Are there any moments in the pokemon anime that you think a win from a battle, contest, or showcase should have gone to the other character?
- honestly, a ton of jessie’s showcase performances in kalos, but i get especially salty about her coumarine show
it’s not even that i wanted jessie to win it, but the reception she received was so pointlessly negative. like, there was no reason for it to be so negative?? she could have just... lost by a few points and the story wouldn’t have changed, but they made it a total flop??
the challenge was pokemon styling and while the girls went for cutesy themes, jessie crafted what was essentially a halloween costume for pumpkaboo. jessie’s a coordinator so she’s using coordinator’s tactics here--you accentuate what your pokemon does best, and so she accentuated the menace of her ghost type. but kalos isn’t for coordinators, kalos is a Girls Only club of conventionally attractive pokemon to sit around looking pretty and conventionally attractive all day and fuck you if you want to try to push those standards or show off what makes your pokemon unique. no. cute and pretty only.
literally LOOK at this shit it is phenomenal????
HOW WAS THIS EVEN A CONTEST... BUT NO KALOS THE LAND OF NO JUDGES LET THE AUDIENCE DECIDE MOTHERFUCKING AESTHETIQUE ASS HIPSTER BLOGGER PREP ASS FRENCH FUCKING TWERPS
i really, really, really hate showcases.
- jessie also should have won her contest battle round against harley by technicality in saffron city. vivian giving BOTH of them yellow cards is the most foul shit i have ever seen. there is no reason jessie should have been penalized for harley’s actions or her responses or HAVING A WOBBUFFET. god im so mad.
basically harley refused to attack, locking them into stalemate. wobbuffet can’t attack unless first dealt damage, harley took advantage of this and gave saffron city the most boring contest battle ever, and for some reason both him AND jessie got punished for this??? i dont understand why the judges fucking let that fly liKE.... HOW WAS JESSIE SUPPOSED TO RESPOND!!!! HER POKEMON IS A WOBBUFFET!!!
everything that happened after that was clever on harley’s part but the beginning of it makes me so fucking mad.
- i am a kalos league anti, but my reasons for it aren’t butthurt at ash losing a league or thinking XY is the best series or what have you. i am more than fine with ash losing leagues forever, actually! i mean, he’s my boy and i’m rooting for him, but to me leagues are just one way he can succeed and grow, they aren’t the be all end all of his character.
the lead-up to ash’s loss at the kalos league + how it ended was bad fucking writing! plain and simple. ash had a tried and true breakdown in kalos, one that had been building for the whole leg of the anime. he’s surrounded by friends who idolize him, sometimes to a fault, he’s partnered up in a new and strange way with a pokemon who has a history of deeming its trainers not worthy, and by the time he’s going for his eighth badge? ALL his rivals are surpassing him. sawyer started following in ash’s footsteps, and right before ash challenges snowpoint, sawyer beats him. ash is confronted dead on with the fact that in no time at all one of his rivals has surpassed him. like it was nothing. couple that with the fact that ash has NEVER won a battle against alain--alain comes out on top, every time. in the months leading up to the league, ash’s losses mount and mount and mount and he breaks down and runs away, something UNHEARD of from someone like him. the story frames it as though all these losses are the precursor to a triumph--that’s what you do in storytelling. you drag your protagonist down low, the lowest you can get them... and then, through hard work and true grit, you allow them to defeat the odds and overcome their struggles.
but kalos didn’t do that. kalos whittled ash down to nothing and then made him lose again to the person he’d been losing to for the entire anime. no matter how satisfying that battle with alain might have been, it wasn’t enough to make me feel like ash got the good ending he deserved in kalos. i am very happy for all that the alola league did to remedy his past losses... but i still do feel like we were robbed beyond belief.
- more of a general thing, but i think jessie should’ve won at least one hoenn contest! i think she should’ve had a better shot. it sucks to watch her in hoenn and know she’s just kinda wasting screentime because they wouldnt allow her a win. also would have liked harley to win a little more onscreen, but narratively i understand why they only gave him ag160 and god what a fucking battle that was i still think about it all the time. its in my dreams.
