Wall Banger/Anime/Pokémon (anime)

The Pokemon anime, throughout its 700+ episodes and 15 (soon to be 16) movies, has moments where you weep, where you curl up in adoration, where you laugh your ass off, or where you cheer in awe at what just transpired.

These are not those moments. Grab a bottle of Bleeprin before reading the list of moments where you wonder what got into the cast and the writers. There's a lot of them...

""Oh no, she's holding a Poké Ball.""
 * In the episode "Plant It Now... Diglett Later!", Ash teams up with Team Rocket to protect a group of village people from a marauder attack... until Ash finds out that it's staged. Team Rocket do not find this out, but they are collectively The Chew Toy; when they attack the fake marauders, Ash blasts them off and doesn't bother to explain what's going on. What a jerk!
 * Any time Team Rocket has gone beyond the necessary in trying to capture Ash's Pikachu. In the episode "Pallet Party Panic", it isn't enough for Team Rocket to simply make off with Pikachu after distracting the heroes by serving them infernally spicy food: as they make off in their hot air balloon, they proceed to bombard the party, causing chaos and destroying the food. Not to mention that Ash's Pidgeotto is poisoned by Arbok in its attempt to stop them. It takes Charizard getting ticked off by them destroying a table with fruit that he had his eyes set on that they finally get their just desserts (which they could have avoided had they just not pulled this crap to begin with.)
 * The fate of Brock's parents is changed in the 4Kids dub. Instead of both parents running away, his father abandoned his family, and his mother died. Not bad in itself; but some seasons later, his mother returns to take over the Gym. Ah! Ghost mom!
 * This one isn't exactly 4Kids' fault. They probably changed it in the first place because they figured "Tragic Death" is less objectionable compared to "Willful Abandonment" (The Father at least came to his senses and came back). How were they to know that she would be brought back three or four years (real time) later?
 * Jelly doughnuts.
 * Sandwiches don't... roll... downhill,...4Kids...
 * That kind of sandwich can roll. But the bouncing that is displayed in that video strongly suggests that you don't want to eat it.
 * Who Gets To Keep Togepi? Ash finds the egg, Brock cares for the egg, and Meowth steals the egg and then cares for it enough to make it hatch into Togepi. But Misty, who does nothing for the egg during the incubation period, shoves everyone out of the way to see the egg hatching, and thus she's the first one Togepi sees, and thus Togepi believes her to be its mother and will belong to no-one else. Even though everyone else who debates over it had much more valid reasons for keeping Togepi than Misty.
 * The imprinting overrides all other reasons; the point of it is that, in the end, neither Togepi nor the person it imprints on has a choice. But, since no one knew beforehand that Togepi is a type that imprints, there is a dash of Ass Pull about how it happened.
 * It looks even worse as the series goes on and both ash and brock get pokemon eggs of there own(phanpy for ash and happily for brock)and not only hatch and raise them into far more competent battlers then togepi ever was but they do it in far less time to boot. Misty had togepi through nearly half of kanto, all of johto, and when she shows back up in hoenn she still has it with her doing nothing but coddling it the entire time its with her. It knows only one move which it learned on its own because god knows misty isnt teaching it anything and when it finally evolves its in the same episode where it leaves. It is obvious that togepi's potential was wasted being with misty.
 * The other two trainers of Pallet Town, the long-lost forgotten Bulbasaur and Charmander trainers, are never seen and rarely mentioned. Those two trainers had five badges each, like Gary; Ash only had four.
 * That was arranged to stick Ash with Pikachu. Otherwise, Professor Oak would have known that he would have four starting trainers that day but still would have had only three Pokémon to hand out, which would have been a worse Wallbanger.
 * When Gary and Ash meet at Oak's after their journey to collect badges for the Pokémon League, Oak mentions that the other trainers had given up and gone home already. But they had kept up with Gary for the first five badges!
 * Speaking of missing people...anyone want to explain where Ash's father is? He's referenced to once in the second episode. ("It took your father three days to go that far!") But...yeah, that's just about it. Not like the father could play an important role to the main character anyway, considering that they both are Pokémon trainers...oh wait.
