*sigh*
You know what? You win. I give up on this thread.
Have it your way.
This episode was flawless. It was perfect, it was amazing, it was glorious. No issues with it whatsoever.
People who do have problems with this episode should likewise understand that there's nothing to dislike about this episode.
Any criticism you may have is mere nitpicking and childish complaining.
Accept that the episode was a solid 10/10 and move on with your life.
After all, no other opinion will be tolerated.
(Apologies to others for taking up so much of this thread with this waste of time, now you can go back to actually speculating about the episode.)
Honestly, I really loved this episode and I would agree that keeping Dragonite in probably wasn't the best move for Ash. Spiritomb was recovering it's own health after the Draco Meteor and Ash should have ideally switched to another mon, most likely forcing Cynthia to switch as she'd want to keep Spiritomb alive for the Destiny Bond later. He could then bring it back out against, say Roserade, who won't be able to do much back at it or at the very least, Spiritomb would not recover it's health back and perhaps be in range of a Dazzling Gleam from Gengar.
The thing is though, Ash doesn't think like that. We've seen Ash for over 20 years and he has some very obvious flaws, which include getting overwhelmed by a tactically superior opponent at the start as we have seen so many times, including the last few battles against Raihan, Steven etc. It often takes him time to find his footing in the battle and I think the intensity shown by Cynthia caught him off-guard. What he does have is very deep bonds with his Pokémon, and he trusts them to come through no matter the odds. That was the crux of the conflict between Ash and Paul, and Paul himself acknowledged that Ash can bring out a Pokémon's inner strength. And Ash did prevail over him, despite Paul being a superior trainer in other aspects, lending credence to his style. And then in the next match, he was able to get Sceptile to wake up and defeat the till then, undefeated Darkrai. Sceptile alone might not have been as strong as Darkrai but it was it's deep bond with Ash that spanned two whole regions, including overcoming it's own crisis post-heartbreak, that allowed it to push itself and do the unthinkable back then.
Perhaps Ash hasn't had enough time with Dragonite to push their bond as deep, even though Dragonite clearly adores him, and that's a fair criticism of Ash's Journey team since they are entirely new except for Pikachu. Regardless, that is the way Ash battles and I don't expect him to be changing his style at this point. Both you and I want to see the smart, strategic Ash who dominates battles and outsmarts his opponents but for all the arguments of Ash's experience in battling, most of the competitors here have been battling since before he was even born (heck, Ash hasn't even been battling for a year lol but lets ignore the messed up timeline) so it makes sense that Ash can't beat them in smarts, the way he does so is through his bonds and innovative strategies. Yes, "Aim for the Horn" and "Thunder Armour" don't make sense but that's Ash, the gift that he has amongst all the competitors here is that he too has the ability to catch them offguard. The Raihan and Steven battle had many flaws and I don't personally like the way both of them finished, but we did see Gmax Gengar sucking in the sandstorm to get rid of it or Pikachu trapping Cradily by its own tentacles with Electroweb.
As for the Bonds part, Ash is definitely a special trainer, being the "Chosen one", having a unique Aura like Sir Aaron etc among other things and phenomenon like Ash-Greninja and his connection with Lucario are definitely not natural. Yes, it's the protagonist treatment and often an excuse for plot armour/DEM or for him to punch way above his weight but at the end of the day, the facts are facts. I'm still not prepared to see Mega Garchomp fall to Mega Lucario but at the end of the day, that will happen and I'll have to accept that, even though I may vehemently disagree with the way it came about.
I apologise over the long post but ultimately, you are probably absolutely right that Ash could have done better there, and the criticism is valid too. The thing is that it's just not in Ash's nature to do so as I've mentioned in my post, that's just not his style of battling. He isn't thinking one step, or even four, ahead of the opponent. He is thinking outside the box in an attempt to completely catch his opponent off-guard and make them lose their focus, and relies on his emotions and bonds to bail him out of tough situations. That's Ash for me, or atleast what I've seen of him for 20+ years. The writing is often not consistent, granted, but atleast for this moment, I think it's truly in character for him to do what he did, even if it's not the right choice.
Anyway, here's hoping for a cracking next episode!
