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What's your opinion on the Manalo Conference? (Alola league)

How good/bad was Alola league overall?


  • Total voters
    81

Damerdal

[Dam]n h[er] Gan[dal]f!
well everyone knows I don't like Lillie, the league and a lot of SM stuff, but it's already happened. Ash is in love with Alola, he is the champion of the region and his adventures here were significant (He got the Z-Move, the champion title, a father, friends, family etc.) The amount of Cope on SM only shows that there are more childish people than "SM Ash" himself

Agreed, in other regions, Ash was always traveling. In Alola, he pretty much has a second home and school. It's obvious he would be more attached to Alola, on top of the other things you mentioned.


As for the discussion on Kukui, I don't know if I'd go so far as to rate him on the level of other regional Champions like Cynthia and Lance. However, I think there's a strong implication based on how he is presented, as well as the out-of-universe reason of him being a Champion in the video games, that Kukui is definitely an Elite 4 quality trainer. By beating Kukui, Ash is narratively shown to deserve the title of Champion of Alola, tantamount to the other regional Champions. It makes sense in the overall progression that in JN, Ash naturally rises from being a Champion to the outright Monarch.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Jane lives in some of your heads rent free just as much as SM lives in her's

As for Kukui, I see him as a Lance like character where he's the final E4 in Kanto but is able to eventually become Champion in Johto. I think that's part of why he's the character Kukui mentions in the games right before you take on the League. So I wouldn't say he's regional Champion tier but right under that like around non Flint E4.
 

Dark_King25

Shillmon Defender
I would've liked this league more if both Ash vs Guzma and Ash vs Gladion are 6v6
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
To be quite frank, the only jarring entry in this entire thing tournament had to be Mallow and that’s only believe Tsareena only kept evolving from fighting Team Rocket and I can’t name more than two battles she’s been in. All the rest is valid and I don’t see any of the other classmates any different than past league rivals.
 

Gingertail24

Well-Known Member
Have matchups based on the mons the trainers have?
Remember, the whole point was to get Alolan trainers invested in battling and determine the strongest.
So the finale would of been a 1 v 1 if hypothetically Lillie made it.

Eh fair point

Sorta unrelated but I wish Ash vs gladion had Umbreon. Heck I would say he is closer to it than lycanroc. Considering it was his starter based on the flashback. But we saw It battle once competitively and it was against a quick match with Lillie
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
After rewatching some episodes, I have a newfound joy for the Alola League. Glad I have a break now from having to study and I can finish the whole thing because why the heck are there so many matches in this series tournament?

Overall, I think calling the league a "joke" is a gross classification because everybody who should've logically lost in the first/early rounds did. Now is it slightly suspect that the classmates originally got into the league?

Against all those other trainers (a hundred?) a bit but from what I recall there were situations where they were working together and Kiawe helped Lillie out for example during a match. Anyways like I said Mallow and Lillie still were defeated in the first round and Lana basically got stomped in the second round. The way some people drag it, you'd think Mallow made it into the finals or something.

Some of the battles are a little lackluster thought like Kiawe vs Sophocles (dialogue saved this battle until the very end) where most of it was Sophocles just spamming String Shot or the very beginning of Gladion vs Ash but nothing crazy or terrible animation just obvious attempts to do as little as possible and stall the battles. Ash with Double Iron Brash, again spamming the same move over and over.

Although it had really great battles even outside of SM in general. I'd argue that Lana vs Guzma is greater than or equal too Paul vs Barry for example which also was a sweet. Still gotta get to other battles because kinda watching it out of order but the way people drag this league gave me whiplash once I actually rewatched and thought "this....ain't that bad...?"
 

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
After rewatching some episodes, I have a newfound joy for the Alola League. Glad I have a break now from having to study and I can finish the whole thing because why the heck are there so many matches in this series tournament?

Overall, I think calling the league a "joke" is a gross classification because everybody who should've logically lost in the first/early rounds did. Now is it slightly suspect that the classmates originally got into the league?

Against all those other trainers (a hundred?) a bit but from what I recall there were situations where they were working together and Kiawe helped Lillie out for example during a match. Anyways like I said Mallow and Lillie still were defeated in the first round and Lana basically got stomped in the second round. The way some people drag it, you'd think Mallow made it into the finals or something.

Some of the battles are a little lackluster thought like Kiawe vs Sophocles (dialogue saved this battle until the very end) where most of it was Sophocles just spamming String Shot or the very beginning of Gladion vs Ash but nothing crazy or terrible animation just obvious attempts to do as little as possible and stall the battles. Ash with Double Iron Brash, again spamming the same move over and over.

Although it had really great battles even outside of SM in general. I'd argue that Lana vs Guzma is greater than or equal too Paul vs Barry for example which also was a sweet. Still gotta get to other battles because kinda watching it out of order but the way people drag this league gave me whiplash once I actually rewatched and thought "this....ain't that bad...?"
Not to say there aren't genuine reasons some people may not like it and all, but so many of its complaints are on a superficial level and in bad faith towards the series itself

The league in SM is actually a proper end of the season arc being relevant for all the characters instead of just Shilling Ash and calling back to all character arcs, his opponents were actual competent trainers on par with other leagues instead of people pretending otherwise, and focusing on showing its character arcs and battles to service it's fans who've been following it from the start rather than just skip 75 percent of it, show a few battles of Ash and spark glamour on it to please the powerscaling dude Bros who come to the end of the saga just to watch the league and dip, as if battles are all that matters in Pokemon. Glad SM remained true to the actual essence of the series. Not only did they accomplish all this and show all the battles in this 18 episode arc while servicing all the classmates as well, they still gave so many banger battles and one of the top 6v6 battles of the series with like one of the best animated sequences in anipoke
 
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