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Review XY131: Kalos League Victory! Satoshi's Ultimate Match!!

Okay, I was disappointed with Ash's loss despite I predicted this in my head. But I think this saga might be completely meaningful to Ash's loss. I did remember Alain was supposed to gather Mega Evolution energy because he thought he can save Mairin's Chespin and I think he joined the league just to fight Ash again out of fun and rivalry

Also, I think even win or lose, I have a feeling Team Flare still want Ash and Greninja. Just my guess...
 
Oh yes, this episode solidifies one of the worst offenses in the XY/XYZ anime as a whole, and that's the handling of Ash's dragons. Poor pacing in training and development like the league, and they got shafted in favor of Hawlucha and Talonflame, who mind you, already had their fill of good stuff and could have afforded another loss each (not this battle though, I loved how they handled those two). Just kind of disappointing that a Gible who had what, 30 episodes, get better progression than Goodra or Noivern. Hopefully they get to kick some Team Flare butt
 
I think people are overlooking the fact even thought he lost Satoshi was 2nd place in a league this time. Which still is, in fact, progress.

And you can call Alan a Gary Stu, but to call his development "poor" is a big fallacy. Alan was introduced early and had a LOT of screentime showing his progression. It's absolutely NOTHING comparable to past trainers who beat Satoshi in the league. Whether or not you hate his personality and win streaks and OP charizard or not, he's been stabilished as a fully fledged character, integral to the overall plot of XY, long, long ago.
The battle was underwhelming but Alan winning wasn't that cheap. He's probably the first loss that made sense at all since Johto.
 
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Having him lose is essentially the lazy option. It allows them to revert back to a blank slate and start over, as opposed to having to actually deal with any complications that would arise from him winning. Even though you could quite easily have him win, lose to an Elite 4, and then send him off to the next region where he'll hope to continue progressing without having to alter the formula of the show much at all.
I Agree it IS Lazy.
 
This is in fact Tobias 2.0

People are going to be pissed thinking back to this moment in the future, but Ash league placement is a new record.

Yeah I was dissapointed that Ash didn't win, since it was sooo damn close for him to win once in 20 years. But I am still happy that he made it into the top 2 and the battle wasn't bad either. So....
 
I guess what i am disappointed in is the fact that when Ash reached the finals for the first time instead of building the best possible team using his pokemon from all different reigons, he decided simply to go with his Kalos pokemon only.
 
This is in fact Tobias 2.0

Except Takuto curb-stomped the entire competition, including Satoshi. Alan, on the other hand, was brought to the brink of losing.

I don't mind Satoshi losing, like I said, but my main issue is with how he lost... specifically, how exactly does Lizardon get hit with a a giant Water Shuriken and Gekkouga get hit with a Blast Burn yet it's Gekkouga who ends up going down?! I'm pretty certain Lizardon was given Thunderpunch to allow it to be decent threat, so why not let it finish the match with it? Hell, if you want to up the suspense, have a Thunderpunch/Cut collision.

What really ticked me off about this episode is Numelgon getting knocked out by Kirikizan. I appreciate Guillotine is a one-hit KO move, but the writers brought the guy back to be beaten down in both his matches. Both of Satoshi's Dragons got the shaft in this league for sure.
 
I guess what i am disappointed in is the fact that when Ash reached the finals for the first time instead of building the best possible team using his pokemon from all different reigons, he decided simply to go with his Kalos pokemon only.
Yeah, I was hoping Ash would do that like in Sinnoh. However, it does make this run more impressive since Ash managed to reach the finals and almost win the whole thing with just his Kalos team.
 
There is no way Greninja could win. None of its move is effective on Mega Charizard X though. Being a Fire/Dragon really benefits due to no longer weakness to water. By the way, it really was a close fight.
 
