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Battle-Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym! (711)

In short, this episode can be described as follows:
My sides are in orbit! :)

I chuckled when Elesa said "Zebstrika, you look beautiful even when covered with mud!"

"But I wanted to win the match with just you (Palpitoed)!"
Well, you know what? Tough cheese! Life is unfair!

Then wen he just runs out to get a different Pokemon, and no one stopped him, I was like "Wait, what is happening right now?!" I was that confused.

And finally:
"Doesn't Ash know Attract won't work between girls!?"
Well, this is a kids show, so, of course it doesn't.

I usually don't do this with episodes, but:

10/10 would lel again. :)
 
To be honest it's pretty stupid that Attract doesn't work for both genders at least IMO.

Anyway... this gym battle was really bad. First Ash wants to win the entire battle with only Palpitoad, then he forgets Snivy is a girl, and then Pikachu stars in the gym once again when he really didn't need to. I don't know if this is an attempt to redeem him for losing against Excadrill or something, but it really made Snivy look bad.
 

Altinator

Standby for Battle!!
This episode is an embarrassment to both Ash and gym battles. Ok lets beat all of her pokemon with only Palpitoad. Palpitoad is eliminated?!? Thats not good, I don't have any other pokemon with me. Trolololol. YOU IDIOT!!! Ash should have been DQ after that in my opinion. I feel so sorry for Elesa. She had to deal with a pretty pathetic "veteran" trainer like Ash.
 

Locormus

Can we please get the older, old forum back?
To be honest it's pretty stupid that Attract doesn't work for both genders at least IMO.

Anyway... this gym battle was really bad. First Ash wants to win the entire battle with only Palpitoad, then he forgets Snivy is a girl, and then Pikachu stars in the gym once again when he really didn't need to. I don't know if this is an attempt to redeem him for losing against Excadrill or something, but it really made Snivy look bad.

Or didn't he realize that Elesa's Emolga was a girl? Who knows.

This episode is an embarrassment to both Ash and gym battles. Ok lets beat all of her pokemon with only Palpitoad. Palpitoad is eliminated?!? Thats not good, I don't have any other pokemon with me. Trolololol. YOU IDIOT!!! Ash should have been DQ after that in my opinion. I feel so sorry for Elesa. She had to deal with a pretty pathetic "veteran" trainer like Ash.

To me, this is when the entire series went sour.

Consider the fact that the writers added Palpitoad to Ash's team specifically to get past Elesa, or to make this trainwreck situation happen. Why do I think that? Because Palpitoad only had three more appearances after this battle/episode. THREE: Vs. Roxie pt2, Vs. Stephan (yet another Zebstrika!) and at Oak's. Lets let Ash capture something, build it up for one thing, and than.. leave it to rot except for arbitrary appearances.

In my eyes, I can't see this gym battle and not think that they had this mock-scenario in mind and for this to happen, they needed Ash with a capable Ground-type, hence the forced capture of Palpitoad and lack of subsequent appearances (and achievements: a loss and tie) afterwards.

Not to mention the pacing going mad after Nimbasa as well.
 

JudySpell

Banned
So the lesson here was that when Ash uses his brain for Gym matches things go wrong & he should always improvise?? How inspirational. 4/10
 

Mrs. Oreo

Banned
I appreciated how Ash was shown strategizing the night before he challenged Elesa. I loved how Ash's new Palpitoad took down Zebstrika and Elesa's Tynamo was so quick and strong, which surprised me hee hee.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Finally, Satoshi was able to challenge Kamitsure at the Raimon Gym. Satoshi preparing so hard for the battle was different from the norm, and I thought that Tsutarja should've done better against Kamitsure's Emonga. The lesson here seemed to be that Satoshi does better when he doesn't plan ahead.
 

Wednesdayz

Meowth fanatic
This was such a dumb episode. It didn't make sense that Ash was out of options to battle Emolga with, as he had Roggenrola. An entertaining and at times funny episode, but Gym battle victories should reward the better traits of his character, not glorify the lesser ones. :x
 
Oh... well this battle was cringy. Bringing one Pokemon to a 3 vs 3 battle? Come on Ash. Then Pikachu basically 1HKO's two thirds of Elesa's team, making Elesa and the rest of Ash's Pokemon look really weak. Especially Elesa, with her best Pokemon being a Tynamo that only knows Tackle?

And forgetting Snivy is female... just wow. It would be way more acceptable if Ash forgot Attract only works on the opposite sex, I'd buy that.
 

Alloutℯ

Banned
Ash's battle just made me cringe at how he prepared for this battle. I get the feeling that the writers really want to disconnect Ash from his past adventures, because surely by now he wouldn't have tried something like relying on one Pokémon for an important battle.
 

