About the Altaria and Grovyle battle, since the various posts addressing it (very well I might add) seem to be being ignored by subsequent posters, I'm going to say this as succinctly as I know how.
It's the same as how Charizard could ko practically anything with a successful Seismic Toss. You get something to crash into the ground at high speed from a great height and not much will stand up to it regardless of the element type of the attack that was used. Heck a String Shot could do it if the user could swing a pokemon stuck on it down hard enough. ^_^
Jynxie said:
I liked this ep a lot. The best Gym battle in a LONG WHILE. *points and laughs at Falkner*....It was action packed and VERY entertaining....Except I'm on the "WTF was up with that Grovyle vs. Altaria?" bandwagon. I found that to be..."odd". But, what REALLY gnawed at my brain was that ONE Wing Attack taking down Winona's Swellow, after it hit with Hyper Beam, Aerial Ace, Peck, and Quick Attack....Damn those cheap devices to end battles quickly. =\
Allow me to help quell your confusion. This is how I see it:
1. Winona's Swellow previously got a HUGE slash across the chest from Grovyle. And though it didn't work too well it also got hit earlier by a Wing Attack.
2. It had likely been drained considerably from using so many attacks. Especially the Hyper Beams (only one of which hit). Remember that episode with the Mareep where Ash had Pikachu keep avoiding attacks until the Mareep simply collapsed on its own?
3. Ash's Swellow in particular is known for its extreme endurance.
4. Ever wonder why head-on collissions are so disasterous with cars? You have two objects going toward each other instead of one going toward another, hence the energy in the impact is much greater. Ash's Swellow went up while Winona's went down. However, Ash's knew to brace for the attack whereas Winona's was caught off guard and hit right in the chest. Being able to brace for an impact alone can greatly alter how much damage one takes in a fight.
And, for some reason, I found the part at the VERY end of the ep when Ash said the "Oh, yeah! I got a Featherbadge!" thing to be cool. Not Ash saying that, but when Swellow popped up from the corner and said, "Swellow" all happily and whatnot. IMO, it had a look of accomplishment on its face, and in the sound of its voice...Meh, that's just my little observation. I thought it was cool, anyway. *shrug*
And it WINKED! ^_^