What are your hot takes on the anime?

[Sham]

Lana obtaining that Primarina was weird

Gladion was the best rival in the series, debate @ some other person

Dawn and her appearances isn’t at all bad and nice she’s being treated (with Gary) as a supporting character.

Most of May’s wins in Contests was BS

Dawn defeating May was in no way weird

Complaints about that Trip battle makes no sense

BW had the best set of characters including main and recurring.

Lana caught Eevee… because why?

Lillie got the best character development out of all the girls

Iris deserved her Championship

Iris should’ve never defeated Dawn in that Junior Cup

Chloe’s “Eevee taxi” jokes are not funny and she’s actually receiving good development.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

I love Ashs Torkoal and the slander that he and Torterra gets is unfair
Ash’s Greninja is overrated
Sceptile and Charizard (Ash’s) are stronger than Greninja
Ash’s Squirtle got done dirty

 

[satopi]

Alan and his Mega Charizard X were undoubtedly stronger than Ash and his Ash-Greninja. And is the greater main character in XY(&Z).)

Ash was ROBBED of Grookey.

Ash’s Turtwig was done dirty after he evolved.

Piplup and Oshawott’s rivalry/heated issues were pointless.

Kotetsu and Ash’s bromance was heartwarming and sweet.

Delia’s episodes in SM were some of the best moments in the entire anime.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Paul is a smarter and more skilled trainer than Ash ever was

BW is better than SM

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

The SM main cast had better chemistry than the XY main cast
SM is better than BW and XY.
Max is better than Bonnie as a 4th wheel.
Lillie is underrated as a battler.
Watching the anime for Ash to see if he become a Pokemon master is pointless and a waste of time since he'll never accomplish that goal anyways.
Lucario is overrated.
Team Rocket haven't been funny since AG and haven't been relevant since DP.

 

[DayQuil95]

The Alola League only fails in having legitimately strong opponents on a wider scale, but it has a much better storyline, battles, and characters than most of the previous leagues, save for Sinnoh. It simply felt more accomplishing to me to see Ash get to the next level in a relatively chill region while seeing interesting characters like Guzma, Kiawe, Gladion, Lillie, TRio, and Kukui accomplish newer things to themselves and have emotional moments, rather than a bunch of soulless fights.

 

[Sham]

The Alola League only fails in having legitimately strong opponents on a wider scale, but it has a much better storyline, battles, and characters than most of the previous leagues, save for Sinnoh. It simply felt more accomplishing to me to see Ash get to the next level in a relatively chill region while seeing interesting characters like Guzma, Kiawe, Gladion, Lillie, TRio, and Kukui accomplish newer things to themselves and have emotional moments, rather than a bunch of soulless fights.

I never understood why the Alola was considered a weaker league when all the other leagues just had random COTD. Morisson, Jackson, Katie, Tobias etc. At least the Alola league had established battlers like Acerola, Kiawe, Gladion, Hau, Ilama etc. I think people only discredit it because people like Mallow participated and it was a free entry but they relatively beaten quickly.

 

[DayQuil95]

I never understood why the Alola was considered a weaker league when all the other leagues just had random COTD. Morisson, Jackson, Katie, Tobias etc. At least the Alola league had established battlers like Acerola, Kiawe, Gladion, Hau, Ilama etc. I think people only discredit it because people like Mallow participated and it was a free entry but they relatively beaten quickly.

Yeah, that's why I specified on a wider scale. Opponents like Guzma, Gladion and Kiawe could still give previous league rivals a lot of trouble, and even beat a lot of them.

 

[Sham]

Yeah, that's why I specified on a wider scale. Opponents like Guzma, Gladion and Kiawe could still give previous league rivals a lot of trouble, and even beat a lot of them.

Oh yeah, I wasn’t discussing you in particular but I’ve just seen a lot of people attempt to discredit the league like all the other leagues didn’t have glorified COTD’s

 

[DayQuil95]

Oh yeah, I wasn’t discussing you in particular but I’ve just seen a lot of people attempt to discredit the league like all the other leagues didn’t have glorified COTD’s

Fair enough, I do see it being constantly stated as being the least impressive league for reasons that would also apply to other leagues. But yeah, like you said, the free participation is probably the biggest factor in relation to the league being seen as inferior, since in others the trainers had to beat gyms first, or trials in this case.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I never understood why the Alola was considered a weaker league when all the other leagues just had random COTD. Morisson, Jackson, Katie, Tobias etc. At least the Alola league had established battlers like Acerola, Kiawe, Gladion, Hau, Ilama etc. I think people only discredit it because people like Mallow participated and it was a free entry but they relatively beaten quickly.

