Pikachu is uber. It's behavior is probably the best definition.
A practice contest is not practice?
Depends. While putting yourself in that kind of scenario might be good occasionally its still no substitute for practicing technique the traditional way. The idea behind practicing is that you'll be ready for any scenario regardless of what it might be. When playing out scenarios, specifically battle scenarios, you have to keep in mind that no two scenarios will ever be the same. I guess that's why the 'ballerina dodge' that Dawn and Ash both use isn't working as effectively as it was before. Pikachu couldn't pull it off against Reiji's Staraptor and Buneary couldn't against Maylene's Meditite. I think it's a sign that we might be getting a new technique soon, or at least I hope so.
What a person has in mind and the strength of a Pokemon of doing the appeal are two completely different things. Just because a Pokemon overused an appeal doesn't mean it can't be worked on and lessen the amount to where the trainer wants it to be.
The thing is that Dawn's problems in the last Contest could've been
very easily prevented since she did indeed work on the Appeal that she used prior to using it in the Contest, albeit once again the day
of the Contest. The easiest and most obvious solution would've been not to use the Pokemon you got yesterday in the Contest you're going to be doing today.
From what we've seen from Dawn already she's pretty much confirmed to be a visual person in regards to how she sees her appeals and wants her Pokemon to work to get as close to her ideals as possible, which is completely possible
if she practices. The problem is that she often overshoots or undershoots the strength and capabilities of her Pokemon when she visualizes. She did it before in Piplup before when practicing her first Contest's appeal, she did it with Pachirisu's solo appeal, and she did it once more with Ambipom's appeal. If you really worked closely with her Pokemon to pick out their personal strengths and weaknesses she could've at least foresaw a problem the third time or so around.
Thus, no conclusion can be drawn about Buneary.
Meh. I know it's bad practice but I'm pretty much convinced that Buneary's going to be one of the battlers. She seems to have that kind of battler's charisma which is hard to describe in few words. That's not to say that her appeals will be bad but I'm doubting that's where her strength will be.
Pachirisu's electricty problem is improving though. Thus, it still has potential to be considered a good battler.
Its problems with concentration/focus which I mentioned is probably what'll do it in like it did Totodile in.
Or not. The way I see it, Ambipom was really chosen to be in the gym battle to begin with simply because it proved to be a strong battler. The decisive decision, as I recall, just became whether her third Pokemon would be Buneary or Pachirisu. I have to watch the episode again to make sure.
The order was Buneary, Ambipom, and Piplup. Buneary was KOed by Meditite, Ambipom KOed Meditite only to be OHKOed by Lucario, and Piplup was KOed by Lucario. It seems like Pachirisu wasn't even considered if she threw Buneary and Ambipom out there first considering they're both weak to the gym's type.
Proof? The episodes and future ones after have not been aired yet. Thus, you can't derive a conclusion that it will be doing her more harm.
"
I hope "
If Wallace simply tells her 'you should do it this way' instead of finding her own way of doing things he won't be much better than the rest of them. I severely doubt that any one person's advice will pull Dawn out of the slump she's in regardless of how many frilly ribbons the man's won. At best it'll be the second step towards making a comeback, the first being not running head first into every Contest she finds in hopes of redeeming herself.
Depends on what you mean on handling things.
I explained it in the sentence that followed.
That's not enough to justify that is Dawn's problem. I could easily say that Kenny has that same factor yet why did he make it pass the appeal round? Compare Alakazam's appeal to Breloom's appeal and explain what consistency is there.
That's why I specifically left Kenny off the list. It seems that he's only getting by in the Appeals Round so he could fight Dawn or another Rival later on in the battling rounds of the Contests. I'll admit that his Breeloom appeal was probably the worst one we've seen in Diamond / Pearl so far yet he still managed to get to the semifinals. Since Kenny's so Plain Jane already compared to the other Coordinators I expect as much from him, but not so much from Dawn.
Besides Dawn's beat him already so it's not like he's going to be a major threat like Zoey already proved herself to be.
Jessie beat him even.
