Dark Sonic vs Dark Ash

“Hype moments and aura.” - Various

Let’s face it. Heroes? They’re boring. What if we take good guy and make him bad guy. That’s what today is for.

Dark Sonic, the corrupted version of Mobius’ blue savior.

Dark Ash, the possessed Pokemon Trainer of Pallet Town.

Both are edgy 2010s AMV bait but who is superior as a fighter? Let’s find out.

To lay some ground rules, this will only be taking into account feats done specifically by Dark Sonic and Dark Ash. No scaling to their normal versions or other characters will be considered. As such, we will be looking at both versions of Episode 67 of Sonic X (Teasing Time and The Black Trap), Episode 2 of TailsTube, Episode 452 of the Pokemon Anime (Battling the Enemy Within), the movie Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, and Episode 91 and 97 of Pokemon Journeys. Yes, Dark Ash has appeared 4 times. However, the appearance of Zorua in the movie Zoroark: Master of Illusions will not be considered, as this is merely a Dark Ash skinwalker defaming our glorious king.

Let’s begin. (All work done by JJSliderman. Props to him.)

Dark Sonic

In Sonic’s quest to defeat the Metarex and their imposing general, Dark Oak, once and for all, Sonic infiltrated Oak’s ship and came face to face with the tyrant. After some witty back and forth banter, Oak reveals he’s kidnapped both Cosmo and Chris, and threatens to experiment on them (or disintegrate, depending on the language) if Sonic doesn’t demonstrate his full potential in statistics. Angered at the treatment his friends endured, Sonic gave in to his darkness, unleashing Dark Sonic on two hapless Metarex robots, dismantling them in seconds. Then he aura farms a bit until Eggman talks him down and Dark Sonic transforms back offscreen. And thus he was never seen in official material again…besides a brief reference in Tailstube.

Dark Ash

After arriving at the Hoenn Battle Pyramid, Ash and his friends learn the story of the King of Pokelantis, a cruel tyrant who sealed away the mythical Ho-Oh in stone as revenge for Ho-Oh annihilating Pokelantis. Naturally, Ash finds the orb in a chamber, gets possessed by the evil King (since he was actually the one sealed), becomes Dark Ash, and threatens to conquer the world if he beats Brandon in a Pokemon battle. Despite using cheap tricks, Ash’s Sceptile is still one-shot by Brandon’s Regirock’s Hyper Beam due to arrogance and believing it wouldn’t be able to tag Sceptile with broken legs, and Ash, using his natural durability, withstands a thunderbolt from Pikachu, releasing the evil spirit to be sealed once more. However, the spirit’s attraction to Ash’s arrogance inspires the trainer to be more humble going forward.

Later, in an adventure in Kalos, Ash encounters the legendary Genie Pokemon Hoopa, under the influence of dark magic, unleashing the malevolent Hoopa Unbound, and leading to a conflict between legendaries from across time and space. As the battle wound down and the dark magic was sealed away in Hoopa’s bottle, the bottle suddenly burst forth, flying through the air. Without a second thought, Ash sprang into action, catching the bottle and falling under the influence of darkness once more, controlled by Hoopa Unbound. But after a pep talk and memory dump from Hoopa Confined, Unbound leaves Ash and becomes nice. Yeah, a mediocre showing for Dark Ash…

Dark Ash’s final showings are near the end of his adventures, when a Galarian Slowking and Spiritomb take command of Ash. This showing is fairly different, as Ash is physically changed to an extent, growing sharp teeth or having a literal shell on his head. Slowking’s possession is less edgy than previous variants, making Ash more of a chill dudebro. Spiritomb is a bit more malicious, playing rude pranks on Go in Ash’s body, all in hopes of returning one of its lost spirits to the main body of Spiritomb. Once it had that, it was content going off to the graveyard, leaving Ash free once more.

Powers and Abilities

Dark Sonic

Enhanced Speed and Strength

Dark Sonic effortlessly blitzes and annihilates Gold and Silver, two Metarex robots specifically built around challenging Sonic based on the data Dark Oak had saved for Sonic from near the end of the series.

Dark Ash

Telekinesis

As both the king of Pokelantis and as Galarian Ashking, Ash can telekinetically control objects.

Fusionism

Fused his curry pot with Goking’s noodle bowls to make spicy noodle curry.

Mind Control

As corrupting influences, Galarian Shellder, the king of Pokelantis, Hoopa Unbound and Spiritomb can leave Ash’s body to possess other targets, but would make Ash not Dark Ash anymore.

Shadow Travel

Spiritomb’s spirit within Ash is also capable of moving through shadows.

Poisons

Galarian Slowking excretes deadly poison through the Shellder attached to it, with said Shellder also being attached to Ash while possessed.

Energy Beams

Burning beams shot from Ash.

Mental Communication

When possessing Ash, the king of Pokelantis could draw on his battle experience as Ash talked within his own mind, allowing the king to use those strategies himself.

