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What I think about the Alola League

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Jul 22, 2019
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I won’t lie, the Alola League has been slightly disappointing but I’m not surprised. Still hoping that Ash gets his exhibition battle with Professor Kukui to conclude the league!

First of all, letting the classmates enter this tournament and then advancing into the Top 16 was bad due to the fact that not every classmate deserved to make it that far..

This made everything rushed as the writers had to focus on every main character and try to fit 4 battles in a 25 minute episode!

I will say that there were some nice battles in the first round, Lana showed the gulf in class between her and Mallow (who shouldn’t have participated in the first place) and dominated, she is a great friend and reminded Mallow that she shouldn’t just give up easily and let her partner fight till the end, very emotional and she’s a great friend

The other battles were pretty meh, apart from a few flashes here and there I’m glad that this round is over already. I believe as they advance into the latter rounds, we’ll start focusing on Ash again and then the quality in battles will go up!

I was pleasantly surprised that Lillie showed some strategy and skillful maneuvering against her brother but obviously we knew who was going to win, she had no chance! If only it was just a bit longer, it was a step in the right direction and I like the music they used in her battle!

The highlight of the first round imo was Guzma! I was surprised about his stellar tactics,we haven’t seen someone battle so meticulously in such a while!

The guy positioned his Scizor in a straight line to limit his opponents movement, making sure that the mother was more worried about attacking her child instead of her opponent which left space for free hits with X-Scissor even if they were slightly dirty, which eliminated Ilima from the tournament!

That was some good stuff and it foreshadows him as a serious threat that Ash will have to watch out for as the league gets deeper into the final knockout rounds, most people are saying that he will be Ash’s final opponent.. If he battles like that against Ash, oh boy this will be a long battle! The guy is devilishly strong!

The 2nd Round episode is starting next week and as we all know, this episode will focus on Rowlet and how it will prepare to face Hau’s Decidueye.. Rowlet’s family comes to the stadium to teach it the move!

Ash's classmates think that it has no chance against a fully evolved Pokémon but it looks like Rowlet will learn a new move (FeatherDance) to get the win using it as a part of Ash’s strategy to counter Sky Attack, the move lowers your opponent’s attack power hence taking less damage..

It looks like that the 2nd Round will also be single battles which is disappointing YET AGAIN! This is why I didn’t want Sophocles to make it to the next round as he is the only one in the top 8 that has 2 Pokémon, plus he sucks and I think he’s the worst anime character ever bar Max!

Anyways Gladion will face James, Kiawe will go up against Sophocles while Lana is going to be our next Guzma victim, hopefully he gives her the ultimate beating and the Lana being perfect gag ends for good!

His crazy “I’ll destroy you!” attitude and wanting to show Kukui who’s boss has been the highlight of this arc so far and I hope they use this moving forward especially against Ash!

Especially considering the fact that’s Guzma almost beat Ash silly at the Pokémon school and the fact that he promised he wouldn’t let him ruin the league for Professor Kukui’s sake!

I predicted in the beginning that all of Guzma’s opponents would be Pokémon school-kids that he would destroy one by one and that Ash would be some kind of “savior” and stop the bully in his tracks..

At this point it’s blatantly obvious that Guzma, Kiawe and Ash will advance to the semifinals. Now for the love of Arceus please writers DO NOT MAKE THIS INTO ANOTHER 1vs1, it’ll be such a waste of battle potential and you’ll ruin the league for good if you do so!

The semifinals being a 3vs3 battle isn’t something that we’re used to and it’s never happened before but it can work considering that everyone at this Pokémon has at least 3 Pokémon on hand, as long as they write and execute these battles well it can be just as good as a full battle!

We’ll finally get to see the rival battle between Ash and Gladio that we’ve been waiting for and Kiawe will be the latest Pokémon school victim of YA BOY GUZMA! I think he’ll give Guzma a good run for his money but it won’t be enough to beat him sadly..

I’d hate to see this league end without a full battle, both Ash and Guzma (potentially) have enough Pokémon to make this work... Another alternative is that the exhibition battle vs Kukui could be a 6vs6 but idk how that would work and why they would have a full battle at this point!

Ash has 5 Pokémon with him atm, plus Poipole who could come back and a bunch of Pokémon at Oak’s he could call upon while the writers could use a bunch of Pokémon from Guzma’s team in the S/M games to fill up the spots..

You could have something like Pikachu, Lycanroc, Torracat, Meltan, Rowlet and Poipole

While Guzma can use Golisipod, Masquerin, Scizor, Pinsir, Ariados and someone else to complete his team of 6!

