Worst Isshu Gym Battle

[SammyW27]

With BW soon coming to an end and the Worst BW Episode thread, I got in the mood to make a poll about the Worst Gym Battle for fun and venting. And boy, what a crowded, competitive contest it should be!

I'm gonna go ahead and go with the Elesa battle. Ash did one stupid thing after another and then won it all with a cheap one hit KO. To add insult to injury, Elesa was the one who learned a lesson :-(

 

[Ashs Battle Coach]

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez this is gonna be tough.

Striaton one was bad since Pikachu got his ass handed to him by a water type, and Tepig won despite only knowing 2 weak moves.

I can't even remember the Lenora one that well, though I seem to recall Oshawott landing a fluke Aqua jet for the win, so there's that.

Arty was awful. Sewaddle evolving mid solar beam assault, with no hint of any previous training under Ash was rediculous, and the fact that he didn't use his flying type in a bug gym.

Elesa was absolutely terrible. The only thing he did right was use Palpitoad. But then he didn't bring anyone else to the battle, he used Snivy against a female Emolga, didn't (or couldn't, because he was an absolute moron here) switch out Palpitoad, and then Pikachu was having a nut for not being chosen or something. Was just a giant crapfest.

Clay was the best Gym up until this point. Was also Animated beautifully. I would have handled his 1st 2 pokes similarly, although would have recalled Oshawott after he beat Krokorok. I recall a lot of complaint with the Snivy/Palpitoad battle. Mainly with the use of Attract for the thousandth time, and that is understandable, but honestly it was exactly what I would have done. Didn't like Roggenrolla evolving and learning rock smash for the win, seemed all too DEM for me.

Skylar battle was ok, and for the 1st time I was ok with a gym battle Evo. Plus Ash proving her wrong with her whole Sky battles thing was a decent plot point. Would have liked to see Krokorok get the win though.

Brycen battle was another good one. The way he beat Beartic was good ole creative Ash, plus it was Scraggy's first Gym. Only complaint was Scraggy landing a lucky focus blast shot. Otherwise was all good

The Rosie battle was unbelievably stupid in my opinion. This is the last Gym before the league, the last real challenge, where you're suppose to be on your A game (and before anyone says WJC, no, just no). And here we have Ash use 6 while she only uses 3, and it taking him all of his to beat hers, and she even healed one of his pokemon from poison. It made Ash look weak, definitely not league ready (though lets be honest, he came across in the league that way anyway). So its really a toss up between this one and Elesa.

I think I'll go with Elesa, because of Ash complete stupidity

 

[Darth Darkrai]

Elesa HANDS DOWN WORST GYM BATTLE OF THE REGION. ALSO WAS THE WORST ONE IN HISTORY IN MY OPNION OK.

 

[Sakuraa]

The battle against Elesa was the worst and pretty much disliked everything about it.

Ash spends hours supposedly coming up with a badass strategy that's supposed to destroy Elesa. Then it turns out that that strategy was to bring only ONE Pokémon to battle with. Ash has never only brought only ONE Pokémon to battle with for any gym battle.

The Palpitoad vs. Zebstrika battle was the only good battle in this episode. Ash had to leave the gym after Palpitoad fainted to get Snivy just to use attract, which failed. So either Ash forgot how attract worked, he didn't know Palpitoad's gender, or he forgot Snivy's gender (which would be ridiculous since there was a whole episode focusing on this). Also obviously Snivy's grass moves do nothing to Emolga so she faints and Ash ruins Snivy's first gym battle. Then Ash goes crazy trying to figure out which Pokémon to use against Emolga and we need Pikachu shock therapy to remind him of the strategy he's lived by since day one. Then Pikachu knocks out Emolga and later Tympole both with one hit each, which just let Pikachu basically be the hero of this entire battle even though Ash had other Pokémon that could have taken this position. Not to mention that Pikachu had previously won the Burgh battle for Ash.

I truly find this to be the worst gym battle in the history of the show.

 

[Ambipom666]

The battle against Elsea is particularly bad since Ash is supposed to come off as oh so competent but he makes several stupid mistakes along the way. It's like we're getting this message that this is the most we can expect out of Ash. (Thankfully, there are some battles later on the saga where Ash is genuinely competent, like his league battle with Stephan.)

