Fighting Flyer With Fire! (133)

[Serebii]

Fighting Flyer With Fire!

Now at the Violet Gym, Ash meets the trainer Falkner who helps get Pikachu back from Team Rocket. Ash & Falkner quickly bond since they both have had a Pidgeot and Ash heads up to the Gym Battle...3 on 3 against Hoothoot, Dodrio and Pidgeot. Can Ash beat his first Gym Leader foe?

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Discuss

[Ryuu]

Ash was pretty foolish to send Chikorita out.

Also we see that Ash hasn't forgotten his own Pidgeot. He says "Someday I may see my old friend again".

Good old Charizard! Yet another victory scraped for Ash.

[meggirl63]

I find that Falkner pretty cute!

[Phantom_Bugsy]

Yes, Falkner is indeed UBER hot. XD Teee.

He sounded EVIL. XD That was adorable.

[meggirl63]

Yes, Falkner is indeed UBER hot. XD Teee.

He sounded EVIL. XD That was adorable.

He didn't sound evil to me.

[Alfonso]

Yes, Falkner is indeed UBER hot. XD Teee.

He sounded EVIL. XD That was adorable.

Didn't he, like, have the same voice as Rudy? (Who, in turn, had a similar voice to that guy with the Jolteon. The Eevee Brother, I mean.) If so, then I can see why you thought he sounded evil. XD

"Dance, Starmie! A VICTORY DANCE!" :3

Edit: Oh, and Falkner is SO slashable.

[meggirl63]

Didn't he, like, have the same voice as Rudy? (Who, in turn, had a similar voice to that guy with the Jolteon. The Eevee Brother, I mean.) If so, then I can see why you thought he sounded evil. XD

"Dance, Starmie! A VICTORY DANCE!" :3

Edit: Oh, and Falkner is SO slashable.

Now, that you mentioned the idea, I didn't quite notice that he had the same voice as Rudy. Also, I still don't think that Falkner sounded evil. OK? Enough said.

[charizard trainer #1]

Hey is Falkner the only bird training gym leader? Anyway the episode was pretty cool- sometimes i feel that Ash can be a bit of a dodo- sending out Chikorita against flying types.

[Pika Hikari KT]

No; there's also Winona, the 6th Hoenn leader. BTW; it's never been said in the animé until now that Grass Pokémon are weak against Flying types, so this was their chance. Man, with two fully evolved Pokémon; most beginners wouldn't stand a chance against Falkner...I guess that's why he has Hoothoot.^_^; The battle was great; and featured Dodrio, who we haven't seen since the Pokémon-athon!O_O The dogfight between Pidgeot and Charizard stole the show, and would be Char's last gym battle for a very long time. The continuity with Ash's Pidgeot was nice, but WHY HASN'T HE AT LEAST VISITED IT YET SINCE DROPPING IT OFF?!>_< 7.5/10 for this eppie.

[DarkWobbuffet]

Man, with two fully evolved Pokémon; most beginners wouldn't stand a chance against Falkner...

I think most Gym Leaders have a wider varity of Pokemon to choose from, depending on how skilled their opponent is. I'll bet he has a spare Pidgey or Pidgeotto to use against newbie trainers, and just saves his bigger team members for the more experienced ones like Ash.

The continuity with Ash's Pidgeot was nice, but WHY HASN'T HE AT LEAST VISITED IT YET SINCE DROPPING IT OFF?!

I don't know, that bugged the hell out of me too. -_-'

Anyway, very nicely done episode. Falkner's personality was great, and the battle was just plain awesome. Seems to me that the writers had Ash start with Chikorita so when it came down to fighting Pidgeot it would be "down to the wire" suspence. I also enjoyed seeing Ash take advantage of his opponent's strategy to beat Pidgeot, just goes to show how much smarter he's gotten in battles.

[vulpix]

it wasn't a smart idea for Ash to use Chicorita.

