Review SM133: Bird Battle! Brave Bird VS God Bird!!

[BraixenFennekin]

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Congratulations Hala, you made your grandson cry. Are you proud of yourself?

Actually, he probably is. A few seconds after the scene ended he likely slapped Hau, told him to stop being a baby then made him write a full report on everything he did wrong.

Hau stop crying like a baby, because the battle is over by Ash! Get used to it!

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Hau deserved better. Not necessarily a win here, but still.

 

[Lanstar]

This battle reminded me of the time in a video game where my lv.20 starter lost to a team grunt's lv. 7 Zubat, as confusion made it hit itself 5 times in a row.

...Oh? But it's GAGZ! Lulz.

Really, though, this was the most pure cheese I've ever seen one of Ash's Pokemon use to win a major battle. That doesn't seem like Ash's way of battling either. Quite often, it's the otherway around: Opponents cheesing him, and he has to find a way around it. This made Rowlet look like the villian in the end, rather than Decidueye, as the ethics of a fair battle were overly twisted up.

...Poor Hau. :_:

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

This made Rowlet look like the villian in the end, rather than Decidueye, as the ethics of a fair battle were overly twisted up.

Specially when one considers that their rivalry had an even score before this battle: Dartrix defeated Rowlet, and then Rowlet defeated its evolved form, so the cheesy humiliation doesn’t make much sense.

 

[DynamicFusion]

In every previous region, we've established to have a Champion League where the Trainer who wins the tournament gets to battle the Elite Four and the Champion. This obviously doesn't apply to Alola, which has neither right now.

Honestly, the XY Anime kinda dropped the plot of battling the E4 and Champion after winning the league, Alain gives his key stone back to sycamore and works in the lab instead to start over fresh. In SM they dropped the plot of their being an E4 and a Champion. Now the SwSh Games have rumors of their being no Elite 4. It seems they just care about Ash and will do anything to get him out of the previous region just in time for the new games.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Honestly, the XY Anime kinda dropped the plot of battling the E4 and Champion after winning the league, Alain gives his key stone back to sycamore and works in the lab instead to start over fresh. In SM they dropped the plot of their being an E4 and a Champion. Now the SwSh Games have rumors of their being no Elite 4. It seems they just care about Ash and will do anything to get him out of the previous region just in time for the new games.

My guess is that Alain simply chose to not challenge the Champion League due to wanting to go back to the basics.

 

[WatcherMark]

Having just rewatched the battle, I can confirm that even with the fake-out knock out, I still think Hau should have won this. Battles where Satoshi's Pokemon just sponge hit after hit then knock the opponent out with no effort are the worst kind of battles, and this is a textbook example.

Gotta hand it to this show, I genuinely didn't think we could get a league battle worse that Satoshi vs Kotetsu from Best WIshes but here we have it.

 

[MegaGreninga]

Seems rather silly as most anime moves work the same way they do in the games but not here

I mean it was clone it makes clone of itself to make the opponent belived they getting attack but the user won’t get hurt

 

[mehmeh1]

Aside from the fake out KO, why is everyone so upset about this episode?

I legit want to know.

The fakeout KO aside from somewhat making it seem like ash didn't deserve to win, was also needlessly cruel against Hau, Nanu completed the phrase, the scoreboard greyed ash's face, and Hau started celebrating, but then Hala overturned it, had Nanu's phrase been interrupted it'd have been much better, but seeing how things turned out, no wonder Hau started crying

 

[BigDocFan]

The fakeout KO aside from somewhat making it seem like ash didn't deserve to win, was also needlessly cruel against Hau, Nanu completed the phrase, the scoreboard greyed ash's face, and Hau started celebrating, but then Hala overturned it, had Nanu's phrase been interrupted it'd have been much better, but seeing how things turned out, no wonder Hau started crying

Agreed, if it wasn't for his grandfather, Hau would have won

 

[mehmeh1]

Agreed, if it wasn't for his grandfather, Hau would have won

Hala was right, but stretching the scene so much was sadistic

 

[Henry Suarez]

I just can't at the meldtowns and dramatics in this thread

Anyway, great for Ash advancing to the top 4, it's the third league he's able to reach that far! next stop: the final (please let Ash beat Guzma!) Rowlet will be alongside with strong unevolved starters like Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Cyndaquil (during Johto).

But I was the most hyped about Meltan, omg foreshadowing for an evolution! hopefully it happens before the final of the league.

