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He's Born! The Alolan League Winner! (1082)

Ultra Beast Lover

Well-Known Member
Honestly? While I think it could've been better I'm just happy Ash won a league. Having a protagonist win every league would be boring, knowing that all of his hard work was for nothing every time has been horrible.

I wonder though, what'll prompt him to go to the next region? Part of his reason for going to the next regions had always been because he lost and wanted to try again. Of course his other reason has always been, "There's new Pokemon and new challenges, so let's do this." So I don't doubt that he'd want to go on another journey.
 

Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer
Honestly? While I think it could've been better I'm just happy Ash won a league. Having a protagonist win every league would be boring, knowing that all of his hard work was for nothing every time has been horrible.

I wonder though, what'll prompt him to go to the next region? Part of his reason for going to the next regions had always been because he lost and wanted to try again. Of course his other reason has always been, "There's new Pokemon and new challenges, so let's do this." So I don't doubt that he'd want to go on another journey.
Simple: If Ash does go to the Galar region, he’ll be promoted by losing to the Masked Royal in the exhibition match, who seems to be the closest Alola has to a “real” champion when compared to ones like Cynthia, Steven, Alder, & anime Diantha
 

dman_dustin

Well-Known Member
I legit don't like some people right now.

How many of these people that would say "Ash didn't deserve to win this league" would hold it against Ash "See Ash is so weak he can't even win a league that's meant for baby trainers?" if he didn't beat Gladion. There's really no pleasing anyone is there.

The only reason I'm not super happy, is the idea of Ash being retired after this crappy generation, at least in context to Ash's development, growth, character. Ash shouldn't be given a relative freebie win just for them to justify "Introducing the brand new anime protagonist, FAREWELL Ash"

And don't get me wrong I'm not saying that this win didn't do wonders for Ash or his Pokemon but I have to point out what this series was. A jumbled mess of slice of life episodes, that clearly never knew what it wanted to do. The Grand Trials were a mess, the stories between them were a mess, it almost felt like most of the writing for this series was: "*YAWN* Another episode of Pokemon......OH SHOOT we're supposed to do something important, weren't we?"

For Ash to be concluded after this series, I feel is a complete disservice to his character, but I think I'll argue that while Ash was the "most" focused on of the characters, and was the protagonist of this generation, he does ultimately feel just like a character where something amazing happened to him. Not anything stands out, it's just Ash who happened to win the Alola league.

But I guess where the Alola region really shined more than any generation was focusing on so many other characters, it wasn't equal nor fair and some like Mallow were horribly screwed over, but where Alola shined was its personality. I do think Alola had the most personality of all the series, there definitely was always a bright mood when it came to the episodes and the characters. The character interactions were fantastic as the series allowed it to be.

But is this really how you want to end Ash as a character, giving him a win to a league that he HAD to win, without being called weak as hell. I'd argue that if Ash didn't win, his Pokemon would be viewed as weaker than they need to be, I mean compare Ash's other losses. Was Gladion really truly the person Ash needed to lose to when compared to everyone else with the exception of (Ritchie).

For a character we've had for 20+ years, the final HURRAH for the character just wasn't this series. Now I've said this multiple times before, but the proper way to retire Ash, is a region/series devoted MOSTLY to Ash, heavily to Ash (yes at the chagrin of the people who hate the character), have a lot of focus on his Pokemon. Show Ash being very competent in his battles, quickly go through the regional's gym challenge quest, and enter the league and win, all in a short amount of time (like at least leave a year for the final arc of Ash). Then the final arc could be mostly about a giant tournament where Ash uses ALL of his Pokemon that he has access to, runs into all past generation characters, and like I said before, the final episode has Ash reflecting on what he's done throughout all the generations, gets up (if he was sitting), Pikachu climbs his shoulders and Ash says something along the lines "We've done a lot together Pikachu, we've come so far. With all the rivals, friends and enemies I've encountered and all the Pokemon I've met, there's still more to do and more people and Pokemon to meet. Our journey isn't over Pikachu, it's just beginning." (anything like that is fine, it doesn't need to be exact. And then Ash can walk off into the sunset, and we never see Ash again, that's how you'd retire Ash. Not a disorganized series with a weak league that Ash wins that just hastily concludes Ash as an afterthought.

As for the people who hate Ash: Not sure why you are complaining, this might mean you get your wish of never seeing Ash on the screen again. It's not confirmed but you can always hope.

So ultimately, Ash did win a league, but I'm going to be very bitter about how it gives them an excuse to write off the character because they've finally decided to try something new. At the very least of it though, even if Ash does continue, the small summary of the new generation makes it clear it WON'T focus solely on Ash as Ash's last hurrah, so I really don't know how I'm supposed to feel about this.
 

