Media Essays: Ash vs. Paul (Lake Acuity): How Good Was It?

Been a while since I did an essay analysing another Pokémon battle, hasn't it?

A while back, I did an essay on Ash and Paul's battle during the Sinnoh League. While narratively, it worked as a satisfying conclusion to Ash and Paul's long running rivalry throughout the Diamond and Pearl saga, logically it begins to fall apart when you start analysing it and realizing how Paul essentially got nerfed just so Ash could win. Still an awesome battle though, don't get me wrong. So I thought just for the fun of it, I'd analyse another Ash and Paul battle, this one being their epic six-on-six showdown at Lake Acuity.

This battle is notorious for many reasons. Not only was it Ash and Paul's first ever six-on-six battle they've had up to this point, but this battle marked one of Ash's most brutal losses in the entire anime and also marked a noticeable change in Paul's battle style that would carry on until the end of the series. For context, Paul was a huge jerk to Ash and had a more brutal and straight-forward battling style that relied heavier on brute force than strategy. Not saying he never used any strategies of course, just not as much. However, Paul took a huge loss from Brandon the Pyramid King, which was a real sore point for him since Brandon defeated his brother Reggie and Paul wanted to succeed where Reggie failed. It's that loss to Brandon that I think is responsible for his change in battle tactics, like maybe a lesson he learned from Brandon was that he was too emotional when battling and so he rectifies that. We see as such in this battle and that calmer demeanour and more strategic battle style is what Paul relies on for the rest of the series, and it's pretty neat to see character development like this on display instead of spelled out to the audience.

So then, how was this battle as a whole? Is it great or is it terrible? Let's dive in...

Part 1: An Intense Beginning

The battle begins with Ash sending out Buizel and Paul sending out the best Sinnoh starter, Torterra. Yes, I actually think Torterra is better than Infernape, sue me. =P Now right off the bat, this is a terrible match-up for Ash. Buizel is a Stage 1 Water-type that's pretty frail and Torterra is Paul's starter Pokémon he's had since it was a Turtwig, is an absolute TANK in battle and was the only Pokémon strong enough to at least put up somewhat of a fight agianst Cynthia's unstoppable Garchomp. Also it's a Grass type, so it has a type-advantage over Buizel. Yeah, not good.

Even Ash agrees he's screwed here for he immediately returns Buizel before anyone can even call an attack. What's this?! Ash being smart and taking type-advantage into account? What malarkey is this?!?! 0_0 I kid of course, it is actually nice to see Ash being smart for a change. He realizes this is Paul and he can't just win through the power of friendship with him. With Paul, you, he knows he has to fight smarter, so well done to him here. Now if this battle had taken place after Buizel learned Ice Punch during the Sinnoh League Victors portion of the anime, it would've been a different story. Torterra is quadruple weak to Ice attacks, so Buizel with Ice Punch would've been pretty useful. But at this time in the series, it doesn't know Ice Punch, so Ash has no Ice-type moves to make use of for now. With Buizel being saved for later, who does Ash send out instead?

Good choice actually. Gliscor is half-Flying type so it's immune to Ground attacks (Not that Paul's Torterra actually knows any) and it knows Fire Fang and X-Scisscor, both of which are super-effective against Torterra. True, Ash's Gliscor doesn't have the best track record of his Sinnoh team, but it's still a good choice. Really nice to see Ash using his brain in this battle. Also it's neat how they call back to an earlier time Ash and Paul met when Gliscor was still a Gligar. Last time Ash's Gligar got clobbered by Paul's Gliscor (which he never used again after that episode, annoyingly enough). So how will this battle go?

Ash calls the first move, ordering Gliscor to use Sand Attack to obscure Torterra's vision. Paul orderes Torterra to use Giga Drain, but it misses as Gliscor is floating in the air safely out of harm's way. On the side-lines, Brock makes this observation:

"I have a sneaking suspicion that Paul used that attack KNOWING it was going to miss."

Oh sure Brock, Paul totally planned that and totally knew that attack was going to miss. Paul's totally a psychic who can predict things like that. (rolls eyes) It always annoyed me when the anime would keep bigging Paul up and play him up like he's some strategic genius who can somehow predict these things and totally planned for these things to happen. Sorry writers, but I don't buy it. NOBODY is that smart, not in fiction nor in real life.

