I really hate when they do this. Also I'm kinda annoyed it was Dracovish to take down the broken ape. Dracovish hasn't ever been the fall guy. Sirfetch'd or Dragonite should have been the one to do it.
Dragonite was shown dodging Rillaboom's attacks consistently besides the vines eventually bringing it down. Ash's strategy was great here, Sirfetch'd was zooming on its shield and scored a direct hit on Rillaboom nearly KOing it that the referee even had to come down an check. Dracovish has always been a straight attacker, as it was able to freeze the vines and whatever that red claw move from its stomach is, impaled Rillaboom.
Eh? That's exactly what it was in thee Steven match.
I'm honestly confused about this "exchange of moves" people keep saying. The whole episode had Ash reacting to Rillabooms attacks, using Dragonite's Draco Meteor and flying in the air to avoid the vines, then trying to zoom in for close quarter Dragon Claws. Sirfetch'd was flying on its shield Winter Soldier style, was able to strike it in the chest, etc. Dracovish was used well as I said above. No pokemon stood still, everything was a counter play to what the opponent was doing.
I think it was better. I don't like when a bunch of character met. They look like a fanservice box. Expecially Hoenn cameo. Drew, Harley, Solidad, Tyson and Prof. Birch were watching Ash vs Steven together. OK but why are they in the same place? Moreover where is May? Is she in Galar? No.
Taking down Rillaboom was a combined effort of 3 pokemon (Dragonite, Sirfetch'd and Dracovish), it took Ash 3 pokemon to take down a Pokemon that Alan defeated with 2 and took out half of Diantha's team. But to be fair now that we know about the Dragapult dragon tail strategy, it now seems obvious Leon used Dragapult to bring out each of Diantha's Pokemon and then Rillaboom finished it off. It actually now justifies how Diantha lost.
OK, plot convenience it is! Honestly, they could've easily explained this as the result of fighting two Dragon Trainers, but I guess "Dracovish ate a baby" is good enough. I'd even accept it being a reference to the move swallowing technique (that I never really liked) from DP, but neither Ash nor Dawn brought it up. Also, thank you writers for finally showing that soccer can be played with your head as well. I found it odd we've never seen a Cinderace use a non-kicking move until now.
Rillaboom is likely Leon's second strongest pokemon, if Ash took it down easily it would have been worse writing. There's nothing wrong with showing Ash had a wall to climb over. Also looking over at posts in the Cynthia review thread it seems no matter what the writers do you have issues if Ash can't battle with Dragonite sleeping or if Ash has to go up against a strong Pokemon. I really don't know what people want at this point, if Ash takes down a pokemon quick then people complain Ash has it too easy, if Ash has to struggle against a Pokemon to bring it down than that's bad too? You can't have it both ways.
