Theory on why Ash is struggling in Unova.

[Kenshin5]

Episode 14 was aired 6 days ago.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

He's struggling because the writers are making a crappy attempt to create the illusion that the show has a plot. [/rant]

Anyway, I do prefer it when the battles are more realistic and when Ash doesn't magically win everything, but they're making Pikachu suck just a little too much for my taste.

Pikachu lost against the water monkey, yet Oshawott, who has considerably less battle experience won against the grass monkey. I was not amused.

Considering how Gym Leaders are often portrayed on the anime, it hardly surprises me that Oshawott would beat Yanpappu despite. Honestly, watching the Gym Leaders losing against rookie Pokemon is exactly the same thing as watching JJM losing against rookie Pokemon (to give a specific example, their losing against a CATERPIE of all things in Episode 3 despite having a LOT more experience and health than that caterpie.), which is also quite painful to witness, which also serves as another reason why I feel quite angered and insulted whenever they claim that Gym Leaders are a prestigious title, or that a certain one of the main characters, in order to become a Pokemon Master, can only do so by becoming a Gym Leader.

It's also very irritating about having Pikachu stink quite a bit. Honestly, I know they don't wish to have them win everything, but they shouldn't have even BROUGHT Pikachu into DP if that were the case, not if he managed to essentially OHKO that Regice.

What irritates me the most is that Ash seems to have suffered a total mind-wipe in this saga. Forget battle skills, he needs his MEMORY to be checked. Honestly, if he could go so far as to forget how to operate a Poke ball of all things, making him as bad as, if not worse than his Kanto self, this just shows how this was a horrible writing decision. Jeez, at least have him keep the basics rather than demoting his skills to becoming the Pokemon Trainer equivalent of Roger Fox in regards to Chess.