I will give this arc a 6/10 rating so far but it has potential to increase as we see more episodes, I like it but if they planned better ahead of time it could’ve been executed much more fluently!
 

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And you didn't post it in other threads that discuss the league, because?
I’d say a thread reviewing the overall league thus far is s good idea as it gives the ability to voice things not just covered in the episodes themselves as well as look at the overall league without getting lost in the shuffle week to week.
 
still chances for good pokemon battles. 2vs2 double battles or 3 vs 3 line up battles.

Golisopod needs to shine and hope for Shedinja with Guzma.

We got Meltan at least maybe will become a Meltang after some battle?

Ash Poipole can come back maybe even evolved and become his secret weapon?

Hope Ash vs Gladion, then agains Guzma and vs Profesor will all be 6vs6, that needs redemption at least at that stage.
 
I think the Alola League is decent so far. It is far from great but also far from horrible in my opinion. I've enjoyed most of the battles until now even though they've been short. The Jessie/James battle was the worst one IMO and was a disappointment but oh well. I like the variety of battles and that Ash's battles aren't the only ones being focused on. I find myself actively looking forward to the next League episode so far.
 
Eh, I'll wait until its good and done before passing final judgement.

Though I've said it before and I'll say it again: I can't even believe they bothered with a League this saga... o_O
 
Considering what I think of the rest of the SM series, the league's been pretty decent so far. Maybe because I wasn't expecting that much of it in the first place.
 
Eh, I'll wait until its good and done before passing final judgement.

Though I've said it before and I'll say it again: I can't even believe they bothered with a League this saga... o_O
Considering how lackluster this has been thus far and the fact that they populated it with so many rookies and joke characters, they might as well not have. The league is supposed to be a high point in the saga and thus far, every battle has had all the stakes of a preliminary battle with these 1 v 1’s.
 
I'm just gonna wait until it's all over before I give my definitive thoughts.

I mean, there still is a possible chance that they can still shit the bed with how it ends.
 
I'll admit that while I do hope for some good fights more....1 v 1 is a scarily real possibility for all of them.

With Meltan in the last round and Rowlet in this one, the three people Ash is all but guaranteed to fight assuming we get the Kukui ending is Gladion (who Lycanroc has always battles previously), Guzma (whose Golisopod Pikachu has a score to settle with), and Kukui (ENJOY Incineroar vs Torracat).

it is just.....too convenient to not have been planned.

hqdefault.jpg


Still....if we recall that '138' gag from episode 29 (and others i think)....the latest episode we have a title for, 133, which ends the Ash v Hau fight, is on August 4th.

August 11th is 134

August 18th is 135

August 25th is 136

September 1st is 137

And September 8th is 138....

If they are melding episodes of training and battling in 132....are we going to see that happen with Ash v Gladion, Guzma, and our possible Kukui fight?

Also....what on earth happens after September?

....Then again, we could just get 139, or the anime just making specials until November. I have no idea at this point...
 
it is just.....too convenient to not have been planned.

hqdefault.jpg


Still....if we recall that '138' gag from episode 29 (and others i think)....the latest episode we have a title for, 133, which ends the Ash v Hau fight, is on August 4th.

August 11th is 134

August 18th is 135

August 25th is 136

September 1st is 137

And September 8th is 138....

If they are melding episodes of training and battling in 132....are we going to see that happen with Ash v Gladion, Guzma, and our possible Kukui fight?

Also....what on earth happens after September?

....Then again, we could just get 139, or the anime just making specials until November. I have no idea at this point...

Ugh, not THIS again...:rolleyes:

The League might be rushed, but I doubt they're speeding towards the end of the saga. There is NO way the creative team could've planned out SO far ahead. Heck, part of the time their long term plans end up being messed up anyway. :sick:
Besides, they've still got Mohn to get back and Mythicals to (finally) put to good use. (Ya'll KNOW they're saving Melmetal for something big. (They better be :annoyedVoltorb:))

Besides, can anyone here REALLY imagine about 2 months without a new episode?:lapras:
Mind you, I sure wouldn't say no to a bunch of Ash-free specials during that time, but what are the odds? :oops:
 
I'll admit that while I do hope for some good fights more....1 v 1 is a scarily real possibility for all of them.

With Meltan in the last round and Rowlet in this one, the three people Ash is all but guaranteed to fight assuming we get the Kukui ending is Gladion (who Lycanroc has always battles previously), Guzma (whose Golisopod Pikachu has a score to settle with), and Kukui (ENJOY Incineroar vs Torracat).

it is just.....too convenient to not have been planned.

hqdefault.jpg


Still....if we recall that '138' gag from episode 29 (and others i think)....the latest episode we have a title for, 133, which ends the Ash v Hau fight, is on August 4th.

