Sun & Moon, your thoughts now vs first thoughts

[DatsRight]

The challenges or Alola Surprises was something to welcome Ash to Alola and their class, it has nothing to do with the main plot but it did lead to Tapu Koko taking Ash's hat right when he was about to battle Prof Kukui with Rockruff which, in fact continued into the next episode. Fishing, pancake race, and Pokebase were just fun activities the classmates wanted to play, not every single episode has to be related to the main plot. I like that it shows other things that the classmates do or the traditions of Alola. Fishing isn't out of Ash's comfort zone since we've seen him fish before. If Ash had to get hilariously out of his comfort zone, he'd be acting in the school play just like in BW where he got stage fright and couldn't get into a role that fit him without Dento's help.

And that's fine, but it comes to my point. People don't think Ash losing those is a big deal because, well, they aren't. The things he's bad at aren't vital so far so they don't seem as much more than comic relief. If one of Ash's weaknesses ended up important in some way, I think they might consider it more of a balance to his battling prowess. Though like I said, it's not like most of the other students are tremendously bad at anything themselves right now. Sophociles is in poor physical shape and Lillie's a novice with both needing Ash to rescue them a couple of times but that's about it. It's playful stuff all around right now.

 

[mehmeh1]

There should be a school battling tournament, there are more people in the school aside from ash's classmates, and we've been shown that (ep 1, pokenchi guy, people who watched ash vs tapu koko round 2), so why not make a tournament? We could even get a rematch between ash and pokenchi guy, lycanroc vs mudsdale, anyone?

 

[Frozocrone]

I agree about a school battling tournament or something to that effect. There seem to be more days off than inside the school. If you're going to use a school as a setting, actually use the school.

Alternative is to have Ash graduate or leave so he can explore Alola of his own free will as opposed to using school lessons to go to the other islands.

School is being underutilised though and needs to start being prominent.

 

[UnbelievableUrsula]

I've always considered him not being a Gary Stu because his friends call him out on stuff from time to time. Sophocles gets in jabs. Mallow has called him out for getting stuff wrong and being late. Kiawe...well Kiawe raged when he lost the crystal and holds him accountable to traditions of Z-moves.

It's only Lana and Lillie that don't call him out much (but Lana still teases him despite a shy personality and Lillie is impressionable because she's essentially the baby of the group).

If he were a Gary Stu everyone would like him, except for the obvious bad guys and he could do no wrong.

Overpowered =/= Gary Stu.

Someone who is good at battling doesn't mean they are an overpowered whatever you just called it. Ash pretty much sucks at everything else in this region and it shows. As far as everyone else, they have their own strengths of what they can contribute in this series. I don't know why Ash has to lose so much for there to be tension in the series when he doesn't really need to. The series is light hearted and most of the challengers are pretty easy going in the battling department. These trails make the orange island badge tasks look easy by comparison.

 

[CMButch]

There should be a school battling tournament, there are more people in the school aside from ash's classmates, and we've been shown that (ep 1, pokenchi guy, people who watched ash vs tapu koko round 2), so why not make a tournament? We could even get a rematch between ash and pokenchi guy, lycanroc vs mudsdale, anyone?

Agreed. I wish Rockruff vs Mudbray was longer,and more badass. I wish there were some "rivals" or side characters from other classes who appear every 4th-5th episode so Ash can battle them. And I want tournament, 16 vs 16. BW tournaments were fun, so would SM's be. I don't think Lillie would compete but rest of them would.

 

[Akkipeddi]

Actually if there was a school battling tournament, only Ash and Kiawe would compete. Lillie, Sophocles and Mallow are out anyway since they don't have teams meant for battling, and Lana, though she has a Z Ring, has only one Pokémon and I don't think that'll be good enough for her to compete.

 

[DatsRight]

Actually if there was a school battling tournament, only Ash and Kiawe would compete. Lillie, Sophocles and Mallow are out anyway since they don't have teams meant for battling, and Lana, though she has a Z Ring, has only one Pokémon and I don't think that'll be good enough for her to compete.

If they made it a team or number restriction like Olivia's battle that could solve it. Most activities tend to only involve their signature anyway.

