The Masters 8 Tournament was a Failure

[@user-xz9fc7is2b]

I don’t entirely agree:
1) The Masters 8 episodes ended up with a ton of production issues behind the scenes because half of the animators were forced to get laid off thanks to the pandemic. The plan was to only animate Ash’s battles but some people were convinced on the staff to animate all the battles when they clearly didn’t have the time or budget to make all of them as great as they could’ve been. Grant said an explanation is not an excuse, but I also don’t think people should be harassing the animators like most of them were doing during the actual master eight for conditions that were beyond under control.
2) Dragonite (Lance’s) used Hyper Beam. You could argue it needed to move out of the way but AG onwards they’ve been mostly consistent with moves that use a cool down
3. XY also had a lot of cheap animation effects. Pikachu vs Tyranitar where he uses Electro Ball is just a 2d cut out of the latter waiting for him to hit, and they’ve reused the Pikachu Iron Tail ground pound at least several times
4: Lance being in the Masters 8 doesn’t really detract from anything. His only fight before this was against Leon. Also, if Paul, Gladion, Sawyer and Tobias entered the league, there’d be the same arguments about why the Champions aren’t in the tournament. Tobias existed solely to get Ash out of the league in DP and never again, Ash was the Alola representative, and Sawyer beating Steven to take the title of Champion ain’t there yet. Plus the outrage over Paul losing if he took anyone’s place or lost to Leon would be even worse. Also Lance was able to help deal with the Team Aqua and Magma threat. Heck, Lance, Leon, Iris, Cynthia, and Diantha have also helped out against Legendary threats or the evil team manipulating the Legendaries: Operation Tempest, Team Flare, etc, which you could give Sawyer and Gladion some credit for but the Champions did more work
5: OK, a huge problem with wanting Alain versus Ash is that a lot of people just want journeys to be XY 2, except the whole point of XY was that Alain’s pursuit of strength was ultimately blinding him: even if he was the stronger trainer Ash was still the better Pokémon trainer. That’s why he brought new Pokémon to the team after at the end the series he had said he wanted to start over. Also, Ash only used his Journeys team, and given how many people hate Lucario for stealing “Greninja’s thunder” (despite the fact they’re teammates), people would just complain Greninja didn’t return to fight despite being part of the reason Lucario got stronger. Alain needed to show off how he changed and how his experiences needed to make him a better person, but he could’ve fought anyone as long as he had more screen time.
6: Alain never beat those Legendaries either. Also downplaying Leon’s ability when he was able to weak Eternateus and we saw Pokémon matches where he beat Lance (number two) and Raihan (a gym trainer said to rival the champions) isn’t a fair argument either. Both of them have fought legendary, but neither one has one, and Alain also had Steven backing him up in the fight and Alain needed everyone else help to stop the Megalith. Heck Zygarde was the one who did the finishing blow while everyone storming the base was also a slideshow.
7: there were a lot of cool strategies in the Masters Eight that half of the leagues didn’t even bother with. Diantha using Trick or Treat to make Gyrados weak to Ghost type moves, sirfetch using a bug type move to break through Psychic Terrain, Dragonite preventing Dragapult’s range advantage by combining Draco Meteor with a seismic toss, sirfetch using Breaking Swipe to destroy Stealth Rock, etc, Rillaboom using Sirfetch’s shield as a buzzsaw and its drum kit as a extra double jump, etc
The masters eight has its problems, but not focusing on the actual problems how it could be better implemented isn’t really fair criticism or downplaying the good things.

[@havingfunwithelijah214]

Wow someone speaking facts and not just hating on the tournament for not being X & Y 2! Nice

[@user-xz9fc7is2b]

@@havingfunwithelijah214 I don’t think he’s going to respond because I have a feeling if you point out some evidence certain poketubets aren’t gonna give you the time of day, but thank you so much for your comments

[@havingfunwithelijah214]

@@user-xz9fc7is2b hello. I mean I wasn't expecting a response but I was just clarifying why I though what I did for others who read my comments like you.

[@user-xz9fc7is2b]

@@havingfunwithelijah214 ah thanks

[@hippospoop1871]

Man you can't disagree that the whole journeys in a nutshell is a big L to fans, and it's the last series of ash which makes it even worse majority of the episodes before master 8 were pretty boring and the last thing which should have been a game changer , an ace arc which needed to be the best in the history of pokemon was again disappointing. Tbh they did my boy ash dirty......I had a very hard time watching journeys but i had to just for the sake of my boy ash ketchup.

[@channelofnincha6139]

I'm sorry but saying Sawyer should have been in the masters 8 is genuinely hilarious.
Also the whole point of the Diantha was that she was testing to see what the bond phenomenon was, hence why she spammed shadow ball as opposed to moon-blast. Saying Ash would've beaten Diantha if he didn't faint if frankly absurd.

[@Pokiiii62]

She used mega evolution. If she was testing him, she wouldn't have used mega evolution, not to mention why she was sweating? If it was a test, she wouldn't have been sweating the entire match 😭

[@Scott-ws8yt]

@@Pokiiii62 Saying Champions should not be in the final 8 over random rivals is absurd. The only reason Alan was there is he was the most powerful non-champion.
You laughably think anyone wanted to see Gladion or Sawyer in this? WTF?

[@user-yi9mk8ux2u]

@@Scott-ws8yt yes, not only he thinks so, a hole lot of people didnt like the participants, besides, alain being there and not fighting against ash is absolutely shit, and not having a pokemon rotation in ash's part was just throwing away the thing the majority of people loved the most in the WCS, which was the big chance of seeing ash's dream team

[@LittleAl016]

Just because your preferred fanfiction scenario didn't really happen, that doesn't mean that it's a "failure".

[@tristanpelkey9109]

Fr lmao

[@pieterhofkens7259]

Agreed
But ash facing Steven, even tho he's my favorite champion ever, was a mistake imo

[@jasonbornot]

But it was

[@LittleAl016]

@@jasonbornot How?

[@tristanpelkey9109]

@@LittleAl016 Because it wasn't Xy 2 or SM 2 is the answer you'll usually get

[@OrangeToadGamer]

Honestly, I *COMPLETELY* agree, I don't wanna go on a yap session but it baffles me how the Anipoké writers fumbled an arc that should have been the best in the series, but yet again, squandering potential is just Pokémon Journeys in a nutshell

[@Pokiiii62]

For real bruh it was so dogmeat

[@eliaskyriakou6253]

Me too. The only thing I don’t agree with is the way he pronounces Eternatus

[@liamsanimationstudio]

The only real redeeming part was that Pikachu vs Charizard looked GREAT, but the rest was so mid it’s sad, not to mention all of the damn FILLER

[@user-rs8ky8hv6s]

Wasted potential: the series.

