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Is Ash VS Paul in the Sinnoh league still the greatest fight ever on Pokemon?

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  • Age 122
  • Seen Jan 27, 2019
Yeah. In terms of emotional build up no battle matches it. The rivalry between the two was a conflict between two trainers with clashing ideologies in how to raise pokemon, both striving to be pokemon masters, and their final battle at the League was the pay off of that rivalry. Paul unlike a lot of other rivalries wasn't just brute force either and made Ash think more in his battles which he really should do more often. The other rivals we've seen weren't as dedicated to becoming pokemon masters like Ash and Paul were. Though I didn't like how Torterra was sidelined in favor of Infernape.
 
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pkmin3033

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Nothing beats the sheer intensity of Metapod Vs Metapod.
Just thinking about that epic battle brings me to Maximum Hardness...


...but yeah, Ash vs. Paul in the Sinnoh League is still the best battle the anime has had to date, because there was a far more significant and sustained build-up to it, and it was as much about Ash's Pokemon as it was about Ash himself...something which gave it an edge over Ash finally beating Gary, I think. The Sinnoh seasons remain the best the anime has ever done in terms of character development, and it makes the battles stand out.
 

CodeHelmet

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Just thinking about that epic battle brings me to Maximum Hardness...


...but yeah, Ash vs. Paul in the Sinnoh League is still the best battle the anime has had to date, because there was a far more significant and sustained build-up to it, and it was as much about Ash's Pokemon as it was about Ash himself...something which gave it an edge over Ash finally beating Gary, I think. The Sinnoh seasons remain the best the anime has ever done in terms of character development, and it makes the battles stand out.

I don't think Gary even comes close to Paul from a rival perspective. Gary wouldn't even give Ash the courtesy of a battle since he thought Ash was a waste of his time. First time they battled was after Ash won the Orange islands and Gary brought him back down to earth in a 1v1 before heading off to Johto wherein they faced off in the Tournament with practically no build up beforehand. Paul not only battled Ash multiple times but beat him convincingly at nearly every opportunity. The defeats made Ash not only question himself but his own means of training. The battles between Ash and Paul were a clash of ideologies. Gary's rivalry doesn't even come close. Now in terms of arrogance and snobbery, Gary owns the crown. Not even Paul or Trip can surpass Gary in that regard.
 
25,502
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Unquestionably the best. even Metapod v Metapod doesn't reach the same tier. The emotional and ideological conflict, the character development up to that point, the animation and the battle itself. It was the pinnacle of the Pokemon anime and it still infuriates me that they chose to follow it with a reset instead of a new protagonist.
 
215
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  • Age 35
  • Seen Mar 14, 2019
Ash vs Gary has been plan for a very long time, the OS build this plot up really well despite Gary bearly appearing at all throughout the Kanto and Johto regions. Ash vs Gary in the Johto League was the highlight of the entire anime.

Ash vs Paul was a okay match up but it was one noted, we didn't have a build up battle in both regions, because Sinnoh was a one note region without any call back to what Ash did in the last region. Ash vs Paul isn't the greatest match of the entire anime, the greatest match of the anime goes to Ash vs Gary because Gary was the original rival, Paul was a one note rival and didn't have any personality, they just throw him in their to reset Ash all over again because he just started out in a new region.

DP series is so underrated.
 
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692
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Ash vs Gary has been plan for a very long time, the OS build this plot up really well despite Gary bearly appearing at all throughout the Kanto and Johto regions. Ash vs Gary in the Johto League was the highlight of the entire anime.
Bold: prove it.
Also, the fact Gary decided to quit being a Pokemon trainer made that fight lose credibility. Ash-Gary rivalry is poorly developed and handled unlike Ash-Paul rivalry.


