Ranking Ash's Full Battles.

[Gopu_17]

Ash vs Leon > Ash vs Kukui > Ash vs Paul. Honourable mention Ash vs Cynthia.

 

[Peluched49]

Maybe I need to rewatch parts of Ash vs. Sawyer but I've always felt that the first half was less engaging. I'll give points to Sawyer for the plan to shut down Hawlucha completely with Slaking + chopping down the trees with Aegislash, and a few to Ash for making use of the trees and Electro Ball in Clawitzer, but I do think the Talonflame segments were pretty boring.

I attribute the big strategy play from Ash to be in the second half anyways since that's when Pikachu vs. Aegislash was resolved. The second half is mainly animation focused indeed with less focus on strategy, but the tidbits on Noivern using echolocation in the smoke to locate Salamence, and Sawyer being ready for that is good, along with Sawyer paying that in return via using Slurpuff's smelling abilities in the smoke.

Overall, I think what the fight does well is demonstrate Sawyer's strengths and weaknesses - good when he's prepared (Slaking vs Hawlucha, being aware of Noivern's sensory abilities while also using it in turn with Slurpuff) while not being as strong when unprepared or faced with something he doesn't understand (Aegislash moment, losing to Goodra who he's never seen). I also don't really have too much issue with Pikachu going down - mans was tired after taking 2 Pokemon out. So that's why I favour part 2 more than part 1.


I think all of Pikachu vs Tyranitar was good strategy with the immediate taking out of the sandstorm, hitting a soaked (not the move but physics still apply) Tyranitar with Thunderbolt, making Stone Edge a projectile with the tail and Pikachu countering back. There also was some strategy with Noivern's echolocation and whatever the heck was going on with Hawlucha. I got nothing for Talonflame vs Unfezant but that goes in the great animation category, nor do I have too much for Pikachu vs Metagross asides from "jump on Metagross". In part 2 there was still some good with Pikachu using Iron Tail on the ground to put up a sand wall, but I think some of my "strategy points" go into Ash-Greninja vs Mega Charizard X because of innovative use of Water Shuriken that we really haven't seen much of such as using Water Shuriken in the ground to counter Blast Burn and using Water Shuriken as a melee weapon vs Thunder Punch.

Overall I think there was good strategy in Ash vs. Alain, but it is certainly done in bursts, as opposed to being more consistent throughout and is also more fast-paced. The lack of strategy in between sections is a bit noticeable, but I don't think it was too little overall.

Sorry for replying way too late.

Honestly i would have like it more if pikachu finished off the fight after eliminating sandstorm and using thunderbolt on a soaked tyranitar. The part with pikachu deflecting stone edge being used as ash's way to find he can use water to eliminate the sandstorm, with the deflected stones landing on the water. It just feels misplaced, still i like the fight.

Noivern vs weavile was basic, honestly its weird how noirvern used supersonic as echolocation here and the fact that weavile got hit by supersonic twice and didn't get confused was too.

For all the flak tysons battle with ash get, i think the fight against metagross there was better as it actually involve some neat strategy and teamwork to weaken it. It was a great battle, here pikachu gets pummeled and thrown until all he has to do is jump, it just becomes very easy.

No complains about charizard vs pikachu, pikachu selling how exhausted he was, was simple good psychology. I really loved this sequence.

I loved greninja vs charizard, the choreography and animation was absolutely fantastic. I will agree that using water shuriken on the ground to cancel out blast burn was unique and creative, however i cant say the same thing about the water shuriken vs thunderpunch combo as it makes no sense how greninja is able to deflect electric attacks using a water type move, i still enjoyed it because it looked cool as hell. A better choice would have been to use cut. In the same battle, water shuriken is used in a creative way and makes sense, but also in a way that makes no sense. Leon vs lance is similar in a way, as gyarados used aqua tail to eliminate the fire spin field and deflect thunderpunch.

I liked the alain battle, however mostly because of the animation and cinematography. The fighting itself was for the most part basic, the selling and storytelling werent there. I cant rank it above Leon vs Ash or Ash vs Paul for that reason or the sawyer fight either and especially the olympia battle.

 

[Ragnarok4]

I don't remember if I had already post reply here, but this is my final ranking

Personal taste

1. Ash vs Paul
2. Ash vs Sawyer
3. Ash vs Leon
4. Ash vs Cynthia
5. Charizard vs Articuno

 

[0 Jordinio 0]

1. League Paul
2. Gary
3. Drake
4. Tyson
5. Harrison
6. Alain
8. Tobias
9. Sawyer
10. Morrison
11. Lake Acuity Paul
12. Cameron.

