Yeah, I'm wondering about that too. Dragonite's Draco Meteor feels less like a move that's part of its moveset and more like an improvised move that can only be used under very specific circumstances, which is definitely interesting. It's kinda like how Rowlet can only use Seed Bomb by spitting its Everstone, though that's obviously a significantly easier requirement to fulfill than having to facing an opponent that knows a ranged Dragon-type move. Honestly, I think it'd be fine if Dragonite keeps its original moveset, with Draco Meteor specifically being used as a counter against opponents that can "enable" it. With that said, if Draco Meteor does become an actual part of its moveset, I hope Hyper Beam gets replaced.
The exact same way Gladion's Lycanroc dealt with Outrage's confusion; intentionally hitting itself first to snap itself out of confusion before the opponent could take advantage of it.
Every Trainer starts in the Normal Class, and Iris was revealed to have entered the tournament only recently.
I'd hardly say it was an unceremonious loss. Besides, while Iris may not know it, Ash is a Champion too, so it made sense to me.
I"m starting to suspect that Go getting captures in all the region hopping episodes is an executive mandate. Some of these executives need to be fired.
That sounds a bit excessive.
Maybe not fired, but their influence needs to be lessened. This series does seem to have some mandates that actively detract from the show, including that. The episodic thing is even worse because that's how we get stuff like Iris's Dragonite and Dracovish getting KO'd 20 seconds into their fights. Both this and the Alola episode should have been 2-parters if I'm sure they would have been without the episodic mandate. It looks like the Oak's lab episode is going to get ruined by being 3 different episodes merged into one as well. The much-maligned Rocket Gachat is probably a mandate as well.
Those catches lasted only a couple seconds each and were used as a method to provide Goh with a situation where he could meet Iris.
I mean Korrina, Bea (twice) and Volkner. Boring.
The problem is, if you look at the conversation closely, Iris said Haxorus hit its head against its opponent while attacking and thus could not be taken out even when confused (which doesn't quite make sense to me. Of course, it could have been taken out). Then Drayden added this strategy was the result of Iris' hard work with Haxorus. However, you could clearly see that Haxorus was still confused after the attack and didn't snap out of it confusion until it hit its head against the ground. So, either the translation was wrong or Iris and Drayden were exaggerating a bit because having your Pokemon hit its head against the ground is not really such a great achievement or the result of some special training but could as well be a spontaneous idea.
I can only repeat what I already said: Journeys/Pokemon 2019 suffers from a real lack of two-partes.
Haxorus knew how to execute the strategy without a separate command, and did so.
Yes, but Iris/Drayden said it was some "special strategy" during the move, while in fact it happened after it. And in the meantime, Haxorus was left vulnerable which Ash could have used to his advantage if he and Dragonite hadn't just been standing there watching. So, I don't see a special champion-strategy here to be honest.
