Gladion might, but as far as Hau showing up I wouldn't count on that if anything I expect Kiawe or one of the other main characters to take Hau's place.
This episode should be about Ash and Litten, I doubt Hau will get to debut here since it would be out of place. If he did, I'd assume he'd debut with a Brionne.
Hopefully Kukui having Incineroar means Ash 'chose Rowlet as the PC' and evolves it up to Decidueye.
Keep Torracat as a cute little Torracat, I love Incineroar but Ash has far too many humanoid aces.
I agree. Though you have to wonder whether or not Decidueye is pretty much as humanoid as you can get, it's an owl that can shoot arrows like a human archer.. soooo.. xD
In any case, I like how everybody who said: "well, there's the eventual Incineroar for Ash", the moment we saw Torracat in the scan are now having serious doubts.. xD
More importantly, it implies they are keeping Primarina for Hau.
It
could?
Aha! So Kukui's team is slowly being revealed. He mentioned Braviary was his partner, so that means that Incineroar was possibly his wrestling partner. Hey, with Kukui having Incineroar that means Ash's ace will likely be Decidueye. Makes sense, why bother giving him Incineroar is Kukui can just show it off.
Burnet is really into the Masked Royal persona in the games... I wonder if Kukui will show her his kink.
I hope Decidueye will be the ace, but you never know. It would need to happen fast.
Does Kukui wear a ring since they got hitched? That could be a tell for some of the characters..
Ash's Fletchinder beat Talonflame and still evolved.
And Ash's Froakie had serious problems against Sanpei's evolved forms, and it still evolved fully.
Win or lose, doesn't matter for Torracat's future, it's entirely up to the writers, though Incineroar belonging to "Kukui" is very problematic, unless he has all of the fully evolved starters and doesn't prevent Ash for at least having one fully evolved starter, then I honestly have no idea why they chose to give him an Incineroar.
And when Torracat doesn't evolve before 8th generation starts, NOTE that this stupid problem the writers have by forcing other characters with Pokemon preventing the main protagonist for example from having them, is why I'll be livid, going into the 8th generation anime. And I really hope I'm wrong and it does end up evolving.
I'll be far less upset however if Ash at least, does end up getting Decidueye, but again when 8th generation rolls around and Ash doesn't have Decidueye or Incineroar, I'll be extremely livid.
Honestly, when we're this deep into the series and Ash still needs to capture 2 pokémon and one looks like it will get released at the end anyway, there's going to be reasons abound to be livid with the animé. Seeing Ash with Decidueye would be the best scenario - it was the best scenario since they revealed Decidueye to be honest.
Paul had Torterra and Gliscor, Ash has Torterra and Gliscor. Barry had Heracross and Staraptor, Ash has Heracross and Staraptor. It can happen, but Paul's Torterra, Gliscor, Barry's Heracross and Staraptor all got massively swept under the rug in favor of not out performing Ash's (somehow this still applies to Ash's Torterra..).
I doubt he will, but if Hau appears, he will probably come with an Alolan Raichu.
I'd rather see him with Brionne, because as a rival we would still want to see some development in Hau and they could do that with him showcasing the midstage and working towards Primarina.
You mean like how Tepig fought Emboar, evolved into Pignite, and beat Emboar (and Heatmor)?
Inb4 Kiawe's Turtonator = Heatmor in this comparison. Now that I mention it, what if Kukui or someone else grants Ash
Firium Z after Torracat's performance?
Now let's hope this episode doesn't end up doing the same to Litten as what that episode did to Tepig, where it evolved to Pignite and stopped there. I still want to see Ash with Incineroar tbh, even if I'm mixed about it (I don't hate it, but it isn't amongst my favorites either).
I hell, I hope that is what's going to be the case! I don't hate Incineroar, but I do think it's massively overhyped and its signature Z-move too ridiculous to do regularly in the animé.
Pretty sure Emboar didn't happen because Ash's team was too crowded in Unova. If he ditched some of the weaker members and focused on the better ones he would've had a great team of 6, but now he has a mediocre squad of 9 (excluding Pikachu). Pikachu, Unfezant, Emboar, Oshawott, Leavanny, Krookodile. #Trimmed
Or they could've been more creative and given him Hawlucha, a Pokemon that he doesn't have in the games.
Kukui only has Incineroar only if the player chose to give him Rowlet.
If Ash doesn't get Incineroar the only reason they're giving it to Kukui is because of the stupid excuse because now they don't have to give one to Ash. Just like what happened in 5th generation with Oshawott and Cameron having Samurott. Ash wasn't going to to debut any of the final evolved starters, so why not give Samurott to the convenient rival character along with Emboar and Bianca and Trip with Serperior. Along with Burgundy just an excuse not to evolve Oshawott, as well as the whole Trip situation which led to Snivy never developing in any meaningful way.
So I admit, it doesn't always happen, but when it does happen, it's painfully obvious.
But its why I'm leaving this open, because I don't know what's going to happen. It could be ultimately meaningless or it could be ultimately obvious.
No, you're seriously not suggesting that they should've gone off script and give him a Hawlucha? Just because you think it would interfere with Ash's chances to get an Incineroar when it fits
PERFECTLY with the game and the character. I can't agree.
And which starter did Ash get first in Alola? Pretty sure that was Rowlet, so Kukui with Incineroar is what would happen in the games as well.
The only reason? It just looks as if you're looking for excuses here, the writers saw the painfully obvious connection between wrestler Kukui and wrestler Incineroar.
Oshawott didn't evolve because it was the follow to
Piplup in that generation - BW-series was rushed as a whole and Ash had a crowded team. Oh yeah, because Paul debuting Torterra meant that Turtwig never evolved or developed in any meaningful way? Odd how your argument just falls flat with that one sentence. Was Kenny's Prinplup and Barry's Empoleon suddenly the reason why Dawn's Piplup never evolved? It works the other way around, Dawn's Piplup was never going to evolve because of marketing reasons, and then why wouldn't they show off the other forms with recurring characters?! You should really no better. The Burgundy excuse is the kicker of it all.. A tertiary character at best, that had zero to do with Ash, somehow being an excuse for keeping Oshawott from evolving..
Seems exciting that Incineroar appears in this episode, marking its debut in the SM anime, and that it will be battling Ash's Litten. Kinda exciting that it's a Battle Royale, but it just doesn't make sense to put it during the Ultra Beast arc.
It's quite simple, Ash needs the power-up. He has Pikachu and Lycanroc, and Rowlet and Litten at where they were just aren't believable counters to Ultra Beasts, not even when they attack as a group. If Torracat is shown to do well against Incineroar after the evolution, then it is instantly a lot more believable to hold its own against an UB. Simple as that.