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World Championships in the anime

As someone who's loved the concept of the World Championships since their introduction back in BW, I'm cautiously excited. I still don't love how the show handled the island challenge in SM, so I do have concerns about being let down by the World Championships as well. I do wish they had delved into the finer details a little more, but I understand there's only so much time in one episode and we can't spend half of it going over the semantics of the tournament.

My ideal vision for this kind of tournament would be for former characters + Galar gym leaders to be appear. And by former characters, I mean anyone ranging from former rivals to gym leaders to Elite Four members to champions. If this is supposed to be a tournament for the best of the best, I want to see pre-established trainers competing. If they want to throw some randoms in there at the lower level, that's fine, but I wouldn't want that to be the whole entire tournament. I'd also love for Ash to use a combination of reserve Pokemon and whatever new Pokemon he's (hopefully) going to catch over the course of this series.

Realistically, I don't honestly expect any of this. And will I still, even without high hopes, inevitably be disappointed? More than likely, yeah.
 
Game characters have a better chance to return than anime-exclusive ones. The former have remained relevant throughout the years (more recently in Masters), while the latter are only remembered by veteran viewers. Plus, if this tournament is meant to show Ash's progress, then the Elite Four members are more relevant than league rivals. It's hardly unlikely given Lance.
 
Yeah, I doubt we see the Tobias, Pauls, or Harrisons of the world.

The participants will most likely be notable game characters (ex. Brock, Misty, Cynthia, Agatha etc.). The real treat IMO is going to be the notable characters that didn't get to debut in their own respective series. Karen, Grimsley, and some of the Johto/Sinnoh Frontier Brains just to name a few.
 
Can this be a chance to see our queen again?
We can only hope.

Katharine.png

Come back to us, girl.
 
If she didn't enter then, why now? Jealousy?

Anyway, I find it a lot more likely that the next region's champion will be the winner.
No, if what I think could happen will come true, she doesn't even have to enter in the first place, becaus she's already there (at the not yet visible top), waiting for any challenger who manages to defeat the one who might look like the strongest trainer as of now.

As for the World Tournament itself, I could help but ask one simple question: If it's really the ultimate tourmanent that every trainer strives for, it should have been introduced 20 years ago, in the very first episode. But why now?
It seems a little bit like: "Oh what could we come up next? Oh here we have a new idea that we totally forgot to introduce earlier. Let's just do it now". Seems a bit forced if you ask me
 
No, if what I think could happen will come true, she doesn't even have to enter in the first place, becaus she's already there (at the not yet visible top), waiting for any challenger who manages to defeat the one who might look like the strongest trainer as of now.

As for the World Tournament itself, I could help but ask one simple question: If it's really the ultimate tourmanent that every trainer strives for, it should have been introduced 20 years ago, in the very first episode. But why now?
It seems a little bit like: "Oh what could we come up next? Oh here we have a new idea that we totally forgot to introduce earlier. Let's just do it now". Seems a bit forced if you ask me

The reason its introduced now and not in the past, the other Champions weren't marketed as undefeated, so they didn't need to show them off heavily in-battle. They kinda are forced with Leon being undefeated, they cannot show him without him having some on-screen wins under his belt, else his title in the anime as the Undefeated Champion feels kinda forced and flat to begin with. Letting Leon have that on-screen fight with another Champion and winning, shows that he is a real threat.

There is also the thing that we don't know how they want to progress further with him. For all we know, Leon is gonna have more on-screen battles with the other champions, who challenge him for the World Champion title (And they also lose, due to Leon being the current main game Champion and being marketed as undefeated, they cannot have him lose until at least the very end of the current anime - and i kinda think it will be Hop who defeats his brother, since the main protag doesn't exist anymore in the anime apparently).

There is also the thing: Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon kinda established Cynthia not being the Current Champion anymore in Sinnoh, since her title was Pokemon Trainer Cynthia and not Champion Cynthia. If they go with the game lore, since won't appear at all anymore in Champion form. However, if they still hold to the current anime canon, she still is the Champion.
 
No, if what I think could happen will come true, she doesn't even have to enter in the first place, becaus she's already there (at the not yet visible top), waiting for any challenger who manages to defeat the one who might look like the strongest trainer as of now.
And if what I think think could happen comes true, Cynthia will just turn out to be Delia's temporary placeholder. There's a reason why Mimey can kick so much ass.

Anyway, the World Champion is only relevant now because the writers are tired of badge quests. And it isn't that weird that in a world where people don't age, different regions are only now competing against each other. The worldbuilding has been messy for a long time.
 
There is also the thing: Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon kinda established Cynthia not being the Current Champion anymore in Sinnoh, since her title was Pokemon Trainer Cynthia and not Champion Cynthia. If they go with the game lore, since won't appear at all anymore in Champion form. However, if they still hold to the current anime canon, she still is the Champion.
I don't think that's what it is. She could just be using that title because her Champion status doesn't mean anything outside her home region.
 
