A Birdacious Battle! Brave Bird VS Sky Attack!! (1076)

[Ryu Taylor]

@LilligantLewis , as a sports fan, what do you make of this battle and what happened in it?

 

[Sonnas]

wow on Nanu's one quote to Ash.

"your pokemon are actually enough to make a referee cry you know?"

can't really discern that one.

What’s the context from that line?

 

[Almighty Zard]

What’s the context from that line?

Nanu says this to Ash after it's revealed by Hala that Rowlet was sleeping rather than being knocked out.

what i'm getting at is that it definitely seems like Nanu sounded rude by saying that, but given what rowlet did it's hard to say it's not justified.

 

[LilligantLewis]

@LilligantLewis , as a sports fan, what do you make of this battle and what happened in it?

if you're referring to the fact that the decision was prematurely called and the ruling was overturned, I think that's fine because it happens all the time in modern sports with video replay. However, that's mostly in team sports whereas the closest equivalent to this would be combat sports that are 1v1, in which the referee's decision for a TKO is usually final and can't be reversed.

 

[Almighty Zard]

So many at fault in this.

Nanu for not going to fully check and see If Rowlet was knocked out

Rowlet for falling asleep at such a critical point

Hau for not contesting his grandfather's call, which he had every right to do (but choose not too) and no it wouldn't have made him look like a bad trainer for doing so.

and overall the writers.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

So many at fault in this.

Nanu for not going to fully check and see If Rowlet was knocked out

Rowlet for falling asleep at such a critical point

Hau for not contesting his grandfather's call, which he had every right to do (but choose not too) and no it wouldn't have made him look like a bad trainer for doing so.

and overall the writers.

Don't forget the fact Hau was poorly written up until this point.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

So many at fault in this.

Nanu for not going to fully check and see If Rowlet was knocked out

Rowlet for falling asleep at such a critical point

Hau for not contesting his grandfather's call, which he had every right to do (but choose not too) and no it wouldn't have made him look like a bad trainer for doing so.

and overall the writers.

Rowlet falling asleep makes sense tho, especially if you consider it's pokedex entry

 

[Sonnas]

Rowlet falling asleep makes sense tho, especially if you consider it's pokedex entry

Yes but it doesn't make it better though as this is supposed to be a serious battle in the League.

Don't forget the fact Hau was poorly written up until this point.

Not so poorly written just underdeveloped as he entered the series too late.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Rowlet falling asleep makes sense tho, especially if you consider it's pokedex entry

But after getting a huge attack to the face? That's implausible. No one should be able to fall asleep after something like that. That just scares the sleep out of someone.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

I'm not defending the writing that they made rowlet sleep and the whole fakeout lol, I'm just saying it wasn't random why it slept.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I'm not defending the writing that they made rowlet sleep and the whole fakeout lol, I'm just saying it wasn't random why it slept.

...But it was random.

You just don't expect a man you're hitting to suddenly fall asleep. That isn't logical.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

...But it was random.

You just don't expect a man you're hitting to suddenly fall asleep. That isn't logical.

It lost energy while battling and slept so it could regain its energy. That's it. It's a freaking Pokemon. I can easily see a Pokemon sleeping to regain energy after being hit badly.

 

[LilligantLewis]

I literally feel sick after watching this episode. It would have been one thing if Nanu was about to call Rowlet unable to battle, and then it was revealed that he was just asleep, but to have Hau's victory on the scoreboard and then have Hau and Decidueye celebrating their victory, only to have it viciously ripped away from them and lose in the most BS way, I don't blame Hau for crying. I don't care what anyone says- Ash lost this battle. He can go on to win the whole thing, hell he can even beat Kukui at this point, it doesn't matter. Ash lost here. Pathetic. This was needlessly cruel treatment to Hau.

What do you think about the bold now?

Did it make sense that Decedueye had takeb so much demage it almost couldnt stand up the first time ?

Yes, Flying is super-effective to Grass.

Pikachu has Golisopod

Actually, Tapu Koko

He was just breathing to give Ash's Rowlet SOMETHING personal to overcome

and also to allow a Decidueye to play a major role in the anime. Before this league, no Decidueye had had any major appearance in the anime. Its only appearance was getting merced by the Masked Royal in his debut episode, which was a less-than-a-minute backgroud appearance, and that was it for the whole anime! that was never going to be a starter final evolution's only appearance in the anime!