Also all the more reason to introduce and develop other students within the school.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Honestly I can see Lillie competing in a tournament as she seems to have an interest in battling. The rules would most likely be one on one battles since everyone has at least one Pokemon anyways.

 

[Remix2]

I agree about a school battling tournament or something to that effect. There seem to be more days off than inside the school. If you're going to use a school as a setting, actually use the school.

Alternative is to have Ash graduate or leave so he can explore Alola of his own free will as opposed to using school lessons to go to the other islands.

School is being underutilised though and needs to start being prominent.

They should've made the school similar to my hero academia.

Because right now the school so far is basically a liability to the series.

 

[Darthlord7]

They should've made the school similar to my hero academia.

Because right now the school so far is basically a liability to the series.

I think you are asking too much from the Pokemon writers.

 

[satopi]

I never saw the school/schoolwork as something to be seen as very important or the focus anyway (never seen My Hero Academia).

 

[Zoruagible]

Screw a school battling tournament, Kiawe and Ash are the only ones who'd provide any potential threat to the other. A open to the public one would be better as Team Rocket and Gladion could potentially be allowed to fight. And the chance to introduce Hau!

Somebody like Lillie being a threat would be as ridiculous as Sawyer and Iris beating Ash was.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Melemele is basically this weird island where there are only like 3 or 4 people who do battles, and you keep spotting the same background characters almost every episode (I'm always trying to find you, Background Riolu.)

I'm guessing anime!Alola isn't that much into battling?

 

[CMButch]

Actually if there was a school battling tournament, only Ash and Kiawe would compete. Lillie, Sophocles and Mallow are out anyway since they don't have teams meant for battling, and Lana, though she has a Z Ring, has only one Pokémon and I don't think that'll be good enough for her to compete.

I think there should be 2 tournaments. First one would be 1 vs 1( So, Mallow, Soph and Lana) would compete. And second one to be like 2 vs 2 when Lana and Mallow catch second and when Sophocles catches one more.

 

[Golden_Latias]

Or it could be later on on the series, when everyone aside from Ash is on a more even playing field?

 

[UltimateNinja]

I'm guessing anime!Alola isn't that much into battling?

Well if I could go to Hawaii Alola, then I would also rather chill on a beach than battling some random guy.

 

[Johtohfiller]

Ash continuing to be an experienced, competent trainer is the one thing that's saving SM from getting worse-than-BW-levels of evisceration.

That's why I call it Sun & Meh instead of Suck & Moon.

Now if they'd just give him more battles so he could use his battle skills.

 

[Frozocrone]

They should've made the school similar to my hero academia.

Because right now the school so far is basically a liability to the series.

I haven't seen MHA but from the looks of it they use the school setting far more extensively than SM

Maybe because MHA creators had an idea as opposed to SM changing things for the sake of changing things

 

[Golden_Latias]

MHA is also not attempting to sell anything and has more freedom overall. The Pokemon anime, for all the changes it has made this season, has to remain at least somewhat faithful to the games. And it seems like the anime team wants to have their cake and eat it, too. They want to have both the comedy SoL stuff for the ratings and the traveling to remain faithful to the games, and they just can't have both at the same time.

Plus, a lot of these changes happened, because it's what the Japanese wanted. Like it or not, Gen VI as a whole was a flop in Japan, and Yokai Watch was huge at the time, so something had to change.

I wouldn't go so far to say the school has been a liability, but it hasn't really done anything for the series, either. Nor was I expecting it to. The school is nothing more than a backdrop in most SoL anime anyway, and without it, we'd just be right back at the boring old travel formula.

 

[Akkipeddi]

If you said this at episode 1 of the SM anime about the school finally being a change from the travelling formula, I'd have still agreed and keen to see what it does. However, at this point of 40 episodes, the school has definitely become a liability since everyone is stuck on Melemele Island, and we ended up with that extremely sub par Akala arc which could've been avoided if this school didn't exist. So yes, at this point I would still say that the travelling formula is better than the school formula, for me personally.

And regarding Gen VI, yeah it flopped towards the end of the series, but at the same point of 40 episodes, the XY anime still had higher ratings than what SM currently has. It is possible for the SM ratings to drop even further when it reaches towards the end. As for the games, Pokémon XY did amazingly well as well, so let's not think that SM is the one that has brought the franchise back.