Review BW083: Fierce Fighting at Tachiwaki Gym! VS Homika!! (Part 1) ・ BW084: Fierce Fighting at Tachiwaki Gym! VS Homika!! (Part 2)

[DynoStretch]

Ah-ha! So it is a two-on-one duel is it? Fine, I accept your challenge, engarde!

An unfair fight would be, say, if it was 6-on-3 because Homika was lazy or indifferent. But as she herself pointed out, the rules are up to her, so a fair fight would be anything within those rules.

She's not a good gym leader if she just hands out badges to people who don't deserve it, and Ash clearly didn't deserve it by having to win under such a handicap. This felt like a pity badge, like the ones Ash often got throughout Kanto.

But as it turned out she had room for plenty of confidence, simply because she was good enough. She would've looked really stupid if Ash had curbstomped her, but it was down to the wire.

And there lies the biggest problem with the battle. Roxie was just simply too overpowered. I understand she's a gym leader and all, but this was too excessive. The Pecha Berry thing only cemented it further. If Ash had managed to beat her three Pokemon with just three of his own, then it would had proven her egotism in the wrong and made her think differently about her attitude. We constantly see characters in this series who act over-confident and end up being proven wrong and humiliated, usually when an Elite Four member shows up to curbstomp them. Even the one-sided rivals get served a dish of humble pie eventually. Roxie however, is ridiculously overconfident, overpowered, and shown to be in the right, and for some reason she doesn't have to learn anything.

To add on, Ash is the type of person who wants to prove people wrong. Roxie was overconfident, somebody needed to change her ways, so Ash stepped in. It would be totally OoC of Ash if he didn't battle her to make her lose her overconfidence. Leaving to do business elsewhere? That's not the Ash I know and support!

Right, but in the end he got curbstomped, showing she's right about being so strong she can brag about it and give her opponents unfair handicaps. He shouldn't have accepted the badge, and should only came back when he was ready to win a fair 3-on-3.

 

[Geodude]

How did Ash get curbstomped? A curbstomp would've been a 6-0 or 6-1 win.

To me, a narrow victory from either side indicates a fair battle.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Cept Homika shouldn't have been that strong. The fact that Ash wasn't even phased by how poorly he did is another thing. Why was he happy he looked like a jackass? Homika could still take pride in fact that she almost KO'd Ash's entire team.

 

[Geodude]

Cept Homika shouldn't have been that strong.

Why not?

The fact that Ash wasn't even phased by how poorly he did is another thing.

Yes, he clearly was. It was his friends' cheering that gave him the encouragement he needed.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

She's weak in her game and it makes Ash look unprepared for the league. Also with the exception of Mewtwo gym leader were shown to be defeatable by rookies

That's different I mean after the battle. He was happy to win not embarrassed by his lack luster performance.

 

[Geodude]

She's weak in her game and it makes Ash look unprepared for the league. Also with the exception of Mewtwo gym leader were shown to be defeatable by rookies

Gym Leaders are always highly skilled trainers. That's kind of the point. Also, she only brought up the 6-on-3 after finding out that Ash already had 7 badges. To me that implies that she would have adjusted things accordingly to give a less-experienced trainer a fair battle, and probably did just that with the kids that were beaten before Ash showed up. I think it's been implied over the years that anime Gyms work like that. For example, consider all the Ice Pokemon that live at Pryce's Gym. We've also seen over the years that not all beginning trainers start out from the games' first town, so they don't all challenge gyms in the same order. I think it's a reasonable conclusion that Gym Leaders would have a variety of Pokemon of different experience levels to use depending on their challenger's apparent experience.

As far as making Ash look unprepared for the league, from the writers' perspective, that may have been exactly the point.

That's different I mean after the battle. He was happy to win not embarrassed by his lack luster performance.

A win is a win. He fought hard and won, why shouldn't he celebrate it?

 

[DynoStretch]

Gym Leaders are always highly skilled trainers. That's kind of the point. Also, she only brought up the 6-on-3 after finding out that Ash already had 7 badges. To me that implies that she would have adjusted things accordingly to give a less-experienced trainer a fair battle, and probably did just that with the kids that were beaten before Ash showed up. I think it's been implied over the years that anime Gyms work like that. For example, consider all the Ice Pokemon that live at Pryce's Gym. We've also seen over the years that not all beginning trainers start out from the games' first town, so they don't all challenge gyms in the same order. I think it's a reasonable conclusion that Gym Leaders would have a variety of Pokemon of different experience levels to use depending on their challenger's apparent experience.

Again, this is part of the problem. They simply made Roxie too overpowered, to the point where she made Ash go by that handicap and gave him healing berries to make it easier for him. Ash has never been this babied before in a gym battle, and it's very bad for what was supposed to be his final gym badge of the region.

As far as making Ash look unprepared for the league, from the writers' perspective, that may have been exactly the point.

And if Roxie is supposed to be a responsible, experienced gym leader, don't you think she shouldn't hand out a gym badge to a trainer who clearly isn't prepared, especially when this is supposed to be his final badge?

If the writers wanted to give Ash a wake-up call, then they should have found another way to go about it, like having him lose badly (or at least do badly) against a rival trainer. Or they could do something more original and have some super-elite Rocket try to kill him and/or take his Pokemon, and he loses badly, only for Cynthia to bail him out, leaving him with the knowledge of how weak he is and that he's not as ready for the league then he thought.

A win is a win. He fought hard and won, why shouldn't he celebrate it?

Because it was an undeserved victory that he only got because his opponent gave him a handicap. It cheapens the victory and shows Ash to be far too weak. This is just as bad as the Sinnoh league battle against Paul, where he only won because Electivire intervened and stopped the referee from declaring the battle over.