Do not watch this video if you’re not up
to date on the Pokémon anime subbed.
Spoilers ahead, if you somehow avoided all
the snapshots and leaks and whatnot and wanna
see what happens, leave now as there’s some
major news that dropped.
So, the Alola League in the anime has come
to a close and we finally got word of Ash
winning the League.
Yes, after 22 years of the Pokémon anime,
after losing time and time again to every
Pokémon League in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh,
Unova and Kalos, he’s finally won the Alola
League after so long.
I’m not making this video for the purpose
of detracting from Ash’s win.
I’m using this to congratulate him as well.
It’s about damn time, my boy.
Seeing him hold that trophy, even for a few
seconds, makes me forget of almost everything
Sun & Moon did wrong and this does feel at
least to some length inspirational to see.
Finally, congratulations Ash on winning a
Pokémon League.
I’m very happy he’s finally won a Pokémon
League after a long ass time.
After how climactic his Sinnoh League run
was, his fight against Paul, only to lose
to cheaply-written Tobias with 2 legendaries,
how hyped up and fantastic the Kalos League
build up was, his team, his rivals and character,
not to mention the animation, he should’ve
been able to win a league around those points.
Yeah, he won the Orange Island League plus
the Battle Frontier, but most consider the
game-specific leagues the real prizes and
him winning this one makes so much sense as
to why people are making a big deal out of
it.
Go on Twitter, it’s like people are acting
like how Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Emmy
or if Ash won a Super Bowl or something.
And the thought just hit me, he seems to win
island-specific leagues only, which is odd
to think about.
He’s been training since the age of 10 and
can retire at the age of 10.
He’s a legend, man.
With what I’ll say later on, do not let
those words take away from the fact there
is some satisfaction and enjoyment out of
seeing the 10-year-old trainer, wanting to
be the very best, finally win a major Pokémon
League.
It is a special & momentous occasion that
can’t be understated.
Within the context of him winning after all
these years of training, travelling, losing,
etc. it’s reasonable to make this a significant
victory because to some lengths, it genuinely
is.
I’m proud of my boy for finally winning
a game-specific league and he can prance around
with his W on his chest with gusto.
The thing I want to get off my chest is it’s
not as satisfying as it should’ve I feel.
Like, I’m happy, but I don’t feel as excited
or happy as I should.
This could be a hot take, this is all my opinion,
which is always subjective, and again this
is the same kid that has been stuck with our
childhoods & multiple generations, the character
that’s the sole definition, the closest
defining thing & main staple, of the Pokémon
anime.
I can still rejoice & celebrate Ash’s victory.
You know he had to have won at some point
& now all of the jokes of him remaining an
eternal loser who’ll never win a league
will likely die now, but there’s several
factors as to why people feel frustrated and
unsatisfied with this win.
Personally, I feel it’s both, he should
have won and thank god he did given the competition
was mostly a joke, but it does it feel like
a cheap win because of that.
One reason some may feel this win isn’t
as good or fulfilling is the entire structure
of the Alola League itself.
Yes, there was no preestablished Pokémon
League in Alola, this was the region’s first
league ever and within that context, this
does feel like a league Ash could’ve won
easily, which he did.
But Pokémon Leagues are nothing new.
They have research and knowledge from 6 other
regions Kukui and others could’ve used to
make the league feel more official or fleshed
out.
Instead, they opted for just about anyone
to enter the league, literally your grandma
was allowed to enter if she had a Pokémon,
where the preliminaries are a massive battle
royale w/ 151 trainers, exactly like the structure
Dragon Ball Super’s Tournament of Power,
that resulted in numerous one-shot attacks
and some easy cop outs, again like Dragon
Ball Super, and the Top 16 qualify for the
tournament.
This ruleset undermines Ash having completed
the Island Challenge & Grand Trials, outside
of getting battling & matchup experience with
his Pokémon, as there was never a rule to
do so, making the lineup of trainers less
intimidating or competent than leagues past.
As far as we actually know, Ash and Gladion
were the only trainers in the entire Alola
League to complete the Island Trials, so them
making it to the finals makes logical sense.
But because of this, this makes the competition
look non-threatening.
The Top 16 consists of the entire main cast,
Acerola Hau, Gladion, Guzma, Mina, Illima,
Faba, Principal Oak and Jessie & James from
Team Rocket.
At least a quarter of Alola’s best were
comedic relief characters & you know almost
exactly the kind of route the league will
go with which trainers will win and who’ll
go where because we know these characters
so it feels like fodder.