After that, Gliscor attacks with X-Scissor and Torterra retaliates with Frenzy Plant. Like with Giga Drain earlier, Frenzy Plant misses as Gliscor flies out of the way. Let me guess Brock, did Paul use that attack knowing it was going to miss as well? (sarcasm) Because Torterra is immobilized thanks to the drawback of Frenzy Plant, Ash very wisely takes advantage of this by getting Gliscor to hit it with Fire Fang and X-Scissor on it. However, Paul's Torterra is an absolute tank as I've said before and takes the hits, despite being super-effective. However, things take a turn for the worst when Gliscor hits it again with Steel Wing and then Torterra crunches on Gliscor's tail, stopping it from getting away. Imagine how screwed Paul would've been if Torterra wasn't able to grab its tail with its mouth?

With Gliscor unable to get away, Paul orders Torterra to use Giga Drain, and definitely not using that move knowing it's going to miss this time. Right off the bat, we're seeing some big brain strategies from both sides here. Ash relies on Gliscor's aerial skills and takes advantage of Torterra's drawback from Frenzy Plant while Paul exploits Gliscor's close quarters combat style by trapping it once it gets in close and then draining its health once its caught. Very intelligent stuff from both Ash and Paul to kick off this battle, I love it!

Gliscor manages to bite itself free by using Fire Fang on the vines, but its weakened from Giga Drain, so Ash wisely switches out to give Gliscor a rest. Who does he use next? Staraptor, which is yet another wise choice. Torterra is weak to Flying-types after all. Ash really is taking type-advantage into account, isn't he? He orders Staraptor to use Brave Bird. However, Torterra has a surprise for Staraptor as Paul orders it to use Stone Edge. Not good for Ash as Flying-types are weak to Rock-type moves. Very clever of Paul to have Torterra cover its Flying weakness with that. Stone Edge hits and Paul switches Torterra out while Staraptor is down. Reggie then really takes the mickey by saying there's no doubt in his mind that Paul was expecting Ash to bring Staraptor out next. OK writers, you're SERIOUSLY expecting us to buy this nonsense? As if Paul could've possibly guessed Ash would've done that! There's no damn way he could've anticipated Ash would bring out Staraptor next! For all he knew, Ash could've sent out Chimchar next! Paul is NOT psychic and he sure as hell isn't this master chess player than knows everything, so stop trying to make it out like he is one!

Next up is Paul's Weavile. This is a smart pick on Paul's behalf as Weavile has a type-advantage against Staraptor due to being an Ice-type. But keep in mind, this is Paul's Weavile. All it does is lose. Also its move pool is garbage. It knows Swords Dance, which boosts Attack, but it uses Ice Beam and Blizzard, which are Special Attacks so Swords Dance won't make them any stronger. Also Weavile's Special Attack is pants, so why would you EVER teach a Weavile Special Attacks? If only Ice Spinner was invented during Gen 4 then Weavile would've had a decent physical Ice-type attack to use.

As is, Weavile does pummel Staraptor a bit with Metal Claw and even shows off some neat backflips at one point. Unfortunately, Staraptor knows Close Combat and Weavile has a quadruple weakness to Fighting moves. That plus a powerful Brave Bird from Staraptor takes it down, giving Ash a surprising lead as he's now the first to knock out one of Paul's Pokémon. As if that was humiliating enough for Weavile, this is the last time in the entire series we ever see it battle, so Paul's Weavile ends its tenure on the show without a single win. Who knows why Paul keeps this thing if all it does is lose. It must be scoring some impressive victories off-screen or something. Ah well, Paul's down one mon, but Ash can't relax yet. He's already exhausted two Pokémon just taking down one of Paul's. This battle is far from over...

Ash returns Staraptor and sends out Grotle while Paul sends out Electabuzz. But Electabuzz isn't around for long for he sets up Light Screen and then is immediately recalled for Honchkrow. Grotle is...not happy to see it since last time they thought, Honchkrow kicked its ass since it evolved during the battle and wasn't able to adapt to its loss of speed it once had as a Turtwig. So Honchkrow being here makes this a big grudge match, and sadly this bites Ash in the arse since he very foolishly keeps Grotle out on the field instead of switching him out for Pikachu. Well so much for relying on type-advantage. Ah well, Ash has won many matches in spite of type-disadvantages, so maybe Grotle can avenge its loss to Honchkrow and win this battle, right?

