July 7th: SM129 - Brawl! Battle Royal 151!!

[Akkipeddi]

Given that we're yet to see quite many Z Moves, and that this is a rush job from 151 to 16, it's very likely to be a one hit ko spam where we'll see a lot of the remaining Z Moves.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Given that we're yet to see quite many Z Moves, and that this is a rush job from 151 to 16, it's very likely to be a one hit ko spam where we'll see a lot of the remaining Z Moves.

Yep. Probably all the remaining ones except the Legend exclusives, or used by anyone who happens to get through this preliminary (such as Hau not showing off Sinister Arrow Raid [guessing he'll have Decidueye]).

 

[Kintaro]

I hope to god Ash wins the Alola League. He got screwed out of winning the Kalos League.

I don't think anyone really cares if he wins this league or not.

 

[Doppelgänger]

We knew Ash was losing Sinnoh weeks in advance, but that didn't stop people from hating the Tobias battle and calling it one of the worst in Pokemon history (it wasn't).

If Ash wins this league, there will be unanimous joy and appreciation. It might be ugly, but becoming the Champion is more special than simply beating the main tournament.

 

[Remix2]

2 things
1) who keeps letting fujisaku write important battles?
2) I now just want to see pure chaos

Apparently the director like him enough to keep giving him important battles even though not good at them.

 

[mehmeh1]

Apparently the director like him enough to keep giving him important battles even though not good at them.

he's pretty much a slightly better junki takegami by now (if you're asking who takegami is, he wrote the ash vs brock and ash vs elesa battles)

 

[Kintaro]

We knew Ash was losing Sinnoh weeks in advance, but that didn't stop people from hating the Tobias battle and calling it one of the worst in Pokemon history (it wasn't).

If Ash wins this league, there will be unanimous joy and appreciation. It might be ugly, but becoming the Champion is more special than simply beating the main tournament.

I doubt it, people still don't consider this a big league even with the info that 151 trainers will enter. The other thing is there's no "story hype" behind it. Ash Vs. Paul was built up all throughout DP and Tobias felt like icing on top of that with legendaries, and AshGreninja and Alain had that too.

For example if Ash won the Hoenn league people would have been happy, but since there was no major rivals at that time and no story built up, it wouldn't have felt as big a deal.

 

[Poke Master 7]

I hope to god Ash wins the Alola League. He got screwed out of winning the Kalos League.

Even if he does, what does it matter? This league has zero standards as far as who takes part in it. Compared to past leagues, this is a joke.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

he's pretty much a slightly better junki takegami by now (if you're asking who takegami is, he wrote the ash vs brock and ash vs elesa battles)

Kanto has weird battles all-around, but Elesa's battle doesn't have that excuse.

Even if he does, what does it matter? This league has zero standards as far as who takes part in it. Compared to past leagues, this is a joke.

All the other Leagues have is a standard of "beat 8 specific Trainers" or "steal the badges, we can't actually tell if they're legitimate or not".

 

[Doppelgänger]

I doubt it, people still don't consider this a big league even with the info that 151 trainers will enter. The other thing is there's no "story hype" behind it. Ash Vs. Paul was built up all throughout DP and Tobias felt like icing on top of that with legendaries, and AshGreninja and Alain had that too.

That's all on the fans. It's understandable considering how battle sparse SM has been, but it's time to turn the page on that now. We're getting the first real tournament in 3 years.

If fans try to disparage a victory later on, they'll get mercilessly ridiculed and mocked just like XY fans are today.

For example if Ash won the Hoenn league people would have been happy, but since there was no major rivals at that time and no story built up, it wouldn't have felt as big a deal.

People were pissed after-the-fact about Hoenn because Ash lost to the eventual winner with both trainers on their last Pokemon. Going into it, Hoenn was pretty loose like in Kanto and Johto, although there were a minority complaining about Ash never winning a league.
But immediately afterward, Ash lost to Agatha. I remember a topic on Bulbagarden after that episode aired and the general attitude was that Ash wasn't anywhere near an Elite Four in skill. That was 14 years ago.

Since then, Ash has been crushed twice in the league, arguably all three times if you think Ash-Greninja stood no chance against Mega Charizard X. Nobody likes seeing the hero lose, and there's no moral or philosophical point to it. It just trolls anyone who followed the show long enough to get to the festival at the end. At this point, any victory is a victory.

