What a coincidence: I worked a 10 hr shift before watching THIS! Just like back then with the Leon VS Alain match. Man the generosity of Journeys knows NO bounds! :D ....yeah this episode was not good.
I've come to learn for a long while now that when it comes to Journeys, it Really is best to keep your excitement & expectations to a 50/50 coin flip-like level; No Matter What
Go and despise Tomiyasu the biggest bigot japanese people already went riot and blamed Tomioka who was the one the coward Tomiyasu let all the responsibility because he's a lazy mediocre I've been saying this for YEARS wake up dummies Tomiyasu is the guilty here he and his biased for his favorites and his previous work because he's jelous of Yajima success back then in XY he was messing with the production for years that much that they saked him demoting him in his charge of general director because he pissed off even old members of the staff like Iwane Tomioka etc because they messed with their work!
Leon is the very definition of a Mary Sue character cause he has no flaws that we can see anyway and on the topic of him being the strongest did he rightfully earn that title no he didn’t unlike him Cynthia actually earned that title and rightfully so since both her anime and game counterpart has shown why on multiple occasions why they both are as strong as they are unlike Leon were his game counterpart is a complete joke I actually think that his game counterpart is just as easy to beat as Diantha counterpart is and that’s saying something that’s my opinion tho and I respect your opinion if you disagree so yeah I definitely understand why some people don’t like him and I think it’s completely understandable
"So seeee? Journeys doesn't have inconsistent and illogical writing at all!" With the way the Masters 8 has played out, I couldn't help but remember that quote from you after the Drasna battle. Leon can be unbeatable without being untouchable, this is basically the problem everyone had with Tobias - nothing but a plot device to stop Ash from winning Sinnoh. Fully expecting at this point that against Ash, he'll suddenly lose half his strength, at least until Charizard comes out. He's the hero of the story, so naturally he has to be able to give Leon a tough fight.
Maybe the writers stopped after eading "un-" and thought they were the same thing ^^ Seriously though, Tobias is the better character at this point, at least he had a purpose in the plot that he fullfilled, and the battle was fun to watch. shoehorned in as he was. Leon just unnecessarily destroys the worldbuilding and any believable stakes the tournament could have had.
Honestly, kinda routing for Ash to lose and Cynthia to step up and wash Leon. The fanbase already holds her as the strongest so it would make sense and give Ash something to strive for on his way to be the very best.
@@duelist4512 the previews already set up ash vs leon. If anything, it would be nice to this make cynthia not want to retire after her battle with ash. Shes literally the best champion and she shouldnt retire.
Dianthia deserve more respect than this. It's sad a toturment between champions is being treated as a side story. It doesn't respect the title and power of other champions, nor give us a solid battle full of strategy. Only shove Leon and charizard along with gen 1 as the best because nostalgia. I hope anime fans now understand why game fans hate Leon with a burning passion.
I can understand that. I generally have no hateful feelings towards any game characters, what bothered me about Game Leon was that they told us, not showed, that he has a bad sense of direction, when he ALWAYS get's where he is supposed to go to without struggleing at all. The unbeatable part wasn't really shown that much as well, but I can buy that, we'll defeat him anyways just let the people of Galar dream. The anime really is what made me dislike him, by not just making him unbeatable, but also unapproachable. I guess the writers were too scared because Rillaboom was defeated by Alain that Leon wasn't strong enough, so they made it defeat almost all of Diantha's Pokémon.
This is not a tournament between Champions. The entire PWC was created as a way for Ash to battle Leon since he can't do it the regular way (the Gym Challenge) due to not being in Galar most of the time thanks to Journeys' region-hopping format. The PWC is a compromise that lets Ash work his way up to battling Leon while also allowing him to visit different regions.
@@theking8347 Yh but still the execution of the tournament should be done better. I get its the only route where ash can fight leon since he isnt taking the galar league however this is one of the most desired tournaments matchups pokéfans have been waiting for. And seeing both alain and diantha but degraded so much despite their achievements is just gonna make people hate leon even more. Because if this was a simple league, it would he understandable (cough tobias) but no, this is the tournament between the world’s strongest. Yet their getting destroyed like all their pokemon are lv1. its just unrealistic and damages the reputation and hype of the title of champion tbh.
@@Ammiteur9 but he was shown to have poor direction skills as early as the beginning of the game where he didn't even know where the pokemon lab was despite it being in his hometown his charziard had to show him the way there was even a funny moment where he rushed off to help someone with hop's yelling that he was going the wrong way. Over all my problem with journey's isn't the leon hype its the lack of important moments happening which is what happens here instead of showing us their battle leon and diantha's battle was overshadowed by two random kids who have nothing to do with the plot so there wasn't much hype to be had in this episode and tragically enough its not the first time
Im an anime and charizard fan but dont like leon. Like any other shows the intrigue comes from the side characters and how they are taken care of. Naruto treated thm like sht in the end, so is this one. It just feels lazy
What made it even worse is that they had the balls to advertise that we would be getting Cynthia's backstory, but we only get like 1 minute of flashbacks. If they are going to skip a masters 8 battle at least flesh out Cynthia's backstory a lot more instead of the useless girl gets lost plot. Why didn't we see Cynthia's gible evolve into gabite and Garchomp? Lets be honest, we all knew that the Leon vs Diantha battle would only be glossed over, but we had our hopes up that we would instead get a Cynthia backstory episode which will set up the Ash vs Cynthia battle. But this episode even did a sh*t job at that. Was expanding on Cynthia's backstory that much harder than animating that useless girl gets lost plot? OMG Journeys. I've been defending Journeys a lot because it in the past has gotten a lot of overly harsh criticism that it either did not deserve or other series did the same thing, but Journeys was the only series that gets called out, but this is legitimately redicolous.
what I would LOVE to see is how she got Spiritomb. NO ONE owns in Spiritomb in the show. And we know its wild backstory so seeing how she got her hands on one would have been EXCELLENT
@@mang4260 fair point it did diantha and diantha fans so dirty the fact that rillaboom sweeped a team it can happen but its just dumb WE DONT LIKE GAMEPLAY LIKE ANIME WE LIKE ANIME ANIME
I feel like this show has multiple part time directors with the amount of quality shifts between episodes. One moment they respect the show with the Lillie and Serena return episodes and some master 8 battles like Cynthia vs Iris, but than we get awful battles like this? Does Journeys just want to make us hate everything to do with Gen 8? Leon is already such a boring champion, but now they have to ruin his battles too? You know the one aspect that might save him from his serve lack of screen time.