Yeah, what did you expect to happen? (rolls eyes) Honchkrow soundly kicks Grotle's ass because of course it did, also helped by Electabuzz's Light Screen from earlier. Sadly, Paul would never use Honchkrow again after this battle, which I find to be a shame as it denied Ash's Grotle a chance to truly redeem itself for its two losses to the crow mon. Then again, Ash's Grotle got even worse when evolving into Torterra, so he'd probably have gotten his ass kicked again even if it had fought as a Torterra. Anyhow, the odds are evened. Both sides are down one mon each and have a team of five left, but Ash has two mons that have been put through their paces while Paul's Honchkrow didn't take any damage at all and his Torterra did take a little damage but healed up with Giga Drain, so his Torterra's hardly fatigued. Not looking good for Ash at all...

Part 1 ends with Ash and Paul calling out their next Pokémon. Ash sends in Pikachu while Paul recalls Honchkrow and sends out, to everyone's surprise, a Magmortar. The reason why this is a surprise is because just a few episodes ago, they saw it as a Magmar when Paul battled Brandon. Now here it is having evolved offscreen. I imagine this is doubly shocking for Ash since having come from Kanto and all, he likely had no idea Magmar could even evolve, yet here it is. This was quite an effective cliff-hanger too as now Paul's brought out a brand new Pokémon Ash has never seen before and all we can do is wonder what'll happen next when they fight... Also, can I just say Magmortar surprisingly looks pretty intimidating in this shot?

Part 1 was a solid beginning to this six-on-six epic. Both sides show some really clever strategies and Paul's new fighting style is made very clear right off the bat, even if the writers are really stretching it with how much they expect us to believe Paul "totally" planned for some of these outcomes or "totally expected" Ash to use a certain Pokémon. As is, both sides are shown to be competent and skilled and the fight's pretty even, showing how Paul's still on top form and Ash is getting better when fighting him after all their previous experiences. How does Part 2 fare up? Let's find out...

Part 2: Paul's Triumphant Victory

The battle goes from even beginning to an utter curbstomp.

Pikachu begins the battle by hitting Magmortar with Quick Attack. This really bites Pikachu in the arse though since he gets burned by Magmortar's Flame Body ability. So yeah, the first move made and already Pikachu's fighting with a handicap. He's burned, so he'll suffer damage over time and burned Pokémon have their physical attacks weakened, so Volt Tackle, Iron Tail and Quick Attack will be much weaker than usual. Pikachu still has Thunderbolt, which is a Special Attack so the burn status won't weaken that, and he uses it while Magmortar counters with Flamethrower. The attacks cancel each other out and Pikachu next uses Volt Tackle. However...

Paul had a counter for that. He has Magmortar use Rock Tomb and Pikachu's Volt Tackle gets slowed to the point he crashes into one last rock and is knocked back as a result. This to me was a very clever way to depict Rock Tomb in the anime. In the games, it's a Rock-type move that lowers a Pokémon's speed when it hits, so depicting it as a bunch of rocks that block a Pokémon's path and thus slowing them down makes perfect sense. Later depictions of Rock Tomb would depict it as more trapping the Pokémon in place, which also makes sense since that's technically lowering a Pokémon's speed by making them unable to move, so kudos to the writers for thinking logically on how Rock Tomb would work in an anime setting.

Despite the damage, Pikachu presses on and actually lands a few hits on Magmortar, and also gets to surprise Paul with his counter shield strategy he used in Ash's Gym battle against Fantina. Ironically, Magmortar is pretty frail in the games and can't take a hit but Paul's Magmortar keeps tanking blow after blow and keeps going. Unfortunately for Pikachu, the burn damage is still causing problems for him, so Ash wisely switches him out for Buizel. Now Ash is back to using type-advantage and gets Buizel to use Aqua Jet and Water Pulse. But once again, Paul's Magmortar is an absolute tank and just keeps going even when taking super-effective damage. But Magmortar gets the drop on Buizel by using Rock Tomb as a shield to block Water Pulse and when Buizel tries hitting with Aqua Jet, it misses and Magmortar uses Smog on it. Smog hits and seems to poison Buizel. Then Paul switches Magmortar out for the MVP of his team...

...his Ursaring. This thing absolutely carries the battle for Paul and you'll see what I mean as I go on. Thanks to the release of Legends Arceus, I also can't help but wonder how terrifying Paul would be if his Ursaring ever evolved into Ursaluna...