 * According to notes from former head writer Takeshi Shudo, Ash's father abandoned his family out of shame when he couldn't become the master trainer he wanted to be. That's why Ash had a negative reaction when his mom compared him to his father. When Takeshi Shudo was booted out midway through Johto, any chances of seeing Ash's father turn up basically vanished.
 * First season again. There is a lighthouse with a legendary Pokémon in the lake. Bill cannot identify it even though it is obviously an oversized Dragonite. Made stranger for two reasons:
 * 1) In the next episode, the Pokédex mentions that a Raichu "has enough electrical charge to knock out a Dragonite. Note, however, that this one is entirely the dub's fault - the original script said 'Indian elephant'.
 * 2) On the lighthouse door, there are special runes with Pokémon on them. One of them was Mewtwo, who should have only been known to certain Team Rocket members and who is unidentifiable via Pokédex.
 * Another episode had Steven punishing the Team Rocket trio for damaging a local habitat when they dug holes in a cave by having his Aggron send them blasting off with a Hyper Beam blowing through the roof of the cave.
 * What's worse with this is that some of the Pokémon living in said cave were already established to hate or even be harmed by sunlight. If anything, Steven's attack may have been worse than what Team Rocket did.
 * Well you might argue he was annoyed that the holes had a consequence in disturbing the Pokémon (there's a lot of tunnels in Granite Cave), and keep in mind there was a place up the top which let in sunlight as well, but yeah... pretty annoying. It's baffling how TR need (or needed, as the case may be) to be blasted sky high, especially when it makes little sense. Cue every time their blasting off leaves a hole in a building/mountain/etc., although on the other hand it's not impossible for nature to repair the damage eventually.
 * Brock demonstrates his expertise here by pointing out how Water-types are at a distinct disadvantage when facing...Fire-types.
 * He also states at one point that Water-types are weak against Flying-types.
 * That is Gameplay and Story Segregation. In game water pokemon have no weakness to flying-types moves, but in the story flying pokemon could easily out maneuver anyone that can't reach there height.(Which happens more often then you would think.)
 * From Ash's battle with Fantina:

""Give us your Pokémon."
 * From the Team Rocket attack on the S.S. Anne:

"No."

"Don't make us take them.""

"HANG ON A FUCKING SECOND! SHE DID SHOW OFF HER FUCKING MISMAGIUS! THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF HER PRESENTATION! PARIS EVEN FUCKING TELLS DAWN THAT SHE MADE GREAT USE OF HER ACCESSORIES!"
 * Please note that Team Rocket grunts once killed a Pokémon because it got in the way...
 * That was in the games, not the anime, but fair enough.
 * It's hard to take POKÉMON PING PONG as seriously as everyone In-Universe does. Some of the Serious Business would be funny, but the writers used it to put Ambipom on a bus after the build-up toward its going to Dawn had been a shining example of their progress.
 * In the 26th episode of the Diamond/Pearl series, we are introduced to some embarrassing secret from Dawn's past that causes her friend Kenny to teasingly call her "Dee Dee", but we never learn exactly what the incident that gave birth to this nickname was and why Dawn hates it. In episode 161, we finally learn: "Dee Dee" stands for "Diamond Dandruff", and it's because of an incident where, as a kid, Dawn's hair was messed up by a Plusle and Minun so that it stood up and sparkled. That's right, the big reveal is a hair problem and hair problems have happened to Dawn all throughout the series, yet this one out of many hair problems is apparently so much worse and so traumatizing to Dawn that she actually has a phobia of Plusle and Minun as a result! That's.....that's stupid. Really stupid.
 * The ending of the episode "Arriving In Style". The Rival of the episode, a Rich Bitch glamour queen named Koko, loses the Pokemon fashion show to Dawn because Dawn expressed her "inner beauty". Koko gets the Accessory Award rather than the prize award because she showed off her acessories rather than her pokemon. Except that...she did make good use of her pokemon, whereas Dawn was the one who showed off her accessories. The award winners were switched around! Or, to quote Pokemopolis' summary of the episode:

""Hell, I would even be able to tolerate him if he had a personality beyond "Jerkassey, self-righteous Villain Sue". I don't even see Paul as a character, to be honest. He's just a plot device without soul, personality, spirit or anything else that makes someone relatable or human. As one of my favorite antagonists in Emperor Mateus (Dissidia Final Fantasy) would refer to the likes of Paul, he's nothing but a "'tool of war' without a will of his own.""
