Preview SM146: Thank You, Alola! Respective Departures!!

[BigDocFan]

In no fucking way would they have had time to develop 36 Pokemon.

Didn't have to be a full team of 6 for each companion, maybe another two each or 1 each

The fact that Delia and Oak don't appear in the credits suggests the episode ends when Ash returns home, was hoping we might see Oak's lab again but sadly not

 

[Panky..]

That family hug makes Delia suddenly departing (without even meeting with Ash at least once and instead asking Burnet to give regards) look even more inconsiderate and jerkish.

 

[Rath]

So Sophocles is off to Hoenn, Lillie and her family are off to parts unknown, Ash is going to travel the world and the other three are staying in Alola.

 

[Insanish Danish]

Oh god I'm gonna cry oh god oh god

Bewear hugging Team Rocket and the Ash/Kukui/Burnet group hug seriously got me, I am not ready for this episode at all ;____; I know I'm in the minority here but I'm really not ready to see this series come to a close. This specific group of characters has honestly been so important to me these past three years and seeing them all go their separate ways is hitting me hard. I think this is the saddest I've been about a series ending since the OS concluded.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

So Sophocles is off to Hoenn, Lillie and her family are off to parts unknown, Ash is going to travel the world and the other three are staying in Alola.

Olivia told Kiawe to travel the world, Mallow may travel to Sinnoh to take Shaymin to the Gracidea Fields, and Lana may also travel out of the region on her trip. I wonder if they're planning for one of Ash's classmates to make a cameo when he visits each of the previous regions.

 

[KiranTheWitch]

I'm wondering how long the next series will be.

If we look at previous regions, they had the most episodes in Sinnoh, with Johto, Alola, Unova, Kanto, Kalos following, and them spending the least amount of time in Hoenn. This doesn't factor movies or specials into it.

I wonder how long they'll spend in Galar. And spend bouncing around the regions. I really wonder how they are going to set up this series.

 

[Rath]

https://i.********/vp/1572216655947.jpg

Out with Naganadel, in with Nebby

 

[lonerlotad]

Just seeing Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet hugging Ash goodbye and Bewear giving Team Rocket a hug as well before they depart is enough for me to say that this saga has the best ending for me.

 

[BigDocFan]

I won't deny that I predict I'll be shedding more than a few tears when I watch this next week, I'm sure others will feel the same

 

[Twilight-Kun]

In no fucking way would they have had time to develop 36 Pokemon.

The issue was putting the companions in the league, not them not having enough Pokemon. They needed characters to fill up tournament slots in the league, but the way the series was set up meant they couldn't just pull new characters out of their asses for the league either.

2-3 pokemon per classmate wouldn't have been impossible, and it'd have been easy enough to write battles with more pokemon in them during the league while keeping the episode count the same, or even less - it'd have also saved us HOW many battles split in half between two or more episodes?

Guzma's entire plot line centered around the League, so I think it made sense to introduce him that late.

The shift in Guzma's episodes to make him the protagonist that grows and learns was probably some of the best writing this series has ever had

 

[Pulsaro23]

In no fucking way would they have had time to develop 36 Pokemon.

That's assuming that they had to give all of the companions a full team, which is something that hasn't happened since... actually has that ever happened before? 'Cause I don't remember Brock ever having a full team in either the OS or AG series. Regardless, giving each of the classmates 1-2 more Pokémon (bar Kiawe, who's the only classmate to have more than 2 Pokémon by the end of the first year) wouldn't have hurt, especially if they planned on having them participate in the league. And it would have actually been very possible to properly develop them if they were to replace some of the very unnecessary and completely meaningless fillers (like the sports fillers, the Alola League Guzzlord Invasion, most of the Ultra Guardians episodes, the Pikachu short etc.) with the Pokémon's capture/development episodes.

The issue was putting the companions in the league, not them not having enough Pokemon.

I... actually agree with this. Some of the classmates had no business participating in this League, since most of their dreams were completely unrelated to the Pokémon League (or even battling, in general). Not much else I've gotta say about this, so moving on.