I think they are trying to get out of Journeys as soon as possible, so they can get a fresh start on the next saga, I think we are going to see Ash go to Paldea and the writers will simply write as if Journeys never happened. that will be the best way to go, just pretend that Journeys never happened.
@@theflyingdropbear2009 Honestly Journeys isn't the problem, it's the people making certain decisions, and it's unfortunate that the staff is probably taking the negative feedback in the wrong way.
@@rich355 I strongly suspect that there is a second/third-tier team writing the rest of the Journeys series, while the main team is focusing on the Scarlet and Violet series. The last couple of months have been all over the place, when it concerns the Masters 8 tournament, while Journeys for a decent portion has been good, the Masters 8 tournament does place a shadow over the rest of the series, as this is the penultimate arc, which is unfortunate, as it will leave a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths.
@@theflyingdropbear2009 I just hope the next pokemon anime will feature a new protagonist because frankly Ash doesn't need to be the lead anymore. It is time he moved on and become a bloody "pokemon master" already. At least make him a supporting character in the next anime. Also we need a more MATURE tone. No over the top edge lord but something similar to the Twilight Wings anime. It is time the anime grew up a little bit
But it's LEON. He's the UNDEFEATED CHAMPION. He has a CHARIZARD. He's PANTS WITH DIRECTIONS. Anytime anyone brings up Leon I feel obligated to shout this through a megaphone.
I had a feeling you'd be angry about this episode and rightfully so. I didn't even realize that the first half of the episode was basically a copypasta of the shitty "Koharu focused" episode but yeah you're right, it is with little to no substance, a lackluster flashback that still doesn't tell us much about Cynthia (although Smol Cynthia needs to be protected at all costs, especially from these batshit craptastic writers of this series), and then gave us those two useless AF brats. Like come the hell on. We miss Leon v. Diantha for a lost brat that nobody will give a flying fuck about ever again. Then we find out Diantha's Pokemon have been sweeped by one stupid Rillaboom (some of which were resistant to grass btw) and she's down to Goodra which uses fire blast to try to take down Rillaboom or at least weaken its ass only to find out it somehow tanks it wholesale. I'm sorry but what the fuck?! That makes no damn sense! At least mega Gardevoir tried to put up a decent fight against the Gmax brokenzard...but still gets ganked by a Gmax wildfire...which blows through a powered up redirected psychic wildfire attack. These writers must really hate the master 8 final battles. Cuz damn. Why must the supposed biggest tournament in anime Pokemon history be treated with such disrespect/inconsistencies, and lackluster battles? Like wow....I can't even with Pokemon Journeys anymore. If Ash V. Cynthia isn't any good...and done dirty. I'm quitting this fucking show....it makes me sad because I love Pokemon. But this is how I feel. Sorry for my swearing in spots. Just pissed off about this week's episode. Seems to be the general consensus of us fans this week. Here's hoping next week's episode is better. It better be.
I'm probably one of the few people in the community that adores Diantha, so seeing this episode of course pissed me off. She gets absolutely no respect but at least she defeated Lance, so bad apparently that he left early lol. Jokes but yeah, at this point I just want this "tournament" to be over. So tired of Leon honestly....
Love anime Diantha , she’s such has one of the more interesting roles in being a champion in which she’s also a star in kalos. Sad to see Journeys flick her off like that.
Honestly you said it. It amazes me how Journeys manages to crap the bed so much with its inconsistent AF writing. Poor Diantha got done dirty. She deserved better.
You’re not the only one I know the kalos region in games was underwhelming but I could swear that there are people in the writers room who hate kalos there’s no way that Diantha was that outclassed compared to Leon
I love Diantha and Gardevoir is one of my all time favorite pokemon. This broke me, I'm genuinely neutral to these types of things but this actually ticked me off. I'm happy Gardevoir actually put up a fight and didn't get 1 shot but still very disappointed with Journeys....again 😤.
I mean, both of them are true ... though to be precise, having plot armor isn't the problem, but when it becomes visible to a ridiculous degree because of the battles being completely unbelievable.
Leon is just a broken character. They're not portraying his strength properly in the Master Class tournament. His battles are so one sided. The only good battle he had was earlier in the series with his battle against Lance.
For real thought. Like, Journeys if ur gonna advertise this walking sponsor of a Champion as the strongest of them all, then wouldn't it be better to not leave it as just his label but instead showcase his strength? His FULL STRENGTH. 1v1 battles are SO much more different than 6v6s =_= We need evidence of his strength, present evidence, not announcements that he's beaten Champions' Pokemon
I don’t buy Leon as the world champion I’ll never understand why and how Alain and Diantha lost the way they did Maybe not so much Diantha since she didn’t get much screen time in the Kalos series but at least Alain actually proved and showed a lot of things to the audience and actually had a storyline The only thing that Leon has going for him is his personality but I’m not convinced he is supposed to be the world monarch
If Leon vs Ash does happen, it’ll honestly also make Ash look bad. Leon pretty much swept Alain and Diantha, but we all know they’re likely gonna make him struggle against Ash. And yeah, it’ll show how much Ash has grown as a Trainer, but when your opponent has swept everyone but is struggling against only you, who also regularly struggles as well, it’ll just be “main character-itis” again. If Leon was struggling against Alain and struggled even more against Diantha, then it’ll be rewarding to see him struggle against Ash.
Or it will be a curb stomp battle. Or Ash won’t even make it to Leon, that already happened before (like… Always, Ash never made it to the finale until gen 7).
don't insult Tobias like that, he was way more believable, his strength had an actual purpose in the story, and the battle against him was at least fun to watch ^^
Diathne didn't deserve to get slapped by leon Diathne is a champion of kalos We all knew that leon was going to win But diathne should have knocked out at least 3 more of Leon's pokemon before she lost Leon didn't even use charziard until the end, this would have made sense if leon faced a random trainer. Put respect on Diathne
if ash was there instead of diantha that g max wild fire physic, max air stream combo will land on Charizard knocking him out they just hate her , … I kind of don't care , or give a shit but she was my fav champion ..