Mrs. Oreo

Banned
The lesson here seemed to be that Satoshi does better when he doesn't plan ahead.

I dunno if that was the main point per say. I think this episode showed that when Ash thinks too strategically, he can overlook the simple things and that he needs to think outside the box alot. But him planning ahead isn't a bad thing in general.
 

Wednesdayz

Meowth fanatic
I dunno if that was the main point per say. I think this episode showed that when Ash thinks too strategically, he can overlook the simple things and that he needs to think outside the box alot. But him planning ahead isn't a bad thing in general.

Eh, it seemed like the fact that Ash started making a comeback against Elesa when he ditched his plans really was a case of him showing us that his random battling style trumps well thought out strategies, though.
 

pokedigijedi

Saiyan Jedi
It me a long time to come up for a post for this thread, why? because this is among my least liked episodes of the series, made worst when you realize I am not a fan of the show anymore, and I had to try and figure out a way to speak my mind without raging or bashing so here we go:


Ash actually decided to come up with a strategy for this gym instead of just winging it as he goes along, but in the end he pulls a rookie move by only bringing in one Pokemon, and a bunch of other stuff I won't get into, it was very painful episode.

I also don't like how they made Ash relying on his "making it up as I go along" tactic seem superior to making a strategy, it feels like a broken Aesop to me.

There is more but I have no good way of mentioning without raging and/or bashing so I will stop now
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Ash actually decided to come up with a strategy for this gym instead of just winging it as he goes along, but in the end he pulls a rookie move by only bringing in one Pokemon, and a bunch of other stuff I won't get into, it was very painful episode.

I feel that the writers didn't take Satoshi versus Kamitsure seriously, for whatever reason. The lack of real tension in this Gym battle was noticeable, which was a first for the region since Satoshi's first three Isshu Gym matches had more tension than the Raimon Gym, in spite of the stakes being the same.
 
Damn what a miserable Gym battle. I mean it was cool that Ash used his new Palpitoad, but running out to get another Pokemon because he thought Palpitoad would win him the whole thing? He should have been disqualified right there and then. I didn't like how they just let him slide like that. Ash has never been this stupid before.
 

Vulpicks

Well-Known Member
Wow that was absurdly horrible. It was more of a comedy routine than an actual battle. Really felt like I was watching an OS Gym battle. Now, there is nothing wrong with comedy during a battle, Ash vs. Conway for example had plenty of funny moments while remaining an engaging and interesting battle, but this battle just made no sense whatsoever.

Ash was a complete and utter moron. So much so that it was absolutely painful to watch. He should've straight up been disqualified when he ran back to the center to get a new mon, wasting everyone's time.

Attract continues to be extremely overused, and Snivy (best Unova mon) gets completely thrown away cause Ash is too freaking stupid to remember her basic type-match ups and even her bleepin' gender. Wasn't it stated that Snivys are notorious for leaving incompetent trainers?

Also this episode was just straight up horribly written. Emolga shouldn't have been OHKOed, they could've at least had Snivy land a hit. Ash's """strategy""" at the end made zero freaking sense. What good does obliterating the terrain do when Tynamo levitates anyways? Literally nothing is stopping it from attacking from any direction it pleases.

Furthermore, the only way they could give this incompetent moron the win was by having Elesa's Pokemon literally disobey her. Not only does that make her look incredibly incompetent as a Gym Leader, but it's a complete asspull as well.

This episode also just insinuates terrible things. Ash notices Pikachu has been carrying him through Unova, decides to gives his other Pokemon a chance, they job, and Pikachu ends up carrying again as always. ...Seriously? Also the idea that preparation is apparently a bad thing to be avoided, while charging forward with brute force is the way to go.

What about all those times in DP when Ash showed rather stunning forethought such as teaching Heracross Sleep Talk to counter Darkrai? This writing is bad, plain and simple. I understand what they were going for but they blew it big time, and Ash didn't deserve the badge at all.

Honestly one of the worst Pokemon episodes I've ever had the misfortune of seeing. I feel really bad for the people that waited so long for this ep and were met with that garbage lmao. The only cool thing was that badass Tynamo.
 
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Leonhart

Imagineer
Vulpicks said:
The only cool thing was that badass Tynamo.

Shibishirasu surprised me since it was not only powerful, but also bigger than I had anticipated. I always thought it'd be rather small.
 

Scorbunnie

Well-Known Member
This gym battle was so bad it's not even funny. Ash seemingly forgetting that Snivy is female and him relying on Palpitoad only for it to backfire on him was just too much. I got a headache from seeing Ash blunder so much.
 
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