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Pokémon Evolution/Capture/Release Thread

I actually do think they're pushing towards giving Ash a Lucario.

How so?

I personally think it would be a bit ridiculous to give him a Lucario now, when they had two sagas to do it. If they're going to give him one simply because of it's mega than that's even more ridiculous.
 
I'm starting to doubt this is even Ash's Pokemon, he never once releases it from its ball, it could easily be a wild Pokemon he befriends that decides to help the group. It's getting a pretty large amount of screen time for a non-starter Pokemon in a Pokemon movie and is often seen out of its ball next to Pikachu and Ash. Ash does release Froakie from a PokeBall though to fight Marilyn Flame, but never releases Hawlucha to join the fight. It's always there to save him or Pikachu when they need it, I'm betting it fights Mega Absol under his command or on its own. Notice it gets merch next to Pikachu, Diancie, Klefeki, Amaura and Tyrunt. That leads me to believe its a movie-exclusive Pokemon.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but Hawlucha has an upcoming appearance in the anime, which is when most people believe Ash will catch it.

Who says it's the same Hawlucha, I'm aware it's appearing soon. Korrina is debuting soon as well or this could simply be a stalking Pokemon like Jigglypuff/Krokorok. Nothing is absolute so far.

I can understand your skepticism, but what are the odds that a Hawlucha is going to appear in the anime, a Hawlucha is going to appear in the movie, and a Hawlucha is going to appear in the Pikachu short, and they are ALL unrelated to each other but are all in the same vicinity of each other (chronologically)?

I mean seriously, a Hawlucha episode so close to the movie, and said movie and accompanying short also have a Hawlucha and THEY are ALL unrelated to each other for a total of three entirely different Hawlucha.

I don't know about you, but if the Hawlucha doesn't belong to Ash or anyone on the main cast for that matter, that's some weird crush on Hawlucha by the Pokemon anime developers all showing up around the same time. I don't think ANY Pokemon got that kind of treatment before.
 
Since Ash doesn't have any Grass-type yet, it is safe to say that Sceptile may come back for XY as his grass type (and mega Pokemon as well in case it will have one [or two ala Charizard]) with all these hype for OR/AS.
 
I don't think it's safe to say it at all, sorry.

There's no reason why they should bring back a Pokémon that had good development throughout an entire saga just to show off its mega evolution. Now, I could see it coming back for the league or a short period of time to show it off, however I think Phantump and Skiddo are both better options for Ash's Kalos grass-type as they provide something fresh for us viewers.
 
I actually do think they're pushing towards giving Ash a Lucario.

I don't see it happening at all.
1) Lucario has been around for a while and the writers keep refusing to put one on his team. I can't see them suddenly changing their minds about that after almost 10 years.
2) With Hawlucha a 95% certainty to be captured, Ash already has a fighting type for this generation. He's also already got 2 decent steel type moves with Pikachu's Iron Tail and Fletchinder's Iron Wing. Lucario just doesn't have a role on Ash's team the way it's currently made up.

Since Ash doesn't have any Grass-type yet, it is safe to say that Sceptile may come back for XY as his grass type (and mega Pokemon as well in case it will have one [or two ala Charizard]) with all these hype for OR/AS.

At the League; probably. Ash will probably bring back a lot of his older Pokemon once the League starts.
As a regular member of Ash's team; Not a chance. It would make Ash's team too powerful.

I don't know, I think you give the show a little too much credit. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you from a logical standpoint, but I'll address your first point by using Johto as an example: In Johto, Steel and Dark type was introduced, but Ash wasn't given a Steel or a Dark type and the fact that he had Cyndaquil when he faced Jasmine was more or less a coincidence. It was still in the original series so Ash had to have all three starters and the fact that Cyndaquil was a Fire type was just lucky. If either him or the creators cared about type matchups, he wouldn't have had Heracross boxed for that battle or used an Oshawott against a Hydreigon (*Eye twitch* Sorry, I digress, that's just my least favorite moment in the entire series), and as far as the Dark type was concerned, it more or less went like, "Hey Ash, did you know that there's a Dark type now?" "Cool! On with the adventure!" Again, you can argue that Heracross could be seen as the Dark counter, but it was never used against a Dark type at the time. That being said, like I said, I agree with you about the fairy thing, I just doubt it's going to happen. And I did consider Carbink when I was speculating, but I dismissed it for two reasons: 1. Carbink is mainly a defensive pokemon, and though Ash has had defensive pokemon before, he believes offense is the best defense so I don't think that would mesh with him. 2. Its body type. The show seems to be against giving Ash pokemon without limbs, hence why he caught a Palpitoad instead of a Tympole (Well, the other reason is because Tympole can't battle out of water, but both reasons kind of go together). Even if the pokemon is slow, like Torterra, the show seems to feel like Ash can't have pokemon that can't maneuver, and even with Torterra they gave it Rock Climb. That's more or less why I said Slurpuff as the only Fairy that I can speculate, because, just like you, I can't see him with any other fairy or fairy counter. We really have similar mindset because I was hoping for Dragalge too, but from the looks of it, it has the same problem as Tympole. If anything, your comment made me think of Sliggoo, or even a Noibat as a more viable option, because Ash has always been the type to never give up when faced with adversity (and that seems to be the theme of the season considering that's how he met Serena and she shouted it at him in the first gym battle) and having a pokemon that has no effect on the new type seems perfect in that regard. He would then have to find a way to work around the Fairy type's advantages like he has had to so many other times. In fact, that's how he came up with Counter Shield