You know, I actually really liked Leon, I liked that he was role model for ash and I loved his personality. then he started beating Alain with ease, and now this? I can’t bring myself to say I like him anymore.
Tell me about it. Leon is my second favorite champion after Cynthia and I loves his personality and goofy attitude but Journeys is literally crappy on what makes him cool. I understand they want to make Leon look good but by sacrificing the other characters reputation is horrible.
I’ll never understand people who defend poor battles just because they hate a series or hate the series characters Clearly Alain vs Leon is awful but boy oh boy Diantha vs Leon is way beyond that Leon is Tobias 2.0
@@gioanysgonzalez3396 The worst part is that this doesn't even *MAKE* Leon "look good." It just makes him look like a weenie and a punk who can't legitimately win a fight against another person without everything being completely, utterly, overwhelmingly, and hopelessly stacked in his favor from start-to-finish. This isn't Leon proving his strength, it's the writers giving him "God Mode" plot armor.
I call bullshit on the Monke sweeping an entire champion's team. Diantha's team is strong against grass type. All her Pokemon are either strong or neutral against Grass type Rillaboom.
Yeah. Alain’s Chesnaught did better against Giganticmax Rillaboom than Diantha did here. Not only that, Alain just one shots it afterwards with Charizard. How does Rillaboom sweeping Diantha’s team make any sense?
I never really ranted online, but this episode made me VERY, VERY ANGRY Here are my reasons: - The Rillaboom knocked out a few of Diantha's pokemon, which is too unreal; Diantha's pokémons' defenses are not that weak - When the fire blast hit the Rillaboom, the Rillaboom looked untouched. That is too rigged - Following that, Diantha's reaction shot either meant that the Rillaboom was like legendary-strong to her, or whoever made the show REALLY downgraded Diantha; - The G-max Wildfire that adsorbed the Max Airstream would not be broken by another G-max Wildfire - the Max Airstream made it stronger - Leon did not do anything in the show. Compared to all other champions who helped fight the villian teams, Leon only faced Eternatus and failed to contain it. I don't care what Pokémon he uses. He does not deserve that high spot - Diantha's reaction shot towards the end was questionable too - like she didn't expect to be defeated despite all that happened. Diantha CAN'T keep being surprised throughout the whole episode. That is like patronizing her When Lance lost twice in this Pokémon series, I wasn't too happy with that either, but I let it slide just to see what's up. Ash beat Steven with a Z-move, which is doable; at the same that, they made the Pikachu vs Metagross fight feel forced - to me, at least. And now this ... I agree with you that it got worse and worse. I'm sure some of my points overlapped with yours. I'm just too angry - still - to sort them out. You get it
Honestly, the battle MIGHT have been salvageable if that Fire Blast had actually knocked out Rillaboom. And if the idiots who wrote this hadn't shown Tyrantrum knocking out Dragapult, a Ghost type Pokemon, with Hyper Beam. Seriously, do these writers not even know how types work? If Leon was going to overwhelm Diantha, he should have lost at least 4 Pokemon in the process. That's enough to convey the difference in skill without completely humiliating Diantha. Dragapult could have beaten 2 Pokemon, Rillaboom could have beaten 2 more, but then Diantha makes a comeback with her Pseudo-Legendary and her Starter, who are undoubtedly the most powerful members of her team. They could have even had Leon grow cocky (I know, giving the Gary Stu an actual flaw, the horror!) and because of this, Diantha catches him off guard and starts to turn the battle around with Goodra beating Rillaboom with a single attack before holding its own against Leon's next Pokemon instead of receiving a OHKO. Then Mega Gardevoir casually flicks Leon's third Pokemon aside in her regular form without breaking a sweat before either beating or tying with Gigantimax Charizard after Mega Evolving. If Gardevoir managed to take down Leon's ace in its most powerful form, even if she fainted in the process, it would show that his Charizard isn't untouchable so Diantha's dignity wouldn't have been COMPLETELY obliterated.
@@tomnorton4277 i know this comment is a year old but this is perfect, i will now delete the canon battle from my memory and try to gaslight myself into believing your version is what actually happened
@@Roseberry606 Thanks. Over the last year, I've actually fleshed out the idea more. Here's how it goes; Dragapult vs Aurorus Aurorus tries to set up Reflect and/or Light Screen but Dragapult penetrates them thanks to Infiltrator. Diantha realizes Dual Screens isn't going to work but Aurorus manages to set up Stealth Rock before being knocked out. Dragapult vs Tyrantrum Tyrantrum takes a Dragon Darts and uses Rock Polish before Crunching Dragapult. Dragapult breaks free with Thunderbolt, then it and Tyrantrum launch Dragon Darts and Rock Slide at the same time, resulting in a tie. Rillaboom vs Hawlucha Firstly, Rillaboom has Grassy Surge. There's no way it could be as broken as it was in the anime unless Grassy Surge was constantly healing it. Rillaboom also gets hit by Aurorus' Stealth Rock upon switching in. Onto the battle itself. Rillaboom and Hawlucha both use Acrobatics until Hawlucha gets above Rillaboom and X-Scissor's it into its own drum. Rillaboom uses Drum Beat which Hawlucha tries to dodge but Rillaboom leaps onto its own roots and lands an Acrobatics. Hawlucha lands a Poison Jab but when it moves in for a High Jump Kick, Rillaboom dodges and wins with Acrobatics. Rillaboom vs Gourgeist Grassy Surge is still in effect and Rillaboom immediately hits Gourgiest with Acrobatics just before it wears off. Gourgeist uses Trick-Or-Treak followed by Shadow Sneak but Rillaboom takes it and wins with Knock Off, though he's visibly tired at this point. Rillaboom vs Goodra Goodra allows Rillaboom to hit it with High Horsepower to activate Gooey. With Rillaboom's Speed lowered, Goodra has a clear shot and finishes it with Dragon Pulse. Mr Rime vs Goodra Mr Rime is hit by Stealth Rock but Rapid Spins it away, then lands a Freeze Dry. Goodra endures it and lands a huge Fire Blast, which means Mr Rime has technically taken 2 super effective hits (since Stealth Rock counts as being super effective against Ice types). It has enough strength left to use Psyshock but Goodra uses Dragon Pulse at the same time and both Pokemon faint. Gardevoir vs Charizard Leon cockily sends in Charizard, who no longer needs to worry about Stealth Rock thanks to Mr Rime's Rapid Spin, and Diantha uses Gardevoir who immediately Mega Evolves. Charizard fires a Heat Wave but Gardevoir splits it with Psychic, then simultaneously uses Thunderbolt to land a super effective hit. Leon Gigantamaxes Charizard who tanks a second Thunderbolt and lands Max Air Stream. It then follows with G-Max Wildfire, trapping Gardevoir who tries to use Thunderbolt to break out but can't penetrate the Max Move. Leon orders Charizard to finish the battle with Max Air Stream but Gardevoir uses Psychic to control the G-Max Wildfire, absorb the Max Air Stream, and send both Max Moves back at Charizard whilst strengthening them further with Psychic. Charizard shrinks as the Max Moves land and Gardevoir is sweating. Then, to Leon and the crowd's disbelief, Charizard faints. Gardevoir vs Cinderace Leon compliments Diantha's Gardevoir and sends out Cinderace. Gardevoir blocks Cinderace's Pyro Ball with Shadow Ball, then uses a Pixilate boosted Hyper Voice. Cinderace charges through it with Libero Iron Head but Gardevoir allows it to get close before slamming a Shadow Ball straight into its head at point blank range. The explosion blasts them both back. Gardevoir is visibly exhausted but Cinderace stumbles after taking a Shadow Ball to the face. Gardevoir tries to finish it off with Psychic but Cinderace uses Sucker Punch, not only turning it into a Dark type but also enabling it to attack first. Gardevoir finally faints. Leon beats Diantha with 2 Pokemon to spare but Diantha proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that her Gardevoir is more powerful than his Charizard. And Gardevoir also put up a good fight against Cinderace for good measure.
