Battle-Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym! (711)

[RandomOne]

Emolga had Aerial Ace, which did it's toll on Snivy and since Snivy's a Grass type...

So? type advantage isn't everything, you know. Snivy is one powerful pokemon and we all know that, and making her lose like that is so stupid. She should have at least damage Emolga a bit... And afterwards seeing Pikachu 1HKO Emolga is kinda stupid, making Snivy a noob.


You mean, worse than the ones where Ash didn't even win the gym battles, plus Ash used a bit of strategy here. I think you're overreacting. Palpitoad got a win, Snivy is shown that she isn't that strong yet again and Pikachu got some more wins, which is alright since it lost to Excadrill and it'll probably lose to Bouffalant.

This battle was good.

Yeah, worse then that. When Ash lost a gym battle (like Lenora's), it gave him a thing to work on... then both Oshawott and Tepig learned a new cool move and managed to defeat her. Snivy is strong, that's the point... in that battle the writers decided to make her look like an average pokemon on Ash's team.

This battle was awful in my opinion. No good moments, boring, not much intreset... 1HKO 2 pokemons on the wall, very creative. And all of the Pikachu-electric moment were really pointless.


No idea, I only saw Electro Ball clashing against Electro Ball.

Answers in quote.

[playerking]

Yes, and he nearly lost because of it.

But he still went with using a strategy and actually showed some development in this episode, compared to the start. He tried something and learn't that he didn't need to change the way he battles.

Answers in quote.

Snivy is not that strong, you guys need to stop putting that Snake on a mother f------ pedestal. She beat two Pokemon! 2! And one due to her utilizing attract.

Worse than Sabrina's battle? Worse then when Brock just gave Ash a badge before he trained again? Palpitoad got a wins as I said, Pikachu did well and as I've said, Snivy lost which further proves that she isn't that good.

And for the people that say this was bad writing, read this.

For the record, the reason why Satoshi botched the battle was very well explained as him attempting to overthink everything and try to strategize ahead of time, panicking when things didn't work out the way he had intended them to. When Pikachu gave him a wake-up shock, he finally realized that taking things as they come, adapting to that, and improvising with what options he has available is how he battles best, used pikachu in such a manner for the rest of the battle, and thus avoided getting hit by obvious counters. No bad writing here.

[j_gamez]

iron tail and quick attack OHKO is disappointing.
worst unova gym battle so far.
i wont mind snivy losing to emolga because of type advantage.
but OHKO on emolga is so... zzz
and whats with crashing the wall for 19279182791 times in a gym battle

[Almighty Zard]

Now that the episode has aired I can post two things I noticed beforehand going into this.

1. in hoenn and sinnoh in both of the region's fourth gyms, Ash's usage of a grass pokemon was a bad choice and the pokemon in question did not get a victory, Third time's...apparently not the charm or grass's best chance for fighting.
2. Ash using grass types in electrical gyms is apparently a bad idea as well

Elesa really needs to focus on her other two pokemon if they got beaten that quickly (though in Tynamo's case i'm not suprised given how people kept referring to it as the magikarp of unova, guess they were right.), sure Emolga knocked out Snivy due to type advantage, but it seems like she's focused on Zebrastrika so much once it goes down all you gotta do is send out a female and you practically have a lock on beating her.

[RandomOne]

But he still went with using a strategy and actually showed some development in this episode, compared to the start. He tried something and learn't that he didn't need to change the way he battles.



Snivy is not that strong, you guys need to stop putting that Snake on a mother f------ pedestal. She beat two Pokemon! 2! And one due to her utilizing attract.

Worse than Sabrina's battle? Worse then when Brock just gave Ash a badge before he trained again? Palpitoad got a wins as I said, Pikachu did well and as I've said, Snivy lost which further proves that she isn't that good.

And for the people that say this was bad writing, read this.

The writers made her look like a real powerhouse in Ash's team, due to fact she is already well trained and got some awesome moves. When Ash caught it, Cilan mentioned she was well trained.

When I said "worse battle ever", it's ofc a bit over-reacting, but this battle was just bad in my opinion...

[Almighty Zard]

The writers made her look like a real powerhouse in Ash's team, due to fact she is already well trained and got some awesome moves. When Ash caught it, Cilan mentioned she was well trained.

Just because that's the case at first doesn't mean it's going to hold, I've seen pokemon before who were considered strong when captured but then slowly decline after some time had passed.

Also, the attacking power of moves in the anime doesn't follow that of the games, people need to remember that.

[Graham Aker]

I notice gym's still seem to be straight up "fight till you faint" battles so far this season...at least when Ash battles.

[RandomOne]

Umm, it actually does... maybe not 100% correct but it sure is. There is a reason after all for pokemons to learn new moves.

[Almighty Zard]

Umm, it actually does... maybe not 100% correct but it sure is. There is a reason after all for pokemons to learn new moves.

