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*Ahem* NOW that the PWC is officially over, what’s your final thoughts?

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Where does it compare league wise? Unova? Kalos? What’s the (your) overall opinion on it? Isn’t this technically like the longest tournament?

Edit: There already is a post about this and idk how to delete this so Dephender if you don’t mind
 
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Ash Ketchum!

Pokemon Trainer
It was okay. I still prefer the Sinnoh League over it, with Battle Frontier and Johto League after. To me, the Sinnoh League was the best written. Have a soft spot for Kingler sweeping the first match in the Kanto League as well lol.

Def a missed opportunity not using the reserves from the start. Would've felt more like a culmination of Ash's prior journeys, and made for much more interesting variety. The vision sequence was well-done,
but can't help but feel that in the grander scheme of things, the victory feels a bit hollow (I dont feel anything towards his Journeys team, which I find half-baked).

Brock and Misty should've come in person too.
 
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DankOverlord

Komodo Dragons Rule!
Pros:
- Seeing past characters in relatively major roles was cool
- The worldwide concept was neat.
- Many good battles in the bunch (Volkner, Raihan, Cynthia, Leon)
- Properly focused episodes had some good development for Ash's Pokemon
- Build-up to Cynthia and Leon was excellent
- The Ash portions of the Masters Eight rocked
- Ash vs. Leon is the best battle in the Pokemon Anime, purely because of Pikachu carrying the team as he should.

Cons:
- Inconsistent pacing all around,
- Ash struggles in Normal Class but then becomes invincible against stronger opponents
- Way too many type repetitions (Electric, Dragon, Fighting)
- Way too many foes Ash already beat getting redundant rematches (Lt. Surge stand-in, Volkner ironically, Iris)
- Drasna and Steven lacked emotional stakes and were just shallow power flexes for Ash. Wikstorm was right there and would've been a much better foe for Sirfetch'd to overcome
- Ash is based in Kanto for the whole series and not a single reserve outside of Mr. Mime he uses or even seems to acknowledge their existence beyond propping up the team he caught per seasonal mandations.
- Galar is waaay too out of focus in foes
- Bea was the second worst main rival Ash ever had.
- A little too much matches with messy writing and blatant Plot Armor (Drasna's is a big offender despite the big W for Ash)
- Leon's battles were boring and skippable outside of his matches against Lance and Ash and Rillaboom vs. Chesnaught
- Alain was flat-out pointless beyond canon fodder. He doesn't even interacts with Ash in a meaningful way.
- Iris leaving after the first round was criminal
 

Pteranodonte

Well-Known Member
One of the worst written arc ever. The battles were all against the same types and Pokémon, no reserves, too many OHKO, very few past characters, way too much plot armor for Ash and dumb things like Motor Drive not working and such.
The final battle was presented as this big 25 years long victory yet it felt empty, because Ash was using a team that we barely knew.
If they had Ash use reserves in the world tour saga that alone would have made that the best tournament ever, but they just gave us a boring Pikachu glorification tournament.
And as I always say Ash should have faced all the champions using for each the corresponding regional team, and for Leon his original squad (Pikachu and his Z move/G-Max, Butterfree for G-Max, Pidgeot for the Mega and the starter trio). That would have been the best payoff with Ash and his original team coming full circle and becoming a Pokémon Master, that would have been the perfect ending.
 

IcySealeo

Well-Known Member
It does feel a bit hollow since Ash won it with the least developed Pokemon. It could be much more meaningful if in this series he would have used its reserves or with atleast one or two new Pokemon from Galar that would get the right treatment. Such an important battle could be much more epic if Ash would use his strongest Pokemon.

BTW, I never thought at the beginning of this series that it would become this tournament and this super important battle.
 

diesglamouris

Well-Known Member
I honestly like Satoshi being M1, but still think the Masters Tournament execution was very inconsistent. Even in the finals, seeing Lucario fainting quickly compared with the previous battle VS Shirona was so wtf. And the production issues definitely affected how these episodes were conceived and deployed. Putting all the money in such an epic conclusion doesn't hide the fact this arc deserved a better planning and writing. Still, it was an interesting tournament to see and Satoshi took another important step in his career. 7/10.

One thing I should recognize about PWC overall is the presence of past partners and rivals and the recognition of past accomplishments. Hopefully next season, if Satoshi wasn't been retired, continues building upon all this and give him a battling goal according with this status.
 

vondecayle

Well-Known Member
This league was better than Unova, Hoenn, Kanto and Alola, but below Sinnoh, Kalos and Johto for me.
 

Lucario At Service

Calm Trainer
This league was better than Unova, Hoenn, Kanto and Alola, but below Sinnoh, Kalos and Johto for me.
Agree with Unova & Alola being bad.

