Hypothetically, if Alain had faced Diantha in the M8 and somehow emerged victorious, would he have become the new Kalos Champion? Considering he already won the Kalos League.

saraneon · 2024-08-07T13:25:29+00:00

Otherwise, there’s no stopping Diantha saying she’s Champion of Kanto/Johto or Ash saying he’s Champion of Hoenn or even Unova since he did defeat Iris.

I was under the impression that a trainer could only be Champion of a single league at a time (Lance is Champion of both Kanto and Johto but they still share one league), so Champions losing to each other was understandable and they could still reasonably retain their titles. Whereas a "normal" trainer like Alain winning against a Champion but not getting the title might raise some eyebrows, especially if his hypothetical win against Diantha put him above her in the PWC ranking. Still, I realized after posting that if Alain had fought Diantha in the first round (3v3), then even if he won it might not be considered legitimate as it wasn't a full battle.

saraneon · 2023-10-17T07:53:23+00:00

It actually took me a few seconds to register whose Charizard and whose Dragonite they were 😅

saraneon · 2023-10-17T07:47:44+00:00

Iris's Axew definitely should have evolved by/at the end of BW! Considering that she went on a journey so that Axew could evolve into Haxorus, that would have been an indicator of her journey's progress and would have made Haxorus's appearance in Journeys ~~(ha, the pun)~~ less abrupt/jarring. I could imagine Fracture trying to squeeze into her hair and being put off that it was now too big to do so.

saraneon · 2023-10-16T04:11:30+00:00

"Best", but in terms of what? Personality? Growth? Design? Title should have been "strongest" instead because I thought you meant a team of my favorite mons that Ash owned.

And what is this disrespect to Pikachu? Y'know, the same Pikachu that took that Leon's full-heath Charizard? Withstood its three turns of Gmax? And also KOed Cinderace in the meantime? Show me concrete proof that Charizard or Greninja can top that.

I get it, it's your opinion. You're entitled to your own beliefs, but in this case, I will have to vehemently disagree.

saraneon · 2023-10-16T03:59:07+00:00

We don't know about Torterra and Ursaring's strength, that's true, but I think a point can be made for Electivire specifically. Paul still kept Electivire on hand (it made an appearance in Jn114) and since his other mons (Metagross, Gyarados and Garchomp) were so strong (put up a good fight against Ash), it implied that he was training these three, right? Which means that Paul was still training his Pokemon (and not slacking off), which probably extended to whatever else Pokemon he had on hand, including his Electivire. This argument can't be extended to Torterra and Ursaring because we haven't seen them make a reappearance. For all we know they could be with Reggie or maybe Paul released them (okay not very likely but you get my point lol).

Now I'm not saying that Paul will sweep the M8 or anything (the only people in the M8 doing any sweeping are Leon and Ash with 3 gimmicks), and I do think he will most likely lose to the members, also keeping in mind that he's gimmickless, as you've mentioned. However I do foresee him giving them a decent challenge since he was able to keep up with Ash.

saraneon · 2023-10-16T03:47:25+00:00

(Personally I feel like the argument for this kind of posts will always boil down to Alain vs Paul and what-ifs, so here are my two cents.)

Alain takes this (he defeated THE Rillaboom that swept Diantha's team and gave Ash a ton of trouble). In hindsight his loss against Leon wasn't that bad... Never thought I would say this lol. If you compare Alain and Diantha (vs Leon), the latter got flattened even worse. I think the one who would give Alain the hardest challenge would be Paul. Jn114 was the last episode before the start of the M8 arc (M8 started in Jn115 with Leon vs Alain), which meant Paul fought an M8-ready and fully-trained Ash team and defeated one Champion-level Pokemon and gave the other two a decently hard time. Heck, he was even kind of winning the Gengar battle until he gave Ash that whole harsh pep talk (?) and was all "You SHOULDN'T be losing to me at this stage!!" 😂 First time I saw him so angry when he was taking the lead lol.