They needed characters to fill up tournament slots in the league, but the way the series was set up meant they couldn't just pull new characters out of their asses for the league either.

So Sophocles, Lillie, Mallow, Samson Oak, Faba and Team Rocket (and, to a certain extent, Lana and Mina) were more fitting and deserving of a place in the league than Kahili (who was relegated to a small and insignificant cameo in the League), Molayne, Ryuki, Plumeria, Horacio, Kagetora or maybe even a past rival returning (like Paul or Sawyer)? And what exactly was stopping them from introducing a new character, like a possible Pokémon Trainer from Galar?

 

[thomaswiencek]

First preview in full length:

View: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_-cR9va4Zh0

We saw a video for the first preview of that Sun & Moon series finale. But sadly, we don't see any of Ash's Pokémon at Professor Oak's Laboratory shown in this preview here. But we'll see them on the second and/or final preview, and we'll also see whether are not they have appeared in this episode. Thanks.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

That's assuming that they had to give all of the companions a full team, which is something that hasn't happened since... actually has that ever happened before? 'Cause I don't remember Brock ever having a full team in either the OS or AG series.

May and Dawn at least have had full teams. I don't think Misty ever had a full team on hand.

 

[Pulsaro23]

May and Dawn at least have had full teams. I don't think Misty ever had a full team on hand.

Brock didn't have one though (not in the OS, nor in AG, nor in DP). So my point still stands, as there's no instance of all of the companions having full teams by the end of a series.

 

[Rath]

That's assuming that they had to give all of the companions a full team, which is something that hasn't happened since... actually has that ever happened before? 'Cause I don't remember Brock ever having a full team in either the OS or AG series. Regardless, giving each of the classmates 1-2 more Pokémon (bar Kiawe, who's the only classmate to have more than 2 Pokémon by the end of the first year) wouldn't have hurt, especially if they planned on having them participate in the league. And it would have actually been very possible to properly develop them if they were to replace some of the very unnecessary and completely meaningless fillers (like the sports fillers, the Alola League Guzzlord Invasion, most of the Ultra Guardians episodes, the Pikachu short etc.) with the Pokémon's capture/development episodes.



I... actually agree with this. Some of the classmates had no business participating in this League, since most of their dreams were completely unrelated to the Pokémon League (or even battling, in general). Not much else I've gotta say about this, so moving on.



So Sophocles, Lillie, Mallow, Samson Oak, Faba and Team Rocket (and, to a certain extent, Lana and Mina) were more fitting and deserving of a place in the league than Kahili (who was relegated to a small and insignificant cameo in the League), Molayne, Ryuki, Plumeria, Horacio, Kagetora or maybe even a past rival returning (like Paul or Sawyer)? And what exactly was stopping them from introducing a new character, like a possible Pokémon Trainer from Galar?

Sports are a major part of Alola's culture, so nope. And the UG episodes were needed to showcase the Ultra Beasts since the anime is required to showcase every new Pokemon. Like always, advertisement comes first, story comes second.



As for a trainer from Galar, the last time they did that was just to set up Ash going to Hoenn. This time he isn't going to Galar, he's traveling the entire world, so Galar trainer would serve no purpose.

 

[LazySpy]

Sports are a major part of Alola's culture, so nope. And the UG episodes were needed to showcase the Ultra Beasts since the anime is required to showcase every new Pokemon. Like always, advertisement comes first, story comes second.

So they do care about the worldbuilding...? Then why didn't they show how Alolans react to finding out about UBs, like I once complained about in CO (controversiall opinions) thread? Why did they waste an opportunity to have Alolans react to UGs existence, like, y know, in the Paradise episode? What's stopping them from having, say... A TV team arrive to film an interview with Ash and his classmates, asking them how it is like to be Ultra Guardians? It would have been very small, sure, but having Alolans acknowledge UGs existence in any way would frankly be better than what we got. I mean, if in our world alliens from another dimension started appearing out of nowhere, only to be stopped by a group of whatever heroes, those heroes would get some acknowledgement from the public.

