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Rank the main characters according to their strength in battles

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Cybersai

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Since this place barely has any threads comparing the main characters, how would you rank them according to their skill with Pokemon and in battles?

Leave out Max, obviously, and I suppose Jessie/James can be included with all the characters ever on Ash's group. Also, include the rivals! I suppose this will be unfair to Hikari at this point of time, so you can either include or not include her at this point if you want to.

Since I'm sure this thread will turn into a debate eventually because nobody here ever agrees on everything, feel free to debate intelligently but without fanboyism getting in the way of saying which character is stronger than the other in battles. I just know I'm going to love this thread in my spare time.

Go.
 
Brock is probably the best battler among all the main characters. He not only has the Gym Leader experience behind him, but as Mr. Exposition he knows every strategy in use before anyone else does.

Gary and Ash is more or less equal - though Gary's more consistent and can use his head more while Ash generally has to be "in the zone" and loses too often to being too cocky/arrogant/not thinking straight.

May would be just below that, contest battles are rather different to normal battles though and I think if it were ever a real (non-constrained by the writers) battle between Ash and May in normal rules, Ash would win. May would probably win a contest in the same way

James is the best battler among Team Rocket - without question. Jessie is shown most times as not even having the faintest idea about attacks or anything.

I'm sure Tracey is a competent battler, but it's not as if we're ever going to properly find out. I'd rank him above Team Rocket at the least.
 
Brock has been rather intense in his battles lately (in BF). Whether he is stronger than Ash or not, I'm not sure. I will agree that Gary is more or less equal to him. Shinji has so far largely succeeded in his strategy of only strong pokemon. I am uncertain of his place as well, but he may be even stronger than Ash. I will also agree May knows Contests better than Ash does, but in a regular battle, she would stand almost no chance.
 
Ash > May > Misty > Brock > Tracey > Hikari > Max > Jessie/James

Ash conquered the Battle Frontier and May's strength was made very clear in her battle with Drew at the Kanto Grand Festival.

Misty is a Gym Leader and Brock was one. Both have shown good battle skills but Brock has had less chance to improve himself recently. He's still doing better than Tracey anyway.

I'm putting Max in because he has battled. From what we've seen, mainly in the Rustboro Training School episode, he needs experience before he reaches his potential. Hikari's low down for similar reasons but she'll definately get better battle strength soon enough. She is starting off at a higher level than May did.

Maybe it's a little unfair to put Jessie and James at the bottom but they are categorised as being weaker than they have the potential to be.

Rivals:

Shinji > Ash > Gary

It's clear that Shinji has the battle ability and his controversial releasing policy cetainly helps. Remember Ash and Gary debating Pokémon choice strategies back in Kanto? If Ash goes with his words there, he should be able to teach Shinji a few lessons. But for now, Shinji is showing himself on top for a reason.

Gary's position is due to Ash. I'm not sure where he would fit with Shinji.

Nozomi > Hikari

That's nothing unexpected since their arc has just begun.

Solidad > May > Drew > Harley

Pretty much what the Kanto Grand Festival showed. May treats Drew as more of a threat than Harley but she isn't at Solidad's level yet. Now she is back on track with her training, she should be back above Drew.

Wow, for my first thread in a few days that's a long reply.
 
I'd rank them as follows:

Ash and Gary are about the same level. As Doctor Oak said, Gary has been more consistent.

Brock: he has a lot of experience and knowledge.

Misty: After taking her role as a Gym Leader in Cerulean, she has now more experience as a pokémon trainer.

Tracey: battling is obviously not his thing, but he's competent enough.

May: her experience as a co-ordinator might help her, but any of the above people would beat her to a pulp in a normal pokémon battle.

James: agreed with Oak again, he's the best battler in the TR trio, is a shame he's stuck with them.

Jessie: to put it simply, she sucks. A whole other story if we talk about contests, though.

Not including Shinji and Hikari as it is too early to judge them both.


