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Preview SM139: Birth! The Alola Champion!!

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This talk about briberies and what not is weird to say the least. It's nothing short of a tinfoil hat conspiracy. We don't know what is happening behind the screens.
We may not have a crystal ball, but we do have the preview summaries, and in my opinion, Melmetal getting beaten in its first post-evolution battle by a Pokémon that's then beaten by Pikachu sounds like pure Fujisaku.
I can't say I like that bit of the summary, but I'm personally keeping an open mind about it. I won't know for sure if it's something that bothers me until I see the episode.
 
My point is not that people can't have negative feelings about this episode or its writer. My point is that everyone is freaking out and already being dead set in their belief that these episodes won't be anything other than bad or terrible. That, in my opinion is not a healthy attitude to have. I can completely understand being bummed by a writer who has dissappointed people being attached to this episode, but it doesn't automatically mean that these two episodes are going to be the worst thing ever. No one has a crystal ball.

And, again, he's never written a good battle. Ever. Throughout the entirety of this series, all of his battles have been jokes, messes fixed by Deus Ex Machinas or an amalgamation of both.

Yes, we can't tell the future for certain, but you can't expect us to reasonably believe that he won't kriff up this episode. Not when he's always managed to screw up all of his previous battle episode (and, again, considering that this episode was made long before the Japanese backlash, he had no reason to fix his writing, so why would we expect something different from him?).
 
You can't expect us to reasonably believe that he won't kriff up this episode. Not when he's always managed to screw up all of his previous battle episode (and, again, considering that this episode was made long before the Japanese backlash, he had no reason to fix his writing, so why would we expect something different from him?).
You won't know for 100% sure until you see the episode. Let's keep it at that.
 
You won't know for 100% sure until you see the episode. Let's keep it at that.

Based on past... incidents, I would still be able to make an educated guess based on the their shared aspects and say that Fujisaku's track record won't change and that he'll still, somehow, find a way to screw up this battle. I'll wait and see (not much else I could do anyways), but I don't expect him to pull a 180 and write a decent or, at the very least, mediocre battle.
 
My educated guess is that the episode will probably suck, but that Fujisaku might surprise me by doing a 180 and writing a decent episode. There, I at least left some wiggle room in there this time for the possibility that the episode could potentially-maybe-possibly not be entirely awful. Is that enough optimism?

P.S. I was joking about the bribery thing. I also don't think he should be arrested; that was just part of the exaggeration to show how frustrated I am with him.
 
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Whether Ash wins or loses a League isn't decided by the writers, but the higher ups. Maybe Junichi Fujisaku keeps writing theses because someone has to bite the bullet of those episodes. Does he even get a choice or are those episodes forced upon him? The Rowlet battle shows he's aware of his reputation and playing it for all it's worth, even if we hate him for it.

But if Ash HAS to lose, would having a competent writer make it tolerable? Or would it needlessly tarnish their reputation as well? Is there a way Ash can lose the League that would be tolerable at this point? Regardless of Fujisaku's merits, maybe we're unfairly blaming the for what higher ups are forcing on them? That his other work avoids this degree of backlash despite having the same flaws suggests so.

Maybe we should give the writers kudos for, after the Kalos League, succeeding in getting us optimistic again even if only for a short while.
 
Whether Ash wins or loses a League isn't decided by the writers, but the higher ups. Maybe Junichi Fujisaku keeps writing theses because someone has to bite the bullet of those episodes. Does he even get a choice or are those episodes forced upon him? The Rowlet battle shows he's aware of his reputation and playing it for all it's worth, even if we hate him for it.

...maybe we're unfairly blaming the for what higher ups are forcing on them? That his other work avoids this degree of backlash despite having the same flaws suggests so.
I don't recall it ever seeming that Ash would lose a grand trial or a regular trial? Those are pretty much guaranteed wins but the way the Poni Grand Trial was executed was straight up horrible. I doubt any higher up told him what to do, that was his own doing. It's become his modus operandi at this point.
 
I don't recall it ever seeming that Ash would lose a grand trial or a regular trial? Those are pretty much guaranteed wins but the way the Poni Grand Trial was executed was straight up horrible. I doubt any higher up told him what to do, that was his own doing. It's become his modus operandi at this point.