... And here's a sollution I improvised to the sport episodes being filler... Imagine if we had a side character Ash's classmate who'se personallity was centered around sports. With him (or her), sport episodes could have some build up to them, and would feel, I dunno... More organic?

 

[Pulsaro23]

Sports are a major part of Alola's culture, so nope.

According to whom? No, seriously, when and in what episode was it mentioned that sports are considered important within the culture of Alola? Some, like baseball, may be very popular, but that doesn't mean that they are deeply rooted to Alola's traditions and customs. And none of the sports episodes actually had any impact on the overall series. The baseball episode, while liked and enjoyed by many, added nothing to the story or the characters and their development, so it was unneeded. The sled riding one was redundant and a complete waste of time, as it attempted to give Lillie (a character who previously had an entire arc dedicated to her) some more development, by suddenly giving her a previously unestablished fear of heights, with Snowy (a character that was in desperate need of some proper development) receiving "development" that only lasted half a minute. And, while it was nice to see Smeargle finally use Sketch in the anime, the ping-pong episode was kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things, since we never saw Ilima use it ever again after that.

And the UG episodes were needed to showcase the Ultra Beasts since the anime is required to showcase every new Pokemon. Like always, advertisement comes first, story comes second.

No, they weren't. The Ultra Beasts could've appeared during the Necrozma arc, as natives of Poipole's world that also served as Necrozma's protectors or something like that. Or they could've had some UBs appear during stuff like Misty and Brock's Alola visit (which would've actually made the two-parter far more interesting) or have two or more UBs share the same episode (like they did with Blacephalon and Xurkitree). And, even if they were necessary and unavoidable, they could've had some of the episodes tie into one of the classmates meeting and catching a Pokémon (like a hypothetical Xurkitree episode that also features a Joltik that Sophocles bonds with, with it ending up helping the Ultra Guardians stop it by draining tis electricity or the Kartana episode also featuring a Grovyle that Mallow bonds with that likes to cut things and gets competitive with the UB, leading to it helping defeat Kartana). There are a lot of things that they could've done so that the classmates could've gotten some more Pokémon.

As for a trainer from Galar, the last time they did that was just to set up Ash going to Hoenn. This time he isn't going to Galar, he's traveling the entire world, so Galar trainer would serve no purpose.

One word: worldbuilding. Having a trainer from Galar appear would've helped connect the Alola to the rest of the world and help integrate Galar into the anime's world, while also giving us a snippet of what Galarian are like and their views on Pokémon battles. Plus, it would help market Sword and Shield by showcasing some of the revealed Pokémon. Which, by your standards, it should be considered acceptable, right? After all, you yourself just said that "advertisement comes first". So, in actuality, it would've served a purpose, even if it wasn't a story-related one. And, besides, a Galarian trainer would've been far better that Samson-"idiotic meme face"-Oak. Or Team Rocket. Or kriffing Faba.

 

[BigDocFan]

One thing I would love to see (well hear) is them use the term Alola to mean goodbye

As far as I know, Alola has only been used to say Hello

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

No, they weren't. The Ultra Beasts could've appeared during the Necrozma arc, as natives of Poipole's world that also served as Necrozma's protectors or something like that. Or they could've had some UBs appear during stuff like Misty and Brock's Alola visit (which would've actually made the two-parter far more interesting) or have two or more UBs share the same episode (like they did with Blacephalon and Xurkitree). And, even if they were necessary and unavoidable, they could've had some of the episodes tie into one of the classmates meeting and catching a Pokémon (like a hypothetical Xurkitree episode that also features a Joltik that Sophocles bonds with, with it ending up helping the Ultra Guardians stop it by draining tis electricity or the Kartana episode also featuring a Grovyle that Mallow bonds with that likes to cut things and gets competitive with the UB, leading to it helping defeat Kartana). There are a lot of things that they could've done so that the classmates could've gotten some more Pokémon.

All UBs have their own worlds, so it wouldn't make sense for them to be in the same world at once. Besides, they deserved separate episodes to get better focus.

 

[BigDocFan]

I'll be honest, whilst it will be sad to see all the goodbyes that will happen, I'm glad the series is ending as it will allow us a fresh start