@@tomnorton4277 DUDEE THIS IS SO COOL love what you did with aurorus and how it is defeated pretty quickly compared to diantha's other mons but is still shown to be a problem for leon because of its stealth rock, so despite not having as much screen time it still did something meaningful for the battle The dragapult vs tyrantrum and Mr mime vs goodra ties would've been very satisfying to watch and gardevoir coming in and splitting a heat wave with psychic would've looked super badass animated charizard fainting and cinderace winning the battle for leon instead is also a very nice twist and really unexpected in a good way (i can even picture the shocked reactions of fans watching that scene lol) Overall amazing job dude, this was absolutely worth the read
I'm convinced that Leon is cheating and feeding his Pokemon like Rillaboom the equipment of Pokemon Steroids (Rare Candy) because how does the Rillaboom go from being beaten by Alain fairly easily with like 2-3 attacks, and than become the MVP against Diantha?
It’s funny cause of what the announcer or referee said at the beginning of this tournament that everyone would be on equal footing including Leon yet suddenly it doesn’t feel that way at all it literally feels like he’s become Tobias 2.0 by humiliating the 2 of strongest trainers in the world both from the same region one slightly stronger than the other That’s bonkers to me
Also don't forget diantha's goodra hit a dead on FIRE BLAST, ONE OF THE STRONGEST FIRE TYPE MOVES, against a rillaboom who is weak to fire SURVIVES IT AND THEN KOS GOODRA HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE
And considering that the Rillaboom had already battled all of Diantha’s other Pokémon besides Gardevoir as well. Considering Alain’s Chesnaught did better than Giganticmax Rillaboom and even one shotted it with his own Charizard, Rillaboom had no reason to be this strong.
I swear if the first part was the whole episode (with some minor changes) I would be happy as it would be nice for Ash and Cynthia to interact before their battle and getting more of Cynthia’s past. But they had to rush through and be so lazy to skip the battle and make Leon AGAIN untouchable. I swear they don’t want to show battles bc more work. But this is the Masters 8. This is supposed to be the battle of battles here. And they still went to cheap route when they spent a month on fillers. Remember when people said the Kalos league was rushed, this is far worse
At least kalos had good battles the masters 8 is just abismal the battles are trash the Characters that were shown to be strong get extremely down played just so Leon can continue being “the unbeatable champion”
@@Bee_814 I've heard people compare Leon to Jiren from Dragon Ball Super. Completely trash comparison btw. Yes both felt unstoppable, but at least with Jiren it felt real and it felt like Goku and the others had to work together to beat him. This feels like Tobias 2.0 with no rhyme or reason.
I don’t understand why the writers didn’t have Ash go after the Galar gym badges like every other season. Have Go, Chole, and Hop journey with him as a mentorish figure for them and after winning the league then have the World Championship matches be available. At that point Go, Chole and Hop would be decent to great characters. In between have Hop mention and talk about his brother for us to know about him and the other champions. Instead of contests, Chole could develop a thing for battling since she would be with Ash a lot. Or even have contests and battling be her style of fighting. Chole could’ve been a much better character. Same as Hop if he went on a journey with them. Traveling to different region could’ve stayed only for the World Championship fight and for Goh to increase his Pokédex. When the World Championship happens having different gym leaders of all regions join in to battle each other and Ash would’ve been awesome. I have more to say, but it’ll be a huge paragraph honestly. If you want my thoughts on certain things then I’d be happy to say.
Yeah if Ash would travel Galar then Chloe also would develop but she is the only pokegirl who spent over 100 episodes, took 49 episode to get her starter and yet she and her Eevee hasn't developed at all. In addition, Gen 8 is Galar but throughout the series Ash had very little interaction with Galar. He has only 1 Galar mon and probably the weakest member of his current team lol
@@Eki718 I also agree that she is least appeared pokegirl in the series. Also Chloe is the only pokegirl who literally had no interaction with Ash in first session. She used to ignore Ash
Leon is one of the worst written characters I've ever seen in my life, and I cannot believe that I'm saying this, but I could have written a better Master's 8 arc ALL BY MYSELF. I've NEVER said anything to that degree before! >:(
Yea I watched this episode on the way to work. Literally stopped at a stop light and saw over half of diantha Pokémon were gone. I’m so ready for this show to be over.
