Kalos League - One Year Later

[Daniel31]

I wanna know how you guys felt when you saw it happen how do you still feel about it now, are you still bitter? Dont care??? Thought it was just funny? Which is it?

When I saw A-G fall, I was a little disappointed tbh, because during the final battle, it was hard not to get caught up in the moment itself. However, I immediately got over the loss in about 30 seconds. Hard to believe I know, but I've said in the past and will say it again, that I've given up on Ash winning a league ever since the results of Sinnoh. That's not to say that I don't ever want Ash to win, but I won't expect him to. It's like playing the lottery...you buy a ticket, hope and imagine yourself winning, but then when you find out you lost, you're not really disappointed too much, because you knew that it was an absolute pipe dream. That was how I reacted to this loss.

As for now...looking back upon the loss, I'm actually glad Ash didn't win, because if Ash is going to win a league, I want to see cameos from past companions or the very least, have Delia be present. I also would like it to be like a 10 episode league, show more of Ash's battles, reserves, slowly build up to it, etc...you get the idea.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I laughed honestly lol. I knew he was going to lose and I didn't really care at all. It has been made clear at the end of DP that Ash will never win a league and the Kalos League was pretty much a confirmation of that, as well as the Unova league.

The league was lackluster anyways and was just a b plot to the Team Flare climax.

I still feel the same way as I did back then.

 

[ash&charizardfan]

Honestly I think alain should not even had entered the league, it was too forced. I wished it was tobias 2.0 type situation once again. I still find his sinnoh league loss to date.
Funnt thing is ash's last 3 league losses have created bigger controversy. In sinnoh it became controversial by bringing in a trainer with legendaries, so how to top it by creating even bigger controversy by having an idiot trainer who do not even know the the location of unnova league with just 5 monster. If that was not good enough writers created even bigger controversy by hinting ash is going to win the league by hyping episode titles and bringing in is main rival who ash hasn't beaten before( well it is tradition for ash to beat his main rival in the league) and also knowing this could be the last league that( alola do not have a league for now).
Personally I wish he could win sinnoh league more than kalos because that is the touphest league.

 

[Frozocrone]

Honestly I think alain should not even had entered the league, it was too forced. I wished it was tobias 2.0 type situation once again. I still find his sinnoh league loss to date.
Funnt thing is ash's last 3 league losses have created bigger controversy. In sinnoh it became controversial by bringing in a trainer with legendaries, so how to top it by creating even bigger controversy by having an idiot trainer who do not even know the the location of unnova league with just 5 monster. If that was not good enough writers created even bigger controversy by hinting ash is going to win the league by hyping episode titles and bringing in is main rival who ash hasn't beaten before( well it is tradition for ash to beat his main rival in the league) and also knowing this could be the last league that( alola do not have a league for now).
Personally I wish he could win sinnoh league more than kalos because that is the touphest league.

They'll make the biggest controversy for an Alolan league.

He loses...to one of his classmates! The shock! The horror! The betrayal! Ooh those darn writers!

 

[Darthlord7]

They'll make the biggest controversy for an Alolan league.

He loses...to one of his classmates! The shock! The horror! The betrayal! Ooh those darn writers!

Please let Lillie be the one.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Please let Lillie be the one.

I was just gonna say that

 

[Satomine Night]

I was incredibly disappointed Ash lost. Like many fans, I was hyped up by the episode title and was hoping Ash might actually win the league. However, the moment I saw Charizard and Greninja start to teeter, I had a sinking feeling Greninja was going to be the one to fall.

One reason I wasn't saltier about the loss was because Alain was an established character who had been shown to be an incredibly strong Trainer. If Ash was going to lose to somebody, at least it was to somebody who was an already established character, rather than somebody who was introduced just to knock Ash out of the league.

To be honest, I was more annoyed by Ash's reaction--or lack of a reaction--than by the loss itself. The boy had come within inches of winning the Kalos League, yet he didn't show a lick of disappointment. I'm fine with his being content with getting second place, but most human beings would have at least shown some signs of disappointment at coming so close to victory. The fact that he didn't was unrealistic, IMHO. I remember thinking to myself, "You just came within a hair of winning the Kalos League. For the love of Xerneas, boy, show some disappointment!"

