From an out of universe standpoint, why do you think Ash won the Alola league?

[Daren]

Or like I said they want to nerf these trainers, as it was perhaps ridiculous of someone like Paul who was kind of like Ash at the time, not even doing any reasonable damage to Cynthia's Garchomp. But of course we have Ash-Greninja vs Diantha's Mega Gardevoir on top of Alain's Mega Charizard taking out Malva's Mega Houndoom in 6th generation. It's hard to know to the exact power scaling in these situations.

DP sort of broke the power scaling thanks to Tobias.
Pikachu going from defeating Regice to being unable to defeat any Gym aces--even with a type advantage--didn't help.
And tying with a Magikarp.

I'm pretty sure despite supposedly being strongest we'll never see anything to actually prove Leon is as powerful as Tobias.

 

[pharaohyami5000]

I suppose if Sun and Moon stuck with the status quo of Ash losing Alola League, there'll be even less viewers to watch Pokemon for the rest of the future. Not even desiring to watch the past Pokemon series, which I'm hoping for their subtitles (just need 3 [or 2 1/2] series to go: Orange Islands, Johto and Advance Generation).

 

[SeanWheeler]

That just makes me even more mad that they went straight into the PWT after Ash won his first game-based league. If this is the tournament that proves that Ash is the best of the best, he can't win it for the very reason he lost every league from Kanto to Kalos. There's just nothing for him after winning the PWT because he's the Pokémon Master. And Go is travelling with him catching every Pokémon, isn't he? Pretty much making Ash's dream a reality? Would there be a Generation IX anime after this? I don't see how they would be able to continue the series unless he loses. And I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about him winning Alola only to lose the PWT. If the show went back to it's roots and had Ash just walking around Galar, challenging Gyms and helping Galarian Pokémon in trouble, I would want to see him win the Galar League to keep up the winning streak.

 

[prog rocker]

Pretty much making Ash's dream a reality?

Did Ash ever say something like this?

 

[Daren]

Did Ash ever say something like this?

I think he said at some point that being a Master is more than just being the strongest trainer but I can't recall when. I believe it was either to young Kukui or to Koharu.
Bulbapedia says he mentions this in movie 20, if that means anything.

 

[prog rocker]

I think he said at some point that being a Master is more than just being the strongest trainer but I can't recall when. I believe it was either to young Kukui or to Koharu.
Bulbapedia says he mentions this in movie 20, if that means anything.

I should have quoted the sentence that came before:

And Go is travelling with him catching every Pokémon, isn't he?

So, when did Ash say his dream is to catch all Pokémon?

 

[game3524]

There's just nothing for him after winning the PWT because he's the Pokémon Master.

There is nothing that says if Ash wins the PWT he becomes a Pokemon Master. They have pretty much have left his goal vague so they can continue to use him as the main protagonist. Besides, Ash is likely not going to win the PWT. They have actually downplayed the whole thing (the opening makes his goal for this series about getting a match with Leon, not actually becoming the World Champion and I think that is by design).

 

[prog rocker]

Why do I feel Ash is going to do like Ryu in his Street Fighter II ending if he beats Leon?

 

[SeanWheeler]

His goal ever since his Kanto journey was to become a Pokémon Master. And the novelizations of the anime has specified that to do this, he'd have to catch all 150 Pokémon and become the champion. Of course, he'd have to catch more than 150 now that they kept adding to the series, with the current count at 890. Of course, Ash didn't have a habit of chucking balls at every Pokémon he sees. But Goh seems to be catching a lot of Pokémon, practically doing the "Catch 'em all" part of the goal for him. Leon is the champion of Galar. And all the strongest trainers are participating in the PWT. Of course he'd become the Pokémon Master if he wins it when Goh collected every Pokémon he didn't have because they're what, a team?

 

[prog rocker]

His goal ever since his Kanto journey was to become a Pokémon Master. And the novelizations of the anime has specified that to do this, he'd have to catch all 150 Pokémon and become the champion. Of course, he'd have to catch more than 150 now that they kept adding to the series, with the current count at 890. Of course, Ash didn't have a habit of chucking balls at every Pokémon he sees. But Goh seems to be catching a lot of Pokémon, practically doing the "Catch 'em all" part of the goal for him. Leon is the champion of Galar. And all the strongest trainers are participating in the PWT. Of course he'd become the Pokémon Master if he wins it when Goh collected every Pokémon he didn't have because they're what, a team?

You know that the novelization is non-canon and has a lot of problems, right?

 

[SeanWheeler]

Then what is a Pokémon Master?

 

[prog rocker]

Then what is a Pokémon Master?

They have left that term vague since always. Someone posted their theory on what constitutes one, which made a lot of sense, but I don't remember exactly what was the thread's name.

 

[Daren]

I should have quoted the sentence that came before:



So, when did Ash say his dream is to catch all Pokémon?

Ah, my mistake.
I don't specifically recall Ash ever mentioning that, but I wouldn't be surprised if he said something about that in early Kanto.


As for what a Master is: I strongly suspect it's being intentionally kept in limbo so they can either pull it out at the very end without needing build up or will never be defined so the series has an open ending.

Edit:

Besides, Ash is likely not going to win the PWT. They have actually downplayed the whole thing (the opening makes his goal for this series about getting a match with Leon, not actually becoming the World Champion and I think that is by design).

Honestly, if anything that makes him winning more likely; the regional league he won was the one where he wasn't going to the region to participate in, after all!

 

[SeanWheeler]

Still think he should have went to Galar full a whole journey instead of jumping back and forth between regions. Then again, I'm judging a season I haven't watched yet, so I could be wrong. The school setting of Alola turned out fine even though you'd think Ash wouldn't need school. It developed a lot of characters that were originally Trial Captains.

 

[Fairy Type Arceus]

One reason I don't see mentioned is Ash hadn't won a major event since the battle frontier almost over 2 decades ago. It was about time to give him a win for a big event.

DP sort of broke the power scaling thanks to Tobias.
Pikachu going from defeating Regice to being unable to defeat any Gym aces--even with a type advantage--didn't help.
And tying with a Magikarp.

I'm pretty sure despite supposedly being strongest we'll never see anything to actually prove Leon is as powerful as Tobias.

Unless they have previous winners show up in the world tournament and we get a Leon vs Tobias match.

 

[Daren]

Unless they have previous winners show up in the world tournament and we get a Leon vs Tobias match.

Nothing's impossible but I put the odds of any of the anime-only rivals or major characters reappearing pretty low.

 

[KyseL]

I don't know how they could even pull making Ash lose the Alola League off. Aside from Ilima this was pretty much everyone's first league, and most of the people competing weren't even close to Ash's level. At this point I suspect even the staff wanted Ash to win in order to not go through all the hoops and loops they had to endure in order to make him lose before (particularly Sinnoh and Kalos).

 

[Deadman]

It wasn't really professional, in fact the Alola league was just created as Ash was there. The level of professionalism in it equally low. Due the lack of many skilled trainer in it, it was at best just a bigger tournament with above average gym level battles. That is, in my opinion the only reason Alola Ash could have one it.

 

[Emelie]

Maybe they thought it would be bad to reset him again like they did in BW. If we ignore BW then Satoshi/Ash has actually been slowly progressing over time since he got second place in XY.

Maybe part of the reason they made his opponents so weak in SM was to show that while he hasn't regressed during his "vacation" in Alola, it was time for him to start to take on stronger opponents like the champions in the World Cup.

Question is what will happen after he loses/wins the World Cup?

 

[Matleo]

he needed that win. Also if they plan w bigger world league, then maybe 2 or 3 leagues need to be won to take part in it?