This is the fault of the writer focusing on too much on Gou and forgetting to give Ash & his Mons development. They could have made on ark showing, Ash trying too figure out what weakness Leon has this way we get more Ash episodes & giving Leon development, killing two birds with one Stone.
i mean Ash Is a top notch trainer at this point i would believe he can transform a reanimated Dracovish and an egg Lucario in superHeroes in months but godaaaaaamn Journeys Only portrayed him as a plot device, his doubt and problems and Dreams don't care ... oh yeah because the story arc of Eternatus was scrapped for Eternatus being in a fucking box ... thank you
@@Mepphy99 The problem with that is that they don't *show* Ash being a better Trainer; he does the exact same things he did in the seasons before, maybe even less, and his best training sessions were lead by other Trainers, like Paul ... even in this episode, we got 2 seconds of each Poemon just doing random movements. Compare that to Cynthia, who knows how to massage Garchomp to increase her speed; it's like they wanted to show how superior she is. If they want to show Ash's professional growth (which would indeed redeem a lot of Journey's problems), they did an absolutely pathetic job.
Unless goh is the next protagonist next series there is 0 point in giving him this much spotlight while Ash the “main” character has this little devolopement
@@kannan07 (pokemon anime is lazy, everything is plot armour. Why can't pokemon become a smartly written series?) So if the pokemon saga was good... P O K E M O N Written and directed by Cristopher Nolan
@@MrBruh-yb9qi what you are saying is literally only just confusing me The hell do you mean? And also,stop acting like Pokemon never had good battles The battles in journeys don't even compare to sm xy dp And even for Pokemon standards,journeys is not well written At all
The only thing that would save this humilliation for our kalos folks is greninja beating leon's charizard i cant see otherwise what will save this series we need diantha and alain spectate this battle for sure..
if I may be honest, can you just get over that fight? Alain is a Mega Trainer battler by TRADE! He deserved that win back then, and he deserves it to this day. He fights mega, from E4 members, and even takes on legends. He destroyed the entire Gym challenge in Kalos. Greninja if anything got LUCKY it went toe to toe with Charizard and I've been trying to explain this to ppl who think Greninja should have won, since day one. Ash winning would make absolutely no sense. He does not train like Alain traiins. if this doesn't get through to you, then think of it this way: Alain has Mega Zard but only fights gym leaders. Ash has his Greninja and does nothing but battle only and solely megas ALL HIS LIFE! Who, logically, would you say should win? See how I did nothing but switch the roles of Ash and Alain? That's all I did. I bet you would say Greninja is stronger. But when it's Alain, somehow this community goes blind. OMG
@Mister Perfection the fact you not only cant defend yourself, but also cant read my entire arguement, says EVERYTHING about why you're wrong. Sad af 😂😂 Dont reply if youre not able to take the heat.
I used to watch the anime so much when I was younger, over and over I would binge each series but that's when I started to notice something. For Diamond and Pearl after the Paul fight and then Ash had to fight a guy with TWO legendaries I felt so salty as to why a guy like that is even in the league. If Ash won the Sinnoh league he wouldn't just RETIRE plus he FINALLY defeated Paul, into when I found out what they did for him against Alain I just dropped the anime and never can bring myself to finish it. My opinion has changed since then, now that I noticed that Alain is the ONLY rival Ash never got to defeat but I still feel like he was at his PEAK in X&Y so I wanted to see him win for ONCE. Your channel is the only real insight I get about the current Pokémon anime but I really just feel like his journey ended in Kalos so I'm keeping it that way by never finishing it.
I actually vibed with you. Although, I liked how XY&Z ended in general (with Serena and Ash, and Bonnie and Squishy, and how Clemont was doing after the adventures and that scene how Ash returned to Pallet Town) but man, even that anime series didn't really do very well with the most pivotal moments beyond the Flare Arc, primarily because marketing and the PKMN franchise as a whole is getting in the way against the quality of the writing. 😔 I haven't watched the anime since the XYZ days.
The spirit of the anime is dead after the end of Kalos. The defeat of Ash was... Well, not really logical. But The battles and the build up were great. After that, they just dropped it. Alola was so childish, and Journey is garbage. They even stopped produces movies in the continuity of the current anime after the last of Kalos saga... Yeh. It's dead, spirit and soul of the original saga. Basically, it happened when GO app came out. A new wave was ongoing, and all the spirit was away for nothing. It's sad.
We probably should've had a Pokemon Sword/Shield alternate anime where the new protag goes around and starts his or her journey, challenging gyms and finally competing in the pokemon league. Adapting from the game itself
I would have jumped the shark already if it wasn't for the fact that Ash vs Cynthia right after this will be 3 episodes long, which in terms of dedication/pacing so far in terms of JN is legit the best it has done. So I have a bit of confidence in the upcoming fight, but I'm still not getting my hopes 100% up. Gonna wait till all 3 episodes are out in 3 weeks' time then binge them all in one go. I HOPE TO LORD ARKOOS THEY DON'T FUCK IT UP.
I love Diantha and Gardevoir is one of my all time favorite pokemon. This broke me, I'm genuinely neutral to these types of things but this actually ticked me off. I'm happy Gardevoir actually put up a fight and didn't get 1 shot but still very disappointed with Journeys....again 😤.
The fact you're basically "neutral" and still dislike it shows how bad Journey is. Normally, it's two sides. Dislike or don't care. If even neutral dislike it, it means it's a failure.
Just as I thought and said. Journey's is a rollercoster in terms of quality. There are so many ups and downs but when it goes down it really goes down. Also these episodes really don't help sell Leon to us. Anyway to make it short I dislike what the show does and it happens so consitently that you think that they can't do good stuff. Which isn't true, if they try they can make some good stuff. Just for some reason they believe making Leon this unstoppable perfect character is the way to do this finaly. Which is problematic in many ways but this comment is getting already too long so I say this. These writters can do good it's just a shame they think this is the way to do it. Honestly I just want journeys to end at this point.
