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I know Ash has lost a lot of gym battles and also got free badges for being nice to his pokemon, or saving the day and other reasons.

Apart from that, has Ash ever managed to get all 8 gym badges with a single try?

Aki Tanaka
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Jerrico Kyle
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1 Answers1

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Ash has never managed to defeat all 8 gym leaders in a single try. Ash loses against the following Gym Leaders, in every region.

  • Kanto: Brock, Lt. Surge, Sabrina, and Blaine
  • Johto: Whitney
  • Hoenn: Brawly
  • Sinnoh: Roark & Fantina
  • Unova: Lenora
  • Kalos: Viola & Wolfric

Few additional exceptions:

  • In Kanto, against his battle with Erika, the match was interrupted by Team Rocket and Erika gave Ash the badge for saving Gloom. Erika had only lost Weepinbell and still had Gloom and Tangela left. Ash on the other hand, lost Bulbasaur and Charmander, hence, only had Pikachu left. So under the mentioned circumstances, Erika did have an upper hand.
  • In Hoenn, Ash defeated Wattson easily on account of his Pikachu being overcharged because of a mechanical Raikou. Since Ash wanted the match to be fair and challenged him to a rematch, Wattson emerged Victorious and still allowed Ash to keep the badge.
  • In Sinnoh, Gardenia did battle Ash (before introducing herself as a gym leader) and beat him, so it wasn't really an official battle,
  • Again in Sinnoh, Ash's battle against Maylene ended in a draw and she still gave him the match. However, since it wasn't a loss, I think this point can be disregarded.

However, if you also consider, the Island Challenge, Battle Frontier and The Orange League, Ash has not lost against a single Gym leader in the Orange League.

Although I personally consider the Orange League to be different from a Traditional Pokemon League (On account of the different challenges and fewer gyms), it's totally up to you to decide whether this factor would answer your primary question as a Yes or No.

Gary Andrews30
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  • Do you mean aloa island challenge be more specific – Ch.Siva Ram Kishore Aug 07 '18 at 02:53
  • Given that the Orange League only had 4 gyms, the answer to "Has Ash ever cleared all 8 gyms without losing in any region?" would be a very clear "No". – Thunderforge Aug 07 '18 at 15:56
  • @Ch.Siva Ram Kishore Firstly, it's alola and secondly, it is referred to as the Island Challenge. I suggest you look that up. – Gary Andrews30 Aug 08 '18 at 02:50
  • @Thunderforge The first line of my answer clearly specifies the same. If OP forgot about the Orange League and considers it to be the equivalent of a Pokemon league, then the answer would be a No. – Gary Andrews30 Aug 08 '18 at 02:52
  • I was responding to "Although I personally consider the Orange League to be different from a Traditional Pokemon League (On account of the different challenges and fewer gyms), it's totally up to you to decide whether this factor would answer your primary question as a Yes or No.", which made it sound like "If you count the Orange League, then the answer to your original question could be Yes", which would be misleading because the original question asked about 8-badge leagues. – Thunderforge Aug 08 '18 at 14:43
  • @Thunderforge My First statement clearly specifies in bold, Ash has never managed to defeat all 8 gym leaders in a single try. I don't see how the latter would be misleading when the first line of my answers specifies the same in bold. – Gary Andrews30 Aug 08 '18 at 21:22
  • Your first additional exceptional is not completely correct @GaryAndrews30 Tangela was tired and that is why Erika assumed it loss and you even know gym leaders aren't allowed to change the pokemon and challengers are. So are you wrong or me? –  Aug 12 '21 at 15:25