[Kenta master]

The Gym Leader battles are always great matches(almost all of them). this first Johto Gym battle was one of my favorites, because was incredible (as always,eheh) ... But from the begining; was very stupied sending out against , continued the first match against and , then against -In this combat battled very weel, performing a sort of Fly attack, then a Fury Attack and a Drill Peck, when dodrio prepared the final attack, Tri Attack, still Thunderbolt him! After this when defeated it came out for shore to the final match, was very fast using all that QuickAttack and Agillity, but Ash found a surprised way to defeat , pretty amazing this Gym Leader Battle - ''Charizard! Turn around and use FIreSpin!''

[wobbanut]

This was a pretty interesting episode, though I think Ash was a bit boneheaded to use Chikorita. I do love Chikorita, but Ash hadn't quite gotten the hang of getting his pokemon to overcome type disadvantage yet, and Chikorita was still relatively new to his team. At least when he did the same thing by sending Grovyle against altaria in "Sky High Gym Battle" four years later, he was able to overcome disadvantage with style. Charizard's battle against pidgeot was pretty good too.

I also get a chuckle from the final scene with Team Rocket in the middle of the ocean in their balloon. The half-submerged balloon head looks depressed. LOL

[Shikamaru]

I actually thought that it was a good move to send out chikorita. You may not notice but ash was somewhat raising chikorita in the progress. He was testing how well chikorita could fair agiasnt a flying pokemon. Sure it lost in the progress but he was trying to take away chikoritas weakness agianst flying pokemon.

[Phantom_Bugsy]

Using smilies in place of Pokemon names makes baby Jesus slit his wrists.

Poor Hayato D: He got whooped, yo D: And we still didn't get any background info on him :<

[Aptenodytes]

falkner was a great gym leader, im suprised that he accually lost! i loved this battle, it was exciting and suspenseful!

[Fofa]

it wasn't a smart idea for Ash to use Chicorita.

More evidence that Ash isn't exactly the smartest (or even wisest, knowing how we've been following him).

[BlueEyesUltamiteDragon204]

I too loved Falkner becuase he is one of my favorite Gym Leaders in the Anime. I believe this is one my favorite Jotho Gym Battles.

[lightspeed]

Cool episode, I like the battle and I think Chikorita should've done more and shown that pokemon types don't matter, just like Ash said. Overall, a rather good episode.

[S_P]

What I thought was most interesting was the electricial limits when thunderbolt comes into the air.

Most of the time when Pikachu (or electricity, or any electric pokemon) is showcased against a flying type, usually the flying type is fried.

However, I quite liked it how Hayato utilised flying height to nullify the electrical attacks. This is unlike the far future battle against Nagi, where she instead had the flying type go directly to the ground to do the exact opposite.

Except for cases where Pikachu's Thunderbolt couldn't reach team rocket's Hot Air Balloon, I don't think you actually see a flying type using extreme height and speed to get away from a thunderbolt vertically ... specifically in any battle.

And the way they balanced the episide was nice (on the other hand several things were imbalanced. Lizardon and a wing injury seems like that was a first timer for that regard. It also seemed like the first case it was in a losing battle and then won ... since in OI it either lost or won to certain degrees.). I'm rather happy there wasn't really ... any Mud Slap from the birds.

[Ashy Boy]

I didn't like Falkner persuading Ash to give up.

[Umi Mizuno]

Daaaaaaamn, Falkner is haaaawt. *______*

Ehem, TR didn't have much to do in this episode besides being blasted off in the beginning. Falkner has to be one of hottest gym leaders ever, though I would've preferred him having a pidgey on his shoulders like in the games then Hoothoot.

[YourLocalHominid]

I liked this episode, especially Team Rocket in the beginning. It amazes me how a simple costume change could totally fool the twirps into not seeing that Team Rocket's trying to nab their Pokemon. Haha, but yeah, Falkner was a cool gym leader. Like another user said, I didn't like him trying to persuade Ash to give in...and I also didn't like how demented he sounded during the end of the Pidgeot/Charizard battle (I.E. "you dunno' when to give in!!!!!!", etc.). Still, great episode. 7/10.

[squirtleboy12]

wow its not like the gams where 2 stage pokemon appear later in the anime you can watch them anytime!im so happy

[ShinyManafi]

An alright gym battle, but got too boring at the last part with the same attacks, Quick Attack, Agility, Quick Attack,...