Thread: Strongest battler of Ash's friends? Cilan Vs. May Vs. Brock Vs. Misty Vs. Iris, etc.

Well, I'm in between Misty,May,Dawn,and Cilan. May have a pretty good team. Misty and Cilan got battling experiences. Dawn doing pretty well. And May done something that Dawn wasn't able to do like defeating Zoey. So I choose, May.

Originally Posted by Blue1225

Why didn't you add any of Ash's rivals? He's friends with all of them.

Out of the ones you have i'd say May. Easily. lol, like Karpi said she's got a pretty stacked team. We've seen that she doesn't need Ash around to succeed.

Not all of Ash's rivals are friends with him. Two of Ash's rivals were his foes. One is a certain trainer that express cruelity towards pokemon. The other one has the hobby of photography.

It's quite tough to call who would be the stronger battler out of May and Dawn. Of course, they've both performed very well in contests (a little too well, but they're main characters so...) and Dawn did win the Wallace Cup which May participated in which almost qualifies as direct evidence.
But then, battling is not exactly the same as contests or there'd be no point in having a separate system. May does have objectively stronger Pokemon than Dawn possesses, but that doesn't necessarily mean shes the better battler. I voted Dawn in the poll, but almost immediately regretted it and now I think May probably edges her out slightly.

I cant decide but here is my opinion on each of them.

Cilan:we didnt see him battling much but assuming he had lot of battling experience as gym leader as well b taking in account good use of strategy he would be one of better battlers out there.

May:didnt battled much in real trainer battles which could represent handicap for her in those kind of matches but she showed impressive skill and combination of techniques in contest battling rounds with her style as coordinator being similar to battling style Ash used in gyms with some things going in her favor.She also has quite a few good powerhouses like Blaziken,Venusaur or Glaceon with others not being too shabby either.Definitely among top ones judging by what she showed so far.

Brock:unfortunately while he has impressive collection of pokemon like Steelix,Crobat,Marshtamp etc his battling skills rusty over time barely battling after he left his gym leader position being mainly focused on taking care of pokemon being breeder.
He did showed some good moves like when battling May in contest round but we get to see with his lane performance vs inspector Joy recently that lack of frequent battling for long time left its mark.

Misty: is the only girl until Iris,which wasnt complete beginner when she started traveling with Ash,she is gym leader and her aim is to become water master trying to overcome their disadvantage preparing them for anything,during course of series having some impressive battles and wins like winning Princess tournament,Seaking contest,managed to top 8 in Whirl Cup(which has very strong competition),and some of her pokemon like Staryu are one of her strongest pokemon displaying strength vs Mollys Mantine(which was stronger than usual because of unown).She also has that powerhouse Gyarados,versatile Staryu and Corsola and well trained Politoad having a lot of battling experience.

She definitely shouldnt be underestimated being among better group.

Dawn:showed impressive knowledge and use of her experience as coordinator and has some good pokemon like Quilava or Mamoswine.However problem is she doesnt have much experience in real pokemon battles and while same thing could be said for May in her advantage goes fact that she mimic Ash style when battling gym leaders with different kind of battling in contests giving her edge.

That and Dawn didnt showed outside from contests some impressive use of skill when battling against regular trainers like Brock at times,Misty or Cilan did.
Some combinations which are used in contests gaining points wouldnt end up very effective in normal battles.

Iris:aside from competent and quite powerful Excadrill other members of her team like Emolga and Axew didnt showed much going for them for now and due to Iris not having so much battling experience like some other characters she isnt one of strongest Ash companions at moment.
Sure mole did beat 99 opponents but we dont know how good they were and this was local tournament with other characters like May,Misty etc winning them too entering tournaments with even higher competition.

Tracey:possibly weakest battler out of all Ash friends.He almost never battled being watcher which explains his lack of interest for battling not having particularly good team.Scyther is his best bet but he is quite old being prone to tyre very fast.

So in my opinion strongest battler out of Ash friends is either May or Misty basing on what has been showed so far,.If we count of screen battling experience and knowledge Cilan could fit in that group too but until he shows more of his abilities as battler i will stay restrained due to lack of info.

DAWN INVENTED COUNTER SHIELD GUYS! And as for May's team being evolved: evolution isn't that good in the show(much to my dismay no pun intended). Dawn watched the rivalry between Ash and Paul while May saw Ash against no one until the league really. Also May saw Ash say "screw types Pikachu use thunderbolt" about a billion times and how many times did he say that in DP. Since Ash is the league entering trainer who was traveling with them for long periods of time he had a lot of influence on them. Therefore since Ash was strongest in DP Dawn>May because of strategy. That make sense.

Although debatably Misty is stronger cause she beat Kingler(for the most part by itself) who beat Mandi who qualified for the league. But I already gave Dawn my vote.

Whoever the writers want to be the strongest.

I'm quite surprised Iris hasn't been mentioned at all. At this point I would say May, given how powerful her team is. At the end of the day though, it'll probably still be May, probably Iris and Cilan.

Dawn's the best. May just had a journey before Dawn did, making her the senior. Put them side by side, and Dawn would beat May down all day and night. Her insights and skills taught Ash how to overcome Gym Leaders. That and May, in comparison, was whiny and didn't make her GF finals.