The battle with the Roxie definitely takes the cake. If your answer to the question "Why can't Ash win in an even, unassisted fight, on his own merits?" is "Well Roxie is too strong", congratulations, you're figured out the writers made Roxie overpowered.

Some argue that 6-on-3 is perfectly fine since that's how it is in the games, but the anime has never done it this way before the battle with Roxie, and rightfully so. (Evenness allows skill to be better demonstrated, and prevents one from winning just by virtue of having more manpower.) I'm also scratching my head at how Roxie uses Pokémon and moves that Poison her opponents but then she turns around and cures said opponents because she thinks fighting them in their poisoned states isn't fun. She may as well avoid moves that Poison altogether.

 

[Hidden Mew]

This seems more fitting for the Contest section, so I'll move it there.

As for me, I think that Ash's battle with Elesa was the worst, followed by Roxie in a good close second. Ash spent a good portion of time trying to prepare for his battle with Elesa, but ended up relying completely on Palpitoad to the point where he didn't bring any other Pokemon with him besides it and Pikachu. That was just terrible. Using Palpitoad was a good move, but they just made Ash look like a complete idiot for thinking that he could defeat a Gym Leader's three Pokemon with just one. Leaving the field to go get Snivy was horrible and honestly, Ash should have been disqualified from the battle by that point for leaving the match. Plus, Snivy was a poor matchup for Emolga and Ash clearly didn't know what he was doing in that battle. Pikachu having to shock Ash in order for it to be used was annoying and I absolutely hated how it knocked out Tynamo with just one move after it was hyped up like it was her best Pokemon. It was just a horrible battle.

Roxie's match is a good close second because even with a huge advantage, Ash was down to his last Pokemon against Roxie's three Pokemon. It did make Roxie look like a strong trainer, which was most likely the goal so that kids would want to face her in B2/W2, but it made Ash look like he was no where ready for the Unova League and that his Pokemon were seriously underdeveloped. Giving Ash a huge advantage, healing Pignite's Poison status and then having the victory at the end come down to a lucky break with Pikachu's Static just made the whole battle unsatisfying, especially when they were just holding Ash's hand and giving him a badge that he really didn't deserve. I still think that Elesa's battle made Ash look much more incompetent, while the battle with Roxie made him look weak and unprepared for the Unova League, so that's basically why it's still the worst out of the Unova Gyms for me.

 

[Darth Darkrai]

I do not know why the Battle Against Burgh was horrible I actually thought it was a good Battle to me at least and what is up with the complaint about Sewaddle Evolving Ash Bonded pretty well with it in it's Debut to me at least AS WELL HERE.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I do not know why the Battle Against Burgh was horrible I actually thought it was a good Battle to me at least and what is up with the complaint about Sewaddle Evolving Ash Bonded pretty well with it in it's Debut to me at least AS WELL HERE.

The problem I had with that match was how cheap all of Ash's victories were. I could kind of go with Sewaddle's first victory, but then evolving to defeat Whirlipede and needing to be taken out by Levanny's Hyper Beam made it look much stronger than it actually was. Sewaddle did bond with Ash pretty well in its capture episode, but after that, they didn't really seem too close. Besides that, Sewaddle evolves into Swadloon by gaining experience, not by happiness, and Sewaddle didn't have any experience prior to its battle with Ash. It was just plain cheap.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

Elesa's Gym hands down. It was bad enough they had some underlying message speaking against proper strategy that would've made the original series proud but turning Ash into a total moron and the general absurdity about the battles did it in for me. It didn't help this episode came after the absolutely horrid anime!Bianca and her father episode meant to further hype Elesa up but instead made me ask "who is this always happy and eccentric person?"

Worse off, was the part with Tynamo. I love those guys but I'm not so blinded by that to ignore they're NO WHERE NEAR that fast or heavy hitting. It was irritating to watch.

A good second is the Roxie battle meant to hype BW2 and ride off Roxie's large popularity after her reveal. They even had Eri Kitamura voice her so that's saying something. But the problem with the gym battle was... It made her look far better than she actually was (like at all), a raging ego maniac giving her pitiful opponents freebies to give her a good fight. It also did far more than make Ash look "far from ready for the league", it made him look weak and unprepared and plain out pathetic come the Season 2 since he (similar to his Kanto incarnation) did little to actually/actively improve upon his faults.

