An Amazing Aerial Battle! (729)

[Vern]

Ash came all that way for a gym battle. There was no way he was turning back and it's a good thing he got Sklya to battle him because Ash proved he is a stronger trainer and deserved the badge. I'm glad Ash taught Skyla a lesson. Skyla was getting too arrogant thinking she knew everything about battling and that she could beat Ash but she ended up being wrong because Ash proved to her he was the stronger battler.

It didn't matter if he came all that way. He chooses whether or not to participate in at that gym. If he doesn't like the way the Gym Leader handles their business then he can go elsewhere.

I don't think you understand what an air battle is.

An air battle is a battle in Skyla's mind where she relies on the opponents current party to determine who has the advantage in battle. If the trainer has an advantage then she hands the person a badge.

Yes, you are right that Skyla looks at the pokemon in front of her but as it was said in the last episode (Cilan takes Flight) Skyla infact imagines the entire battle in her head to discover an outcome (the illustrations are just a visual representation of her thoughts for our benefit). Now, if Skyla is predicting the entire battle, she has to consider all outcomes and Tranquil's evolution was never a thought in her head and therefore her imagination of the battle in her head was wrong and her Air battles are not always successful.

It seems that you misunderstand what air battles are.

[Serenna]

The problem is Skyla is both right and wrong with her air battle prediction against Ash.

If Ash kept his current team of 3 when the battle started, Skyla would have won that battle.

However, what she ignored was the fact that Pikachu vs Swanna would be a W for Ash and the other 2 battles would have been a loss for Ash. Skyla was only calculating it via one-on-one battles and count up score that way type-wise (or in the case of Tranquill vs Unfezant, one is fulled evolved over the other so it's easy to say that Unfezant has the advantage).

She never once considered what would happen if Pikachu single-handled defended ALL 3 of Skyla's Pokemon as per an actual Gym Battle. After all, they are all Flying-types and Pikachu is Electric. By that metric, Ash should win the Gym Battle.

[Orton155]

I think your confusing Unfezant for Swanna...Pikachu didn't once use the rings to beat Unfezant. He just waited till Aerial Ace got close enough and used Iron Tail then Electro Ball to finish it up

Your right, Apologies.

It didn't matter if he came all that way. He chooses whether or not to participate in at that gym. If he doesn't like the way the Gym Leader handles their business then he can go elsewhere.



An air battle is a battle in Skyla's mind where she relies on the opponents current party to determine who has the advantage in battle. If the trainer has an advantage then she hands the person a badge.



It seems that you misunderstand what air battles are.

It seems we both have a different conceptions of an air battle so there is no point in debating that anymore but can I ask you this. If Skyla's Air battles are still right on a techinically that Ash's Team changed during the battle why would Skyla decide to stop doing air battles from now onwards. We know Skyla's personality has an arrogant flavour so if she still thought that her air battles were still valid because of the technicality, wouldn't skyla continue to use these Air battles to determine whether to award the Jet badge to a trainer or not?

[Vern]

It seems we both have a different conceptions of an air battle so there is no point in debating that anymore

Then we agree to disagree. I accept that but I will answer your question.

but can I ask you this. If Skyla's Air battles are still right on a techinically that Ash's Team changed during the battle why would Skyla decide to stop doing air battles from now onwards.

That's simply how the writers wrote it out. There was no way that she wasn't going to change her mind regardless if she won or lost due to how the writers operate and I think that is something we can all agree on. To be fair and give you an kayfabe answer: she had fun with the battle and changed her mind seeing how hard Ash fought.

[pokefandt]

The whole air battling thing is kinda going against everything a gym leader stands for, is how I feel. They are there to test the skills and bond of the up and coming trainers and their pokemon. Skyla is deciding if they win or lose just by looking at them, and not putting them to the test. Which would not help the trainers at all.

[Tommy Botham]

So much hacking going on in this stupid episode.

Krokorok (Ash's most interesting pokemon to date) get's a super effective stone edge deflected by gust, and proceeds to lose in one hit. Swanna (which sounds absolutely retarded) uses Aqua Ring to become immune to 2 electric attacks that are 4x effective vs it.

What is this ****?

[TheEliteEmpoleon]

Wow that was a bad gym battle. Krokorok should not have gone down in one hit, and Pikachu should've lost a bit more realistically. Bubbles aren't that effective, are they? And in the air battles Skyla didn't even consider Krokorok being part dark type and Swoobat being part psychic. I always get botheredon how small the gym badges are in Unova, even though they look like the biggest badges in the games.

[_Taidow_]

Wow that was a bad gym battle. Krokorok should not have gone down in one hit, and Pikachu should've lost a bit more realistically. Bubbles aren't that effective, are they? And in the air battles Skyla didn't even consider Krokorok being part dark type and Swoobat being part psychic. I always get botheredon how small the gym badges are in Unova, even though they look like the biggest badges in the games.

Technically it wasn't one hit.

Got hit with a Stone Edge rock, and then a fury of Air Cutters.
Also it was treated as a Dark Type as Ash went directly for Crunch.

[Joltik-Kid]

Technically it wasn't one hit.

Got hit with a Stone Edge rock, and then a fury of Air Cutters.
Also it was treated as a Dark Type as Ash went directly for Crunch.

