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Something that I wonder about

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
If the final battle in the Alola league was 3 vs 3 how would the classmates barring Kiawe even advance to the finals without it being weird? It’s like they were destined to lose since most of them had no more then 2 Pokémon.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Frankly, I don't think any of Satoshi's classmates should've competed in the first place. The fact that only Kaki had enough Pokemon to be a candidate for the finals in the first place is incredibly unfair, so I don't know why the writers bothered adding that limitation in the first place if it was just going to make Maamane, Suiren, Mao, and Lilie battling in the tournament rather pointless.
 

lolipiece

Pictured: what browsing Serebii does to a person
Staff member
Moderator
If Cameron was allowed to bring 5 Pokemon to a 6v6 match, then the same should apply here. Also not like it matters. They were never going to make it that far to begin with.
 

AznKei

Dawn & Chloe by ddangbi
The writers can pull an "Alain from XYZ" with other Pokemons to fill the gap just for the battle and never seeing them again afterwards. Also, it would make more sense to them to lose early, especially when they don't battle as much than Kiawe during the series.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
If Cameron was allowed to bring 5 Pokemon to a 6v6 match, then the same should apply here. Also not like it matters. They were never going to make it that far to begin with.
I’m not arguing that they shouldn’t be allowed to compete. I’m saying that they should of at least had enough team members for themselves to have a fair fight in the finals, thus adding a bit more ambiguity to the league.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
AznKei said:
The writers can pull an "Alain from XYZ" with other Pokemons to fill the gap just for the battle and never seeing them again afterwards.

I think there would've been a vast difference between the classmates debuting new Pokemon without foreshadowing, and what Alain did at the Kalos League when he showcased four new Pokemon considering that he was just a recurring rival character and not a main cast member for three years.
 

Red and Blue

Well-Known Member
I'm sure the finals would have been 2 vs. 2 if Kukui was aware one of the finalists only had two Pokemon. That's probably why the quarter finals were still 1 vs. 1 in order to accommodate James.

Same with the Exhibition match
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Supposing if by some miracle Lillie blasted her way to the finals with only Snowy (impossible but let's assume there's a bizarro reality where that happened), I could see one the following scenearios:

- The league comittee scales the battle according to what she has on hand;

- She gets new pokémon in a cheap and nonsensical way, maybe the ride pokémon since they are his mother's?

- Either her friends or Gladion lend one of theirs. Since Gladion did pull his dad's Zoroark, I could see a return of some of his old pokémon.
 

SerenaRulez

Well-Known Member
The people in charge wanted to give the illusion that all of Ash's pals had a shot at making it to the finals but we all knew that none of them stood a chance not even Kiawe. :(

But if Lillie or Lana had made it farther maybe they would have borrowed someone else's Pokemon to keep competing?
 

RafaSceptile

Well-Known Member
Frankly, I don't think any of Satoshi's classmates should've competed in the first place. The fact that only Kaki had enough Pokemon to be a candidate for the finals in the first place is incredibly unfair, so I don't know why the writers bothered adding that limitation in the first place if it was just going to make Maamane, Suiren, Mao, and Lilie battling in the tournament rather pointless.

Because the protagonists we know for 3 years have a last chance to shine in the last arc of the series, not like what they did with Serena during the Team Flare Arc for example, that was super disappointing
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
SerenaRulez said:
But if Lillie or Lana had made it farther maybe they would have borrowed someone else's Pokemon to keep competing?

That's probably the best way that the writers would've gotten around that dilemma. If things had been written better, Lilie would've already awakened Magearna by that point and could've use it, Shiron, and one of her brother's Pokemon.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
tbh it should have been 4 on 4 since Gladion had Lycanroc, Zoroark, Umbreon, and Silvally
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
It was sorta the giveaway to who was gonna make it through in hindsight (though I suppose if worst came to worst Lana could have used her ride Lapras).

I feel like the league was just set up as a grand final activity for the main cast, and like all their previous ones, there were some who were prepared or inherently talented in it and some who weren't. Both it and the Guzzlord faceoff were also a way of giving the SM lot one final hurrah.

It is strange the quarter finals weren't 2vs2 or double matches (even for James he could have shanghaied Meowth or something), though I suppose they wanted to keep focus on the key opponents, especially with the story/character focus prioritised in many of them.
 
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LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
It was sorta the giveaway to who was gonna make it through in hindsight (though I suppose if worst came to worst Lana could have used her ride Lapras).

I feel like the league was just set up as a grand final activity for the main cast, and like all their previous ones, there were some who were prepared or inherently talented in it and some who weren't. Both it and the Guzzlord faceoff were also a way of giving the SM lot one final hurrah.

It is strange the quarter finals weren't 2vs2 or double matches (even for James he could have shanghaied Meowth or something), though I suppose they wanted to keep focus on the key opponents, especially with the story/character focus prioritised in many of them.
I would say it's because the league arc was already gonna be 18 episodes, more than double the length of any previous league, and adding more Pokémon to battles just meant extending that even more.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
I would say it's because the league arc was already gonna be 18 episodes, more than double the length of any previous league, and adding more Pokémon to battles just meant extending that even more.

Yeah plus a lot the battles seemed streamlined to give one Pokemon a good performance most of the time, something that would be harder with larger team matches.

Some of the battle royal participants like Shaymin and Sandy got screwed over because of this limelight compression for example, and there were a couple jobbers in the 2v2 ones, like Scizor and Marowak (even if they got okay display in their previous single matches).

I mean it's obvious a lot of the first/second round fights were designed around certain Pokemon, eg. Rowlet vs Decidueye, meaning more added to the equation would likely just end up fall-guys for the main event anyway. Look how desperately they tried not to make any of Ash's Pokemon the jobber of the group.
 
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Applecorp

Well-Known Member
That's a really good question and I think the other classmates would've been able to keep competing even though they didn't have 3 or more Pokemon. They would've been at a huge disadvantage though which sucks for them.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
This question highlights one of my biggest gripes with SM. Ik the anime isn't just about captures but each companion could've been given at least one more Pokémon yet didn't. Even the ones they did have ended up just getting a sudden rush of boosts to accommodate for the upcoming League. Yes, this is for fun, but if you're going to have the classmates show interest in joining the League, at least introduce that earlier into the series
 

nickdt

Well-Known Member
I'm sure the finals would have been 2 vs. 2 if Kukui was aware one of the finalists only had two Pokemon. That's probably why the quarter finals were still 1 vs. 1 in order to accommodate James.

Same with the Exhibition match

tbh, QF should have been 2v2, just so Meowth could participate as well. It would have been funny if James would have fought Ash and the first match-up was Meowth vs Pikachu, with Meowth defeating Pikachu. I think Jessie would have gone crazy and then Togedemaru could have participated in the main tournament as well.
 
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