 

[Life]

I really can't decide, all of them were bad.

Pikachu losing to Cress at the Striaton gym was honestly unbelievable, especially after Oshawott defeating Pansage. Although Cress had a good strategy, it was still unbelievable after seeing Pikachu able to take down a Latios.

His battle against Lenora wasn't actually to bad, and his rematch win sat fine with me considering all the intense training he put in with Tepig and Oshawott. Burgh's battle was medicore at best. It's understandable that Tepig was taken out by Dwebble's rock type attacks, but having Sewaddle come in to take it out wasn't believe either. He was weak to both rock and bug type attacks, and than weak to poison when Whirlipede was brought out.

Elesa... I'm not going to touch that. All I'm going to say is shame on Ash for not using Roggenrola.

Ash's battle with Clay was ok, until the end. The fact that Boldore took out his Excadrill, who was hyped-up to be basically wipe out a whole team, was insane. Even after learning Rock Smash, I find it somewhat hard to believe. I honestly would have preferred that Scraggy was used here instead of Roggenrola due to it's type advantage against his Krokorok and Excadrill. It would have been smarter. His battle with Skyla was, in my opinion, his win to begin with in the 'Air Battle'. Krokorok had an advantage against Swoobat due to Dark > Psychic, and also having Stone Edge under his belt. Pikachu had already won the Air Match against Skyla's Swanna, which leaves the loss with Ash's Tranquil against Skyla's Unfezant. The battle was actually not bad, but having Tranquil having to evolve to beat Unfezant took some of the satisfactory out of that episode.

Brycen... I actually thought this battle was OK for the most part. Pignite and Scraggy did their job, and considering Brycen's Beartic had Aerial Ace, their loss was believable. Krokorok vs. Beartic... Well I honesty could have seen that going either way, so that win was fine for me.

And finally Roxie, we actually got some strategy out of Ash here, although it was limited. It would have been nice in this saga if Ash caught a Steel type he could have used here, but oh well, that's besides the point. Seeing static was actually nice considering how little it was shown throughout BW. Overall, I honestly found no problem with this battle, and I thought of it to be the most entertaining one as well.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Probably this guy:

Spoiler

He's the most bland GL in BW.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Probably this guy:

Spoiler

He's the most bland GL in BW.

This thread is about the worst Gym battle, not the worst Gym Leader. Personally, I liked Cheren. I thought that they did a decent job with his personality, but I also had really low expectations. The battle was pretty bad and still made Ash look like a weak trainer, but there wasn't any reason for Ash to win. It was strange that he wanted to battle Cheren, but showed no interest in battling Drayden or Marlon though.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

This thread is about the worst Gym battle, not the worst Gym Leader.

Didn't he battled with Satoshi?

 

[Hidden Mew]

Didn't he battled with Satoshi?

Yes and if you read my whole post, you would have known that I talked about the battle. The problem is that your post didn't even mention the battle, let alone explain anything about it, and simply said that Cheren was the most bland Gym Leader in BW. That isn't the topic at all and I was trying to point that out to you.

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

I can't decide between the battles between Elesa/Kamitsure and Roxie/Homika. They are both so horrible that it's just too tough to decide.

On one hand, you have the battle against Elesa where Ash acted more like a dumbass than ever before when he asked to get his Snivy. It was a slap in the face because it showed us the writers really had no intention of letting Ash grow and had really regressed him. *Facepalms*

On the other hand, the battle against Homika/Roxie is HORRIFIC. I'm sorry, even Ash showing us how stupid he has become again and how much he's devolved in intelligence is better than "hurdurdur I'm gonna scan a Dogasu/Koffing...I battled freaking Kojiro/James' Weezing and his Koffing prior to that asdfjkl; times!" That's not even the issue with the 8th gym battle I had. Seriously, Ash had 6, I mean SIX, Pokémon against Roxie's measly 3...THREE, people. THREE.

It was a SIX on THREE battle, and Ash STILL almost lost. Seriously, how friggin pathetic is that? One was a KOFFING! That's not even a strong Pokémon! >_> Even the battle against Elesa is decent compared to Roxie's.

So yeah, the battle against Roxie/Homika is THE worst in my book, but the battle against Kamitsure/Elesa is a VERY close second.