Ursaring dominates the fight, using Bulk Up to increase his attack and defence so he tanks Buizel's hits and dishes out heavy blow after heavy blow. Even Buizel's Aqua Jet counter shield is no use and Ursaring takes it down with a powerful Focus Blast. Since this is the anime and move accuracy is not a thing, of course Focus Blast actually hits the opponent in this situation. XD There was one point where Ash was about to return Buizel, but Buizel tells Ash its still able to fight, which ultimately cost it in the end. Mind you, I doubt Ash would've fared any better if he did swap out since Ursaring goes on to wreck Staraptor and Pikachu later in the fight. Speaking of Staraptor, that's taken out next as Ursaring pummels it into submission. It's a bit annoying it was taken out so quickly, but they did have to conclude this battle with Part 2, so some of the wins have to be a little rushed to accommodate that. It's still a little annoying though. As is, Ash is down half a team while Paul has a barely wounded Torterra, Magmortar and Ursaring and an Electabuzz and Honchkrow that haven't taken any damage. DEFINITELY not looking good for Ash!

Paul recalls Ursaring for now and sends out Electabuzz while Ash sends out Chimchar. This was the very mon that Paul once abused and released when it couldn't give him the results he was after, so now the match is really getting personal. Chimchar tries to use Flamethrower, but Electabuzz Protects, sets up another Light Screen and then is swapped out for Torterra. Now we have the two best Sinnoh starters (sorry Piplup fans) on the field. Unfortunately for Chimchar, things don't go well as Torterra uses Stone Edge and SOMEHOW IS ABLE TO GET IT TO CHANGE DIRECTION WHEN CHIMCHAR DODGES IT! No, I have no idea how it can do that or how that's supposed to work, it's just ridiculous! You can't just make Stone Edge change direction like that unless you have psychic powers or something, and Torterra ain't no Psychic type! So again, how the hell does that even work? That really did feel like the writers pulled that out of their butts. Anyhow, Chimchar is swapped out since its weak against Torterra's Stone Edge attack and Flamethower's no good thanks to Electabuzz's Light Screen. Ash wisely sends Gliscor back out. Considering what a tough time Gliscor gave Torterra back in Part 1, this should be an intense match-up...

...well that sucked. It got taken down in one hit from Frenzy Planet? LAME! Frenzy Plant isn't even super-effective against it, so what gives? I get it, they have to make this battle end in this part, but they didn't need to rush Gliscor's defeat this badly!

With only two Pokémon left, Ash sends out Pikachu next after Pikachu requests to go back in the fight. While Pikachu vs. Torterra would be a terrible match-up for Ash, Paul switches it out for Ursaring, which makes sense since Frenzy Plant stops Torterra from moving for a while after it's used, so sending out Ursaring again was the right move. It looks as if things are going well for Pikachu as he manages to paralyze Ursaring with his Static ability and hits him on the head with Iron Tail. You know, I just realized how durable Pokémon are, eh? A move like IRON TAIL hitting you on the head must hurt like hell already, but if they used that move on a human, it'd likely crack our skulls open! Anyhow, it seems Pikachu's on top of this battle. However...

Yeah, Pikachu sealed his own fate here. You see, Paul's Ursaring has the Guts ability. What does it do? It gives Pokémon a power boost when they have a status condition like burn or paralysis. So yeah, Pikachu's Static ability backfired catastrophically and now Ursaring's even more powerful! With this power boost, Ursaring proceeds to Hammer Arm Pikachu AND SEND HIM FLYING INTO THE LAKE!!!!!

DAMN!

"HE'S FALLEN IN THE WATER!"

Yes, I can see that Troublesome Trucks, I'm not blind. =P As is, this was one of the most hardcore losses in all of Pokémon for me. Like damn, thrown straight into the nearby lake after that blow! Paul ain't taking no prisoners! As a result of this brutal beatdown, Pikachu is defeated and Ash is left with just Chimchar. Not good at all...

I will say though, Ursaring just happening to have Guts felt like a bit of a contrivance. We've NEVER seen it display that ability before in previous battles, so this battle just conveniently revealing that's its ability just felt forced to me. They should've foreshadowed it during the Paul and Brandon battle by having Ursaring's Guts ability activate when Regice paralyzed it, that way it wouldn't have felt so out of nowhere.

As is, Chimchar does put up a good fight here. It hits with Flame Wheel, Ursaring deflects with Slash, but Chimchar recovers and lands a few Flamethrowers and even hits it with Dig at one point. Ursaring is a tough opponent but ultimately...

