Well considering Ash caught a pseudo-legendary right off the bat as his first official capture had already made his team offensively broken. However, since Ash is not scouting for badges and is competing in a world tournament where the strongest trainers in the world are partaking in competition, he'll need to build a very strong team if he's gonna climb the ranks.
The anime has already established that legendaries can be defeated if trainers are skilled enough, regardless of the pokemon they have. I think people forget how powerup items, such as Z moves, Gigantamax, and Mega evolutions put regular Pokemon at nearly the same level or above Legendaries. So, I dont see how Ash catching one, such as Lugia would be a problem to the WC story arc, since he's not battling normal trainers, but those at a high elite level.
Ash has already defeated a handful of legendaries, with one (Regice) being defeated by his pikachu, one of the weakest pokemon. But again, the level of skill a trainer has, shows that Legendaries can be beaten.
Goh, even almost caught Zapdos, so I really dont understand how people can argue its outlandish for a trainer to use one in a battle, given the examples featured in the series of how they can be defeatable. And now that he's obtained a powerful legendary (Suicine), the skies the limit, since the anime is no longer see a problem for a main character owning one, which would cause a problem to the story.
If your gonna based your argument on the game stats, then the fact that Ash owns a dragonite, which is statistically greater than mid-tier legendaries, like Suicune, Zapdos, and Urshifu, already counters your argument of questioning how broken his team would be, based on how Ash limits his use of dragonite for only major battles with trainers using powerful pokemon, such as megas.
This same scenario of Ash only using his strongest pokemon for tough battles has often been the route the anime has handled Ash's development for years, so that he's not too OP during gym battles. This is why Ash is only reluctant in using his reserved team such as Charizard, sceptile, infernape, snorlax, incinaroar, melmetal or greninja, when he goes to face new challenges.
Also, since leon is the strongest trainer, he's more than capable of defeating legendaries, such as Lugia or Zacian. Eternatus's Gmax form was considered a problem and required the assitance of TWO legendaries to bring it down, not one.
The anime is breaking trends, and the fact that Ash may soon catch a legendary such as Lugia does not ruin the story, as they will only allow him to use it during tougher battles, which is why we hardly ever see dragonite or gengar being used in the WC story.
A Dragonite isn't the same as having a box-art legendary. We've seen many trainers with Dragonite on their party, be them strong trainers like Drake or Lance or weak like the one Paul's Honchkrow beat in the PokéRinger-episode in Sinnoh. Yes, Dragonite has a BST of 600, and by all means is a powerful pokémon in the right hands, but how many trainers have you seen that have whipped out a box-art legendary? Have you ever seen a character casually whip out a Ho-Oh? A Groudon perhaps? Have you seen a trainer casually fight another trainer with a Yveltal?
The answer is no.
Again, I'd like you to think. Do you realistically see Ash facing down Leon while he has access to a Zacian? Realistically, no.
Yes, Goh has attempted to catch and has befriended a legendary (after the legendary used him as an escape-plan). But those are quite clearly the lower-tier legendaries. Everything that has been owned by a trainer in the series is fair play in my eyes (everything from Articuno, Entei, Latios, Regirock, Cresselia, Heatran, I hope you get the jist), but I still don't see those as likely options for Ash, since he's not THAT kind of character.
And just because Goh 'caught' a Suicune, the sky certainly is not the limit. Goh is focused on captures and his endgoal is Mew. It makes sense that he's going to get something like a Suicune at some point. But Suicune doesn't mean the sky is the limit, since Suicune of all legendaries, is probably the least imposing there is.
I've never mentioned anything about gamestats prior to this post (because you brought them up), my argument is based on how imposing the pokémon and deep their lore is. I've said 'offensively broken' - and without looking at the stats, that holds true.
If a skill level of a trainer is all that matters (your words), then Ash doesn't need to capture legendaries in order to excel in the higher ranks.
Did you forget the whole Swordbert and Shieldbert stuff that ends with one of the wolves joining you.
Also in the games Rose doesn’t go past the Darkest Day Arc however in the anime it’s clear with him escaping that we haven’t seen the last of him.
Also neither of us in charge of the anime so, no just because the only legendary you can see Ash catching Kubfu doesn’t mean Ash canon get a different legendary.
Also I remind you, you specifically said it was ridiculous to suggest that Ash would get a Dragonair/Dragonite in episode 10 of the series and that it wouldn’t happen and yet instead it actually happened.
Yes, Zacian may be broken in the games, however that doesn’t mean the same would hold true in the anime, as let’s be honest if you used a Pikachu in the games against Latios you would more then likely lose.
Heck some people thought that there would be no way that they would let Goh catch Suicune and that surely it was going to get released and yet that didn’t prevent them from having Goh keep it.
You can not rely on oh well the Pokémon is this way in the games so it can’t be caught.
Sure in the games mascot legendaries tend to be broken but let’s be honest here in the anime their strength varies depending on which one your talking about.
I have not finished the games.
True, I'm not in charge, but this is a speculation thread. I'm simply saying that in my head, it's a lot likelier for Ash to get a Kubfu over a box legendary. He potentially could, but if I had to make a bet.. Kubfu would be it. And I could be wrong, I just don't
think I am.
You're right, I was wrong when we were at episode 10. I've also been right about a couple of things though like Suicune getting caught or the plot for the Dracovish episode (and that Goh would get Arctozolt as a byproduct). Episode 10 was very early days and aside from Goh going on a massive Bug-catching spree, there wasn't really much to take as a reference point, so yeah that totally came out of left field. I'm looking at Leon as a reference. Would Ash really need a legendary like Zacian to beat him? What team could Ash make and what team could Leon possibly have that would warrant Ash needing Zacian to just barely overcome him (again, haven't finished the games, I know Leon has Charizard, Dragapult and the fully evolved starter of the one that was left after the player and Hop picked their starters). I can't imagine a battle where Ash has at least a Pikachu, Dragonite, Lucario and a Zacian and expect our boy to be the underdog, when he also might bring along reserves like Ash-Greninja, Sceptile, Snorlax, Infernape, Incineroar or Melmetal.
I can imagine any regular Pikachu sucking and can accept that there can be one exceptional one in the animé. But I can't see a box-legendary sucking as much as a regular Pikachu, unless it's that baby Lugia from the Whirl Island, in which case.. It was a
baby. Is Gigantamax Charizard that much of a threat that Ash needs to have a Zacian in the back. That's the question people need to ask. And if we go into the battle knowing that Ash has a Zacian (which can also Dynamax) how in the world are we going to be seeing him as the underdog?
The thing in my head is that there's a difference between the levels of lore a legendary has attached to it. Which mascot legendary do you think is underperforming in the animé? Surely you can't imagine a trainer casually turning up with a Dialga, Giratina or Groudon? Reshiram got controlled in Best Wishes by Ghetsis/Colress, but could you see Ash casually wrecking everything with a Blue Flare? For me that last DP-opening is basically the cut off point. It featured Entei and Darkrai. That's lower-tier legendaries and mythicals (I'm excluding Arceus for obvious reasons).
The only one that would make sense would be
Solgaleo, specifically Nebby. And I still don't find the odds of that happening (as an actual capture) very high.
I pretty much thought there was no problem with Goh capturing Suicune before the episode aired. I thought it could get released, but the merch it got made me think that the odds of it staying on the cast were higher then being released. The way that episode played out was really well done in my eyes.
E
Everything is possible here cuz goh has to catch zamazenta so that way ash can catch zacian but i dont think its happening cuz ash's team wont show up onscreen
My god, this is what I mean that people aren't thinking with their right set of brains. Goh needs to catch, so Ash needs to catch. Really? >.>