No, you can't attribute everything 'cheap' to DEM. A lot of values have to be adjusted for entertainment purposes. Otherwise, this battle would've been over the moment Torterra smacked Staraptor with Stone Edge.
I'm really confused because I tried to keep the anime and games separate, but it seems you're only countering me with game mechanics, thus I argued game mechanics thus you argued anime /=/ games. So I'm like wait, what.
You have to realize that accuracy is a game-balance feature. Such things aren't necessary for the anime. In the game, you can choose between Lava Plume, Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Fire Blast and Overheat, or Discharge, Thunderbolt, Thunder and Zap Cannon. Each has an element of risk/reward. That element doesn't exist in the anime because the anime is not testing the skills of its viewers. It would be no fun to watch Pikachu use Thunder over and over again, only to miss every time. Instead, Thunder is usually reserved for a massive attack that decides the match and has only appeared a couple of times. Even comparing Electabuzz's Thunder to Pikachu's Thunderbolt won't give you an accurate description of their relative power levels.
Still the establishment of things before this episode, would've been much more fairer. You do realize, that if most of the things that I call cheap and unfair in this battle, if they were established prior to the episode, I would have a completely different response even if Ash had lost the same exact way. And it would've been in my opinion, that Ash needs to work harder. And I seriously would not have "complained" as much, in fact I would be singing a different tune, if some of things that happened in this episode were established prior to this episode. Hell if Electabuzz dodged stone edge from Regirock, thus causing Regirock to control stone edge, I would've been fine with Torterra controlling stone edge as it was in this episode.
I'm not saying the match was fair; it was clearly in Paul's favor as I'd hoped. I'm saying the match was relatively realistic. Very few things occurred that I wouldn't consider plausible. Almost every action had an easily ascertainable reason behind it.
There is no 'should have' when it comes to this anime. You can't say Gliscor 'should have' KO'd Torterra, because I can just as easily say Gliscor 'shouldn't have' done nearly so well considering their experience levels. DEM only refers to the impossible; i.e. Pikachu learning Feint during this bout. Evolution during combat is DEM, but this is an exception, 1) because it was expected, 2) because it ultimately accomplished nothing as far as the battle was concerned. Finally, it was good for the plot.
I think my biggest overall gripe is how things were established in this episode. They seemed to me to be established to yes screw over Ash at every turn. I mean were the only reasons why some of the things established in this episode, was because then Ash would have no viable counter thus he would lose horribly.
Still even if that was the case, I really don't see how much of a difference that would've made, because Ash still would've lost, because come on even if Paul's other Pokemon were weakened, Honchkrow received almost no damage, and how Ash's weakened Pokemon could knock out Honchkrow, is hard to comprehend.
See the message would still have been received even if it was 6-4. The only reason that its 6-2 is to plainly to say "No Ash, you are wrong, it's not about friendship at all, it's about absolute power"
However that goes against everything I believe Ash is trying to do, when he trains his Pokemon. I always said, that with Ash it wasn't always friendship. Because look at DP100, Ash trains his Pokemon pretty hard.
The only real difference between Paul and Ash (in my opinion, which appears to be dead wrong) is that Ash would let his Pokemon rest once they've fainted, even while practicing. Ash would've stopped. Paul tried to revive Chimchar by shocking the hell out of it from Elekid (at the time) and refused to allow Chimchar to heal despite Nurse Joy saying so.
But I guess I was wrong because Ash lost 6-2.