My little rant on the first Trip and Ash battle (You know which one)

[Mega Ampharos the Dragon]

So, I always hate how people always say that Pikachu shouldn't have been defeated by Snivy. You would be right but I feel there is always a forgotten part of this episode, Pikachu was weakened badly by Zekrom. Zekrom basically overcharged Pikachu, weakening it quite a bit and because of that, would easily lose a battle, even with a Snivy with little to no battle experience. So the Pikachu level reset is probably just non-existent and it only exists because people forget about Zekrom in this episode.

 

[Deleted member 384931]

I have always believed Pikachu lost his power due Zekrom (which is still very stupid) and that is why he lost that battle.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

I think Pikachu wasn't feeling 100% at the time but wanted to give a go to test himself. Meanwhile Ash while being the kind who never turns down a battle, also kept worrying about Pikachu in the back of his mind.

Because of that, both weren't with their heads in the game which lead them to that defeat.

 

[Applecorp]

So, I always hate how people always say that Pikachu shouldn't have been defeated by Snivy. You would be right but I feel there is always a forgotten part of this episode, Pikachu was weakened badly by Zekrom. Zekrom basically overcharged Pikachu, weakening it quite a bit and because of that, would easily lose a battle, even with a Snivy with little to no battle experience. So the Pikachu level reset is probably just non-existent and it only exists because people forget about Zekrom in this episode.

You're preaching to the choir because everyone already knows this. It's just that some people can't wrap their heads around Pikachu being weakened for an episode and then being perfectly fine in the next one.

 

[AznKei]

So, I always hate how people always say that Pikachu shouldn't have been defeated by Snivy. You would be right but I feel there is always a forgotten part of this episode, Pikachu was weakened badly by Zekrom. Zekrom basically overcharged Pikachu, weakening it quite a bit and because of that, would easily lose a battle, even with a Snivy with little to no battle experience. So the Pikachu level reset is probably just non-existent and it only exists because people forget about Zekrom in this episode.

The timing of the episode also contribute the disappointment. It happened not long after Pikachu defeated a Legendary in Sinnoh and there's people who didn't expect such a hard reset, even if it was weakened by Zekrom. People thought that Pikachu could work its way out of its handicap with all the experiences it accumulated in the past. The battle could ended into a draw and Trip would still taunt Ash because he thought that this is the best Pikachu could do.

 

[Leonhart]

I always assumed that Pikachu was weakened overall by Zekrom after Zekrom absorbed his electricity. Many viewers thought that Pikachu not being able to use his Electric-type attacks was the only side effect, but I think it's obvious that even his Quick Attack and Iron Tail lost their potency at the time.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

Now the main lingering question is why on Earth did Zekrom bothered to attack Pikachu? Talking in-universe obviously since we know the real-world answer

Ho-Oh was pissed Ash wasn't giving attention and since Zekrom own it a favor, it asked him to reset Pikachu

 

[Mega Ampharos the Dragon]

Pikachu has Lightning Rod, lol

 

[CMButch]

Pikachu always resets in the beginning of a region. Even in new series he did kinda.

 

[HoundoomFan]

The huge problem with the Pikachu vs snivy fight is that the writers did a s**t job showing pikachu got weakened beyond losing its electricity. Usually when Pokemon get weakened/something is wrong with a Pokemon in the anime, they are visual differences (sweating, sluggish l, etc...) or comments from those watching/involved (like besides “pikachu can’t use electric moves,” ash could comment saying he seems to not be hitting as hard as he usually does or something besides his electric moves aren’t working). I don’t remember if that was the cause (as I watched BW series years ago & don’t EVER plan on a rewatch), but the writers have failed to convey to me from just watching that episode that something is wrong with pikachu beyond its inability to use electric attacks, which ash is dumb being so reliant on them AGAINST A GRASS TYPE (though I know ash uses not very effective moves on other Pokemon, but I think he’s pretty dumb too during those times). And there’s just other stupid things BW Ash does (bring only 1 to a gym, won a gym battle with 6 mons while Roxie had only 3, etc...) so even with “zekrom weakening” BW Ash’s stupidity overall the whole region makes this look like another ash/pika nerf.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

The huge problem with the Pikachu vs snivy fight is that the writers did a s**t job showing pikachu got weakened beyond losing its electricity. Usually when Pokemon get weakened/something is wrong with a Pokemon in the anime, they are visual differences (sweating, sluggish l, etc...) or comments from those watching/involved (like besides “pikachu can’t use electric moves,” ash could comment saying he seems to not be hitting as hard as he usually does or something besides his electric moves aren’t working). I don’t remember if that was the cause (as I watched BW series years ago & don’t EVER plan on a rewatch), but the writers have failed to convey to me from just watching that episode that something is wrong with pikachu beyond its inability to use electric attacks, which ash is dumb being so reliant on them AGAINST A GRASS TYPE (though I know ash uses not very effective moves on other Pokemon, but I think he’s pretty dumb too during those times). And there’s just other stupid things BW Ash does (bring only 1 to a gym, won a gym battle with 6 mons while Roxie had only 3, etc...) so even with “zekrom weakening” BW Ash’s stupidity overall the whole region makes this look like another ash/pika nerf.