Much as I love me some Paul and thought his dynamic with Ash was great at times, the guy had massive plot armour whenever it came to facing off against Ash besides the League. And Lake Acuity is one of my most disliked full battles in the series. His absolute decimation against Brandon, while not really a point against him and was some much needed humility for him, was immediately counteracted by him crushing Ash, who even though had lost to Brandon before twice, and really I only count one of those fully and even in that Brandon only won by the skin on his teeth. It was just horrible writing in my opinion, and while it set up the best battle in the entire series by far, that's still no excuse.

 

[doofinc]

No more tables. Gonna do this in tiers to show which ones are really close to each other IMO but it's still fully ordered:

1. Best
   1. Ash vs. Paul (LotV)
      1. Fantastic strategy from both ends, excellent pacing, satisfying ending
      2. Only con is Torterra, and I guess this doesn't have the animation of the other ones
   2. Ash vs. Kukui
      1. Great story elements, good comedy, strategy, animation; IMO the most balanced Full Battle. Pikachu vs Tapu Koko
      2. Bad pacing at the start and end
2. Great
   1. Ash vs. Leon
      1. Good strategy, gimmicks galore makes this a show, solid animation, every one of Leon's Pokemon felt like a boss fight, god tier finale
      2. Handling of Eternatus + Cinderace is a giant con
   2. Ash vs. Alain
      1. Fantastic animation throughout, good strategy, great pacing, Ash-Greninja vs Mega Charizard X is the best choreographed 1v1 IMO
      2. Losing this fight is a giant L
3. Very good
   1. Ash vs. Sawyer
      1. Good strategy, fantastic animation, Ash-Greninja vs Mega Sceptile
      2. The first half of the battle is kinda slow, plus the second half, while good, is rushing towards Ash-Greninja vs. Mega Sceptile
4. Good
   1. Ash vs. Katie
      1. Surprisingly good strategy wise, good comedy
      2. Unfortunately stuck in the bad animation era + battle didn't really matter much
   2. Ash vs. Cynthia
      1. Solid strategy from Cynthia's end at the start
      2. Things kind of tapered down as the fight went on, Mega Lucario vs. Garchomp was kinda disappointing
5. Indifferent
   1. Ash vs. Tobias
      1. Ash got to demonstrate his strength against 2 legendaries
      2. The existence of this battle is still a whole omegalul moment
   2. Ash vs. Paul (Lake Acuity)
      1. Good from a story PoV to demonstrate where Paul was at
      2. Still a 1-sided beatdown that wasn't exactly fun to watch
   3. Ash vs. Harrison
      1. Decent strategy, no glaring flaws
      2. Stuck in the bad animation era
6. Bad
   1. Ash vs. Cameron
      1. Good strategy + choreography for 70% of the battle
      2. You already know the 30% of the battle that makes this bad
   2. Ash vs. Gary
      1. Charizard vs. Blastoise was a solid ending for its time
      2. 90% of this fight was OHKOs, some of which made no sense
   3. Ash vs. Drake
      1. Some funny moments
      2. Bad animation era
7. Awful
   1. Ash vs. Morrison
      1. Not counting the half of the battle which was Morrison throwing for story purposes, the other half was still rushed and boring
   2. Ash vs. Tyson
      1. This is the only full battle where things happen off-screen + it feels like they phoned it in for Battle Frontier coming up

Rewatched the top 5 as part of my rewatch for the finale. The only change I make is to move Sinnoh League Paul and Kukui up to their own tier.
Paul fight has so many callbacks to previous events in DP, that it truly feels like a culmination of Ash's DP adventure. I legit feel like the only flaw with this fight is Torterra getting dumpstered.
Kukui fight has so much great vibes. I didn't even watch much of sun and moon yet I could easily feel the importance of the fight even though it really has 0 stakes from a narrative PoV. And it is the best all-rounder fight.
Leon and Alain fights have too many notable flaws to be in the same tier. Cinderace is a big pain point in that fight and the animation overall feels kinda stiff compared to even Ash vs Paul. Alain fight ofc has the major L in Ash losing, but Goodra is also a sticking point being bad. And the "Ash is definitely gonna win" commentary from Serena and co. was pretty trolly.

 

[mehmeh1]

S: Paul SL, Leon
A: Alain, Paul LA, Sawyer, Kukui
B: Gary, Cynthia, Drake, Katie, Harrison
C: Tyson, Morrison
D:
E:
F: Cameron
Ranked within tiers too, idk where to put Tobias