Watched this episode a second time and just wanted to post my thoughts.
So, to start out, seeing Mallow helping Ash with the pose for Bloom Doom was nice to witness (see, Mallow is useful!
), then the rest of classmates being present during the GT (we already knew they would be) was a first too I believe (none of them were there for the first GT vs Hala), and a first for Lillie and Lana I think they said (witnessing a GT). Another thing, before the battle, I like how they showed or elaborated on that when Kiawe faced Olivia, his was a single battle, but for Ash it was a double battle to test him even further I’m assuming.
As for the battle, Lillie’s reaction was cute and funny (covering her face when Ash first two attacks were successfully countered). Rockruff was definitely real aggressive (we all know why), but I definitely wasn’t expecting Rockruff to accidently knock Rowlet out of the battle! I thought it was good that Rockruff looked very remorseful (was sad actually), and even Prof. Kukui looked a little troubled by it too. People may dislike what Ash did next, to cheer up Rockruff (his butt shaking), but I thought it was good idea by the writers, because it really showed maturity on Ash’s part (Ash not getting upset, seeing how Rockruff was atm, then doing that to basically rally Rockruff, and get Rockruff back into focus) and it’s a little continuity within the series. The teamwork was solid there for a while, on both sides, and I actually love the fact that Ash remembered when Gladion used Continental Crush, as a way to come up with a quick strategy and successfully dodge Olivia’s, and also get rid of the Stealth Rock (seems very simple, but still okay with me. He obviously still has that battle competence.) The animation was pretty good too, particularly with Stealth Rock and how they used it in this double battle, plus the Z-Moves being used (Bloom Doom looked cool and so did the image of Lycanroc and Rockruff when it was used).
For me, this is
definitely the best battle I’ve seen in SM so far. I was expecting Ash to lose, but he surprised me, and I thought Ash looked real good in this battle overall, especially at the end. Ash faced adversity a few times in this GT, but he came out on top. Good job Ash!