It would have been way better to see Dianthia sweep Leon first and then we see him sweep her at the end. That would have made more sense, giving her the respect she deserves, and kinda having a slight plot twist
Simple fix hop is a nerd who knows about all of the other champions going up against his brother in the Masters 8 tournament the Cynthia backstory happens in the same episode as hop vs Leon in preparation for Diantha Leon is encouraging his little brother commenting on something we see during the back half of the battle which we get to watch in the last 5 minutes of the episode because the first 17 West Bend with the setup and the Cynthia backstory but we see hop getting better and better as a battler with each Pokemon he loses and yes he ends up swept but he comes out with an alolan Ponyta as his fifth Pokemon and I'm terrible with names but the final evolution of the Sobble line is hops first Pokemon and it's going up against the now subbed in Ace of his brother's team Charizard and hop straight up looks his brother in the eyes and tells him that while Gardevoir is the biggest threat to Leon's title in diantha's team the threat level does not in fact come from its Mega Evolution but in fact because it can communicate with Diantha using nothing but eye contact and that it's far more powerful then alain's mega X Charizard was and that even against him out of 10 straight battles between Leon's base Charizard and Alonzo mega X Charizard the only battle where Leon's Ace one just so happens to have been the outcome that played out in the first match of the tournament and that Leon got lucky and yes wild Pokemon 007 James Bond loses do Pokemon register 006 that does not mean that hop did not just give his brother a workout and some cold hard facts you see how to do it Journey's writers to make people care about Leon don't just give him when after when with the only respectable match she's had in the tournament being against Ash where he finally lost make the dude relatable he's got himself a brother in the player characters rival build on that familial Bond
Well, don't lose hope... I think they could get even worse, even with the few episodes left !!! Journey always amaze me at how they manage to surpass themselves to do even worse. Alain VS Leon was the peak for me, they successfully did something even more awful. What can i say... At this point, it's basically god tiers bad.
Even BW had a better writing than this. It was all good and fun in first 20 episodes of 1st season of journeys until goh took all the spotlight and then they f everything up
@@Wildcatt1999 Yeah, Journeys has too many plot threads going on at once. A bunch of slice of life that doesn't have anything to do with anything, Go entering the Mew-research team, Chloe starting to participate in contests after meeting Serena and Ash battling other champion-level characters. Adding to that, they suck at writing the battles. So many 1o1-battles feel incredibly one-sided and they seem to have included the turn-based game mechanics, which are a lot more boring.
The only reason no one has a complain against the perfect Cynthia is because she's a girl and she's beautiful. Admit it. That's why they hate Leon and like Cynthia 😂😂😂
Brilliant! This is exactly how I thought - this series has been a disaster that had all the potential in the world. As a writer, what kind of genius thought this was a good idea, let alone the guy who allow this pile of shit to be produced and published. It full of so many inconsistencies, it got to be some cruel joke that they making content like this. I suspect there will be some awesome battles ahead, but it things like this I will take away from the series. So much potential, but far from living up to it - it embarrassing that they can produce this shit for us to watch and expect us to some how accept this.
@@AnkanDebnath97 Well, if that's true, than could it be that it's less about the writers and more about the higher ups pushing them in this direction? I want to believe there might be more to it than we think.
@@HisAutisticKnight probably. DP and XY were near incredible, and BW, despite its NUMEROUS issues, still had some pretty high highs every now and then.
I think I figured out how Rillaboom was made out to be so strong Leon's ace strategy with it is Acrobatics With that move, Rillaboom's speed makes to tricky of a target to actually hit And once it lands a hit, Rillaboom can just pile on the onslaught with his other moves Reason Diantha had a hard time is cause Most of her pokemon involve landing direct hits or are too slow And it's probably why when she finally landed a hit with Goodra, Rillaboom is bulky enough to take the hit Cause it hasn't taken much damage in the other fights So the key to beating Rillaboom, is keeping him stationary or cut off his movement Making him more open to attacks
What the fuck? How the hell could a writer like that fuck this up? Granted BW sucked but you'd expect the writer to LEARN from the mistakes made in that series. Considering how damn good XY was, as well DP which gave Ash his best rival AND the most character development he's had since the OG series, writing an episode like this shit is baffling.
Now I'm glad we won't be seeing Leon vs cynthia bc at least she won't be disrespected in a ridiculous battle where she loses 5-1 or so. I don't believe Leon is that perfect, that great despite the writers' efforts to make us think so. Most boring champion ever, with no other backstory than 'l'm the best and always have been🙄' And this series that started with a lot of potential... downgraded really fast
First of don’t apologize for your rent on this episode I agree with you and you pretty much describe what a lot of people were probably failing about this episode
I didn't expect much from this episode. But for Journeys to even get lower than the bar I set myself for this anime is just... Wow. Ash VS Cynthia at this point is the only hope that this show has left.
For people who use the term it's a kid's show come up with a better argument because kid's who watch this show aren't dumb their smart to see the bullshit the anime pulls, also the reason many of us watch this show as adults is because we care about ash if we didn't care about him we wouldn't watch the anime, for me I'm mad ash is going win on some plot armor I want ash to earn the win not like some bullshit that going to happen against Leon or a kid's playground like the alola league
This rant was absolutely exquisite 😂 and pretty spot on. The filler plot would've been just fine if this has been a 2 parter, but not in a single episode.
PokemonRangerBoy, I couldn't agree with you even more. Just like you said, The playwriter thinks we viewers are idiots. This is actually the first time for me to watch a Pokemon episode that I don't understand the principles of Pokemon Battles and storytelling anymore. That's how bad this episode is. There are so many questions that I want to ask why did this happen? Thank you for mentioning everything that I was thinking and want to complain about. Cheers!!!!!
Leon taking out 4 of Diantha's Pokemon with 2 of his own could have worked if the writers had Diantha make a comeback with Goodra and Gardevoir. Show Leon getting cocky, convinced he's got this battle in the bag, flexing to the crowd because he's no longer taking the battle seriously, then BOOM! Goodra burns Rillaboom to a crisp and switches out when Charizard fires a Dragon Pulse. Gardevoir absorbs it and instantly Mega Evolves. After Mega Gardevoir shows Charizard that he's going to need to pull out all the stops in order to take her down, Leon Gigantamaxes. Then we get the Psychic, G-Max Wildfire and Max Airstream combination and Charizard falls! Leon is shocked, since the possibility of Gardevoir actually beating Charizard never crossed his mind. He gets sloppy, sending in Inteleon, only to have it one-shotted by Gardevoir's Pixilate boosted Hyper Voice, which Diantha saved as a last resort. The crowd starts to cheer for Diantha, having witnessed a spectacular comeback when all seemed lost. Gardevoir is exhausted so she's quickly taken out by Cinderace but Goodra blocks Pyro Ball with Muddy Water and blasts it with Dragon Pulse before the steam clears, forcing Leon to switch to Mr Rime. At this point, they could even have a little moment of Diantha relaxing with a rueful smile. She knows she's about to lose but is content because forcing Leon to use all 6 of his Pokemon and defeating his seemingly unbeatable Charizard is a feat that no other trainer has accomplished since he became the Monarch. That's how this should have been done. It allows Diantha to maintain her dignity and shows that she's truly worthy of being a Champion thanks to her ability to adapt and strategise under pressure. It also gives Leon an actual character flaw, which is that he gets cocky when he takes an early lead and this can be used against him.
