Recap / Pokemon S 19 E 7 A Festival Of Decisions

• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Ash, his friends, and Ninja Village vs. a rogue band of ninjas.
• Big Damn Heroes: Sanpei's teacher Saizo shows up in the nick of time, his Barbaracle Taking the Bullet for Pikachu, Frogadier and Sanpei's Greninja from Heidayu's Bisharp.
• Call-Back: The evolution of Ash's Frogadier happens almost the exact same way as that when he was still a Froakie evolving into Frogadier: Taking the Bullet with a touch of Bare-Handed Blade Block for Pikachu and Sanpei's Greninja.
• Contrived Coincidence: All those who saw Ash's special Greninja have compared his appearance to the hero of legend, and even the elder wonders if there might be a connection.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Serena's Braxien, Clemont's Luxray, Shinobu's Liepard and Nihei's Venusaur utterly beat down a Skarmory, Ariados, Houndoom and Gengar with Flamethrower, Swift, Shadow Ball and Solar Beam.
  • Ash-Greninja utterly stomps Heidayu and Bisharp.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Ash-Greninja lasted only a couple of seconds, but it was enough to defeat Heidayu and Bisharp.
• Graceful Loser: Kagetomo, after realizing the battle is lost and his army defeated, accepts his loss solemnly and thanks his Weaville for fighting well.
• Heel–Face Turn: Kagetomo and Heidayu undergo one after they lose, dedicating themselves to becoming good ninjas.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: After a particularly nasty Snarl attack, Heidayu explicitly orders Bisharp to finish off Pikachu before the latter can get back up. Frogadier gets in the way, evolving in the process.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Everyone reacts this way to when Ash's new Greninja transforms into his Super Mode for the very first time.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The heroes' "army" consists of Ash's group, the Ninja siblings, Shinobu and Saizo plus the villagers. At the start of the big battle, most of the villagers get cornered by Kagetomo's mooks, and most of the action is focused on the named characters. When all is said and done, the ninja villagers were able to incapacitate Kagetomo's army and we don't get to see it!
• Oh, Crap!: The evil ninja's Skarmory, Ariados, Houndoom and Gengar respond with this when getting blasted into defeat.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Kagetomo attacked the ninja village as revenge on his mentor, the ninja elder, for denying him his place as the next leader on account of his lust for power.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: An evil ninja's Houndoom is beaten by a Shadow Ball which it resists in the games.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Team Rocket are blasted off by a flock of Skarmory at the start of the episode before anyone can even react to them.
• This Is Gonna Suck: An evil ninja's Houndoom closes its eyes, turns its head to the side and grimaces before getting struck by Shinobu's Liepard's Shadow Ball.
• Took a Level in Badass: Oh boy, does Greninja ever — and not just by evolving from Frogadier and learning Water Shuriken — as his aura briefly combines with Ash's to become Ash-Greninja. It's fleeting, but it's long enough.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Frogadier evolves, Sanpei's Greninja practically disappears for the rest of the battle.