I'm awake this week, so normal length thought post! By which I mean it won't be any different than before.
Sophocles vs Mina. I expected from the preview material that Vikavolt would overcome Ribombee's speed by using its jaws to clamp down and keep it from moving. Nice that my prediction was right. Good use of Pokemon anatomy.
James vs Jessie. I can't really say much since I don't know what they're saying. Wobbuffet's fighting style is really unorthodox, so there's only so much they can do with it. Still, the strategy of using Spike Cannon repeatedly made sense. It can only Counter so much, obviously.
Kiawe vs Acerola. Mostly fighting with the occasional strategy. One I liked was Marowak using the flames from Shadow Bone to stop the Shadow Punch. Alolan Marowak are able to do that. My favorite part was Marowak being frozen by Cursed Body. The shot of it standing still and looking around awkwardly has meme potential. Also Kiawe and Marowak dancing was cute.
Gladion vs Lillie. It was short, but that's fine. This isn't the end of their stories, after all.
Lillie may have lost, but she still showed the potential to become strong one day. Perhaps strong enough to beat Gladion? Also, Snowy used Snow Cloak for the first time. It's a good Ability for her defensive fighting style.
I was expecting Guzma to face Sophocles or Kiawe next, but Lana's fine too. It just means her inevitable League victory will be all the more sweeter.
Also unexpected, Rowlet outright asking a random bird Pokemon to get its family here. I thought Toucannon would've come on its own volition.
When you have freaking Kiawe vs Acerola get 3x more screentime than Lillie vs Gladion (a battle between two very important characters of the series), then not really sure what you can really expect from this so called "League" afterwards.
The writers are just honestly doing their best to show how badly they can actually screw up in this League.
Oh no. The minor recurring character got a
single episode where she got more screentime than a main character and a major recurring character.
Said characters who are getting more battles after this (Gladion) and are getting an arc that'll conclude the story they've had since the very beginning of the show (both).