Facing the Needs of the Many! (Pokémon the Series: XY)
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| "Facing the Needs of the Many! (Pokémon the Series: XY)" | ||||||||||||||
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 The worst decision Ash Ketchum has ever made, basically Pokémon's biggest jump the shark moment.
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Facing the Needs of the Many! is an episode from Pokémon the Series: XY, it is the 46th and penultimate episode of Pokémon the Series: XYZ, is the 146th/penultimate episode of Pokémon the Series: XY, and overall the 938th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on October 20, 2016, in Australia on January 1, 2017, in Canada on January 7, 2017 and in the United States on January 14, 2017. This episode has been hated by many Pokémon fans and is considered to be the worst episode in Pokémon history.
Summary
After returning Goodra to its home, the gang is confronted by a giant creeping vine like the ones Team Flare unleashed on Lumiose City.
Why It Faces the Needs of Nobody
- Almost no one is likable in the episode:
- Ash is very unlikable in this episode, because he made the worst decision a trainer could ever make, releasing his Greninja, a starter, just so he can protect the world from the vines that shouldn’t have come back in the first place.
- Xerosic’s return was completely unnecessary, and he doesn’t help make the episode any better at all.
- Keanan is just a really small cameo, and isn’t important at all.
- Team Rocket, while at least tolerable, only appear for a short time and their appearance was pretty pointless.
- Serena, Clemont, Bonnie and Officer Jenny are all basically boring and don't serve much purpose or help make the episode better, even when they are battling.
- Two releases happened in the episode. Goodra’s was less painful and pretty obvious, but it was more boring than it’s first release. The second release... see below.
- The plot about the evil vines returning doesn’t make sense as Squishy and Zygarde got rid of them all when the heroes defeat Team Flare, so it wasn’t a good idea at all to bring them back. They only did this as a plot device so Ash could release his Greninja even though it was one of his best Pokémon he ever had.
- The comedy falls flat in this episode, with many unfunny moments, like the parts with Team Rocket, especially when they all argue over the footage they took during the Team Flare fight.
- Many boring or annoying parts in the episode, like with Ash and Greninja’s sneaking skills, and the one where Clemont reveals his boring trick he pulled on Xerosic being boring and Xerosic’s confident attitude about his plan working being annoying.
- The battling parts are not fun at all and very uninteresting.
- When Xerosic kidnapped Clemont, it got predictable that the heroes will rescue him, especially with Ash and Greninja’s skills when bonded as Ash-Greninja, so Ash can see where Greninja is.
- Predictable defeat for Xerosic as he gets defeated very easily and taken away by Officer Jenny.
- Squishy and Zygarde returning also doesn’t make sense since they were supposed to be resting in the Sun, but how did they get back to Kalos?
- The reveal that the vines were still alive and that Greninja’s the only one who can sense them got many fans worried, as the plot about the vines coming back was already bad, and the reveal that there are still more makes it worse.
- This makes it feel like cliffhanger.
- The whole battle agents Xerosic feels extremely unnecessary, there was already the five-part Team Flare Saga where Ash and Co. already battled Team Flare, so an episode having another battle with Team Flare feels very forced.
- Ash decided to release Greninja to make sure the vines are stopped. This really upset many fans of the anime, as this will make things more complicated if they wanna bring back Greninja someday, or even worse, we never see Greninja again (with the next episode being an exception, but thankfully, the former happened, explained in Redeeming Qualities below), and that’s why many fans declare this as the worst episode of XY, as well as the worst episode of the Pokémon anime ever.
- Ash’s decision to release Greninja makes the plot point involving Greninja’ as unique ability to sync with Ash in battles feel completely pointless. Many fans thought that this unique ability would be what allows Ash to finally win a Pokemon league but it did not. The release also came shortly after Ash lost the Kalos league finals, which is another huge slap in the face to fans.
- The ending was very heartbreaking, and not in a good way, as Greninja, Squishy and Zygarde leaves in the forest, as the gang and their Pokémon wave goodbye to them. This was overall a very bad farewell to Greninja.
- To make matters worse, this episode is unfortunately canon, which is rather sad.
Redeeming Qualities
- The animation and voice acting are still good as usual.
- While Team Rocket are pointless here, they are the only tolerable characters in the episode.
- The anime has actually learned from their huge mistake, as later in the Journeys era, they made an episode titled "Catching the Aura of Fate!", and it was a massive redemption episode. Although it was only a one episode reunion, it was awesome with Greninja and Ash being reunited, Greninja helping Ash's Lucario getting stronger, and Ash being in character.
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