Hey guys calm down I said you are free to disagree or agree.
But it boils down to this the Pokémon anime has more inconsistent powerlevels than Dragonball
Like the previously mentioned Charizard winning against Articuno and loosing to Dusclops
Ash's low tiers beating BF Brains.
Pikachu KOing Latios to immediately loose to a Snivy the next battle
AG almost beating the Champion with type disadvantage and winning against Mega Sceptile despite the type disadvantage and Sceptile's 4x resistance to immediately loose to a MCX.
And like the previous comment said Noivern in his first battle "kicked Zapdo's *ss" only to loose to a Salamence and Weavile.
Strength levels in the anime could never be full gauged because of the the writers make Pokémon strong or weak depending on where the story is headed.
This also the reason we "might" never see AG again. They wrote themselves into a corner by giving Ash this OP Pokémon which if he brought to other regions he would have no challenge. And if they do bring it they can't make AG loose to regular Pokémon or there would be more fan outrage than when Pikachu lost to Snivy.
Well I wouldn't even say you're wrong but there's surprisingly more consistency in this anime than it seems to let on.
- It could just be that Brandon's Dusclops really was a tough Pokémon which if anything just elevates Bulbasaur for being able to defeat it.
- Pikachu to a certain extent has always been "reset" in every region with BW being the most extreme case and yes the 1 consistent thing about Pikachu is that it's inconsistent though there is a way to work around this which is the "Peak" model where Pikachu's strength is defined by a progression of successive "best" feats. One nice interpretation of Pikachu's battles where it goes "Peak" mode is that for those battles Pikachu's limiter is removed and he is allowed to battle with full cumulative experience. In the end I'll admit this is just fan conjecture to cover up bad writing but it is still a pretty good explanation.
- Well it's not like all FBs were equal. We have no clue how strong Noland actually was since Articuno was wild and hence not a good representation of his strength. Brandon was the leader of the FB and definitely the strongest overall while both Spencer and Greta were higher end FBs that required high caliber Pokémon to deal with. With Anabel it wasn't that her Pokémon were exceptionally strong but rather her telepathic battle style that messed with other trainers' reaction time/battle rhythm which made her such a difficult opponent to beat. That just leaves Tucker and Lucy who were likely just lower end FBs (comparatively speaking).
- Eh tell me if there's anything inconsistent about this scaling:
- High God Tier
Alain's MC-X
- Mid God Tier
Upper Champion Aces, Upper E4 Mega Aces
- Low God Tier
Ash-Greninja, Lower Champion Aces, Lower E4 Mega Aces
- High Tier-0
Alain's Base Charizard
- Mid Tier-0
Sawyer's Mega Sceptile
where "God" = (-1). This scaling satisfies A-G being in the Champion Ace/E4 Mega Ace spectrum, being decisively above Mega Sceptile and being decisively below Mega Charizard X. While type matchup can certainly influence the course of a battle, it's usually to a far lesser extent in the anime than in the games.
- If we accept that the "floor" of a legendary Pokémon would still be in the t-1 spectrum (making that Zapdos low t-1 at a low ball) then Noivern at a low ball needs to be within 2 full tiers of it (low t-3) to be capable of damaging it. Also consider Ash's strategic use of the battle environment and it's not unbelievable that Noivenr could get 1 good hit in. The low t-3 estimate is definitely compatible with the rest of his performances henceforth. Noivern tied with Salamence
- Well you may be partially right but at the same time it wasn't coincidence that Pikachu and Sceptile were the only ones to get KOs vs Tobias or that Snorlax has had phenomenal consistency in all of its battles or that Charizard and Infernape were given the honur of being able to sweep half a major rival's team or that A-G was the one who broke new ground by being able to battle at lvls that were previously deemed unrealistic for Ash Pokémon to attain.
If A-G ever comes back it should only be for League Arc(s) or a special arc like say an arc about Ultra Beasts.
EDIT: So this is a points system for my tiering that I've been working on with the intent that 2 sets of Pokémon with an equal number of overall points would trade even in a neutral case.
- Upper Transcendant Tier: 11,520
- Mid Transcendant Tier: 9,600
- Low Transcendant Tier: 7,680
- High God Tier: 5760
- Mid God Tier: 4800
- Low God Tier: 3,840
- High Tier-0: 2,880
- Mid Tier-0: 2400
- Low Tier-0: 1,920
- High Tier-1: 1,440
- Mid Tier-1: 1,200
- Low Tier-1: 960
- High Tier-2: 720
- Mid Tier-2: 600
- Low Tier-2: 480
- High Tier-3: 360
- Mid Tier-3: 300
- Low Tier-3: 240
- High Tier-4: 180
- Mid Tier-4: 150
- Low Tier-4: 120
- High Tier-5: 90
- Mid Tier-5: 75
- Low Tier-5: 60