Oof. That Monke is too strong. The fact that it tanked a direct fire type move also makes no sense to me. I wish they gave more of his Pokémon spotlight as well. Or his more battle time so I can know more about his battle style? Or something better than this? I understand the “lost at the league” thing has been done in other seasons, but this is the biggest tournament of anipoke history, so I expected more
well tbf fire blast from goodra wasn't stab and you could make the argument that lance's dragonite should've have been ko from diantha's aurous blizzard attack to which it 4x super effective.
But ... Ash vs. Cynthia could have maybe the potential to be really good, so this is okay ^^ Yeah, no, I'm past the point of rage and just apathetic at this point, and despite what some people say, no Battle can be good enough to save the Masters8 as a whole, especially because Ash is not far behind Leon in terms of unbelieavability. And I still see (few) people defending this crap, so if the PC thinks we're idiots, they are not entirely off the mark, collectively. (Seriously, I've seen the argument that Ash's Pokemon can go up against Champions now because he's a more experienced Trainer ... which is not how things work, especially not when we've never seen him do training differently from before.) But to be fair, I don't think the problem is that Leon is "perfect", because in regards of flaws, etc., the other Champions are basically on the same level, which is okay. The problem is more that his display of strength has ZERO nuance to it, and to make him look strong, they have to tear down other, more established and beloved characters - which also is possible in theory, but not like this. There wasn't even any of the tactics that made his victory against Alain somewhat interesting to what, he just won, only because he has to, and in a way that was so baffingly unimpressive it took me a few minutes to realize that he one-shotted Mega-Guardevoir, after Diantha showed the best move of the Masters8 so far, F*ck off, show! And again, I know Journeys only cares about effects with no substance, but there is NO way Ash can even remotely stand up to him in a believable way - like, even more no way than against Daigon (and Cynthia, of course). So the two most likely outcomes are either Ash wins, which isn't satisfying because not believabel, or Leon wins, which nobody wants to see... even without my bias towards her, Cynthia winning is the only good option they have left, and even that would be a stretch after what we've seen here. But they had so many last-minute retcons in the Series, this would actually be a good one for a change. It's all so f*cked ... But I will join you in your effort to protecc Cynthia and place her Loli-Form and new Outfit in my new Pantheon next to Loli-Dawn, new Serena and Bubbly-Champion Iris ... they're the only good things coming out of this entire shitshow. Edit: Forgot to mention one more good aspect: Cynthia showing her aptitude in actually caring for her Pokemon, giving Garchomp a massage to increase her manuverabilty. Again, no bias, but Cynthia's the ultimate trainer, she should be number1, and this is all garbage ... huh, getting angry again after all...
I wholeheartedly agree with you, thank you so much for taking the time to type all of that down. It really summarizes what we have been through so far, the only thing we can do is hope Cynthia will make everyone happy, my best wishes. 💚
@@hopeinvoked1822 thanks, nice to know some people read through my ramblings - but they're also kind of a therapy for myself so I don't go crazy with all the dumb stuff going on ^^
@@luard8047 I know the feeling, it feels like bottling disappointment up is a doom desire-ish version of self-destruct. Better let it out than keep it inside. Wish you a nice day, take care and stay safe. 💚
This was SO disappointing, Alain and Diantha are up there for a reason. Ash has never beaten or Diantha so how could he beat Leon. Yes, Ash did became the first champion of Aloha but it was also their FIRST Pokémon league so they didn’t really have any requirements to enter. Also Alain’s charziard has fought legends already what did Leon do? Nothing that we have seen. Diantha is apparently supposed to be stronger than Alain too so I was hoping this one would be better, but no we got this. If they were gonna do this might as well just put Cynthia against Leon bc she is 2nd on the rankings to make things a bit more fair. Fcking Kalso reps got done dirty.
Don't get too much into it... Journey is a fucked saga since day 1. This tournament don't respect any character, they just don't care. They have only one purpose, putting pokemons on screen, to promote merch. No writing, no respect of the past, no build up... Recently, i rewatch Kalos saga, and it's so good... Maybe try this: rewatch old sagas.
@@mang4260 recently I finished rewatching Advanced series and I am close to finishing Diamond and Pearl series, honestly they were much better than the garbage Journeys has been
The fact they skipped the whole battle makes sense since it probably would have been depressing, just a big sweep as the title of episode says. The fact they wasted time on something that didn’t need to be there was weird. The only final part was cool with the animation and music. But yet again… it was an awful episode. Idk anymore… well Ash vs Cynthia next… better pray the next battle is so much better.
Journeys is just stupid. I was so pissed of with Diantha vs Leon match. Kind hate Leon 's writing and his as a character is very mundane. Also, Mega Metagross losing to Pikachu ? Plot Armor.