RLC

Well-Known Member
When every single discussion about his win on the internet is littered with people complaining he should have won in XY for absurd reasons and whining at the art style at the same time, yes.
people say sinnoh just as much as xy or both so clearly you just have something against xy
 

Josef Stylin

I want to dye
Well, here's something that goes to show how everybody's been talking about this. Colin Cowherd's comments on Ash Ketchum:

"Folks, I've been saying this for over a decade. Ash Ketchum is overrated. A choke artist. He's not a Tom Brady. He doesn't have that competitive edge. He's too busy "making friends." KINDNESS DOESN'T WIN YOU A CHAMPIONSHIP. Dedication to your craft does.
Every year, he sends his team back to some backwater field in Pallet town instead of continuing to train them. You have a Charizard, a Sceptile, an Infernape, and even a Gible that you, of course, never evolved. Your most powerful pokemon, a Greninja that you could literally fuse your essence to, was released on your own volition.That's not innovative.That's not how Jeff Bezos runs Amazon. That's not how Starbucks became the empire of coffee. That's bush league.
You see, guys like Ash Ketchum, Russell Westbrook, and Baker Mayfield. They don't have the drive to win. They are just in this for themselves. Ash could have won multiple league championships by now, but he lucked into one championship from a gimmick league without winning any badges. Nobody will remember him. He's nothing.
Before we go to break, I just want to say how great Moo Moo Milk is. Seriously, I've been a long time customer. The Johto based company has been supplying the world with a steady stream of Milk that's rich in protein and tastes great. My daughter can't get enough of the stuff. She bought a whole crate for her sorority. Great stuff."
 
I legit don't like some people right now.

How many of these people that would say "Ash didn't deserve to win this league" would hold it against Ash "See Ash is so weak he can't even win a league that's meant for baby trainers?" if he didn't beat Gladion. There's really no pleasing anyone is there.

The only reason I'm not super happy, is the idea of Ash being retired after this crappy generation, at least in context to Ash's development, growth, character. Ash shouldn't be given a relative freebie win just for them to justify "Introducing the brand new anime protagonist, FAREWELL Ash"

And don't get me wrong I'm not saying that this win didn't do wonders for Ash or his Pokemon but I have to point out what this series was. A jumbled mess of slice of life episodes, that clearly never knew what it wanted to do. The Grand Trials were a mess, the stories between them were a mess, it almost felt like most of the writing for this series was: "*YAWN* Another episode of Pokemon......OH SHOOT we're supposed to do something important, weren't we?"

For Ash to be concluded after this series, I feel is a complete disservice to his character, but I think I'll argue that while Ash was the "most" focused on of the characters, and was the protagonist of this generation, he does ultimately feel just like a character where something amazing happened to him. Not anything stands out, it's just Ash who happened to win the Alola league.

But I guess where the Alola region really shined more than any generation was focusing on so many other characters, it wasn't equal nor fair and some like Mallow were horribly screwed over, but where Alola shined was its personality. I do think Alola had the most personality of all the series, there definitely was always a bright mood when it came to the episodes and the characters. The character interactions were fantastic as the series allowed it to be.

But is this really how you want to end Ash as a character, giving him a win to a league that he HAD to win, without being called weak as hell. I'd argue that if Ash didn't win, his Pokemon would be viewed as weaker than they need to be, I mean compare Ash's other losses. Was Gladion really truly the person Ash needed to lose to when compared to everyone else with the exception of (Ritchie).

For a character we've had for 20+ years, the final HURRAH for the character just wasn't this series. Now I've said this multiple times before, but the proper way to retire Ash, is a region/series devoted MOSTLY to Ash, heavily to Ash (yes at the chagrin of the people who hate the character), have a lot of focus on his Pokemon. Show Ash being very competent in his battles, quickly go through the regional's gym challenge quest, and enter the league and win, all in a short amount of time (like at least leave a year for the final arc of Ash). Then the final arc could be mostly about a giant tournament where Ash uses ALL of his Pokemon that he has access to, runs into all past generation characters, and like I said before, the final episode has Ash reflecting on what he's done throughout all the generations, gets up (if he was sitting), Pikachu climbs his shoulders and Ash says something along the lines "We've done a lot together Pikachu, we've come so far. With all the rivals, friends and enemies I've encountered and all the Pokemon I've met, there's still more to do and more people and Pokemon to meet. Our journey isn't over Pikachu, it's just beginning." (anything like that is fine, it doesn't need to be exact. And then Ash can walk off into the sunset, and we never see Ash again, that's how you'd retire Ash. Not a disorganized series with a weak league that Ash wins that just hastily concludes Ash as an afterthought.

As for the people who hate Ash: Not sure why you are complaining, this might mean you get your wish of never seeing Ash on the screen again. It's not confirmed but you can always hope.

