DP189 - Darkrai

[dman_dustin]

So definatly a straight beam? Hmm, if it wasn't then I would have made another guess to Shock Wave.

Oops that's what I meant, shock wave, not charge beam. But like I said it's really transparent.

I managed to find a shot of the attack colliding with hyper beam:

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r52/Digigirl10/wwwdotuporg1028441.jpg

I don't have it, nor do I want to look for it, but there's another shot with Darkrai with a ball (which as you said resembles focus blast), but I'm sure they are both from the same attack. Starts as a ball and ends up like this. As you can tell it's very narrow like ice beam but very cool blue transparent. It could just be the quality of the picture but I don't think it matches anything we know of that Darkrai can learn. Excluding the possibility (which I disagree with) a weirdly animated dark void (or as apparently the Japanese call it "Dark Hole".

This smells like the animators deceiving us that Flare Blitz was Blast Burn. I'm going to stick to my prediction that Darkrai is preparing Dark Void, with Heracross using Hyper Beam as a shield.

Not sure how blue beam translates from "Dark Hole." A ball hitting the opponent causing a "dark hole" to be created however does work, but not a beam since it would seem too elaborate.

Why? Heracross should learn Fury Cutter or Giga Impact.

Writer's decision.

The plain fact is, Hyper Beam is a worthy move in the anime. It manages to be a powerful and resourceful tactic. You could say "Yeah, stuff like U-Turn or Fury Cutter is better for Heracross because of STAB", but a lot of that isn't calculated into fights. Some are just more gimmicky than others.

Although I have to agree with severus6 with Giga Impact for at least one reason, it really is just like Hyper Beam only the physical variation something Heracross would benefit more from. And before you argue that Physical/Special attacks don't matter, that may only be applied to stats, since moves are definitely categorized in the anime. Which is why we have defensive moves like Reflect/Light Screen.

However one thing that should be pointed out is, Heracross doesn't have a ranged move, and relies solely on being a physical attacker. And I argue that having one move of each category (well aside from the status category) is preferable or rather beneficial regardless of stats at least in terms of anime. Which is probably why most Pokemon have a physical move like Iron Tail, and a special move like thunderbolt.

So regardless of the sad choice of hyper beam, it may have been necessary to fight Darkrai or at least counter certain attacks.

 

[Silktree]

When can a synopsis for this episode be expected? The Paul battle doesn't hold my interest at all, and I'd like confirmation of all three Johto starters being used here.

 

[swampertuska]

I also don't very interested in battle with Paul. The main battle of whole Sinnoh League will be with Takuto.

I think writers from the beginning conceived it. I mean battle with Darkrai. If we remember Darkrai is always there in the opening in Diamond and Pearl.

Paul is just a very serious rival. That's all. But Takuto is like a wall, new step in Ash's career.

 

[CommanderPigg]

I also don't very interested in battle with Paul. The main battle of whole Sinnoh League will be with Takuto.

I think writers from the beginning conceived it. I mean battle with Darkrai. If we remember Darkrai is always there in the opening in Diamond and Pearl.

Paul is just a very serious rival. That's all. But Takuto is like a wall, new step in Ash's career.

I'm going to have to disagree with this one. We've only known Takuto for a few episodes, his battle isn't built up as heavily as Paul's. We've been waiting for the rival showdown for YEARS on the other hand...

Maybe I'm just not so perceptive, but I never expected Ash to battle a Darkrai :/

If he beats him, great! If he doesn't, it's expected. I doubt much will change afterward, seeing how he's still going on another journey, presumably with the same pattern.

 

[swampertuska]

Well ofcourse Paul is the main rival of Ash here in Sinnoh. So was Gary back there in Johto. But the key battle for Ash was with Harrison's Blaziken. Same is here.

 

[Karpi]

For all we know, darkrai is the weakest member of his team.
Maybe the other 5 members are even more powerful, to the point where they don't need to be trained much or at all.

Takuto could have used only darkrai throughout sinnoh because it's the newest member and needs to get trained to be up to par with the rest of his team

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

When can a synopsis for this episode be expected?

If I am not wrong(of couse, I am not sure about issues like this), next Newtype leak(around August 6th, next Newtype will be released in August 10th if I am not mistaken) is the earliest we can expect a sypnosis or summary.

That being said, summary may not reveal much about this episode, so it is better to not get much excited.

 

[dman_dustin]

That being said, summary may not reveal much about this episode, so it is better to not get much excited.

(Specifically for the bolded part) Yeah but we don't even have that, unless new information was revealed quite recently and I overlooked it, all we know about this episode is it will involve Darkrai. That's it.

The summary should confirm a few things like "Ash beating Paul, if Ash is going to continue battling he obviously beat Paul" and if Ash will battle Takuto in the semifinals or not.

Seriously if it's just "Ash sees Darkrai" I'll be very disappointed.

 

[Masurao]

Seriously if it's just "Ash sees Darkrai" I'll be very disappointed.

I'm personally hoping something along those lines so Ash, and Takuto can be in the finals. But, I can't really see a COTD battle after Paul. The summary should reveal if this is Ash's semi-final opponent or not.

 

[Lost Dream]

Ash is gonna use Bayleef in this battle. If I'm wrong let the might of a thousand Snorlax's pounce upon me.

