
Been a while since I've done a Pokémon Horizons related post, eh?
Back on Friday the 10th of this month, a new Pokémon Horizons episode came and went, and the episode caused...quite a stir in the community to put it mildly. And this essay is me offering my own opinion on the matter, and maybe offering a hot take or two, so tread lightly if you please.
So, let's get started:
What Happened In The Episode And Why Is It Controversial?

Episode 79, titled "Over The Top", sees our heroes requesting permission to go into the Great Crater of Paldea and visit the infamous Area Zero. Geeta is hesitant, but the Top Champion offers an ultimatum: they have to take her on in a battle and WIN if they want to get into Aera Zero. Yes, unlike in Season 3 where Liko, Roy and Dot would lose a battle and still get rewarded in some way and thus make their losses feel meaningless, Geeta is NOT messing around. It's as simple as that: they have to win or else they don't get what they want, which is how this show SHOULD be operating.
Now on paper, this sounds like an impossible challenge, right? Liko, Roy and Dot are newbies who just recently passed the Terastal Training course last season and Liko and Dot couldn't beat a single Gym Leader while Roy required a rematch to beat the Gym Leaders HE faced and even with the help of Gym Leaders, Liko and Roy couldn't beat a single Elite Four member while Dot basically set Iono up to win their battle. So Geeta should absolutely demolish them, right?
WRONG!

They actually win! Yes, I'm as surprised as you are! As is, that's why the episode was pretty controversial. The fandom LOST THEIR MINDS at this outcome. There's already a million memes and social media posts going "Ha, Geeta's such a fraud!" or "Geeta's not beating the weakest Champion allegations anytime soon!" or "Geeta is utterly incapable when it comes to Pokémon battles" and so forth. There are also people that think the outcome is ridiculous because these three kids somehow beat the Top Champion of Paldea on their first try while they usually get their asses kicked. And to all that, I say...
The outcome made perfect sense and everybody's making a big fuss over nothing.
Yes, I'm being 100% serious. I genuinely think the outcome made sense and that everybody is looking at this episode the wrong way. And here's why...
The Context of the Battle

Now then, some of you might be wondering what this battle's all about and why our new gen heroes are facing a literal CHAMPION despite them not even participating in the Pokémon League.
Well, that's pretty simple: the battle is a test in order for the kids to prove they're strong enough to enter Area Zero. This isn't a battle to determine if they can win the Pokémon League or anything, this is a test to show what they're capable of. As such, this isn't a full 6-on-6 match with switch outs and full teams of Pokémon or anything. If this HAD been a proper Champion battle, than Geeta would've demolished the trio easily. But it's not that kind of battle. As is, Geeta still made it clear she wasn't going to hold back against the trio despite it being a test. After all, she IS utterly incapable of holding back when it comes to Pokémon battles as she says in the games.
So as you can see, Geeta didn't nerf herself and is explicitly NOT holding back despite this not being a proper battle, so her loss has nothing to do with her "going easy" on the trio as some might be misled to believe. This is the trio fighting Geeta at her strongest. Also, it's not like Geeta was a terrible battler by any means. On the contrary, her Glimmora and two Glimmet have some pretty clever strategies that they put to good use here such as Glimmora using Dazzling Gleam to blind opponents or Spiky Shield to defend itself from attacks and also hurt the opponent. Like in the games, it also has the Toxic Debris ability so it can set up Toxic Spikes once anyone hits it with a physical move. Her two Glimmet also know Rock Polish to speed up and know Memento to weaken their opponents by lowering their Attack and Special Attack. These three with those moves alone require the combined efforts of Liko, Roy and Dot together just to be able to keep up with her.
So why is it I still think Geeta's loss made sense if she's this clever and strategic and also isn't holding back? Allow me to explain...
Geeta Underestimated Her Opponents

