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Controversial opinions

As much as I like Iris as a character, there’s no way I can see her defeating Cynthia. Lance and Diantha, yes, but I can see Cynthia beating Iris.

Iris' main goal is to defeat Lance, that is, to become the greatest Dragon-type trainer. So it doesn't matter for Iris to fight or defeat the other Master Class members, even though they may have Dragon-type Pokémon on their team.
 
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I wish we saw more Galarian GLs and ANY of the DLC cast. What's the point of a spin-off anime like Twilight Wings if they're non-canon? They add nothing and only take away from what could have happened in the main anime.


As for PWC, some of the Champions are so lackluster. I don't get why Lance is even there, I consider him to be a Champion by default. He's only the champ in the Johto games because Red and Blue stepped down. Honestly, would have been better if Virgil was in his spot, since Ash never got to fight him. Heck, maybe even a random character who never showed in the anime before! Phoebe for example is all but forgotten.

Alain could have been replaced by a Frontier Brain or someone else unexpected. Ash should have fought Alain instead of Paul, since Ash gets nothing from beating Paul again.
 
Lance is lackluster as a champion? Where did you get that from? Of course the top trainers of the world would mostly be champions (and Alan I guess, lol) why would a Frontier Brain be as strong as a Champion?

Flint was the only Elite 4 in the Masters 8 before getting knocked out so it proves most other Elite 4 are probably in the rank between 10-20 like Drasna was.

Also are you really bringing up Virgil, a generic Eevee trainer from BW? Why would he be anywhere near the strongest trainers of the world?
 
I wish we saw more Galarian GLs and ANY of the DLC cast. What's the point of a spin-off anime like Twilight Wings if they're non-canon? They add nothing and only take away from what could have happened in the main anime.
We've had plenty of non canon mini series before Twilight Wings. Even if they aren't canon to the main series, they still showcase some of the new characters and Pokemon in animation, which is more than worthwhile in my opinion. Given how little they've done with Galar, I highly doubt that Twilight Wings took away what could have happened in the main series, especially when the focus is primarily on Ash and Goh. They wouldn't be interested or willing to tell short stories with the Galar cast in the main series like they did with Twilight Wings.

I do agree that they should have used more of the Gym Leaders and the DLC cast. It is a huge shame that they've only featured half of the Galar Gym Leaders and I highly doubt that they'll feature the remaining half within the last stretch of the series. But I don't put the blame on Twilight Wings for that.

As for PWC, some of the Champions are so lackluster. I don't get why Lance is even there, I consider him to be a Champion by default. He's only the champ in the Johto games because Red and Blue stepped down. Honestly, would have been better if Virgil was in his spot, since Ash never got to fight him. Heck, maybe even a random character who never showed in the anime before! Phoebe for example is all but forgotten.
Considering that Red and Blue don't exist within in the anime's universe, that logic falls flat for me. Even within the games, Blue was the Champion for a minute before losing and it doesn't change that Lance was still considered the Champion for at least Johto. The Kanto Champion is kind of a weird situation in the games considering that Lance should be considered part of the Elite 4 for that region. Virgil taking his spot wouldn't have made any sense. He was the Unova League Champion, but unlike Alain, he wasn't shown to be ridiculously overpowered with his team of Eeveeultions. I don't think that Ash fighting against a bunch of Eeveeultions would be really interesting for the Master 8. Not to mention I don't think people are upset that Ash didn't get to battle Virgil compared to the backlash that losing to Alain caused.

Since they were going for regional Champions plus Alain, Lance's inclusion makes sense. If Blue can still be considered a Champion despite immediately losing the title after he got it, then I don't see the problem with Lance being considered a Champion. As interesting as it would have been to feature a random character never shown in the anime before, I think that would have been more fitting for the earlier rounds of the PWC as opposed to the finals tournament.

Alain could have been replaced by a Frontier Brain or someone else unexpected. Ash should have fought Alain instead of Paul, since Ash gets nothing from beating Paul again.
Honestly, even with the leak in mind, Alain is still kind of an unexpected choice since they haven't really used the PWC to showcase any of the anime original characters. We've seen some surprising returns of different Gym Leaders and we'll get to see Paul, but they still haven't featured a lot of returning anime original characters. Ash already defeated the Frontier Brains in Kanto and I doubt that they'd be interested in showcasing the Frontier Brains from Platinum, especially when they haven't actually featured Battle Frontiers in the games for years.

