There’s a number of things I’d change whilst still keeping true to the main ideas
- In normal/super class I’d encourage more use of other team members, ie when Ash has those brief battles so everyone else can shine
- I would make Ash vs Marnie a super class battle instead, having those eps happen much earlier. That battle felt smaller in scope and Marnie didn’t seem that impressive compared to other Hyper Class members imo, this also helps me make room for hyper class
- I’d make Ash vs Rinto rematch a 2v2, with Lucario and Farfetchd vs smth like Escavlier and Gallade. I think the 1v1 was too drawn out and I’d remove the weird part with Grookey to make room for Lucario’s battle (but have him job here)
- If possible I’d make Ash vs Iris a 3v3, with them adding Sirfetchd/Excadrill to the mix. The battle would be similar except Excadrill beats Dracovish but loses to Sirfetchd, which Haxorus beats. I’d also make the reunion a 2 parter (and remove one of the fillers) so this ep is just devoted to the battle
- Hyper class lineup: Volkner, Bea, Flint, Alain, Drasna, Raihan, if I had to stick to 5 I’d replace Volkner with Flint since their battles would be similar, structures below
- Ash vs Flint: Pikachu/Dragonite/Lucario vs Infernape/Houndoom/Magmorter, lots of switching again and Ash would win by Pikachu z-move on Infernape
- Alain’s return would also allow us to catch up with him, could be a 2-parter but could squeeze this into one ep (like Ash vs Volkner), structure is Dracovish/Dragonite/Lucario vs Malamar/Chestnaught/Charizard, would be almost raid-battle like with Ash chipping away at Charizard throughout before beating it with Mega Lucario
- Have Sirfetch’d beat Hawlucha against Bea, also not have Lucario take so many hits
- Ash vs Drasna would be a double battle, since that allows Sirfetchd/Dracovish to work together better and allow Ash to win more strategically
- For M8 I would mix reserves for Steven and Cynthia, something like Krookodile/Gengar/Sceptile and Dragonite/Greninja/Snorlax/Sirfefchd/Lucario/Infernape but have Ash take on Leon with Journeys team still, as most climactic fights have Ash use his regional team and the multiple gimmicks was awesome
There’s still a lot to fix but it’s where I’d start atm