Originally Posted by Torterrius

Dawn's the best. May just had a journey before Dawn did, making her the senior. Put them side by side, and Dawn would beat May down all day and night.

Care to provide any examples? Dawn's team never gave me the impression they're any particularly stronger than May's. Some of them are equal, while others seem roughly the same or less. Even Dawn's Mamoswine, which was supposed to be a powerhouse, never really gave that impression and just kind of slouched around in Contests, even being played the fool in the Ursula matches.

Her insights and skills taught Ash how to overcome Gym Leaders.

She came up with a spinning dodge and one other technique, this is hardly ground breaking. Dawn already got beat pretty badly by Maylene, and I seriously doubt she could beat any of the other Sinnoh Gym leaders, even with the team she has now.

That and May, in comparison, was whiny and didn't make her GF finals.

What does being whiny (which isn't even true), have to do with anything? Likewise, you're actually telling me Dawn getting into the finals of a Grand Festival that was purposely made easy for her is her being stronger? Really?

Dawn literally breezed through her Grand Festival against no truly strong opponents. Her only on-screen wins is a cheap match against Ursula and a 30 second battle where she fights Jessie of all people in the semi-finals. How sad is it that Dawn's Grand Festival was structured so poorly that she had no struggles in it at all?

Dawn didn't get into the finals because she was truly skilled (she also would have definitely lost against Nando if she battled him), she only got there because the writers knew they were axing the Contests from the anime and wanted a main character to hit the finals. Dawn's GF standing was because she battled a bunch of rookies, not because she was strong.

And then there's that cheapass Togekiss, which also ruined the Zoey match.

Strongest battler:

Neither May or Dawn. The only reason why they performed as well as they did was because they had plot advantage. They were main characters and therefor supposed to win.

Iris: Excadril is pretty strong, but Axew and the electric squirrel aren't. Also too early to tell.

Tracey: When did he ever battle...

Cilan may have experience battling in the Gym, but lacks travel experience. Doesn't qualify as strongest at this time.

Misty is a strong contender for the title. She traveled and has a killer Gyrados. However she has been out of sight for a long time and therefor it is difficult to really judge how strong she currently is as a gym leader.

Brock, the comic relief and at the same time by far the most experienced trainer/breeder/future doctor of all those mentioned.

Brock has a collection of killer pokes: Sudowoodo, Crogunk, chansey, marshtomp, Forretress, Ludicolo, Steelix, Crobat and Geodude.

While previously the leader of a Rock Type gym during his travels he gathered a good number of pokemon which can counter many, if not all, types of pokemon. The only reason he lost during the DP series was because of the plot depicting the tensions between the rivals Ash and Paul.

Brock is in my opinion a highly underestimated trainer, yet by far the strongest trainer of all those listed.

Misty. Because on more than one occassion she did beat Ash. In fact I think the only battle Ash fully beat her in was the one for Totodile.

Misty, she's a gym leader!

Originally Posted by GWrando

Misty. Because on more than one occassion she did beat Ash. In fact I think the only battle Ash fully beat her in was the one for Totodile.

That must be one of the most shallow lines of reasoning I've seen. Brock beat Ash when he first challenged the gym, but does that make Brock stronger than Ash?

Misty is a gym leader and probably a capable one, but afaik your reasoning that Misty beat Ash on several occasions has no basis in facts. We know she took over the gym, but we haven't seen her battle in the later series so it is impossible to judge her strength.

I am going my with previous assessment that Brock is the most powerful of those listed.

got to be May because she was so close to getting 2 GFs

Originally Posted by GWrando

Misty. Because on more than one occassion she did beat Ash. In fact I think the only battle Ash fully beat her in was the one for Totodile.

On more than one occasion? I only remember her beating him in the Whirl Cup due to Psyduck.

Their only other matches was Cerulean Gym where it looked like Ash was about to win had TR not interrupted, the Bulbasaur Vs. Psyduck joke battle for Togepi where Ash won, and then the battle for Totodile, where Misty beat Ash's Chikorita, but Ash overall won.

Misty didn't beat Ash's Chikorita. She only won the first round due to Pikachu refusing to battle Togepi. Ash won the next two rounds.

Originally Posted by Gliscor'd

On more than one occasion? I only remember her beating him in the Whirl Cup due to Psyduck.

Does it really matter?We all know that she would beat Ash if she used Corsola too,only difference would be that her chances would increase not having to rely on Ash stupidity because of Psyduck puting her in unfavorable situation.

Fun fact:Psyduck never lost any battle in true sense of that word.Being tickled by Bulbasaur doesnt count.

Their only other matches was Cerulean Gym where it looked like Ash was about to win had TR not interrupted, the Bulbasaur Vs. Psyduck joke battle for Togepi where Ash won, and then the battle for Totodile, where Misty beat Ash's Chikorita, but Ash overall won.

How was Ash about to win?He was about to knock down Misty Starmie,but before that Staryu beated Butterfree,
Result would be tied with both trainers having one win and one lost having Staryu and Pidgeotto on their disposal.

In case people dont remember Misty exchanged her Staryu for Starmie vs Pidgeotto not being defeated.