February 22nd: SM63 - Burn with Passion, Nyabby! Down with Gaogaen!!

[TheWanderingMist]

That line right there reminds me of the classic shounen anime setup: a strong opponent who prides himself being undefeated is, in the end, defeated by the (often seemingly weak) protagonist. I'm not saying Ash and his Litten will defeat the Masked Royal and his Incineroar, but I'm not ruling out the possibility, either.

It's a 4 way battle, so someone else could end up defeating him after Litten weakens Incineroar.

 

[JoaquinLorie]

I think Litten will evolve here

 

[Rajas]

Litten will evolve and Kukui should be Royal Mask. Doesn't explain how Kukui hides his identity from everyone though.

 

[OnceUponATime]

Doesn't explain how Kukui hides his identity from everyone though.

Ash and co. never recognize Team Rocket in their disguises, so it shouldn't be too hard for Kukui to go unrecognized.

 

[Leonhart]

Nyabby getting some focus excites me since we hadn't seen it do much of importance lately. The fact that it might evolve here is appealing as well, although Gaogaen's role is what I'm most hyped about.

 

[JoaquinLorie]

Litten will evolve and Kukui should be Royal Mask. Doesn't explain how Kukui hides his identity from everyone though.

Actually in the games, almost everyone recognizes the professor.

 

[Thumbs2]

Actually in the games, almost everyone recognizes the professor.

Aside from his wife, oddly enough.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I still want Ash to be the only one to recognize him haha.

 

[Rohanator]

Initially I assumed that Ash just challenges Masked Royal to an unofficial 1v1 but maybe it'll be a proper Battle Royal, and him and 2 other challengers will gang up on Incineroar and in the end Litten is the last challenger standing and finishes the job after evolving. Would be more believable at least.

I still want Ash to be the only one to recognize him haha.

More likely that he's the only one who DOESN't recognize him. I bet all the classmates will be like "Uh, professor..." while Ash is all "WHO'S THIS COOL GUY"

(i know it technically wouldn't make sense since how could he operate with this alias if it was easily recognizable, but seems like an obvious gag to do with Ash's personality)

 

[Akkipeddi]

If it's a 4 vs 4, I wonder who the other 2 challengers are. The easy way would be to add in Kiawe and another classmate, but the summary suggests that it's Ash who is interested, so I doubt the classmates will get involved. They could simply be two random CoTD, or if we're lucky, one of them could actually be either Hau or a new anime only rival (or basically someone important).

 

[mehmeh1]

With the opening showing poipole in ash's team but not torracat, what if he doesn't evolve yet?

 

[desdar300]

If it's a 4 vs 4, I wonder who the other 2 challengers are. The easy way would be to add in Kiawe and another classmate, but the summary suggests that it's Ash who is interested, so I doubt the classmates will get involved. They could simply be two random CoTD, or if we're lucky, one of them could actually be either Hau or a new anime only rival (or basically someone important).

Maybe it's Gladion

 

[TheScentedApple]

Aside from his wife, oddly enough.

His wife does though, she's just putting on the act cause she thinks she being cute (she is but whatever). Im pre sure shes laughing while blushing at one point in the games, maybe the ruins of life idk but its certain for 100% she knows that its Kukui

 

[ShadowForce720]

Maybe it's Gladion

Can I just say that if Gladion does participate I hope he uses either Umbreon or a new addition to his team, the former being because we've only seen 2 of it's moves and doesn't seem to battle as much as some of the other pokemon although during the Aether Arc it was a bit more active and did help a bit and with the latter being that it would be nice to see what's Gladion's 4th member of his team will besides being interesting it might also give us a clue about which direction there heading with his team and what other pokemon he might catch, of course if he does use his Lycanroc I would at least hope it finally reveals it's 4th move.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Can I just say that if Gladion does participate I hope he uses either Umbreon or a new addition to his team, the former being because we've only seen 2 of it's moves and doesn't seem to battle as much as some of the other pokemon although during the Aether Arc it was a bit more active and did help a bit and with the latter being that it would be nice to see what's Gladion's 4th member of his team will besides being interesting it might also give us a clue about which direction there heading with his team and what other pokemon he might catch, of course if he does use his Lycanroc I would at least hope it finally reveals it's 4th move.

Gladion won't be participating because if he does, Kukui would surely lose to him and he won't remain unbeaten any more. The summary makes it pretty clear that the masked royal would be unbeaten until Ash battles him.

 

[ShadowForce720]

Gladion won't be participating because if he does, Kukui would surely lose to him and he won't remain unbeaten any more. The summary makes it pretty clear that the masked royal would be unbeaten until Ash battles him.

Except are you forgetting that Battle Royals are a 4 way free for all meaning just because he winds up battling Kukui doesn't mean that Kukui wouldn't be unbeaten as Ash would be battling with them and a 4th person all at the same time and plus it's not like Gladion has to use Sivally in the free for all as he could easily use Midnight Lycanroc, Umbreon, or a new addition to his party as it wouldn't be that unreasonable for him to lose with one of those considering Kukui's Incineroar likely has tons of experience and Kukui and his Incineroar could easily have more experience then Gladion, so it wouldn't be unrealistic for Gladion's Umbreon, Midnight Lycanroc, or a new addition plus it's not like Gladion losing with one of those pokemon would make him look weak.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Except are you forgetting that Battle Royals are a 4 way free for all meaning just because he winds up battling Kukui doesn't mean that Kukui wouldn't be unbeaten as Ash would be battling with them and a 4th person all at the same time and plus it's not like Gladion has to use Sivally in the free for all as he could easily use Midnight Lycanroc, Umbreon, or a new addition to his party as it wouldn't be that unreasonable for him to lose with one of those considering Kukui's Incineroar likely has tons of experience and Kukui and his Incineroar could easily have more experience then Gladion, so it wouldn't be unrealistic for Gladion's Umbreon, Midnight Lycanroc, or a new addition plus it's not like Gladion losing with one of those pokemon would make him look weak.