 

[Carmen Sandiego]

Ash will get past darkrai only to fight Zoroark

 

[Silktree]

Quoting a very good post from SPPf for reference:

A few speculative things regarding both Darkrai itself and its signature move Dark Void: (I will be going by known anime animations and effects over game effects for the most part)


Deflecting Dark Void
Dark Void appears to be an attack that immediately has an effect on a living organism (pokemon or human) if it simply makes contact with anything attached to said organism (ex. vines of a vine whip-using pokemon). This makes deflecting the attack difficult with physical attacks. As an attack with rapid-fire capabilities, most standard special attacks (Flamethrower, Hyper Beam, Energy Ball) would ineffective at blocking the attack, due to lower firing frequencies, while other rapid fire attacks (Seed bomb, Bullet Seed, Bubblebeam) may not be powerful enough or cover enough area to block an executed Dark Void (Example: Think of an individual bubble from a Bubblebeam attack attempting to block an entire Dark Void).

Sleep Immunity
Unlike other sleep-inducing moves, Dark Void actually incapacitates the opponent by force. On the other hand, attacks along the lines of Sleep Powder or Hypnosis would merely make an opponent feel drowzy, dizzy, and faint, causing the opponent to eventually collapse out of their own exhaustion. Literally speaking, an ability such as Insomnia (re: Ash's Noctowl) only directly prevents one from feeling "drowzy, dizzy, and faint," which in turn would prevent sleep in a normal scenario. However, Dark Void, through this forced incapacitation (going by the movie 10 effects), appears to bypass this "drowzy, dizzy, and faint" stage, which would make an ability such as Insomnia useless in deflecting this attack. Note that attacks attempting to hit a target that is immune to said attack due to type or ability will still make contact with said target, despite the attack having no effect.

Sleep-Based Attacks (ex. Sleep Talk, Snore)
As for Sleep Talk (or snore), I'd imagine that a tactic such as this one would be difficult to pull off (though not outright impossible), primarily due to Darkrai's Bad Dreams ability, which saps energy from sleeping pokemon, thus creating a "flinching effect" (commonly seen on victims of giga drain/dream eater/leech seed) when the victim attempts to attack or counter.

Magic Coat
Now, in the games at least (I dont recall seeing this move used in the anime yet), the move Magic Coat can sucessfully reflect an opponent's status-inducing attack directly back at said opponent. This DOES include Dark Void. This is a tactic that would likely work in the anime, due to the fact that it allows the user to avoid direct contact with the Dark Void itself in the first place, and can handle rapid-fire. Ash owns two pokemon that can legally learn this move: Bayleef and Noctowl. Since Noctowl already has three new recently learnt attacks, Magic Coat would likely come from Bayleef, if it is used at all.

These are some good points, although my stance has always been that the writers handle moves very arbitrarily, making it hard to tell a useful strategy from a failed one. I do agree with him that Magic Coat might prove a very essential move for Bayleef to have, though. Perhaps Totodile will know Uproar, making room for Bayleef to know Magic Coat, Role Play and Seed Bomb. If Bayleef is Darkrai's final nail in the coffin, she won't really need Aromatherapy to wake up her friends.

 

[Jackwriter]

Hold on.I have a feeling Ash will lose cuz well he's not aware that Darkrai is a dark type so why would he use heracross? Besides, this legend is way beyond Articuno and the Regis.With dark void and its bad dreams ability,its sure to be a sweeper.

 

[Iteru]

Hold on.I have a feeling Ash will lose cuz well he's not aware that Darkrai is a dark type so why would he use heracross?

I'm pretty sure he knows that Darkrai is a Dark type. He has met one before, after all.
Also, why wouldn't he use Heracross? It does know Sleep Talk.

 

[Hellion]

Hold on.I have a feeling Ash will lose cuz well he's not aware that Darkrai is a dark type so why would he use heracross?

Yeah, why would Ash use a Bug/Type pokemon like Heracross who has the most powerful bug attack and fighting attack against a Dark type whose weaknesses are Bug and Fighting attacks? Oh wait...

 

[V Faction]

How often do they actually touch upon those less-than-obvious Weaknesses/Resistances though?

I do, of course, hope that there's some situational awareness on Ash's part with Darkrai, having played a major part in the past and all. If I have to see a Poke Dex scan at any point I'll scream!

At the same time, I don't expect him to exclaim "Ah-ha! Darkrai is a Dark-type! I shall use my Bug-and-Fighting moves as an advantage!"

 

[Hellion]

How often do they actually touch upon those less-than-obvious Weaknesses/Resistances though?

They did that time in the League when Misty said Ash was in trouble cause fire was super effective against Water...

I do, of course, hope that there's some situational awareness on Ash's part with Darkrai, having played a major part in the past and all. If I have to see a Poke Dex scan at any point I'll scream!

Those Darkrai weren't necessarily defeated really... though. Wait, what did Cresselia use to beat it?

At the same time, I don't expect him to exclaim "Ah-ha! Darkrai is a Dark-type! I shall use my Bug-and-Fighting moves as an advantage!"

No but I do expect Brock/Conway to take note of it, that it would be effective.

 

[Cybersai]

It really is lame that Heracross is used twice when other more deserving Pokemon really need a battle.

 

[Hellion]

It really is lame that Heracross is used twice when other more deserving Pokemon really need a battle.

Which ones and what makes them more "deserving"? I mean, we're always complaining that Ash doesn't use strategy, doesn't take type into consideration, makes rookie mistakes, etc. Now he's actually uses a pokemon that's tailor-made to kick Darkrai's butt and we're comlaining because Heracross gets what could be its... fifth battle in the anime... really? We're complaining about that? Really?

 

[Silktree]

As long as Heracross doesn't star and Quilava is also reused, I see nothing with Heracross' presence.