As for how I feel now... I've come to terms with it, and I'm no longer salty about the League loss. In hindsight, it does feel like the Kalos League was second fiddle to the Team Flare arc (which was far better, IMO). If/when Ash wins a league, I would rather see him do it with a team consisting of some of his reserves, and I would like the league itself to be better paced.

 

[Nerdy McNerdface]

Well, when I first saw it I had made three predictions based on personal theories: one, Ash would lose as per usual and continue on to Alola. Two, Ash would win and stay in Kalos. Three, Ash would win but still continue on his journey regardless. I was hoping for one or two since three seemed unlikely and undesirable - if Ash won it'd be both a rather large leap for a league result from Semi-finals to Win without a Finals stage, and it would have less emotion put into it since we saw less battles than in previous sagas, not to mention that's it'd feed into how Ash was extremely overpowered throughout Kalos anyway. Basically, I was expecting him to either end his journey a champion of do the usual. What that meant was both my favourite speculations had him win and lose respectively, so I wasn't really picking sides whatsoever.

My reaction when I saw that Ash had lost was merely indifference. I was happy one of my desired speculations became true, but since my favourite speculations was the second one and not the first I wasn't exactly ecstatic. I was much more interested in the Flare Arc that happened immediately after, since the theory I had come up with involved Steven returning and I wanted to see if he did (boy was I elated when I was proven right). The Kalos league would've probably become just another event in the anime for me if the fandom hadn't exploded over it.

Now I'm still the same. I was never salty since while I did kinda want Ash to win just for speculation two to happen, I was also perfectly happy with Alain winning since he had proven himself to be a strong trainer who I could root for already. I can somewhat understand someone who was disappointed by the loss due to a potential win being overhyped by the orange shuriken, but I almost certainly wouldn't say it could ruin this entire anime for someone.

An I certainly wouldn't put it as number one on a top ten list for moments that ruined an anime. *cough* WatchMojo *cough*

 

[Tabasco Boshi]

I was completely fine with the results, but the league itself was disappointing. Sinnoh still has the best league. It's a shame, because it could have been great.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Just gonna quote myself from the Contorversial Opinions thread:

The second Pikachu went down, everyone should have known he had no chance of winning the League. He won both Orange Islands and Battle Frontier with Pikachu as his last one standing. Really hope I'm remembering Orange Islands correctly there. He started his journey with Pikachu and it'll end with Pikachu.

As for the title, my thoughts upon seeing it were "I wonder which meaning of ultimate they're using" thanks to one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books.


Sure, Alain got the badges really quickly, but then, he didn't have any companions with him to worry about and probably just flew around on Charizard going straight from one Gym to another. Yeah sure, they didn't show Ash much during the opening rounds, but those don't matter that much since you know he's getting to at least top 8. And the way this League went we got to see all the rivals facing off against each other. My favorite League is still probably Johto. Kanto is too odd to compare to the others. I can't remember Hoenn's League, Paul didn't deserve a three-episode battle in any way whatsoever, Unova was dumb, Bianca shoulda won the whole thing, and Kalos' League wasn't the main plot.

 

[Xuxuba]

I was actually happy since he got second place and that is the closest he will get to winning the League (not counting the orange "league").

 

[Weavy]

I didn't care since I knew it was coming. But I have to admit that the reactions coming from the salty fans were just priceless and unforgettable.

This is pretty much my reactions as well. I had no reason to hype myself because I knew Ash would lose the league.

The league itself however, I didn't feel they done it well. It felt very rushed and was pretty much Pikachu and Greninja glorification. It's not the worst league, but not even close to being the best because of its huge flaws.

 

[Dragalge]

I personally thought the battle was pretty good and I didn't expect Ash to win one bit. The moment I saw the title of the episode I knew it was "bait-like" so I had no expectations of Alain losing. And let's not forget the giant shuriken that ended up being a failure.

 

[Genaller]

Honestly I think that's what made me the most angry about it, not a single scene dedicated to Ash showing any sings of sadness or anything, as if he didnt care, what a load

For the record the first thing Ash told his friends was that he was sorry he couldn't meet their expectations of him so that's something.

