Alright, so lets first knock away what's just laughable to use as an argument.
Behold, a High 3-A!
A High 3-A incapable to scratch an High 7-A [0:44 in the video]
I really hope that there isn't any amount of seriousness here for this first point.
We're really going to use Pokemon Snap, which not only isn't considered any sort of canon here, but a fight scene that is also literally RIDDLED with game mechanics? No seriously, not even an actual cut scene or an attempt at using one, just a regular game mechanic battle? Should we knock off more legendaries ratings with the good ol FEAR Ratatta strategy?
You should know better than to try using this. This point is just completely worthless in every way. And the following point is, while better, just as bad of an argument.
A High 3-A beaten by an High-7-A's attack
Let's clear some things up here.
First of all, Zeraora wasn't "beaten" by those hunter's pokemon. It was fatigued in battle because of injuries it already sustained prior to that confrontation (i'll deal with this more below). The hunters and Margo already pointed this out. But even if there is some level of truth to a High 7-A "beating" Zeraora, the fight in itself and the movie already show why this outlier is inconsistent. Zeraora casually stopped Houndoom and Sneasels attacks just by appearing before them when the fight started, it was then blitzing them with ease. Then we have Zeraora, later in the movie, holding up a full on battle with Ash's Pikachu without any passing out in the slightest.
Ash's Pikachu, who in this timeline, not only made those hunters retreat, but is also on the level of legendaries like Marshadow and had a fight with Ho-Oh and lived to tell about it.
It's also a thing in Zeraora's backstory that many trainers and pokemon would go to battle in in the forest it lives in The Power of Us, and fail to catch it.
So, unless you want to try arguing Ash's Pikachu and many other trainer's pokemon being inferior to 2 nameless hunter's pokemon, this isn't much of an anti-feat to try using here to discredit High 3-A.
and the reason for this Pokemon being High 3-A ? Why of course, a single showing against an Ultra Beast, but guess what ? That's not even a valid reason.
Zeraora didn't even take the ultra beast alone. His attacks did no actual damage on Guzzlord (even Close Combact, a supereffective move, didn't do anything), only stunning it for very short time at best, with Zeraora's trainer even stating that Plasma Fists isn't powerful enough.
https://media.**********.net/attachments/932803663234203748/976412798756204584/unknown.png
https://media.**********.net/attachments/932803663234203748/976412905669033984/unknown.png
Further evidence
https://media.**********.net/attachments/932803663234203748/976420461044977664/unknown.png
(And by defences here, he means literally just moving an arm in front of the attack]
Now to deal with this. This is not
entirely wrong, but the big problem is that this is missing quite a lot of context that you're trying to cover up with a few scans.
First, that Close Combat. Zerora not damaging it with Close Combat doesn't mean it didn't match it's power, which it did. Guzzlord was firing a punch at Pikachu, which the Close Combat that Zeraora used the first time knocked away. But even better? When they fight Guzzlord the second time and it uses close combat, Zeraora
literally gets into a parrying combat match with Guzzlord before it gets knocked away.
Then, with Plasma Fists, Zerora didn't just stun it. In flashbacks were you get these scans from, those flashbacks
literally shows Zeraora pushing back Guzzlord with Plasma Fists. And interestingly enough, the OP mentioning Guzzlord blocking the second plasma fists, if anything, suggests Guzzlord wouldn't have just stood there and took it without any sort of effect, since it wouldn't have needed to actively block it with its hands if it could.
So no, this idea that Guzzlord just no-selled everything Zeraora did and "swatted it away like a fly", like it was an encounter that Guzzlord casually dominated in, is a definite misrepresentation of what actually happens and is absolutely false. The only level of truth the OP's arguments give is that Zeraora couldn't defeat Guzzlord by itself without Pikachu's role in sending it back to Ultra Space. All that shows, is that Zeraora isn't quite as strong as Guzzlord, which is not enough for this downgrade.
Everyone here should know by now that X defeating Y is not the only method of scaling tiers, a practice Pokemon already makes accepted use of. Don't know how many times we have to mention this before the point gets knocked in. Zeraora couldn't beat Guzzlord? Cool. It still parried attacks from Guzzlord, and being able to push it back with it's own attacks. Result? Zeraora's strong enough to counter it's attacks. It's in the same realm of power as Guzzlord, even if weaker. That is still High 3-A, or else Zeraora wouldve been stomped the second the encounters began. The only thing the OP's points call for, is adjusting it's level of High 3-A, not that it has to be downgraded from High 3-A entirely.
