(12 pages already? Wow! Please forgive me for not being able to read through all of them. All that bickering got a bit annoying)
So let's get started.
I was really looking forward to a new epiosde after a longer break...and was disappointed.
In short: Geeta was underwhelming and must easily be the weakest champion so far besides Alder, the battle was poorly written (the trio's genius moments couldn't really make uop for that, either) and the worst thing was how power levels/scaling was
completely off.
Let me give a few examples:
The kids effortlessly using Kleavor's strategy was not realistic. As it was shown in the respective epsiode, it probably takes many months or even years of training to successfully master that. Not just "hey let's use that" and it'll magically work. Also, why did only Floragato have to dodge? What happened to the other two? Just taking the hit that could easily have taken them out?
Geeta carelessly sacrificed her two Glimmet too soon against standard trainers that usually don't pose such a big threat to a so-called "top" champion so that the sacrifice would be justified. This was the first mistake. And although Geeta massively lowered Crocalor's attack stats with Memento, Liko, by making Crocalor angry, managed to undo a 2x drop in power pretty easily (A little bit would somehow make sense, but not
that much). The second mistake in a row in my eyes. But even if we're willing to believe all that, Crocalor's power level could only have been restored to normal at best, but not boosted. Still, Geeta said her Glimmora had taken "massive damage". Seriously? Your ace taking massive damage from a normally powered move from a Pokemon that isn't even fully evolved? Are you that weak, "top" champion Geeta? What happened to your "Let me show you why I'm at the top" comment? Cynthia would never have said something like that.
Finally, while it was perfectly plausible for the Terastallized Tera Blast to immediately take out Crocalor and Quaxwell, it seemed absolutely forced and unrealistic how Floragato was able to take that attack, overpower the second Tera Blast and even
defeat Glimmora. And no, Overgrow mustn't be used as an excuse to justify anything. After all, we're talking about the not even fully evolved Pokemon of a skilled but still ordinary trainer against the ace(!) of the so-called "top" champion. Geeta said, it was "all that she's got". Seriously? For me this was the lowpoint of an episode full of flawed power levels.
Plus, it gets even worse if you consider how miserably Liko failed against Grusha not that long ago. Trying to justify her win today with those few training battles Liko's been having since then is no plausible explanation for suddenly being able to beat the "top" champion who's supposed to be much stronger than Grusha.
To sum it up: I'm not denying the kids had some great genius moments. That was nice but for plausibility's sake, it should have been far from being enough to beat a champion. And it won't fix or justify the fact that power levels were terribly inconsistent and wrong today.
The thing is, this is exactly what happens if the writers come up with the wrong requirements. We all knew Liko, Roy and Dot were going to Area Zero anyways. So, them having to beat the highest ranked trainer of the region first can only result in forced battles with predictable outcome and logic being dismissed. And that's just what we saw today. What a waste of potential if you ask me.
He's an experienced trainer, but that means little when his team is fresh. His Lucario is a literal baby mon that he only managed to train throughout one series. By comparison, Cynthia has been raising her Garchomp since she was a kid, and was previously presented as an untouchable Champion that no one could ever scratch. Oh, also her Garchomp conveniently didn't have its ground type or fire type moves that it had in DP. Hmm, I wonder why.
There's no way to rationalize the dumpster fire that was the PWC. Stop trying.
PWC was a blatant fanservice tournament where the power of plot commanded that Ash wins, all logic and reason was entirely dismissed.
Three trainers managing to beat a single Geeta Pokemon is about a billion times more realistic than Ash's Lucario somehow being giga powerful and managing to withstand and overcome two of Cynthia's Pokemon. JN was just super poorly written.
Oh, I really need to tell you this must be the greatest post of yours that I've read here so far. I totally agree!
Ash "defeating" Cynthia, especially Garchomp vs Lucario, was the absolute lowpoint of the Anime, a forced battle free from logic, dictated by the plot and the most terrible day for fans of Cynthia, the true Champion!
(But I better not go into detail here because it would be offtopic and the thread has become long enough already)