There is also the thing: Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon kinda established Cynthia not being the Current Champion anymore in Sinnoh, since her title was Pokemon Trainer Cynthia and not Champion Cynthia. If they go with the game lore, since won't appear at all anymore in Champion form. However, if they still hold to the current anime canon, she still is the Champion.
She is also called a Pokemon Trainer in BW, so you might be correct.
That's probably because in BW and partly in SM there were other "official" champions of the respective regions (Alder, Masked Royal, Ash). So, introducing Cynthia as Champion would probably just confuse new and younger players and having Cynthia compete against those aforementioned champions might be considered rude or whatever by the producers.
On the other side, Cynthia is still referred to as Champion in Pokemon Masters and that's the most recent game besides SwSh. So, yes, it's the good old (and annoying) question of inconsistency that you'll find anywhere both in the games and in the Anime...
due to Leon being the current main game Champion and being marketed as undefeated, they cannot have him lose until at least the very end of the current anime
That's pretty bad writing if you ask me, especially when considering the latest episode where that Leon didn't look all that mighty against Ash at all. I'd even say they were pretty evenly matched. It was Leon resorting to his Gigantamaxed Pokemon that eventually saved him.
I mean, they could portray him as the undefeated champion of the Galar region, which would make it possible for him to lose to another champion, but I'm afraid the writers might have chosen the easy way out of that dilemma you mentioned before.


And as for the World Tournament itself, I still can't see how they'll handle and properly introduce it with Ash happily travelling around between regions. So, I suppose we'll see many more episode where Ash is turning into an aimless globetrotter with the World Tournament and gym challenges being somehow squeezed in.
Not looking forward to that ... (But well, at least we'll have a chance to see our Cynthia again when this is all over... never give up hope!)
 
And as for the World Tournament itself, I still can't see how they'll handle and properly introduce it with Ash happily travelling around between regions. So, I suppose we'll see many more episode where Ash is turning into an aimless globetrotter with the World Tournament and gym challenges being somehow squeezed in.
Not looking forward to that ... (But well, at least we'll have a chance to see our Cynthia again when this is all over... never give up hope!)

The World Championship will likely have events in different regions and involve trainers between the 8 regions. That's how Ash travellig between 8 regions would be connected to this.

About Ash being an aimless globetrotter with the World Championshi squeezed in, that's exactly what happened with the Gyms in previous seasons.

Also, I don't think we will have Gym challenges in this season.
 
And as for the World Tournament itself, I still can't see how they'll handle and properly introduce it with Ash happily travelling around between regions. So, I suppose we'll see many more episode where Ash is turning into an aimless globetrotter with the World Tournament and gym challenges being somehow squeezed in.
It's called the World Championships, it involves trainers from all over the world. By participating in it, Ash is expected to battle trainers from many different regions to raise his rank, which is why participating in the World Championships is a perfect goal for Ash this season since it fits this series's formula of having the main characters travel between different regions without staying in any one single region. Yes, he'll most likely still be an "aimless globetrotter", but it completely fits his current goal.

Also, I'm not sure who Ash will battle in the other regions, but he'll most likely battle the Galar gym leaders as part of the World Championships every time the duo returns to Galar, which removes the need for him to participate in the Galar Gym challenge.
 
It was Leon resorting to his Gigantamaxed Pokemon that eventually saved him.
It didn’t save him, he wanted to show off his Gigantamax Charizard when Ash's Pikachu Gigantamaxed. In the Gigantamax battle, it was proven pretty easily that Charizard was superior and wasn’t worse for the wear after the battle.
 
I wanted to make my own topic out of this, but I suppose this is the appropriate place to talk about it. But I think we can speculate on who will be in the top 8 bracket in the world championships. 3 of those spots we know will be filled in Ash, Lance, and Leon. Leaving on 5 spots left in the top 8. In terms of who I think those 8 will be....I think Majority of the champions won't. Specially Alder, Steven, Diantha and Cynthia. I say this cause I feel all of them don't exactly have interest in being the best in the world, despite their strength as trainers. I think they care more about their personal careers and interests over that. Meaning we might have to make a roster outside of just champs. For mine, I think of Raihan, Tobias, Alain, Kukui, and maybe some new characters who knows, maybe Drake. All of the list I feel have more passion for battling than most so that would drive them to wanting to be the best.
 
I wanted to make my own topic out of this, but I suppose this is the appropriate place to talk about it. But I think we can speculate on who will be in the top 8 bracket in the world championships. 3 of those spots we know will be filled in Ash, Lance, and Leon. Leaving on 5 spots left in the top 8. In terms of who I think those 8 will be....I think Majority of the champions won't. Specially Alder, Steven, Diantha and Cynthia. I say this cause I feel all of them don't exactly have interest in being the best in the world, despite their strength as trainers. I think they care more about their personal careers and interests over that. Meaning we might have to make a roster outside of just champs. For mine, I think of Raihan, Tobias, Alain, Kukui, and maybe some new characters who knows, maybe Drake. All of the list I feel have more passion for battling than most so that would drive them to wanting to be the best.
Raihan is a likely contender. He could form a rivalry with Ash because we know there's nothing Raihan wants more than beating Leon. Professor Kukui is definitely a Champion level trainer, but I feel like he doesn't have to be here since we got to see Ash beat him in a full battle. Alain and Tobias deserve payback though for robbing Ash of the Sinnoh and Kalps League title that was rightfully his.
 
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