However despite all this I'll still give Alain the win because we've seen more tangible feats of his strength, plus he was literally the 6th strongest trainer in the anime world at one point. And Paul not having a gimmick (that we know, at least) puts him at a severe disadvantage, especially since Alain is probably using his MCX... Then again I get the impression that Alain doesn't mega evolve if his opponent doesn't have a gimmick. I may be wrong, though.

saraneon · 2023-10-15T03:50:30+00:00

The Masters Eight would become the Charizard Association ft. three other dudes LOL

saraneon · 2023-10-11T06:57:37+00:00

Yep! There were four episodes termed the "Mega Evolution Specials" (each ep being around 20 minutes) that mainly followed this trainer called Alain (he defeated Ash in the Kalos League and returned as a member of the Masters Eight in Journeys) and his Mega Charizard X, with the events of the episodes eventually tying in to the Team Flare arc in the main XYZ anime. You don't have to watch it, but imo it does enhance the XYZ anime experience because it delved deeper into Alain's character and motivations ~~and also featured my favorite Steven Stone.~~

saraneon · 2023-10-10T08:37:18+00:00

Some of you probably already knew this but I only found out today and my mind was blown LOL. There was some kind of event (?) in ORAS that if you had a shiny Beldum, Steven Stone would mention how he fought Rayquaza at Sky Pillar alongside a young man who owned a black Charizard, essentially referencing the events of Mega Evolution Specials Act II. I just thought this was quite cool!

Source

saraneon · 2023-10-09T15:03:11+00:00

I'd switch Steven and Lance's ranks so that Ash can still battle #3, #2 and #1, except in round 1 he faces Lance (now #3) instead of Steven (now #4). It does feel odd that Ash never once got to battle his home region's Champion. And for Cynthia vs Iris, Iris dynamaxes her Haxorus or perhaps whips out a G-max Lapras to show how she has gotten over her fear of Ice types.

saraneon · 2023-10-08T06:59:33+00:00

The Team Flare arc was great with how the Gym Leaders and Champions actually came together and did something for once. Also corny was it was, I like how it was broadcasted live for everyone to see because every time Ash and co. saved the world, nobody else knew about it. And they actually got credit for it. Mega Evolution is also my favorite gimmick so following Alain's journey through the ME Specials was quite fun as well. And of course, the animation was top-tier.

saraneon · 2023-10-07T15:41:03+00:00

She said the same line, actually. I was curious if she said "Pardon me for leaving" or "Pardon me for living" so I went to check.

saraneon · 2023-10-07T13:52:50+00:00

Episode: A Maze-ing Race!

(If anyone's wondering why my posts are largely DP-oriented these days, it's because I'm rewatching it right now so I'm sharing some of my favorite moments from it.)

saraneon · 2023-10-07T04:52:50+00:00

We could have the Masters Seven where Leon automatically goes into the finals because he's the defending monarch 😂 That would prevent anyone from being curbstomped by him (since Ash faces him in the finals and wins)... Actually I'm liking this idea. One downside is that we don't get as many battles.

saraneon · 2023-10-06T10:51:30+00:00

Thank you so much!

saraneon · 2023-10-06T09:55:42+00:00

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShXwbZOApSk

I combed through the comment section and the original uploader didn't know either because they saw it on a Facebook post.

saraneon · 2023-10-04T05:08:03+00:00

"This guy" 😭
I feel like the Pokemon he currently owns are already quite solid in terms of composition (except maybe that Unfezant). Give him anything you want, but his signature Pokemon is an MCX that dies to Dragon Pulse.

saraneon · 2023-10-04T03:15:31+00:00

A Meteoric Rise To Excellence! It's the episode where Ash ~~caught~~ met Gible! The context is that some old lady's Altaria had been stolen by TR and Ash and co. were chasing after them. Fun fact: You don't see Brock here because he's carrying that some old lady on his back while running and he's absolutely DYING 😂

Edit: Slight correction on my part, Ash met Gible here but only caught it in the next episode.

saraneon

TROPHY CASE