I don't care whether Satoshi wins or loses a league. Pocket Monsters has always, always been more about the journey than the destination, and when I look back on XY(&Z) years from now I'm going to remember the 3+ years leading up to the league more than I'm going to remember the league itself. A single battle at the tail end of the series doesn't somehow make the enjoyment I've felt all these years go away.
I don't disagree, but this particular journey was so overwhelmingly positive in favor of Ash that I can understand all the frustration ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
I don't think it's in Ash's character to take the title from that due to a technicality (and obviously he'll forgive Alain), nor do I think fans would necessarily want that.
 
Status Quo reigns supreme again *twirls finger* whoop-dee-doo. I'll be over this eventually but the salt is real for me and going to be such for a while. Nonsense. Went and shot themselves in the foot badly after all that hype. May as well kick started the Flare plot to stop the match from going rather than letting OP-Mega boy and Godzard have it.

Gods, Ash is just not allowed to have nice things.
 
Thing is, win or lose Satoshi would have ended up resetting and going to Alola anyway as a beginner. His journey has always been about pressing forward... if he was the kind of person to rest on his achievements, he'd have accepted the offer of Frontier Brain candidacy and just stuck around in Kanto for the rest of his life. Simple fact is, win or lose, the series would have ended exactly the same way; Satoshi goes back to Kanto, makes sure his mom knows how much he hates her by only sticking around for a day, dumps his Pokemon with Okido and heads off for new challenges and to meet new friends. Why are people so ticked off about this all of a sudden. It's been happening since Advanced.
 
Dreadful end to a dreadful League.

To recap, the writers have:

- ignored all the usual callbacks to Oak and Ash's mum, League traditions
- avoided bringing in or even referencing any of Ash's old Pokemon
- skipped through not just the preliminaries, but basically everything before the semifinals
- written as though there were basically three people in the whole League: Ash, Sawyer and Alain. No surprising opponents. Not that they showed us any of the fights, bar Sawyer vs Tierno.
- used essentially no tactical switching, lots of stupid decision-making; basically stupid battle writing throughout

Then they gave the victory spot to Alain's Charizard. The Charizard they've been constantly hyping by having it take on super-powerful opponents and always win. Do they not think we'll ever get bored of seeing it plot-armour its way through battles? It wasn't even like they made it into a particularly good fight, it won with an attack that shouldn't really be that effective, and there was no drama to the thing, no sense of strategies or counter-strategies forming. Very disappointing when the first half of this match was going so well. I don't care whether Ash wins, I care about whether the story is satisfying, and this isn't.

Worst of all, that might be the note that the Pokemon Leagues closes on. Forever. Sun and Moon don't have a League, so it's likely we'll see a corresponding shift in the anime. So the note for posterity is that: an overpowered character winning for the nth time in a row in a sub-par battle, in the most-rushed League arc of all.
 
Let me start my rant by saying I can't believe I fell for this again, but I never will, coz I wont be watching this shit again
After seeing Charizard almost fainting but still able to stand, I knew what's gonna happen, I did not even bother to finish the episode after seeing Greninja faint
After all the hype, dat fiery piece of shit, 20th anniversary, bond phenomenon lel
And Goodra is shit, that was the weakest comeback I've seen in the series, not even a clean win, Charizard beat Dragonair on his comeback match, Gliscor beat Drapion, Squirtle beat Electabuzz
Though the season can contest Hoenn as the 2nd best season imo, the league was the worst in the series not held in Unova, even though it had all 3 of my most favorite pokemon (charizard, greninja, sceptile)
Too many skipped battles, Goodra's (a pseudo, 1st of Ash) weak comeback, Greninja and Pikachu get most of the highlights
I've been watching the anime since the time the last quarter of Sinnoh was airing and I've never been disappointed this much
I dropped the series during Unova, the only good thing in it was Krookodile and Ash actually rotates his team during the gym quest
I actually hated XY at first bcoz of Mega Evolutions bcoz its corny, but Naruto, I mean Greninja, brought me back
This is the easiest way out for them, they're not creative enough to make a storyline in which Ash would win a regional league, it looks like they're really reserving the league trophy for the anime's end
Well the anime itself is full of inconsistence and plotholes
*Rant over*
 
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