ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
721: An Amazing Aerial Battle!	727: Fukiyose Jimu! Tai Furo Kuchu Kessen!	Real World Applications of Academic Theory			Ash battles for his Sixth Gym Badge	Non-existent	Theory only takes you so far

Last episode saw the twerps meet Skyla - the Mistralton City Gym Leader. Unfortunately for them, it seemed that Skyla had a very unique way of running her gym, consisting of two groups of challengers per day who lined up to show off their Pokémon and be told by Skyla authoritatively whether they would have won or lost. Badges were given out based on her judgment, and then she'd be off to fly in the sky in her plane for fun. Needless to say, the twerps were not pleased to discover this is the way she ran things, nor was the former Gym Leader - her grandfather Miles. Cilan in particular was incensed and challenged Skyla to a REAL battle in order to prove that her imaginary "Air Battles" weren't the right way to do things. Unfortunately for Cilan AND his point, he was defeated after he got overconfident and started repeating his attack combos. Skyla was confident in the value of her Air Battles, only to be freshly challenged by Ash who made an even graver accusation against her - her battles are BORING! Well, nobody likes to hear that (especially Nintendo), so now we're on track for....



In a rehash of the end of the previous episode, Ash shows off his chosen team of Pokémon but this time we get to see them. Tranquill, Krokorok and Pikachu - and Skyla notes it is a good balance but the fact is she'll win based on her extrapolation of their abilities/type. Ash insists it is the other way around, and then to Skyla's surprise the other members of the Afternoon Group eagerly shout that they want to see her battle Ash! Why? Because they fucking LOVED watching her and Cilan duke it out and now they all want to see more of a "real" battle. Obviously none of them feel qualified to step up to the plate themselves, which says a lot for the calibre of "Challenger" that comes to Skyla's Gym for a 50/50 shot at a badge. Miles happily tells Skyla that she has to take up Ash's challenge after hearing how excited everybody is to see it, and she agrees. However, she is still convinced that victory is in the bag for her, and we get to see a simplified version of her mental processing. She imagines Swoobat against Krokorok and establishes that Swoobat would win, that her Unfezant would defeat his Tranquill easily enough, and that his only ace in the hole is Pikachu and that this isn't enough. Ash yells that she can't know this without a battle but she stops him by throwing a hand up in his face and telling him the battle will take place tomorrow, and for now she's going to get in some more flying. She zips off and is soon up in the air, while Ash growls that he IS going to win.

That night in the Pokémon Center, Iris plays happily with Axew while Ash sits in a meditative position... on his head! He's been like that "forever" according to Iris, and Cilan is gleefully watching Ash believing that he's working out all kinds of moves and countermoves. Ash leaps to his feet on the bed, declaring he's got it... he's worked out a way to make his combo of Krokorok/Tranquill/Pikachu work. Cilan is horrified; Ash challenged Skyla with that combo earlier completely at random? Of course he did! But Ash happily says not to worry about it; he has something up his sleeve that Skyla can't predict. What is that? Cilan and Iris ask expectantly, and he reveals that his secret weapon is... guts and spirit!

Oh Ash.

The next day finds them inside the large hanger instead of standing outside, and inside is the large Battle Arena you'd expect at most Gyms. The balconies are full of excited people who are excited to get to see a REAL Gym Battle as opposed to Skyla's usual bullshit, and the roof of the hangar opens to allow in the natural light. Diamond shaped hoops are lifted into the air by balloons, all part of the battlefield - this is how it must have been in Miles' day and the early part of Skyla's era before her win-streak got so high and demand so large that she shifted to "Air Battles". Cilan is pleased at the sight of it all, telling Iris that if Ash can win, Skyla will be forced to rethink her philosophy and his defeat yesterday won't have been in vain.

Ash is introduced first, being lifted by an underground platform to the arena floor and bumped ungainly into the air. On the other side of the arena, a cannon is raised up and fires Skyla into the air, and she flips about at the apex of her climb, releases gliding wings and zips through the diamond-shaped hoops before exploding confetti and pink smoke behind her and landing on the ground, more confetti exploding out as she salutes to the enthusiastic crowd. Miles is delighted, this is just what a Gym Battle SHOULD be, though Skyla tells Ash that the outcome is still going to be as she predicted.

