Battle-Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym! (711)

[BurningSociety12345543210]

Nonsense.

Palpitoad was tired and beaten up already, and Snivy is weak against Emolga's Typing.

Palpitoad didn't look that tired and beaten up to me. Besides, he only took a Quick Attack and a Double Kick.

[TheSirPeras]

this is the funniest battle ive ever seen ash getting snivy, forgetting shes a girl... awesome XD

[Caseydia]

Thank you! I agree with all you posted, except for the things about Cilan.

What's wrong with Ash making strategies? He did that for a few of his Sinnoh gym battles, and they paid off. Doesn't anyone remember the brilliance of the Fantina battle?

Not only that but people were spamming back in Johto and Hoenn that Ash needed to sit down and strategize more. Well I guess it's not such a good idea now huh?

[Azureth]

Do those girls in the audience just sit there all day?

What if Ash decided not to show up? Do they love just staring at Elise that much? :P

Yay. Looks like Ash is using his head for once. Except for deciding not to use Pikachu. He always uses Pikachu for the Electric gyms.

I take back what I said. Ash actually had to leave the gym to get another pokemon? -_-

And he forgot Snivy is a girl? I thought he was beginning to recover from his brain damage.

Pikachu has been getting exited really easily lately. Guess he's tired of Ash's stupidity, too.

I don't really understand why they're acting like Pikachu doesn't have an advantage. Emolga takes normal damage from Electric attacks.

Tynamo is suppose to be a bigger threat than Zebstrika? Zebstrika completely outclasses it in base stats. <_<

And now Iron Tail is a better option than Thunderbolt.

Well, it worked. Ash wins his 4th badge. Hooray!

[Drdj11]

Congrats Ash, probably the first time you didn't have to battle a gym 2 times XD
And when I saw that Tynamo's speed, I died.

[Pikachu86a]

I love the way that Pikachu react in this episode. Was rely nice to see how he wont to fight and win.

[Haunter227]

This episode's good and bad points in short:

Good:

-Ash tried strategies for once.
-Palpitoads Win was good.
-Ash and Pikachu's friendship/bond is shown really well.
-Pikachu getting two wins.
-Winning the gym first time around.

Bad:

-Ash's plan was to use only Palpitoad
-Ash leaves the Gym to get Snivy.
-Ash forgets Emolga and Snivy are both girls.
-Snivy's defeat was pretty shameful, it didn't get a standing chance.

[Janovy]

Bad:

-Ash's plan was to use only Palpitoad
-Ash leaves the Gym to get Snivy.
-Ash forgets Emolga and Snivy are both girls.
-Snivy's defeat was pretty shameful, it didn't get a standing chance.

But when you look at it, two of those were really only played for comedic purposes.

This episode basically proved to us what happens if Ash starts developing strategies before the gym battle (which he rarely/never does) and furthermore reinforced the idea that Ash does his best when he simply works with his Pokémon as a team during the actual gym battle which is when he gets best ideas.

[Haunter227]

But when you look at it, two of those were really only played for comedic purposes.

This episode basically proved to us what happens if Ash starts developing strategies before the gym battle (which he rarely/never does) and furthermore reinforced the idea that Ash does his best when he simply works with his Pokémon as a team during the actual gym battle which is when he gets best ideas.

I agree don't get me wrong I think this was a great idea to focus on since people always complained Ash never used strategies, this is actually one of my favourite battles of BW, just the parts with Ash being a noob annoyed me.

Im just stating the facts really, and the majority of this threads opinions.

[shatteredrose]

But when you look at it, two of those were really only played for comedic purposes.

I'd say that THREE of those "bad" items were there for comedic purposes! AND I thought they worked! This episode was hilarious; I just loved it. It was probably Pikachu's reactions to everything that made it so great, but who cares?! They made a darn good, funny episode that was really enjoyable.

It IS kind of annoying that Ash is still "forgetting" that Snivy is a female, but it worked (this time). Snivy's defeat was pretty pitiful. She really shouldn't have been KO'ed so quickly; she's not THAT weak.