I feel those who put Geeta down or think Liko, Roy and Dot's victory was hard to swallow keep forgetting one very important fact about this battle: Geeta underestimated her opponents. It happens people, even Champions can underestimate opponents!
First of all, she challenged all three of them at once. That already puts her at a disadvantage since she's facing three opponents simultaneously and thus that's three different minds all with their own strategies to deal with while Geeta is just one person commanding three Pokémon. That's already an example of how she underestimated her opponents: she arrogantly thought she could take all three on at once. Now granted, she DOES hold her own extremely well and actually takes out Roy and Dot before Liko takes the win in the end, but still. If Geeta fought them individually instead of all at once, she'd have destroyed them instantly.
Also, at one point in the fight, she acknowledges that she could just easily stall the trio out until their Pokémon collapse from poison damage. Had she done this, she would've won, but once again she underestimated her opponents and thus didn't go with the logical strategy and it cost her the match. And this isn't the only bone-headed thing she does either. She commands her two Glimmet to use Memento on Quaxwell and Crocalor. Memento is a move that causes the user to faint, but it lowers the opponent's Attack and Special Attack stats by two stages. By doing this, Geeta essentially set herself up to lose since now she only had one Pokémon left while Liko, Roy and Dot all had theirs. If she didn't use Memento, then she might've won. Granted, Crocalor could've just used Stomping Tantrum again and that definitely would've knocked the Glimmets out, but it's still never a good idea to use moves that make your Pokémon faint. You're only setting yourself up to lose by doing that. Also, Geeta used Memento to lower Quaxwell and Crocalor's attacks. It never once occurred to her to do that to Floragato. If she had, then she would've won easily. By not using Memento on Floragato, she clearly underestimated Liko more than Roy and Dot and because of that, she set herself up for defeat.
So there you have it, Geeta lost because she underestimated her opponents and it caused her to make costly decisions that cost her the fight. Why is this obvious to me but not to the people who are making a ruckus about all this? It's no different to how Liko lost to Roy at the end of Season 3 because of decisions she made that cost her the fight, yet I don't see anyone complaining about that or calling Liko a "fraud" or something, so why is this a big deal here? Is it because Geeta's a Champion? I don't get it.
Liko, Roy and Dot Aren't Your Average Trainers

In the discussions I've seen about this battle, people keep making the very foolish decision to compare Liko, Roy and Dot to Ash and his companions when saying how this outcome makes no sense. I say it's a foolish decision in the sense that THESE THREE ARE NOT LIKE YOUR AVERAGE TRAINER!
Most Pokémon trainers train their Pokémon and do battles in order to compete in a competitive environment. They participate in Gym Battles in order to win badges and enter a League and compete in order to win said League, and as the anime has shown us, they can also participate in other kinds of tournaments. These three by comparison are adventurers who go around travelling the world and are regularly battling against crazy powerful Pokémon and an evil organization that's devoted to stalking them to the very ends of the Earth. That's a very different kind of lifestyle compared to the average trainer. Now some may argue that Ash and friends have done that too, and that IS correct. The difference is that 1: the organization that stalks Ash and friends (Team Rocket) is about as threatening as a litter of new-born Littens and 2: they don't end up in big battles like Liko, Roy and Dot do anywhere near as often as they do. These kids over the course of 81 episodes (as I'm writing this) have taken on Legendary Pokémon belonging to Liko's great-great-grandfather, taken on Gym Leaders, battled against the Elite Four and have battled against an evil organization that's thrice the threat Team Rocket ever were. Granted, they've gotten their asses kicked most of the time throughout this series, but the point I'm making is that in a short amount of time, these kids have been through battles with much higher stakes and crazier power levels to deal with than most trainers have probably been through in their lifetimes.
As a result, they've grown a lot quicker than the average trainer would've. I guarantee that Ash after 81 episodes of his show was nowhere near as strong as these three are after 81 episodes of their show. Keep in mind, a few episodes ago these three kids without any help from their adult guardians fought one of Lucius's Pokémon (Kleavor) to the point of exhaustion. Lucius's Kleavor is on the level of Legendries and these three together NEARLY beat it! So is it really that hard to believe that these three working simultaneously could beat a Champion? I don't think so. So with the kind of lives these three have lived, the kind of battles they've had and the crazy stakes they find themselves up against, it stands to reason that their Pokémon have toughened up very quickly and are probably more resilient as a result. Therefore, if these three can now hold their own against the Explorers and nearly beat one of Lucius's Pokémon, then why is them beating Geeta so hard to swallow?
This is also ignoring the fact that in the battle itself, the trio executed some pretty clever strategies and landed some meaningful hits. Floragato got a hit in with Sucker Punch, Corcalor hit the two Glimmets with Stomping Tantrum and nearly wiped them out, Liko gets Floragato to attack Crocalor and power up Stomping Tantrum since that move doubles in power when the user's last move fails and so Glimmora got bludgeoned by a quadruple effective hit, then Quaxwell and Crocalor softened the blow from Tera Blast so Floragato, despite being hit, managed to tank the hit enough for her to stay standing and then fight back with an Overgrowth and Tera boosted Magical Leaf which helped them win in the end. I am rather annoyed that it took them until NOW to finally remember Floragato has that ability when they should've had it activate during any of Liko's battles during Terastal Training, but that's not the point. These kids fought using strategies that not even a Champion could've predicted or anticipated and it paid off in the end, plus Floragato using a move that's boosted by her ability and her Tera Type made perfect sense as to how it helped them win in the end. People don't give these kids enough credit for how cleverly they worked together against Geeta and instead just bring up lazy arguments like "Plot Armour".
This battle doesn't make Geeta look weak by any means. Both her and the kids looked very strong here. It's just that Geeta underestimated her opponents and the kids outplayed her and thus, they won in the end. Also the kids aren't your average trainer and have Pokémon that are logically going to be more resilient and endurable than any average Joe out there. As far as I'm concerned, this outcome is perfectly logical. Besides, who the hell actually wanted Geeta to win anyway? That would've been a terrible outcome...
Why I'm Glad We Got This Outcome

