Jesus God, this is SO cool.  I should have known Pokemon wouldn’t let me down, but…damn.  This is brilliant writing.  I love how the anime gets to exploit techniques and logic for Pokemon that could never be programmed into the games.

The bond between Pokemon and trainers is something that’s huge to Pokemon society in general.  A veteran trainer should definitely know how it works.  But this is the first time I’ve seen a trainer exploit it like this in a battle.  Make the Pokemon defensive on behalf of its trainer to break it’s concentration…now THAT’S fighting dirty.

And the fact that he’s a Dark Type master makes it even better.  My favorite type, represented in such a cool scene…makes me stupid happy.  I love everything.