Preview SM138: The Finals! The Strongest Rival Showdown!!

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Two day ban, I never realized, welcome back

Thanks! It's good to be back.

I'm glad its long as it helps make up for the rushed battles early on

Yeah, but unfortunately the quality of the League episodes has varied from one extreme to the other.

 

[OniCornwalis]

Why couldn’t they give this battle to Aya Matsui? Or Atsuhiro Tomioka? Or Akemi Omode? Or literally any other writer that’s more consistent than he is? Listen, I get that writers are people too, and they can all make bad episodes, but when someone is so inconsistent at writing episodes, especially battle episodes, shouldn’t someone step back and think to themselves; “huh, maybe this guy shouldn’t be assigned to this episode.”

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The moment I saw the writer for this episode, my heart sank faster than the Titanic. Which isn't exactly a hard achievement, since its sinking took over two hours, but still...

 

[Pulsaro23]

Oh God please no. If Gladion uses the Ride Noivern, then people are going to claim that Ash should use the Ride Garchomp like they did in the months leading up to the Alola league.

What I meant was that the writers could pull a Kiawe's Charizard and have Gladion be to actual owner of Noivern (which could also explain what happened to it, since we haven't seen it since the Necrozma arc). I didn't say that they should pull another Shaymin and have the characters use even more Pokémon that don't belong to them.

We literally saw Gladion's entire team the episode right before the league. Aside from the Zoroark he obtained in that episode, Umbreon, Lycanroc, and Silvally are still all he's got.

We saw Gladion introducing Zoroark to all of his Pokemon.

Quick reminder that this is the same series that has treated a lot of Pokémon characters (especially ones owned by the main cast) very poorly, relegating them to cute and adorable eye candy, merchandise advertisements or comedic gags. For example, remember Kiawe's Charizard and how, due to fact the he barely appeared throughout the series, people spent almost a year debating whether or not Kiawe actually owned it and how, even after it was revealed that it's actually his, some people would still not consider it a part of his team due to its few appearances (most of which were cameos)? Or how about Snowy and the way it's always relegated to background fodder, with Lillie always stealing the spotlight from it when it comes to character development (outside of maybe one early episode, where they actually decided to properly focus on it)? Or Rowlet and it's one-note "joke" defining its entire character? They haven't really done their best at treating Pokémon as actual characters and them suddenly bringing up a forgotten rival Pokémon out of nowhere when it's convenient isn't that crazy of a thought.

 

[DarkraiKnight]

Why couldn’t they give this battle to Aya Matsui? Or Atsuhiro Tomioka? Or Akemi Omode? Or literally any other writer that’s more consistent than he is? Listen, I get that writers are people too, and they can all make bad episodes, but when someone is so inconsistent at writing episodes, especially battle episodes, shouldn’t someone step back and think to themselves; “huh, maybe this guy shouldn’t be assigned to this episode.”

Maybe they just...like his battle episodes, for whatever reason.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

Why couldn’t they give this battle to Aya Matsui? Or Atsuhiro Tomioka? Or Akemi Omode? Or literally any other writer that’s more consistent than he is? Listen, I get that writers are people too, and they can all make bad episodes, but when someone is so inconsistent at writing episodes, especially battle episodes, shouldn’t someone step back and think to themselves; “huh, maybe this guy shouldn’t be assigned to this episode.”

They shouldn't even accept his mediocrity at this point. He should've been demoted or fired a long time ago since he clearly doesn't know how to do his job properly.

 

[KrspaceT]

They shouldn't even accept his mediocrity at this point. He should've been demoted or fired a long time ago since he clearly doesn't know how to do his job properly.

How far out was Hapu again? Might not have seen how badly he handles battle episodes far enough in advance to fix it...

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

They shouldn't even accept his mediocrity at this point. He should've been demoted or fired a long time ago since he clearly doesn't know how to do his job properly.

Technically, his slice-of-life episodes are okay, but for some reason, they also keep giving him battle episodes, which clearly are not his strong suit.

 

[OniCornwalis]

They shouldn't even accept his mediocrity at this point. He should've been demoted or fired a long time ago since he clearly doesn't know how to do his job properly.