Next, the point on trained pokemon
also to note and to make everyone remember, trained pokemons can get waaaay stronger than wild ones, and the Zeraora shown here is a trained one so it shouldn't even be used as the standard to begin with.
This is a downright lie, at least in Zeraora's case.
First of all, I don't know where in the hell we got this idea that "trained legendaries" are somehow superior to wild ones, when their tiers and powersets are literally the same, but this has never been a thing as far as i've been here on this site. Legendaries are next level compared to ordinary pokemon, there's no realistic method of training, outside of game mechanics, that somehow allows a legendary to become stronger than they usually are. Do you seriously think Tobias managed to snag a Darkrai that he could somehow make stronger by fighting a bunch of nobodies? Would you think Giratina or Dialga would become higher 2-A's if Cynthia or the player catches them and puts them in a 1000 matches in a row against a trainer and some Tyranitar or Torterra? No, because that's completely ridiculous to believe. And it ain't like champion trainers carry around a Palkia or Arceus, the only pokemon whos strength would remotely matter for the formers as training partners, to use in training.
Second of all, even if there was any sort of truth to the above, this is most definitely not the case for Zeraora. Dia's Zeraora is not trained. In fact, Zeraora isn't even Dia's pokemon. Dia literally came across Zeraora
out of nowhere when they both acted to send Guzzlord back to Ultra Space, so because they both had common interests, they teamed up to accomplish this. Dia never officially caught Zeraora.
And in their world, Guzzlord's attack made Alola's citizens abandon their home and fleed, leaving only Dia and Zeraora behind in their mission to send Guzzlord back, so what opponents would there possibly be to somehow make this Zeraora any more stronger than a normal one? Don't answer, because there isn't.
And finally, to address Ash and Pikachu's role in all this.
There's also the fact that in both the
Power of Us Movie and Episode 101 of the Sun/Moon Anime it's shown that Zeraora is even matched with Ash's Pikachu, but the lil' guy has inconsistent power so it's not hard evidence and more just food for thought.
This argument is also full of holes since the Power of Us Ash and Pikachu is explicitly different from the originals, and only the latters get hit with the "inconsistent power" stick. (which really isn't even a thing currently anymore, but beside the point).
Like I said above, PoU Ash and Pikachu are on the level of legendaries. In I Choose You, the same timeline as PoU, Pikachu fought head to head with both Marshadow and Ho-Oh, and lived to tell about it. It has never once faltered or failed against ordinary pokemon like the original Pikachu was once burdened with.
But we can put inconsistencies for Pikachu aside, because Ash and Pikachu being evenly matched with Zeraora in the Sun/Moon anime is straight up false. Dia and Zeraora stomped Ash and Pikachu in their first battle, Pikachu didn't harm Zeraora at all, Zeraora countered all of it's attacks with ease, and then stomped it with Plasma Fists. They then had to train with Ash and Pikachu so that they could help Pikachu get ready for their next encounter with Guzzlord.
The scan the OP uses where Ash says they're "evenly matched" ignores context. Ash said that because Zeraora and Pikachu were battling with the purpose of trying to unleash enough energy so that the poral to Ash's universe would reappear and send he and Pikachu home. They weren't having some serious battle to see who's the stronger one like the OP's comment played this off to be.
Power of Us Pikachu matching Zeraora is a different story, but like I said above, Zeraora was injured for pretty much the entire movie, and even then, this Pikachu's tier is different from the main series's. If anything, the reverse can be argued to just scale PoU Pikachu to Zeraora, assuming the Coco movie doesn't interfere with this. But again, this is beside the point here.
Im completely against this downgrade. Between a mix of excluding context, misrepresenating what was happening, and using weak arguments of inconssitency, the OP's argument falls apart just like it did the last time when trying to oppose High 3-A.
So yeah, this is an extremely flimsy rating at best. Zeraora should have the same rating as low end mythical pokemons (Low 6-B)