Ash vs Paul was a okay match up but it was one noted, we didn't have a build up battle in both regions, because Sinnoh was a one note region without any call back to what Ash did in the last region. Ash vs Paul isn't the greatest match of the entire anime, the greatest match of the anime goes to Ash vs Gary because Gary was the original rival, Paul was a one note rival and didn't have any personality, they just throw him in their to reset Ash all over again because he just started out in a new region.
>''No build up''
>Ash and Paul rivalry had the most amount of battes out of all rivalries
>Chimchar used as plot device to develop their rivalry and character development
What the fu** are you saying?

>''Paul didn't have any personality''
>Paul got one of the greatest character development in the series.
Paul is grumpy, cold, callous, cantankerous, intelligent, rude, mean, and rather arrogant and he has no personality? He became more nice towards his Pokemon and Ash himself towards the end of the SInnoh saga. Stop lying to make your OS characters look better.

Also, Don't project your favorite characters' lack of personality onto others. If there is a character who had a poor personality was Gary who was a cliche and uninteresting rival.

Ash getting reset has nothing to do with DP. That's a BW thing so that's irrelevant to this discussion.
 
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215
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6
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  • Age 35
  • Seen Mar 14, 2019
Bold: prove it.
Also, the fact Gary decided to quit being a Pokemon trainer made that fight lose credibility. Ash-Gary rivalry is poorly developed and handled unlike Ash-Paul rivalry.



>''No build up''
>Ash and Paul rivalry had the most amount of battes out of all rivalries
>Chimchar used as plot device to develop their rivalry and character development
What the fu** are you saying?

>''Paul didn't have any personality''
>Paul got one of the greatest character development in the series.
Paul is grumpy, cold, callous, cantankerous, intelligent, rude, mean, and rather arrogant and he has no personality? He became more nice towards his Pokemon and Ash himself towards the end of the SInnoh saga. Stop lying to make your OS characters look better.

Also, Don't project your favorite characters' lack of personality onto others. If there is a character who had a poor personality was Gary who was a cliche and uninteresting rival.

Ash getting reset has nothing to do with DP. That's a BW thing so that's irrelevant to this discussion.

Gary was Ash's original rival since the Original series started, Gary retire at the end of the Original series after they had their battle in the Johto League.

Ash and Gary rivalry might not been perfect but it was better because Gary actually had a whole a lot of personality and developed for both regions Kanto and Johto, Paul was an okay rival but he was a one noted character and he only had development for one region.

Ash getting reset has a lot to do with any region he goes to, and yes he did get reset when he started in Sinnoh, the only different is he had two Pokemon with him.

Ash and Paul rivarly was poorly handled, one sided and one noted, Ash and Paul did got to battle but the battles they had were poorly done and cheap.

Paul didn't really change all that much toward Ash at the end of the DP series, all he did is just smile and that was about it, that's not enough to say that he change.

Chimchar plot was okay but it could have been so much better, the writer's gave it way too much focus and screentime because of that, some of Ash's Sinnoh Pokemon gotten less screentime and development.

Stop calling me a liar. The DP characters were terrible and you know it stop lying to make them look so perfect when they are not.
 
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147
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9
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  • Age 29
  • Seen Dec 17, 2022
Yes from the emotional build up to the actual battle, it was the best Pokemon battle in the anime and still one of my personal favorites.
 

Taemin

move.
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18
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  • Age 36
  • USA
  • Seen Apr 2, 2024
Yes!

To me it was!

I always said I wasn't too into the Sinnoh part of the anime after a while, but looking back on it, it has some of the more memorable anime moments for me.

I haven't watched that battle in years, but it still sticks with me above a lot of others when I think back on anime episodes!

Originally I thought it was my bias towards Paul being one of my favs, and I also like Ash, so when you stick them together in a match, I'm like Yeessss, but then everyone else praised that battle so much that I know it's not just me. lol It had so much build up, and tension, and their clashing viewpoints. In my opinion, that is what a proper rival match should be. It was something a lot of us expected of Gary VS Ash but never really got in that way. Definitely good stuff, in my opinion.
 
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