
Agreed. I remember thinking back in late 2010 that his Frillish was going to be quite an important member of Trip's team, given how unstoppable they depicted it as in its debut battle. But, eh....
I can actually see Pikachu taking down Trip's Serperior in the end. I'm having a hard time visualising how they'd pull it off exactly, but it would bring things full circle given that Pikachu got his arse royally kicked by it as a Snivy.
But Ash didn't face anyone more than once in the Johto League; it would be boring if he were to battle Trip twice in the same event. Besides, the only way neither Ash nor Trip would be eliminated in a round-robin tournament with three matches, would be if they each won exactly once. If that happened, the third person in the group wouldn't be eliminated, either, which would defeat the purpose of the entire round and complicate the rest of the tournament.

Originally Posted by Linkara
Wow. They're already going with Ash vs. Trip. That does make me think that the Unova League will probably be short and Ash probably won't get that far, which would work for me. I don't know how well the battle could be if it's just a three on three match, but I'm kind of glad that they're aren't going for a full battle between the two.
Ash is obviously going to get far, I don't know why the hell people think Ash is going to lose 2-3 episodes into a league tournament.
They're going for his battle with Trip as the first match of the League instead of something like the first or second full battle match. That, along with his Unova team, doesn't make the idea of Ash getting far in the League extremely likely to me. I certainly can't see him get to the Top 4 again, at least in a believable manner. I don't think that he'll lose two or three episodes into the Unova League, but I don't think he's going to win a lot of battles after his match against Trip. They'll probably save his defeat for either the first or second six on six battle of the Unova League.
Now how does THAT make any sense? He still has 4 more rivals to battle afterward so what does that have to do with anything?
Not to mention we'll probably see montages of skipped COTD battles like usual.
Trip has been shown, or at least attempted to be shown as, the main rival for Ash, and he tends to lose the match after defeating the main rival. There are other rivals, but they haven't been treated as supposed main rivals for Ash. Even though Trip being the main rival sounds like a stretch given how they've handled the rivalry, that is the impression I've gotten through their battles and the promotion for the Junior Cup. Now, I don't think that he's going to lose after this battle, but I don't imagine him getting that far in the Unova League either.
Geez, Shooty is going out in a beginning one-on-one battle?! It's like the writers have gone "Well, if Isshu's going to be remembered as a season of suck, we're going to make it really suck!'
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