I will admit this was disappointing but they already pulled the biggest ash pull in the form of Thunder Armor; nothing will ever top that.

I like the expression ash pull

People are not necessarily upset that they chose to resume the battle (I mean I am, but I definitely do not speak for anyone else). The reason so many of us are upset is because of the cruel treatment of Hau.

Yes, mistakes happen. Nanu is human, and humans make mistakes. The closest comparison I can make to this situation is with the Miss Universe Pageant. Steve Harvey very clearly made a mistake when he announced the winner, that much is clear. The horrible part of the situation comes from the fact that the runner-up was left thinking that she had won for an extended period of time, which made it all the more awful for her when the realization set in that she did not actually win. Yes, it was horrible, but it was a mistake. Everyone agrees that this never should have happened.

The absolutely disgusting part of this is that Pokemon is a fictional show. The writers specifically planned out that this exact situation was going to happen. They purposely let Hau believe that he had actually won for almost two whole minutes. Yes, Hau is obviously not real, but the fact that the writers did this on purpose just for a cheap laugh is just wrong. They could have easily revealed that Rowlet had been sleeping just as Nanu started to declare him unable to battle, but they did not. They purposely chose to go through with this whole thing. They let Hau finally get a taste of the victory over Ash that he had been preparing for for so long just to rip it away from him at the last second. As a joke.

@Ryu Taylor I want to slightly amend what I told you a few posts ago. After reading this, I'm realizing that despite not even being a sporting event, @SceptileTheBanana's mention above of the 2015 Miss Universe is actually a closer real life example to what happened in this episode. Despite the reality being that Nanu misinterpreted Rowlet's state, instead of misreading off a card like Steve Harvey, the main point of contention with people about this episode is Hau's reaction to thinking he won, not Nanu's mistake. Therefore, it's more in line with that Miss Universe incident than a real life sporting event, ironically. I do appreciate that you first thought of sports and thought of me though.

You know what's funny. In DP, it was stated that Ash had Heracross learn Sleep Talk in order to deal with Nando's Sing tactics. How did Ash know how to teach that move?

Damn, Ash used to be such a good trainer.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Actually, Tapu Koko

Why Koko? It's not a league participant. The lineup doesn't have it anywhere.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

I liked how they clarified that Hala is the "chief referee" hence why he can if needed overrule calls made by other referees. Ideally though, he should have done so faster (since it seems like he realized right away that Rowlet was asleep and not knocked out), since he seemed to have the means to get his voice heard over the crowd and yet the fakeout played out for what looked like a good minute or two. But perhaps he was conflicted about taking away Hau's apparent victory. Pn the other hand, like Hau said, he wouldn't have been satisfied if he hadn't actually won with a knockout.

 

[SceptileTheBanana]

What do you think about the bold now?

I'm not gonna ruin anything for people who are watching the dub but I stand by my original statement. F*ck this "league."

 

[LilligantLewis]

I'm not gonna ruin anything for people who are watching the dub but I stand by my original statement. F*ck this "league."

wow

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

wow

To be fair, this battle was horrendous.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

I watched it expecting the worst, but I honestly didn't think it was that bad (still far from great as battles go). Rowlet's weird Substitute/Featherdance looked nice, as did Sky Attack (liked how they utilized it as weaker if not fully charged), and Hau crying as Hala held him was the first time his character felt all that strong for me (they really introduced him way too late and did too little with him). Liked how Nanu lampshaded how unorthodox the battle was too.

What got me was how weak they made Arrow Raid look (Rowlet's Z-move looked more impressive), though at least it looked more impressive than Lycanroc's unique z-move. I also found it interesting that they treated Spirit Shackle as if it was a move that doesn't actually do any damage and only traps the opponent in place.

 

[Lord Starfish]

Yeah honestly, while this is far from the best battle in this arc, or this series for that matter... its badness is blown way out of proportion. I agree that the fakeout was obnoxious, but other than that, it was perfectly serviceable. And of course it would end with the Feather Dance training paying off in an unconventional way allowing him an opening to take out Ju'niper with Brave Bird. The setup for exactly this to happen was so overt that having anything else happen would in fact be awful writing.