 * So basically, the poor girl was cheated out of an award she rightfully deserved just so Dawn could get an unearned victory that teaches a Broken Aesop to the audience.
 * Any time the anime writers feel the need to give a female character romantic feelings for Ash. Ash is a Chaste Hero who is Oblivious to Love. He's NEVER going to respond to these feelings, and the characters expressing of them usually never show up again anyway. The only reason to continue these doomed flings is to keep fangirls occupied.
 * The stint with Anabel. In the games, Anabel, not Brandon, is the leader of the Frontier Brains; there, she is an extremely talented prodigy and has been known to tell people who lose to her that they lack talent straight up. Even when she's defeated, she laughs a creepy laugh. Here, she's a generic good girl with special powers ripped off from Yellow of Pokémon Special and an unrequited crush on Ash so serious that she helps him defeat her after he loses to her the first time. Then Ash moves on, and Anabel and her little crush is never brought up again. The writers derailed a not-so-nice but cool and interesting character so that she would be a shipmate for Ash, even though that ship goes absolutely nowhere. What. the. hell.
 * After God knows how many battles, badges, Pokémon, secret tests of character, and near death experiences, Ash still messes up the most elementary things when battling and loses instantly. Especially notable when he has an episode to show how far he's come and grown, only for the next to be about one of those instant losses.
 * That's exactly what happened in the Ash Vs. Kenny battle in Episode 648:  Seriously, why would Ash  Strong as They Need to Be is in full effect.
 * Paul's existence. Why create a character if you're barely going to develop him beyond the Arrogant Kung Fu Guy who's too full of himself to listen to people's advice? He may be a Creator's Pet; this is one rant about it. To quote a reply to that rant:


 * Combining both of the above, we have Ash's "six-on-six showdown" with Paul at Snowpoint. Ash had come off a competent win against Candice, while Paul was force-fed his own ego against Pyramid King Brandon. Given Ash's bad track record against Paul prior and the aforementioned fat head of the latter, you'd think the writers (especially Atsuhiro Tomioka, who has a track record of shooting fluids all over Paul) would throw Ash a bone and have him win this once - and after realizing Ash did what Reggie could not and getting hosed himself trying to achieve on his own, it would completely grind Paul's hubris into dust if his "punching bag" Ash managed to proverbially punch back. Instead, we get treated to some of the most painful nerfing of Ash's competence as he gets wiped two to six. Case in point, Ash had a choice between Staraptor and Grotle when dealing with Honchkrow, Paul's token Flier, and instead of doing what any rational person would do and send out the Pokemon with the fewest disadvantages, he uses Grotle instead. The physical Grass tank, which evolves into a Grass/Ground hybrid, against a Flier, which it previously lost to. Just as stupid as it sounds. Tomi-san, before you write your next episode, could you wipe that semen stain off your shirt?
 * This is meant to be an In-Universe Wall Banger, of sorts. Ash's using Grotle was explained by him wanting revenge for their last defeat so badly, he didn't think to strategise. Given that his early defeat of Weavile gave him a lead in the battle, it all comes down to the fact that Ash wasn't thinking with a level head, which Paul exploits with merciless ingenuity (having Magmortar out to burn Pikachu with Flame Body, for instance). Whether you like it or not, that loss was justified by the circumstances, as it's not just about being a good trainer - it's about keeping a level head when facing a skilled opponent, and by the time Ash was getting his head in the game it was too late to salvage the match. It comes down to whether or not you consider Ash's state of mind during this battle (he is a Hot-Blooded shonen hero, remember?) justified.
 * It wasn't. The writers simply had Ash lose 50+ I.Q. points in order to make their Creator's Pet Paul look better in comparison.
