Worst way to lose; by Non-Damaging attacks

[Paulisthebest]

Throughout the anime, we’ve seen time and time again that game mechanics are not always present or the same when it comes to the anime counterpart. During his travels, we’ve seen Ash defeat or get defeated by opponents who use non-damaging attacks to win a match.

Here in this post, we can talk about some of the more “memorable” losses that have taken place.

-I’ll remember Faulkner’s Pidgeot beating Ash’s Pikachu with Whirlwind

-Happy taking out Squirtle with Sleep Power in the Pokemon League; I know at that point in the early season sleeping Pokemon were ruled unable to battle in tournaments like that but still.

-Wattson rematch; Manetric beating Ash's Torkoal with a Charge-powered Thunder Wave

What matches do you recall ending due to a non damaging attack beating the opponent?

 

[Hidden Mew]

There was Pikachu losing to Onix's Screech attack in the first Sinnoh Gym battle. It at least lasted hard on some of the rocks, which would have done some serious damage, but I do remember how odd that was when I first watched the episode. I don't think that anything could be worse than Squirtle being taken out of the match by sleeping. Even with how sleeping Pokemon were ruled unable to battle in the the first series, it just seemed incredibly weird when they could still be used after they woke up.

 

[Paulisthebest]

There was Pikachu losing to Onix's Screech attack in the first Sinnoh Gym battle. It at least lasted hard on some of the rocks, which would have done some serious damage, but I do remember how odd that was when I first watched the episode. I don't think that anything could be worse than Squirtle being taken out of the match by sleeping. Even with how sleeping Pokemon were ruled unable to battle in the the first series, it just seemed incredibly weird when they could still be used after they woke up.

Oh yeah I forgot about that one, when I first saw it I felt the same way. Not only did Ash lose to a non-damaging move but it was in front of Paul the trainer his attention was on the entire battle instead of Roark...

How about Wobbufett losing to Harley's Ariados in that one contest in Saffron City I believe when String Shot was used to delete all of Jessie's points since it couldn't be defended against with Counter/Mirror Coat? I know it was a contest and not a gym battle or anything but I thought that was a pretty innovative strategy.

 

[Garren]

I know people got upset with Roark's Onix beating Pikachu with Screech, but to me that was a rather neat scene and made perfect sense if you abandon the "logic" of the games. Onix is a huge creature roaring at the top of its voice like a giant loud-speaker, I don't see why that wouldn't hurt a tiny Pokemon that's 13 pounds.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Another one is Riding the Winds of Change; I think that is the title of the episode when Ash catches Gilgar and Paul catches Gliscor. Non-Damaging happens numerous times when Paul's Electabuzz uses Thunder and Thunderpunch on the Flying/Ground types and it seems to actually work. Against Gliscor, Thunder appears to stun it but that is probably because Weavile's Ice Beam struck it.

Against the Gligar here is where my point lies. Electabuzz's Thunderpunch packs a wallop and even though a Gligar wouldn't take damage from the Electric attack the sheer force of the punch coming from a much bigger Pokemon like Electabuzz shouldn't just "bounce off it" Electabuzz used it a couple times to make a few Gligar get knocked away but they kind of got back up instantly.

There is that theory of even though attacks have no effect the Pokemon receiving the hit probably takes the force of the move but not the damage of the move, it that makes any sense you know?