I thought about saying that in my comment, but I tried to be nice and not be so harsh to him, as he has made some good episodes before. Honestly though, if this next episode he’s writing isn’t very good, then he should get demoted, or at least reevaluated.

 

[Cresselia92]

They shouldn't even accept his mediocrity at this point. He should've been demoted or fired a long time ago since he clearly doesn't know how to do his job properly.

He is not really a bad writer, as his baseball episode can show. He simply isn’t good at writing battles.

If all, the fact that he acknowledged the criticism could lead to him focusing his writing skills into fillers and comedy episodes, as those are more his forte.

 

[Daenerys]

They shouldn't even accept his mediocrity at this point. He should've been demoted or fired a long time ago since he clearly doesn't know how to do his job properly.

They should have him work solely on filler-ish episodes since that's where he shines best, not serious battle oriented episodes like this one where he's sure to add his own personal twist on things and evoke the ire of the fandom.

 

[BigDocFan]

Technically, his slice-of-life episodes are okay, but for some reason, they also keep giving him battle episodes, which clearly are not his strong suit.

Agreed, as I've said before, I really enjoyed Mallow and the Forest Teacher, give him the more relaxed slice of life episodes and leave the battle episodes to more experienced writers

 

[Rath]

I will say that if Ash loses, it'll be really awkward if he just smiles it off like he did in the past two series instead of looking genuinely upset like he did during the fakeout in the Hau battle.

 

[KyseL]

I will say that if Ash loses, it'll be really awkward if he just smiles it off like he did in the past two series instead of looking genuinely upset like he did during the fakeout in the Hau battle.

Something I've really liked about SM is that so far we've had a fair share amount of "legit upset Ash" moments.

 

[ii kanji]

Why couldn’t they give this battle to Aya Matsui?

Because she wrote the worst fudging episode of the current League so far

As for Tomioka, the man hasn’t written a League battle since DP... God only knows what’s going on there.

 

[OniCornwalis]

Because she wrote the worst fudging episode of the current League so far

As for Tomioka, the man hasn’t written a League battle since DP... God only knows what’s going on there.

I bring up Tomioka because even though he hasn’t done a league episode since DP, he was the head writer for most of the gym battles in XY, as well as being the head writer for Olivia’s grand trial and episode 97, where Ash first met Hau. Also, he didn’t write any league episodes in XY because he was busy writing ALL 5 EPISODES of the Team Flare arc, which is in the top 3 arcs of the entire anime. Based on this, I’m sure he could handle a league episode.

I bring up Matsui because she wrote the Totem Gumshoos battle, Hala’s grand trial, the pre-trial battle versus Nanu and then the subsequent training episode with Tapu Bulu, all of which were really good battle episodes.

Also, I know that you love Team Rocket and don’t like how Matsui treated them in the league episode she wrote, but you have to admit that the battle against Decidueye was his worst battle since the Elesa gym battle in BW. She might’ve written the 2nd worst league episode, but DEFINITELY not the worst.

 

[Daenerys]

Something I've really liked about SM is that so far we've had a fair share amount of "legit upset Ash" moments.

I feel like he should be so used to failing at leagues by now that his reaction would be more realistic if he just brushes off the loss and maintains his gracious loser mentality.

 

[HiroHunter]

I skipped a lot of SM and most of this league whats wrong with the writer?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I skipped a lot of SM and most of this league whats wrong with the writer?

He's okay/good at writing slice-of-life episodes, but sucks at writing battle episodes. For example, he wrote the second part of the Ash vs Hau League battle, where Ash suffered a fake-out loss before the result was overturned due to it turning out that Rowlet had actually just fallen asleep instead of fainting, and the Ash vs Hapu battle, where Ash not only chose to use an Electric type against a Ground type but also won by splashing water onto his opponent to somehow mimic the move Soak and then winning the match with an Electric move. So fans are now afraid that he's also going to ruin the first part of the League finale.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I skipped a lot of SM and most of this league whats wrong with the writer?

Writes nonsensical battles that fall apart when you take a second to think about them

The battle is usually "And then Ash wins because the plot said so" rather than letting Ash or his pokemon show their skill, ingenuity, or anything remotely resembling competence