June 17th: PM2019 115 - The Curtain Rises! The Masters Tournament!!

[Speed22]

Oh yeah, just mention the skin-deep, surface level stuff and pass that off as substantial. Just ignore the fact that major tracts of XY were retconned like with Ash-Greninja, plagued with bad animation, and just horribly executed in general.

How dishonest can people get? I'd rather have AG level fanservice then what XY got in its supposed " pandering " that actively debased fundamental parts of XY.

I'm sorry, but I don't think you get credit for flopping the execution. I already said that XY was " pandered " to in the sense that they took its body and beat in into a corpse.

The implications of how disastrous that Greninja episode was didn't fully set in with people because many were still on the cope that the retcon was some elaborate plan by the writers to hint at a Greninja reserve return which admittedly held more water after Alain was announced as a member of the PWC.

Ash-Greninja was one of the core pillars of XY/XYZ and incredibly significant. The fact that something like this was done so haphazardly is beyond me.

No, that part makes much more sense when you look at how they transposed it with Lucario. It seems like they've essentially turned the it into something resembling aura, only it doesn't make sense at all with Greninja with the way it does for Lucario.

I actually don't mind Ash vs Alain not happening and never have since it something I've been expecting for a while, but even just accepting that premise, this post has nothing to do with even specifically addressing why Alain's handling/inclusion is so problematic.

From the looks of it:

- Alain is not even going to be interacting with Ash
- There's no G-Max vs MCX
- The battle is going to be incredibly rushed
- Alain's going to get his sh*t pushed in.

If you wanted to be actually respectful to Alain and actually come at his character in the correct way, he would face Steven first since they actually have a dynamic/relationship and have him win there before losing to Alain.

However, everything in your first paragraph is still fundamentally flawed when you look at it from the aspect of arguing for Ash vs Alain. There's nothing at the end of XY precluding JN from an Ash vs Alain rematch, similar to how there was nothing in Paul's character arc(given that it similarly ended) that precluded Journeys from having a battle between him and Ash and showcasing their growth. Ash and Alain promised to battle at the end of XY for f*ck's sake. Alain wanted to battle Ash again after truly earning his Mega Stone and being free from Lysandre's grasp

I can imagine a completely comprehensible narrative rematch in which the writers weren't unimaginable hacks centered around that. It's incredibly simple.

I didn't comment on it earlier, but this weird and dishonestly in how people portray Ash and Alain's relationship and their rivalry is incredibly weird to me.


This series is pandering 101, except it fails miserably at doing so majorly for some reason with XY.

There's one simple reason why this is all happening: Tomiyasu and the head staff, despise XY, because the XY Fans called them out over being baited, and waited years to get revenge on those accursed fans, and in doing so, effectively dismantling everything that was built up in that series.

But they're not just content with that, they are actively tricking the XY Fans into thinking that their series isn't the most hated by the head staff and tease things that the XY Fans like, and when we get to the episodes they go: "AH HA! YOU THOUGHT YOU GOT BAITED IN YOUR FAVOURITE SERIES?! HERE'S SOME REAL BAIT FOR YOU!"

Honestly, those last two paragraphs I wrote had more thought put into them, than the entirety of Journeys, and probably gave the staff too much credit.

 

[WalesNote]

So, it's Ash Vs Steven, then Cynthia, then Leon.

Amazing line up. I'm getting the two battles I wanted.

 

[Belowski]

BTW, the Anipoke PR account is now calling Ash the Alola region Champion in this image they're sending to anyone who retweets this post.

Spoiler

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1535215198482874374

So the whole League Champion/Regional Champion thing was semantics really, he's both.

 

[Power Up]

There's one simple reason why this is all happening: Tomiyasu and the head staff, despise XY, because the XY Fans called them out over being baited, and waited years to get revenge on those accursed fans, and in doing so, effectively dismantling everything that was built up in that series.

But they're not just content with that, they are actively tricking the XY Fans into thinking that their series isn't the most hated by the head staff and tease things that the XY Fans like, and when we get to the episodes they go: "AH HA! YOU THOUGHT YOU GOT BAITED IN YOUR FAVOURITE SERIES?! HERE'S SOME REAL BAIT FOR YOU!"

Honestly, those last two paragraphs I wrote had more thought put into them, than the entirety of Journeys, and probably gave the staff too much credit.

It's not healthy to view everything as this conspiracy. I don't exactly blame you, but attributing active malice is just incredibly far-fetched and idiotic to me when incomprehensible incompetency is much more in-line for an explanation.

 

[Speed22]

It's not healthy to view everything as this conspiracy. I don't exactly blame you, but attributing active malice is just incredibly far-fetched and idiotic to me when incomprehensible incompetency is much more in-line for an explanation.

I know. I looked at it and realised how ridiculous it sounded. Hence why I added that last part to it.

If Ash-Greninja appears after the PWC (Especially if Ash loses), then we'll know that they're just f**king with us.

 

[GLTSRY]

So the whole League Champion/Regional Champion thing was semantics really, he's both.

It’s not really semantics if the anime makes a clear distinction between Regional Champion Diantha and League Champion Alain. That’s just the writing team not giving enough attention to these kind of things.

 

[anipokefan]

yep I was right, everything makes sense now.

Why would they bring Alain between all the other strong trainers they could've chosen for this tournament?

1. Rematch vs Ash
2. Remach vs Steven
3. Shilling Charizard forms

nope
4. Force people to believe Leon is strong enough to defeat a Mega user with base Charizard
hahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahah, that's literally is, incredible, amazing, this is quality writing right here guys, bring back past characters to fed to Leon.

