I feel the same way to an extent, but we don't know what's going to happen afterwards if he does take Gladion down, personally i'd like to look at this league as more akin to the OI league if he wins, because given the set up, it definitely does not have the same feel as previous leagues.
If ash and kakui go at it, we don't know how their fight will go, and if Kakui wins and smashes through Ash's team easily that could give him incentive to continue on.
Another option is that Ash could be approached by someone from Galar (possibly Leon) who challenges him, wins and encourages him to go there, something similar to what happened post OI where Gary beat Ash and he went to Jouto as a result, and somewhat after the BF where Gary whooped him again to prove he still had room to grow, but I get the feeling Ash would've gone to Sinnoh regardless, unlike before jouto where he was using the OI trophy as a crutch to stand on for how "strong" he was at the time, which I am hoping he will not do again should he win here.
i'm mixed at this point, yes i'll be annoyed if he was to win but I won't lose sleep over the outcome, the only thing I really want is for Zoroark to faint so that the fight is not determined by a wild card.
although, given the fact Ash has never beaten Gladion, and Gladion has never lost on screen in official capacity, part of me wants to see how he would take losing an official battle, so yeah I kind of want Ash to win so that Gladion doesn't end up getting the same fandom treatment as alain, since if he wins he'll effectively be worse than Alain was, since even though Ash never beat him, Alain at least lost to someone, that being Siebold of the E4.
if Gladion wins, he is effectively undefeated, and not just against Ash.
The problem here is the Pokemon anime is treating it like a league comparable to leagues of the past. I saw a tweet or some sort of quote from marketing or something where it said, " Will Ash win his first league? " or something along those lines. Now personally, I don't consider it to be a real league comparable at all, but it's clear that's how the writers and the show is trying to present the Alola league as. It's not something akin to BF for example where it's pretty much explicitly stated that this really isn't a league in the traditional sense.
I would be more sympathetic to this PoV if this was how the Alola league was contextualized as. But it isn't at least to my knowledge. If there's something in the show that I'm not remembering, please correct me
For everything else, I agree, but it's disappointing that the Alola " league " is given the possibility for this particular interesting plot point. The same thing could have easily occurred in Kalos for example
Tbh, a loss would be far worse, what does it say about Ash if he can't even win a small scale league?
It would look bad for sure, but I wish this league was treated more like a small scale league in the show itself or maybe just Alola's biggest tournament
I disagree because actually Ash has the most reason to beat this league, with Guzma and Gladion being his primary obstacles, and Ash being on par with them, he has the most chance to win this.
Sure there's Alain and the Kalos league, but Alain actually defeated Malva, and while I do think it was absolute nonsense for Ash to lose, its whatever, he at least got to be runner up.
While with Alola, it's not the greatest league as you've stated so yeah, it makes sense why Ash would win, give Ash something.
And we can always look at it, like Ash did win the league, but he wasn't against comparable trainers because they didn't get 8 badges.
The Alola league should probably be viewed for what it would be: The beginning of the future. Why shouldn't Ash be recorded into the history books as the first champion of the Alola league. This trainer that visited Alola because of vacation, stayed in the course of multiple events helped Alola become where it will be in the future.
And maybe I didn't say in on these forums, but we do have to consider the first tournament of ANY concept is likely always going to be the weakest. Do you think the first Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos leagues were the greatest, that everyone was a top player player comparable to the likes of Tobias or even Alain?
A few things, I've heard people saying that it wouldn't be worse if Gladion did beat Ash, because at least it would be consistent with a character we watched develop. Alain on the other hand was overpowered at every step of the way with very little growth, and had very few struggles, Alain felt more like the protagonist of a separate anime, that introduced himself into the series with Ash where Alain had to win because he's the protagonist that never loses.
Gladion on the other hand feels more like a rival you are on equal terms with but they just edge over you by just a bit every time just because someone has to do (since it can't all end in ties)
However you bring up a point about Zoroark that makes it clear to me that Ash is very likely to win this, granted Ash could lose but that's because the writers clearly have no concept of fairness when it comes to Ash's Pokemon (which is obvious but let's give them SOME of the benefit of the doubt).
Look at how the battle went down:
Silvally vs Melmetal- Silvally wins, controversial sure, but makes sense.
Pikachu vs Silvally- Let's just get Silvally out of the way.....Pikachu wins.
Zoroark vs Pikachu- Either way this goes, but Zoroark is fainting. Either it ties with Pikachu or Pikachu outright wins. That's just on par with what happened with Gladion against Melmetal, as in Melmetal lost so Ash didn't have that.
Lycanroc vs Pikachu?- If Pikachu beats Zorark then it would be up to Lycanroc to finish Pikachu off (likely in one hit), this is important because at least it will allow Ash and Gladion to each have two wins with two of their Pokemon.
Lycanroc vs Lycanroc- Now Melmetal lost without taking a win, Pikachu finished Silvally off and is either going to beat Zoroark or tie with Zoroark. Why would Lycanroc be the one to receive the worst treatment in this league? Melmetal got a win against Faba's Hypno as Meltan. Rowlet defeated Decidueye. Torracat had a VERY strong showing against Golisopod and one shotted Scizor who took down Ilmia's Mega Kangaskhan (and if Ash wins gets to use Torracat vs Masked Royal), Pikachu got Golisopod, got to finish Silvally and is beating Zoroark in some way.
Are we really going to be accepting of Ash's Lycanroc being absolutely screwed over in the league? And it again loses to Gladion's Lycanroc?
He has the most reason to win for sure, but the value of what he's winning is comparably lower.
Ash had reason for winning the Kalos League as well, it was just 3 years ago that we were here in the same position and we were all reasoning that it made perfect narrative sense for Ash to win back then as well, the difference here is what's at stake and the value of what is going to happen.
Side tangent here, but Alain had an arc and he was an important character with depth and backstory. He also had a completely valid reason for participating and he wasn't overpowered for the sake of being overpowered. Alain went through plenty of struggles and acted in a way that represented what he went through, i.e fighting for Marin because of Chespin, protecting Prof Sycamore, etc
What a possible Alola win means for the future is one that depends heavily on Galar as well and what kind of show it's going to turn out to be. With how up in the air Galar is and the changes being made, I worry something might happen that won't give the Ash the opportunity to win a league back on the level of leagues before Alola. That and like I said, there's going to be this sense of apathy that yeah, already exists, but it's going to be for different reasons. Now, it could be possible that people won't care about about the value and the significance of Ash winning a league because hey, he won one right? Finally, after 20 years Ash wins! The disappointment we've underwent imo could very well inflate the importance of this win and not give context to the reality of the win.
And as I've pointed out, winning a league is a
huge deal. Huge. It should be game-changing. And it hasn't been treated that way like I said in the show itself.The value isn't there and for me, it feels like the the Alola league is trying to play on that feeling of disappointment when Ash has lost previous leagues to create artificial value that just isn't there in the show and if Ash does end up winning, I'll have a bitter taste in my mouth. This is all how I feel of course
But hey, as Zard pointed out, it could prove for an interesting arc where in Galar, Ash's win in Alola could be called into question and the whole sponsorship angle would be cool to see. But the writers never go for interesting arcs like that for the most part
