Preview BW 108: Isshu League Conclusion! Lucario VS Pikachu!!

[Kairyu]

What is the source of this episode title?

Newtype.

And it feels like the anime staff don't give a shit about the league this time around.

 

[Dogasu]

OK.

Remember everyone, per the Anime Rules and Guidelines, "A source must be listed or the thread will be locked, while in the case of previews stating when the preview aired is needed."

 

[Zistal]

#1: Virgil's Eevee evolves into a Gen 6 Eeveelution, and it proves to be Ash's downfall. Harrison's Blaziken 2: Eevee Boogaloo.
#2: The return of good ol' Trollbias.
#3: N crashes the League and wrecks him with Reshiram/Zekrom.
#4: Benga shows up with his Latios and Latias.
#5: Other.

Let's see how Ash loses this time around. When the League is over, I'm gonna come back and quote this post to mark which one happened.

Swing and miss. None of my predictions were right.

Ash losing to Kotetsu and only making it to the top 8 has gone from "so bad it's hilarious" to "so bad it's horrible" in my book. Oh well, time for Episode N. It's clear the League was nothing more than speed bump on the way to it.

 

[SaintDynamite]

Is it not possible that after Episode N we have a proper rendition Pokemon World Tournament where Ash can use his reserves, and we get a REAL Trip battle? I mean, SOMETHING needs to come, as there are no signs of a new game just at the minute.

 

[Karamazov]

If Ash does lose Kotetsu, I hope latter rubs the former's nose in it.

"Thanks, Satoshi! If it weren't for you making sure I registered, I wouldn't have been able to participate in the League! Your kindness allowed me to win."

 

[Zistal]

If Ash does lose Kotetsu, I hope latter rubs the former's nose in it.

"Thanks, Satoshi! If it weren't for you making sure I registered, I wouldn't have been able to participate in the League! Your kindness allowed me to win."

Poor Ash. It really is just sad... As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Scizorhands]

Wait, guys. Maybe we are jumping to wrong conclusions. If Ash is really going to lose against Kotetsu, then why in the games' World Tournament we can challenge Trip, Stephan, Kotetsu and Virgil? Adn why are Eevee and Umbreon in the January's page of the Pokemon Calendar? I don't find sense to that!! There's even no sense to make Ash lose in his first battle 6 vs 6. So, there's maybe a trick in the title.

As I already told you, there was a chance of seeing Ash battling some "unknown trainers" during the League. After Ash defeated Trip, his next battle was against an "unknown" trainer, but we didn't even see a clip of that battle. Then, in the last episode, we saw the last seconds of Ash's battle against another unknown trainer with a Darumake. Well, there's a chance something similar still happens to allow Ash to reach the 4th place in Unova League. I said before that this League is similar to the Kanto League, as example, we have the filler episode with just "mentions" of two of Ash's battles; just like the episode "Fire and Ice". Besides, the last episode of the Kanto League was originally titled as "Pokémon League! Final Battle!"; but in that episode, Ash was already eliminated because Charizard's rejection to battle Ritchie's Pikachu (Sparky). That title could have made us think the wrong thing about Ash defeating Ritchie, when the truth was different.

So, there's still two ways for Ash winning the 4th place:
+ After defeating Stephan, Ash has another battle (possibly a 6 vs 6, or just another 3 vs 3) against an unknown trainer. Just like we saw Ritchie battle against Asunta with very short clips, showing only the last match of Pikachu vs Ivysaur. We will just see the last seconds of the last match, Ash wins and then it's announced his next battle against Kotetsu.
+ Ash defeats Kotetsu after a very intense battle "Pikachu vs Lucario", but his Pokemon have taken a lot of damage. Then, his next battle is against Virgil with another full battle, 6 vs 6. Just like in Ritchie's last battle, we only see short clips of the battles; leaving us with just the last seconds of the last match. We could possibly see Ash's Pikachu defeating Umbreon/Eevee, and then Pikachu loses against Eevee/Umbreon; leaving Ash in the 4th place.

Well, what do you think? Maybe there's still hope? Pplease, post your opinions.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

Is there any proof that Satoshi loses to Kotetsu? He wins in the magazine scan, which has been accurate so far (to my knowledge). The title could simply mean that the Unova League is nearing its conclusion.

