I honestly don’t get why Ash’s Infernape gets treated like he’s one of Ash's weaker aces. I see rankings where he’s placed way below where he should be and it feels like people either forgot Sinnoh or never paid attention. So yeah, I’m here to clear things up, and no this isn’t blind fanboy stuff, I'm actually going to list down all the feats, just be patient and read.
As a Chimchar he was already broken. He defeated 4 wild Zangoose alone. Like seriously, imagine Ash’s Charmander or Froakie doing that in their first stage. On top of that Chimchar beat fully evolved Pokémon like Steelix, Ursaring, Drifblim, Mismagius, Steelix, Staraptor and even Magmar. Chimchar literally took down a Pseudo Legendary Pokemon METAGROSS as a first stage Pokemon!
Chimchar defeated Paul's Ursaring twice, which was one of Paul’s strongest Pokémon at the time who obliterated all of Ash's sinnoh team, and he did it twice.
Now let's come down to Chimchar's Gym dominations. Chimchar took down two of Candice’s Pokémon (Snovert and Abomasnow) and two of Fantina's fully evolved Pokemon (Mismagius and Drifblim) simply as a first form Chimchar.. later it also defeated two of Volkner’s Pokémon as an Infernape. That’s basically knocking out the last 3 gyms of sinnoh in a row!
Every single time Blaze activated, the opponents got destroyed. There is literally no moment where Chimchar/Infernape loses in Blaze. Against Volkner’s Luxray his Flamethrower was melting the gym walls, and no other Fire type Ash has ever owned has shown that kind of raw destruction with Flamethrower.
The blue flames are another thing people never notice. In the anime blue flames were attained only by two Pokemon other than Infernape – Alain's MCX and Reshiram. To anyone saying the animation of flare blitz used blue flames at that time.. is wrong, as in the same season Flint's Infernape used Flare blitz with normal orange flames, It clearly shows how strong Ash's Infernape's fire was.
Lastly, Ash vs Paul just proves everything. Infernape beat Aggron almost instantly, then comes the Ninjask fight which people never talk about properly. Ninjask is already insanely fast, has Speed Boost, and Paul made it use Agility twice. That thing was probably the fastest Pokemon ever at that time with the 4X speed stat, yet Infernape still caught it and beat it with Mach Punch, a move Ninjask resists four times. That alone shows insane reaction speed and focus. And people forget that our Dumb Ash earlier activated Motor Drive on Electivire with Pikachu boosting its speed too, and Infernape still kept up with him.
When Blaze activated against Electivire the ground literally exploded and the flames went beyond the stadium. I honestly can’t think of another Ash Pokémon whose power visually exceeded the battlefield like that.
And about Moltres, Infernape never actually lost that fight. Blaze never activated which means he hadn’t taken enough damage. Plus three of his moves were resisted and Dig didn’t even work on a flying type. Meanwhile Charizard had super effective damage against Articuno, so comparing those two fights makes no sense.
Also, unlike other of Ash's Pokemon .. Infernape never stopped training. Even at Oak’s lab he kept improving, learned moves like Close Combat and Fire Punch and kept battling. To this day he’s undefeated in Blaze, and I genuinely can’t imagine Charizard, Incineroar or most of Ash’s Pokémon beating him once Blaze activates.
Infernape isn’t overrated, if anything he’s one of Ash’s most underrated Pokémon ever when it comes to power scaling, and he absolutely deserves to be mentioned right after Ash's Pikachu.
by Haunting_Unit3739