That doesn't mean the moves are going to help the pokemon in the long run, yes pokemon learn more moves over time, but that doesn't make them stronger or weaker, how the moves are used in battle is what counts, not the strength of them.

To get back on topic, I wonder how long Palpitoad and the Zebra went at it, sounds like they faught for a while from what i've heard.

[dman_dustin]

And for the people that say this was bad writing, read this.

Just because it's justifiable doesn't mean it isn't bad writing. Since when has bad writing been solely associated to apparently been written by someone who only has a small grasp of the language their writing.

The simple fact is, Ash was COMPLETELY out of character, that's why it's bad writing. It's like suddenly Ash gets pissed off at Oshawott for showing up every time and then kicking him (literally) for not waiting to be called.

Ash shouldn't have been strategizing at all in the freaking first place. I don't know if this was really screw with Ash's character but I'm not buying it. I don't care how he badly he saw Bianca losing, or how bad he lost to Bianca's dad, he still should not have been so indecisive in a way that nearly cost him the match.

And we certainly did not need Pikachu to send that message to him, when he should've just done with what he's used to.

Now had there been any sort of build up to this, sure I would be fine with it. Like Yugioh GX for a moment for a reference. Jaden lost badly to Zane, although he was seemingly close to winning. The next time Jaden battled Zane, he wasn't battling like he usually does and it nearly cost him, since he was "over thinking it" and wasn't playing the game to his best. When he realized this, sure the match ended in a tie, but he was back to himself, and realized he could do it his way just fine, and was the better duelist because of it.

But how does that apply to Ash? He didn't badly lose to Elesa. As far as I can tell there was no reason for him to doubt his own battling method, so much that he had to over think the situation and have it nearly cost him the badge.

So it comes down to, who honestly believes that some of us didn't like this episode just because we "didn't understand it?" Honestly that sounds like a petty counterargument for my opinion. Who says "I didn't understand the meaning" and even if I didn't understand it, what makes it less bad writing, when this episode should not have been written this way in the first place.

Ash should've went in there with what he wanted to use and won the usual way he does things. He chose Palpitoad because it's a ground type, Ash has instinctively chosen Pokemon that were super effective against the Pokemon in question prior to this so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he could've just had Palpitoad and used it merely because he knew it was a ground type.

So it doesn't matter if Ash's indecisiveness is justifiable, it doesn't suddenly change my opinion of the gym, just because the writers apparently wanted to try something new and make Ash look completely out of character. And mostly to make this gym battle last an entire episode, because apparently, they could not fill the entire episode with Ash being normal Ash so they had to throw in some B.S. out of character stuff just to fill out the time.

I'm still not sure how this lasted twenty two minutes, when it really did come off as incredibly rushed and the battles didn't seem that long at all. I mean I usually underestimate how much content can be shoved in the span of a single episode, but for this episode it seems I overestimated how much content can be in an episode, because this episode felt really empty. Edit: Though the quality of the way I saw the episode might have something to do with why it felt so empty.

[WaffleCopter]

Writers ARE writing this for a kids show.... It's not gonna be as complex as you think it's gonna be.

Pikachu wanting to battle in an ELECTRIC gym, ash isn't gonna turn him down for wanting to battle his own type. They've been "best pals" since day 1. Pikachu, imo, is a very strong battler (obviously) and him losing to excadrill was terrible. If pikachu didn't battle in the gym and he lost to excadrill and afro tauros, alot of you would complain.

I'll agree the 2 OHKO's were.... Meh, but tynamo is weak, so I saw it coming

[00poke_maniac]

Ash is planning his battle along with Pikachu and Cilan looks cool without his vest on.
I'm glad Ash is thinking like this before his battle.

Ash mentioned Pokabu and Oshawott (About type advantages and such) and now he's talking to Juniper.

........*fangirls*

I didn't think I had anything to be excited for this Gym Battle. Now I can't wait to see it I always wanted to see Dento with his vest off XDD It's amazing how this anime so far is humoring me.

[Almighty Zard]

Writers ARE writing this for a kids show.... It's not gonna be as complex as you think it's gonna be.

that's not going to stop people from going on rants unfortunitly.

I didn't really mind the episode, I thought it was funny and the battle parts wre alright enough with me.

[dman_dustin]

Pikachu wanting to battle in an ELECTRIC gym

Pikachu wants to freaking battle in every single damn thing, I honestly could not care less. I don't know how Pikachu managed to be so humble in DP, that it's become a spoiled rat in BW. I mean forcing Ash to choose it in the Don Battle Tournament and forcing Ash to choose it in the gym that Pikachu wasn't supposed to be in the first place, is bull.

If pikachu didn't battle in the gym and he lost to excadrill and afro tauros, alot of you would complain.

You really don't know how I feel about Pikachu, I honestly could not give a magician's hat about Pikachu's win / loss record. I honestly cannot care less about whether Pikachu wins constantly or loses constantly. So long as Ash uses his other Pokemon.