 * And now that Ash has defeated Paul in the Sinnoh League, you would think that Ash would rub it in Paul's face just a tiny bit? Maybe Paul would finally have karma knocking at his door? Well, now Paul and Ash have parted as friends, with all of Paul's past actions and conduct apparently forgiven because he asked if Infernape was all right. It was supposed to show maturity and growth on Paul's part, and he has also learned some sportsmanship. But it came off as forced, a last-minute event to make sure he doesn't suffer for his past sins. He doesn't appear to learn a lot. He'll still be a Jerkass...
 * May's battle against Solidad, because May was completely overwhelmed by her. The worst part is that this was right after she beat Drew, in that battle she showed how far she's come along as a Coordinator and Combusken learned Overheat to boot, then when she's against Solidad they make her look like a rookie facing a pro all because Solidad studied her battling style and May barely does anything about it. She had every right to cry afterwards, the writers totally screwed her over.
 * They didn't show much of that battle. The writers will create filler episode after filler episode (to show new Pokémon, bide time for new games to come out, etc...), but won't give a full episode to show an important battle involving a main character.
 * Why didn't the writers have Ash use Noctowl against Chuck? It has super-effective Flying moves, and it knew Confusion, which is also super effective against Fighting-types. The writers didn't learn their lesson with Ash's bird Pokémon until Swellow, but this is ridiculous. Would giving Noctowl screen time hurt, especially when it has little to begin with?
 * Trainers, which one of these Pokémon evolves into Seviper? There should be no correct answer because there should be no such Pokemon. Seviper is a type of one.
 * Pokémon Chronicles example: The dub saying that Ritchie has an Eevee and Casey had a Magmar and a Rapidash. This is only in the dub.
 * Cynthia spent her previous episodes (and still afterwards) talking about how every meeting is special and creates a bond, and how even enemies can find value in each other. Then in the Galactic finale she proceeds to stand there and do absolutely nothing while Cyrus.
 * The way Cynthia just did nothing for the Galactic and Ash vs Paul subplots in general was disappointing. Even the Cynthia who let you take on the Distortion World by yourself in the games would try more!
 * Also, Cynthia's aforementioned philosophy in this anime (which wasn't present in the games) is used to make Cynthia pretty much a canon Draco in Leather Pants fangirl for Paul, doing nothing when she sees his abuse of Chimchar firsthand due to her bullshit philosophy, and in Paul's last appearance, praising him and his "bond" with Ash (what, is she a Yaoi Fangirl too?) which apparently changed him, though the show gives us little beyond it's word to make us believe he's changed. Thank you, anime, you made one of the coolest characters in the games one of the most annoying in the show.
 * Ash's battle with Tobias is often considered to be one with the fandom. Mostly because . Now, granted, trainers using Legendaries is nothing new (Noland used an Articuno he had befriended and Pyramid King Brandon had Regirock, Registeel, and Regice). However, those characters actually had backstory and were established to have worked hard to obtain/befriend said Legendaries. Tobias? He's not given any backstory at all and it's implied he's always had . Plus, it doesn't help that he's a minor character whom we'll never see again. If he had only one Legendary and if he had some semblance as to how he obtained it, that would've been much better than having two Legendaries without any reason other than "hey, why not".
 * Admittedly, this is sort of reaching, but this battle honestly came off as kind of a slap in the face to the people who hope Ash will be allowed to win a title someday. Seriously, each of the two Pokemon Tobias uses wipes out half of Ash's team. It came off like the writers were just too lazy to write in another character to do it, so instead of having Ash lose to a realistic or even semi-human opponent, they have a guy who was tailor made for the sole purpose of destroying him.
 * Another absurd example: During the episode where Ash and friends arrive to the island to enter said pokemon league, you can see one trainer with a Heatran...neither trainer nor his LEGENDARY pokemon show up again...out of all the pokemon you could have had appear for a one off appearance for trainers that will most likely never appear again after one short appearance, you make it a legendary!?
 * One episode featured an Officer Jenny saying that "Pokémon can't understand human speech". Despite the fact that, you know, not only do trainers talk to their Pokémon all the time, but that's how BATTLES work with trainers telling their Pokémon which moves to use... (this may have been dub only, however).
