Okay, here it goes.
I think the Flare arc was kinda mediocre.
The animation was okay, but Flare's adaption was meh. Their characterisations were dumbed down just to be another generically shadowy and evil threat like the other villain teams became (which seemed dumber in this case because the whole joke was the stylish Flare grunts looking stupid rather than sinister, hence the name FLARE). They spent the whole of XYZ teasing them while barely ever showing as much as Game Of Thrones with it's dragons (more hype train antics from that damn season).
The animation was fantastic especially in some scenes where you can feel the most heart was put into it (Alan's breakdown, Clemont saying goodbye to Clembot, inside the Megalithe, Zygarde 100% attacks.) I agree that the characterizations were dumbed down (like all the other characters when the XY group stepped in the picture). I wished the Flare Grunts said something silly about their uniforms being stylish.
At least they did pose a threat but the Admins barely did anything.
When it finally came....well it was okay. It was dynamic and nicely animated, but not amazing after all that. Alain had about two minutes of his actions sinking in and his turn felt kind of underwhelming. Ash was allowed to just be in generic 'You suck villain' mode because Lysandre was more outwardly evil in this adaption,
All of THIS!! ^^^^ Despite Alan still having a conscious, his turn was really underwhelming (I mean really? He's magically seen the light by encouraging words said by a random boy who don't know him.) The moment where everything sunk in to him being responsible was magnificent but the impact would've been more powerful and significant if it came from the one person he hurt the most and tried so hard to protect (Manon) which would've resolved their drama and the reunion would've been more bittersweet.
and the last half of the plot was utterly reliant on Z2 stalling so him and Squishy couldn't curb stomp the entire dilemma in about ten seconds. Aside from a bit of badassery from TR and Clemont vs Xerosic (both of which were mostly offscreen), not a lot of other development felt met, Serena in particular didn't feel accomplished in looking out for Manon since her whole part was practically a shaggy dog story and even for that she was carried and protected the whole journey herself. Greninja wasn't really THAT important. Okay Bonnie sung that damn song to Squishy to save everything as well.
Right, it's like they thought their battles weren't as important as the Lysandre boss battle. I actually hated on how weak they portrayed Manon as like she needs to have her hand held from one of the girls her age just to know everything was okay despite being shown to hold her own. If she wanted to rescue Hari san or was
that worried about him, it would've been better to ask Serena to help her out and she could've used her Fla chan on something. :/ And then they both kept getting rescued every time they were in a pinch (TR, Champion Daigo, Ash & Alan). Then Serena only got a very small bad*** moment, it's like they wanted to show the XY Group as amazingly awesome while shelving the ones that should've had a big part as they were involved. We were baited into thinking Greninja would have a big role but alas, it did do something of importance even though it was subtle. I also really liked the scene where Bonnie sung out to Puni chan and Z2 learning that humans are worth saving.
The Xerosic episode felt mindlessly rushed and underwhelming in emotion. I can understand fans displeasure in how Greninja left since it almost felt shoehorned in with no buildup, like they the writers were so pleased and assured the big Flare arc would be a killer that they forgot till last second to wrap up the character arc properly.
It was just another bit of spectacle over substance to me, something that was decent enough, but didn't make up for the mediocrity of the rest of the season that likely came from hyping it so much, and I wasn't even that bothered about the league results before it.
It could've had some foreshadowing beforehand but I guess it was an oversight a.k.a. they forgot or had no time. I thought the final boss battle was mediocre I mean the battle with Pyroar was mostly off screen and it should've been Alan to be the one to defeat Lysandre instead of both Ash and Alan. Or at it could've been done differently like Lysandre basically said some in game dialogue before the battle (
"You will be destroyed alongside this world for not seeing how beautiful it is"), he could've guilt tripped Alan more like remind him who gave him his source of power (the Mega Stone/Ring) and how
he's the one who carried out their plans without any care,
he's the one who knew full knowledge of Team Flare's intentions, and is just as guilty so there's no one to blame but himself. Team Flare members usually do go back to their normal jobs after the disbandment & their punishment so I'm not upset about the aftermath. No one really cares about the results of the Kalos League anymore but they could've been creative with it like we have.