[@lexluther5398]

To this day I still mad we didn’t get an Ash vs Tobias rematch. Instead we got dragon type master Lance vs Diantha who has a fairy type ace 💀

[@Pokiiii62]

FR BRUH LANCE A FRAUD

[@peter-mickey-chu198]

This Was Ash Ketchum’s Last Competition He Participated In.

[@Crafty_boy70]

Eh. Tobias was a plot contrivance made specifically so Ash could lose, I don’t think we’re missing anything.

[@AMijo7]

Tobias shouldn’t deserve to be in the masters eight

[@PokePlayFusions]

2:42
Fun fact
Right before the masters 8 started
The animation studio let go alot of their animation staff
Which is why the animation was bad

[@Zenfrogn]

Ehh, I've seen this comment several times now and it makes sense. But people forget that Journeys animation has been ass even before the masters 8.
The only good animated battle episodes were at the beginning. Like Korrina vs Ash. It all went downhill from there.

[@PokePlayFusions]

@@Zenfrogn well you have to consider time constraints as well
They have a week to make an episode

[@PokePlayFusions]

@Zenfrogn ash vs bea
Ash vs volkner
Ash vs paul
Ash vs raihan
Ash vs drasna were also good animated battle

[@Zenfrogn]

Those battles certainty weren't bad at all! They were good, but nothing amazing.. it was quality of diamond and pearl and advanced battle filler episodes. Which again isn't too bad but nothing to write home about either in 2023. It was nowhere near the quality of XY/Alola/Black and white even. Which is sad cuz animation is supposed to get better not worse or stale.
And yeah, I get that they have time constraints, but again, journeys was an anime with a lot of filler, and battling was barely the focus anymore as they tried to turn it into pokemon go. So Ash rarely even battled outside of the league battles so.. they had no reason to not put a lot of budget / time into those when they finally appeared. Then it at least would've been worth to follow the anime. Not to mention most of the times pokemon just stand still and take the hits instead of doing something.. like I get pokemon is a turn based game but like that's why the anime is there to expand on the battles lol.

[@PokePlayFusions]

@@Zenfrogn which is what horizons is doing

[@omarmendez0402]

Do you think there will be a Masters 8 tournament in Pokémon Horizons?
And if you think yes, what should be fixed to be different to Journeys?

[@Pokiiii62]

Hmmm I don't think so.... but I want to ponder this topic a little more since a possible video might come up in the future thanks to you 🤭

[@freshjsmith9616]

No it won't happen horizons is different from the series I grown up with
And now I'm dressed because horizon😔😞😭

[@babyseal8822]

No, but theres chance we got regional paldea pokemon league (since anne mention about pokemon league) and maybe BB league

[@freshjsmith9616]

We won't have a Pokemon League if we get I'm not watching none of horizon League battles heck I'm not watching the series

[@babyseal8822]

@@freshjsmith9616 and? If you dont watch horizons then its fine, what not fine is when you trying to seek attetion by saying I don't watch horizons .-.

[@nehemiahsalters1350]

Bro dissing Leon is crazy. What bro lacks in feats(which he does have weakening eternitus, beating multiple stated champion level gym leaders) he makes up in pure aura alone. Bro has a cap with a crown design and a cape he's simply him.

[@Pokiiii62]

He looks cool but doesn't have the feats that put him up to level with everyone else in pokemon

[@joelcudjoe3833]

@@Pokiiii62ok but the SHOW literally says he is “WORLD CHAMPION” that means SOMETHING in the anime so how you expect Alan to beat leon

[@yuitrigger]

​@@joelcudjoe3833 They could have shown him, do something crazy to establish he is the champion rather than just saying "oh.. yeah this guy is the world champion i guess". The whole philosophy of 'show don't tell'.

[@castform7]

I just wanna preface this by saying that I did watch the entire video so I have full context on your thoughts.
I will say, the animation was not up to snuff a good amount of the time but there is the missing context of a lot of production issues behind the scenes which probably lead to the thought process of "alright, let's just throw our eggs in the final battle". Granted, just because there were issues behind the scenes doesn't really change the fact that we should have gotten spectacular quality for Ash's last hoorah, I'm just putting out the reason why.
I don't fully get the line up take. *Only* Ash Cynthia and Alain should be here? Not Diantha who yes, did seem to be losing to Ash-Greninja but still held her own or Steven who was easily wiping the floor with Alain when they battled and was *actively helping* during the Groudon Kyogre crisis? They should be replaced by Tobias, the plot device created soley to make Ash lose. There's an explicit reason why these guys are Champions and we get to see that in this tournament (albeit it could've been done better). If they aren't the strongest there is, why are they the Champion of the region? Why didn't Tobias take Cynthia's place at the end of DP? Lance has to be there because it wouldn't make sense for the strongest trainer in Kanto *and* Johto not to be. With the points you have made here, the ideal Masters 8 would be Ash, Sawyer, Alain, Cynthia, Tobias, Iris and idk Paul and some other dude since I don't know what other "many powerful trainers" should be here. I dunno that just doesn't feel as appealing to me especially with Sawyer there since I feel like how much he caught up to, actually beat Ash as well as coming close to beating him again was already done in the Kalos League (which semi hot take, has the big problem of speeding straight to the semis even if those battles are peak).
While I have my own slew of issues with the Masters 8 and definitely do think it's sloppy in many areas, the specific points made here do feel somewhat flimsy and basically like you wanted a repeat of the Kalos League. I personally really like what they did in Ash v Cynthia and especially Ash v Leon which really showed off why Leon is such a formidable opponent and is probably top 3 battles in the anime.

