The Great Butler said:
.....but they rushed it WAY too much. Within five minutes, we went from May's battle with Drew to Drew losing to Robert.
Well it's not like they're going to show us Drew battling no-name coordinators on his way to Robert. The writers skipped those matches just to give us the final one.
The May/Drew and Robert/Drew matches should've had their own episode.
A single contest battle lasting an entire episode would be way too stretched out. As well as the battle being 5 minutes in the matches, it wouldn't make sense either.
I thought the May/Drew battle was the perfect length, it wasn't too short and it didn't drag.
As for Robert/Drew? Sure, I'd love to see Drew get his
ass kicked for a change, but I can see why we only caught the tail-end of it.
Did we see the full battle where Richie lost? No, we saw the very end with Ivysaur knocking out Pikachu.
Did we see the full battle when Harrison lose to another trainer in the Johto league? No, we saw him knocked out in 10 seconds.
This show doesn't focus on the rivals, but the heroes. While it would have been nice to see the rivals battling in their final match, it's nothing to be concerned about.
Besides, we know Harley and Drew will be in the next Grand Festival too, so we'll see more matches from them anyway.