Yet, Slaking looked "visually" fine after taking those hits compared to Tobias' Darkrai that felt and got pushed back by those attacks. This goes right back to my previous post, point number 1. That is one of many examples where we have a Pokemon who tanked supereffective attacks yet they looked "visually fine."
There were bruise marks on Slaking's body, so your point? And let's not forget that Talonflame brought down Slaking in a flurry of moves, not just one move. And then again Slaking tanked so many supereffective moves from Hawlucha, as opposed to Darkrai, who took 2 hits from two Pokemon which were
way below Darkrai's level, without doubt.
Point1)How does Ash's not even strongest Pokemon or comparable to Darkrai self OHKO an OP and undefeated Darkrai whether it was healthy or almost healthy with one attack move? Sceptile is not that good or strong. If it was, Sceptile would be put leagues above Pikachu and Charizard. We know from the anime and animators that Heracross's super effective Megahorn and Gible's supereffective Rock Smash did damage. We know how the animation looks for Pokemon who didn't receive damage, receive too much damage, receive too much damage, barely felt an attack and so forth. Darkrai felt and got pushed back by both attacks.
Darkrai did get pushed back those attacks, but seeing the scenes, I'm sure that it felt wayyyy more pain when Sceptile struck it with those two fatal Leaf Blades (you can even hear groaning is severe pain.
And then again, whether Sceptile OHKO'd Darkrai or not, it did so after taking severe damage itself from Darkrai. I don't see what's the issue with OHKO'ing if the opponent deals severe damage prior to that. Like MCX OHKO'd Mega Houndoom, but Mega Houndoom did give a tough fight. So I don't see how that's putting Sceptile leagues ahead of Pikachu and Charizard.
And then again, I can also play the same game, saying that, how are Heracross and Gible, who were never depicted as among Ash's top powerhouses, are capable of severely weakening a League sweeping Legendary? This sounds even more ridiculous.
You didn't even respond my point correctly.... And no one is downplaying Darkrai's dream eater or is arguing Darkrai didn't heal up—I'm not sure why that was even brought up in the first place.
Well, whenever I bring up the healing point, you keep saying that Darkrai was still significantly damaged/weakened and Sceptile contributed just as much like Heracross and Gible did to bring down Darkrai. Yeah, I'd say that's severely downplaying Dreameater's healing.
O' yeah... What was I thinking.... Pikachu, Charizard nor A-G defeated an OP & undefeated Pokemon ever, let's not forget Heracross and Gible's effort was only minimal damage as so they didn't contribute half as much as Sceptile did. Sceptile is obviously in his own league, above the likes of Pikachu and Charizard. Pikachu, not even Pikachu(who is stronger than Sceptile) could have one-shot Darkrai and it had so much trouble with Latios. A full health Spectile could beat Latios 1-2 hits if he wasn't badly hurt by ice beam. What was I thinking? Sceptile is obviously up there in his own league with the OP Pokemons. Ash's strongest Pokemon.
I don't know what you are trying to say here. Darkrai was definitely an infamous sweeper, but let's be real, Darkrai would've swept DP Ash and Paul with their best powerhouses. Apart from Tobias, Ash and Paul were in a different league compared to the other League competitors, Paul was also sweeping everyone 3-0, and Ash's battles were only close because he was using his average Pokemon in the earlier battles rather than his major powerhouses like Infernape/Sceptile. Darkrai swept those trainers, who were significantly below Ash/Paul level. And I covered about the OHKO point earlier, it doesn't matter if the opponent deals severe damage prior to it.
Please tell me you're not serious. This, once again, goes right back to my Slaking point, where it "visually looked fine" after tanking/enduring Hawlucha's attack. No, Darkrai was not healed up all the way, otherwise it would have been mentioned (by spectators) it received most/almost all of its health.
And I reiterate myself
I'm not saying that it was fully healed, but the healing certainly wasn't insignificant. So just because it wasn't mentioned, we can't make an estimation of what's visually shown? The healing of Dreameater should depend upon how much health it drains from the opponent, this is common sense. And we clearly see Dreameater draining all of Heracross's health. So Darkrai's healing was definitely significant, and that's what elevates Sceptile's performance here.
The point is to show unless thePokemon is stated to have been "fully/almost" healthy then that Pokemon(Darkrai) wasn't "fully or almost" healthy. You can't completely ignore every other part shown in the anime that actually has statements regarding Pokemon healing factor, by spectators, to let us viewers know [insert-Pokemon] has "recovered fully" yet goes down to 1 or 2 attacks.
If you're talking about Torterra vs Drapion; Pikachu vs Regice; then know that reason for the opponent going down in 1 hit after recovering fully with healing move was that: in the first case, Pin Missile (super effective) was too much for Torterra to take, considering how effortlessly Drapion dispatched Buizel and Staraptor earlier. It's very much possible for Drapion to OHKO even a full-health Torterra with its spam move Pin Missile. Regarding Pikachu vs Regice, it's surprising, but not entirely unreasonable considering Volt Tackle was never used earlier in the battle and it came with great momentum and speed to strike Regice.
Do you have selected reading or something? You entirely missed the point with Sawk and Bisharp, if that was your answer. It doesn't matter if they don't have healing moves, your point was Sceptile is stronger than Heracross and Gible... Ergo he "did most of the work" when that couldn't be any far from the truth when Gible, Heracross, and Sceptile were all shown to be in similar position and tight spots trying to overcome Darkrai. That same logic applies to Greninja and Krokodile, too, and are comparable to Sceptile's feat; it needed the help from others to defeat it. You bring up "clear depiction" yet that same argument in actuality can be used for Heracross and Gible's(that have statements backing up their punch, to show their supereffective attacks weren't all for nothing when Sceptile took Darkrai down) attack were clean direct hits which were clearly and emphasized on how strong enough it was to send Darkrai flying back.
The visual depiction of Sceptile's clean strikes with Leaf Blades, emphasizes that it was a brutal and fatal blow, and as I mentioned earlier, while Darkrai felt Heracross and Gible's attacks, Darkrai groaning in severe pain from Sceptile's brutal blows are depictions that it contributed far more in Darkrai's fall. And yes, since Sceptile is obviously more powerful, it's attacks would obviously do more damage on Darkrai compared to those two. Bringing up Sawk and Bisharp points aren't fair here, because those two took way more hits from the Pokemon they battled before. Heracross/Gible/Sceptile, all struck Sceptile with a single move, so in this case, as Sceptile is way more powerful, it's move would obviously contribute more.
It was clearly depicted that everyone was amazed that an OP, undefeated Darkrai finally went down. Nothing said about the amazing Sceptile. Under the "narrative/focus" it was shown and implied to be combined effort trying to take down Darkrai. Sceptile, like Pikachu vs Lysandre's M-G example, was able to land the finishing blow because the [Pokemon] was still weakened. So no Sceptile does not get all of the credit. Again, no one is downplaying Darkrai's DreamEater.
Nah, after Darkrai beat 3 Pokemon of Ash, nobody in the stadium was stunned that Ash was doing surprisingly well, being able to do damage to Darkrai. The announcer also probably commented that Ash was running out of options, so they also possibly expected a clean sweep then. After Sceptile took down Darkrai everyone was stunned. Yeah, so I'd like to believe that the narrative intent points to Sceptile's amazing feat. Plus, it was a specific choice by the writers that Sceptile and Pikachu got KO's in the Tobias battle while the others were fall guys. One of Ash's regional powerhouse, and one of Ash's main powerhouse managed to get KO's and salvage pride in that battle. So the narrative intent was also that Sceptile and Pikachu battled exceptionally well there.