As much as I would have preferred for Paul to be in the Ultra Class, I still think that it's worthwhile for Ash to battle him again. Paul is a fan favorite rival, arguably the most popular rival next to Gary. Getting to see him interact with Ash again, how he could react to Goh and learning what Paul has been doing since the end of DP still sounds pretty interesting to me. Plus, saving Ash vs. Alain for the actual Masters 8 makes a lot more sense. Alain is probably the only popular League rival aside from maybe Ritchie, even though he might not qualify as such when the rivalry was established prior to the Kalos League. His inclusion with all of these regional Champions makes perfect sense when Alain was shown to be extremely overpowered during the last stretch of XY. His only on-screen defeat was to an Elite 4 member. The idea that he has been working on climbing through the PWC rankings off-screen fits with his character. Besides all that. Ash defeating Alain for the first time is going to create a lot more buzz and hype than if he defeated Alain outside of the tournament. Battling Paul will still get attention, but their rivalry already had a satisfying conclusion while here was immense backlash to Ash losing to Alain in XY.
 
Iris was already beat by Ash earlier on and more than likely she's losing again in the same series.So Paul should've been the one to be in her spot instead.He hasn't made an appearance in 12 years.His rivalry with Ash ended at the end of DP but that doesn't mean we still can't get a battle between the two.I'm pretty sure most people would rather see them face each other than Iris vs Ash due to the past history they had back in DP and Paul just having a track record of putting on great performances during battles.

He's hugely responsible for his two 6 v 6 battles w/ Ash being so great and memorable.Just look back at the strategies he displayed in DP and tell me he's not the most competitive trainer you've ever seen in the series.
  • Vs Ash (1st Battle)
  • Vs Ash (2nd Battle)
  • Vs Roark
  • Vs Rhydon & Magmar (Hearthome City Tag Tournament)
  • Vs Cynthia
  • Vs Brandon
 
I assume Paul wasn't in the PWC because the writers had no time or room to fit him in
 
Lance is lackluster as a champion? Where did you get that from? Of course the top trainers of the world would mostly be champions (and Alan I guess, lol) why would a Frontier Brain be as strong as a Champion?

Flint was the only Elite 4 in the Masters 8 before getting knocked out so it proves most other Elite 4 are probably in the rank between 10-20 like Drasna was.

Also are you really bringing up Virgil, a generic Eevee trainer from BW? Why would he be anywhere near the strongest trainers of the world?
He won a league, so that gives him reason enough. Additionally, he could have the Eevee Z-Move, which would give reason for the "Only one Mega/Z-Move/GMax allowed" thing, since I doubt anyone in the PWC will even USE a Z-Move. It could also tie up Chloe's arc by having an Eevee expert work out why her Eevee can't evolve.
 
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He won a league, so that gives him reason enough. Additionally, he could have the Eevee Z-Move, which would give reason for the "Only one Mega/Z-Move/GMax allowed" thing, since I doubt anyone in the PWC will even USE a Z-Move. It could also tie up Chloe's arc by having an Eevee expert work out why her Eevee can't evolve.
Speaking as someone who loves the Eevee family and would actually be unironically happy to see them in the teams of one of the strongest trainers in the world, Virgil definitely wouldn't have been present in the Masters 8 at all, since it was made abundantly clear that his reasons for participating in the Unova League were as an exercise to strengthen his Eeveelution team so that they could be better rangers, so even if he actually was that good a trainer he almost certainly just wouldn't be interested in something like the PWC.

I do like the idea of someone using Extreme Evoboost, but if I were to be honest I think Illima would've been a much better candidate for that, since unlike Virgil he actually is a trainer and has the Eevium-Z Crystal already, plus I feel like his skill and strength were marginally better established. Even then, though, I feel like the writers wouldn't want to use Extreme Evoboost anyways due to it not dealing damage, since they seem to vastly favor showcasing the raw offensive power of Z-Moves than their stat-raising or other tactical applications, as evidenced by how the anime literally never once showed any Z-Crystals being used on status moves despite how useful their effects can be in-game. The idea of using something like this to wrap up Chloe's Eevee's subplot would be a good one if it wasn't for the fact that she's honestly been extremely detached from Ash's own storyline, so this would be very out of place.

I'd also like to point out that while I'm also one of the people who would've loved to see Ash battle Virgil and for him to be the one to knock Ash out of the Unova League instead of the insufferable idiot that was Cameron, even that has far more to do with the fact that Virgil came off as the much more competent opponent than what Pokemon the two used: my feelings would honestly be exactly the same even if Virgil and Cameron had swapped teams.

Lastly, it makes far more sense and it's far more fitting for the Masters 8 to consist of all the regions' Champions than to bring back every single League rival. And since the loss against Alain was by far the most controversial combined with him easily being the most powerful one by far (besides Tobias, who has precisely zero characterization to work with anyway). So with all the other Masters 8 slots being filled out by Champions and Ash, that left only one, and Alain is by far the safest and most sensible choice if they wanted to bring one of the League Kickers back for Ash to get revenge on. And speaking of, the fact that Ash never fought Virgil means he doesn't need to get revenge on him in the first place (especially since I personally view Virgil trouncing Cameron as the former avenging Ash's similarly humiliating loss against the latter), so there's even less of a reason to bring him back.
 
