Yes, draw, not win despite it being a fully evolved Pokemon going up against an unevolved one with a type disadvantage. Keep in mind that not only has Ash never performed anywhere near this badly in a battle (the closest example is maybe the Gym Battle against Roxie, and even then none of Ash's Pokemon were oneshotted and they all dealt at least some damage against Roxie's, meaning that in the end all of them pulled their weight and made some actual contribution to Ash's win, unlike Red's team against Giovanni's where Hitmonlee was the only one besides Charizard to not be death fodder solely by virtue of it managing to draw against Rhyhorn. So yeah, it makes me sad when Kanto Ash is readily dismissed because he wasn't a good trainer and that a sizeable hatedom apparently grew out of that.Ĭlick to expand.What makes this even worse is that Origins is guilty of a lot of the same faults that people spent ages berating the anime for doing, namely the disregard for the type chart: the rematch against Giovanni is probably the clearest example of this, what with his Rhyhorn effortlessly taking out Pokemon of Red's that it either has massive weaknesses against (Victreebel, Kabutops, Hitmonlee), or with attacks they should be resistant against (the Thunderbolt OHKO on Jolteon), and Giovanni swept through 5 of Red's Pokemon using only his Rhyhorn and the vast majority of them never even managed to land a single hit on it. Once Ash finally understood Charizard's behaviour, and they both wanted the same thing, Charizard started listening to him. He disobeyed Ash because Ash didn't understand his fierce need to prove himself (since he was abandoned and all). Orange Islands teaches him the importance of that care, and of the need to understands the personalities and motivations of his Pokemon if he wants to be a good trainer. Yet he wasn't hopeless because we knew he cared a lot about his Pokemon. Gary being so far ahead of him only reinforced this behaviour because he couldn't face the fact Gary was a much better trainer.
Ash was always on the back foot defending himself but didn't have any solid foundation for confidence, so anything he said was hot air. It gives the impression of someone who's actually very insecure about their ability. He took shortcuts to strength, neglected training his own Pokemon (especially Muk and Krabby), and staunchly believed in his own hype.
People complain all the time he didn't legitimately earn half his badges, but Kanto didn't actually forget about this fact as his lack of skill as a trainer ultimately ended in his defeat against Ritchie.Īsh's character arc was really interesting because although he had a lot of determination and guts, he was kinda lazy and unwilling to work for his success. Kanto's gym badges were intended to reward Ash for being a good person, rather than a good trainer. Being the Alola League Champion isn't nothing, but it isn't amazing either. Winning a tournament open to everyone isn't really on the same thing as winning a tournament that only select strong trainers can enter. But the lack of an entry requirement, mostly one-on-one battles and few of the trainers being particularly strong really makes winning it less impressive than it should be. People have been doing that with the Orange Islands for decades and I don't want to do that with the Alola League. I wouldn't say that the Alola League doesn't count or that it isn't a real League. The closest might be Kukui, but even all the hype with his Incineroar didn't make it feel like Mega Charizard X 2.0 either. None of them were presented as so ridiculously overpowered and broken with their teams. Click to expand.Considering that almost all of the trainers in the Alola League weren't battle active and most only had one or two Pokemon on them, I can't really see how any of them would be on Alain's level.