Alain was just the perfect candidate if you think about, he was one the strongest Mega users, undefeated against Ash AND had a Charizard, it was obvious from the beginning, the fact that these battles weren't even going to be animated just confirms it, the plan was always get Alain to fed to Leon but NOBODY thought it was going to be this way..

And the reason is because while they keep saying every single episode that Leon is the supreme trainer, people don't really buy it because at the end he's a gimmick dymanix one shot but now they can't say that since he will beat a "super" strong mega Charizard trainer with his base Charizard.

Now I want people to defend this, because I know some of you will still defend this so please do, waiting for "arguments"

 

[Power Up]

@Evstike See that you're here. Who do you think is the episode director/SB for #115 considering it seems that Ash vs Alain is in this episode? Have any guesses based on the trailer? (Probably incredibly hard to do so).

 

[Heitor160]

I

yep I was right, everything makes sense now.

Why would they bring Alain between all the other strong trainers they could've chosen for this tournament?

1. Rematch vs Ash
2. Remach vs Steven
3. Shilling Charizard forms

nope
4. Force people to believe Leon is strong enough to defeat a Mega user with base Charizard
hahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahah, that's literally is, incredible, amazing, this is quality writing right here guys, bring back past characters to fed to Leon.

Alain was just the perfect candidate if you think about, he was one the strongest Mega users, undefeated against Ash AND had a Charizard, it was obvious from the beginning, the fact that these battles weren't even going to be animated just confirms it, the plan was always get Alain to fed to Leon but NOBODY thought it was going to be this way..

And the reason is because while they keep saying every single episode that Leon is the supreme trainer, people don't really buy it because at the end he's a gimmick dymanix one shot but now they can't say that since he will beat a "super" strong mega Charizard trainer with his base Charizard.

Now I want people to defend this, because I know some of you will still defend this so please do, waiting for "arguments"

If they wanted someone back just to show how strong Leon is, Tobias would've been a way better choice.

 

[Dragneelo]

Why me and homies wanted Leon vs Alain:
1) Both JOJOs ( Jotaro and DIO's son aka Giorno )
2) Both voiced by Onos ( Daisuke Ono and Kensho Ono )
3) We live for #Charizard pandering
4) We needed Mega vs Gigantamax Round 3

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Ash-Greninja was a terrible concept anyways. The XY characters were handled well and I'll take base Greninja destroying Lucario any day.

 

[Garbodor.]

Just a small detail I missed, from the below image it appears to suggest that the winner of Ash vs Steven will face the winner of Cynthia and Iris as they are in the same half. Assuming Cynthia wins, then I guess we're going to get the long awaited Ash vs Cynthia match.

 

[Bortgreen]

Just a small detail I missed, from the below image it appears to suggest that the winner of Ash vs Steven will face the winner of Cynthia and Iris as they are in the same half. Assuming Cynthia wins, then I guess we're going to get the long awaited Ash vs Cynthia match.

Good
I hope it's a 6v6 if they have time, Cynthia showed quite a lot of her team already(Garchomp, Milotic, Gastrodon, Kommo-o and Roserade)

 

[AJ97]

Good
I hope it's a 6v6 if they have time, Cynthia showed quite a lot of her team already(Garchomp, Milotic, Gastrodon, Kommo-o and Roserade)

You forgot about Glaceon.
That said, Cynthia could definitely use pokemon outside of the ones that have been revealed so far.

 

[Blue Saturday]

Honestly, if they just wanted to show how strong Leon really is then they should've brought Tobias back instead. At least it would be more interesting to see Leon sweeping legendaries than fighting yet another Charizard lol

Literally no one remembers this character.

Ash vs Alain in the Masters Eight wouldn't be closure it would just be revenge. Ash and Alain's rivalry reached closure at the end of XYZ. Alain admitted that while he beat Ash in battle, Ash beat him where it mattered, as a person.

Alain holds no importance to Ash's personal journey anymore.

While Ash vs Alain would have pleased some people for others, like myself, it would just feel like pandering. So, Ash never was able to beat him in battle, oh well, sometimes you can't win at everything in life. Now it's gonna be Alain's turn to lose to the writer's favorite of the current series.

This guy gets it.

It was shown when Cynthia tamed Iris dragonite and told him to respect Iris as a trainer

According to my sources Mega Gablias loses confidence by stubbing its toe but Iris pauses the match to give it a psychic pep talk and it learns a new move, defeating Ononokus.

 

[doofinc]

BTW, the Anipoke PR account is now calling Ash the Alola region Champion in this image they're sending to anyone who retweets this post.

Spoiler

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1535215198482874374

So the whole League Champion/Regional Champion thing was semantics really, he's both.

How long did it take for you to get the picture? Still don't have mine yet

 

[DayQuil95]

Just a small detail I missed, from the below image it appears to suggest that the winner of Ash vs Steven will face the winner of Cynthia and Iris as they are in the same half. Assuming Cynthia wins, then I guess we're going to get the long awaited Ash vs Cynthia match.

RIP Iris, she either has a rematch with Ash or loses to Cynthia then, deserved better.

 

[Dephender]

Summary and incomplete voice cast finally got posted

As you all probably expected, it's just the same stuff we already had.

 

[solrocknroll]

I kind of don’t think Glaceon and Gastrodon should be on her team over Spiritomb and Togekiss. If she uses those two, she’ll have her Platinum team but with Lucario replaced with Kommo-o.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Why is every Sham post always about Iris this and Iris that.

Also, can someone link the preview?