What are your hot takes on the anime?

[Rikerran]

Oh Scott’s really wanting that attention now

I'm mostly confused why Sham is so bitter about it. Yes I understand he's a big Iris fan, but the ep was written in a way to show how much Iris improved while still allowing Ash to win. Her Dragonite was stronger than Ash's and forced Ash to recall it, Dracovish defeated it with 4x ice, and then her Haxorus defeated Dracovish showing how much her baby Axew grew up.

Sham I don't see what the big deal is.

 

[Sham]

Alain and Gladion are way better rivals than Paul. Outside of Paul being an “opposite” of Ash what else did he do? Beat Barry? At least Gladion and Alain were more than just rivals to Ash rather than just being foils. Gladion had his arc with Mohn and saving Lusamine etc and Alain obviously had Marin, Team Flare and Mega Evolution. Like they’ve had way more character arcs than him but because they weren’t “antagonistic” rivals they get forgotten.

 

[Blastmaster]

Again, this wouldn't be a problem if Kalos didn't shaft basically every other character so it could center everything around Ash and (later on) his 'very special' Greninja, or if it gave him something to achieve, beyond placing second against a trainer he's lost to thrice. He was built up as this incredibly powerful trainer, one who could fight toe-to-toe against a Champion's ace Pokémon. Heck, they even included a scene where a trainer broke down in despair due to not being able to make it, which ended with Ash confidently assuring him that he'd win it all for the ones who weren't good enough.

Kalos, in the end, was empty hype. It felt 'cool' and it looked great. However, the series spent most of its time building up to a huge victory for Ash, which...never happened. It wasn't 'just a league loss', because the only thing Ash had going for him this series was 'LOOK AT HOW STRONG AND COOL HE IS'. If you don't do anything with it aside from a villain plot (and like, Ash saves the world on a weekly basis so it doesn't even feel impressive), it all falls apart. There's no point in building a season that spends literal years showing Ash as this nigh-unbeatable trainer if you don't really do anything with it.

Anyway, rant over.

Your post is all really well said, but this part especially. XY was a series that wanted WAY too much to have its cake and eat it too.

Ash's loss to Alain is something I can respect in theory. It's not like no seeds were ever planted to set up the "moral victory" for Ash, as people have mentioned here and there. I see a lot of XY fans outside of this forum claim the Kalos League is really supposed to be a character study of Ash and Alain and the paths they chose.

But what I can't respect is the execution. Not when, if anything, all the character moments across the entire league double down on the reasons Ash should've won. The Furfrou guy contrasts how Ash and Alain handle victory, not loss. Ash "learning" to lose with grace means nothing when he's done that with every league since Johto. And that's all before you get into how hard they milked the Greninja hype train. Ash vs. Diantha is an extremely hype yet supremely empty battle because the only thing it could ever accomplish narratively is scream "Wow, Ash is so strong! He'll totally win the league if he can threaten the Champion, right?"

They kept hyping up all the things that wouldn't happen instead of properly focusing on the things that would. In a meta sense, I can accept why Ash lost. But the writing for it is awkward as hell.

 

[Gingertail24]

If there's a battle round it could go either way nowadays, Serena's team got a buff and we know whether a trainer is more experienced than another doesn't mean much. Granted Dawn's Mamoswine and Togekiss alone would be stronger, but I can see Serena beating Buneary/Pachirisu/Quilava or being at least even with them. Pancham and Sylveon are probably around the same. If Dawn's Quilava ever evolves though I'd tip it in Dawn's favor.

Yeah idk about that. Considering that the contest have nothing to do with battles. It seems braixen evolved when she was training for appeals. The fact that dawn not only helped ash come up with techniques and is a experience battler, it's not close at all

 

[Sham]

Yeah idk about that. Considering that the contest have nothing to do with battles. It seems braixen evolved when she was training for appeals. The fact that dawn not only helped ash come up with techniques and is a experience battler, it's not close at all

Honestly kinda blame that. The writers started making it possible that they could have fully evolved Pokémon without barely battling or none at all. It gives no incentive to make any other person battle besides Ash. Goh, Serena, Lana etc. It just falls on the girls more

 

[Rikerran]

The irony is May's Combusken was in a lot of battles in a row before evolving, and didn't evolve till literally her second to last episode so it felt justified. Too bad we'll never see May with Mega Blaziken though, which is something the writers would have done if she could have gotten a cameo this series. Ah well.

 

[Sham]

Actually scratch that. Ash is a victim of this as well. He has this powerful team despite barely any training and random evolutions. It’s like writers don’t even try anymore. Not a single battle outside of Bea has made a bit of sense. Why bring characters like Darsna in a mess episode and battle?