This battle alone killed my interest in watching Pokemon for Ash. Pokemon has never been the same since DP ended.

 

[Sham]

There really is no point of arguing about this anymore. People willingly ignore the fact that Pikachu has been getting weakened at the start of each episode since OS and it ended with XY. I’m not explaining each scenario (go watch the episodes yourselves) but the fact people have been up in arms about that particular fight because Pikachu lost against a “level 5 snivy” (levels do not exist but I digress let’s go with that) but ignore the blatant reason he lost is clownery. I agree that the display was terrible but the explanation was there and that hardly compares to the rest of the evil that was BW and seems pretty insignificant when you really go further into the series (Cameron).

Edit: Further proof that starters aren’t exactly weak is a scene in the series prior to BW; DP. How was a “level 5” Piplup able to take on a hoard of Ariados?

 

[Dragalge]

If Pikachu was perfectly fine after the Zekrom incident, he should have defeated all of Trip's Pokemon in that 5 vs 5 and Cress' Panpour. But he didn't!

 

[Zach8920]

There was a Unova anime?

 

[XY Rules]

There really is no point of arguing about this anymore. People willingly ignore the fact that Pikachu has been getting weakened at the start of each episode since OS and it ended with XY. I’m not explaining each scenario (go watch the episodes yourselves) but the fact people have been up in arms about that particular fight because Pikachu lost against a “level 5 snivy” (levels do not exist but I digress let’s go with that) but ignore the blatant reason he lost is clownery. I agree that the display was terrible but the explanation was there and that hardly compares to the rest of the evil that was BW and seems pretty insignificant when you really go further into the series (Cameron).

Edit: Further proof that starters aren’t exactly weak is a scene in the series prior to BW; DP. How was a “level 5” Piplup able to take on a hoard of Ariados?

This. Some crap always goes down at the beginning of each saga that weakens Pikachu for a bit. He definitely resets, but what annoys me is how people blatantly disregard the actual plot elements that cause it. They act like it’s just a random thing that happens when it’s really not.

The “level 5 Snivy” thing is stupid too. Because if we’re going to apply game logic to the anime (which we shouldn’t), then that Snivy clearly wasn’t level 5. Level 5 Snivys don’t know Leaf Storm, people.

I hate BW as much as the next guy, but I am still fair to it. The first episode was fine. It was the second episode where Ash tried to catch a Pokemon without battling it where we started to have some problems...

 

[Blastmaster]

The real issue with the battle is that it's just a contrived excuse to start the Trip rivalry, and to start treating Ash like a rookie again. It kind of feeds into BW's later problems in that Trip has nothing going for him as a rival other than beating Ash, and Ash is "allowed" to make beginner mistakes in battle again after losing to another beginner.

 

[Mr. Reloaded]

The real issue with the battle is that it's just a contrived excuse to start the Trip rivalry, and to start treating Ash like a rookie again. It kind of feeds into BW's later problems in that Trip has nothing going for him as a rival other than beating Ash, and Ash is "allowed" to make beginner mistakes in battle again after losing to another beginner.

Trip was really just a garbage attempt to recreate what they had with Paul. They probably had him job at the beginning of the league because he failed so bad, and there wasn't much more they could do.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

Now the main lingering question is why on Earth did Zekrom bothered to attack Pikachu? Talking in-universe obviously since we know the real-world answer

Ho-Oh was pissed Ash wasn't giving attention and since Zekrom own it a favor, it asked him to reset Pikachu

Sadly, I don't think that's an answer we'll ever find out since the whole concept of Pikachu losing its Electric type attacks seemed to be building up to something big in the TR vs TP special, and we all know how that went.

 

[EmeraldArcanine]

I never believed there was such thing as a "level reset" in the anime. It's super jarring when "levels" are put into the anime instead of just using experience as a general thing, hated it before when OS pulled it and I still do.
Pikachu goes back to fighting like normal a while after he was sapped of his electric powers doesn't he? As far as I'm concerned, a level reset wouldn't mean he goes back to being strong again the next episode or anything, the dude would probably be using weak things like Thundershock again and whatnot if this so called "level reset" was a thing and would work his way back up. He just lost his powers for a bit and had to recover. I'm sorry but I just hate that term being used for this case. That Snivy knew Leaf Storm ffs, that is NOT a "Level 5" thing. VINE WHIP is. And again, the levels thing, just because its a Snivy at the start of the anime doesn't mean it's automatically "Level 5", it's just a fricking Snivy. We had a Bulbasaur in the very first series who literally refused to evolve, I don't see people calling him "Level 5" or anything.

I'm not trying to sound salty, but it kinda shows how flawed the "Levels" being put in the anime is. Experience sure, that can be used as an in-general thing, but the "Level 5 Snivy" and "Level Reset Pikachu" thing I never liked seeing in discussions of the BW anime, because the anime doesn't work off of that bit of game logic, and when it tries to it's super duper rare it does to where it's forgetable.

 

[Mega Ampharos the Dragon]

There was a Unova anime?

If you want to see the Unova anime, it is up on Pokemon TV rn, which you can either get the app or just use Pokemon.com