August 11th is 134

August 18th is 135

August 25th is 136

September 1st is 137

And September 8th is 138....

If they are melding episodes of training and battling in 132....are we going to see that happen with Ash v Gladion, Guzma, and our possible Kukui fight?

Also....what on earth happens after September?

....Then again, we could just get 139, or the anime just making specials until November. I have no idea at this point...

Problem is we never have 2 months apart from end to the start of a series. 3 weeks is the maximum we got so far.

Johto - Hoenn: No gap, Johto ended November 14 2002, Hoenn started November 21 2002
Hoenn - Sinnoh: No Gap. Hoenn ended september 16 2005, Sinnoh started September 23 2005
Sinnoh - Unova: 2 week gap. Sinnoh ended September 9 2010, Unova started September 23 2010
Unova - Kalos: 3 week gap. Unova ended September 26 2013, Kalos started October 17 2013
Kalos - Alola: 3 week gap. Kalos ended October 2 27 2016, Alola started November 17 2016
 
So far it's fine. I really appreciate that they heard the complains about the Kalos league being too rushed and Ash getting to the semifinals without any major battle. We are apparently getting more than 6-7 episodes and finally getting to know more of the other participants' strategy to make through the rounds.

The battles feel a little too Club Battle-ish, but are sightly better than the SM standard and get their job done. Part of that is because Z-moves are less of a focus. Also, it's interesting that all of them use game characters, that makes us more invested in what the results will be as we've known these characters for almost 3 years.

The Battle Royale could've been executed better and felt a little too convenient, but it was a great idea that I hope is explored again in the future.

My final opinion will depend on many factors: 1) The use of Z-moves. 2) The amount of focus and time given to Kukui's prize battle. 3) The other battles and more importantly 4) Who ends up as the winner and whether it makes sense in the story presented.
 
It's been awful, but I had kinda braced myself for the nonsense months in advance, so this league's structure didn't unsettle me as much as it would have had I not kept tabs on stuff. I still think that having Ash's cheerleaders friends compete was a horrible idea though. Like, aside from maybe Kiawe none of Ash's friends had any business being at the league and this is kinda evidenced by how quickly Mallow and Lillie got eliminated. Having almost every other minor and recurring character in Alola show up hasn't helped things either and to think that some of y'all wanted Brock and Misty to compete in the Alola league too, as if we really needed more fuel for the fire.
 
So far it's fine. I really appreciate that they heard the complains about the Kalos league being too rushed and Ash getting to the semifinals without any major battle. We are apparently getting more than 6-7 episodes and finally getting to know more of the other participants' strategy to make through the rounds.

The battles feel a little too Club Battle-ish, but are sightly better than the SM standard and get their job done. Part of that is because Z-moves are less of a focus. Also, it's interesting that all of them use game characters, that makes us more invested in what the results will be as we've known these characters for almost 3 years.

The Battle Royale could've been executed better and felt a little too convenient, but it was a great idea that I hope is explored again in the future.

My final opinion will depend on many factors: 1) The use of Z-moves. 2) The amount of focus and time given to Kukui's prize battle. 3) The other battles and more importantly 4) Who ends up as the winner and whether it makes sense in the story presented.
See I keep hearing this one thrown out there but I can’t help but find that a bit of a negative. The fault with that lies on the shoulders of the writers but because of their failures at developing the characters in a way that them competing in the league feels like a central part of their character arcs, they feel more superfluous and it feels like they’re in the way of us having more exciting battles because every one has to be 1 on 1 since they’re such rookies that most only have 2 Pokémon.

I stand by that having them all advance to the top 16 was both contrived plot armor and a mistake. Hell, the fact that most of them don’t even have a goal pertaining to battling, it makes it hard for me to care that they’re in the league as it’s nothing serious for them like it would be for characters like Ash and Kiawe. We’ve even had to throw some interesting returning characters under the bus because of the fact which just feels like a waste.
 
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Responding to the two above posts...yeah, I agree that some characters having their interest in battling coming from nowhere was bad and it should have had more buildup to show them they deserve it. However, it's not like they were given 8 badges out of nowhere or from the many writers that wrote the many Deux Ex Machinas of the series, they are just responding to an invitation Professor Kukui made to them. And as someone said in that episode's thread, they got to the Top 16 because each one had 5 bodyguards that protected them and not because they were that great (judging from their few minutes of screentime in the episode, by the way).

Maybe this tournament should have happened and the middle of the series and not replace the actual league, and in case Ash wins decades of debates of whether this is a "legal" league or not await us, but that's the way it is. Maybe an unusual, pattern breaking series deserves an unusual, pattern breaking finale.
 
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Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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