Worst Way Ash Has Lost The Pokemon League?

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Ash got screwed out of winning the Kalos League. I always felt Alain didn’t win, someone wanted Ash to lose.

Yeah if you didn't watch the Mega Evolution Specials.

 

[WatcherMark]

Absolutely Satoshi's worst loss was to Kotetsu. The entire battle was just a travesty, and was the culmination of the writers' belief that Satoshi was too powerful at the end of DP and needed to be set.

First of all, he battled an absolute idiot. I mean, there's dumb but it's beyond me how Kotetsu even knew how to breathe. He turned up for the Junior Cup after it had already finished, he thought you needed only seven gym badges to enter the Isshu League (despite badge cases clearly having eight slots), he thought the Isshu League was to be held in JOHTO, he forgot to register and then finally, as we all know, he thought a Full Battle only required him to bring five Pokemon. I mean, how does someone even make those kinds of mistake.

The battle itself was also a travesty. Kotetsu is bringing his secret weapon! Oh, wait, it's just a Pokemon we've seen before. Satoshi is using a fire-type? Well, why not send out a grass/steel type to face it! Oh, Kotetsu is now using a water-type? Well, might as well keep in Chaoboo. That can't go wrong. Satoshi has sent in Pikachu? Well, obviously the best choice to face it is freakin' Swanna. Oh look, Kenhallow is at full strength but gets walked over by a Riolu at full strength despite the type-advantage. Tsutarja is useless as well, and then finally Pikachu (who lest we forget defeated a Latios during Sinnoh) is taken down by a weakened Lucario. Awful, just awful.

I nearly gave up on the anime at that point, because it was starting to feel like Satoshi was going to be reset even single time he showed any kind of real improvement. Unlike his other losses, I felt this one was a disservice to everyone on screen.

 

[Ransei]

Absolutely Satoshi's worst loss was to Kotetsu. The entire battle was just a travesty, and was the culmination of the writers' belief that Satoshi was too powerful at the end of DP and needed to be set.

First of all, he battled an absolute idiot. I mean, there's dumb but it's beyond me how Kotetsu even knew how to breathe. He turned up for the Junior Cup after it had already finished, he thought you needed only seven gym badges to enter the Isshu League (despite badge cases clearly having eight slots), he thought the Isshu League was to be held in JOHTO, he forgot to register and then finally, as we all know, he thought a Full Battle only required him to bring five Pokemon. I mean, how does someone even make those kinds of mistake.

The battle itself was also a travesty. Kotetsu is bringing his secret weapon! Oh, wait, it's just a Pokemon we've seen before. Satoshi is using a fire-type? Well, why not send out a grass/steel type to face it! Oh, Kotetsu is now using a water-type? Well, might as well keep in Chaoboo. That can't go wrong. Satoshi has sent in Pikachu? Well, obviously the best choice to face it is freakin' Swanna. Oh look, Kenhallow is at full strength but gets walked over by a Riolu at full strength despite the type-advantage. Tsutarja is useless as well, and then finally Pikachu (who lest we forget defeated a Latios during Sinnoh) is taken down by a weakened Lucario. Awful, just awful.

I nearly gave up on the anime at that point, because it was starting to feel like Satoshi was going to be reset even single time he showed any kind of real improvement. Unlike his other losses, I felt this one was a disservice to everyone on screen.

Holy heck this was worse than I remember. How does anyone assume the Unova League Conference would be held at JOHTO and you only need 7 badges to participate?? This on top of the fact he only brought 5 Pokémon, used Swanna against Pikachu, and used Ferrothorn against Pignite really shows the anime directors just wanted to humiliate Satoshi/Ash as much as they possibly could.

and as I re-interated in my last post, Kotetsu/Cameron losing to a random monoeeveelution team in the finals right after beating Ash only rubbed more salt on that wound.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

and as I re-interated in my last post, Kotetsu/Cameron losing to a random monoeeveelution team in the finals right after beating Ash only rubbed more salt on that wound.

Meh. With how incompetent Cameron was, what Virgil's Eeveelution team did to him honestly just felt like how any battle Cameron participated in would have been like if the guy didn't have all that obvious plot armor. Also, imo it would've been far worse for Cameron to go on and win the Unova League because he absolutely did not deserve to even get as far as he did, so I'm personally glad Virgil trounced him.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I find it interesting that an afterthought character in Dino went from jobber status to runner-up at the Unova League where he and Virgil were both down to their last pokemon. He made both Cameron and Ash look bad, Trip gets a pass because we only seen him use Serperior, I imagine the rest of his lneup was more developed off screen.

