SPOILER: Paul

[Cybersai]

Well its good to know that Paul is an experienced trainer having competed in as many leagues as Ash, (sans Orange and Battle Frontier) and lets their battles seem a lot more realistic.

And Ash Vs. Paul in the Sinnoh league is bound to be excellent, I have a feeling it'll be the best league match we'll ever have.

 

[Yamato-san]

And Ash Vs. Paul in the Sinnoh league is bound to be excellent, I have a feeling it'll be the best league match we'll ever have.

IF they can let the farkin' thing run for more than a single episode... and not focus on a single match-up (killing the whole purpose behind a Full Battle -_-) while pushing everyone else out of the way [cough]Satoshi vs. Hadzuki[cough].

 

[The Big Al]

Amen. A nice even battle with everyone get the screen time they deserve.

I still think Ash with a Fukamaru ftw.

 

[Cybersai]

Ash Vs. Gary in the Johto league was rushed pretty horribly too, I'd like to think we fare better this time.

 

[WeavileLord]

I'm still wondering why so many people seem to think that Paul's Torterra is a bad thing. I happen to like it, as it shows Paul's preference for power even more; after all, you don't see very many people calling Torterra "cute", do you? No, people call it the tank of the Sinnoh starters.

And Ash's pokemon evolving? That would be a relief. I personally dun like the first-stage pokemon, and seeing him with a more powerhouse team would definately be good, if not required; after all, how do you expect him to not get his butt kicked by Paul if he's battling him with freakin' chibis?

 

[Yamato-san]

Ash Vs. Gary in the Johto league was rushed pretty horribly too, I'd like to think we fare better this time.

true, though by the end of the day, I actually think it was halfway decent compared to all the other shitty Full Battles we've seen in the show (and this is taking into account that they had Lizardon dominate half of Shigeru's team in only the last couple minutes). I'd probably be willing to place this as 2nd or 3rd best, competing for the spot with Yuuji's battle at the Orange Islands' Winner's Cup, while falling well behind the 1st place-holder, which as you may've guessed is Kaede's battle in the Saiyuu Tournament.

This just goes to show that the writers have some serious problems handling Full Battles, an extremely rare occasion in the anime (almost exclusive to the leagues at a region's end, with the battle against Rin during movie 3's opening credits being the sole exception. By my count, they've only come up about seven times), and one that 'should' be more grandiose as a result. Shit, they didn't even have a Full Battle in all of Kantou, which can be blamed on their cop-out ending with Satoshi losing against Deus Ex McClone, and we have yet to see a Full Double Battle (or even a Double Battle where Pokemon can be switched, sans Adan part 1). So why does it seem that the few Full Battles we ever do get have to be handled so horribly? Why must they almost always be a simple KO fest, as opposed to more complex strategies involving switching and such? Why do they succumb to horrible rush-jobs? Was it so crucial we got to those Battle Frontier fillers? Couldn't they have planned ahead for Ruby/Sapphire's release by about five more episodes? And all throughout this, Kaede seems to be the only exception (and I guess Rin... why can't we see more random battles like that in the series? I can understand it'd be a problem if used too much, but within 500 episodes? -_-). But then, Kaede arguably had one of the best battles period, so I could see why (they were really on a roll with the Saiyuu Tournament in general, up until Masamune's battle. What the hell happened?).

 

[Chaosblazer]

The writers can't even handle six pokemon correctly on Ash either, maybe they should just stop having full battles in general.

 

[Cybersai]

Well if they make the league longer than 7 episodes this time maybe we won't get rushed battles.

I never understood what was so hard about making the leagues at least 10 episodes long. We've always had leagues go on no longer than 8 eps.

 

[The Big Al]

Or study what they got right with Kaede instead like Yamato said.

That has got to be the most thought out battle of the entire series. Kaede was a great character. I wouldn't mind seeing her return though she never will.

 

[Nando]

Katie's battle was excellent, even if her Misdreavus did get shafted for a Destiny Bond showoff. Morrison and Tyson failed in comparison, not to mention Clark would've been a real threat to Ash in a full battle with his fire types instead of the pathetic 2-on-2 he ended up getting. Total waste of a good character in my book.

(But then again I would've rather seen him over Morrison so I digress )

 

[Yamato-san]

Or study what they got right with Kaede instead like Yamato said.

forget "or", they should really just go for a little bit of both. One advantage that Kaede had was the fact that her battle actually lasted a while over the course of about two episodes (one and a half, actually, but still good enough), so it was anything but rushed. With Masamune and Tetsuya, they tried cramming a Full Battle into a single episode (plus only the last possible minute of the previous episode), and what we ended up getting was a bunch of bullshit, one-hit KO fests abound and so on. At least half of an episode's length more would've really done wonders there (though on the upside, it was pretty sweet seeing Oosubame, who had previously been absent up until the Full Battles, truly prove his worth as a fucking juggernaut in Tetsuya's fight ^^).