[@Pokiiii62]

Your points are so flawed that it's insane
Why isn't tobias there and cynthia is?
Are you forgetting that alain is there yet, dianthia is there too 💀
They could've chosen any trainers they weren't limited to, and they chose the ones who've we've seen lose hundreds of times before the fight even started
We saw Lance lose like 5 times in journeys. Why is he there 😭
At the same time, Leon displayed no feats to put him up to par with everyone there. We just take the "unbeatable champion" at face value and not pry any further
It's incredibly stupid and horrid writing

[@castform7]

@@Pokiiii62 Because Tobias wasn't a character. He was literally just there as a half hazarded way to make Ash lose. Everything about him screams plot device.
Also just to set the record straight, Alain is barely Legendary level. You get on Leon's ass for losing to Eternatus but Alain barely stood a chance when fighting Groudon and Kyogre didn't even fight Rayquaza and didn't even have an impressive showing against Zygarde. Getting overpowered twice and landing a singular Dragon Claw that thing shrugs off before it gets captured by humans (y'know, the thing you hold against Eternatus) is barely a feat. And Lance quite literally only appeared once in Journeys and has shown his strength in other regions. Losing only to 2 other Champions sounds like a pretty good deal.
I really wanna know what other trainers they could've chosen that were better candidates than the people with the title of strongest trainer in the region. So far you mentioned Tobias (who's a plot device) and Sawyer (who already had what you suggested happen in XY so it would be a retread) but who else besides that? Along with the 3 you mentioned should definitely be here and those 2 we only have 5 slots and I don't know who besides other Champions have the feats or title to make it in. Paul didn't get past a single Regi Brandon had so he's out. Gary's not even a battler anymore so he's also out. Who else is there? One of Ash's other League losses? Do we need to see *Harrison* again?

[@LuigiTheMetal64]

When you have the video games, anime, manga, and cards going on, the products are bound to be rushed.

[@Pokiiii62]

valid point

[@adritoganguly5194]

1:14
After a pokemon uses hyper beam it is unable to move for some time..maybe that's the reason 😶

[@minislayer3241]

Yeah, I agree on most of those points a lot. Alan and Diantha were made so dirty there. Like, Alan's fight was rushed and the HALF of Diantha's fight was off screen... The trainer matchups weren't the best and even like that it wasn't complete.
In all honesty, I really appreciate what we've got in Pokemon Journeys, but it's really so anticlimactic for Ash's final story arc.... Like, the anime's called "Journeys" but the main characters stay in Kanto or even if they get to go to the other region, they just, like, go to the middle of nowhere, thus making those travels pointless.
And Goh's is a fine character... If he was an MC for his own anime. Due to his goal being too ambitious he just literally steals the screentime from Ash while not fully developing as a character either! We literally didn't have enough time to see how Ash really bonded with his new team that, I remind you, made him World Champoin thus making this victory over Leon so much less deserved (especially if you started watching Poke-anime with Journeys).
The Galar region and its characters isn't represented as much as we'd love to. While the main story of SwordShield is.... ok... The characters (mostly for their visual designs) are extremely interesting. And the Expansion Pass content got very tiny representation too...
And don't even get me started on callbacks, cameos and reunions. Especially in the "Aim to be a Pokemon Master" part. Could be so much more...

[@Pokiiii62]

I really agree with what you said here, goh takes a way a ton of ash's screen time

[@swift3520]

simply put the issue with journeys is it went in with the ambition of xyz but the resources of bw

[@metascrub285]

I agree that they didn't need to put only champions in the master 8.

[@Roman-Noodlez]

The one problem I have with the Masters 8 is that I feel like none of the trainers or Pokemon besides Pikachu and Mega Lucario (specifically mega state) are giving it their all. The best league battle (Ash vs Paul, Sawyer, Alain, Kukui) you could feel that both trainers were giving it everything they got but that feeling not there in the masters 8. They shot themselves in the foot by making Ash limit himself to only the Pokemon besides his Journeys team because only Pikachu and Mega Lucario were champion tier. Journeys was a lot of missed opportunities, especially for XYZ fans. (I NEVER considered Wallace a champion)

[@liamsanimationstudio]

The final fight was good, the rest was mid.

[@zomorion9183]

I am probably in the vast minority here, but I disagree on Alain being able to beat Leon. Plot reasons aside, Alain's Charizard's best feat was nearly DYING to a Precipice Blades and getting one-shotted by a neutral Dragon Ascent. The legendary Charizard held any sort of ground against was against Zygarde 50%, and even then, Alain would've lost if Team Flare didn't capture it just as he was about to do so. All of this is in Charizard's Mega evolved form, mind you.
Leon, on the other hand, used his base non-GMAX Charizard and held it's ground against Eternatus, who is definitely AT LEAST on par with Zygarde 50%. On top of that, Flare Blitz is a recoil move, and was always shown as such (although it should've been a bit more clear that Flare Blitz did recoil damage to Zard). And Zard used it to one-shot a Rillaboom. Pair that with Alain's crippling weakness to super effective moves, since almost every time Alain's Zard lost, it was to a super effective hit, only exception being Mega Ray where he got defeated by a neutral attack (I know the Garchomp trainer is an exception but let's be real, that mf was not a champion nor did he have a mon that went toe-to-toe with legends). If anything, Alain was shown at his best here, maybe even a little better since XYZ. Since, like his fight against Zygarde, he took a super effective move. Normally, every battle he lost before, he lost to one super effective move. But here, he took that after taking recoil. And using Flare Blitz instead of Blast Burn is also a good sign of improvement, since it synergizes better with his ability, Tough Claws. So I personally don't really think Alain's loss here was undeserved or that he was done dirty. I just find it stupid he was never matched up against Steven, Diantha or especially Ash, and how Lance and especially Raihan somehow did better against Leon (granted Leon probably didn't go head to head against a legendary when he fought them, but still) .
Also, about this loss affecting Greninja's power scaling, if you compare Greninja's speed and now it's ability to basically destroy an E4 level pokemon (i.e. Ash's Lucario, who got done in without a single attacking move), Greninja far exceeds Alain now and is much more comparable to the likes of Steven's Mega Metagross, which I should remind you, almost defeated Ash's Pikachu, the same one that beat Leon's Charizard. So, Greninja still does very well against Leon's Zard and the only thing they didn't retcon on ruin about Greninja or XYZ's legacy IMO (I mean, it should since it now lives and fights with legendaries, so it obviously has had some training to keep up with them). That and Alain's power scaling which I also felt was fair personally.