...it is defeated. After all that, Ash finally defeats another of Paul's Pokémon. What's really funny is that Chimchar beat Ursaring last time they fought, and now it wins again. Seriously, what's with Chimchar and beating Ursaring? And Paul seriously thought this poor guy was pathetic. XD As is, it's still too little too late as Paul has four Pokémon left and Ash has just Chimchar. There's no way he can turn this around...

Damn, it evolved?! Sweet! I imagine for many fans watching, this was a really hype moment as at long last, after so many battles, so much character development and so much training, Chimchar has finally evolved. We now have Monferno on the field. Maybe Ash has a chance after all...

With Monferno now evolved, Ash seems to be getting his momentum back as Paul sends out Electabuzz and Monferno shows how it's a lot faster now it's evolved. As is, Electabuzz is fighting fresh and hasn't taken any damage yet, so this won't be easy. Electabuzz is even able to successfully paralyze Monferno with Thunder. Regardless, the two mons have an utter slugfest of a battle with Electabuzz playing defensively and Monferno playing offensively. We even get this awesome still image of Monferno hitting Electabuzz with Flame Wheel you see above. However, paralysis causes some trouble for Monferno. The battle concludes with Electabuzz and Monferno slugging one another with Thunder Punch and Mach Punch respectively. As the dust clears, both mons are still standing. But...

Monferno is down. It takes the fall and leaves Electabuzz standing as the victor. Paul has utterly crushed Ash and he leaves Lake Acuity as the winner while Ash is left in tears over the whole thing. No really, this is one of the very few times where Ash has ever cried over a loss. It's pretty heart-breaking honestly. His team worked so hard, but ultimately Paul was just too strong and his team came out on top. But this only made Ash's win over Paul in the Sinnoh League later in the series all the sweeter...

One thing noteworthy about this conclusion is Paul's attitude about the battle. After it's over, he doesn't insult or beat Ash while he's down. He doesn't even call him pathetic. He just agrees with Reggie that it was a spectacular battle and then walks away. This I feel is one of the biggest cues to the audience that this isn't the same Paul we saw prior to these episodes. This is a changed Paul where he's more respectful and isn't much of a douche anymore. Seems losing to Brandon really did humble him a lot. Hell, this entire battle really shows how that one loss completely changed his attitude since during the battle, Paul doesn't really say a lot aside from giving commands. Not ONCE does he insult Ash or his Pokémon in this fight! How about that?

Anyhow, Part 2 was a pretty good conclusion overall. It's just let down a bit by some rushed defeats and I feel they made this loss for Ash way too one-sided. They should've let Ash at least knock out Electabuzz as well and then Monferno collapses from fatigue so he at least got to end on a high note. Having Ash only beat two out of six Pokémon just felt a bit much and was just the writers trying too hard to make Paul look so powerful. I'm not against Ash losing here, I just think they didn't need to make him lose this badly. He should've at least beat half of Paul's team instead of just two. Still, they made him lose with dignity as he at least lost to a really good opponent but still put up a damn good fight despite his defeat. This loss only made us more hyped to see them battle again in the Sinnoh League and boy did Ash make up for this loss there!

Conclusion

The Lake Acuity battle is easily up there as among the best battles in the Pokémon anime. Yes it was too one-sided, but at the same time it showed a lot of creative battle strategies from both trainers, Ash and Paul are both shown to be very skilled and tactical, a lot of the Pokémon got their time to shine with Paul's as always making a big impression and Ash's crushing loss gave this a suitably sombre conclusion that only paved the way for his big victory over Paul the next time they would meet. The only way this battle would've been better is if the writers didn't try so hard to convince us Paul is some genius mastermind and if they didn't have so many things conveniently go in his favour just so he could win while also letting Ash knock out three of his Pokémon instead of just two. But overall, I love this battle. It's one of those cases where Ash loses convincingly and his opponent really was just better than him in every way. It was quite a heavy loss for Ash, but it was an awesome battle to watch and easily Paul's best showing in the entire series...

And that's it for this essay. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. What do YOU think to this battle? Do you like it too? Do you not like it? Feel free to let me know in the comments.

Next week I'll be covering Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V once again as I cover the characters who got screwed over the most in that show. Also, I'll be teaming up with a friend to review Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. See you then media fans!

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