There is so much to say it's insane. Still going to take some shortcuts out of laziness, and i'm not going to say everything on my mind, though..
Pikachu vs Zoroark. Pretty good fight all around, and the animation was somewhat great, even though there are some reused animations. It took me to rewatching the fight to appreciate it more than I did the first time, though. Some oddities, however, I found was Pikachu not using its Iron Tail consecutively to deal with the Shadow Claws, something it started in XY(?) and brought back several times in S&M. Only two moves used the entire time from Zoroark was a bit lame as well :\, despite the ones chosen making the most sense. Other two probably would have been the cliche Dark Pulse anyway and just
maybe one uncommon Zoroark move like Foul Play. As for the tie, i'm somewhat indifferent on that. I probably would have preferred Gladio's signature Pokemon, Lugaruran, taking out Pikachu, Satoshi's signature, like Paul's Electrivire, Shota's Sceptile, and Alan's Charizard did with it. But then again, I prefer the fully fair on fair fight between the canines for the final match. The best part was easily the nod to Volt Tackle
. I'm calling it a nod because of its similar animation, its very presence over any other (z) move, Pikachu's 'voice' acting, and personally the fact that this was used against a Pokemon who hails from the generation and region Pikachu lost Volt Tackle in. Also appreciate the fact that not only a Zoroark, the first Zoroark, battled in a league (finally) and from a very competent trainer at that but also that Satoshi actually got to fight one in a true battle.
Lugaruran vs Lugarugan. Ignoring the lackluster animation, which is somehow inferior to the lesser important fight between Pikachu and Zoroark, this is weirdly a great battle that took me multiple rewatches to realize that. But even with that said I'd rather mostly comment on some ideas I think are missing. Firstly, though, the scene depicting of reflection on Lugaruran's growth and journey was great, conceptually. Now, you'd think they have Satoshi go out winning by smirking as he planned the counter-counter, as he did when he fought Paul's Electrivire (even though his Iron Tail strategy failed), Valerie's Spiritzee, Olympia's Meowstic, etc, etc, and/or having some smart comment on how he expected that or planned that, again as he's done in the past, since he clearly planned that counter play in the fight, especially considering he never used that move
the entire match.. waiting for the right moment to catch Gladio off guard and steal the victory. He even said they had to find a way to deal with that opponent's Counter. Subsequently, if he didn't use that move the entire match, I'd be complaining about it right now. I'm partially upset Radial Edgestorm didn't make another appearance in this particular fight, yet at the sametime I love the idea of a pure traditional fight between these two rivals and Satoshi's winning it. Anyway, I additionally find it odd that Pikachu (especially considering its history of doing so) nor Nyaheat was cheering Lugarugan on. Pikachu witnessed final league matches, and it knows everything at stake here, so to see it be 0% cheerful/supportive was honestly bizarre, even though it wasn't league fights in which it was supportive in prior but gym battles and other fights (vs Korrina is all I can think of atm, but there are more examples). Pikachu has also done this after being eliminated itself, so its previous battle isn't an excuse. Think that's it, but Satoshi's Counter play was way more brilliant than writers made it out to be, especially if Accelrock's speed was used to add an extra multiplier to the one already in play by countering the affects of counter. Well, thinking about it critically, it seems the writers were going for a more suspenseful victory, which explains everything. Now, some subtle aspects I like about the fight are the fact that Satoshi's Lugarugan got a clean victory over Gladio's in terms of a pure knockout rather it taking the final hit, getting back up and pushing itself, only to collapse from exhaustion/total damage.. says a lot about Satoshi's Lugarugan's strength. Also love it showing its endurance post-victory by not limping, needing support from anyone, etc.
Kukai being the referee here wasn't even surprisingly, suspected it pre-league, and it was wonderful to see. Glad he also got to experience such a heated and passionate (includes the laughter between Satoshi and Gladio) battle, as well as having front row seats to witnessing Lugarurun's growth, even though it was a missed opportunity for him to say something under his breath about it after defeating Gladio's. Rather upset he had no comment there. Going to hold out to see if he says anything post-league.
Satoshi winning, again, makes sense, because the story just was not supporting Gladio winning. People not liking his team and it not being as fully evolved as his Kalos and others, is completely irrelevant. There are certainly some disappointments of the league and the final match itself (such as the finals being a 3v3), but Satoshi had some strong opponents and earned his victory, even if the timing partially sucks...
