I just noticed how annoying Paul's Honchkrow sounds in the Dub. All I heard is "KROW", "KROW" And it bug me. What is worse, they took off 3 good songs during Staravia VS Honchkrow. One is the song played during Pikachu VS Magmar in the first Season, or more recently during Pikachu & Chimchar VS Magmar & Rhydon in the Tag Battles.

The second one was new to me and it is after Honchkrow lands a critical hit on Staravia and it falls down. The third one is during Staravia's evolution. At least the Hero Theme played after Staravia learned Close Combat but it just didnt feel the same without the other songs. I am scared of what will happen to the Ash VS Paul Full Battle. I will stick to the Japanese Episodes cause they are ALWAYS better than the Dubbed ones.

Well, another Saturday morning... We all know what that means. I liked this episode a lot, possibly because I never saw the previous PokeRinger competition.

So, we have Ash winning, Staravia's evolution, Paul's loss, James acting stupid, Rhonda getting hit in the head, & the Advanced Generation theme, all in one episode. That's enough to satisfy me, I guess.

Pursuing a Lofty Goal! receieves a 9.2

Continuing on a tradition the writers decided to start up in Sinnoh, we once again come up to a episode which has a similar storyline as well as importent event as previous region episode. This time the previous episode of "That's Just Swellow!" from the Hoenn region. Ash participates in another Pokeringer Contest and in order to win Staravia evolves into Staraptor. However the only complaint I have is that James, who was a fierce competitor and the challenger Ash faced and barely won against in the final round of the last Pokeringer Contest in "That's Just Swellow!" now can't 'read the wind' for a year supply of Pokemon Food and lost in the first round. Okay writers, we get it, Team Rocket are losers, but there was no need to make James look like a complete idiot in something which you showed us in a previous Pokeringer epsidoe that he was quite good at! Besides from that the episode was good as my review says:

An Old Sport Back For One More:
* What town did you say it was Brock? Ash, Pikachu, Dawn, and Piplup kind of "WOW"ed over you... as well as that wind gust.
* Oh, the town is called Squallville... all Final Fantasy joke aside it looks like there are two people participating in Pokeringer which we haven't seen since the middle of Hoenn.
* Brock... you pretty mcuh just decribed every single Pokemon competition! Dawn, you want to know what Pokeringer is? Basically it's a competition between Flying-type Pokemon to capture a ring and throw it through a pole. Think of it as Flying-type "king of the hill" and "horse shoes".
* Oh, now Brock gets more specific after I went through my explaination! Oh, it's James so that must be Jessie's Yanmega. Kind of like how he used Jessie's Dustox to compete in the Hoenn Pokeringer Contest. Speaking of a Pokeringer Contest...
* LOL! Even Team Rocket realizes that Ash and co. don't realize who they are even with the most pathetic of disguises. Anyway there is indeed a Pokeringer competition going on today and Dawn you don't have a Flying-type Pokemon... and Piplup you might want to stick with swimming.
* I always found the "becoming an honorary citizen" prize to be kind of lame, most competitions just have the "year amount of food" as the sole prize anyway so I don't see why Pokeringer has that odd additional "honorary citizen" prize.
* James, when you say that you'll give Yanmega Pokeringer glory, do you mean just like you did with Jessie's Dustox... oh wait you lost to Ash...
* Oh, hey there Rhonda, didn't know this was going to be a televised event. Just a hunch, but I don't think you'll want to stand under the mike... too late.