 * It doesn't help that Team Rocket's Meowth, Mewtwo and some of the Legendaries not only understand it, but speak it too.
 * It still seems to be canon that even the least intelligent Pokémon are as smart as dogs. Even Pokémon like Slowpoke and Magikarp have working intelligence, albeit extremely slowly-working intelligence.
 * The end of the Whirl Cup, where Ash specifically tells Kingler to hit Misty's Psyduck's head. Wait, Ash, I thought you KNEW that Psyduck gets a boost of power from being hit in the head!
 * In the episode featuring the Gym Leader Erika, she bans Ash from challenging her Gym (in the original Japanese version, it's made particularly clear that it's under Erika's personal orders that Ash be banned); In Brock's first appearance (in the fifth episode) he says that as a Gym Leader, he must accept all challengers, a rule mentioned by several other Gym Leaders throughout the show (INCLUDING Erika, who says after the fact that it's her "duty under the League rules"). If that wasn't bad enough, there's the reason why Ash was banned in the first place: it's because he doesn't like perfume. Earlier that day, Ash and Co. visited a perfume store, which just happens to be owned by the Celadon Gym, where he states to the effect that perfume is for wussies, causing not only the employees, but Misty, Brock and even Pikachu to flip their wig. Granted, Ash was a bit of a jerk about it, but it wasn't enough to justify an outright ban. This makes Erika come off as not just a petty bitch, but also a wildly unprofessional Gym Leader. Equally stupid is the fact that neither Misty or Brock (both Gym Leaders themselves) called her on this.
 * While seeing Ash and Pikachu drop in competence between the end of one series and the beginning of another is just accepted as a normal part of the show, nothing can justify the drop between the end of Diamond and Pearl and Best Wishes. Ash loses to Shooti, a starting trainer who's never battled before. Sure, Pikachu couldn't use his Electric attacks, but he's beaten plenty of opponents without using those moves in the past.
 * It's not just Pikachu. Soon after that battle, Ash goes out looking for new Unova Pokémon and comes across a Deerling. For some reason, despite having caught well over thirty Pokémon and having taken part in league tournaments in four different regions, Ash still has to be told that you have to weaken a Pokémon before capturing it. The very thing he had to remind May and Dawn about in the past! May and Dawn were rookies at the time they made this mistake, so they get a pass, but for Ash to do it so late, there's just no excuse.
 * It gets worse in a recent episode:  At least with Ash's 6-on-6 with Paul both teams were revealed.
 * Agreed! How about instead of Ash constantly losing to to his rival every time they face off they have the two take turns winning? That way neither rival gets their ego inflated after every match and they develop respect for one another, would that be so bad? Apparently the writers think so as they always have to have Ash lose to his rivals constantly just so they can him win the final bout to prove that the good half will win in the end no matter how many times he loses.
 * (I am the same poster right above you) I hear you on that one. That pattern destroys any tension of the rivalry. Rivalries are no fun if they are one sided until the last minute. And speaking of inflated ego Shooti taunted Ash on how lousy he was as a trainer after the battle (granted if you are a noob and you just beat a guy who had four generations of experience chances are you would have an ego boost too). But the authors are unlikely to change him considering their opinion of us since they think all our rivalries should be one-sided, we don't know basic type matchups, abilities, move combos and tactics so we can relate to the main character we have here, which is kind of a Wall Banger in that regard.
 * Well, we've had Trip later on mellowing out into a more fleshed-out and believable character and a full six Pokémon being revealed, not to mention his, so there's that. But let's just hope they don't pull the above fiasco out of their rear-ends again, or there's going to be Hell to pay.
 * Arcanine, Flamethrower!!
 * Maybe it was nicknamed.
 * Bulbasaur, Whirlwind!!
 * That was a case of mistranslation/not understanding context. In the Japanese version, Ash simply told Bulbasaur to "blow [the Sleep Powder] away" without mentioning the use of a specific attack. "Blow Away" is the Japanese name for the attack Whirlwind, so the dubbers probably thought he was talking about using Whirlwind and not just the act of blowing something away.
 * What? No mention of what is effectively Swellow's using Volt Tackle? We can't just blame this on the dub, either... Goddamned Deus Ex Machina.