I'm not arguing his merits, I'm arguing if Ash loses the league, would a better writer make it more worthwhile? If not maybe they keep him on as the scapegoat for this.
 
I'm not arguing his merits, I'm arguing if Ash loses the league, would a better writer make it more worthwhile? If not maybe they keep him on as the scapegoat for this.
If the loss was written in a manner that makes sense from both a writing perspective as well as an in-universe one, then yes, it'll be worthwhile.

A great example of this is against Harrison during the Johto League. Harrison was a legitimately better and more experienced trainer who also had Pokemon that were completely unknown to Ash. Despite this, Ash managed to bring the match down to a close finish that also had consequences on Harrison's next battle. His Blaziken was out of action for his next battle, which ended up costing him his match and getting knocked out. Tyson is also fine, to a lesser extent though that Puss-in-boots is a bit gimmicky.

Not surprisingly, both battles had Atushiro Tomioka involved in them, no wonder they turned out well and didn't leave a sour taste in everyone's mouth.
 
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If the loss was written in a manner that makes sense from both a writing perspective as well as an in-universe one, then yes, it'll be worthwhile.

A great example of this is Harrison during the Johto League. Harrison was a legitimately better and more experienced trainer who also had Pokemon that were completely unknown to Ash. Despite this, Ash managed to bring the match down to a close finish that also had consequences on Harrison's next battle. His Blaziken was out of action for his next battle, which ended up costing him his match and getting knocked out.

Tyson is also fine, to a lesser extent though that Puss-in-boots is a bit gimmicky.
I'd argue that applies to Alain (writing standpoint--setting up his Flare arc, in-universe older and more experienced), and response to the Kalos league was so bad it got responses from some staff members. I think a lot of people are simply sick of the status quo.
 
I'd argue that applies to Alain (writing standpoint--setting up his Flare arc, in-universe older and more experienced), and response to the Kalos league was so bad it got responses from some staff members. I think a lot of people are simply sick of the status quo.
I agree that it was somewhat of a dick move to hype up his upcoming victory only to sweep the metaphorical rug from underneath fans. And I like to headcanon that Team Flare helped Alain in that match so that they could make Ash weaker to capture him. I mean, the timing of their attack shouldn't be a co-incidence.
 
I'd argue that applies to Alain (writing standpoint--setting up his Flare arc, in-universe older and more experienced), and response to the Kalos league was so bad it got responses from some staff members. I think a lot of people are simply sick of the status quo.
Maybe, but that was more due to the clickbait-y marketing than anything else. Another interesting loss would be against Tobias, I mean, the guy's mere existance is memetically ridiculous and contrived, but most agree that Ash had an amazing last stand against him and he went out in a blaze of glory.
 
I agree that it was somewhat of a dick move to hype up his upcoming victory only to sweep the metaphorical rug from underneath fans. And I like to headcanon that Team Flare helped Alain in that match so that they could make Ash weaker to capture him. I mean, the timing of their attack shouldn't be a co-incidence.

How could Team Flare have done that? Why wouldn't they confirm that in-work to placate us fans?

Alain was clearly being set up to beat Ash in a way that would avoid the usual criticisms. He was an audiences surrogate for us older fans, had a whole series to set him up as a worthy opponent, and even deconstructed his win didn't get him what he wanted.

The one flaw was failing to explain how Mega Charizard X defeated Ash-Greninja despite everything working against that. With everything else XY got right I don't get how they missed that and if there was a good answer we would have heard it by now.
 
I think you're underestimating the backlash against him. I've seen several Japanese outlets that have criticized the Ash vs. Hau battle and depicting it to be one of the worst fake out (and writing in general) moments.

"Several" :ROFLMAO: And how much of that feedback 1) mentioned the writer by name and 2) reached the people who actually make the show?

Also, how much of an episode's scipt do you think the screenplay author actually has control over in the first place?
 
Junichi Fujisaku does have good track record of Ash winning against all odds.

Is that supposed to make us feel better?

Related image
 
Is that supposed to make us feel better?

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No, but I do want to put the whole League myth to rest once and for all. And the best way to do so is winning the League and show that doesn't stop Ash at all.
 
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