.. The REAL BS is not even that Pikachu wasn't the one to get Satoshi his victory for the final match
but if Royal Mask defeats Satoshi in the Exhibition Match. He became Champion AND had already lost to him TWICE (1. in the Battle Royale and 2. on the Shore/Beach) prior, so losing yet again in consideration of all of that is going to be horrible (even Alan nor Korrina beat Satoshi three times in a row), especially after just showing Rowlet in its first form was able to defeat its third form opponent in a league match, whereas Nyaheat in its second form can't even defeat its third form, even after multiple experiences against it before? (Would look bad for a person on Champion caliber as well.) Kid Kukai already achieved what it is he wanted to do (defeat Satoshi, twice; he and Incineroar had their glory and fulfilled their goal. With Lugaruran getting closure, that leaves Nyaheat, who's particularly been burning immensely to defeat Incineroar), but now it's necessary for Satoshi to prove his worth and show he's the better trainer (even at his younger age). Royal Mask should not win, whether Satoshi uses Nyaheat or especially Pikachu (which I bring up because of the opening showing that). The Rowlet comparison is partially a joke, but it's still at least partially valid, and Satoshi is a Champion w/ experience against Royal Mask... This victory should be a guarantee for him regardless of how much Royal Mask/Incineroar grew.
Rewinding back to the victory, I find it a bit ironic that Satoshi wasn't acting childish given this is the S&M series. While it and other type of reactions would have made sense then, i'm still holding out on post-victory reactions from him. Perhaps it hasn't fully hit him or settled with him or something. He's been wanting this for a long ass time, and considering his mindset and comments like at the end of BW when he was acknowledging a lot of his friends' goals (Misty, Dawn, May, Tracy, Gary etc, etc) and wanting to make his a reality, the beginning of XY when he was adamant and impatient to become P.Master, etc, Satoshi's reaction isn't fully convincing, so I'll wait a bit. Same with mom's reaction, as "congratulations" alone doesn't cut it, even though the inevitable "big feast cooking" from her is somewhat inevitable (if he goes back to Kanto).
This is more community based, but also on the victory concept, there's still going to be cringe/stupid memes and excuses even after this victory regardless: "He finally won... but from one of the weakest leagues ever", "He may have won but it still took him 20+ years to win a league", "Doesn't really matter, this is his worst team" (which isn't true), and the list goes on. Seen an immense amount of purely stupid and hateful comments on Youtube and Twitter after watching the episode, and it's just highly pathetic. Very, very rarely does someone actually make a valid point, something like this "not being as hype as Satoshi winning the Kalos League in comparison." That's fair, especially with the superior build up XY had. (There's a fairly good lack of buildup to his Alola victory, but I don't think I'll get into that.) But something like comparing this to the Orange Island league, in the precise way I've seen people do it, is disgusting.
Getting back to the canon, if the next anime series doesn't have Satoshi as the main character or one of them, then i'm going to highly critique the ridiculously ironic decision of them having Satoshi win this league, even though their excuses for Satoshi not winning over the years have already been horrible and illogical since. With there being no Champion League in this region, this makes Satoshi the universal champion of the entire region, which is without a doubt a Pokemon Master (even if
potentially not the one Satoshi desires the most, unless they just been conveying the wrong message, which the dub is known for). Whereas in other regions, there's always the Champion League Satoshi needs to face (which he's never done yet) after becoming the Conference Champion, something they can easily use and exploit to prevent him from becoming League Champion. DP and XY, which are naturally more relevant series than anything that came before, were really adamant with this concept, especially when Satoshi swore in Sinnoh he'd beat Cynthia (to become Pokemon Master) and make it to the Champion League in Kalos to fight Diantha, twice for the latter (which only made Alan's victory over Satoshi that more brutal and exasperating. There's more depth to the negative feelings people have over Satoshi's lost to Alan that many people opposing those feelings/statements make it out to be), to again become Pokemon Master. I then wonder if Satoshi won this league because his overall development has been leading him here, or because they hypothetically planned to not have him as the MC for the following series.
Subsequently, it's very interesting to see Guzzlord return. I've been open to Dia's return, especially with Zeraora having such a long presence in the opening despite only having two episodes thus far, so if he returns, that'll definitely be interesting. (It'll be really cool if they show Lucario, Zoroark, and Zeroara all on screen at once :O.)
The previews... Kukai seriously has a Lucario... wow, man. Look, I love Lucario and don't even mind seeing it every generation or so, but it's some of the people they give one to I find really baffling. If this guy also has a Zeraora of his own or a legendary, i'll be triggered. (Considering Satoshi had a Solgaleo, and has a Melmetal, I could see them using the older and wiser Kukai to one up Satoshi by actually owning one fully :\.) Also, I'd be hyped as hell to see Lugarugan vs Lucario (even if it comes at the expense of Lugaruran losing
. Nvm, I take that back, just do one of those battle interrupted or similar decisions to avoid it getting an unnecessary lost, especially after its recent feat, like Pikachu vs Gardevoir
); Alola mascot dog vs Sinnoh mascot dog, my favorite Pokemon from their respective gens. So at this point with him having a Lucario, now I hope they show off at least a bit more of his team if not everyone. Not sure how I feel about them having the audience going nearly a full series without knowing even half the team of one of the main characters, unlike say Cynthia, Diantha, Tobias, all non-main type characters. I think it's safe to submit this.
Think this post could still use some revision, but i'm submitting this. I
need to get this overdue comment out the way, especially since I think the next episode already came out (which if true I'll watch tomorrow or later in the week), for crying out loud!
