May 12th: XY&Z026 - Rival Showdown! Ash VS Shota!!

[Cresselia92]

Dat fury cutter must be deadly.

I wish we'd get a flashback of Sawyer winning his last 3 badges tho

Well, Fury Cutter becomes stronger with every consecutive blow, and considering that Doublade has two blades (no pun intended), the damage output would snowball pretty quickly (again, no pun intended).

 

[RandomIndividual]

To be honest with you, the only way I see Ash losing or even having a tie with shota is if something happens with him during a battle like de-syncing with Ash-Greninja, he faints or he loses control or something dramatic happens. I much prefer this being the mega sceptile vs Ash Greninja episode where Ash "loses" because I really don't see how shota can stand up to Ash once he has mastered the Ash Greninja form. Assuming of course Ash masters the form as early as in that mega abamasnow episode. Unless of course people believe shota in this span of time has trained his Pokemon to be on the level of Champion's Gardevoir/ Alain's mega Charizard. I just don't see that.

As for Alain. I much prefer the main battle in the league being between Ash and Alain. With all due respect to shota fans, I just don't find him interesting. I like Ash's rivals to have a serious side to them and also be somewhat aged, like Paul. Alain is a serious character. I want Ash's rivalries to have a considerable emotional aspect to them as well. Ash's rivalry with Paul for example and that led to such a great battle.

Oh yeah, for some reason, Synchro-Greninja slipped my mind. Yeah, you're right; it would be too much for him to lose/tie probably, unless the battle is interrupted.

 

[Navin]

Subpar?! I honestly disagree. Sawyer having all eight of his badges kinda reflects the fact that Ash has been loitering around aimlessly since his last gym battle. When we saw that Sawyer had five badges by the start of the XYZ series, we knew that he wasn't going to waste any time getting the others.

How has Ash been "loitering around aimlessly" when he's been heading towards the direction of the eighth gym? The green boy is apparently a cyborg who cross-countries across Kalos at breathtaking pace to earn 7 badges in less than 50 episodes.

Not to mention, Ash was going out of his way for his other companions at the time. Sawyer wasn't. So it's easy to assume that he was able to get things done at a faster pace while still managing to get stronger. And let me tell you, if this episode doesn't prove that he's more than competent enough for Ash to go up against, I don't know what will.

Oh I don't doubt he will be written as competent. Whether or not that was logical is a different matter entirely.

 

[phanpycross]

How has Ash been "loitering around aimlessly" when he's been heading towards the direction of the eighth gym? The green boy is apparently a cyborg who cross-countries across Kalos at breathtaking pace to earn 7 badges in less than 50 episodes.




Oh I don't doubt he will be written as competent. Whether or not that was logical is a different matter entirely.

"Im being punished for doing well"

-Every human on the Internet.

 

[Almighty Zard]

Looking back over it, I feel that Sawyer will defeat Ash to highlight all that he's been doing 'wrong' (focusing on Greninja,being slower with his gyms, etc.

so the blame falls on Ash traveling with others, that makes sense...

 

[U.N. Owen]

The green boy is apparently a cyborg who cross-countries across Kalos at breathtaking pace to earn 7 badges in less than 50 episodes.

Or he could be using public transportation, hired a limo drive, made a pact with Mephisto, captured a Gallade and teleported everywhere, or any other excuse under the sun because we know it's probably never gonna be explained.

 

[NegaiFreak]

How has Ash been "loitering around aimlessly" when he's been heading towards the direction of the eighth gym? The green boy is apparently a cyborg who cross-countries across Kalos at breathtaking pace to earn 7 badges in less than 50 episodes.

Fair point. Realistically, I can see where you're coming from with Sawyer. But like I said, he isn't travelling with anyone who has another goal that puts him off of his, so he's more likely to get his badges quicker than Ash, who is travelling alongside companions.

Ash hasn't been loitering around aimlessly, but he hasn't had a gym battle in a while. This episode could be a trigger to the point where he starts to realize that he's no longer the strongest. Hopefully, tonight's preview will shed a bit more light on the subject, along with what the hell Xerosic is up to with his weapon from the Zygarde cells.

 

[Alexander18]

I really don't want Ash to faint again. It is not a good way to lose a battle in my opinion. If Sawyer is going to win, I want it to be a narrow win when it comes down to Sceptile and Greninja.

 

[DS0308]

New preview only really showed Greninja getting hit by Leaf Storm and that Xerosic is using a modified version of that cannon he was experimenting with on the island (or at least it looked different to me).

 

[GalladeRocks]

How has Ash been "loitering around aimlessly" when he's been heading towards the direction of the eighth gym? The green boy is apparently a cyborg who cross-countries across Kalos at breathtaking pace to earn 7 badges in less than 50 episodes.