We have no idea if that scan is legitimate, they could have just photoshopped it to switch Ash and Kotetsu around to trick us into thinking Ash will win against Kotetsu, plus we have the chance that we could be shown only the last half of Ash's battle with Virgil and have him loose to Eevee, which I think is more pathetic than him losing to legendaries like in the last league, that and it would contradict the title of the episode, which is "Lucario vs. Pikachu", pretty much a wasted title if you ask me.

Agreed. Having Ash lose to Virgil in a 6 v 6 in less than one episode, even if it were only showing their last few pokemon, would be an even more retarded and pathetic way of ending the league than having Ash lose to Kotetsu

This is Best Wishes though, "retarded and pathetic" things are this saga's MO.

I mean after all, we had an episode during the league about Axew getting lost AGAIN, and Oshawott dicking around...that was completely and utterly pointless.

Agreed with you, for one thing, Ash didn't even legitimately win most of his badges, but instead won them through deus-ex-machina methods and overpowered Pokemon that, for some reason or another, refuse to evolve. Only showing half of Ash's battle with Virgil just to make him lose the league faster would not only be "retarded and pathetic", but it would also contradict the title of the episode, which says right there in the fine print "Lucario vs. Pikachu". For one thing, Best Wishes is unpredictable, and tends to pull things randomly out just to annoy us.

I just hope Episode N turns out to be really good, cause this league isn't looking very good from what we've seen, and what we are about to see...

 

[Metan]

Wow, you fall to the titles so much...

There's absolutely nothing saying Ash is going to lose to Kotetsu. The "Unova League Conclusion" says nothing. We're all aware of how the episode titles are full of flaw, or don't you remember the "Good Bye Team Rocket"/"Unova Greatest Crisis"?

 

[Cybersai]

Wow, you fall to the titles so much...

There's absolutely nothing saying Ash is going to lose to Kotetsu. The "Unova League Conclusion" says nothing. We're all aware of how the episode titles are full of flaw, or don't you remember the "Good Bye Team Rocket"/"Unova Greatest Crisis"?

This is the last episode of the league. The N arc starts 1/17 and this episode airs 1/10 a week before.

If Ash beats Kotetsu the entire Virgil match must be rushed into the last 10 minutes of the episode.

 

[Metan]

Wow, you fall to the titles so much...

There's absolutely nothing saying Ash is going to lose to Kotetsu. The "Unova League Conclusion" says nothing. We're all aware of how the episode titles are full of flaw, or don't you remember the "Good Bye Team Rocket"/"Unova Greatest Crisis"?

This is the last episode of the league. The N arc starts 1/17 and this episode airs 1/10 a week before.

If Ash beats Kotetsu the entire Virgil match must be rushed into the last 10 minutes of the episode.

And what about 1/3? Is it being skipped as well as 12/27?

 

[dman_dustin]

Nobody can say that Ash lost to an Eevee trainer, but Ash making it to the Top 8 for the third time seems kind of dull. Overall, this definitely beat out Kanto as the worst Pokemon League competition ever.

I disagree.

As much as this league is turning out.

NOTHING can ever beat Ash's battle with Ritchie. That abomination of a battle is the worst battle in the history of Pokémon. You would have to purposely try to get a worse battle than that one to beat it in terms of how bad it was.

But second worst is fine.

Edit: Yes now that I think about it, in terms of overall "quantity" yes the Unova league is worse than Kanto, but Ash vs Stephan is probably better than any of the Kanto battles, and as for Ash vs Kotetsu, if it wasn't how it was turning out, would likely be better than any of the Kanto league battles.

 

[Utopean]

And what about 1/3? Is it being skipped as well as 12/27?

Yes. This is 100% the last episode that deals with the League.

It seems that the writers care about the League approximately as much as I do this time around.

 

[Ampharos King]

If Ash beats Kotetsu the entire Virgil match must be rushed into the last 10 minutes of the episode.

It is incredibly unlikely that Ash and Virgil will ever battle here, because there was no footage from the "Professor Oak's Lecture" preview of their Pokemon battling. For Ash vs. Stephan, we got Leavanny dodging Sawk's Close Combat. For Ash vs. Kotetsu, Samurott is using Aqua Jet on Pignite. But when the preview got to Virgil, all we saw was a battle between Virgil's Eevee and a Druddigon. Ash does not own a Druddigon; he will not be battling Virgil here.