Darkness Manipulation

The Spiritomb spirit within Ash allowed him to turn an entire train car from brightly lit to darkness.

Body Morphing

Spiritomb’s spirit transformed Ash into a being with similar features to Spiritomb.

Resistances

Dark Sonic

Uhh…

Dark Ash

Life Force Absorption (Limited)

Sinistcha’s body, which naturally draws out the life force of whatever it enters, didn’t affect Spiritomb’s spirit within Ash for a time, but eventually it succumbed.

Electricity Manipulation

Both King Ash and Spiritomb Ash withstood thunderbolts from Pikachu, although the king’s spirit was forcibly ejected by this.

Poisons (Debatable)

Galarian Ashking has a Shellder on his head, which secretes deadly poison within itself, and Ash is unaffected.

Extreme Heat

Ashking can consume the spicy curry made from Galarnuts, which burned his tongue as regular Ash.

Helpers

Dark Sonic

Uhh…

Dark Ash

Sceptile

Ash’s Grass starter ace during Hoenn, it comes equipped with both Leaf Blade and Bullet Seed. Leaf Blade allowed it to slice Regirock’s legs and cause it pain, despite it previously withstanding a rockfall. Bullet Seed is what caused that rockfall. Despite its hesitance with some commands, it will follow all of Pokelantis King Ash’s instructions, even when it has to cheat.

Galarian Slowpoke and Slowbro

When acting as Galarian Ashking, Ash commanded an army of Slowpoke and Slowbro. Slowbro are able to shoot poison precisely enough to knock down a single coconut, and Slowpoke have spicy tails.

Pikachu

Ash’s ever reliable partner, willing to deliver a thunderbolt whenever Ash needs it. Its thunderbolts are fast enough to catch Ninjask, which can evade any attack, and shatter the glass windows of a train car.

Feats

Dark Sonic

• One-shot two robots while moving as a blur.

Dark Ash

• Gave Brandon, a Frontier Brain, a semi hard fight as the Pokelantis king, by cheating.
• Dropped some FIRE beats like holy hell.
• Tanked a thunderbolt from Pikachu three times.
• A Spiritomb with one missing spirit blew apart a train car (Train car level/108 for Ash’s power)
• Spiritomb Ash pushed Go to the floor and beat him at rock paper scissors, by cheating.
• Galarian Slowking, using the Shellder on Ash’s head, lifted an island (wait what-)
• Galarian Ashking lifted a curry pot with telekinesis.

Weaknesses

Dark Sonic

Bro really folded to a pep talk from EGGMAN.

Dark Ash

The king of Pokelantis can have his control over Ash disrupted by either strong electricity or Ash’s willpower, allowing it to be sealed within its stone. The king is also extremely arrogant, not paying attention to Brandon’s use of Lock On to make Hyper Beam 100% accurate.

Hoopa Unbound folded to a pep talk from Hoopa Confined.

Spiritomb’s spirit can be drawn out by life force absorption, and grabbed by ghosts, disabling the dark transformation. Spiritomb Ash also folded to a tree branch falling on him.

Galarian Ashking will return to normal if the Shellder leaves his head.

Before the Verdict

Does Galarian Ashking count?

Yes, he’s not evil, but he is possessed by something. You can decide if it’s fine.

Island lifting?

So, Galarian Slowking can lift an island with telekinesis. Galarian Slowking’s Shellder, when transplanted onto Ash, allowed Ash to use telekinesis. Can he also lift islands?

Probably not, he has no feats on that level.

Can Dark Ash possess Dark Sonic?

Probably but why would he do that.

Verdict

No categories this time let’s just get into it.

Speed: Ash has like, no feats of speed. He’s average human in speed. His Pokemon can catch Ninjask who are fast enough to “evade all attacks”, but they don’t showcase impressive speed in these episodes. Dark Sonic legitimately moves like a blur and is too fast to track, blitzing the robot designed to keep up with base Sonic’s speed. Point to Sonic.

Strength: Dark Sonic cuts a metal robot in half. Sceptile can bring down an entire avalanche of rocks with one bullet seed, and harm Regirock who tanked that same rockfall, before pushing them all off of himself. And while Ash doesn’t fully scale to Spiritomb, its feat of blowing up half a train car surpasses Dark Sonic cutting a featless robot in half, and Ash has a Spiritomb spirit. Point to Ash.

Durability: Dark Sonic has no durability feats. Ash can tank a bolt of lightning and stay standing. Point Ash.

Abilities: What abilities lol. Point Ash, he actually HAS abilities.

Arsenal and Assistance: Second verse, same as the first. The army of Pokemon definitely helps.

Final Verdict

Yeah, Sonic can blitz around all day, eventually he gets hit once by Pikachu or just telekinesis grabbed.

The winner is Dark Ash happy April Fools.