Lastly, it makes far more sense and it's far more fitting for the Masters 8 to consist of all the regions' Champions than to bring back every single League rival. And since the loss against Alain was by far the most controversial combined with him easily being the most powerful one by far (besides Tobias, who has precisely zero characterization to work with anyway). So with all the other Masters 8 slots being filled out by Champions and Ash, that left only one, and Alain is by far the safest and most sensical choice if they wanted to bring one of the League Kickers back for Ash to get revenge on. And speaking of, the fact that Ash never fought Virgil means he doesn't need to get revenge on him in the first place (especially since I personally view Virgil trouncing Cameron as the former avenging Ash's similarly humiliating loss against the latter), so there's even less of a reason to bring him back.
I know, I just want to see Leafeon again. :( Virgil's Leafeon never even got to fight. Additionally, Leafeon is the Eeveelution to appear the least in the anime.
 
I know, I just want to see Leafeon again. :( Virgil's Leafeon never even got to fight. Additionally, Leafeon is the Eeveelution to appear the least in the anime.
Take heart in the fact that a Leafeon got to considerably star in arguably the best Pokémon Contest Battle in the series, as of now.
 
I know, I just want to see Leafeon again. :( Virgil's Leafeon never even got to fight. Additionally, Leafeon is the Eeveelution to appear the least in the anime.
Oh yeah, I hear ya. Leafeon's amazing, probably my favorite Eeveelution of them all. But, as Alola stated above, Leafeon will always have the glory of starring in one of the greatest Pokemon contest battles in the history of the anime, not to mention this cool as all hell moment, which is something no other Eeveelution has ever gotten before (or since.)
Leafeon.gif
 
Oh yeah, I hear ya. Leafeon's amazing, probably my favorite Eeveelution of them all. But, as Alola stated above, Leafeon will always have the glory of starring in one of the greatest Pokemon contest battles in the history of the anime, not to mention this cool as all hell moment, which is something no other Eeveelution has ever gotten before (or since.)View attachment 159547
Man, if only my boy Jolteon could get a moment as awesome as this. Instead what it gets is this disrespectful garbage...
 
That Leafeon contest aired 12 years ago in 2010. It's not recent enough to say it's gotten any decent showcase especially since it barely did much in the Erika episode
 
Idk if this is a controversial opinion but I don't like how Koharu's arc is so focused on Eevee. Lana already had an unevolved Eevee even though that made no sense since she is a water trainer.

What was the point of her meeting Dawn and Serena? There is no time for a contest arc now.

At this point it just feels like they want to sell merch of Eevee and advertise the Let's Go games (even though they are old at this point) just because they are set in Kanto which will encourage genwunner parents to buy even more merch to their kids. What is even weirder is that the Let's Go games didn't even do well in Japan! But yet they still want to advertise Kanto...
 
Idk if this is a controversial opinion but I don't like how Koharu's arc is so focused on Eevee. Lana already had an unevolved Eevee even though that made no sense since she is a water trainer.

What was the point of her meeting Dawn and Serena? There is no time for a contest arc now.

At this point it just feels like they want to sell merch of Eevee and advertise the Let's Go games (even though they are old at this point) just because they are set in Kanto which will encourage genwunner parents to buy even more merch to their kids. What is even weirder is that the Let's Go games didn't even do well in Japan! But yet they still want to advertise Kanto...
Yeah it is weird that both Chloe and Lana have the Let’s Go Eevee lol, at least with Lana it’s still possible for her to want to evolve Sandy into Vaporeon

Dawn was more Sinnoh promotion than specifically contests imo (plus the contests were different) so her and Serena being similar aren’t a big deal but Serena’s did kind of overshadow Dawn’s as hers was handled better but they give different advice

And yeah definitely to promote Eevee for better or for worse as it became like the second mascot after Pikachu
And in my opinion Journeys is a mix of Let’s Go, SwSh and Pokémon Go so it’s a hybrid of Gen7/8
 
I hate how the PWC is laid out. Why is Ash going against Lance? It would have been more interesting if Lance and Iris; two Dragon trainers fought, since Iris wants to be the BEST Dragon trainer. Why is she fighting Alain at all? "OH BUT HE HAS A CHARIZARD" yeah, ONE Dragon type that he may not even USE! Not a great opponent for Iris. Did the writers forget her goal... again? Sorry, but getting to the Top 8 doesn't mean you're the best Dragon trainer when there's literally another guy in it who's a Dragon master.

On the OFF chance it's a round robin tournament, then that would be fine. Heck, if each trainer had to win against 3 trainers to get to the next round, that would be fine too. Though I doubt that will happen and we'll end up with yet ANOTHER disappointing tournament that rivals BW.
 
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