Out of these trainers, there’s maybe a quarter
or a little more than that that feel like
a potential threat and/or worth watching.
Ash, Kiawe, Gladion, Guzma & even Lana.
It’s like this with every league, around
quarters or semis is where fights get interesting
but until then, we’re stuck with fights
with the other characters that we know will
lose.
This segues into my second main point as to
how this league & Ash’s win feels underwhelming:
the battles.
Like Dragon Ball Super’s issue with the
Tournament of Power arc, there are many opponents
that succumb to one shot attacks and simple
strategies that feel basic and serve to move
the story along, whether in the case of bad/mediocre
writing and/or cheap power scaling.
This was basically the preliminaries of the
league itself and what came about to be the
Top 16.
Ash, Gladion, Guzma, Kiawe, Hau, & such reasonably
made it along mostly due to their own efforts
or because of who/what they represent, but
Lillie, Mallow, & Sophocles, etc. characters
you know can’t even hold a candle to Ash
& his rivals, either get carried by each other
by working together, or get easy one shot
kills out of nowhere only because they’re
the main characters & they “have” to win.
Once the battles start, we’re met with a
comedy match between Ash & Faba (which was
funny), a good match between Illima & Guzma
to highlight Guzma’s power, a fantastic
match between Mallow & Lana testing their
friendship & respect, & forgettable matches
such as Hau vs Oak, Sophocles vs Mina, Jessie
vs. James which the title built up only to
almost completely underdeliver, Kiawe vs.
Acerola and Lillie vs. Gladion, which Lillie
got bodied in.
Only Round 1, not the main dish so it’s
all good.
It’s what comes after is what we’re looking
at right?
Next come the quarterfinals, Gladion vs James,
which is forgettable because James got smoked,
Ash vs. *inhale* Hoooo, I’ll get to you
in a sec, just you wait for that one, Kiawe
vs. Sophocles, which for some reason was actually
very good, and a solid fight between Lana
and Guzma where Lana fought hard but Guzma
overpowered her.
But half was solid with the other half being
bad.
It picks up the rest of the way from here
thankfully, but the quarterfinals was the
biggest wrench in the outcome for the league,
for better and worse.
Kiawe vs Gladion in the semifinals and Ash
vs. Guzma in the semifinals were good & ok
respectively and Ash vs. Gladion in the final
match was good, but nothing felt amazing or
worth remembering.
Like compared to Ash vs. Gary, Ash vs. Paul,
Ash vs. Conway, Sawyer, even ones where it’s
bs & he loses like Ash vs. Tyson, Ash vs.
Tobias, Ash vs. Alain, etc., you really think
Ash & Gladion’s final round in the league
will go down worth remembering along the same
tier as those others, not because it’s another
worthy rival of Ash and it’s their third
battle, but because it was the final round
of a Pokémon League?
Their battle was fine, don’t get me wrong
& again, this is all my opinion, but because
it was only good and nothing grandiose & utterly
amazing, it’s hard for me to feel even more
proud or satisfied for him.
Speaking of rivals, my third main point is
Ash vs. Hau.
I haven’t given my thoughts on the matter,
this fight was a massive talking point several
weeks ago, but I’m confident everyone here
can guess my feelings towards this fight.
Remember when I mentioned the handful of noteworthy
trainers among the competition being Ash,
Guzma, Gladion, Kiawe and Lana?
Notice how I left Hau out?
This is a character that is one of your main
rivals in the Sun & Moon games, so you’d
think the anime would try and give as much
time trying to build a solid foundation with
him as rival.
The problem is they didn’t.
Gladion was a great rival for Ash and had
proper buildup.
Him and Ash had several confrontations throughout
the Sun & Moon anime and they build a solid
foundation for their rivalry.
It took almost 100 episodes for them to introduce
Hau and he’s only had that 1 episode of
establishment as Ash’s rival & his Dartrix/Decidueye’s
rival to Ash’s Rowlet.
Up until the league, we only know he did the
first Grand Trial.
I didn’t call him competent or noteworthy
because he had such horrible development as
Ash’s rival because outside of Rowlet vs.
Dartrix/Decidueye, there was nothing.
He had a Raichu that we only see for split
seconds between episodes, and yes we know
the outcome was in Ash’s favor like most
of his rival battles during the League, but
with or without it, they didn’t build Hau
up as a proper rival for Ash at all.