 

[Kintaro]

People were pissed after-the-fact about Hoenn because Ash lost to the eventual winner with both trainers on their last Pokemon. Going it, it was pretty loose like in OS and Johto, although there were a minority complaining about Ash never winning a league.
But immediately afterward, Ash lost to Agatha. I remember a topic on Bulbagarden after that episode aired and the general attitude was that Ash wasn't anywhere near an Elite Four in skill. That was 14 years ago.

If I remember correctly most were complaining at the time Ash didn't bring back any older pokemon for the Hoenn league (since it was the first league he didn't, and sadly this is a trend that continued in every league after besides Sinnoh), and that Ash would have beat Tyson had he used Charizard, etc. I actually remember people being pissed at the time, which is funny in retrospect because Ash never uses old pokemon in leagues anymore.

 

[Doppelgänger]

It was less enraging than Johto, since people acknowledged Ash had a handicap of only using his Hoenn Pokemon + Pikachu.

To this day I am still incensed about Ash losing in the Silver Conference. The only other battles that come close to annoying me as much were the finale against Brandon and the premlim match against Trip in the Unova. That latter one was so stupid I was angry Ash won.

 

[GarchompChain]

Well, that point can easily be clear out by making Masked Royal do an 'Exhibition Match', rather than making him take part in the League as a contestant.



Well, it would depend on how much focus they writers want to put on the matches of the other regular cast members of the Alola Saga.

I remember that, during the Johto(?) League, there was a knock-out round, similar to this one, and the writers took around 1 and half episode to cover it (and in it, only Ash was the focused contestant belonging to the regular cast).

This has never happened before. I don't think you quite understand. It's 151 trainers fighting eachother, all at once, on one battlefield.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

For those who don't get it yet...

Think Fortnite.

Except without the sweet dancing moves.

And the quirky outfits.

 

[Vipsoccermaster]

It will be hilarious if each of the 151 participants have one unique Pokémon from Bulbasaur to all the way to Mew. Probably won't happen, but yeah.

 

[Poke Master 7]

All the other Leagues have is a standard of "beat 8 specific Trainers" or "steal the badges, we can't actually tell if they're legitimate or not".

8 specific trainers who have to be certified under the authority of the Pokémon League committee as such they aren’t just random nobodies. And the very prospect of stealing badges isn’t something that has come up since season 1 (which in the same breath the prospect of reporting said stolen badges was brought up but the trainer cared more about honor than justice). This is basically, if you have at least 1 Pokémon and have enough consciousness to sign up, you can compete. Not even remotely close in legitimacy.

 

[Doppelgänger]

The league allowed Volkner to hand out badges for free. Not only is accepting such a badge an integrity violation (and instant disqualification from the League), it means that everyone who showed up with a Beacon Badge not named Ash didn't actually earn the eight badges. And this was Sinnoh of all places, considered the highest level of competition among four Japanese-based regions.

 

[Dream Lad]

For example if Ash won the Hoenn league people would have been happy, but since there was no major rivals at that time and no story built up, it wouldn't have felt as big a deal.

Ash winning five straight full battles to the championship (RIP Hoenn League's epic format) would have been mad hype, lol.

If I remember correctly most were complaining at the time Ash didn't bring back any older pokemon for the Hoenn league (since it was the first league he didn't, and sadly this is a trend that continued in every league after besides Sinnoh), and that Ash would have beat Tyson had he used Charizard, etc. I actually remember people being pissed at the time, which is funny in retrospect because Ash never uses old pokemon in leagues anymore.

Ash mentioned he wanted to exclusively use his Hoenn team to see far how he could go with them and see the results of his training. It was never supposed to be a trend. The writers had him use reserves for the Battle Frontier and at the Sinnoh League, because back then they understood how to write an actual coherent character.

 

[Red and Blue]

Viren might actually be one of the 151 now that I think of it. He is recurring enough and has strong enough Pokemon. Could even take one of the sixteen spots

 

[FlygontheRavager]

Viren might actually be one of the 151 now that I think of it. He is recurring enough and has strong enough Pokemon. Could even take one of the sixteen spots

Meh: he’s too much of a coward to participate in something like this.