[@Pokiiii62]

So basically, ur saying that it's less impressive that charizard tanked a full frontal hit from some of the strongest legendaries in the franchise. And more impressive for leon tank hits from one of the Weakest.
Not to mention your taking game mechanics into account when the anime doesn't care about synergies like the games do.
Your points are heavily flawed, my friend (no hate, btw 💙)

[@zomorion9183]

@@Pokiiii62 OK, but where is the weakest/strongest argument coming from?
Eternatus is a pokemon that requires the effort of both Zacian and Zamazenta to take down and whose residual energy allows people to dynamax in the region.
I HIGHLY doubt that one of them can't be on par with Zygarde, especially, when Zygarde is at 50%.
Also we don't know how many hits Leon tanked. I didn't say Leon only tanked 1-2 hits. He BEAT Eternatus in it's base form with a Base Charizard. For a legendary pokemon with enough power and energy to supercharge pokemon across an entire region, that is an extraordinary feat, especially when Leon couldn't tap into that power either. Alain, on the other hand, got destroyed by 1 hit, by Pokemon that only affect the weather in a small area. AT THEIR MAX POTENTIAL. All the Mega evolution special episodes centered around these legends showed us that there sphere of influence is certainly not region wide, just that they drastically change the weather in their sphere of influence, more so than their regular versions.
I think some of your bias for strongest/weakest is coming from the manga, which is a whole different universe, (not to mention Zygarde was in his 100% form when it beat Ultra Necrozma)
Plus, none of it's tankiness matters when Flare Blitz recoil takes that out of the equation anyway, and Flare Blitz doing recoil has always been a thing since Gen 4 Infernape. It was never retconned.
I will concede that Tough Claws may not synergize with Flare Blitz, since this ability wasn't relevant.... almost ever?

[@zomorion9183]

@@Pokiiii62 I thought about it a bit more and when it comes to legendary strength. there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Yes, unlike legendaries like Groudon or Kyogre where if things are left unchecked they essentially destroy the world, Eternatus can only destroy a single region. BUT, and this is big, Eternatus can access and use this power anytime it very well pleases. Zygarde needs both cores to be in agreement to go 100%, which lets them keep Xerneas and Yveltal in check. And in case of the anime, for the evil roots to destroy the world, it needed a HUGE amount of Mega energy. Necrozma needs the power of Solgaleo and Lunala, neither of whom are capable of destroying entire planets (they are essentially super strong ultra beasts according to the games at least). Kyogre and Groudon (and the creation trio and Arceus) are the only exceptions to this rule. Problem is, Alain's Zard ALMOST DIED from getting hit once by Precipice Blades. But then, Mega Rayquaza one shots Groudon and Kyogre, and Alain tanked that right? So Alain is legendary level strong, right?
Not necessarily. Groudon and Kyogre went berserk well before Alain and Steven arrived. And they hit each other multiple times in that exchange, particularly Kyogre, whose Origin Pulse would surely do major damage to Groudon, especially since Primordial Sea was active. THEN Mega Rayquaza comes in and blitzes through them. This explains why it didn't kill Alain's Zard outright and why Delta Stream and it's weather nullifying effects weren't particularly apparent, as they didn't need to be against a weakened Kyogre and Groudon.
And as for Zygarde, 50% base form is on par with Eternatus. Why? Because both of them are capable of causing region wide calamities, Eternatus more so, since it doesn't need to be overcharged and corrupted by mega energy first. How do we know this is just the region and not the whole world? Because Greninja needs to stay back in Kalos specifically in order to fight the roots. There were no corrupted Zygarde roots in other regions. How did Alain's MEGA EVOLVED Charizard do against Zygarde 50%? Almost lost. How did Leon's BASE Charizard do against Eternatus who is on par if not slightly stronger? Beat the base form. Do you see my point now? Also I am curious as to why Lysandre's Mega Gyarados was so strong. Think you could do a video on it? (Btw, sry if my previous comment was rude, wasn't trying to be)

[@eliaskyriakou6253]

Alain beating Leon is a bit too much but his Charizard getting destroyed like that was absolutely horrendous. His Charizard actually survived(just barely) both Precipice blades and Dragon which btw were used by some of the most broken Pokemon ever unless you think that Leon’s Charizard hits harder than Mega Rayquaza and Primal Groudon. His Charizard also survived a giant water shuriken from Ash-Greninja which created a nuclear explosion but couldn’t survive a dragon pulse which just shook the ground a bit.

[@zomorion9183]

@@eliaskyriakou6253 Again, you ignore how it also got hit by Ancient Power and the flare blitz recoil from one shotting rillaboom.
Also he survived precipice blades and dragon ascent individually, not both at once. That probably would've killed him.

[@tpfoxCastro]

Stop the Eternaus slander, my boy did nothing to you! Eternamax Eternatus has a cool name, it's the masterhand and created a generation phenomenon, my guy is awesome and powerful! Maybe not has powerful has the creators of land and sea and the personafication of nature and balance, but he's still one of the strongest legends (especiall when you remember that amongst the legendaries you have colorful birds)

[@Pokiiii62]

It has a decent gmax design I'll give you that

[@GameFreakSucks]

@@Pokiiii62it’s just a hand lmfao

[@Asmin99]

I thought i was the only one who thought that tournament could been better with ash old rivals

[@zash1233]

it wasnt a total disaster cause we got to see dianthas true power when shes not holding back

[@jamesrobson8308]

Animation wasnt there fault, also it wasnt that bad. Nah some animators were laid off or something which is why we had so many recap episodes

[@viniciusvini981]

I really have to dissagree when you say lance shouldn't be here, he is champion of two regions, the first in the anime, he SHOULD be here, if someone shouldn't is DEFINILY alain, diantha didn't almost lost to ash, she was holding back to see what was tha "greninja power" they said, remember what that one moonblast did? If she wanted she would straight up mega evolve and spam moonblast, almost like vs lance, because that was a fight she was SERIOUS not against ash, not to say the weird power scale that would make, in alain losing to a elite four and beating greninja that "almost" beat gardevoir, alain got stronger between those points, but so does the others

[@Pokiiii62]

Are you kidding me? If she mega evolved to begin with, then that means she IS trying. If she wasn't, then she wouldn't have used mega evolution in the first place. Not to mention, Lance lost to leon in journeys already, and the only times we've seen bro is losing 😭

[@justuploadytvideos2739]

​@Pokiiii62 Nah I don't think Mega evolved your pokemon means your 100% going at full strength also why she spammed shadow ball instead of moonblast to A Dark Type?like hello?I know the anime doesn't care typing but this is a bit too much

[@Spheal4Life]