[MidnightMelody]

I'd say that THREE of those "bad" items were there for comedic purposes! AND I thought they worked! This episode was hilarious; I just loved it. It was probably Pikachu's reactions to everything that made it so great, but who cares?! They made a darn good, funny episode that was really enjoyable.

It IS kind of annoying that Ash is still "forgetting" that Snivy is a female, but it worked (this time). Snivy's defeat was pretty pitiful. She really shouldn't have been KO'ed so quickly; she's not THAT weak.

Emolga is a flying type who knows flying moves nuff said

[ForgottenPearl]

Okay, I'm with the camp that says it was frustrating how stupid Ash acted in this episode. I mean, I know he's young and not going to be perfect, but I was shocked that he was so cocky that he didn't even bring any other Pokemon with him. And, come on, how do you forget that Emolga can fly? >_> A part of me actually wanted Ash to lose the battle. But I did like seeing how well he and Pikachu worked together at the end. No matter how old I get, I find their buddy moments to be heartwarming. Always. And I guess Ash kinda redeemed himself in how he used Pikachu well.

What really bothers me, though, is how Ash used Palpitoad. He thought he could get by with just one Pokemon due to type advantage, only to learn there's more to battles than that. The thing is, he learned THIS EXACT SAME LESSON back in Hoenn. When he went against the second gym leader, Brawly of Dewford Town, for the first time, he just relied on Taillow, thinking the flying versus fighting advantage was enough. Now, I know Ash gets dumbed down at the start of every new region, but it was frustrating to see him repeat the EXACT SAME mistake. Not to mention he should've learned when going against Cilan and his crew at their gym that type advantage isn't everything.

Yeah, I'm taking it too seriously. Yeah, Ash's stupidity was meant as a gag. But I think they took it too far. :/

Oh, and by the way, I found it pretty funny when Elesa unleashed her secret weapon: I really didn't see that coming. ^_^ I also liked Iris's quote about Attract not working between girls... But I won't get into that. And the Ash and Pikachu scenes at the end were good.

Still, I'm having trouble giving this episode a thumbs up. Lots of trouble.

Wow, I typed too much. >_>

[The Eleventh]

So the dub-only music is back? This battle was fairly disappointing and lacking, mostly due to the absence of the original BGM. The dub BGM is just terrible.

Are all episodes of Rival Destinies like this?

[Vern]

I laughed when the zebra Pokemon smashed that tadpole Pokemon's face in. It seems that Ash isn't the same strategist that he was in Sinnoh in this series. I love seeing Pikachu act like it's never acted before this episode when seeing Ash in a gym battle. My brain died when the gym leader sent out some floating fish thing to battle Pikachu. Unlike others, I do judge Pokemon by appearances.

Anyway, I was impressed seeing Pikachu recover from getting sent flying into the wall. That's usually a death sentence for Pokemon in the anime. Somewhat ironically, the gym leader's fish thing lost after getting knocked into the wall justr like every other Pokemon in existance. The battle was actually pretty enjoyable for the most part. It wasn't at the level Ash's battle against Maylene was but it was certainly better than the other gym battles I've seen in this series thus far.

[wobbanut]

I loved this episode a lot, more that most gym episodes (very few gym episodes are memorable to me) because it was a throwback to Ash's dumber days, when I liked his character so much more. It may seem hard to believe that Ash would actually think he could sweep a gym with one pokemon, but at least he got his act together... eventually. LOL My favorite part was Iris and Cilan's reaction to Ash thinking attract would work.

9/10

[duh]

Ash was horrible in this episode, I also didn't like the battle. It wasn't entertaining at all, there was more talking than battling. Also two of Elesa's pokemon being 1ko'd was horrible. The only good thing about this episode was Palpitoad beating Zebstrika by itself. And even that isn't very impressive. :|

[Caseydia]

What they should have done in this episode was made Snivy go up against Tynamo instead of Emonga, used Roggenrola for Emonga anyway and let Palpitoad battle Zebstrika. I wished Ash would have ignored Pikachu and battle like he always used to. He had the perfect pokemon choices, so why would the writers make him make such an aweful decision in a gymbattle just to make Pikachu powerful again? They could have given Pikachu a victory in Clay's gym against the crockodile. Instead of doing it here. Especially when he has the enough of the right pokemon to use as well.