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Does It Feel Like Ash Loses More In SM?

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One thing I have noticed as we've gone through over 100 episodes of the Sun and Moon series is that Ash seems to lose a lot more, unfortunately. This especially seems to apply to battles outside of major battles he has to win due to plot armor, those being Totem Pokemon and the Island Kahunas during their Grand Trial. The SM series notably hasn't been too battle heavy, though from the battles we have seen, it feels like Ash has lost a lot more.

From the battles I can think of off the top of my head, Ash's record is 8-8, and this is not counting battles that were interrupted or dropped, such as Ash's battles with Tapu Koko or his first battle with Gladion. While his W-L ratio might seem even, does it feel to you like he hasn't won a whole lot outside of major plot required battles?

Wins
Totem Gumshoos, Kahuna Hala, Kahuna Olivia, Totem Lurantis, Kahuna Nanu, Misty, Viren, Hau

Losses
Hobbes, Team Rocket, Gladion, Masked Royal/Professor Kukui, Kahuna Nanu, Hau, Dia, Hapu
 
I don't think that I'd count Team Rocket as a loss here. Ash was close to losing, but Team Rocket couldn't land the final blow due to Bewear taking them away. I remember people made a big deal of how Team Rocket defeated Ash near the start of SM, but when I saw the episode, I didn't get that impression from their battle at all.
 
He didn't lose to Team Rocket. Team Rocket have never been counted in his W-L records anyway, but it wasn't a loss.
 
Aside from James, the TRio and Hapu I think the rest of the losses were pretty much necessary or at least couldn't have gone any other way.

Kahuna Nanu
Part of Lugarugan's development. These losses were kinda needed for Ash to understand, accept and utilize its anger in battle.

Masked Royal/Professor Kukui
Part of Nyabbi/Nyaheat's development. It's inherently at a disadvantage by fighting its evolved form which allowed it grow through its rivalry (and probably will do again in the future).

Same as above but with Mokuroh.

Mythical pokémon with Volt Absorb, kind of a loss/loss scenario right here. Hard to blame him.

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Oh, and about the TRio's victory:
Team Rocket
He also beat Jessie's Mimikyu in the Thrifty Market trial later on, so it evens out when it comes to fair-ish TRio battles.
 
You think that way because there is almost no pokemon battles other than plot related ones. And even his plot related victories were undermined by how easy Satoshi beat them.
 
I think it genuinely is a case of their being far less battles rather than ash being weaker
 
You could say SM is just working overtime to balance out his XY W/L record, right? I seem to remember him going about 90 or so episodes without a clear loss, which I just found really weird. He's Ash, not Gary.
 
Ash defeated hapu and TRio and lost twice to gladion
So he won 10 pokemon battles and lost 9
And most of his losses were important and/or logical
 
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You could say SM is just working overtime to balance out his XY W/L record, right? I seem to remember him going about 90 or so episodes without a clear loss, which I just found really weird. He's Ash, not Gary.
How is it a bad thing he goes on a winning streak? At this point would is make more sense for him to win more than he loses?
 
You could say SM is just working overtime to balance out his XY W/L record, right? I seem to remember him going about 90 or so episodes without a clear loss, which I just found really weird. He's Ash, not Gary.

...Riiight. Because how dare Ash get better at something that he's been doing for over 20 years! Clearly we shouldn't expect any kind of progression in terms of skills from him.
 
Ash loses more in DP probably than any other saga after the OS, mainly because of Paul and how he had to rematch a lot of Gym leaders. I don't know why people don't call it out in DP when Ash always loses there.
 
I don't think that he lost a lot of matches and that because he did not battle a lot in sm anime
 
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