DP vs XY Ash.Battling Skill Analysis Post #1
I’ve decided to break up my analysis of DP and XY Ash’s battle skill into several smaller posts rather than a mega size post in order to make it more easily digestible. I’ve decided to start off by analyzing both of their battles against gym leaders since the badge quest forms the core of Ash’s journey each region (pre-Alola) and usually gives a fairly good rough estimate of Ash’s skill lvl in that series. I’ll be breaking down and comparing XY and DP Ash’s battle performances against each gym leader in the order they were faced. Note that I’ll be dedicating 1 post to each gym leader pair (gym leaders from both series who correspond with respect to the order Ash gets a badge from them in). After gym leaders I’ll discuss pre-league rival battles and then notable skill feats from other battles throughout the series before dealing with league battles at the end (though I’ve already given a fairly comprehensive post comparing the SL Paul and KL Alain performances which were undoubtedly the peak of DP and XY Ash respectively in terms of battling skill).
Let’s start by going through the first battles against Roark and Viola where in both instances Ash lost. Now what’s particularly of note here is that in both instances Ash doesn’t make any notable mistakes (though it did seem a bit questionable that Ash underrated Cranidos’s power and speed by such a considerable degree despite watching it first hand against Paul), but rather both gym leaders were really tough along with of course Ash’s Pokémon not being that experienced (and Pikachu having his usually inconsistency). Roark had a more “brute force” approach overwhelming his opponents with sheer power and speed whereas Viola’s main strategy can be summed up as “hyper movement restriction” with tactics like ice battlefield reducing the stability and maneuverability of grounded Pokémon, Gust reducing the same for both grounded and aerial Pokémon and Sticky Web ensnaring Pokémon thus making them more vulnerable to a direct attack.
Both leaders were able to hinder Ash from battling to his fullest though this seemed to especially be the case with Viola. Ash while showing good variation in commands during his first performance against Viola gave a fairly standard performance overall with the only tactics of note being Pikachu’s well timed Iron Tail after Surskit went in close and Fletchling using Double Team to both evade Surskit’s attacks and gain an opening to finish it off with Razor Wind.
DP Ash on the other hand showed a good deal of skill even in his first go-around which was fitting for the guy who recently conquered the Battle Frontier. For starters Aipom also used a Double Team evasion against Cranidos though where Ash truly shined was with Pikachu. First-up Pikachu gives a well-placed Iron Tail to Cranidos in the same spot where it was previously struck by Aipom’s Focus Punch. Next we have Pikachu using Quick Attack to dodge, but more importantly using the momentum gained from QA to then transition into an extra powerful Iron Tail. Finally we have battlefield Thunderbolt whereby Pikachu struck the ground in such a way that the resulting debris pelted the opponent. This tactic is of special note since Paul makes a call back to it during his SL match with Ash by employing a very similar tactic with his Electivire against Gliscor.
With regards to how both reacted to their losses, we don’t see anymore of DP Ash during the same day though the next day he seems just fine for the most part working hard with his Pokémon (though he does show moments of worry) whereas XY Ash takes his loss harder in particular he’s really racking his brain on how to deal with Viola’s hyper movement restriction which makes sense given the more intricate nature of Viola’s core strategy and also XY Ash at this point still had difficulty staying composed when faced with an especially difficult battle problem as was usually the case in DP (and in case it isn’t clear, I’m treating XY Ash as the direct successor to DP Ash for the purpose of this analysis series).
Both trainers make appropriate steps towards training their Pokémon for dealing with the respective challenges presented and from what was seen XY’s training seemed more intricate (though it is worth noting that we never got to see Ash and Dawn’s “spin dodging” training which I’m admittedly a bit salty about). I won’t go into detail regarding the specifics since this post is primarily assessing both Ashes’ battling skills though 1 occurence that I wanted to note was that when Ash strengthens his resolve (thanks to some moral support from Serena), the resolve of his Pokémon strengthen as well which is a good example of how a trainer’s attitude affects their Pokémon.
