was airing at the time. I was waiting for YGO on a weekday and tuned in and wondered why the cat was talking. But I have no memory beyond that, except that I decided to watch the next day to see if I could find out why the cat was talking. And things went from there....
Definitely! Gah.
Ooh, that would be a really good drabble!
So very much. **shudders.** Poor Team Rocket....
I wish Tracey West had been nicer to Team Rocket overall, but her adaptation of that episode certainly sounds nice! Did she keep the cement thing? I suppose it wouldn't fit if they didn't make the hole in the first place, LOL. Poor Brock and Misty immobilized would definitely be heartbreaking! And makes much more sense, yes. What happened with Sabrina's mother in the book?
Ahhh. I wondered if that was why. Or if they changed it because they didn't think Best Wishes sounded good enough for a series directed at boys, heh.
Yesss, I love the shirt!
no subject
Date: 2017-12-25 09:48 pm (UTC)Indeed! Disney says they have all English episodes available for streaming on their service, but I wonder if even they left out Stage Fight and the other Jynx eps.
Oh wow, for some reason, I thought you'd been there from season 1 like me!
I'll probably tackle it after New Year's!
Indeed.
Yeah, sadly. But yes! And I don't have the book in front of me, but I doubt the cement was brought in at all since there was no hole. I'll have to find the book and see what the deal was with her mother.
LOL, also possible.
Awesome!
no subject
Date: 2017-12-25 10:01 pm (UTC)Good question. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't.
No, I've said several times in the last several months that I wasn't.
Awesome!
Hopefully those things were handled better too (or not at all, in the cement's case).
no subject
Date: 2017-12-26 10:46 pm (UTC)Yeah, meh.
Oh, oops...
Yep. I'll have to find that (and the other books)! The one I have on hand is an original story with a Brock-centric plot where Ash begs him to join a talent show because Gary enters and he wants to beat his act, and Ash discovers that Brock can sing really well. I half wonder if it was coincidental, or if Tracey West was doing an allusion to Eric Stuart's musical career, heh.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-26 11:25 pm (UTC)Ooh, I love when book series like that do original stories! I wonder why they did it for Pokemon. I guess Team Rocket doesn't have any good parts in it? Considering the way she treats them, I'd be very surprised if she'd do anything nice with them in an original story.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-26 11:42 pm (UTC)Nope, unfortunately not; they're a bit more villainous here--their main plan to use a pied piper-esque flute to lure Pokémon away during the show is tame, but it's strongly implied (if not outright stated; I'll have to read it again) that they nearly pull an Erik with Brock and a chandelier--Togepi saves him with Teleport just in time.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-26 11:52 pm (UTC)That's about what I'd expect from her writing. Sigh. Although with episodes like the race one, it was probably easy for her to think they'd be capable of almost anything.