Showdown at Pewter City!

Ah, Ash's first gym battle...oh dear. I think this is where we find one of the greatest weaknesses of the Kanto saga - in it, Ash is an AWFUL trainer. Think about it. He goes into a Rock type gym, then sends out a Pikachu. Surely he'd know BASIC type match-ups? Okay, that aside, there' the fact that he doesn't use Butterfree, for some reason. The Pokémon that is considered one of the few ways to beat Brock in Pokémon yellow...and it never even showed its face. So, to overcome his own stupidity, Ash decides to charge Pikachu's power level to over nine thousand, seemingly FORCING electricity into its body. I'm not sure how, exactly, this makes sense in ANY WAY AT ALL. Especially not ethically. Anyway, having committed Pokémon abuse, Ash returns to the gym and sends out...Pidgeotto. So, he has three Pokémon. One has Sleep Powder, which is instant win in anime world. Another is a super-charged Deus Ex Machina. And the third is pretty useless and at a type disadvantage. Guess which one he chooses?

But, of course, Ash still gets the badge for winning by a fluke. No matter what Brock said, Ash did NOT deserve that badge. He just...cheated. Also, why do you need spinklers in a Rock-type gym made entirely of stone? What, exactly, is going to burn down? Um...this is a tangent, isn't it? I'll just leave you with my ELOT



Next Time: Clefairy and the Moon Stone