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It’s been quite a few months now since the big day where Ash/Satoshi finally won a (game based) regional league. Now we’re some ways into the newest series and the question is:
Why?
Ash winning a regional league had been steadfastly denied for two decades, so what changed?
Firstly, I want to look at an important question: was this a writing decision or an executive decision?
I think this interview with Rica Matsumoto from right after the win, kindly translated by Dogasu, has a telling quote:
This is the telling part:
Full interview with Rica Matsumoto here:
Let's address the theory I see come up the most: it was a response to the Kalos league backlash.
It is interesting that after the largest backlash to a league defeat (including responses from staff members) he won the one right after, but he also made it to the semifinals in XY, so without a stall or another fall they were running out of space, so to speak--except BW shows that having him fall a ranking was entirely on the table.
Truthfully I'm not sure what I believe myself, but I sort of lean towards it being at least partly a factor--perhaps he still would have won without it, but it may have been used as an argument in favor of it during whatever meeting ended in the decision.
There's two related questions:
1: Was there a "Satoshi/Ash isn't allowed to win an important regional league" rule that was lifted and the staff jumped on the opportunity, or was there a specific order from above to have him win for whatever reason?
2: Was the idea behind Journeys (a region hopping show with a world tournament) created as a way to follow up a league win, or was a region hopping show pitched and it was decided it wouldn't make sense doing that without him winning a regional first?
So what does everyone else think?
Why?
Ash winning a regional league had been steadfastly denied for two decades, so what changed?
Firstly, I want to look at an important question: was this a writing decision or an executive decision?
I think this interview with Rica Matsumoto from right after the win, kindly translated by Dogasu, has a telling quote:
So when did you find out Satoshi was actually going to win this one?
Matsumoto: When we first started working on the Alola Pokemon League the director came up to me and said “This time we definitely want to let Satoshi win” and I was like “What? HE'S WINNING!?” And that's how I found out. And for a while I was in disbelief, going “Are you joking with me right now?” and “You mean we can actually do that?” (laughs)
This is the telling part:
Tone doesn't really carry in text, but I think the phrasing (we can actually do that?) lends weight to what I’ve suspected; Ash’s league losses were not because the writers thought it worked best for the story, but because it was being mandated from higher up.“You mean we can actually do that?”
Full interview with Rica Matsumoto here:
Let's address the theory I see come up the most: it was a response to the Kalos league backlash.
It is interesting that after the largest backlash to a league defeat (including responses from staff members) he won the one right after, but he also made it to the semifinals in XY, so without a stall or another fall they were running out of space, so to speak--except BW shows that having him fall a ranking was entirely on the table.
Truthfully I'm not sure what I believe myself, but I sort of lean towards it being at least partly a factor--perhaps he still would have won without it, but it may have been used as an argument in favor of it during whatever meeting ended in the decision.
There's two related questions:
1: Was there a "Satoshi/Ash isn't allowed to win an important regional league" rule that was lifted and the staff jumped on the opportunity, or was there a specific order from above to have him win for whatever reason?
2: Was the idea behind Journeys (a region hopping show with a world tournament) created as a way to follow up a league win, or was a region hopping show pitched and it was decided it wouldn't make sense doing that without him winning a regional first?
So what does everyone else think?