Man, I will admit, you make good points, but I don't entirely agree. (But full respect to you ofc)
I agree that the animation was disgustingly disappointing. Compared to XY, it just doesn't feel like the world-wide tournament with supposedly the 8 strongest trainers. It's not fast-paced, it's not as hype, and honestly Leon VS Ash was the only good animated scene.
Next, you were totally right on the match ups. Disappointing and not hype at all. Cynthia VS Iris was the only good first round match-up. Diantha VS Lance was boring. Those two have nothing to do with each other. Leon VS Alain was made to make Leon look good (which is stupid) and Steven VS Ash was just to make those two fight?? I guess. They should have made Alain VS Ash, and Steven VS Leon. Or Steven VS Diantha (referencing ORAS and XY), Lance vs Leon (as a rematch), and Ash VS Alain. Anything but the match ups now. (Also they barely made Alain and Ash interact, even after the matches?!)
Finally, I think the people chosen for the masters 8 were perfect. I mean they’re the literal champions of each region, the strongest crowned trainer. Imagine replacing Diantha with Sawyer. That would just be disappointing in my eyes. Though they might not be the strongest trainers, they're definitely the right people for the tournament. Get Tobias outta here!
The final battle's animation was epic. Probably the only good thing outta the tournament. Gotta give props to the animators there. And also, why did they make Ash sit in the stands? MAKE HIM INTERACT WITH THE OTHER CHAMPIONS DANGIT!

[@Pokiiii62]

That's actually a valid point. Ash should've been with the other champions, but he wasn't 💀

[@DaARK_Chocolategang]

This whole league falls flat because the build-up for the league was nonexistent. This whole series was Ashes last dance. But they blew it. Before the league we just skip around to Ash ranking up. Whole battles, training were skipped over. This led to non of Ashes wins feeling believable. Reason being they were never earned. Steven in all reality should have smoked Ash. But Ash just pulls out his win button with his Z moves and Megastones. Without those, Leon would have won. The fans would have liked for his win to be earned, not contrived by writers who were already moving on. Too add the cherry on top. After Ash beats the league, defeats Leon, we go back to Goh. No celebration or anything. This whole league represented what was wrong with Journeys. It was half assed, and the animation wasn't even all that good until Leon. Ima watch XYZ now😭

[@joelcudjoe3833]

Did you just say E-MAX eternatus is not on the same level as mega ray AND ZYGARDE IN THE ANIME? Oh god yea no. It took TWO legendarys to beat E-MAX eternatus itself and it’s the embodiment basically of dynamaxing also ALAIN charizard MEGA X got help from team flare, weakening zygarde with team flares beams. You are NOT COOKING

[@Pokiiii62]

You're kidding, right? So just because it took two dogs to beat eternatus, it's somehow stronger than everyone else?
You didn't even provide feats for eternatus at all. It doesn't matter if it took 1 or 7 legendaries. Why does that correlate to strength at all 💀

[@eliaskyriakou6253]

E-MAX Eternatus is broken in the games but that’s it. In universe I don’t think he is at the level of Zygarde, Rayquaza or any of those especially in its based form

[@GarryDKing]

We shoulda got Ash, Alain, Leon, Cynthia, Tobias, Nemona, Paul, and Steven as the final 8. Nemona mainly as the wildcard to introduce Paldea to the anime
Cause honestly Horizons' problems stem from Alola as well, I kinda felt the way they made Ash win that league was just a free pass for him considering his opponents in it were his friends, team rocket and guzma basically. And he was the only one with 6 pokemon, 2 of which were an ultra beast and a melmetal!
Ash's story was really destroyed by poor choices on the writer's side.

[@BloodRedNegative]

How those damn writers, etc. are still out there, living in peace, baffles me.
Criminals

[@aureliamastergoomba1278]

4:25
Hey, after most people were very disrespectful to the staff after the Kalos League, we did NOT deserve that rematch!

[@babyseal8822]

I'm still remember the protest, even Death Threat

[@al-sir]

To this day I wished we would have seen at least a semifinal rematch between Alain and Ash. Given that Alain is one of the few trainers that Ash has never defeated.

[@Pokiiii62]

Exactly friend

[@eliaskyriakou6253]

I would be ok with it even if it was in the first round. I just wanted to see the Kalos league redemption

[@marinagaleotti]

5:14 Eternatus is waaaaay stronger than any other legendary. Look at the stats. It also needed two legendaries to be beaten.

[@gioanysgonzalez3396]

Keep in mind that stats means NOTHING in the anime. I mean Pikachu would have never been able to defeat legendary Pokémon if the writers used stat logic. Plus keep in mind that just Eternatus needing two legendary to defeat it isn’t that impressive of a feat since other Legendaries have done it in the past as well.

[@eliaskyriakou6253]

In game stats aren’t accurate in power scaling in the anime or lore. In the games mega pseudo legendaries have higher stats than cover legendaries who are broken af in the anime and Mega Rayquaza and Mewtwo have higher stats than the literal god of the Pokemon universe

[@marinagaleotti]

@@gioanysgonzalez3396 its impressive because most didnt

[@guzmashuji]

i understand your point especially about the previous powerful trainers such as sawyer, gladion, etc not showing up at all, seems the animators forgot about them

[@inktirrell5016]

I'm Glad Paul Wasn't In The Masters 8 Cause They Would've Butchered Him Like They Did To Alain Man. (Bro You Cooked With This Video).

[@Pokiiii62]

Thanks, friend, much appreciated 💙

[@inktirrell5016]

@@Pokiiii62 Ya No Problem, (And Once Again I Apologize For Over Doing It With The Gardevoir Trolling) And As Much As I Like Leon he Should've Logically Got Clapped By Alain.

[@eliaskyriakou6253]

Very true especially since if Paul was in the Masters 8 he would have probably taken Alain’s place. It would have been better if the Masters 8 were Ash and 7 random trainers no one knows nor care about

[@viniciusvini981]

One thing i noticed is how for you the tournament flows around alain, what is completly hilarrious, eternatus is by far one of the most powerfull pokemon ever to exist, alain couldnt beat a elite four, and he just was demolished by the legendaries, your takes when it comes to POWER are COMPLETLY BRAINLESS

[@Pokiiii62]

And your reasoning as to why eternatus is somehow so powerful is?.... you didn't even say anything 💀
Not to mention alain'z charizard. LITTERALLY tanking hits from the strongest legendaries in the verse is by far more impressive than leon only taking one from one of the Weakest 💀

[@Scott-ws8yt]

@@Pokiiii62 Eternatus has always been strong, how is this a serious question?

[@benjaminbefouled]

Alain beat Malva in the mega evolution specials and took down Zygarde 50% forme. His charizard also landed hits on Primal Groudon and managed to stay in the battle for some time.

