>>48037629Yeah. Being the ace of the world champ puts Leon's Charizard higher on the totem pole than Alain's zard, who might not even be kalos champ because we don't see him fight the elite four(outside of losing to Siebold) and champion. What little reason Alain's zard had to beat Greninja would be gone.
>>48037672The biggest problem with Greninja v. Charizard was Alain's Charizard having very literal plot armor. Alain arguably wasted his Charizard even worse than Ash's by having it fight Pikachu, who already did good against Tyranitar and Metagross. Weakened pikachu still gets some decent hits on zard and has him on his knee at one point. Then as soon as Greninja comes out, zard suddenly never looks tired again despite trading multiple blows and even coming out behind a couple times, including at the end. Ash sending a fresh pikachu out against zard wouldn't have made a difference.
