And nobody at all cares about Clay's actions. Now do you see the hypocrisy? Where was Cilan's forced outrage then?
Why are we comparing Clay's actions to Skyla?
I honestly don't see what Clay did was wrong. Outside of delaying a gym. I don't think it's against the rules to delay a gym for any reason.
Clay is also a business man, who is gifted in Pokemon battles, kind of like how Giovanni is Leader of an evil organization but had time to run a gym.
Clay had other priorities. And quite frankly I don't see the problem.
It's kind of ridiculous for anyone to think "Hey you're a gym leader, I'm a challenger, stop what the **** you're doing and battle me."
Which is kind of what Ash did to Clay, just not as rude and pretentious.
This is kind of the reason why gyms do have reservations. Why would anyone expect a gym leader to stop doing what they're doing and then battle them, right there and then. Sure was it rude of Clay? Sure but no ruder than Ash thinking Clay was going to stop doing what he was doing and battle him.
As for the revival herbs, well what would be the better route. Having a "rude" challenger going to get the herbs to prove himself worthy, or having the gym leader drop what he's doing, go to some place to get herbs as a result to an unforeseen reason, and waste all that potential time not battling challengers or running his business. Sure he could've sent someone else but then that person whoever he sent would've had to deal with Team Rocket. And odds are they wouldn't have been able to stop Team Rocket from taking the Kami Trio thus no revival herbs.
How is this Ash's problem? The revival herbs are for Pokemon, it seems quite clear that something happened in the mine, that would require a whole crap load of revival herbs to take care of, something that potentially the Pokemon Center might not be able to handle.
But let's go further and presume Clay is a jerk, and let's say it was to keep the Pokemon continuing to mine, thus notifying the Pokemon center would be admitting overworking the Pokemon.
Regardless of the reason do you think Clay was really in a business position to battle Ash and ignore what the revival herbs were for.
Now Clay isn't omniscient, but through the course of actions from the writers.
- Ash was promised a battle if he got the revival herbs
- Milos Island and the Kami Trio were saved as a direct result of Ash, Iris and Cilan going to the island to receive the revival herbs.
- Ash got revival herbs and got to battle Clay.
Now you can argue the questionable actions by Clay, and argue how selfish Clay was acting, but I think in this instance, what happened was far better than any non selfless course of actions.
But let's go back to Skyla. What did she do so wrong?
Well let's say she was derelict in her duties as a gym leader, she wasn't delaying the gym battle, she was denying the chance for anyone to prove her wrong.
While yes, I will fully admit, at LEAST Skyla's methods are at least BETTER than Volkner's method of just giving people badges, let's not lie here just to justify Skyla's methods. Ash was just as pissed with Volkner's method as well as Paul, just like Cilan and Ash are pissed at Skyla for her methods.
There are trainers out there that don't want to take the easy way out, which is why Ash and Paul were upset with Sunyshore Gym, while people like Barry don't really care about earning badges the right and hard way.
Then there are people who believe that only by battling will one determine if one is worthy of a badge. Some "mind" simulation that only takes in account for types of the Pokemon involved, is very flawed, and should Skyla believe that her Pokemon are superior, what chance do these trainers have to prove her wrong. There's no concept of rechallenging Skyla, without bringing different Pokemon into the loop.
What's to stop trainers from borrowing the winning combination of Pokemon and getting freebie badges? In those exploited instances, Skyla is no better than Volkner since she would just be giving away badges, in a glorified manner as Volkner.
It's not just the types of Pokemon to consider which Skyla failed to take in account with Swoobat vs Krokorok, even if she was right in the end, even if Krokorok's ground type moves were ineffective against Skyla's Swoobat. Krokorok type wise still has a huge advantage over Swoobat for the simple fact, dark types are super effective against Swoobat. Swoobat's flying attacks to neutral damage, so Super Effective Moves>>>>Neutral Effective Moves. Any way the point is you have to consider, the Pokemon (size and shape could easily influence a battle's outcome by taking advantage of the Pokemon's natural abilities), AND their types AND their potential moves AND the skills of the trainer.
Because someone like Mick (from Krokorok's capture), who has a limited understanding of Pokemon in general, if he wasn't coached by Ash and Cilan, he'd probably lose a battle where he even had Elite 4 Pokemon, while the opponent had Battle Frontier-level Pokemon.
The problem, the main problem, the point of all this was simple.
Skyla decided based on her own mind and belief if a challenger got a badge or not WITHOUT the challenger being able to question her decision.
I have NO IDEA why anyone would condone that logic or those actions. Or why anyone is getting all upset JUST BECAUSE Ash and Cilan have a problem with it.