So ultimately, Ash did win a league, but I'm going to be very bitter about how it gives them an excuse to write off the character because they've finally decided to try something new. At the very least of it though, even if Ash does continue, the small summary of the new generation makes it clear it WON'T focus solely on Ash as Ash's last hurrah, so I really don't know how I'm supposed to feel about this.

I for one wouldn’t say that either way. Yesterday, I said if Ash lost, I’d laugh, but hope Galar did one better. I wouldn’t really care if he had lost because this league to me wouldn’t give the disappointment of Ash even losing.

I agree with you on basically everything else. This isn’t the way to do things, especially for something this important. I never wanted Ash to be written off like this.
 

BladexFade

Well-Known Member
The only reason I'm not super happy, is the idea of Ash being retired after this crappy generation, at least in context to Ash's development, growth, character. Ash shouldn't be given a relative freebie win just for them to justify "Introducing the brand new anime protagonist, FAREWELL Ash"

For Ash to be concluded after this series, I feel is a complete disservice to his character, but I think I'll argue that while Ash was the "most" focused on of the characters, and was the protagonist of this generation, he does ultimately feel just like a character where something amazing happened to him. Not anything stands out, it's just Ash who happened to win the Alola league

Show Ash being very competent in his battles, quickly go through the regional's gym challenge quest, and enter the league and win, all in a short amount of time (like at least leave a year for the final arc of Ash). Then the final arc could be mostly about a giant tournament where Ash uses ALL of his Pokemon that he has access to

As for the people who hate Ash: Not sure why you are complaining, this might mean you get your wish of never seeing Ash on the screen again. It's not confirmed but you can always hope.
Based post.
 

mysticalglacia

Alola Shill
It finally happened. To be honest, it feels a little surreal.

I never believed that Ash would never win. It was always unfortunate and outright frustrating when he kept losing, but I knew that he’d win one day, when the time was right. Of course, that right time would’ve been preferably Sinnoh or Kalos, but I’m not complaining now that it’s finally happened. It feels so gratifying seeing Ash hold that trophy, or look on in shock and disbelief that he actually won. It’s like Ash was a direct reflection of every fan out there; not fully realizing the moment but so damn happy when they did.

Now for the battle. It was really good, something that I was not expecting when it came to Fujisaku. Pikachu vs. Zoroark was great, and the animation was amazing there. The fluidity and general smoothness of it was so satisfying to watch. That Breakneck Blitz callback was pretty clever- in general, using a creative strategy against Never-Ending Nightmare instead of just miraculously tanking it was greatly appreciated. Lycanroc vs. Lycanroc was imo even better, and decently directed+animated. No excessive panning shots or closeups, at most just a really wholesome moment between Ash and Gladion as friends and competitors.

God, I love that scene.

Lycanroc is officially one of Ash’s strongest ‘mons, and no one can persuade me otherwise. Midnight is freakishly tanky, yet Dusk managed to beat it by not just weakening it substantially but also by using its own strategy against it. Counter Counter with Counter is such an unadulterated Ash way to win; I loved it. Actually, I liked that there wasn’t any crazy explosive Z-Move as a finisher; just two kids duking it out with their dogs. That sense of sincerity is what makes Alola so charming, and what’s made this League- while not brimming with intensity or high stakes- so enjoyable to watch regardless.

Congratulations, Ash. Now to have XYZ on replay while I browse Twitter for salt...
 
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Bortgreen

Captain Pikachu is EPIC
"Ash didn't deserve to win the league because his team is weak"
"This league is weak"
One or the another. I respect but can't understand both together.

That said, I liked the episode and how Ash finally won a league, even if it is less prestigious than the past ones. Still better than the sleep fest of the Ritchie battle and the absolute disrespect that Ash vs Cameron was.
I think the salt from most people is because he didn't win in Kalos where he was in his peak(and he really was). And I REALLY agree he should've won in XYZ before Alola, and not only because of Ash's peak, but with all the hype thrown at us that turned out to be pure bait.
This time, the foreshadowing and the hype(even if significantly lower) delivered. And well, at least it gives Alola some special moment to the ones who didn't liked the style of the region's anime.

And I'm happy Ash finally won after all! Woke up early to see it even.

Maybe the true victory was the friends we made along the way
And Ash managed to win both...
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
One thing I like is that, while Lycanroc got the honour of giving Ash his victory, it is kept kinda fleeting. Lycanroc was not hyped and boosted over everyone else this series. The league did actually try to have all of Ash's team pull their weight. Torracat is the only one who didn't outright win a round, though he still was the MVP and game changer for the Guzma battle.

I admit that in hindsight, XY and SM might better suited each other's premises. XY Ash would been the peak point for him to win at last, while SM likely would have suited the 'moral victor' arc where Ash vindicates himself in spite of losing. Alain's arc vs Gladion's arc however ultimately made XY's loss more poetic.
 
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