The Steel and Dark types didn't come with nearly as much fanfare as these fairy's have. Pokemon was still very new and the mechanic's were still being developed. And as you said; technically he did have a counter for them even if he didn't use them in that role. I just have a very hard time seeing the writer's taking the same approach this time. Fairy types are one of the 2 main focuses of this generation(Mega-Evolution being the other) and I just don't see the writers acting like it isn't a big deal. That doesn't necessarily mean a counter to them. As you said; they could easily address the Fairy type by giving Ash a Dragon type that can power through them. In fact, I'd say that's the more likely approach right now.

An interesting little tidbit about Ash's current team; he has caught 3 of the 4 fastest lines in the Kalos Region(assuming he gets Hawlucha). The only one missing is the Noivyrn line. As much as I'd dislike Ash to have 3 flying types on his team, a Noibat/Noivyrn would be a very interesting fit. It's a dragon type which addresses the fairies and gives him a neutral Pokemon against electric type, it's stats and move set are perfect for Ash and it could easily be given the same kind of comic element that Gligar had. I really wonder if Ash is going to grab one of the Noibat's from the upcoming episode.


2- With 2 flying types and a water type; Ash is at a pretty big disadvantage against Electric Pokemon. Which is a problem because he's eventually going to have to face Clemont who has Heliosk, Megneton and Dedenne(not to mention Bunnelby and Chespin to counter Pikachu). Trevanent really fits Ash's team. Gives him type coverage against Electric types and would be a big help against his eventual psychic type gym battle(Fletchinder and Hawlucha provide decent coverage for that gym, but a strong Ghost would make that a slam dunk).

Again, I agree with you on parts of this, but I'll make my response to this one shorter than before. Type coverage means nothing in this anime. If you look at the Sinnoh region, he had four pokemon who were weak against Ice (Staraptor, Torterra, Gliscor, Gible), three of which had a 4x weakness to it. Again, the show's all about either ignoring these kinds of things or having Ash power through it... Or when in doubt, use Pikachu! =D As he has done in so many gym episodes and will do it again in the first two gyms of this season =.=

He also had Infernape to counter ice types and Gliscor had Fire Fang to counter ice types. Plus he had Buizel and his Ice Aqua Jet as a gimmick move against them. I know the Anime has creative ways to portray type advantage, but the writers also don't typically give Ash a complete lack of coverage against any type. The way Ash's team is set up right now, a good electric type would demolish him. He needs something to counter Electric types. A good Dragon or Grass type would fill that role, but I can't see them just ignoring that coverage gap with a big Electric Gym battle coming up. The writers won't let him just over-power Clemont like they do some of the lesser Gym leaders. It will be a relatively even Battle and Ash will need an Ace up his sleeve to pull off the win.
 
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When is the Hawlucha episode going to happen? late June? =/ I guess it'll be catched after Shalour Gym battle.
 
Ash sure is taking a long time to get a new pokemon after Fletching.....I have always been wondering what other Kalos pokemon he'll ge

This is my guesses on what pokemon he likely might get:

Litleo
Skiddo
Binnacle
Skrelp
Clauncher
Helioptile (probably not) - It seems like that Ash will never get another Electric Pokemon
Hawlucha
Phantomp
Bergmite
Noibat

I had thought of Chespin and Bunnelby but Clemont already has those two. Thought of Scatterbug too but if he did....he would have released Vivillon (after evolving) like he has done with Butterfree
 
When is the Hawlucha episode going to happen? late June? =/ I guess it'll be catched after Shalour Gym battle.

XY033 should air on June 19th, which leaves four Thursdays (6/26, 7/3, 7/10, and 7/17) from then until the movie. TV TOKYO always airs the previous year's film during the week that the movie is released in Japan (in this case, 7/17). No new episode will air on July 17.