 

[Soniman]

For the record the first thing Ash told his friends was that he was sorry he couldn't meet their expectations of him so that's something.

one single line isnt a fix at al

 

[lemoncatpower]

The only part that I'll forever be salty about is the giant orange shuri-fail. Didn't even hit Charizard, such a fail. After all the hype, Ash-Greninja was proven to be garbage basically, when compared to Charizard. YA YA hyperbole, not really garbage for putting up a fight, but Charizard probably could have taken on Ash's team three times over after that.

SERIOUSLY THE ORANGE SHURIKEN DID NOT EVEN HIT CHARIZARD! and a stupid average blast burn was what we got to see instead... and smoke. biggest rip off of the kalos league was not even seeing it. Cannot stress that enough.

 

[Ashton Ketchum]

I will not hide - when it happened, I was in hell a fury (and that day I went to the "Suicide Squad"). I prayed so much to God that Ash finally won the League, but the miracle did not happen. I almost hated the anime for it, and was ready to sell, or even destroy the discs with movies. And the anger grew after the next season condemned our martyr to a miserable face and humiliation until the fall of 2019th. Even WatchMojo punch this fail in first place. I hate this with all (almost) year 2016.

But later, I calmed down. And the final series with a kiss inspired me. And the very end of XY, with the exception of this betrayal, is the best and most epic in the whole series. And better disappointing DP ending. And I still hope that the miracle I asked for a year ago. All my hopes for the year 2022 and the 25th season. For after such it is impossible any more such to do!

 

[satopi]

I said this already but I was really disappointed but got over it pretty quickly. It's not one of those moments where it was so terrible that it was ridiculous (that goes to his loss against Kotetsu but I still liked the end result). Ash was no match for Alan anyway and they had a really entertaining match. Seriously, I remember posting that one scene where Delia and the townspeople were cheering for Ash and that it represented Serebii. I'm sure they expected backlash and that's happens what when they take clickbait too far.

We did get the Team Flare attack and Alan arc right after which was absolutely impressive to watch again. I don't even think this battle was really all that memorable nor infamous as you claim. Yeah it's great to see Ash finally make it to the final round but it ain't that important of a reason to follow Ash's journey.

 

[Mew2]

Please let Lillie be the one.

I could actually see a scenario where that would be the case. Lillie is pretty smart and she handled Snowy very well in her first encounter against Team Rocket. I could easily see her come up with a strategy that could give Ash problems. Say she decides to have Snowy use Ice Beam or some other Ice-type attack to make the battlefield ice. This could force Ash to use a different Pokémon, such as Litten/Torracat/Incineroar to melt it, or call in Rowlet/Dartrix/Decidueye to fly above the battlefield, allowing Lillie to switch in a more suitable Pokémon, possibly Nebby, assuming she gets and keeps Nebby, or some other Pokémon that can take advantage of that strategy. Bonus points if she uses other Entry Hazards with that strategy, particularly Stealth Rock. Give her the right Pokémon and I could easily see her come up with such a strategy. And it's a strategy that could potentially cripple even some of Ash's strongest Pokémon, particularly Charizard.

As for the Kalos League, I'm not disappointed that Ash lost. He didn't use any of his past Pokémon in the League and none of his previous traveling companions were there, or even shown watching the League. Heck, we didn't even see his mother watching the League. If Ash wins a League, I want to see his previous companions and mother watching, either by being present at the League or at least watching on TV. Also, I want to see Ash use members from all of his teams since so far, all of his teams have at least one strong member that would be deserving of use in the League.

 

[U.N. Owen]

I wasn't surprised then. I wasn't surprised now. Although XYZ's full glory was played during Sawyer's battle which means even if you so much as hoped Ash would win, that song being played in full glory should have been the thing that tipped you off.

And the anger grew after the next season condemned our martyr to a miserable face and humiliation until the fall of 2019th. Even WatchMojo punch this fail in first place. I hate this with all (almost) year 2016.

Martyr? Martyr? Describing Ash as an equal to people that went to the grave after an execution through gory means for their beliefs, moral or secular, is just dumb.