[@animaxstorys3904]

What are you on bro ? Alain literally beat 10 mega evolution trainer's and one of them was malva of elite four

[@randomedgygamer2191]

They killed Alains character and team to make Leon look strong and a huge opponent for Ash,, lame. The whole thing was lame even though it had huuuuuge potential

[@Pokiiii62]

Exactly man do disappointed

[@jyno07]

I feel like battles should have been 6v6 the moment Ash started battling Elite 4 members or at least when he at least hit top 20.
I feel like champions was an ok move considering they are the top trainers in the world. We definitely should have seen battles with Sawyer, Alain Tobius, Harrison, Paul, and other rivals of Ash. Also Ash should have used all of his pokemon throughout the series I feel. Not just his journeys team. How he was rotating his team after the tournament should've been how he did throught that season of the anime. Definitely catch new pokemon, but also show the strength of all the other mons he has as well.

[@Pokiiii62]

Yeah that's definitely valid

[@Normalguy187]

Pin? Steven vs ash was shit its should have been ash vs alian and palu should havebeen in master 8 bro has garchomp

[@Pokiiii62]

Sure thing

[@jetguy128]

Ash vs alain should have happened only if greninja returned. No frog, no rematch

[@Normalguy187]

@@jetguy128 or ash vs paul it's would have been better then ash vs baby face steven

[@jetguy128]

@@Normalguy187 i mean ash already beat paul and they did battle again in journeys. I like paul changed a lot and became some sort of mentor to ash

[@Normalguy187]

@@jetguy128 true but he so strong he should in masters

[@adityarana1356]

Stop gazing up XY . Journeys has its own pros and cons adn XY has its own
Even i think Goh even doesnt deserve hate you are giving him

[@necro9541]

Watching the whole video I extremely agree. I also feel like if they were gonna make this feel special as this would be ash’s last league they should have done 6 v 6 each time. With doing 6 v 6 they could do a bunch of things like doing an Ash Greninja vs Mega Charizard X reanimated fight. I even agree on Tobias. It was a shame that we couldn’t even get a Cynthia vs Infernape fight which was teased which never even ended up happening. If they did a mix of the sinnoh and kalos league plus some of the original masters 8 elements it would have been the perfect league.

[@Pokiiii62]

EXACTLY

[@luigiRobs14]

Journeys was pretty much a let down from start to finish so of course the final tournament wasn’t going to be anything special, they had the potential to make it the best in the whole series but fumbled it so hard, the lack of Ash’s older Pokemon, bad pairings, plot armour and every battle other than Ash vs Leon feeling like filler and even then they had Ash almost lose even with Leon having a handicap on himself and to top it off in the final arc Ash confirms that the Masters 8 meant nothing to him towards becoming a Pokemon Master.

[@Pokiiii62]

I thought the beginning had potential but then the middle was just so mid

[@thearrivalcyberseignister8898]

They promised us a tournament of champions, not a tournament of silksong fans

[@LittleAl016]

And they delivered.

[@metascrub285]

Watching some of your vids i can definitely tell xyz was your favourite series and you wanted to turn journeys into a xyz sequal.

[@clv3d]

I know you already made a video on this, but goddamn did I want an Ash v Alain rematch so bad. Also, i feel like Greninja’s return didn’t do him justice.

[@Pokiiii62]

FRRRR SO MUCH WASTED POTENTIAL

[@cobalt7248]

Ik every tournament-esque anime arc has to have that one fight that gets skipped but I was so mad they skipped Leon VS Diantha

[@Keitako_]

The beginning of this video starts with persona 5 music 🎶
This championship tournament really did fall off compared to XYZ

[@Pokiiii62]

YESSIRR P5R IS PEAKKK

[@goumbrizara6152]

In my opinion they should of made so there’s 8 regions but then each region brings there champion and two of the strongest trainers in that region/ born there. I also thought it would be cool if ash used each of his teams depending on which region the person he’s fighting was from. For example he would use the kalos team if he was fighting Alain or the sinon team if he was fighting Tobias etc

[@randomplayer8759]

this is not XYZ 2.0

[@LittleAl016]

And that's good.

[@Kings0424]

​@@LittleAl016 Stop hating. The XY/XYZ is the greatest and it's rated as the greatest

[@LittleAl016]

@@Kings0424 No it's not. And the 617 ratings that give it such a high ranking aren't even from the target audience.

[@Gravity_Ws_only]

Leon’s feats ARE cooking the best in the world in the masters 8,his performance there is his feats
Also did you really expect this man to beat eternatus by himself? Alain didn’t handle zygarde alone
Some good takes overall but I lot of small things I disagree with like Leon being a fraud

[@jenniferdaniels701]

I would have liked seeing some of the old rivals in earlier matches, like they did with Iris. Some of the champions and Alain, too. But there's too much that they needed to do (at least in fan's opinions) for Ash's last generation. There's no way it could have all been incorporated.

[@Red137]

The big problems for me was the alain disrespect, diantha vs leon being shown offscreen and the disrespect to her, and the fact it was framed that ash was going to lose to steven and cynthia, so i wasnt satisifed when his pokemon randomly went op for some reason and clutched it

[@ThepreviousPan]

I absolutely agree! I've been so disappointed in this tournament. Alain got done dirty :(
You described this tournament's issues really well! Keep it up!

[@Pokiiii62]

Thanks friend!!

[@LFGXD12FePlay]

Oh yes I remember that Ash vs Cynthia battle... oh boy. The JN fans were crazy defending that battle, especially the Mega Lucario va Garchomp part... But yeah I agree with you. That tournament (and Journeys in my opinion) had SO much wasted potential

[@Pokiiii62]

FRRR BRUH PPL BE SPITTING IN THESE COMMENTS

[@mapleshadow22070]

Yeah like the lucario fans thinking he's stronger than greninja now for beating Cynthia's garchomp which proves nothing when Cynthia's garchomp has no feat that comes close to greninja and mcx's feats, and still forget that a not trying base greninja is so fast lucario can't even see him, and he makes Steven's mega metagross look like a slug in comparison who can speed blitz Pikachu, even pikachu's quick attack he did on Leon's zard is nowhere close to current greninja's speed

[@viniciusvini981]

​@@mapleshadow22070 you coundn't be more WRONG 💀 cynthia's garchomp would demolish greninja and mcx, cynthia got to rank 2 with no gimmicks for a reason, btw, seeing your photo i know you will try(and fail) to counterargument, know this: cynthia's garchomp destroys mcx and greninja and is not even close

[@viniciusvini981]

​@@mapleshadow22070 and I won't even lose time with the pikachu quick attack part, damn how the heck EVERY word you say is wrong, how much time it took t bem able to lie that well????