Gladion is being portrayed as a rival who is sort of always a step ahead of Ash in their rivalry. In their first battle, Ash was really struggling until the battle got called off; in the second battle, he soundly beat Ash. So I really don't think that the writers are going to make Gladion lose to a guy whom Ash is going to beat afterwards.

 

[ShadowForce720]

Gladion is being portrayed as a rival who is sort of always a step ahead of Ash in their rivalry. In their first battle, Ash was really struggling until the battle got called off; in the second battle, he soundly beat Ash. So I really don't think that the writers are going to make Gladion lose to a guy whom Ash is going to beat afterwards.

First off we don't even know if Ash will beat Kukui here as just because a pokemon evolves doesn't mean that it's guaranteed to win as in the case of Ash's Turtwig when it was fight Paul's Honckrow it evolved into Grotle and still wound up losing, and they also had Ash's Fletchinder evolve into Talonflame during a battle against Moltres and it still lost and before you try to make the argument that oh well that doesn't count because Moltres is a legendary pokemon, no, that does count because they didn't have to have Fletchinder evolve in a battle against Moltres as they could have Fletchinder evolve in a different battle where it could have won.

Also Sun and Moon has broken some trends so whose to say that they wouldn't have Gladion lose to Kukui, and also may I remind you that just because Gladion loses to Kukui's Incineroar and then Ash wins doesn't necessarily mean that Gladion couldn't still be ahead by Ash because they could easily have it where Gladion is using Umbreon or a new addition to his team and him losing to Incineroar wouldn't mean that Ash's Torracat would suddenly be able to beat Sivally.

 

[345ash-greninja]

First off we don't even know if Ash will beat Kukui here as just because a pokemon evolves doesn't mean that it's guaranteed to win as in the case of Ash's Turtwig when it was fight Paul's Honckrow it evolved into Grotle and still wound up losing, and they also had Ash's Fletchinder evolve into Talonflame during a battle against Moltres and it still lost and before you try to make the argument that oh well that doesn't count because Moltres is a legendary pokemon, no, that does count because they didn't have to have Fletchinder evolve in a battle against Moltres as they could have Fletchinder evolve in a different battle where it could have won.

Considering how SM Ash is being treated by the writers in terms of battle winning percentage, I definitely think that the chances of Litten evolving into Torracat and winning is very high, just like it happened with Flecthling vs Moria's Talonflame. Moltres example doesn't count because in this case we know that Torracat isn't battling a Legendary. Regarding Honchkrow vs Grotle, Paul was strongly being portrayed as a rival who was always one step of Ash, so that also doesn't count.

Also Sun and Moon has broken some trends so whose to say that they wouldn't have Gladion lose to Kukui, and also may I remind you that just because Gladion loses to Kukui's Incineroar and then Ash wins doesn't necessarily mean that Gladion couldn't still be ahead by Ash because they could easily have it where Gladion is using Umbreon or a new addition to his team and him losing to Incineroar wouldn't mean that Ash's Torracat would suddenly be able to beat Sivally.

Still, from the rivalry perspective(where Gladion is being portrayed as always a step ahead of Ash), it would be a little contradictory to have Gladion lose to a guy who Ash is going to beat).

 

[ShadowForce720]

Considering how SM Ash is being treated by the writers in terms of battle winning percentage, I definitely think that the chances of Litten evolving into Torracat and winning is very high, just like it happened with Flecthling vs Moria's Talonflame. Moltres example doesn't count because in this case we know that Torracat isn't battling a Legendary. Regarding Honchkrow vs Grotle, Paul was strongly being portrayed as a rival who was always one step of Ash, so that also doesn't count.


Still, from the rivalry perspective(where Gladion is being portrayed as always a step ahead of Ash), it would be a little contradictory to have Gladion lose to a guy who Ash is going to beat).

No, I'm sorry but both of those examples still count Moltres example still counts because they didn't have to have Fletchinder evolve during a battle against a legendary pokemon they could have had it evolve against a non-legendary pokemon and win. Also it is doesn't matter if Paul was always one stop ahead of Ash it doesn't change the fact that Turtwig still lost to Paul's Honckrow even though it evolved into Grotle. Look no matter how you try to argue the fact is that just because Ash's pokemon evolve does not mean that it's guaranteed to win and that's not going to change just because you try to say that the examples that where Ash's Pokemon have lost after evolving don't count.

It wouldn't be contradictory at all for Gladion to lose because he wouldn't necessarily have to use Sivally, just because Torracat beats Kukui's Incineroar doesn't automatically mean that it could beat Gladion's Sivally so no it would not be contradictory if Gladion lose to Kukui. Also it wouldn't be that unrealistic for Kukui's Incineroar to still be able to beat Ash's Torracat since it could easily have a lot more experience then it. Also may I remind you that Ash won a lot of battles in X&Y and yet that didn't prevent Ash from losing to Wulfric. So they could easily portray Kukui to be a strong enough trainer that can beat Ash's Torracat. Heck they could even use Ash's Torracat's lost to Kukui's Incineroar to further motivate Ash's Torracat to want to get even stronger so that it can beat that Icineroar.