Lately i watched again the episode of Ash battling Tobias after many years, the topic itself might feel like a broken recorder from time to time, however i wanna ask people about their opinion about this battle from when this first aired to this day and what do you guys consider went wrong in this battle? Is it Tobias? Is it just how very little we know about him? What feelings gave you watching this for the first time? Was it justified the way Ash was curvestomped?
Share your thoughts about this controversial league episode
The problem is less about Ash losing the League and more of the fact they couldn't figure out how to believably make Ash lose the League. After the final battle with Paul, virtually nothing was going to top it.
When you look at the Johto League in comparison, you will notice that they had two back-to-back 6 vs 6 battles. First against Gary, the second against Harrison. Gary was obviously going to be the more iconic of the two, so Harrison had to be built up from ground up in order for him to feel like a worthy successor to Gary's rivalry (in terms of the League).
But looking at the Sinnoh League, there was only one 6 vs 6 battle and that was Ash vs Paul. And that battle was three episodes long. In comparison, Gary and Harrison's battles were about two episodes long each. And if we combine them together, that's 4 episodes with is the same as Paul and Tobias' battles combined. And then we have the fact that there are two episodes left before DP ends, which is the same amount of episodes left in the Johto series.
So when Paul took up 3 episodes instead of 2, this placed the showrunners in a pickle. Ash's adventure in Sinnoh is ending, but they couldn't make Ash lose in one episode after such an impressive showing, and clearly they didn't have to time to dive into the implications of Ash winning the League and challenging the Sinnoh Elite Four. So how does one make Ash lose in one episode without compromising his battle with Paul?
Bring in a trainer with Legendaries and Mythicals. And make him so unbeatable that even taking out his Darkrai is an achievement unto itself. Heck, it says something when Ash is stated to be the only trainer in the whole League Conference to take out Darkrai, let alone a Latios.
But really, in hindsight, it would have been better if they had trimmed the fat of filler that DP has. I mean, they had a lot of important story-driven episodes, but a lot of it could have been cut and instead be used to build up a better League conclusion. Like, instead of having Ash slowly make his way up to the top, rank by rank, he and Paul end up in the finals. Their battle is the final battle that would determine not only the Sinnoh League Victor, but also who is right in the end. Because if their battle cannot be topped, it might as well be the final battle of the series.