That one was bad too.
But oddly enough, Rowlett vs Decidueye sounds kind of worse considering the whole "calling Hau the match winner" thing.
Well, yes and no. I mean if you look at the context there are several things that would make your head scratch about both fights.
Ash vs. Hau:
- Ash pretty much knew that Hau was going to use Decidueye. He had a perfectly fine Torracat on the bench. Why did he sanction Rowlet to get in that fight?
- The overstepping of the writers with the running gag.
Ash vs. Cameron:
- I get that the gag was that Cameron was a scatterbrain that somehow manages to get by, but letting him bring only five pokémon does two things:
1. Despite picking the wrong pokémon during multiple match-ups in the fight, Ash losing to basically two pokémon was a kick in the teeth.
2. It further diminished the amount of battle wins the Unova-cast could get in their league. Especially since each member only got one battle appearance and Scraggy's was a quick KO vs. an cotd Darumaka.
- Why did Ash bring such an underdeveloped team to this battle? If he brought Pikachu, Krookodile, Pignite, Leavanny, Boldore and Unfezant he would've had a better chance. Oshawott and Snivy had been deadweight since the 5th gym and they were again in this battle.
- Again, this is the guy that sent in a Steel/Grass-type against a Fire-type (3rd strongest of the squad) and a Water/Flying-type vs. an Electric-type ('Peak'achu) and Ash still managed to lose this. Ash had six pokémon on hand and only TWO got wins in this battle.
- Personally, I was annoyed that Ash had so many 'evolution'-DEM wins during the gym challenges (which weren't all necessary) that Riolu evolving felt like some forced sense of karma.
Same feeling honestly
The gag was great, but unecessary for that league match
I wouldn't say it was 'great', but considering how owls are in general nocturnal species... It kind of made sense to have Rowlet be a sleepyhead during the day - and thus the usage was fine (for the most part). I agree that they kind of overstepped during the battle.