#xyz034

Shota also said something about Talonflame, who specializes in speed, being beatable if you can stop its movements even for an instance. So I guess despite melting off the Ice the delay allowed Shota to probably counter attack?  I mean Talonflame falling to one Aqua Jet wasn’t too bad anyway since its super effective and game base powers don’t apply but I guess it’s nice that they’re pretty much explaining Shota’s counter strategies against each Mon, it’ll add to the impact of Goodra’s surprise.

After rewatching Hawlucha VS Slaking, I’m happy to note that the characters actually do explain that Slaking is simply looking unfanzed as like a poker face thing, and that it will eventually go down if this keeps up, even factoring in Slack Off.  Had Counter failed to KO Hawlucha in one hit Ash would’ve never given Shota the opportunity to use it again, and given how Flying Press is probably its strongest move in the anime (I know High Jump Kick is technically stronger but Flying Press is its signature) it made sense to wait until he used it, no matter how long it took. So Hawlucha getting OHKO’d, while a shame, is the only way Shota’s strategy could succeed, and it actually serves as a testament to HAWLUCHA’s strength given that it was the damage of its own attack doubled. But the damage it did still remained in the next fight even though Slaking recovered some of it, enough that Talonflame’s Flame Charge + Brave Bird KO’ing Slaking is justifiable imo (Talonflame also mitigated a part of the final Slack Off with a direct Steel Wing beforehand, so more of Hawlucha’s efforts remained).

NO ONE SURVIVES BRAVE BIRD, NO OOOOONE If Luchabro can beat a Mega and lose to Slaking I bet Talonflame could KO any Mega with Brave Bird, the pwr.  I LOVED HAWLUCHA’S ENTRANCE THOUGH, kind of a shame that it lost after that but damn that was cool. I also love how it asked Serena itself. Anyway, pretty nice first half for the battle but I’m pretty sure next week will blow it away lol. I love my birds but Pikachu’s parts were actually the best, so much quick paced movement and I loved the throwback to Ash VS Clemont with Pikachu escaping from Clawitzer’s claw with Electro Ball. Alan apparently only using Charizard and Metagross in the league has me SLIGHTLY worried but it doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be a Tobias. Because: 1: Ash Greninja is on equal grounds with Charizard, meaning Ash won’t have to sacrifice multiple Pokemon like he did with Dakrai, besides Alan isn’t going to use Charizard (the Mega at least) until he’s either forced to or Ash brings out Greninja, because Alan WANTS to fight Greninja with Zard. And Zard being OP was no secret with it defeating 10 Megas including an Elite 4 member in a row, but again, Greninja can match its power so it’s not the same as Darkrai. 2: In this episode we saw that Alan’s Metagross had gotten knocked out, meaning it’s likely not overwhelmingly strong like Zard is, Alan has gotten away with using so few Pokemon so far because he simply spams Charizard, his entire team doesn’t need to be overpowered, and we know at least 4 of them are battling Ash anyway and the ep is at least a two parter so I’m fairly confident it’ll be a full 6v6 and that Ash will win :]. Anyway, yeah, enjoyed the episode, feels good to have a two parter battle for the first time in years, though having one half of it and having to wait for the rest is going to soooo painful, let us stay strong~