Tied with the abysmal battle between them
in the league, sours the mood for a lot of
people.
This match was horrible.
This fight was total bullshit and we know
this.
Hau’s Dartrix evolved, Ash’s Rowlet is
motivated as hell to fight Decidueye, and
even with his friends trying to tell him “Rowlet’s
a bad choice, you can easily get smoked by
Rowlet’s evolved evolution if you use him,
be smart,” Ash has faith in Rowlet & trusts
in his ability to try his hardest to win.
Battle starts, Decidueye dodges Rowlet’s
Z Move, Bloom Doom, and lands a Spirit Shackle
on Rowlet, only to ultimately miss because
the Spirit Shackle trapped the Shadow of Rowlet’s
cloak that Toucannon and the Trumbeak gave
him.
That’s flag number 1.
Rowlet struggles to land a blow, gets whacked
by Leaf Blade and Spirit Shackle, and Rowlet’s
face planted on the ground, seemingly knocked
out.
The Island Kahunas are the referees and at
this point, Nanu declares the battle over
and states Ash as the loser and Hau the winner
after seeing Rowlet down on the ground unable
to move, with a disappointed Ash tipping his
hat down in despair as Rowlet is on the ground,
motionless, stagnant and unable to respond.
Moments later, Hala, another Kahuna and Hau’s
grandfather, calls out Nanu’s declaration
as false and confirms, moments after the fact,
like ol’ Rowlet fashion, Rowlet fell asleep
willingly.
Despite the fact Ash’s Rowlet was unable
to battle & the match was declared over, despite
the fact Ash declared Rowlet unable to fight
during the first Grand Trial because Rowlet
fell asleep and Ash took a sign of Rowlet
being exhausted, despite Hala being Hau’s
grandfather essentially cucking his grandson
out of a win, the battle restarted and Ash
was given a freebie because of Rowlet screwing
up, That’s flags 2 and 3 at the same time.
2, because the declaration was pulled back
despite reason to end the battle there rightfully
so.
This can be compared to Charizard sleeping
on Ash during the Indigo League.
Yeah, Charizard slept willingly on it’s
own out of disrespect for Ash, but Rowlet
still willingly slept on it’s own too.
Both can still be compared.
It’s also flag 3 because Ash put faith in
Rowlet putting forth his absolute best only
for Rowlet almost screw him out of the league
entirely.
It makes Ash look incompetent for placing
faith in Rowlet for that to happen when everyone
told him otherwise and Rowlet look like a
joke for not treating the league as seriously
as it should when the viewers and Ash and
others expect him to put his best forward,
when we all know damn well this isn’t even
Rowlet’s best.
Between the bs logic behind the battle statements,
Rowlet getting clapped by it’s evolution
only for 2 Brave Bird connections to seal
him a win, for Ash placing flawed faith in
Rowlet and for Hau getting robbed hard, it’s
flat out ridiculous.
Just for the sake of comedy, they ended up
delegitimizing much of Ash’s genuine wins
and progress in the league because of this
win basically being spoon fed to him despite
all logic saying otherwise.
The 4th and last reason why people may not
find this win deserved is the lack of proper
buildup.
Can anyone tell me how many 6 on 6 battles
the anime has had?
Not just the league, but the entirety of Sun
& Moon.
Yeah.
None.
Zero.
There’s a later episode in 2 weeks that
seems to indicate we’ll get a 6v6 battle,
possibly Poipole returning to Ash for that,
but every battle in the league has been a
1v1, with the semifinals being a 2v2 and the
finals being a 3v3.
Normally, most battles consist of 3v3s with
6v6s taking up quarterfinals and/or semifinals
onwards.
Ash didn’t have 6 Pokémon on deck, but
they could’ve made Ash use old Pokémon
or made Poipole return as well.
Not to mention Ash’s team in Sun & Moon
is middle of road when looking at everyone,
especially compared to previous teams he had,
during Johto, Hoenn Sinnoh & Kalos.
He has an evolved Mythical with Melmetal,
sure, but between Lycanroc, Rowlet and mid-stage
Torracat, it’s hard to feel it’s that
deserved when many of his past Pokémon and
teams have accomplished so much while showing
the fruits of their labor, especially compared
to Rowlet’s fumble.
Not only this, but similar to the games, they
hardly hyped up the league until the very
end.
Before that, Ash had Trials every occasional
dozens of episodes later, but between that
was lots and lots of episodes on other characters,
for better or worse, or a bunch of filler.
