You must have seen alot of Johto then. Because "people telling Ash something" hasn't happened since, Johto when it comes to battling. He was a mentor to May in Hoenn, and helped Dawn train in Sinnoh. Nobody told him how to win at all in Hoenn or Sinnoh. But, you said you don't watch it much anymore so it's understandable how you could come to that conclusion. Most of the time it was just Brock, and May/Dawn/Max talking about the current situation of the battle amongst themselves while watching him.
This. Ash
is experienced, but the n00b mistakes he's making in
Best Wishes are just
awful. Not weakening Pokemon before throwing a Poke Ball, not putting Pokemon in situations where he gets type-advantage, not analyzing the situation enough beforehand. He's made a few smart moves in
Best Wishes, but overall he looks subpar compared to another Trainer of his caliber.
The aging issue annoys me...the voice change gave an excuse for Ash's voice "deepening", so that's one of the ways he's aging. It appears that the next excuse I'll need to make after a few seasons is that somehow, Ash's growth was stunted... >_> But I guess the show stays more "accessible" for the younger fans, I guess... It just seems weird that Ash doesn't age, despite time "passing" with his repeated reference to past events.
Pikachu's nerfing annoys me even more. I mean, in BW010, he lost to a SERVINE. Who used
CUT. I mean, COME ON. And Ash didn't even start out with Pikachu in the battle against Servine, and I assume
plenty of kids under ten would have known to pit an Electric-type against a Flying-type Pokemon
first, especially if said Electric-type Pokemon was the strongest one in your party. I can only chalk up Ash's Pikachu's nerfing to the "Zekrom incident" in BW001, which was "supposedly" resolved. However, I'll go with the assumption that despite Pikachu regaining its electrical powers, its level was altered severely as well.
Also, IIRC, it took Pikachu
10 episodes to score its first KO in the Unova region, while back in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, it typically managed to score KOs
daily, repeatedly Thunderbolting Team Rocket as an early workout for breakfast
. :cer_no: As long as there's a plausible reason for Pikachu's repeated nerfing like the Zekrom incident, I can accept it, but if an experienced Pikachu is losing to a newly-leveled
Servine, it doesn't make sense.
In my opinion...if you want to take my advice...for those fans who are around my age,...if you're that bothered by a tv show where they reset Ash to rookie...pay attention to other characters besides him and don't worry about who to pair Ash with. It's only a suggestion.
This coming from a fan who likes this new season...esp. the ep with the Darumaka and Darmanitan.
Or imagine that Ash's Pikachu evolved into a Raichu in a banned episode...and thus got replaced by a weaker one...Raichu's son, baby Pikachu that's actually weaker... or imagine that Ash's IVs are the worst and he doesn't have the proper natures whereas the other trainers have perfect IVs like Youngster Joey and his Rattata. (What if Richie and Ash swapped Pikachu and Ash really had Sparky and thus didn't win in Johto Champion league?) Or if it's really a Ditto that Duplica got mixed up with? And it's a Pikachu impersonator? And Meowth's in on it, and Team Rocket actually got Ash's Pikachu and replaced it with a weaker one, telling it to pretend to fight with Ash or just listen to him and act as if it won so many battles. Or pretend his opponent's new Pokemon are level 100.
A bunch of those "excuses" seem like major stretches, and if anything major happened to Ash's
original Pikachu, I think he'd notice right away, considering the strength of the bond they developed in the
first episode, not to mention in
Pikachu's Goodbye...
I'd be
quite surprised if Professor Juniper managed to give out some rookie a Level 100 starter Pokemon. >_>
Oh, and furthermore, Ash was offered the status of freaking
Frontier Brain. Frontier Brains should know all about type advantages and battling strategies, not losing to little tyro Trainers that have just received their first Pokemon. I mean, IIRC, the Pokemon of most Frontier Brains have a leveled minimum of Level
60. At the very least, Ash should be able to display a respectable performance to a/an (up-and-coming?) Gym Leader like Iris.