Thread: Start of the league

Originally Posted by AlphaMouse

It is balanced in terms of types, but in the anime Eeveelutions are generally portrayed as fast Pokémon with low defense. Ergo, Virgil's team will just have that sort of Pokémon, and a few tanks like Boldore could take it down.

Pretty much acknowledged exceptions can and will happen. Haruka's Glacia would take hits to use Mirror Coat, and when have we seen several eeveelutions in the same battle all fast and frail? It's just been when they've been showcased by themselves.

Also going to throw in that Gantle has fallen to fast Pokémon before such as in the double battle against Bel and Araragi, as well as against Dogas.

Originally Posted by Iteru

Originally Posted by AlphaMouse

It is balanced in terms of types, but in the anime Eeveelutions are generally portrayed as fast Pokémon with low defense. Ergo, Virgil's team will just have that sort of Pokémon, and a few tanks like Boldore could take it down.

Pretty much acknowledged exceptions can and will happen. Haruka's Glacia would take hits to use Mirror Coat, and when have we seen several eeveelutions in the same battle all fast and frail? It's just been when they've been showcased by themselves.

Also going to throw in that Gantle has fallen to fast Pokémon before such as in the double battle against Bel and Araragi, as well as against Dogas.

I doubt that you could explain Leafeon's defensive power in the anime, so I think that they'll be portrayed similarly.

The points about May's Glaceon and Gantle are fair and it would be good to see one of the Eeveelutions using Mirror Coat. As far as Gantle losing to fast Pokémon is concerned, he has generally been a punchbag in the series, and I hope that he can redeem himself here. Fast Pokémon do often work their way around defensive opponents, but also some defensive ones (like Paul's Magmortar) do often just take the hits and do some real damage later on.

Either way I don't think that Virgil can beat Ash.

Just because individual members of a pokemon species have lost quickly in past battles does not mean that all members of that species won't do well in battle. For example, compare Paul's Electivire, to let's say, Gary or Volkner's, and you will see that some of them have lasted longer in battle than others. It does not mean that all of these pokemon were not trained successfully or they lacked battle experience. Because Paul was the main rival in DP and his Electivire had been built up as a counterpart to Ash's Infernape, Paul's Electivire had to be powerful enough to get Infernape to use Blaze for the win.

Meanwhile, Gary's role in DP was practically nonexistent, and the writers only gave him an Electivire in late AG so that Ash can taste a little of what the Sinnoh region had to offer him before he went there himself. That Electivire was defeated relatively quickly by Jupiter's Toxicroak because Gary really didn't have a purpose in the Team Galactic finale, and Team Galactic needed to obtain the three lake guardians so they could summon Dialga and Palkia.

Similarly, Volkner's main pokemon in the anime and Infernape's main gym battle opponent was Luxray, the strongest pokemon on his DP game team. The writers decided to give Volkner an Electivire and had one of Ash's other pokemon take it down quickly so most of the time allotted for that gym battle could be focused on that final match-up.

The writers had done the same for Ash when he competed in his first regional league competition. Ash mostly used unevolved or partially evolved pokemon during the first four rounds of the Indigo League. Even though all of his opponents were much older and more experienced than he was, Ash and his team still had the upper hand during the majority of these battles. Ash's Krabby-Kingler, who practically had no battle experience and was not used by Ash at all until that point, defeated all three of its opponents during the first round. Ash's Bulbasaur, despite having a type disadvantage, effortlessly defeated a Scyther and a Beedrill all by itself in another round.

One could say that a Krabby or a Bulbasaur, or any unevolved pokemon for that matter, would be at a disadvantage when it is up against a fully evolved pokemon. Instances in which unevolved pokemon belonging to the main characters have triumphed over fully evolved ones is evidence that the writers can make the pokemon as powerful as they want for the sake of the plot.

It is because that this is a cartoon, a work of fiction, that any character can be deemed as powerful as necessary to move the plot along. If the writers want Virgil to make it far in the Unova League, and if they want Virgil to only use the Eevee line during this tournament, then they will make his Eeveelutions very powerful for that purpose.

Since we're finally seeing the end of Team Rocket, I can see Ash winning this league. Even with only Unova Pokemon, there will probably be 2-3 more evos either before the league or actually during it, and I can see them having him win.

Originally Posted by The Fighting Misty

Since we're finally seeing the end of Team Rocket, I can see Ash winning this league. Even with only Unova Pokemon, there will probably be 2-3 more evos either before the league or actually during it, and I can see them having him win.

You can see, it doesn't mean it will happen.

Originally Posted by The Fighting Misty

Since we're finally seeing the end of Team Rocket, I can see Ash winning this league. Even with only Unova Pokemon, there will probably be 2-3 more evos either before the league or actually during it, and I can see them having him win.

Why do you keep writing that? Just because Team Rocket(Who hasn't really been doing much in this series in the first place) might be kicked off doesn't mean that Ash will win a this league after all these years or that the show is coming to an end.