It is possible that the Druddigon might belong to Kotetsu or to Virgil's Top 8 opponent. We know that Virgil's Top 16 opponent will be Flora, and he will be using an Umbreon against her Gothitelle.

As for Ash vs Kotetsu, if it wasn't how it was turning out, would likely be better than any of the Kanto league battles.

From what I can tell of the previews, Ash vs. Kotetsu might result in some OHKOs. Pikachu is guaranteed to defeat at least two of Kotetsu's pokemon, and Riolu-Lucario will most likely beat Unfezant, Snivy, and Pikachu.

 

[Cybersai]

If Ash beats Kotetsu the entire Virgil match must be rushed into the last 10 minutes of the episode.

It is incredibly unlikely that Ash and Virgil will ever battle here, because there was no footage from the "Professor Oak's Lecture" preview of their Pokemon battling. For Ash vs. Stephan, we got Leavanny dodging Sawk's Close Combat. For Ash vs. Kotetsu, Samurott is using Aqua Jet on Pignite. But when the preview got to Virgil, all we saw was a battle between Virgil's Eevee and a Druddigon. Ash does not own a Druddigon; he will not be battling Virgil here.

It is possible that the Druddigon might belong to Kotetsu or to Virgil's Top 8 opponent. We know that Virgil's Top 16 opponent will be Flora, and he will be using an Umbreon against her Gothitelle.

So why was Virgil even in the league? They could have promoted Eevee forms in fillers. Virgil is even more pointless than Harrisson, Tyson or Tobias because Ash doesn't battle him.

This league really is awful, I can only hope Ash either renters the Indigo league or gets invited to N's castle to make up got this mess.

 

[Metan]

And what about 1/3? Is it being skipped as well as 12/27?

Yes. This is 100% the last episode that deals with the League.

It seems that the writers care about the League approximately as much as I do this time around.

So why was Virgil even in the league? They could have promoted Eevee forms in fillers. Virgil is even more pointless than Harrisson, Tyson or Tobias because Ash doesn't battle him.

... oh, writers...

 

[Cybersai]

I am almost convinced the writers purposely sabotaged Best Wishes. Seems like they really wanted Ash to win the league back in DP but the higher ups forced them not to. So Best Wishes is the result of the writers frustration and lack of effort.

Ash only gets 3 battles in the entire league, and one of those was a 1 on 1. Each Unova pokemon only gets used once too.

 

[Utopean]

I am almost convinced the writers purposely sabotaged Best Wishes. Seems like they really wanted Ash to win the league back in DP but the higher ups forced them not to. So Best Wishes is the result of the writers frustration and lack of effort.

Ash only gets 3 battles in the entire league, and one of those was a 1 on 1. Each Unova pokemon only gets used once too.

I think that's an unnecessary conspiracy theory. The simple fact is that the Sinnoh League was the conclusion of the Sinnoh saga, whereas the Unova League is not the conclusion of Unova; Episode N will be.

I'm certainly expecting something more spectacular then.

 

[DynoStretch]

Wow, just wow. I didn't think it was this possible for the writers to do so horribly at the league, and they keep managing to outdo themselves in crap writing.

Granted with the way Ash was training this arc he deserved to do worse then he did in Sinnoh, but I'm really getting tired of the writers glorifying Kotetsu and Virgil's characters. They come out of nowhere at the last minute and mange to outdo all the established characters we've had this entire arc. They couldn't even give Ash the dignity to lose to the super Marty-Stu trainer, and instead lose to the memory-challenged spaz.

Ash, you own a dominatrix snake and a crocodile with sunglasses, how could you mess this up?!

So it's official, this is not only the worst league of all time, but this is pretty much the worst region of all time. Johto was just boring, Battle Frontier at least had some nice moments to it, but this region was just true and utter fail.

I just want this league to be over so we can move onto Team Plasma.

 

[Metan]

I am almost convinced the writers purposely sabotaged Best Wishes. Seems like they really wanted Ash to win the league back in DP but the higher ups forced them not to. So Best Wishes is the result of the writers frustration and lack of effort.

Ash only gets 3 battles in the entire league, and one of those was a 1 on 1. Each Unova pokemon only gets used once too.

Good theory, but the higher ups would have kicked their ass just at the start.

I hope this N saga be as awesome as the previews are saying to us. This League screwed nearly all the hope I had for BW2.