Erm...Alain winning didn't throw out any of his or Ash's prior development
It threw out a chance for development for Alain. My biggest issue with Alain was his constant "I'll never lose again!" comments. They showed him off to be this incredible overpowered trainer who never did lose after the first time he lost to Seibold in his debut. They could have turned that into development when he ACTUALLY does lose. Teach him that he's not invincible like he thinks he is. Make him feel like he failed, then they could have let him rise up and grow from it in the Team Flare arc.
Then I suggest you watch the episodes that came after the League, because that's literally what happened
Not really. He realized Lysandre was using him and he felt incredibly guilty. He felt like he failed Marin for that, and then Ash snapped him out of it and he joined the fight against Lysandre. That isn't saying Alain learned he isn't invincible and he might lose someday. In his final episode also, he just basically said "I'm gonna start from scratch and get back to where I was my way without help from the wrong person."
Actually Alain totally got his butt kicked by Primals in Mega Evolution special 3, and even if it wasn't an official battle it still ruthlessly showed that there are creatures which far surpasses Alain's Mega Charizard X's strength and can easily overpower it. Also Steven was holding the upper hand against Alain in their battle in Mega Evolution Act 2. Add to this Alain's loss to Siebold in Mega Evolution Act 1. Upto Mega Evolution Act 3, Alain and his Mega Charizard X didn't quite get the overpowered portrayal relative to the opponents it faced, it was shown struggling and somethimes outmtched too by the opponents it faced.
*slow clap*
Eh, he was still branded a Hero of Kalos, which I imagine is a tad more impressive than "won a League"
Ehhh, I'm fine with Alan's development even though how he and the rest of the characters who appeared in the Mega Evolution Special Acts devolved as characters as far as how their original characters were like. I still feel like he was supposed to be mentoring Manon to later on surpass him but hey, finding another Mega Stone & Ring while looking into Mega Evolution research isn't really off track since they are on a journey together. He was just used to get Ash to lose the Kalos League. I see the Team Flare arc as a major part of Alan's character arc which has been discussed and confirmed back when the episodes were airing. Ash didn't have much of a reason to outshine Alan aside from being the main character when Alan had more reasons to be the one to take down Team Flare when he had to save Hari san, battle Lysandre, (almost) sacrifice the crucified baby Jesus, realize he's been used, lose everything and atone to his sins, and change to become a better person. It's kind of like if Ash took over the Aether Foundation arc just because he bonded with Nebby and stole the spotlight off of Lillie's arc when he should be a highlighted support character, which he was in the Team Flare arc.
I totally agree with this. Though Nebby was handled a bit better since it did interact with the group and played a sort of important role with Lillie like that one time where it kept transporting Ash and Lillie to places where Lillie got to reminisce on past memories. That's much preferable than the forced barely existent friendship Serena immediately got with Manon just because they're girls. And Nebby didn't affect the characters to suffer from OOCness like it happened in the TF arc. At least Nebby helped out in some way, it helped drive the plot.
I'm still predicting that Prof Kukui will be Ash's last battle in the Alola League.