Now we’re finally at the heart of this post which is the assessment of Ash’s battle skill in his matches with Roark and Viola where he actually earns their respective badges. DP Ash picks-up from where he left off by again using momentum from Quick Attack this time for the purpose of climbing up Onix, but it’s the spin dodging that truly shows his improvement from the first battle. “Spin dodging” is essentially creating wind pressure by spinning sideways in order ‘slide’ through close range enemy attacks which works wonderfully for both Pikachu and Aipom against Onix and and Geodude respectively (on a side note I’m not sure why Ash didn’t have Aipom do spin dodging to begin with against Rollout instead of Double Team; maybe he thought Roark would lower his guard if spin dodging wasn’t initially used resulting in him being more caught off guard when the maneuver eventually did get used).
Against Ramparados; however, Ash makes an error by relying on spin dodging due to not accounting for Ramparados’s horns that give it an extra sideways reach thereby still causing Pikachu damage. Thankfully DP Ash makes up for this by then having Pikachu spin overhead thereby avoiding Ramparados’s horns entirely. This tactic works similarly well for Turtwig with Turtwig also displaying a solid transitionin into a Bite on Ramparados’s incoming tail. This battle also gives an example of what good timing on Synthesis looks like (this point is important when considering Ash’s full battles with Paul) with Turtwig using it while Ramparados is reeling from recoil damage. Finally we have an excellent final tactic of using Trutwig’s fiery-turned Razor Leaves as camouflage to get the last strike in though I admit I’m not quite sure if Ash and Turtwig rehearsed spinning from below if Roark chose to counter Ash’s command by telling Ramparados to jump or if that was just good battle instincts on Trutwig’s part (probably the latter).
Let’s now jump into Ash’s rematch with Viola. First off Pikachu easily dodges a barrage of Sticky Web thanks to Ash’s training the previous day. I have to hand it to Ash for trying to have Pikachu flat-out prevent Surskit from making an ice battlefield (prevention > cure holds quite well even in Pokémon battles) albeit in a seemingly futile attempt. After the ice field is employed Pikachu slammed his tail into the ground in order to regain a stable footing and hence launch attacks with maximum affect. Pikachu later uses a variant of this tactic that adds Iron Tail in order to provide further stability when combating Vivillon’s Gust. Speaking of Gust Fletchling is able to successfully counter it by riding its wind current via adjusting the angle of its tail feathers. Probably the best tactical maneuver in this battle was how Ash used the small time interval (that admittedly was longer than usual thanks to Pikachu’s will power) between when Pikachu was hit with Sleep Powder and when Pikachu would inevitably fall asleep to have Pikachu launch an Electro Ball directly vertically upward this coming down and smacking Pikachu straight in the head preventing him from falling asleep in the process.
Of special note in this battle was Ash’s will strength where at multiple points in the battle he was able to will Pikachu and Fletching to push past their limits or rather, as Paul in the Japanease version would sarcastically say, Ash used “the power of really really wanting it” especially well in this battle. Finally I’m once again not sure if Vivillon falling into the ice lamps that Surskit had created while Pikachu was trying to direct its Ice Beam away (guess that attempt wasn’t so futile after all
) and hence not being able to move properly thus giving Pikachu an opening to land the final blow was what Ash and Pikachu were going for when Pikachu fired Electro Ball or if that was coincidence. My skepticism stems from the fact that Vivillon launched Solarbeam first and Pikachu counters meaning he has to launch in a trajectory such that Electro Ball is able to completely override Solarbeam in adddition to hitting Vivillon in a manner that sends it flying into the ice lamps though maybe Pikachu’s precision was just that good.
Overall DP Ash was able to display a wider array of tactics in the battles against his first gym leader though it is worth noting that Roark’s battle style (relative to Viola’s) in conjunction with DP Ash using 3 Pokémon each battle instead of 2 provided significantly more opportunities for him to showcase his skill. Accounting for this their aggregate skill output frequency would actually be around even (unless I missed a notable feat in which case do let me know). Both gym mini arcs resulted in strong showings for Ash as a trainer while also establishing how especially difficult the Sinnoh and Kalos badge quests were going to be.
That concludes my first DP vs XY Ash battling skill analysis post (oh wow was that long!). I’m pretty sure (or at least hopeful) that most of my other analysis posts (probably 10 - 12 in total) on this thread won’t be as long. Let me know if you have any reservations about my assessment for either of DP or XY Ash’s battles against the first gym leader or about how I compared the 2 performances. I should also note that these analysis posts will be put out infrequently depending on how much time I have.