View attachment 94547

We know from this scan that XY034 (printed in the magazine as XY035) will air on July 3rd. The magazine counted the Mega Evolution Act I as an XY episode, which is not the case for Bulbapedia's episode numerical system.

Based on the 5/29 airdate for the Diantha episode (which was printed as XY029 by the way), the magazine assumed that XY024 would air on April 24th, which never happened. Hence, every episode from XY025 onward has or will air a week earlier than the scan printed (XY034 will air on 7/3, not 7/10 as in the scan).

With that in mind, there should a break on June 26th--probably for Naruto Shippuden to air two episodes that day. With the magazine including the Acts as XY episodes, having Act II air on the 26th is not consistent with the Mega Mawile episode being XY034.

We also have to remember that the movie started production many months before (perhaps even a year before) and the main characters' teams were predetermined at that point. The anime staff worked around TV TOKYO's tentative airing schedule to ensure that every major capture happens BEFORE the movie. At the time, the anime staff assumed XY024 would have aired (hence XY034's airdate of 7/10). Therefore, any episode that will now air on July 10th was expected to air on July 24th in the earlier schedule, which is after the movie and is not included in the calculation.

The Hawlucha should be caught on or before XY034 (the episode that was expected to air on July 10th but will now air on July 3rd). We do not know exactly when that will be, but I am guessing it will be much earlier. XY030 takes place on a grassy plain, which was where the Hawlucha was shown in the trailer.
 
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I don't know if that has been posted on a previous page and I'm not sifting through them to check, but this practically confirms that the Hawlucha will be caught by Ash. This is a manga based on the Diance movie and in it, he fights Sayaka's Absol with the Hawlucha.
800px-Manga_Movie_17_11.png

Now with that out the way, the whole issue with Ash getting a Lucario can go both ways. Right now with Ash catching Hawlucha in the upcoming episodes, It's very unlikely that he'll get Lucario as well within such a short space of time, not to mention they're both fighting types. These next 2-4 episodes all feature Korrina and both of the Lucario's like the game, so it is a possibilty. Don't forget that the anime could do what the games did, and have Ash battle her atop the Tower of Mastery, and give him the Lucario there?

Oh yeah, Fletchling's evolving in the next few episodes too, but I think a lot of people knew that already.
 
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That's great that Ash will get Hawlucha....2nd fighting pokemon for Ash. His first one was Primate who is still in training.

Speaking of Ash's 2 pokemon that are still in training....does anyone think those two will ever return to Ash for good?
 
That's great that Ash will get Hawlucha....2nd fighting pokemon for Ash. His first one was Primate who is still in training.

Speaking of Ash's 2 pokemon that are still in training....does anyone think those two will ever return to Ash for good?

It'd be his third actually, Scraggy was a fighting type too.
 
That's great that Ash will get Hawlucha....2nd fighting pokemon for Ash. His first one was Primate who is still in training.

Speaking of Ash's 2 pokemon that are still in training....does anyone think those two will ever return to Ash for good?

It'd be his third actually, Scraggy was a fighting type too.

You forgot Infernape. (Of all the Pokèmon you could forget)
 
*joins in* There's also been Heracross & Pignite, and if we're getting really crazy there's that Hitmonlee he borrowed during Pasta La Vista!

He gets one every region; this time it's Hawlucha.
 
All this talk about how many Fighting-types Ash has used - six in total so far, including Hawlucha - makes me a bit annoyed that Ash has YET to catch a Steel, Psychic, or Ghost-type.

Although there were far fewer Gen VI pokemon of those types, there were still plenty of decent choices (i.e. Honedge's line, covering both Steel and Ghost) and Espurr, that Ash could have obtained.

Instead, it seems like the writers are slow to deviate from tradition; Ash still has to have at least one starter and a Flying type. Even though I was okay with Fletchling because it can (and will evolve into) a Fire-type, which freed up one slot for some other new type of pokemon, the slot ended up going to Hawlucha (another Flying-type).

Yes, Hawlucha has an unique type combination, but we have already seen Ash use plenty of Fighting- and Flying-type pokemon. In some regions, Ash even had two pokemon of either type in his party at one time. It'd be nice if Ash can use something a bit different in this region.

At the very least, Ash should catch a Fairy-type in this region.

*joins in* There's also been Heracross & Pignite, and if we're getting really crazy there's that Hitmonlee he borrowed during Pasta La Vista!

He gets one every region; this time it's Hawlucha.

The Hitmonlee from that episode belonged to another trainer; it doesn't count towards Ash's total.

Even if it were counted, Ash used the Hitmonlee in Saffron City's Fighting Dojo -- a Kanto region location. Ash never obtained a Fighting-type pokemon in the Hoenn region.
 
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