When this episode was announced and we found out what it was about, I was NOT enthusiastic about it whatsoever. This show has a very, very, VERY annoying track record in how it'll constantly have our new gen heroes get their asses kicked and make them lose just so they can make their opponents look good, and half the time their losses don't mean anything. They just lose and it's gotten to the point where our new heroes just look pathetic when at this point of the series, this far in, they should be holding their own and winning battles more often. The disgraceful way Liko was handled in Terastal Training was the worst example of that. That poor girl did NOT need to keep losing so many times and that's a fact. And don't you dare tell me it's for "character development", character development shouldn't mean your hero needs to get their ass kicked all the time!
So as you can imagine, instead of being enthusiastic for this episode, I was like "Gee, let me guess, they get their asses kicked for the billionth time?" and was expecting Geeta to win. But no, they defied all expectations and made the kids win this time. And even better? LIKO is the last man (or woman) standing and SHE gets to land the final hit! I can't begin to tell you how damn satisfying that was. This poor girl who couldn't beat a single Gym Leader or even win against Rika in the previous arc is the one that gets to finish this fight and claim victory for the team! Finally, Horizons isn't treating her like garbage anymore! More of this please!
Another reason I'm happy for this outcome is because Horizons also has an annoying habit of giving us battles with no stakes to them. Terastal Training was the worst example of this since as we saw in that arc, losing the battle means diddly-squat since you can lose and still pass the test anyway, thus it made the battles feel meaningless. What is the point of battles if there are no stakes to them? Now yes, Liko and Roy at least failed their Implementation Tests and had to do them again in order to pass, but the point is that a recurring problem in this show is that our heroes will often lose battles and still get what they want in someway. Even with Lucius's Pokémon, losing a battle to them doesn't mean anything because the Pokémon still go with them in the end. Someone said that this show feels so devoid of stakes sometimes, and they're right. Unless the Explorers are involved, battles are just a means to fill in time with this show and hold no weight. THIS battle on the other hand does have stakes. Geeta makes it clear they HAVE to win in order to get into Area Zero, she's not handing out pity badges in this case. So the fact that for once, our heroes won a battle in order to get what they want, it makes their victory feel more satisfying since they actually earned it and we were way more invested in this battle than any other because there are actual stakes to it and our heroes actually got what they wanted by winning instead of someone saying "oh you lost but you showed great strength so we'll give you what you want anyway". Didn't we give Ash plenty of flack for that in his early days? We sure did, so who wants that to be repeated again with these kids?
To the people complaining about this outcome, are you seriously going to tell me with a straight face that you would've preferred it if Liko, Roy and Dot got their asses kicked for the millionth time but Geeta let them into Area Zero anyway, thus the battle was pointless because they got what they wanted regardless of the outcome? Seriously? If so then you guys must have very weird standards when it comes to the shows you watch. I'm glad they made Geeta lose here since it threw Liko a much-needed bone after the horrendous treatment she got in the previous arc and it's also about time the show gave us battles where the outcome actually matters for once. If Geeta won, then this episode would've been a waste of everybody's time and not worth watching again, but no, the writers very wisely made the kids win for once and made the battle way more enjoyable as a result.
Overall

Geeta losing to Liko, Roy and Dot shouldn't have been controversial. On the contrary, this moment should've been celebrated instead. The outcome made perfect sense and was way more satisfying than the alternative. I say people should stop looking at this they way they are and instead think about it more logically as I've done. Power scaling is meaningless in the anime anyway. Need I bring up Journeys and how Ash's team he trained up in that series was somehow on the level of Champions despite being brand new? We still celebrate Ash's achievements in spite of that, so why aren't we doing the same for Liko, Roy and Dot? If anything, they should be applauded because these three defeated a Champion in 79 episodes while it took Ash over twenty years to finally beat one! By that logic, these three have pulled off a feat more impressive than even Ash himself, but because these three aren't Ash, that's somehow a bad thing I guess. =P
Ah well, at least I'm satisfied with how this battle played out and I hope we get to see this trio pull off even more impressive wins as the show goes on. Who knows if they'll ever challenge another Champion...
And that's it for this essay. I thank you all for reading and I invite you all to share your thoughts in the comments below. Do you think Geeta losing made sense, or do you disagree with me? Do tell.
Next week, I'll be counting down my Top 10 Favourite Autobots. See you then media fans!
Well I haven't kept up but I feel like you made good point...and it is more satisfying that everything these three went through, that them, especially Liko, whom deserves to have a victory like this