 

[Gingertail24]

Actually scratch that. Ash is a victim of this as well. He has this powerful team despite barely any training and random evolutions. It’s like writers don’t even try anymore. Not a single battle outside of Bea has made a bit of sense. Why bring characters like Darsna in a mess episode and battle?

This is why I was never against ash training newbies. Even after monarch

 

[Rikerran]

Actually scratch that. Ash is a victim of this as well. He has this powerful team despite barely any training and random evolutions. It’s like writers don’t even try anymore. Not a single battle outside of Bea has made a bit of sense. Why bring characters like Darsna in a mess episode and battle?

They've all made sense besides Drasna.

Gengar was owned by a previous trainer so we have no idea how strong it was. Sirfetch'd loses battles more than it wins, Dracovish is revived with its power from its previous life. All Dragonite are naturally strong in the show, and Ash's Lucario does have a decent training arc to explain its strength.

 

[Sham]

This is why I was never against ash training newbies. Even after monarch

Alas we will get more Ashpulls as time goes on so it's better no stressing yourself about it. It just sucks because people like Cynthia are about to be potentially owned by his half baked team.

 

[Rikerran]

Alas we will get more Ashpulls as time goes on so it's better no stressing yourself about it

He's had these when he was battling with unevolved starters being Gym leaders fully evolved pokemon they were partners with for 20-30 years.

 

[Gingertail24]

He's had these when he was battling with unevolved starters being Gym leaders fully evolved pokemon they were partners with for 20-30 years.

You can excuse it considering the first gyms he challenges are more for beginners. Although this is an issue with the pokemon franchise as a whole not just the anime. Like how the player character gets their starters and their team and beats Leon in a short amount of time. Even though Leon hasn't be beaten for years

With the 8 gym format, we at least see his team grow gradually stronger. This one, we have pokemon who barely battles defeating e4 and champions. So it's a little bit harder to ignore

 

[Rikerran]

You can excuse it considering the first gyms he challenges are more for beginners. Although this is an issue with the pokemon franchise as a whole not just the anime. Like how the player character gets their starters and their team and beats Leon in a short amount of time. Even though Leon hasn't be beaten for years

With the 8 gym format, we at least see his team grow gradually stronger. This one, we have pokemon who barely battles defeating e4 and champions. So it's a little bit harder to ignore

Yeah, but even so the Gym leaders are clearly using their strongest pokemon against Ash. We usually get backstories with the Gym leader and whoever their main pokemon is and how they've been training for years or their they're strongest. It never seemed like any of the Gym leaders were going easy on Ash and he always defeated their strongest pokemon.

Now obviously Misty isn't using her Mega Gyarados against newbie trainers coming to her with a Pidgey/Rattata from Pallet town, but I imagine for Ash every Gym leader we've seen isn't holding back. That's also why all the Gym leaders always look so shocked when Ash beats them and gains their respect

 

[Gingertail24]

Yeah, but even so the Gym leaders are clearly using their strongest pokemon against Ash. We usually get backstories with the Gym leader and whoever their main pokemon is and how they've been training for years or their they're strongest. It never seemed like any of the Gym leaders were going easy on Ash and he always defeated their strongest pokemon.

Now obviously Misty isn't using her Mega Gyarados against newbie trainers coming to her with a Pidgey/Rattata from Pallet town, but I imagine for Ash every Gym leader we've seen isn't holding back. That's also why all the Gym leaders always look so shocked when Ash beats them and gains their respect

I mean as a beginner gym leader, most likely the opponent you mostly face are beginner challengers. So it's hard to get stronger when you mainly battle weak trainers

And they usually looked shock because ash comes up with a smart strategy. Like climbing the draco meteor

 

[Sham]

Sigh they should of just written Ash off after Sun and Moon which was a good time.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Sigh they should of just written Ash off after Sun and Moon which was a good time.

*XY

 

[Sham]

*XY

Nope. Not with that series continuity. JN only did a single thing right (and messed it up in the same episode) but other than that is should of been SM

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Sigh they should of just written Ash off after Sun and Moon which was a good time.

Battle Frontier or DP at the latest

 

[Sham]

Battle Frontier or DP at the latest

Nah, I like BW, XY is a no and SM was the last bearable series. JN is bad fanfic

 

[Rikerran]

Nope. Not with that series continuity. JN only did a single thing right (and messed it up in the same episode) but other than that is should of been SM

JN did a lot right, they've managed to give returning characters proper returns besides 1-2, and Iris got handled well.