LOL. I did think the Ariados in this episode was pretty random.
I wonder what Yamato-San will have to say when he sees this...
sorry for the late reply... yeah, it does seem like the writers have seriously got something against Ariados. However, I'm not all THAT peeved about it. It particularly irritated me with Harley because he was shown to be a pretty decent coordinator (and he's meant to be Haruka's RIVAL, not a comic relief villian that always loses, as he had already done two times in a row previously), Haruka was only at her first contest in the region (a win that's very easily expendible), and her piece of crap turtle still didn't seem like a very competent fighter, even when it suddenly pulled that Ice Beam out of its
ass (hell, if anything, I was expecting that to be the only thing it'd get out of the two-parter, not that AND a win -_-).
In this situation, however, we're dealing with wild Ariados, and Pochama isn't a god damn crybaby suddenly turned competent. He's clearly had an attitude right from the start. The attacked used to beat them wasn't terribly unrealistic, neither (though, how he could endure that long for Bide to work is beyond me... but then, he is stubborn). And while Harley's Ariados seriously got the shaft (a very humiliating defeat, falling behind Haruka's Zenigame a second time when it appealed, not to mention that Fire Spin incident), and the guys were pretty much used as nothing but fodder in this situation, I think Pokemon Hunter J's Ariados greatly makes up for it in a later episode (episodes, hopefully).
