Controversial opinions

[Hidden Mew]

I also don't think it's particularly accurate to say that BW Ash was treated more like a beginner. I feel like fans exaggerate that aspect of BW. Admittedly, moments like losing to an untrained Snivy, losing to a rookie trainer and the Elsa battle aren't helping his case, but I wouldn't really say he was more like a beginning trainer, even with those bad battles and lower placement in the Unova League in mind.

I thought that they didn't bring in his reserves in BW because they most likely thought that only the new Unova Pokemon could be featured, aside from some exceptions like Pikachu and Meowth, and gave Ash a lot of new Pokemon so that he could effectively use them in place of reserves for the Unova League. By that point, B2/W2 came out and they could use older Pokemon again, but I don't know if the writers were aware of the sequels when BW started.

 

[nickdt]

Ash hasn't used a reserve for the final battle since Sinnoh

I doubt that's happening here

Which is fine if he uses his reserves (As back-up mons for his current ones) in the other battles.

Ash vs Lance - Dracovish, Gengar and Sirfetch'd alongside Glalie, Boldore and Muk (Fall Guy)
Ash vs Cynthia - Dragonite, Lucario and Pikachu, alongside Krookodile, Lycanroc (Fall Guy) and Buizel
Ash vs Raihan - Dragonite and Dracovish (Fall Guy), alongside Talonflame, Totodile, Tauros and Scraggy (Evolves into Scrafty in the process)
Ash vs Diantha: Gengar and Lucario alongside Hawlucha, Swellow (Fall Guy), Torterra, and Kingler

Ash vs Lance, Boldore gets a win (Hydreigon) before being defeated (Kingdra), Muk gets defeated by Aerodactyl while Glalie battles Aerodactyl to a tie (And yes, i want his team to be a mixture of his OG team and his PWT Unova team). Gengar battles and defeats Dragonite (Going down against Flygon), while Sirfetch'd defeats Flygon, going down against Kingdra. Dracovish being the the one to defeat Gyarados and Kingdra (Basically being the ace of the battle), allows him to be the fall guy against Raihan)

Ash vs Cynthia (Pikachu being the ace here, since Lucario will ace against Diantha, while Dragonite will ace against Raihan)

 

[Sai]

Except BW also brought back Ash's Charizard for a couple of episodes.

Which didn’t happen till after the league and he was essentially just there for fun. So what does that have to do with the point?

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Which didn’t happen till after the league and he was essentially just there for fun. So what does that have to do with the point?

Which means there was nothing stopping them from bringing him back for the League but didn't.

Anyways I still doubt any reserves are coming back for Leon.

 

[Sai]

Which means there was nothing stopping them from bringing him back for the League but didn't.

Anyways I still doubt any reserves are coming back for Leon.

Charizard came back mostly for Kanto advertising after the league, the Unova league was part of BW1 (remember the anime went through a rebranding for BW2) as old characters like Dawn, Cynthia and Charizard only came back after the change in title. The first half of BW was clearly focused on the clean slate.

Also I don’t see what the current series has to do with a saga from nearly 10 years ago now. Especially since this saga is revisiting old characters and reminding us Ash has old Pokémon.

 

[JinksChow]

Charizard came back mostly for Kanto advertising after the league, the Unova league was part of BW1 (remember the anime went through a rebranding for BW2) as old characters like Dawn, Cynthia and Charizard only came back after the change in title. The first half of BW was clearly focused on the clean slate.

Also I don’t see what the current series has to do with a saga from nearly 10 years ago now. Especially since this saga is revisiting old characters and reminding us Ash has old Pokémon.

You seem to be remembering wrong. The Japanese Season 1 of BW lasted only until Ash's gym battle with Roxie, so the Unova League was part of the rebranded BW Season 2.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I highly doubt that they're going to bring back Ash's reserves as well. While they are reminding the audience about his older Pokemon, Ash has still reached the Ultra Class just with his current team. I don't really know if he'd feel the need to use his older Pokemon if his current team is strong enough to get that far in the tournament. I don't think showcasing his older Pokemon would necessarily mean that they plan on using them. It isn't impossible, but I'm not betting any money on them actually making use of Ash's reserves. The fact that they recton Mr. Mime into being Ash's Pokemon at the start of Journeys seemingly so that they didn't have to give him a proper capture before Dragonite or make use of his actual reserves is pretty telling.

 

[Sai]

I think it’s far more likely than not since they’ve already been doing that. Mr. Mime in that one episode was before Ash made any captures this series and he never used it in battle again since, so it was a one and done thing because it had been established as a Pokémon this series.

Next year is also the 25th anniversary and I doubt we’re only going to see the same 6 Pokémon used all series. And also as seen with their lack of screentime outside of battles, the writers also aren’t interested in giving them much focus anyway so not much will change.

The only thing they established with Leon so far is the final match will come down to Pikachu and Gigantamax Charizard, nothing about their other Pokémon has been parallel’d so far. Sort of reminds me how Alan didn’t show any of his other Pokémon till the league and people wondered if he had anything other than Mega Charizard X.

 

[Unireon]

It really leaves a very nasty taste that the worst Pokemon team Satoshi ever trained is the one to battle Champions.

I can picture them getting unexplained buffs and plot-armor/DeM, in order to stand a chance.
Sacrificing any trace of plausibility the series may have by then.

 

[Sai]

It really leaves a very nasty taste that the worst Pokemon team Satoshi ever trained is the one to battle Champions.

I can picture them getting unexplained buffs and plot-armor/DeM, in order to stand a chance.
Sacrificing any trace of plausibility the series may have by then.