 * The recent Brock special has raised a lot of ire. Why? Well, it's because a Nurse Joy . As mentioned in the Tobias example above, trainers having Legendaries is nothing new. However, like Tobias, there is no explanation as to why Nurse Joy has a . And she's a Recurring Character to boot. Look, Pokémon, if you want trainers to have Legendaries now, fine, but please tell us how they obtained said Legendaries or why they have them in the first place.
 * The first season episode "Challenge of the Samurai" has always infuriated me. Basically, Ash has just battled a wild Weedle. Just as he's about to catch it, a Samurai shows up and challenges him, completely ignoring the fact that Ash is a little busy right now. Thanks to Samurai's distraction, Ash loses Weedle, and later on after they are attacked by Beedrill, Samurai insults Ash, calling him a novice and blaming him for the whole thing because he didn't finish what he started. Hello, Samurai? If you had kept your mouth shut for FIVE LOUSY SECONDS and let him finish what he was doing, none of this would have happened! The worst bit? At the end, Ash has to learn that he has to finish what he starts, even though (as previously mentioned) he would have done that if Samurai hadn't interrupted him. It's a good thing this is the episode where Metapod evolves to Butterfree, or this episode would be part of my personal discontinuity.
 * And Samurai had not just challenged Ash on words in the middle of the capture. HE THREATENED ASH WITH A KATANA. Oh, and Ash is also blamed for losing Metapod on a run from the Beedrill, even though he was still going to save the mon. Sure, it's not like he would be killed by a bunch of giant bees with drills if he stopped for a moment to pick Metapod up!..
 * "Pikachu, the horn!" ... You all know what I'm talking about. The Anime actually reverses type matchups mercilessly, to the point where if one Pokemon has a type disadvantage, it's safe to say it will win. And the dub can't be called out on this alone. It came like that from Japan.
 * I won't say it's not objectionable, but in a manner of speaking it makes SOME sense (at least, back when it aired) - the anime seemed to be implying that using electric attacks directly on Rhydon's horn would send electricity directly INTO Rhydon's body, bypassing the Ground-type elements because there's flesh and bone underneath the armour. The REAL Wallbanger is that after the games introduced Rhydon's "Lightningrod" ability (which the horn was directly referred to as by Brock), the anime simply retconned this episode to match instead of any good justification (as seen in DP050). If they wanted some explanation like the volcanic heat lowering Rhydon's defences, they should have USED it... for that matter, how come a Fire-type Gym Leader like Blaine was using a Rhydon instead of an Arcanine or something? (I know Gym Leaders can have one or two mons to mix-up their teams despite being specialists, like Candice, but since it necessitated one of the most controversial moments in the series you can put this down to Early Installment Weirdness at BEST).
 * During Best Wishes, after Giovanni ends up temporarily busy due to complications to his master plan, his secretary tells Jessie, James and Meowth to "do what they want". First of all, I don't care how lacking in faith she is in the gang, it is very unprofessional of her to tell them to essentially piss off. Worse yet, what do they do when told this? They go back to trailing and getting their butts kicked by the twerp! Why? After a bajillion episodes of failure, they finally start getting back into the good graces of the boss and proving themselves as good Team Rocket agents, proving they don't need to go after the twerp's Pikachu to please him. So why are they going back to a strategy they know will get them back to being the laughing stock of their organization? Now, thankfully, this only lasts ten episodes and they have gone back to their actual criminal operation away from Ash and co., but one still wonders what the point in this period was. Even if you could justify it by saying they are trying to drop off the police radar, there are other, more productive ways of doing it.
 * Also, because the two-part conclusion to the Meteonite plot (and the debut of Team Plasma) was banned from airing in the dub, the official story seems to be that Team Rocket found the Meteonite, called Giovanni who we clearly saw arriving in Unova on his plane, while Professor Juniper detected the Meteonite's energy coming from the Desert Resort and causing the Venipede to act up, so she and Castelia City's Officer Jenny flew to the Desert Resort to investigate, which supposedly put a stop to Team Rocket claiming the Meteonite to use it's power for whatever their plan to take over Unova was...offscreen. Suddenly Giovanni is too busy for the trio, Pierce has vanished, and he, the Meteonite, the Venipede, and the secret organization in Unova are not ever referenced again. We had 22 episodes building up this big, grand story only for it to get resolved offscreen and dropped entirely. Which is terrible storytelling. The story is thankfully different in the original Japanese version and the two-part conclusion merely postponed indefinitely, but thousands of kids who watch the dub and don't know any better will be left wondering what the effing point of all that was!
