#if someone is wondering why i'm so upset about this whole alain thing; well see it from this pov:

[kalosstarters]

I wanna address the misconception that everyone wanted to see Ash vs Alain just so Ash could have a ‘revenge’ for the Kalos league finals. No. I personally wanted to see that match-up because (uh, I ended up rambling too much so cut):

1) at least those two have a ‘history’ together. They’re friends and they have battled against each other before. I personally don’t care about match-ups where the characters have not even interacted with each other on screen before the episode where they battle. Like, Lance vs Diantha? Their champion status is the only thing that makes that battle even vaguely interesting to me. One of the (biggest) issues in this particular tournament is that the only match up that JN has done some building up for is Ash vs Leon. That is why I found it extremely important that we would have had /at least/ one whole episode before the tournament starts that is nothing but the contestants interacting with each other. Sadly, based on what we currently know about the upcoming episodes, that’s not going to happen.

2) Because I care about both these characters. Alain and Ash are both some of my favorite characters in this anime and of course I want to see them battle for simply that reason. Although, ideally it wouldn’t have happened until semifinals but I knew from the beginning that that very likely wouldn’t be the case.

3) simply to see both these characters’ development! A lot has happened since XY&Z and both Ash and Alain have grown as trainers and have new mons and all that stuff so yes, that part would have also made it interesting. 

(Going a bit more into details about what we know about the upcoming episodes here based on the summary+episode titles so don’t read further if you don’t want to know)

But all that being said, at the moment I’m actually fine with the Leon vs Alain match-up. 2 strong Charizard trainers against each other does make sense narrative wise. It’s the execution I’m concerned about because well, we know that this battle will already start in the next episode, and there is also a possibility that it will end in that episode. How do Tomioka&co think they are doing justice to this battle if the characters barely have time to meet before the battle starts, and 3 of Alain’s mons are gonna get knocked out within like 10 minutes? That is why I really hope that this battle is going to continue in the next episode. I do have some hope because in the preview (specifically for this episode) we did not see the charizards or the 3rd team members so... yeah. Trying to remain positive!

Well, that’s all I’m going to say about this, sorry for rambling!

#tia speaks #pokeani spoilers #if someone is wondering why i'm so upset about this whole alain thing; well see it from this pov: #you have a favorite character in a show. that said character has not appeared in almost 6 years #and you thought that you would never see him again (honestly i was fully prepared for that) #then all of a sudden it's announced that he is back for this tournament where 8 best trainers in the world are battling each other #you get HYPED. Bc ofc you do. All the possibilities that brings with it; at least my mind starts immediately picturing all the scenarios #that could happen #there certain expectations that come with such announcement #then you find out that he might get written off in the FIRST episode where he is #maybe not even have time to talk with ash before that bc of the battle #so... as a fan of the said character that does not sound good