A lot of things in the anime seem to get fucked over by rushing.... god knows why. I mean, unless they need to get to the next region in time for the release of the new games, there really shouldn't be any excuse. Perhaps it's just the episode nature of the show. At most, a single event shouldn't last longer than a two-parter, it seems. But ironically, the Saiyuu Tournament seemed like one of the least episodic portions of the whole series. Unlike previous tournaments, we don't begin an episode with Satoshi preparing for his next opponent and then end with him having just beaten said opponent, we actually had episodes ending in the middle of a match and then picking up as such with the next episode, only for that episode to end in the middle of another match.

 

[Emeray]

ok...either I need to rewatch every pokemon episode on earth or I just need a nice, long summary. Anyway, since I practically forget almost all battles accept important - League and Main character - ones.

Also, Ash/Satoshi SHOULD get a long and well thought out strategy battle as opposed to three minute full-battle eps. (I think I exagerrated but that's my point.).

I mean, C'mon! Ok, so maybe elimination in the League but then put in a long battle with a rival or some supporter trainer.

Plus, did you guys notice no matter how hard Ash/Satoshi trains, he NEVER seems to get better in the next region? He trains for a year teaching his pokemon new attacks and then he some how loses to a new off the bat trainer.

C'MON!

Just let him win for once! Also, same deal for back there, he never once wins a league accept for BF and OL. And those were fillers to explain evos and pokemon, and to fill in time for the newest region!

I WANT ASH TO WIN!

P.s. Thank you, good people, for listening to me rant my pants off or something like that.

 

[Cybersai]

I don't really consider Battle Frontier to be a "filler" season. The writers were using game canon characters via the Frontier Brains, whereas the Orange Island characters, region, and concept in general was entirely made up for the anime.

In general though I hate the way people classify Orange or Battle Frontier as filler seasons to begin with, it makes it sound like nothing important happened in those seasons which couldn't be further from the truth. Both those seasons had quite a number of pivotal events and moments in them, and if you remove them from the anime, you miss quite a lot of storylines and character arcs from the anime.

As for Paul, Ash beating him in the league in the final match could be for two reasons:

1) Ash is going to go on and challenge the Elite 4 afterward, which actually has some foreshadowing in the anime this saga so it isn't a baseless theory...

and

2) Paul is only going to be a one-region rival and we won't see him again after Sinnoh. While I'm sure some people don't want this to be the case, the writers may only be using Paul as some strong character for Ash to beat for his ticket into the Elite 4 competition. It may not sound likely, but there were some people who assumed that Gary was going to be in the anime forever and they were proven wrong. Paul could very well go the way of Gary at the end of the saga and no longer be Ash's main rival.

and

3) An Elite 4 competition would be the perfect bridge between the end of Sinnoh to pre-5th generation. The Elite 4 members + Cynthia would most likely need a large chunk of episodes dedicated to them, especially if we're in for full 6 on 6 matches for each. This could easily take a full year to do if you assume some fillers will be sprinkled inbetween. There's also the possibility of more Contests for Dawn in this saga, if the writers feel the need to keep her around for a second round like they did with May.


It wouldn't surprise me if something along those lines are being currently planned after Sinnoh, but the writers may be forced to do something different if some new game calls them to advertise something else prior to Gen 5.

 

[Emeray]

Hmmm....
Sounds like a lot though, eh?

All the same, I want Ash to win a league for once!

 

[Cenzo]

Alright, who else is bugging about Paul having Torterra!? Does this leave possibility that Ash may get Chimchar?

I think it does.

 

[Sketch]

I think it does.

...HOW? There's no freaking evidence. >_>

 

[FabuVinny]

That episode alone had far more emphasis on Chimchar than Torterra.

 

[Habunake]

And the emphasis was on Paul keeping it.

 

[Emeray]

I love this debating stuff...*Picks up popcorn and watches*

 

[Chaosblazer]

That episode alone had far more emphasis on Chimchar than Torterra.

So there was more emphasis on Gary's Eevee than Blastoise, and Blastoise was still more important in the end.

Who said Ash had to get Paul's Chimchar, why not give him a different one...maybe one that ironically enough acts like Paul, i'd love to see his reaction to seeing Ash with a serious battling tactician Chimchar as opposed to his silly play games one.