As bad as this is, the worst thing about Pokemon Journeys lies on possibility of making Misty and Tracey getting together(to solidfy "Ash is the only person in Pokemon anime that doesn't get older" thing)
You know, i currently rewatch Kalos saga, and i'm at the part they encounter Korrina. And, just by watching it, i can see the downfall in writing for Journey. Because you can see character development for her during Kalos, novice gym leader, learning about Mega-Evolution and struggling to control it... Training... It was amazing build up for a character. And my gosh, the battles were amazing: animation, music, movements, trainer reaction... And that was trough multiple episodes. Also, Diantha battle in Kalos saga, during some episode before, we saw her (in anime), defeating an opponent during an exhibition match in Kalos (first encounter with Ash). She had this "champion aura", you know, like we saw why she's the champion in Kalos. So, watching those episodes with Leon, basically someone without background, just spamming one-shot and win for the plot, it's ridiculous. That's non sense. He's not even a Master, a Champion... He's just strong in the anime without any build up. The fact he constantly win with "normal" attack (not even super effective) against his opponent is just ridiculous. He also has plot armor like crazy. So... How is it accurate to put a final Ash VS Leon, when Ash literally has 0 build up in Journey and was way weaker in writing than anything we saw during Kalos, being stronger than Diantha or Cynhtia, or even so, Alain, when they are basically at another level? Journey is the worst shitty saga i've never seen during 25 years of pokemon anime. I mean, BW was pretty bad (noob), but still had great moments, and some kind of spirit and soul. Journey is the pinacle of hollow concept and lazy result for all department. The animation is also 10x inferior than anything we saw before in pokemon anime, i mean, they constantly use static images, then some "slide gif inside it", they have situation where you see "pictures" of trainer, like they literally don't move an inch, even the pokemons sometimes, and suddenly, they put a huge flashy move to distract viewer, but when you watch it closely, you see in fact the pokemon don't move at all, they just show an image and do some light show with his move. It's so bad COMPARED TO BEFORE. For me, Journey is ultimate example of failure and downfall for a long date anime ongoing. But the worst part of it is the writing. And you can't blame Covid for having shitty writing. Anyway, Scarlet / Violet is the last chance. If they failed it, i'm done, forever. I struggle with Alola but still see some good points, i despise Journey, i love Kalos, i like basically any other gen (except gen 5, which was pretty lame but had good animation)... So yes. Or they put some effort and think about respecting the vibe, spirit and soul of the anime for SV, or i just quit. And let's be honest, in Journey, who cares if Ash defeats Leon at this point?
Maaan, such a great Idea to rewatch Kalos ... I watched 3 filler episodes, and all of them had more interesting and dynamic battles than most of Masters8 ... Ash fighting 2 Team Rocket Pokemon while Pikachu was blinded with mud ep10 or so was soo good, why did they forgot how to make him actually look competent?! T.T And yeah, that's in addition to the character writing ...
5:14 Yes, I agree! I’ve always thought Cynthia was better better champion in the anime! The Champion I’ve wanted to see Ash battle against a Big Pokémon tournament. Leon is an good Champion, but he’s not my favorite! As for writers just Continuing to screw up with this series I can’t say I’m surprised. Writers get clue or end this series and hit the road!
This video was so cringe to watch. So many terrible points made that basically contradict themselves. The one comparing Leon to Cynthia was especially egregious, since Cynthia was also always shown sweeping anyone and everyone she faced with her Garchomp. This is just some guy screeching about his fav losing to a character he doesn’t like.
Okay, Diantha has never been my favorite champion. She is easy and her team is mediocre. However, I can respect her spirit, dedication to being the champion and a famous actor, and her personality. For Leon to make a total pushover of her and drag her through the mud is ABSOLUTE FUCKING HORSE SHIT!!! Honestly, it looks like it won't matter who wins between Ash and Cynthia at this point. The writers of Journeys with their micro brain writing skills for battles will likely just make Leon make mincemeat of either one. If they do, they will make an error that even a monkey would call stupid. If Leon makes a pushover of Ash, then the writers will have achieved making the next pokemon anime's ratings nonexistent and people raving about it online. If Leon makes a pushover of Cynthia, then the writers will make people storm the pokemon anime studios demanding that the battle be reanimated and done right. The writers will also make a downright false battle. People debate on who is the stronger champion between Cynthia and Leon. Even though I personally think that Cynthia is the stronger champion, with her team having finesse and Leon's team just being pure power. The thing that no one can deny is that both sides have to work for a win against the other. If the writers for Journeys make this sort of horrible bullshit mistake in the final match, it will not end well.
I saw (on bulbapedia) that the semifinals was cut into 4 episodes and thought “ok 2 battles, 2 episodes each, since they are 6vs6 battles”. Then when I read that Lean already won in the first episode (actually half of the episode) of semifinal, I was like what gives. You are not wrong when you said people don’t like Leon because how OP he his. Making Leon too OP is not only not fair for the other characters but not fair for Leon. Just like you said, he doesn’t have a personality and to me he isn’t that great. I kinda want Cythina to win against Ash and he her battle Leon instead. To show who is the better champion of the 2 (Cythina of course should win). Sadly that unlikely because the whole Journeys arc for Ash is for him to battle Leon. Also this made so sad for Diantha because X and Y are my favorite games and I love Diantha. She is my 2nd favorite Champion after Cythina. I was so happy when she beat Steven. This episode made that awesome battle a totally waste.
Diantha is a good character. In the anime during Kalos, she had good writing. In the games, she's not the best however, but still a good character. Yes... This episode is wasted, like all Journey basically.
I wouldn't say that Leon has no character, tbh, the problem is more that he's basically what Ash would be as a Champion, just a Pokemon nerd who likes to battle; so it feels a bit redundant to make them battle, because the winner will eventually be the same kind of person anyway. I guess the best you can say to differentiate here is that Leon uses a bit more planning and tactic ... though we haven't seen any of that in this match.
@@charnalk5572 No she isn't it... There are TONS of Pokémon characters who are either completely bland, unimportant or badly written and Diantha, despite not being the best, isn't one of them. She actually has a personality and no, she isn't "spewing random stuff" she interacts with the other characters, talks about her job and has classic champion lines.
@@charnalk5572 The problem with Diantha is that she is underutilised but that is also the problem with other champions. In the original dp games (not platinum), Cynthia didn't help you fighting team Galactic, same thing goes for Kukui with the Aether foundation, Wallace didn't appear a lot Pokémon Emerald just like Iris in bw2. I agree that she should have appeared to help the player with the team Flare stuff (but she couldn't even know about it because she doesn't have a holocaster). The Lumiose city parade is a moment dedicated to the player and AZ, not to Diantha, and it was organised by Sycamore, not by the Pokémon League staff but she still talks about it before it begins because she's his friend. And no she doesn't "say nothing" or "do nothing". In the post game she trades a Pokémon with the player, and when she appears in the game she interacts with Lysandre and you can see they have different points of view about life, then when she's with Sycamore they talk about Mega Evolution, and when you battle her at the League she expresses her enthusiasm and her faith in the new generation. Yes she isn't an amazing but she isn't an empty character, she doesn't deserve the irrational amount of hate she receives, that's all. You don't need to talk to me in such a condescending way.
Journy goal realy is to piss of everyone -Is a kid show - No ... even a kid be piss over this , no1 likes stuff happen offscreen ,expetials ones that we rather see !
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