Kanto, not so sure, as it was Ash's first time in a League, and the battles weren't that bad either.

Johto is mid, because it was 2nd League for Ash, and we got to see him develop as a trainer.

As for the rest, for me i would say, Sinnoh > Kalos > Hoenn
 

Ryker101

Well-Known Member
It was alright. Overall a letdown bc a concept like this should’ve been an easy win, but I don’t think it’s bad. There were some great battles, particularly Ash vs Volkner, Vesiquez, Raihan, Bea (1, 2 and most of 3), Marnie and Dozer (gurdurr guy). It started strong early on but fell flat 1/3 of the way through, before mostly picking up later. Hyper and Master Class still had their fumbles tho. Taking M8 out, it never reached the levels of XY/DP’s gym battles but was certainly better than Kanto and Unova’s. The biggest strength is that Ash is mostly facing more exciting opponents than gym leaders

But man a lot of problems. I get they wanted to mirror Ash’s types, but they should’ve had more type variety. I loved seeing the side characters duke it out (like Leon vs Lance) but those got progressively shorter. Those brief battles, like the one against Meganium way back were great but that also got annoying since Ash would always use Pikachu there. It’s also really stupid not having reserves participate even once. The ranking system was just a mess, especially with those offscreen progressions. It’s a shame there were so many production issues behind the scenes, bc I would definitely prefer this done well over a standard gym quest

If I was comparing it to gym challenges/trials (no M8 remember) I’d say
XY > DP > AG > JN > Johto > SM > BW > Kanto
 
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Kameinu

Arooo!
Only that last episode was epic kino.
Most of Leon Vs Ash was good.
Cynthia Vs Ash was mediocre to good.
Iris Vs Cynthia and Lance Vs Diantha were good.
Leon Vs Diantha and Leon Vs Alain was insulting trash.
Ash Vs Steven was ok. Not bad.

It’s was extremely underwhelming considering the legacy characters participating, this being the 25th anniversary and also potentially the last tournament arc of this show. And I get there where production issues. It still doesn’t deny that fact.
 

BlueDragonfangirl

Well-Known Member
Ash winning was the only redeeming part, at least do it right though.

- Use reserve Pokemon

- Bring back DP/XY Ash for this, he used skills and smarts during the finals.

- Have Ash get his revenge winning against Alan.

- Have an entire episode to an Ash victory party.
 

satopi

Life doesn’t end, …it changes.
I’m really happy that Pikachu endured and pushed his whole team through the win with Ash but it also feels hollow, like I should be happy and I am but it lacks substance.

I also love the development that Iris received and the small interactions and battles between anyone that isn’t Ash. This tournament was pretty good but it doesn’t feel anything at all like the magnitude of importance just because it says the world’s strongest competitors are competing in the Pokémon World Companionship. It felt like a glorified Don George Tournament. Ash should’ve been given a better team. Only Pokémon I genuinely cared for was Happynite and Happynite was the MVP. I enjoyed Sirfetch’d and Dracovish contribution and Gengar was pretty good.

I wouldn’t even assume his team was strong to begin with but they made it seem like they were even though Lucario is still a rookie born during this saga yet turned into a fighter who wants to get stronger. At least his BW team didn’t have to pretend to be strong, or more specifically, dodn have the narrative show them to be strong and knew it’s limits.
 

DuquÊ?

Too lazy to pick a pic
Unpopular opinion: I like PWC more than the BF arc
Fair opinion. BF is loved because we saw Ash bring many of his old pokemon by that point and some great battles, but no old relevant past human character returning (aside Misty).

PWC have some good fan favorite trainers coming back, but a glaring lack of Ash using his old pokemon, who would be perfect to a world tournament. Or just use them in general to present more species to the new fans, instead have Go focus on catching a new pokemon every episode that isn't used at all safe for an arc or two.

Sooooo...

For a series where the characters hang out mostly in Kanto, it was wasted that they didn't use the cast they had there (it was freaking bonkers that Erika, of all Kanto Gym Leaders, appeared).

Galar got the short stick, because of nothing more interesting to offer aside Leon, Raihan and a terribly rushed Macro Cosmos arc. Raihan not be in the Masters 8 at all at the main tournament was dumb. While Allain is nice and all, I'd prefer much more see Raihan defeat Allain than have another charizard appearing.

Also, you basically don't feel attached to any Galar pokemon that aren't the starters or part of Ash's team.

While I came to like Ash's PWC team, it felt strange not see more gen 8 representatives there and at least one more from a past gen that wasn't Kanto or Sinnoh (looking to you, Tyranitar). But, nothing to do about it anymore.
 
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