BW gave you:
Occasional Tournaments
Yes, I loved the Don George Tournaments and how it was set up. Everyone including minor characters joined and it was all decent battles with good winners. It wasn’t just Ash sweeping through the competition like usual and we even got to know/root for reoccurring characters like Kenyan. All the rivals interacting with each other was one of the best scenes in Best Wishes. I also liked the little character plots like that Subway episode with centered on Dento.
A full time female battler since Misty
Yeah, and Iris was and still is a good rival/competitor against Ash. (I thought Saito has been a great battler but I think she eventually got dropped after the last time Ash beat her and we haven’t seen her since outside the small cameo at the PWC.) She was also in some ways, shown to have more or less the same competence in battling skill.
I thought they did a pretty crappy job with rotation. I didn’t care for it. I hated that they kept over relying on stock animation. I still believe BW had some of the best filler episodes to make up for the sucky battles. I even enjoyed DA! Meloetta was a fun addition to the team and ending theme especially.
An old Pokemon joining the team full time
Let’s not forget that Meowth joined the BW Trio even after Iris tried to catch him twice. And it was for an extended amount of time. I know people were saying that Charizard was there just for fan service or to have someone similar to Iris’ Dragonite to duke it out but I really did think that Ash’s Charizard was going to have a bigger role against Giovanni.
A lot of it could've used work but that's the core issue. People revolve this entire series around Ash in every single instance and ignore what's going on around.
Had something sensitively tragic happened in XY early on like it did in BW, it wouldn’t have nearly been as good as the finished product we did get. Some people act like they care about Ash when they never did in the past until he started being a winner and self inserting themselves into him, while ranting about how much of a boring cardboard he is is straight congnitive dissonance. It’s different from the people who watch the anime for reasons other than Ash. There is good stuff in JN.
We get that he's the main character but justifying this lackluster league just because he won is ridiculous.
I never even saw the PWC as a traditional league. It just seemed like something that’s important because the show says that it’s important.
It's the same reason why people ignore the good qualities of BW because all they pay attention to is his battling skills yet praise XY despite giving them nothing but because he "got the girl" and "seemed like a teenager" people seen it as a win.
Ash acted no different than how he was in BW than he did in previous sagas and the same with XY. He was hyper focused on being a boring battle bot with some moments of being his normal, silly self. That other stuff is just wishful thinking from dumb fanboys who think Ash is only good for battles and none of that stuff even happened.
The main female character goals was boring a sh*t,
Also sexist as ****. Not one tomboy or boy shown at all. And we already know Showcases we’re made for Serena since she had nothing else going for her and the idol inspired goal was the only thing they could think of for a pretty girl.
Clemont and Bonnie hardly did anything
Clemont was a solid character until he lost to Ash at his own Gym. Bonnie did nothing until she sang her stupid song and told Zygarde to attack Lysandre. I did like her speech at the end.
and the Kalos League was one the rushiest leagues ever because they decided to have Alain sweep everybody but "OOOO ASH IS SO KEWL" makes up for everything bad in a series.
I guess the one good thing that did come out of the PWC that’s connected to XY was Alan getting a taste of his own medicine. Kalos League had good Ash battles and it was rushed. The likes of the Sinnoh League hasn’t had a worthy successor yet.
