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Theory on why Ash is struggling in Unova.

jmacz008

    • 59
    Posts
    17
    Years
    I know a lot of people have been annoyed on why Ash has preformed so poorly in BW so far, and to me it's kinda obvious. In every other season Team Rocket would show up and they would battle, and Ash would always win, using different Pokemon a lot. And many of Ash's Pokemon learned new moves and even evolved while battling Team Rocket.

    Now that there gone, he doesn't get that easy battle experience with his Pokemon. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I haven't seen it.
     
    Or writers just wanted us to like Satoshi more once he gets better and wake up from his misery? :D
     
    As far-fetched as that theory does sound, it does make sense. I don't think it's the real reason though, I don't even think the writers thought about Team Rocket giving Ash some exsperience.

    In some ways he is actually doing much better than he did in Sinnoh, he lost to Paul and against the first gym leader Roark.
     
    Well, your theory is correct, from a gamer's point of view at least. Same goes with the theory that "Pikachu gets level reset on every new region Satoshi sets foot on".

    I personally believe that the writers might want to give out the impression that 'victory isn't always waiting for you in the corner', and also that 'with loss might come greater good'.
     
    Quite true, old chap. I mean, dude. Anywho, I think this is because the writers wanted Ash to actually have a challenge this time, instead of the old, "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt" and TR fly away, defeated.
     
    Ash493 said:
    Or writers just wanted us to like Satoshi more once he gets better and wake up from his misery? :D
    Click to expand...
    I think it's more this. If we are judging the battles we have with Shooti first battle he had Pikachu was weaked by Zekrom, but still that shouldn't be much of an excuse to lose to Snivy and a new one at that. The battle at the Battle Club was more telling of his lack of training since Tepig and Oshawott went down really easily. I don't think constant defeats of Team Rocket make much different to overall experience. As mention on EP008 Ash had a 10 battle win streak, most of the battles Ash mentioned to AJ were battles that occurred off screen. We don't know how many off screen battles he had, from the lack of experience I would say very little. I am sure TR makes a slight difference but not much.
     
    Kenshin5 said:
    I think it's more this. If we are judging the battles we have with Shooti first battle he had Pikachu was weaked by Zekrom, but still that shouldn't be much of an excuse to lose to Snivy and a new one at that. The battle at the Battle Club was more telling of his lack of training since Tepig and Oshawott went down really easily. I don't think constant defeats of Team Rocket make much different to overall experience. As mention on EP008 Ash had a 10 battle win streak, most of the battles Ash mentioned to AJ were battles that occurred off screen. We don't know how many off screen battles he had, from the lack of experience I would say very little. I am sure TR makes a slight difference but not much.
    Click to expand...

    But how many of Ash's pokemon have evolved against TR.

    Infernape, Torterra, Qillava, Primeape (kinda), Metapod, Donphan, Bayleaf, Swellow (kinda), Sceptile, and maybe Glaile but I'm not sure on him. That's about 50% of his Pokemon evolutions.

    In prior seasons there wasn't many battles between Ash and other trainers because he was constantly being harassed by TR, that's a big difference for him, and though it will probably never be mentioned it's pretty obvious that it's a big reason on why 3/5 of his Pokemon are very weak as of right now.
     
    When they were featured in almost every episode it's kind of hard to avoid them being some how involved in it. Battling them does help with experience, but in the overall picture I don't believe it to be the reason why Ash pokemon are weak in THIS region. After all we are 14 episodes into a series that will probably span over a 100 episodes, so of course newly caught pokemon won't be that strong for the most part. Ash wasn't too hot when he started in Kanto, and he tied with Paul and lost to Roark the first time around at the beginning of Sinnoh saga. Like TheFuturePokemon, the writers are probably starting him off slow and gradually making his pokemon stronger. I am not ruling out that beating up on Team Rocket would help with experience, but in the long run I just don't see that being a major factor.
     
    I think this also plays into it. When Ash have Snivy attack Pururiru, he was ignorant of it's Curse Body ability. Of course I don't know how valid this is since it should be the same case for every new region.
     
    Wow. I never knew that Ash was having a hard time in Unova. it makes me think about the Barclays Premier League right now. So, pardon the Soccer talk for the moment. It seems to me that Ash got promoted to the Premier League (Unova) after a few years in the Championship (Sinnoh). And once he got there, he got rid of his Championship winning team for a fresh squad while Team Rocket got tough and are now acting like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. So, he's getting beat badly and is in the relegation zone with Wolverhampton, Fulham, Birmingham, Wigan and West Ham.

    So, that's what I'm thinking. It's the good ol' Premier League/Football League Gulf at work in the Pokemon Anime. It's a prime example.
     
    That's actually a pretty valid point, jmacz. Nice work.
    I also think it's because the region isn't alike the other regions ... ? I don't know, seems like Ash is jumping into things he thought he knew, but actually doesn't.
     
    I also heard it's harder to get EXP. In Black and White, so maybe that too?
     
    I would hate how Ash thinks he knows what he's doing when he really doesn't.

    Ash would also never abide by the type rule. Would always choose a water type when he's battling a Grass or an electric type against a rock/ground even when he has another pokemon ready that has the type advantage.
     
    He's struggling because the writers are making a crappy attempt to create the illusion that the show has a plot. [/rant]

    Anyway, I do prefer it when the battles are more realistic and when Ash doesn't magically win everything, but they're making Pikachu suck just a little too much for my taste.

    Pikachu lost against the water monkey, yet Oshawott, who has considerably less battle experience won against the grass monkey. I was not amused.
     
    jmacz008 said:
    I know a lot of people have been annoyed on why Ash has preformed so poorly in BW so far, and to me it's kinda obvious. In every other season Team Rocket would show up and they would battle, and Ash would always win, using different Pokemon a lot. And many of Ash's Pokemon learned new moves and even evolved while battling Team Rocket.

    Now that there gone, he doesn't get that easy battle experience with his Pokemon. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I haven't seen it.
    Click to expand...

    Wait TR is gone? I thaught they just got tougher. Or did I just misunderstand you? If so sorry, I havnt watched many of them yet, just some of the first ones like where ash catches pokabu and this one with a bell tower or something. ofc only one of them had decent subtitles...
     
    They are not gone they just have a different role then usual. They haven't had an encounter with Ash and co. since Episode 6 if I remember correctly.
     
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