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How was Thunder Armor explained in the Japanese raw?

randomspot555

Well-Known Member
Okay, I know that Ash often does improvise these odd combinations and all, but I can't quite figure out Thunder Armor.

I first thought maybe it was a very, very odd way of activating Swellow's GUTS ability. Bulbapedia says Swellow's ability has been confirmed, but doesn't cite an episode.

So I thought I'd try to confirm it by asking around.

So how does the Japanese raw handle the infamous Thunder Armor scene?

EDIT: I thought about using the Single Anime questions thread, but no one knowledgable ever seems to read that.
 
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Araleon

Chill
I always figured it worked because we already knew Taillow/Swellow was unnaturally resistant to electricity, form it's capture episode.

But I'm also interested to see if the raw said anything different
 

poizonsting

Pokemon master
Often times, Ash's Swellow's type in the anime seems to be Flying/Ground due to its immense resisting ability to electric-type attacks.

I'm pretty sure Swellow's ability being Guts hasn't been mentioned in the anime yet, but if that's the case - combined with Swellow's resistance to Electric-type attacks - that would make Thunder Armour an interesting way to utilize Swello's Guts ability.
 

An00bis

Wicked Witch
To put it simply ... it wasn't.

Pikachu used Thunderbolt on itself and Swellow to super charge themselves for the win. I guess that fudged that off of what happened with Pikachu before the first Wattson Battle. When Pikachu was accidentally pumped full of electricity it became stupidly strong. Since Swellow can't run on wind power or whatever Flying Type Pokemon produce they worked off Swellow's unusual resistance to electricity and applied the same logic. From there they just ... well ... sort of forced it to work.

I can't believe that worked!!!

Later on we see a similar technique powered down and applied on a more realistic scale by Grotle (who triggered it accidentally at first as well) and Mammoswine (who copied it) respectively.
 
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