Sun & Moon has some fantastic episodes for
sure.
Ash’s Grand Trial vs. Olivia; great episode,
fantastic battle.
Almost every episode on Poni Island was surprisingly
great, Mallow with her mom in Tapu Fini’s
mist; an utterly beautiful episode.
Almost every Lillie-centric episode, almost
every Kiawe-centric episode, Litten joining
Ash & Stoutland’s death, another great one,
the episode with Poipole & Minior, another
great one.
There are fantastic episodes in Sun & Moon,
I’ve seen every episode up until this point.
The annoying thing with the anime is those
great episodes are spread far out and sandwiched
between filler episodes, average episodes
or bad ones.
Ash’s trial against Jessie Mimikyu, Ash’s
Grand Trial against Nanu, the final episodes
of the Aether Foundation arc, the Grand Trial
against Hapu oh lord, how many Rotom episodes
there are, among other filler episode or bad
episodes.
Several big fights, Hau included, were where
he literally got wins handed to him on a silver
platter.
Battling was hardly a major stamp in Alola
& the anime until Ash was involved most of
the time and while Ash trained, not all or
many training/battling moments were naturally
written or built up for this grand showdown
or well-presented of how hard him & his Pokémon
worked in some instances.
Battling & the action the anime, and Pokémon
as a whole, is well known for took a back
seat more often than not because Sun & Moon
focused a lot more on comedy & slice of life.
Sun & Moon’s overall quality, in my opinion,
is inconsistent because of this shift in focus
and a as result, they sacrificed lots of consistent
growth and natural, consistent writing & progression
for Ash, other characters and his Pokémon
for comedy and slice of life.
It took over 30 episodes for Lana to have
proper character growth, it took Sophocles
almost 70 to have a backstory and actual motivation,
and half of the cast in general took forever
to get proper character progression & growth
while Lillie & Kiawe were characters that
got actual personality and progress since
almost the beginning of the saga.
There were an exponential amount of moments
of comedy and slice of life compared to what
Pokémon’s used to, and I’m not saying
comedy and slice of life is a bad thing.
You can make a good story out of comedic slice
of life.
There’s nothing wrong with that genre and
most anime have at least some episodes or
moments of comedy, slice of life & overly-exaggerated
faces.
Pokémon has done comedy and crazy faces before.
The problem with it in Sun & Moon is that
portion of storytelling & structure is amplified
tenfold, beyond the normal threshold of what
average viewers may expect to where there
was either so much comedy or so much slice
of life and a lack of consistent writing,
progression & major events to where the episodes
& certain moments were either off-putting,
improperly paced, improperly written, simple
or just flat-out boring.
You might remember within the first several
months of the show, there was a lot of those
memey faces, normal slice of life and comedic
episodes, and there were a number of people
turned off by that around the first several
months of Sun & Moon.
It was just too much for many viewers and
halfway through the Sun & Moon saga, they’ve
noticeably decreased that emphasis.
It’s still there, but it was a prominent
issue for some at the beginning for a while.
The writing and character throughout the Sun
& Moon Saga was inconsistent because of the
heavy emphasis on slice of life and you can
make a good story out of Pokémon & slice
of life and Sun & Moon as a couple examples
of this, but because it was simply too much,
there wasn’t as much proper growth or satisfaction
throughout the adventure, for multiple reasons
depending on the specific point in the adventure,
which ties into how Ash’s final team came
about, or how strong the side characters should
really be, how the league progressed, how
certain battles and outcomes and writing achievements
or screw ups lead to this moment.
Not every show’s perfect, but I’ve noticed
more issues with this in Sun & Moon than some
past Pokémon Sagas and past Pokémon Sagas
have built up Ash’s progression, team, character,
etc. much more fluidly than Sun & Moon has
in my opinion.
The disappointment can also come with the
fact this news was leaked almost a week ago.
We literally got a scan of Ash holding the
Championship trophy before the episode aired,
which is such a stupid oversight for a moment
this big.
How could they screw up this badly man?
As a result some fans felt it was either a
joke or it sucked all the wind out of most
of the enjoyment.
But between the flawed structure of the league
itself, between the inconsistent & underwhelming
battle quality for a Pokémon League, and
for the average buildup and progress compared
to past adventures, some may not completely
sit right with this win and people may feel
it was a cheap low blow, especially after
the massive backlash from the Kalos League
loss and I can see why.