The rules are the usual, only Ash can substitute. Things open with Swoobat vs. Krokorok, and Cilan notes that this is all down to how Ash uses Krokorok in battle since - as Iris points out - Ground Type moves won't affect a Flying Type at all. Ash has Krokorok use Crunch, but Swoobat dodges with speed and uses Air Cutter, dodged by Krokorok which uses Dig. Swoobat swoops down low to try and find Boss Gator, which launches out of the ground and uses Stone Edge. Skyla reacts quickly, having Swoobat use Gust to try and turn the attack back around on Krokorok, and for the most part it succeeds... but one stone manages to get through and knock Swoobat back. But Krokorok has to dodge the blown back stones as well, and is distracted enough to take direct shots of Air Cutter from a recovered Swoobat and.... Krokorok is out! Just as Skyla predicted!



Skyla tells Ash that for a Ground Type, Krokorok did pretty good. Ash thanks her, but says that he's going to prove that her predictions aren't always right as he brings out his next Pokémon - Tranquill! It's a Flying Type against a Flying Type and Skyla is happy to see this sound strategy, even if it is "predictable". Both Pokémon use Air Cutter, kicking up a lot of smoke, and then they combine Gusts against each other and make a small sand funnel. Swoobat ascends high in the air and Tranquill goes after, getting above Swoobat and attacking with glowing wings as Swoobat desperately dodges, then following through with Air Cutter and finally zeroing in on Swoobat, sending it crashing to the ground and knocked out. It's 1-1!

Ash is delighted, asking Skyla what she thinks now since things aren't going the way she expected. This is a completely inaccurate statement and Skyla is quick to shut Ash down, pointing out that two Flying Types were always going to be on equal footing, and that Swoobat was at a disadvantage due to this being its second battle. She tells Ash that the unpredictable rarely happens no matter what he might like to think, and brings out her second Pokémon - Unfezant. As the evolved version of Tranquill, it gives Skyla a big advantage of Ash, not that he seems to know or care. He sends in Tranquill with Quick Attack, but Unfezant dodges and loops down then up into the air at high speed, blasting Air Slash after Tranquill which has to use all of its speed to pull clear of the barrage of attacks. Tranquill is exhausted, and Ash realises he only has one option for now, he needs to recall Tranquill before she is knocked out and send in Pikachu - and while this is predictable it does give Ash a big Type Advantage.

He opens with Electro-Ball but Unfezant is able to dodge by ascending high in the air, then blasting at an escaping Pikachu with Air Slash before coming in with Aerial Ace. Ash tells Pikachu to lure Unfezant in and prepare an Iron Tail, waiting as Unfezant gets closer and closer and closer, Pikachu trusting in Ash to tell him exactly when to attack and...... it pays off! An Iron Tail in the face followed by an Electro-Ball knocks Unfezant out, and now technically speaking Ash is winning the battle 2-1, as Skyla has only Swanna left. But when Ash stupidly brags, Skyla is quick to point out that everything is going according to her predictions. She told him he would have to rely on Pikachu and he has, and she doesn't seem to be concerned that her last Pokémon has a strong type disadvantage against Pikachu. Watching from the sidelines, Cilan tells Iris that Skyla HAS to be feeling something from taking part in this great battle, and he just hopes Ash can hold out long enough to change her mind regarding Air Battles.

Ash opens with a Thunderbolt, but Skyla has Swanna use Aqua Ring and the attack does... nothing? Confused, Ash tries Electro-Ball but again it does nothing, which makes no sense since Swanna is a Flying/Water Type and thus should have gotten MURDERED by either of those attacks. Skyla laughs that when she first took over the Gym she went back and reviewed tapes of ALL of her Grandfather's Gym Battles and he used just this strategy himself. Miles would seem to have some memory issues, since he seemed just as confused as everyone else when the attack failed to block Swanna's Aqua Ring.

Being Ash, he's not more than momentarily concerned before coming up with a different strategy and telling Pikachu to use Iron Tail. He leaps high into the air and swings that iron tail hard, but Swanna is able to dodge backwards with speed, and Pikachu's Iron Tail moves harmlessly through the air. Ash watches Pikachu land and is upset for just a moment before the angle he's on allows him to spot an opportunity. It's one of those things that could never be predicted without a battle taking place - one of those intuitive and unpredictable moments where a challenger sees an opportunity and takes it. It's the type of thing that only a trainer and a Pokémon on a close personal level could accomplish, as shown by the unspoken agreement between Ash and Pikachu before Ash orders a Quick Attack.

