Cynthia isn't confirmed to have a Lucario in the anime and has never been shown with one. You should stop bringing up the games here. Anime Cynthia also owns a Glaceon as seen in BW that she doesn't own in the games.
Dude...she literally has Lucario's 'ears' as part of her character design. Not to mention, it's part of every in-game team she has, and she's the Sinnoh Champion. You're really telling me she didn't know that Lucario, a Pokémon native to her region, are Pokémon that you shouldn't really use Flinches against? Has she just never faced a single Lucario?
I'm not a career Pokémon trainer and even
I could tell it was a terrible idea.
Roserade and Milotic both had type or move advantages over Dracovish. Ash turned the battle around because he saw how Iris lost and used Dracovish to his advantage. She was also clearly saving Togekiss for a last resort (which is why in the first episode she also recalls it after hurting Pikachu a bit rather than leaving it out, she wanted to save her "tank" for the end), and Sirfetch'd damaging Garchomp as much as it did was something Cynthia did not see coming.
This...I don't even have words. She was trying to save her 'tank' for a Steel-type, but she had no problems throwing out her
ace against an unknown Pokémon? And that's after her being cautious and clever throughout the first half of the battle, switching out and making the best switches she could at the time, only to suddenly forget type matchups mid-battle? Again, this wouldn't be a problem if Cynthia hadn't demonstrated amazing critical thinking skills during the first half of the battle only to lose them when the writers decided Ash was backed up too far against the wall.
Not to mention, she'd already lost a Pokémon to the same Sirfetch'd at that point.
Really the only thing I agree with is Garchomp not having a ground move, as it should have at least had Dig. But claiming the order she used her pokemon in, is wrong, as if Cynthia is not playing by ear and using what she thought she would win with at the time, is odd. She expected Garchomp to defeat Sirfetch'd, she expected Togekiss to defeat Lucario and not have to use Garchomp again. Obviously in-universe Cynthia had no expectation Ash would win, so that's what she planned to do, wear down Ash's team.
And why did Cynthia suddenly start underestimating Ash, having 'no expectations' that he would win? She played the first half cautiously, making sure she had Ash on the back foot throughout. Not a hint of overconfidence.
I'm sorry but people keep saying how we should NEVER conflate the game logic with anime's logic, so why is it we pick and choose when we do it?
If I were thinking with game logic in mind, I'd have a thousand other problems with this match. I'm looking at this battle purely from an 'anime' perspective.
Fact of the matter is, Cynthia is NOT a Lucario trainer, Lucario has never been as iconic with Cynthia and she isn't a Lucario trainer in the anime therefore isn't obligated to exactly know what ability Ash's Lucario would be having and how it can withstand her togekiss. BDSP has zero relevance here
She literally has a Lucario accessory. The Pokémon is part of every in-game team she has, as well as the Sync Pair thing in Masters. Hell, even her ancestor uses the mon! Plus,
she's the Sinnoh Champion! Why is this the only incarnation of Cynthia who has no connection to the species? Not to mention, she should've known this was the Lucario that took out a Gigantamax Pokémon without a gimmick, so she should've been prepared for it and...I dunno, looked up the species if she didn't already know about it? Or did she just not do any research on Ash, or was (Arceus forbid)
underestimating him?
Again, I wouldn't have had any expectations if she hadn't demonstrated the capability to be smart.
Just because Sirfetchd has damaging moves does NOT mean it can destroy Garchomp lol. Cynthia had no way of absolutely knowing how strong sirfetchd resolve can be and how strong it and it's moves are. She was visibly surprised when battling the duck as well. Again, she isn't supposed to have knowledge of all of Ash's mons exact strengths and all. It's not like she brought Milotic in suddenly, Milotic was already in the field, had a super effective move ready to go against Sirfetchd, she was using Milotic's characteristics to try and separate the duck's tools and it was a valid counter.
So she didn't know how strong Sirfetch'd would be, had no idea what it was capable of...despite the fact that she'd already lost her Milotic to it? After seeing it break through a direct super-effective attack with nothing but sheer determination and Meteor Assault, she decided to...throw caution to the wind and toss out her ace, and not even use Mega Evolution to ensure that it would take out Sirfetch'd without taking that much damage while also doing far more damage with its hits??? Hell, the move that busted up Garchomp was the
same move that took out her Milotic!
Like seriously man, if your only defense for this strategic screwup is that she 'didn't know' what a Pokémon
she'd already faced was capable of, especially when it was using the same 'charge forward, do or die' tactic, then why didn't she play it safe rather than risk her ace, provided the information she got from
losing a Pokémon wasn't enough info already?
It's the anime my man, type advantages aren't everything. Her betting Garchomp could finish it quickly than Togekiss isn't a bad decision, why would she think otherwise based on HER knowledge in the anime. I'm sorry but this feels like nitpicking, which can be applied to every battle in the anime
Type advantages aren't everything, sure...but not taking advantage of your natural advantages and throwing Hail Marys after having spent the entire half being clever and cautious
reeks of bad writing. It's not nitpicking, it's literally seeing this character do a complete 180 strategy-wise. She had a perfect Fairy/Flying Pokémon waiting in the wings to kill it, and decided to save it.
For a Steel type!
I do however agree with your reasonings that not using the DP team and seeing it in the sidelines just cheering Ash's other team on hurts and takes the soul out of it a bit. Absolutely valid to feel less invested as a result. I also felt the animation was extremely shoddy then it should have been, considering unfortunately the animes production BTS was a shitshow
I guess it's good that we can agree on this at least
Also yeah don't bother engaging with Scott, next you know he's gonna start DMing you to argue viewpoints and become unhealthily obsessed with it, which is very weird for a man who's been here for a decade atleast
And this too