Alola League had established characters but was lacking in good to great battles,SM's greatest claim to fame is Ash vs Kukui which wasn't even part of the League.Hoenn League's Ash vs Katie solos all of the battles from the Alola League,likewise with Sinnoh League's Ash vs Tobias.Jackson/Macy aren't established characters but are more qualified trainers than a couple of scrubs that never even earned badges to compete at a league.

The Alola League is pretty much like the Don George Club Battle Tournaments but in League format.

 

[DayQuil95]

Alola League had established characters but was lacking in good to great battles,SM's greatest claim to fame is Ash vs Kukui which wasn't even part of the League.Hoenn League's Ash vs Katie solos all of the battles from the Alola League,likewise with Sinnoh League's Ash vs Tobias.Jackie/Macy aren't established characters but are more qualified trainers than a couple of scrubs that never even earned badges to compete at a league.

The battles were pretty good though, at least the major ones. The battles either had good choreography and strategy, or emotional impact for the characters involved. Guzma vs Lana, Guzma vs Ilima, Gladion vs Kiawe, Ash vs Gladion are all good battles in most aspects, while Gladion vs Lillie and Lana vs Mallow served as ways to show either how far the characters have come, or how close they are to each other.

 

[Sham]

Alola League had established characters but was lacking in good to great battles,SM's greatest claim to fame is Ash vs Kukui which wasn't even part of the League.Hoenn League's Ash vs Katie solos all of the battles from the Alola League,likewise with Sinnoh League's Ash vs Tobias.Jackson/Macy aren't established characters but are more qualified trainers than a couple of scrubs that never even earned badges to compete at a league.

The Alola League is pretty much like the Don George Club Battle Tournaments but in League format

That battle was still apart of the league. If you want an argument that it wasn’t apart of becoming Champion then that is correct but the winner battling Kukui was always apart of the league. People only say this to discredit the Alola league even further on a “technicality”. I already explained the qualified trainer part but if you wanna think that league characters who are show don’t tell is better then go off

Edit: And obviously badges don’t mean much considering Cameron won all of his but then you expect us to believe that Gladion is weaker off the basis he didn’t compete in Gym and that doesn’t make him “qualified”.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

That battle was still apart of the league. If you want an argument that it wasn’t apart of becoming Champion then that is correct but the winner battling Kukui was always apart of the league. People only say this to discredit the Alola league even further on a “technicality”. I already explained the qualified trainer part but if you wanna think that league characters who are show don’t tell is better then go off

If it was apart of the league then Ash wouldn't have won yet after defeating Gladion,he would need to face Kukui in the finals to be Alola League champion.But that's not how it happened nor was Kukui actually competing against the other characters in the league.

The battles were pretty good though, at least the major ones. The battles either had good choreography and strategy, or emotional impact for the characters involved. Guzma vs Lana, Guzma vs Ilima, Gladion vs Kiawe, Ash vs Gladion are all good battles in most aspects, while Gladion vs Lillie and Lana vs Mallow served as ways to show either how far the characters have come, or how close they are to each other.

Yeah I was suggested some of these battles before and I wasn't too impressed,only somewhat enjoyed Vs Gladion.I wouldn't take any of them over Vs Katie or even Vs Morrison,at best I'd say they were decent.

 

[DayQuil95]

Yeah I was suggested some of these battles before and I wasn't too impressed,only somewhat enjoyed Vs Gladion.I wouldn't take any of them over Vs Katie or even Vs Morrison,at best I'd say they were decent.

Fair enough, that's a matter of opinion after all.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Fair enough, that's a matter of opinion after all.

Outside of the obvious Ash vs Kukui exhibition what are the chances of you having any of the battles from the Alola League in your top 10 if they're so good?

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

More
Sophocles and Max are overhated
The Kalos League would be the worst league if the Unova, Kanto and Alola Leagues didn’t exist
Hoenn is the second best league
Battle Frontier battles weren’t that great
Alola League is the worst league ever and my least favorite arc in the show EVER

 

[JustAStatistic]

Alain was the stronger trainer (in addition to being an established character), and his win was completely deserved. In other words, Ash was not "cheated" out of a victory at the Lumiose Conference.

 

[DayQuil95]

Outside of the obvious Ash vs Kukui exhibition what are the chances of you having any of the battles from the Alola League in your top 10 if they're so good?

Ash vs Guzma is one I'd definitely put in my top 10. Not only because it had some nice strategies in it, but because it essentially dug deep into Guzma's character, backstory, and his relation to Kukui, while mirroring all of those aspects with Ash. Everything about it was just great for me, from the OST to choreography, and the fact that Guzma was a legit threat as even after losing Scizor by Golisopod's trolling, he still managed to beat Torracat, tank Pikachu's Z-Move, and weaken Pikachu enough to the point he collapsed from exhaustion after the fight.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Battle Frontier battles weren’t that great

That's probably true but they were consistently good,none of them were bad including the one that featured Charizard's embarrassing loss to Dusclops.