Probably this guy:

Spoiler

He's the most bland GL in BW.

How could I forget about him? Oh, that's right, he's so bland I don't even count him! XD.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I can't decide between the battles between Elesa/Kamitsure and Roxie/Homika. They are both so horrible that it's just too tough to decide.

On one hand, you have the battle against Elesa where Ash acted more like a dumbass than ever before when he asked to get his Snivy. It was a slap in the face because it showed us the writers really had no intention of letting Ash grow and had really regressed him. *Facepalms*

On the other hand, the battle against Homika/Roxie is HORRIFIC. I'm sorry, even Ash showing us how stupid he has become again and how much he's devolved in intelligence is better than "hurdurdur I'm gonna scan a Dogasu/Koffing...I battled freaking Kojiro/James' Weezing and his Koffing prior to that asdfjkl; times!" That's not even the issue with the 8th gym battle I had. Seriously, Ash had 6, I mean SIX, Pokémon against Roxie's measly 3...THREE, people. THREE.

It was a SIX on THREE battle, and Ash STILL almost lost. Seriously, how friggin pathetic is that? One was a KOFFING! That's not even a strong Pokémon! >_> Even the battle against Elesa is decent compared to Roxie's.

So yeah, the battle against Roxie/Homika is THE worst in my book, but the battle against Kamitsure/Elesa is a VERY close second.

Honestly, I don't see how it's so bad that Ash scanned Koffing. Yeah, he battled James' Koffing/Weezing, but that was hundreds of episodes ago and James' Koffing evolved just before Ash got his Soul Badge if I recall correctly, so it's not like he was that familiar with it. Besides that, a lot of the kids watching now probably didn't see Koffing, especially if BW is their first series, so whenever Ash scans a Pokemon he already knows about, it's for the audience to learn about it rather than a sign of Ash's attention. Admittedly, I liked it more when May and Dawn scanned the older Pokemon instead, but I've never had a problem with Ash doing that and he doesn't look stupid to me for scanning Koffing.

The battle with Elesa, on the other hand, does make him look like a complete idiot. I don't think that Kanto Ash would have made a mistake that stupid and that's saying a lot. I still prefer the battle with Roxie in a way since at least Ash did have a couple of decent strategies, even though his team still came off as underdeveloped, and Roxie looked like a good trainer, despite being ridiculously overpowered. The battle with Elesa makes Ash look a lot worse in my opinion.

How could I forget about him? Oh, that's right, he's so bland I don't even count him! XD.

I thought that Cheren was okay, or at least better than I thought that they would handle his B2/W2 personality. Technically speaking, it wasn't even a real Gym battle. It was a special one-on-one match with a Gym Leader since Cheren was still getting used to his new role and I don't think that the field was completed until just before the match. That's probably why it isn't mentioned on this poll.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

He even scanned Charmander. That's something he always do.

 

[Shinneth]

Yeah... I voted Elesa, too. As it's been said, nearly every single thing Ash did in that battle (and planned for that battle) was irredeemably stupid; so stupid, in fact, that I think even Kanto-era Ash wouldn't have done something like, say, think he could win the whole thing with only ONE Pokemon. Much less actually go through with that retarded plan. Pikachu/Tynamo was also bad and they should feel bad for being so bad. >:| Literally the only thing I liked about the Elesa battle was the referee giving Ash some attitude for his incompetence. XD It just makes me feel better when legitimate bullshit stupidity is pointed out and ragged on in Best Wishes, given how rare it is for such a thing to happen (or at least have it happen and have it be relevant - at bare minimum amusing, which is what the ref biz here was).

But that was definitely not enough to make up for all the bullshit that battle was. That there is a gym battle that is PAINFUL to watch... at least it is for me.