Agreed, if it wasn't for his grandfather, Hau would have won

No, Hala was right and Ash won fair and square, why would Hala act like a corrupt politician and let Hau win just because he's grandson.

 

[Sakuraa]

This...was...tragic. Seriously, I think this is one of the worst battles I've ever seen. There's so much wrong I don't even know where to begin.

The unbelievably of it. Rowlet took several hits from Decidueye yet didn't get KO'd. Decidueye takes one Brave Bird from Rowlet and then is nearly down for the count. Then a second one fully knocks him out? Rowlet doesn't even seem anywhere near that strong to take so many attacks and not be on the verge of fainting. But yet 2 attacks against it's first form is enough to take Decidueye down? Sorry, but that just does not seem realistic to me. I know we can have Pokemon who are weak in one battle, then become KOing machines out of nowhere in another battle, but this just did not seem believable to me.

The fake out loss. Totally and completely unnecessary. No. That was ridiculous. First of all, it came across as so obvious. The way when Ash 'lost', everyone's faces just remained static as if they were just waiting for Rowlet to get up. Like Ash hadn't lost just yet. It was so dumb. Second, Rowlet was deemed unable to battle and Hau declared the victor. Just wtf is Hala doing sticking his nose in a battle he is not even the referee for? Why would you do that to your grandson? If they had done this like with Infernape vs. Electivire in Sinnoh, where they thought Infernape was down, but he got up before the ruling, that would be one thing. But they let Hau be declared the winner and celebrate with his Pokemon, before Hala said, "STOP RIGHT THERE, IT AIN'T OVER YET". How the hell would Hala even know Rowlet was asleep anyway? Why would he just assume that? Why would anyone? Sorry, but that was utterly ridiculous and unnecessary.

Rowlet is officially the WORST Pokemon Ash has ever owned. Not only is the thing dreadfully incompetent, he shows NO remorse for it. He falls asleep in battles and it's just played off as a gag. He's never apologetic for nearly costing Ash battles and it's disgusting. The least they could do, was finally have Rowlet show remorse for his actions, but nope, it's just gotta be 'funny'. Which only makes it even more annoying that Rowlet ended up winning. If his sleeping would have cost Ash this league match (which it should have), the bird could have learned from that. Instead he screws up and learns nothing, and no one cares. I literally hope after this series that this thing is never seen again.

Sophocles and Kiawe's battle beginning was the only highlight of this episode. I like that Kiawe isn't just steamrolling through Sophy and that the kid is actually putting up a fight.

2/10 for this. Horrid battle for a league.

 

[BigDocFan]

I liked the touch that Team Rocket built a robot Oranguru to serve Bewear and Stufful a drink to keep them from taking them from the league although to be fair, Team Rocket aren't really needed at the league now, unless them selling food might lead to them leaving the series

2/10 for this. Horrid battle for a league.

Nicely put, sadly the writer has experience in writing bad battles

 

[WatcherMark]

Rowlet will be alongside with strong unevolved starters like Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Cyndaquil (during Johto).

Are you kidding? Mokuroh is unfocused and lazy, can barely be bothered to battle and doesn't have the motivation to evolve. Even before the fake out KO, there was parts where you could argue the owl was getting distracted and wanting to take a nap. The win was an utter joke.

And you know what I've just realised? Mokuroh is the first Pokemon belonging to Satoshi that I actually dislike?! As in, I'm really hoping he leaves it with its old flock before departing Alola. The writers really succeeded at giving us the anti-Gekkouga, huh?

 

[Daenerys]

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I mean if I had lost to Ash's Rowlet after thinking for 5 seconds that I had actually won the battle, I'd be crying too.

 

[SammyW27]

Oh hey, Ash lost! Maybe this means the rest of the League will be more interesting and diff--Acreusdammit.

Hau deserved better. Not necessarily a win here, but still.

Not just here, but in SM all together.

I get that screenwriters were told not to bother with a plot or character development this time, but this is just cruel. You think they could've at least made Hau an honorary member of Ash-tachii (there are already a bunch this saga anyway. What's one more?)

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I seriously feel bad for Hau. He was declared the winner. He was celebrating with Decidueye, but his own grandfather overuled Nanu's ruling on the field. No wonder he was so heartbroken over the battle's result. This was kinda cruel. I'm really tired of Ash's battles being played for gags in this series. This had lots of potential, but the gag just killed it.

 

[Rockapheller]

Spoiler

Always leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

 

[BigDocFan]

Thankfully Hau isn't a sore loser, he wasn't angry about it, just imagine if it was Guzma