I think what they meant was that no one, not even Cilan or Iris, felt Krokorok had any advantage against Swoobat, all because they said he's a Ground type. Not once saying Dark is super effective against Swoobat's secondary typing Pyschic

[TheEliteEmpoleon]

I think what they meant was that no one, not even Cilan or Iris, felt Krokorok had any advantage against Swoobat, all because they said he's a Ground type. Not once saying Dark is super effective against Swoobat's secondary typing Pyschic

Thanks.
Another thing that bothered me was the way they pronounce Iccirus City. I always say "Ick-er-us" not "Ice-ear-us." I guess it makes sense with the cloud names though, and maybe because the ice gym leader is in that city.

[Charmed]

I liked this episode because of Ash's victory over an annoying gym leader. Also glad Ash got a new pokemon in Unfeazant.

Skyla was just like every other Gym Leader. The people who are attacking her because of the "air battle" thing are just pressed that she was allowed to run the Mistralton City Gym her way (notice that no one from the Pokemon Gym association told her to stop). God forbid should a female character have so much power.

[lisalynn]

Commenting as I watch!

- I hate when they draw Ash from that weird directly-up-the-crotch angle. Also: why are Skyla's hands so large?

- I still think the animation for Pikachu's Iron Tail is so cute.

- I'll give it to Swanna because Pikachu didn't manage to get an electric hit. Still bs.

- I love Ash's gym evolutions. But dear god that Unfezant is ugly and creepy! Stop trilling! Cool win though.

[_Taidow_]

Skyla was just like every other Gym Leader. The people who are attacking her because of the "air battle" thing are just pressed that she was allowed to run the Mistralton City Gym her way (notice that no one from the Pokemon Gym association told her to stop). God forbid should a female character have so much power.

Why do you bring the PIA back? We've basically only seen it twice. Only in Kanto. Who knows if Unova has one.

[Charmed]

Why do you bring the PIA back? We've basically only seen it twice. Only in Kanto. Who knows if Unova has one.

There has to be someone regulating the Unova Gyms. People only doubt that Unova's Gyms are being monitored because they each have their own set of rules. But be that as it may, there has to be some control over Gyms, otherwise chaos would ensue. And no, I don't think Skyla's tactics qualify as chaos.

[Battra]

I wish I could muster some sort of energy over this episode, but it's was just so boring and predictable. Of course Ash wins when his Pokemon evoles even though Skyla clearly had the advantage when she could've just used Aqua Ring to heal Swanna and win the battle against Ash's Unfezent, but this is Pokemon and the writers are crap as apparent by the whole "Air Battles" controversy and we need to see Skyla prostrate herself on how wrong she was for having a different way of doing things.

[Mewtwo Catcher]

Why does it seem that the pokemon that Ash uses the least evolve first. I mean, Unfezent is Ash's weakest pokemon, yet its now in it's final stage.

[_Taidow_]

Why does it seem that the pokemon that Ash uses the least evolve first. I mean, Unfezent is Ash's weakest pokemon, yet its now in it's final stage.

I wouldn't say its his weakest.

I think that either Oshawott is his weakest now.

[sam40400]

So much hacking going on in this stupid episode.

Krokorok (Ash's most interesting pokemon to date) get's a super effective stone edge deflected by gust, and proceeds to lose in one hit. Swanna (which sounds absolutely retarded) uses Aqua Ring to become immune to 2 electric attacks that are 4x effective vs it.

What is this ****?

exactly my thoughts, well the swanna using aqua ring KINDA makes sense since the electricity goes around the rings and doesn't hit swanna but the krokorok getting OHKO'd was stupid, unless of course its heavily untrained

[vipsoccermaster]

Hmm, decent battle there. The battle with Swoobat and Krokorok wasn't too pleasing. However, the battles after that were better than the first. Pikachu and Unfezant both did well.

[Locormus]

Wow that was a bad gym battle. Krokorok should not have gone down in one hit, and Pikachu should've lost a bit more realistically. Bubbles aren't that effective, are they? And in the air battles Skyla didn't even consider Krokorok being part dark type and Swoobat being part psychic. I always get bothered on how small the gym badges are in Unova, even though they look like the biggest badges in the games.

Uhh.. It first got hit by the bubbles, but then immediately hit by Bravebird and Hurricane. I actually thought it was overkill.. I liked this gymbattle sheer for how badly Pikachu got trashed and that Tranquill got a win in both stages.

[Tommy Botham]

I also hated the fact that Unfeazants 'new move' was Ariel Ace.. I mean goddamn can the writers be any more boring and predictable? I was getting so excited I was like 'oh sh*t oh sh*t SKY ATTACK GO!!!'.. But now, it was goddamn Ariel Ace, a move that's been in the pool since Generation 3 (I think).

Krokorok has HUGE potential, its just a shame that the writers may never give it a proper a story. Look what they did to Gible back in D/P.. Terrible terrible writing.

[Caseydia]

Wow. This was one of the best gym battles. Why people are complaining, I will never know. However, I think that from now on, there will be an evolution until most of all Ash's Pokemon will evolve. I don't care unless the battle isn't crappy. And this battle wasn't.

[RVD_fan]

These two episodes were two of my favourite in the original and I liked them just as much in the dub. They managed to take kind of a nothing Gym Leader and turn it into a high stakes battle. My favourite gym arc in a long time.

[Joltik-Kid]

All I could do when Ash said "let's try that new move" was laugh XD What, he's seen Aerial Ace how many times now...100 at least?

[pokefandt]

Its mostly KIRA and a few other complaining that Cilan having problems with how Skyla determines battles is some form of sexism.