So no, I'm not like other people who would care that Ash lost to Iris's stronger than it Excadrill or The champion of Unova's "Afro bull." No I could not care less.

The writers shoving the rat down my throat, made me stop caring about it. And yes Pikachu will have those great moments of awesomeness like with the Subway Episodes where it was really awesome, but otherwise I could not care less about Pikachu. All I care about is the Pokemon that only have a limited time to entertain me, before being replace by a crap load of new monsters that have a limited time to entertain me before they're replace by new Pocket Monsters. So yeah I'm not entirely sure why I should care about a Pokemon that's cemented permanently in showing up every single episode of the entire anime series.
----

Plus as I said, the spoiled rat is just one of many things wrong with this episode, but not the only thing. Like I said, I'm more annoyed with how completely out of character the writer made Ash than whether or not Pikachu screwed over a Pokemon that isn't being shoved down my throat.

[playerking]

Just because it's justifiable doesn't mean it isn't bad writing. Since when has bad writing been solely associated to apparently been written by someone who only has a small grasp of the language their writing.

The simple fact is, Ash was COMPLETELY out of character, that's why it's bad writing. It's like suddenly Ash gets pissed off at Oshawott for showing up every time and then kicking him (literally) for not waiting to be called.

It's only bad writing to you and others, doesn't mean it is in general. Some people like me might consider it interesting that they made Ash go about the battle differently and for him to learn and to be reassured that his usual battling style is what gets him the wins most of the times.

Ash got the badge, he defeated all of Elesa's Pokemon, we get it that you don't like most of things that have been happening in Nimbasa lately, can't we just move on. We've only got one more episode in Nimbasa anyway.

[A.J.]

I love the multiple attempts at ranting, they make me laugh.

The point is - Ash won, he doesn't have to have a rematch, and we can MOVE ON. End of discussion.

(It's not really the end, as I'm sure there will be hundreds of complaints that the MOST POPULAR CHARACTER ON THE SHOW won the battle.)

[Rizardon]

Y'all are just a bunch of Pikachu haters because he's been around for so long.

[Joltik-Kid]

My two fears for this gym battle came true....Snivy lost without a single win and there was not one, but TWO OHKO's, even worst by Pikachu....ugh, I feel we waited to long for this gym now

[pokefandt]

So pikachu starred. Ughh. . . .



At least Palpitoad got a win. But Snivy treatment is bull. At least the ground gym is coming up next.

I was honestly expecting Zebstraika to be more of a threat.

[Dephender]

So it comes down to, who honestly believes that some of us didn't like this episode just because we "didn't understand it?" Honestly that sounds like a petty counterargument for my opinion.

You don't know Japanese. The episode was easily understandable for people who do. When your opinion bases itself on a bunch of stuff you just think is what happened, "you didn't understand the episode" is a pretty logical counter.

Who says "I didn't understand the meaning" and even if I didn't understand it, what makes it less bad writing, when this episode should not have been written this way in the first place.

"Confounded Japanese writers! Why are they writing in Japanese?"

[Joltik-Kid]

Now that the episode has aired I can post two things I noticed beforehand going into this.

1. in hoenn and sinnoh in both of the region's fourth gyms, Ash's usage of a grass pokemon was a bad choice and the pokemon in question did not get a victory, Third time's...apparently not the charm or grass's best chance for fighting.
Honestly, Treeco had no chance in the fire gym, but Ash only had Taillow as a second option....But Turtwig had a full advantage, in fact, it was x4 effective against Quagsire, but just like today with Snivy, it wasn't there to star...it was there so Buizel could get two wins, just like Pikachu today.

2. Ash using grass types in electrical gyms is apparently a bad idea as well
He only used a grass type twice and both times they were used the opponents pokemon conveniently had a move or moves that were super effective against Ash's grass pokemon... Then again Torterra lost so Infernape could star

Elesa really needs to focus on her other two pokemon if they got beaten that quickly (though in Tynamo's case i'm not suprised given how people kept referring to it as the magikarp of unova, guess they were right.), sure Emolga knocked out Snivy due to type advantage, but it seems like she's focused on Zebrastrika so much once it goes down all you gotta do is send out a female and you practically have a lock on beating her.

I feel like we got cheated because Pikachu one shotted both of her final two pokemon...sure they were pretty strong, but one shot...really?

[KingMinun]

The battles this series are really going down hill, this was just as bad as Vs Burgh.

[PokeMaster366]

I wonder how much hate the show would get if Ash used Pikachu at the Ground Gym? I can already see people stop watching the show if that happened.

[SoulSilverMstr411]

Looks like Ash had any easy time in this gym. I was kinda hoping the battle would be spread across two episodes. I mean it's not like Elesa got any more focus than Lenora or Burgh.

[adyniz]

Did anyone else notice the similarity? *Out of curiosity; she was in Bel/Papa episode as well*