To be fair, Ash and Co. apparently travel from Snowbelle City to north-of-Lumiose City in less than one episode. There's no temporal logic to how fast and far people travel in this show.

Anyways, I'm really not sure what to expect from this battle. I don't want Noivern to lose to Doublade, but given that the only move it can even hit it with is Acrobatics, I don't know how well that would go over. I'd rather have Hawlucha get a loss, since he's fought successfully in every battle Ash has had with Sawyer up to this point, and he definitely seems like Clawitzer has him on the ropes in the preview, but I'm guessing he'll end up getting the win. And I don't think Sceptile will win just yet, but I don't think Greninja will win either. I'm expecting a tie or a called-off fight because of Ash fainting again. Sceptile can gets its win when it can finally Mega Evolve, then lose again at the League.

 

[Cotaman]

I did not see a mega stone in Abomasnow in any of the previous or the scans from Coro-Coro, maybe Wulfric takes a special interest in Ash and decides to use it. That is the only way I see Shota beating
Wulfric.

 

[dman_dustin]

How has Ash been "loitering around aimlessly" when he's been heading towards the direction of the eighth gym? The green boy is apparently a cyborg who cross-countries across Kalos at breathtaking pace to earn 7 badges in less than 50 episodes.

That's not the point. The point is since the very last episode we saw Sawyer he only had 5. Then in the VERY next episode we see him, not only does he have 3 more badges, he has one badge of Snowbelle City. Somehow Sawyer was able to take out Olympia and Valerie while managing to beat Ash to Snowbelle City, somehow even being STRONG enough to defeat Wulfric and yet Ash hasn't even earned a single badge or reached the city during that time.

Whether you want to argue positively or negatively Ash is being hindered by other things relating to other people and Pokemon.

 

[Akashin]

To be fair, Ash and Co. apparently travel from Snowbelle City to north-of-Lumiose City in less than one episode. There's no temporal logic to how fast and far people travel in this show.

You're assuming that the span of time between each given episode is equal, though, and that by no means needs to be the case. The gang getting from Snowbelle to Lumiose in a single episode can be easily explained by the show simply glossing over their trip there.

 

[WaterShuriken]

Well guys remember, the gang took quite the detour to get to Snowbelle. It makes sense that Sawyer could beat them there.

[spoil][/spoil]

 

[GalladeRocks]

Well guys remember, the gang took quite the detour to get to Snowbelle. It makes sense that Sawyer could beat them there.

[spoil][/spoil]

Oh, that's nowhere near as bad as I thought. Since Goodra's release came between Clemont and Valerie, I just assumed the marsh was north of Lumiose on the way to Laverre.

 

[ashsfuture]

That's not the point. The point is since the very last episode we saw Sawyer he only had 5. Then in the VERY next episode we see him, not only does he have 3 more badges, he has one badge of Snowbelle City. Somehow Sawyer was able to take out Olympia and Valerie while managing to beat Ash to Snowbelle City, somehow even being STRONG enough to defeat Wulfric and yet Ash hasn't even earned a single badge or reached the city during that time.

Whether you want to argue positively or negatively Ash is being hindered by other things relating to other people and Pokemon.

But Ash has seen sawyer three times XY&Z episode 1, episode 13, and episode 26 so just from the span of episodes it's been since the last time Ash saw Sawyer which is 13 makes perfect since that sawyer has all eight badges and from the time Sawyer fought Ash last time Sawyer might have at that time obtained at least one badge.

 

[dman_dustin]

But Ash has seen sawyer three times XY&Z episode 1, episode 13, and episode 26 so just from the span of episodes it's been since the last time Ash saw Sawyer which is 13 makes perfect since that sawyer has all eight badges and from the time Sawyer fought Ash last time Sawyer might have at that time obtained at least one badge.

Sawyer would've mentioned it, instead we have to assume that Sawyer did NOT get a single badge.

Therefore getting the 3 badges in the span of merely 13 episodes.

 

[Mrs. Oreo]

Wow in that second preview it looks like Lysandre's having Xerosic experiment on those poor Zygarde Cells. I actually feel bad for them and even more repulsed by how twisted Xerosic's smile was. :[

 

[JudySpell]

At least Sawyer didn't receive another anime-exclusive Gym badge and I'm kind of happy that Sawyer managed to get the Fairy Badge.

I'm more happy that he won Wulfric's badge already. Meanwhile it'll take Ash 2 tries to manage that and that's with a much better team than Sawyer.

 

[Akashin]

I'm more happy that he won Wulfric's badge already. Meanwhile it'll take Ash 2 tries to manage that and that's with a much better team than Sawyer.

Which may or may not have anything to do with Ash legitimately being defeated by Wulfric. Going by what we currently have to work with, I'm guessing it won't.