 * Possibly worse than the above is how Team Rocket gets handled following Operation Tempest. All members of the organization left Unova after that, but then the usual Terrible Trio come back to Unova in the "Episode N" arc because - what else? - they want to steal Pikachu! And their motto has changed to being their first ever motto, for some reason. And they have a new Meowth Balloon, and two new Pokemon that they caught offscreen. When they battle and are defeated, they get sent flying into the air, "blasting off again." Um, Team Rocket - where did you put your jetpacks? They'd been avoiding the cliched blast-offs by blasting themselves off with jetpacks for episodes now and yet now they fall back into the pattern? Made even worse by two episodes later on where they bring their jetpacks back out again, showing that they didn't forget them after all - and then they stop using them AGAIN, exiting episodes via cliched blast-offs from thereon out. But at least they were still very efficient in "Episode N", able to stand on even ground with Team Plasma. There's no excuse for what happened in the following "Decolore Adventures" arc, in which, after getting well-earned praise from Giovanni, they decide to go back to actively stalking the twerps in hope of nabbing Pikachu. Even though this leads them to even more failure. And all the efficiency they'd displayed in Unova goes completely down the drain, since they're the Goldfish Poop Gang again and end up having literally nothing to show for their efforts when they report back to HQ. The final slap in the face? Wobbuffet comes back and they take him with them to Kalos for no given reason. Way to ruin three years of progress for Team Rocket right at the very end, writers! Why couldn't Operation Tempest have been their Grand Finale?
 * It actually was specifically advertised as being just that - "Goodbye, Rocket Gang?", "the Rocket Gang's final actions", "a finale after 15 years". So either TV Tokyo flat out lied to us, or someone forgot to tell the promotion for those episodes that the plans to write Team Rocket out of the show for good had unfortunately changed, which is a Wallbanger in and of itself.
 * Everyone is thinking it, so I'll just go out and say it: Thunder. Armour. Seriously, there is nothing in the history of the anime which I consider to be a bigger load of bull-crock - not even the "Aim For The Horn!" above is stupider, because it had some justification of sorts at the TIME it aired, at least. But seriously, anime producers - you wanted to show off Swellow's resistence to Electric attacks? Then why did you pull a cheap one back at Mauville Gym, which was a perfect opportunity to have Taillow shine? I did enjoy the Wattson episodes, don't get me wrong, but by this point I was expecting Ash to insist on a proper battle instead of just taking a badge (along with the Cerulean and Celadon Gym Battle, this is one of only two badges I consider COMPLETELY unfairly received).
 * Ash’s and Ritchie’s battle in the episode Friend and Foe Alike, not because Ash lost, but because everything goes wrong for Ash for the worst possible reasons. First, Ritchie’s Butterfree uses Sleep Powder on Ash's Squirtle, putting it to sleep. Then the referee declares that Squirtle has fainted and is unable to battle. This is the most blatantly stupid thing a referee has done on this show. Sleep does not equal fainting. If that were so the move Rest would be unusable. Besides, there have been instances of Pokemon falling asleep during battle on this show without being eliminated making this inconsistent. I honestly think that referee should have been fired. Also it turns out that most of Ash’s Pokémon are way too tired to battle effectively due to dealing with Team Rocket earlier. Pidgeotto even had to fly Ash over to get to the battle in time. Ash is therefore forced to use the only Pokemon for the battle that isn’t tired from the Team Rocket Fiasco; unfortunately it’s Charizard. At first, Charizard does good against Ritchie's team, however at one point Charizard basically just stops battling, lays down in the middle of the battle and forfeits, costing Ash the match. I know that Ash wasn't the smartest guy in the world, particularly in the earlier seasons but most of the problems in this battle were due to bad luck. He did not deserve to lose in such a humiliating way.