[@mapleshadow22070]

@viniciusvini981 u mean the same garchomp that lost to ash's lucario who was demolished by dragapult who lost to tyrantrum who got destroyed along with 3 others to rillaboom who got one tapped by Alain's base zard? Also same garchomp who's attack got blocked by landorus' bare arm while Alain's mcx stopped 50% zygarde's extreme speed with his bare hands? Don't even try using ranks when it's said in the show that it's based off more wins and who climbed up fastest lmao, u gonna say Cynthia's garchomp is stronger than Steven's mega metagross and diantha's mega gardevoir next huh? When those 2 showed feats that garchomp could only dream about, and if ranks matter so much then lance should've beat diantha cus he was previously ranked 2 before but is now ranked 4 and still lost to diantha who was behind him and iris was ranked 7 and gave Cynthia a tough battle and almost won if she didn't mega evolve garchomp, and ash is ranked 8 and beat the top 3 ranked trainers and won the whole thing, and good luck getting Cynthia's garchomp to hit current greninja let alone see him

[@swift3520]

i need to know why they gave us an absolute show for the charizard 1v1
like half the budget went into animating zard slicing through those ancient powers and getting a clean hit in only to get one shot two seconds later

[@Pokiiii62]

exactly bruh, the animation was good for only those frames. I'm glad someone caught it

[@swift3520]

@@Pokiiii62 its one of the most controversial moments of the m8 but they sure took care to make it look good😭

[@viniciusvini981]

My main problem are the one-shots, everyone talks about alain's charizard, and i kinda agree, even tho, he lost to a elite 4, and steven was schooling him using only not very effective moves and being a steel vs fire type. Yet Ican see that after this time he might be almost at diantha's level, so it shouldn't be a one shot, since leon used g-max vs gardevoir, not base form, another one shot that bothers me is iris'haxorus( YES he was one shot in case you didn't noticed) they made haxorus beat milotic taking no hits, and then made him block the first draco meteor, and block garchomp' dragon claw, so he was fresh, bu draco meteor just 100-0ed him, i think that it would be better if garchomp landed at least one or two hits before, it could be done by, for example, not using mega evolution( since base garchomp literally stoped a OUTRAGE with no moves or commands of cynthia), i also dislike steven's metagroos defeat, too much plain and ash just clicks the victory with z-move.
leon vs diantha, well this is a obvious one, leon should have used at least one more pokemon, maybe mr. Rime to have his ability screen cleaner to take aurorus screens out, would've been good. I won't bother about hyper beam on dragapult, just brainless, and for some reason diantha doesn't know how to switch pokemon or send gardevoir before it is her last one still up.
For ash vs cynthia, well i think we have the same problem that steven's metagross, in episode one IMO cynthia was made too powerful, she was up by 2, and her Spiritomb and roserade barely took damage as dream eater restored Spiritomb, and ash's ace was down before hers even show up for the first time, that cynthia was dumbed down mid-battle everyone knows, but I think some of her pokemon looked too much weaker then the other half, like, gastrodon got one shot, roserade had control against gengar and dracovish, but well, two moves and down, milotic was a beast round one and here suffered to beat a dracovish that:
Took garchomp's dragon claw
Roserade's poison jab and leaf storm plus poison, and yet she was really hurt after, this half of the team was kinda weird, and i think it is due the fact that half of his team was down that early, and this half got those ridiculous results, the other 3 showed a oower level that matches more with the first round and what you expect of the rank 2. But what most annoys me is how much the sirfetch'd part was just cheated, milotic just stod there when he destroyed the stealth rocks, and in their battle for some reason her disarming voice just did... nothing? But the main problem is in garchomp vs sirfetch'd because sirfetch'd finished milotic with meteor assault, a RECHARGE move, so he should just wait and get hit by garchomp, but he straight up just went and battled her( and don't even tell me that in the anime this move has no recharge, in ash vs leon it does, it is clearly shown) for last considerations, I kinda get garchomp's trash moveset and why togekiss didn't used max mindstorm to unable bullet punch, because cynthia would have won, or ash's win would be the most forced thing ever. Ash vs leon for me was perfect btw, i started to like WAY more of all of leon's pokemon after that battle, but again the one shot problem in cinderace.

[@masterpink6963]

In the anime Draco meteor has always been betrayed as THE strongest strongest dragon type move

[@Scott-ws8yt]

There's nothing wrong with the battle with her Roserade/Milotic at all, part 2 actually had the best part of the fight. Roserade got hit multiple times as did Milotic, you can't say "oh they just stood there" because you can laughably say the same thing about any battle in the shows history. Gastrodon may have been one-shot but the blow back of the rocks on it likely also did some damage.
I do agree Garchomp not having a better moveset was lackluster though.

[@jv_iskool2474]

0:49 “amimation”😭. Anyways, entertaining video.

[@fightfutures2432]

Yeah I'm not watching Pokemon Journeys

[@GeoWeasleyGranger]

It’s like me! A failure!

[@Pokiiii62]

YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE FRIEND!! 💙

[@SwirlingHues]

No because the battles NEED to BE A ROUND ROBIN and yet JN did what they do best: FUMBLE SO HARD 💀

[@davidcampbell7109]

Trust me man you're not alone ash alain Cynthia Leon those four should have been in the master's 8 the other four that got picked I would have replaced them with Paul Tobias kiawe and Red as Paul needs no introductions Tobias I wanted ash to beat him to a Pulp kiawe we never got And red more or less just to tie things back to ashes origins

[@Pokiiii62]

Very valid friend nicely put. PAUL VS ASH WOULDVE BEEN PEAKK

[@someteennamedcharles2035]

Tell us something we don't already know for the past 2 years. 😙

[@Pokiiii62]

Uh huh...