Breezing Through The Competiton:
* Ash is up first and his opponent chooses out a Skarmory, however it looks like Staravia is just a little bit faster. And unfortunetly a Swift knocks the ring out of Staravia's beak.
* But then Skarmory drops the ring while it was trying to Fury attack Staravia. And now suddenly Skarmory is faster then Staravia and pulls off a Sand Attack and Air Cutter, but the wing picks up taking Staravia along with it. And after dodging another Air Cutter with Aeriel Ace, Staravia makes the goal!
* Looks like that town's Pokeringer Champion is up (Why he looks like a biker I don't know) and he's up against... Paul! I didn't know he was competing too! Ash, did you really think Paul was going to say "hi"... let alone confirm you exist?
* Yay Dawn, Paul has his Honchkrow, though he did catch/seen trying to catch other Flying-types, Honchkrow seems to be his main Flying-type.
* It's Paul's Honchkrow up against a Dragonite, this could get tough for Honchkrow though knowing Paul he probably has a plan ready.
* Much like Ash's first round, Honchkrow took a few hits but in the end used the wind to dodge, attack, and then make the goal. However during that whole time Honchkrow was the only Pokemon to have had contact with the ring even after dropping it for a second.
* Last but not least James and Yanmega are up and are facing a Skiploom. Um... could anyone of you begin going after the ring before it flies up into the stratosphere?
* Well James you messed up that call... and then the next... and now the Skiploom scored on you... Okay, what happened to the Pokeringer James that came second place in the Hoenn Pokeringer Contest? I mean sure the final round will probably be Ash vs. Paul, but at least have James make it to the second round and be knocked out by Ash or Paul!
* Um, Meowth and Jessie, would you mind repeating what you said because no matter where I go the lines you said after James lost got lost due to audio error.
* Whoa, I guess with James knocked out there is no reason to see any further matches and we just went right to Ash going up against Paul in the final round.

Flying Higher Than Before:
* Staravia grabbed the ring first but Honchkrow (using Sky Attack) collided with it (while it was using Brave Bird) and unfortunetly Staravia got knocked back. However even so and Honchkrow trying to pull a Night Slash Staravia still has the ring.
* And even being hit with a Dark Pulse Staravia manages to hold onto the ring, even though it lost it let go of it for a few seconds, but a gust of wind forced Staravia to fly further up away from the goal post... and toward Honchkrow.
* And with a whole barrage of Aeriel Ace Honchkrow nabs the ring from Staravia, though an Aeriel Ace and Quick Attack from Staravia has it grabbed back. Why do I have a feeling this taking and losing is going to go on for awhile... oh that's right, we have about 5 minutes left of the show.
* Another Sky Attack and Night Slash and Ash has Staravia once again try to battle Honchkrow face to face, but Paul and Honckrow aren't tricked and knock Staravia to the ground.
* This looks like it for Staravia unless a gust of wind flies it back up... oh, I guess Staravia had some speed left in it afterall... STARAVIA IS EVOLVING!... like how Tailow evolved into Swellow to win the Hoenn Pokeriner Contest...
* Staraptor and Honchkrow get into a dog fight even while chasing after the ring. And after getting hit by another Night Slash, Staravia decides to show off its newly acquired move: Close Combat.
* Brock, while you are correct and normally a Dark-type Pokemon will be weak to Fighting-type moves like Close Combat, don't forget Honchkrow is part Flying-type and therefore the effectiveness of Close Combat becomes neutral damage (luckily Close Combat has a base power of 120 but lowers you Defense and Special Defense).
* Both Staraptor and Honchkrow are pretty evenly matched, but all the damage Staraptor took before is catching up with it... but it still manages to pull out some reserved speed and smacks the ring onto the goal making Ash and Staraptor win the Sinnoh Pokeringer Contest. And Paul acts like a jerk and blames Honchkrow for losing because its reaction time was too slow.
* Well Ash and co. decide to have their Pokemon chow down on the food they just won... but looks like Mamoswine pulled a Snorlax and finished all the food before Ash or Brock got a chance to call out their Pokemon.
* Ash, I think you're a bit confused, Staraptor evolved all the way from the Starly you caught, all the Starly Paul caught he released and flew back into the wild. Anyone, like I said before, did you really expect Paul to give you a compliment? Anyway it's time to continue to the Snowpoint Gym... where Staraptor actually be a bad choice to go up against Ice-type Pokemon.

honchkrow beat dragonite???????????? wtf??????????????? just when i thought i had seen it all rule #1 NEVER read comments to a vid PRIOR to watching the vid

honchkrows special ability made it possible to defeat dragonite but was nowhere to be seen with straptor

omg close combat is super effective against dark types did someone forget honchrow is obviously PART FLYING

ah yes the words of encouragement helped a staraptor who had been beaten up badly and used brave bird(was it twice?) win

ash is an idiot: hey paul!!!!! i know u hate my guts and all, but i just wanted to get your opinion on how awesome it is that my staravia evolved after kicking ur *** in a battle. isnt that just great

this was a good episode but jesus for a episode that wasnt filler that made some pretty annoying flaws.

on a side note, did anyone notice how ashs face looked a little more triangular than usual before the theme song