 

[Yung Dramps]

While the Tobias and Cameron losses are undeniably at the bottom rung from a pure failure of story-writing perspective, the Alain loss will forever stand as one of the biggest acts of pure insanity I've ever seen from a long-running series like this. There's been attempts in recent years from a subset of anime fans to re-habilitate this loss, putting it in context to explain why it wasn't that bad. At risk of sounding overly grumpy and mean, I think this is cope. They put all this legwork to set up Alain and Ash's fated confrontation, they gave their protagonist a one-of-a-kind unique super form for his non-Pikachu star Pokemon of the series, his opponent was reduced to using a panicked desperation move on a Pokemon with a type disadvantage against said star, and he still loses. I saw a post comparing this sequence of events to if Goku had obtained Super Saiyan and still lost against Freeza on Namek; after reviewing it I would specifically liken it to if after being chopped in half Freeza's "YOU MUST DIE BY MY HAND!" final spite-fueled energy beam actually landed on Goku and knocked him out.

I think most of the softening of the anger over time can be attributed to SM and Journeys: Ash ended as the world champion, so it's all water under the bridge. I'm not so sure about this. Like I said, there are worse losses in this series in a vacuum, but I think Ash VS Alain's outcome and its aftermath permanently broke Pokeani's reputation in a way the preceding letdowns just didn't. The series that followed had to pivot to more light-hearted slice of life type stuff with trust in the show's ability to pull through with a more serious shonen-esque affair in tatters. Ash finally got his wins, and then he was booted out. Major diversification in the franchise's animated portfolio followed with miniseries and art style experimentation galore. I think these decisions were all good, but I can't help but wonder how much of them were at least in part a consequence of the mainline Ash fare crossing a rubicon for viewer faith that even the might of the Pokemon brand couldn't repair.

 

[Unovia]

Ok, so as a long time fan of the anime, I have watched all of the losses. Let's look at all of them:

1. Kanto: Ash loses to Ritchie. This is probably one of the most famous loses, with Charizard not listening and being stupidly disobedient. This would have been even worse if the Pokemon anime had ended here.

2. Johto: Ash loses to Harrison. Harrison was a trainer that was shoehorned in to advertise the upcoming Hoenn journey. Charizard vs. Blaziken. Ash lost this one due to an unfamiliar powerhouse, then Harrison proceeded to lose himself.

3. Hoenn: Ash loses to Tyson. In one of probably the lesser known losses, Pikachu loses to a Meowth in a close match. That is actually the most bland of the loses, and the one I dislike the least.

4. Sinnoh: Ash loses to Tobias. This one is very controversial, mainly because Tobias seemed to sail through the contest, making Sinnoh look like a joke. The fact that Ash took out Darkrai only to have to battle a Latios. Where the heck did Tobias come from? He then just seemed to completely disappear, to never be mentioned ever again. Just what was the freaking point to this one?

5. Unova: Ash loses to Cameron. Cameron was a complete idiot, though BW seems like it was a very challenged series. I can see that they were looking for another Ritchie type, but the sudden evolution of Riolu to Lucario was just a bit much. The fact that Ash lost to an absolute idiot (who thinks the Unova League Conference is going to be in Johto and try to get in with 7 Badges?) made this loss even worse.

6. Kalos: Ash loses to Alain, a character that, if you were not watching the Mega Evolution specials along with the anime (like I was), would appear to almost come out of nowhere. I was the most excited for this battle, especially as I was reading material that said Ash would finally win. Ash-Greninja was effectively a Mega Evolution vs. Mega Charizard, a Pokemon that had previously taken out 10 other Mega Evolutions. I was majorly disappointed with this loss, especially since they then sped through the rest of Kalos like it was nothing. The way the Masters Eight treated Alain afterward makes this one really ugly.

Ash's wins in Alola and the Masters Eight were exciting, and a great way to end his public journey, though I will agree that some of his wins in the Masters Eight seem undeserved to me (Steven & Cynthia). I hated they made Leon really seem super OP. Worst Loss has to go to Kalos IMO, with Sinnoh a close 2nd.

Anyway, my 2 cents.