We don’t know if they’re all battling champions yet, so there’s a lot of speculation to be had.

 

[Enzo]

Which is fine if he uses his reserves (As back-up mons for his current ones) in the other battles.

Ash vs Lance - Dracovish, Gengar and Sirfetch'd alongside Glalie, Boldore and Muk (Fall Guy)
Ash vs Cynthia - Dragonite, Lucario and Pikachu, alongside Krookodile, Lycanroc (Fall Guy) and Buizel
Ash vs Raihan - Dragonite and Dracovish (Fall Guy), alongside Talonflame, Totodile, Tauros and Scraggy (Evolves into Scrafty in the process)
Ash vs Diantha: Gengar and Lucario alongside Hawlucha, Swellow (Fall Guy), Torterra, and Kingler

Controversial opinion (that actually makes me wonder if it's even controversial at this point)

I hate the ''fall guy on nearly every battle" thing and I wish the writers would stop doing that. I get that it's meant to show the opponent is not playing around by body bagging one of Ash's mons before it can even get something done, or sometimes is just not the Pokémon's day, but it's so... idk... pointless and almost cruel in a sense to say the least.

Please, stopping making certain Pokémon look so incompetent on a regular basis, it does way more harm than good and there's so many Pokémon that have been doomed for eternity because of those decisions: Torterra, Torkoal, Unfezant, Boldore, and I'm getting scared Gengar might join them if it keeps up like that.

Not every battle needs a fall guy.

 

[Unireon]

I would choose Pikachu to be the fall guy in the upcoming match.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I kinda do hope Pikachu ends up the fall guy, but we don't need one. We know Lucario is expected to win, but I hope Sirfetch'd doesn't become a fall guy if Ash uses him. Sirfetch'd rarely appears.

 

[Enzo]

I kinda do hope Pikachu ends up the fall guy, but we don't need one. We know Lucario is expected to win, but I hope Sirfetch'd doesn't become a fall guy if Ash uses him. Sirfetch'd rarely appears.

Sirfetch'd literally didn't had a single battle after evolving until now. Over 24 eps later.

Making it the fall guy in the first on-screen battle (because of course JN is gonna pull the 'it battled off-screen'' bs again) it has after evolving over 20 eps ago is just cruelty.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Sirfetch'd literally didn't had a single battle after evolving until now. Over 24 eps later.

Making it the fall guy in the first on-screen battle (because of course JN is gonna pull the 'it battled off-screen'' bs again) it has after evolving over 20 eps ago is just cruelty.

Unfortunately there is precedent for this phenomonon. I mean, just look at poor Gengar...

That said, I trust (perhaps naively) that the writers will actually be reasonable about the upcoming Bea rematch and let Sir Dux take a win. We know Lucario is gonna be the star, but Ash's other Fighting-type deserves some love too.

 

[Enzo]

Unfortunately there is precedent for this phenomonon. I mean, just look at poor Gengar...

That said, I trust (perhaps naively) that the writers will actually be reasonable about the upcoming Bea rematch and let Sir Dux take a win. We know Lucario is gonna be the star, but Ash's other Fighting-type deserves some love too.

It got to the point where I refuse to get my hopes up regarding anything in this series, unfortunately. I'm full expecting them to do that to the duck now.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

I'm honestly on the complete opposite end, lol. Like, there's a small part of me that thinks JN085 is going to end with Ash tying with Bea again and Sir'fetched jobbing as well as starring Pikachu complaining about stuff, then JN087 will air in between-having no reference to the previous battle whatsoever, with JN086 airing AFTER and being the rematch in which Lucario defeats all three of Bea's pokemon in one fell swoop over Sir'fetched's rotten corpse with a dying Gengar at the sidelines.

...actually, wait, that was the dream I had earlier, nevermind.

 

[HiroHunter]

I'm honestly on the complete opposite end, lol. Like, there's a small part of me that thinks JN085 is going to end with Ash tying with Bea again and Sir'fetched jobbing as well as starring Pikachu complaining about stuff, then JN087 will air in between-having no reference to the previous battle whatsoever, with JN086 airing AFTER and being the rematch in which Lucario defeats all three of Bea's pokemon in one fell swoop over Sir'fetched's rotten corpse with a dying Gengar at the sidelines.

...actually, wait, that was the dream I had earlier, nevermind.

Is it sad how likely that sounds?

 

[Sai]

I think someone on the writing staff has a crush on Korrina or something. I’ve never seen a non-main character Gym leader get this much favoritism from the writers even after her gen ended.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Controversial opinion (that actually makes me wonder if it's even controversial at this point)

I hate the ''fall guy on nearly every battle" thing and I wish the writers would stop doing that. I get that it's meant to show the opponent is not playing around by body bagging one of Ash's mons before it can even get something done, or sometimes is just not the Pokémon's day, but it's so... idk... pointless and almost cruel in a sense to say the least.

Please, stopping making certain Pokémon look so incompetent on a regular basis, it does way more harm than good and there's so many Pokémon that have been doomed for eternity because of those decisions: Torterra, Torkoal, Unfezant, Boldore, and I'm getting scared Gengar might join them if it keeps up like that.

Not every battle needs a fall guy.

Battles like Ash vs Brandon and Ash vs Kukui did this right IMO: Charizard and Lycanroc, respectively, had comfortably favorable win/loss feats and could bear to take a loss so other team members could shine, also organically showing off the threat as it beats a powerhouse. The real problem is that most fall guys from BW onwards (and in OS too, come to think of it) tend to not get that same respect.