Edit: Oak, yes, Solidad is Saori.
 
All I know is that James could kick Jessie's ass in a fair Pokemon battle any day since he actually knows what he's doing. Years and years of collecting Pokemon cards pay off. He's also smarter and more down-to-earth than Jessie... Of course, that doesn't mean Jess isn't a decent battler once she familiarizes herself with her Pokemon. She's especially awesome in Contest-type battles. I mean, really, in the first D/P contest, she could've totally won if she didn't go against Nozomi. That's the thing about these two, they both have insane bad luck when the twerps and any of their friends/allies/rivals are involved.

Otherwise... uh, I don't tend to notice battle skill. I'm not into Pokemon for the battles, see. You'll have to excuse me. I assume "skills with Pokemon" ties into battles? Because if not, I could say something about Max, since he interacts with Pokemon a lot despite not being a trainer.
 
Jesse's got the style and charisma to be a great coordinator. The problem is that most of her Pokemon are melee fighters that aren't really suited for contests, and she can't ever quite get them to do the attacks quite the way she desires. With a better team she'd be equal to Harley, but Seviper and Wobuffet can't do appeals very well and Dustox doesn't have the stamina for battles.
 
Okay, let's start with Ash:

Decent battler, but mainly relies on instinct and burst of intelligence rather then pre-planned strategy. He's able to adapt easier to his surrounding, and seems to be able to handle a wide-array of Pokemon, andh he mainly seems to use alot of dodging and quick, powerful attacks. Pikachu, Charizard, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur are...sadly...probably his strongest.

Brock is a former Gym Leader, so naturally calling him a pushover isn't true. Most of his battles have mainly involved Onix as the real battler, so we don't know how good he is with his others, due to them not battling alot. His Contest battle showed he knows how to take advantage of the field and natural skills of his Pokemon though, and he also, like Doctor Oak said, knows alot of strategy. Hopefully DP will give him a bit more battles. I'd say Steelix is definately his strongest.

Misty seems to only excel in one type, and that is Water Pokemon. Of course, with the HUGE array of them, she has alot of options she can pull out. Most of her battles we saw her win were basically DEM-moments though (like beating Ash in the Whirl Cup, and beating Lickitung) with Psyduck, but she seems to be rather good with Corsola, Politoed, and Staryu specifically. And when you've got a frigging Ninja Star, no one messes with you.

May seems to be more skilled with the smaller variety of Pokemon, and is more "graceful" then Ash in battling. Her moves seem a bit more thought out, and slighly more "showy" then Ash, which is good for Contest obviously. Her main powerhouse definately seems to be her Blaziken.

Hikari...well, too early to tell XD, but we haven't seen her even win yet (except against some random dudes), so judgement is still out.

James seems to have quite a good hand with Grass Pokemon, and probably IS the best battler of the group. I'd definately say he could possibly beat the twerps with Carnivine, or if he had Weezing back.

Jessie has strong Pokemon (Seviper and Arbok always gave me the impression of being quite powerful...just on the wrong side), but lacks the skill to use them. Hell, her Wobbuffet could be killer if she knew how to use it.

So...I'd say Ash > May > Misty > Brock > James > Jessie > Hikari (only because she hasn't done anything yet).

I'd say a neato battle would be a round-robin tourney with Pikachu, Blaziken, Steelix, Politoed, Carnivine, and Seviper would be awesome.
 
This list assumes ideal conditions and non-contest battles with the best Pokemon each character has.

main group:
Ash
Brock
May
Misty
James
Jessie
Hikari (only because she's still so new)

rival comparisons:
Ash
Gary
Shinji

Solidad
May
Drew
Harley

Nozomi
Hikari

That last one is rather obvious at this point. :p

James is quite a competent battler when given the chance. Outside of contests, Jessie's battle skills are rather poor. And we all know Ash would make quick work of Shinji if he had his best Pokemon, although we also know that that isn't the point of the rivalry.
 
Please note: The thread is from 19 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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