Welp, now that I've officially watched the entire arc I may as well give my review on it.
I thought that the first episode was decent introduction to this arc, with Ash's Dynamax band began acting up being a good excuse to do some research and Go to Galar. I liked how Ash and Go's initial encounters with Zacian and Zamazenta respectively reflected their goals in this series, and I thought they had good excuses to split up. I found it fairly amusing how Sonia was established to be a $#!tty driver (and some dark part of me finds the concept of Sonia hypothetically running over Go without realizing it to be fairly amusing).
I'm also glad that we finally got to see Ash give Dragonite and Gengar some action, even if they admittedly didn't do all that much afterwards. Still no Farfetch'd though, I mean
come on (pun absolutely intended)!
I liked how Rose was handled in this arc, between giving him a justified reason to pursue his dream of a prosperous Galar (even if he was clearly nuts) and how he showed an interest in supporting prosperous trainers, and how the reason for this was revealed to be for the sake of capturing Eternatus. Honestly, it's kind of messed up to think that he basically groomed Leon his entire life for the sake of catching it. Thought it was interesting that he went missing instead of being arrested, as it raises the possibility of his eventual return.
Speaking of Leon, while I would've liked to see him have a more shocked reaction to that revelation, I am glad that his focus remained on prioritizing the safety of the region straight from the get go. I also liked the chemistry between him and Ash throughout this arc, between him first wanting for him to get to safety and then working with him throughout the arc, with the two of them even splitting up to deal with Eternatus and Rose which also also helped signify the urgency of the situation. I thought Ash himself was very in character throughout this arc between doing what he thought was necessary to protect the people and Pokemon, to the point where he blocked the rocks being pelted at Coalossal and refusing to eat because he wanted to help the people and Pokemon (before giving in later). I also am glad that, while he stuck to his goal of traveling the world and gaining experiences from that, that he still showed that he was open minded by thinking about Roses offer after their initial conversation, showing that he's still open minded.
I also really liked the dynamic between Go and Sonia, and I honestly think the anime may very well be setting up Go to be a Professor in the future especially with Ash having been grouped together with Sonia's childhood friend, who happens to be the battler, possibly reflecting the Ash & Go dynamic. I also liked the connection that Go drew between the Dynamax clouds and the Storm cloud that Lugia emerged from, as in the anime universe this is indeed an interesting connection that they can dive into in the future.
Team Rocket were.....
pointless. I liked that we saw them going old school and using a net launcher, but I honestly feel like the only reason they were there was to show of Gigantamax Meowth, who didn't really do anything.
While the same could easily be said for Raihan, I do feel like it would've been weird if he weren't involved in some way considering that his Gym was ground zero, and that as a Gym leader he took the situation at hand very seriously. That said I'm shooketh that not only does Raihan want to take Leon's title from him, but also his bae who didn't even seem like she was going to deny his advances before he left
I liked Riolu's evolution, as it was during a very Ash like battle, where Ash was being just as smart as he is at his best, and I loved that Lucario used his aura to tell Ash that he learned Aura Sphere. The same can not be said for Raboots evolution. I found Go's battle with Oleana to be a boring exchange of moves, and honestly the only things that I liked were Ember's "evolution" into Pyro Ball and Cinderace regaining its personality and signature high five!
I'm a little confused as to why macro cosmos had Eternatus considering it was previously established to be free (unless I missed something), but I thought it was handled pretty well, along with its 3D model. While I was initially worried about Go catching "main" legendaries, the fact that it was Zacian and Zamazenta who did all the work, combined with the fact that its Pokeball was sealed away justifies it for me.
With all that said, I feel like there were two big mood killers in this arc.
First off I couldn't help but feel like there was a lot of happy music in an arc that was supposedly very serious. I mean sure, it's a kids show, but I felt most other serious arcs committed to the mood of the story.
I also felt that, while we did have some great visuals (especially in the final episode) that they were outnumbered by the amount of "okay" visuals, which strikes me as being odd for a major arc.
At the end of the day I thought that this arc was well written, but I think I would've found it more engaging had it not been for my last two nitpicks.