I can see this win be a direct response to
how angry fans were with the outcome of XY’s
Kalos League.
And once again, I’m not trying to take away
the fact Ash finally won a league.
But imagine if Tobias wasn’t in the Lily
of the Valley Conference for Ash to lose or
Ash beat Alain in the Lumiose Conference hypothetically.
You can’t tell me people wouldn’t be over
the moon with how Ash & his Pokémon were
written there and winning rightfully so comparatively.
Ash utilizing his entire library of Pokémon
during the Sinnoh League, all the great rivals
on deck, Paul being Ash’s greatest rival
of all time, even more than Gary, or Ash and
his team built up in XY & how each Pokémon
went through distinctive hardships and had
notable personalities; you know there wouldn’t
be people feeling some lengths of emptiness
or a mellow exterior if Ash won either one
of those leagues since those actually felt
like there was a lot more accelerating Ash’s
character and motivation along with each trainer
there instead of winning with an easy bake
competition almost, with an average team,
in the most controversial art style Pokémon’s
seen.
I know those who like Sun & Moon find this
statement annoying probably but I still strongly
feel he should’ve won the Kalos league for
reasons I’ve stated before.
If not for Kalos, I would easily say Sinnoh
instead as well.
I can still wholeheartedly say with full confidence
and genuine feeling that those Pokémon Leagues
were fantastic and worth the watch from start
to finish, even with the outcomes.
I can’t say the same for the Alola League
given all the reasons I’ve stated above.
With that though, it’s still nice to finally
see Ash win for once and bask in the glory
of being a Pokémon League Champion.
But this raises the question; what’s next
for the anime?
Is this the end of Ash?
Time will tell, but I’m predicting no.
Even if he wins the league, not only has Ash
not been declared a Pokémon Master yet, you
know Ash still isn’t the best trainer out
there, especially looking at the competition
he had to deal with in the Alola League.
Winning one major tournament, especially for
that region’s first, doesn’t make you
the best.
I also think something relatively big will
be teased within the next couple episodes.
Like, the cynicism in me thinks the team’s
gonna pull another dick move of some kind.
It might not happen, but I’m predicting
during Ash & Masked Royal’s exhibition match,
Ash will lose and either the match will act
as a League Defense Title like the games and
Ash will lose, revoking his Championship title
to Kukui, or he loses but gives up his Championship
title willingly as he feels he could still
train and get stronger as that match proves
he’s really not the best in Alola, or the
world for that matter, & he has a lot to learn.
With either outcome, something tells me Ash
might somehow give away his Championship title
out of a loss because I think Kukui’s probably
gonna beat him.
At the very least, he’ll say he wants to
continue travelling.
Alola may not have one, but there’s still
a lot of Elite Fours, other Champions and
other powerful trainers out there trying to
achieve the same goal.
It’s confirmed that the next iteration of
the Pokémon anime, likely for Sword & Shield,
will coalesce all the regions this time, which
is exciting.
This is making me think one of two outcomes,
if not both.
One, we’re gonna get a time skip.
We’ll see Ash age and he’ll train from
square one with every Pokémon he has and
be much more competent and stronger like XY
for the much more daunting trials ahead.
Two, the likelier scenario is we’ll finally
see a potential Champion’s League.
Cynthia mentioned such during Diamond & Pearl
and I believe we’ll see Ash try to compete
and go up against strong trainers, past rivals
and maybe even Elite Four member and Champions,
with these acting as Ash’s gateway to either
being a Pokémon Master or actually being
the very best.
For all we know, they might do something with
alternate-movie Ash instead, but something
big’s about to happen to the anime in a
couple months and I can’t help but think
they’ll try and do something big with the
anime’s biggest icon.
I don’t think we’re done with Ash and
they’re going to use this next iteration
to focus more on his character and bring back
past ones, rivals and such and hype up his
story more, or potentially end it.
I could be wrong though.
What do you think?
You think I’m on to something with the Gen
8 anime or no?
Is it reasonable for those to be even remotely
indifferent or unresponsive to Ash winning
a League all this time given the issue Alola’s
League has?
Let me know down below.
Still, it’s nice to bask in the sheer fact
Ash finally won a league.
Even after 20 years of trying and losing,
you can still win.
Now there’s an actual inspirational quote
than just “it’s ok to lose” from this
occasion.
Thank you for watching and stay tuned for
more Pokémon content, let’s plays, anime
and game discussions, and other related videos.
Stay super.