Roxie's battle is definitely a close second for me, though. Plenty of dumb shit happened in that battle despite the sparks of strategy and maaaaan was I shaking my head when I saw Roxie deliberately heal Ash's poisoned Pokemon. Roxie, if you care that much about Pokemon battling at their peak condition all the time, maybe you shouldn't have been a goddamn specialist of a type specifically meant for making a Pokemon weaker. Roxie being an egomaniac is literally the only reason a goddamned 6-on-3 battle even happened. There's a reason it never happened in the series before then: IT'S A STUPID IDEA. 8th gym battles are supposed to demonstrate how much Ash has progressed since he started his journey; Roxie's battle utterly failed to do that, and only proved Ash was nowhere near ready for the League and this kind of shit is exactly why Ash regressed in his ranking there. Making Roxie ridiculously overpowered did not make Ash's 2:1 odds any less shitty of a concept, especially since it did take all 6 of Ash's Pokemon to beat her 3. Was it really worth overglorifying Roxie to make Ash look utterly terrible just before the League? Really, Roxie's personality alone and her awesome band stage/gym was promotion enough. They went waaaay overboard in powering up Roxie.

The other gym battles... eh, most of them I greatly dislike but haven't fucked up on the huge scale that the aforementioned two did. I will say, though, Skyla's stupid-ass air battles would've been a lot more poignant if Ash hadn't already given the middle finger to type logic multiple times in BW before he even met Skyla. Since he has and continues to be quite an idiot about determining which types to use against what, Skyla's gimmick felt like some bizarre justification for Ash to keep going on with type disadvantages whenever he battles. Oh yeah, and it was one of the battles that had a last-minute mid-battle evolution for a Pokemon Ash barely uses just so he could win the battle.

And while Clay's battle was mostly okay, the combination of Roggenrola evolving to win the battle + learning a lame "new" move + the anime's interpretation of the Sturdy ability which logically makes it REALLY FUCKING BROKEN... left a sour taste in my mouth. Yeah.

I only remember the Burgh battle for two things: stupid mid-battle evolution being needed to win, and being extraordinarily boring.

... okay yeah, done grumping about now.

 

[SammyW27]

On the other hand, the battle against Homika/Roxie is HORRIFIC. I'm sorry, even Ash showing us how stupid he has become again and how much he's devolved in intelligence is better than "hurdurdur I'm gonna scan a Dogasu/Koffing...I battled freaking Kojiro/James' Weezing and his Koffing prior to that asdfjkl; times!"

It had been over ten years since he'd fought a Koffing. Heck, the little kids watching probably hadn't seen or even heard of one before that. Please remember that not everyone watching Pokémon has been watching & keeping up since Day 1 (there are some parts I missed!)

He even scanned Charmander. That's something he always do.

Gotta use that thing on a Pokémon at least once a generation to fill in the newer fans! ;-)

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

On the other hand, the battle against Homika/Roxie is HORRIFIC. I'm sorry, even Ash showing us how stupid he has become again and how much he's devolved in intelligence is better than "hurdurdur I'm gonna scan a Dogasu/Koffing...I battled freaking Kojiro/James' Weezing and his Koffing prior to that asdfjkl; times!" That's not even the issue with the 8th gym battle I had. Seriously, Ash had 6, I mean SIX, Pokémon against Roxie's measly 3...THREE, people. THREE.

It had been over ten years since he'd fought a Koffing. Heck, the little kids watching probably hadn't seen or even heard of one before that. Please remember that not everyone watching Pokémon has been watching & keeping up since Day 1 (there are some parts I missed!)

Fair enough, but the part that bugs me is how it was 6 on 3 battle, and Ash STILL almost lost it. That's just so sad. It was his 8th gym no less. I could forgive his stupidity in the 4th against Elesa for four reasons: (a) he was facing her with the same # of Pokémon vs. the same # of Pokémon, (b) it wasn't the ending of a season no less (BWS1), (c) his Pokémon were not at their most developed given it was the middle of BW Season 1 at the time of that battle, and (d) it wasn't the last gym battle to qualify for the league.

At that point, the crap that ensued in Ash's battle against Roxie is just unforgivable in my book. The battles against Giovanni EDIT: goofed this one, it was just TRio which is almost as bad as this one; Clair, Juan, and Volkner seemed like fitting gym battles to obtain the 8th gym badge. Roxie's is the only one that was not.

Don't get me wrong, I hated the 4th gym battle just as much as many of you do, but taking everything into account, the 8th simply receives my vote for being such a terrible gym battle.

Add to that the fact that one of the three Pokémon he had to defeat was merely a Koffing. Given the six Pokémon he had in his arsenal, at least five could take it down easily.

As for the others besides the 4th and the 8th, I'm fine with them myself.