 * The reasons for why he had to stop Team Rocket prior to the match make it worse. The only reason his Pokemon were tired was because he had to use them to stop Team Rocket from stealing a large number of Pokemon and then use Pidgeotto carrying a balloon to get back. That's normally not so strange but this was at a major tournament. Where there are clearly a large number of Officer Jennies. Where several of those Officer Jennies have stopped Team Rocket in the past but were unable to apprehend them. Where was the security? Why wasn't the place swarming with Officer Jennies checking every single vehicle, merchant and store? What kind of idiotic system do they have where a boy can do a better job than the official security? The only reason he lost that match was because they weren't doing their job. Even if he was too much an Idiot Hero to explain the circumstances and ask for the match to be rescheduled wasn't anyone interested in why he got there so late and in a Team Rocket balloon? Wasn't the audience interested in knowing why they had been forced to stay there for hours?
 * The plot of the two-part Mistralton Gym episodes in Best Wishes. Skyla suffers some Character Derailment through adaptation. In the games, she's an upbeat nice girl who is more than happy with her Gym Leader duties and is positively portrayed. In the anime, she's a lazy, insufferably smug, stupid Jerkass who has grown to hate being a Gym Leader due to it taking time away from flying airplanes, and thus runs simulations in her head on how a battle would go to determine whether a challenger gets a badge or not. What's worse, the characters who fiercely oppose her in this are Cilan, Ash, and her grandfather Miles. Not Iris...just the male characters. All the while, she continues to act like an arrogant harpy who deserves to get her ass kicked by one of the opposing male characters and proven wrong on her views. She pretty much gets redeemed in the second episode but oh, Skyla...you did not deserve this treatment the anime writers have given you. Erika would sympathize.....
 * Umm... isn't Alternate Character Interpretation a given when it comes to the different mediums? Also, it really didn't seem like Iris wasn't on the same bandwagon as Ash and Cilan because she's a girl - it's felt more like her personality to not be fanatical. Remember that Cilan's a Gym Leader (which Iris isn't in the anime), and Ash is a G-Rated Blood Knight. As for her grandfather, that she inherited the Gym from him is canon to the games as well. But YMMV.
 * It's not the Alternate Character Interpretation itself that's the Wallbanger (the air battle thing was actually an interesting idea), but how it and the story written around it was executed. Even if Iris wasn't as fanatical, there was no good reason for her to contribute squat to the entire thing. And while Ash's case is excusable, this brings us to another, possibly bigger Wallbanger about this story: Cilan was being a flat-out Hypocrite here as well. He hated Skyla's smugness in predicting outcomes of matches even when he had done something similiar in his battle with Ash and is frequently cocky in battles. He hated that she was often on leave from Gym Leader duties in order to puruse her hobbies even though that is what he's doing. And if he felt her refusal to battle was a disgrace to the title of Gym Leader, then why didn't he call out Clay for this when he acted like a Jerkass and refused to battle Ash twice? The whole thing just reeked of Double Standard, and so to me, Cilan's defeat at Skyla's hands was immensely satisfying and well-deserved. Oh, and oddly enough, her grandfather is probably the one with the best reason to be displeased at Skyla and yet he's the only guy willing to just let it go! Weird.
 * The ending of the Twist Mountain two-parter has one:
 * Ash in general has been suffering from loss of personality, ever since the end of the Johto arc. Granted, this is Pokemon, but Ash's interest in anything not Pokemon related has slowly seeped into his character for years now, and it's gotten to the point where he is simply there, and that anyone who's even seen him before can predict his actions before they happen. In short, he's more or less turned into nothing but a bland, can do no wrong, always moral Gary Stu with nothing resembling depth as a character.
 * The writers also seem to have no clue what they want to do with Ash. For a while, Ash would wildly fluctuate between the Hot-Blooded Idiot Hero that he was in Kanto and most of Johto, but other times he'll show that he's matured into a calmer, more cool-headed character. The fact that he can be either in any given episode tends make it look like the writers have gotten bored with him and his more hot-blooded moments are just a nod to a time when he was an actual character.