Skyla gapes in surprise as Pikachu zips along the ground, then leaps up and bounds off the base of one of the hanging diamond hoops and bounces along them, launching through the air like a bullet right at Swanna. Skyla reacts fast though, ascending high to escape, and Pikachu only manages to graze it before landing back inside one of the diamonds. Skyla is relieved that Swanna is okay, and orders a Bubblebeam that crashes Pikachu into the ground, followed by a Hurricane that sweeps Pikachu up and spins him around, before finishing things up with Brave Bird as Pikachu falls through the sky. Pikachu crashes to the ground and skids along the dirt, and Skyla smugly notes it was a "perfect landing". But to her shock, Pikachu struggles back to his feet prepared to fight some more... before tumbling backwards into Ash's hands. He lifts Pikachu up and carries him back to rest by the wall, while the crowd gapes and enthusiastically talk up Pikachu's toughness.

It's 2-2 now, but Ash ignores Skyla's rather smug statement that things are going just as she predicted, and brings out his last Pokémon. Tranquill returns a little rested from earlier, but Ash still checks to make sure she is able to battle. She is, so Ash orders a Quick Attack immediately since Pikachu's seemed to work well against Swanna earlier. The attack scores another hit, but Swanna is able to dodge Air Cutter for the most part, the last attack scoring a hit that sends it falling towards the ground. Ash tries to end things quickly with Gust, but Swanna recovers and hits back with Hurricane, overpowering the attack and catching the bird up in the attack just as Pikachu was earlier. Tranquill crashes to the ground, and Iris frowns sadly - it seems Skyla WAS right. Her predictions DO always come true, there is no point in straight up battling, and it's time to wrap up this whole cock-fighting thing the world is obsessed with and....



YO FUCK YOUR AIR BATTLES, SKYLA!

In yet another move that couldn't possibly have been predicted, Tranquill responds to an asskicking by evolving... into Unfezant! As we learned in last week's episode, the female Unfezant's have superior flying skills to the male versions - but will it be enough to take down Swanna? Ash picks up that Unfezant knows a new move and suggests they try it out, but first it's back to basics with an Air Cutter attempt on Swanna. The disgruntled granny-in-a-bra ascends high to dodge the attack, but Unfezant is right after it, keeping on its tail. Skyla laughs that Swanna isn't running away though and tells Swanna to get behind Unfezant and use Brave Bird. However, just because she said it doesn't make it so, and despite an incredibly long-running Brave Bird, Swanna can NOT catch Unfezant which manages to continually dodge and keep clear of the attack. Despite herself, Skyla is getting caught up in the excitement of REAL battling, and keeps cheering Swanna on as Ash waits for just the right moment and finally unleashes that new move - Aerial Ace!

Unfezant's pupil dilates as it narrows in and attacks, and now the Brave Bird using Swanna is on the run as Unfezant gets behind it and zooms forward glowing white. It can't keep it up though, Unfezant's flying skills are superior and it crashes into Swanna and.... and....



SKYLA WAS WRONG!

The battle is over and Ash is declared the winner. The crowd roars, Iris and Cilan are delighted, and even Skyla seems to have had a great time. A short time later, she presents Ash with his Gym Badge as she admits that she was wrong, she could never have predicted the way Ash would catch her unawares. It's a surprisingly abrupt ending to her Air Battle ways, as she agrees that they're going by the wayside. The previous episode caused a LOT of discussion about whether her philosophy was right or wrong and it's a little disappointing to see her 180 so abruptly without at least a little soul-searching or shock.

But it pays to note that she absolutely WAS in the wrong. Discussion on her philosophy aside, the fact is that using her Air Battle technique, she told Ash that he couldn't beat her and therefore couldn't have a badge. They battled and he won. She was wrong. It doesn't matter if she was right 99.9% of the time, because if even one person who should have won a badge got turned away by her, then she was doing her job wrong. On top of that, the battle showed that she couldn't plan for little intuitive touches the likes of Ash are so good at coming up with on the fly, or that the relationship between Pokémon and trainer might be strong enough to communicate without words, or that an evolution might take place. Her Air Battles were one-dimensional, and even further on top of that, a REAL battle was just more exciting to watch and the badge rewarded just meant so much more. It's something that everybody but Skyla knew on some level, as evidenced by the other "challengers" being so eager to see the real battle and willing to give up their own spots rather than take her on themselves, knowing that none of them were really up to it despite the fact that under her system, they had a 50/50 chance of getting a badge for having the "right" Pokémon. It also doesn't answer the question of how Skyla will deal with having full battles with EVERYBODY who wants to challenge her, which is what caused her to move to Air Battles in the first place. But the answer there is more straightforward - people will just have to goddamn wait so they can EARN the Gym Badge they want, rather than just getting it handed to them. Earn it.... like Ash just earned his:

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