[@elecro-bolt1721]

My master's 8:
1st round
Ash vs Alain
Pikachu. Charizard
Dragonite chesnaugh
Greninja or lucario. Tyranitar
Round 2 ash. vs citnthia
Mega lucario. Mega garchomp
Sirferch'd. Togekis
Gengar. Spiritomb
I'm lazy to write the rest cos no one cares if this gets 5 likes imma write the rest

[@tvcya2097]

It would have been fine if the master 8 is all a 6v6 with these match ups
Leon vs Diatha ( Real fight with here losing from 4v6
Alain vs Steve Stone which is tuff match but Alain wins
Iris vs lance who’s the true dragon master and
Iris wins
Cynthia vs ash which already happen than
Leon vs Alain where Alain use power houses such as bisharp and trintar and would have been fine and then a rematch with iris vs ash which ash won
Then Leon vs ash already happen and it’s good
If they need to skip weeks order to take their time I would have been fine with all that

[@Pokiiii62]

Exactly, they should've done that instead of rushing to get to ash's final fight

[@tvcya2097]

@@Pokiiii62 like actually take their time and effort I would so rather have them have episode form month to month but really good instead of having it week to week but rushing it

[@freestyle3948]

THET DID THE MOVES DIRTY TOO, THE DRAGON METOR WSA AN ABSOLUTE DISAPPOINTMENT, PLUS KUKUI SHOULD HAVE ALSO BEEN IN THE MASTER'S 8 TORNUMENT, HE IS ALSO A CHAMPION OF ALOLA, AND ALOLA POKEMON ONLY LOOK CUTe

[@a-guy_777]

You say leon is a fraud yet he's world Champion. Great video tho

[@Pokiiii62]

He's a fraud cuz his feats are non existent (thanks)

[@mapleshadow22070]

Leon came out of nowhere as the title of "strongest" trainer but doesn't have ANY feats to show it in the slightest until he magically is able to one tap Alain's mcx and diantha's mega gardevoir who both are relative to 50% zygarde especially mcx, which is VERY inconsistent cus again he has no feats to show it and has a few anti feats like getting destroyed by eternatus who's nowhere near 50% zygarde's level

[@IsleofPigsStudios]

If I’m being honest, Journeys in general was a failure. ESPECIALLY for how they treated Galar and several returning characters.

[@babyseal8822]

They sarcafice galar over "the world" Concept which failed because we already know those

[@DullaZulla]

in my opinion the main problem I have with the masters 8 was the matchups, why didnt they let alain and steven battle?!??! that was the best opourtunity to do so especially since they didnt finish their battle in the mega evolution special, why didnt ash and alain rematch??? ash could've taken greninja for this fight and then release him back, why didnt we get cinthia vs diantha ik most ppl wont agree with this match up but I do think it should've happened. I also agree that the animation was lacklustre and some fights were rushed. but I think most of the champions deserve to be in the masters 8 since yk its all the 8 champions battleing each other I dont see why they would bring back paul since he alr battled ash but I do think saywer should have came back atleast outside of the master 8. I think the masters 8 had the potential to be one of the best if not the best league in the seires but they fumbled with the writing.

[@Pokiiii62]

EXACTLY BRUH

[@030christopherjohannis4]

Or instead they can make masters 16 and add all the other significant characters. But i agree to you, Alain should have a rematch with Ash. Other side, i think Lance should win against Diantha. How the hell the runner up from previous tournament got beaten by Diantha, who fell in two hits against Leon

[@PikaStarsStudio]

I honestly agree with this journeys master league was really predictable and boring. 85% was lucario solo everything Alan literally went out like a bitch which was disappointing. Cythina pretty much let ash win I did not feel cythina was going out. Exactly a gigamax charzarid won against a mega charzarid that was dumb. Exactly cause infernape had story with Paul ash and Leon didn’t have story and we barely see Leon.

[@Scott-ws8yt]

Lucario "solo" everything? Lucario struggled to take down Togekiss and a half beaten Garchomp. It's role in Leon's match was minor and barley beat a Mr. Rime. What are you talking about?

[@PikaStarsStudio]

@@Scott-ws8yt majoirty of the fights lucario has been in he pretty much solo everything only rare occasions where he was struggling. Pretty much how dragonite lose majority of the time

[@Scott-ws8yt]

@@PikaStarsStudio That's not what happens at all. Sirfetch'd heavily damaged Garchomp, so Lucario just had a half beaten Garchomp. Lucario struggled to bring down Togekiss and it was the only full fight it had to itself.
In Leon's battle, Lucario struggled with Mr. Rime and Sirfetch'd got a hit on it. After that it loses to Dragapult. Lucario barely got any battles to itself in the M8.

[@PikaStarsStudio]

@@Scott-ws8yt i was meaning Lucario fights overall it made fights boring

[@freestyle3948]

THANK FKING GOD, SOMEONE HAS EYES, AND NOT JUST BLINDLY SUKING THE DK OF THIS RIDICULOUS SEASON, HECK, SUN AND MOOM LEAGUE WAS a 100 times BETTER THEN WHAT EVERR THIS SHT IS, including ash vs Leon, THe Fact that, only pikachu vs Charizard was better, the fight before that was also sht, XYZ, Really upgraded our hopes For Nothing,

[@zash1233]

lances dragonite couldnt dodge the moonblast cause it just used hyper beam which immobilizes the user for one turn.

[@zaneheaston8254]

So was it more or less of a failure than Yugioh Arc 5

[@Un_Italiano_Qualunque]

And also some of the Pokémon owned by the champions are just punching bags.
They made Diantha's Aurorus and Cynthia's Roserade so dirty.

[@super4469]

I thought the exact same thing. And yeah some moments were cool but some moments were like what why what the heck. I feel like the people who won, won because of the plot instead of actual power.

[@JacobElyachar]

I would have loved to see Ash go up against Lance or Alain instead of Steven. That would have made so much more sense. Ash and Lance took down Team Rocket, Team Magma, and Team Aqua together, while Alain and Ash would have been the rematch of the century!

[@justwooper8660]

Xyz fans getting pressed for their unrealistic fan fic scenarios not happening and being ignorant to other opinions 🤦‍♂️

[@Pokiiii62]

I don't think people want ash vs. alain rematch is a bad thing at all and if anything would be an amazing pr move 😭

[@bereketeilu5477]

They did alain dirty

[@Pokiiii62]

SO dirty

[@thenxt1]

Ngl i wouldve been fine if diantha lance and alan weren’t in the masters 8
Diantha: didnt really like her except for the battle against ash greninja
Lance: just never really liked him
Alan: shouldve had a rematch with ash instead of being thrown away against leon

[@havingfunwithelijah214]

Ok before I watch this I have one thing to say I enjoyed this tournament for what it was not have on it for what it could have been after the video I will do a second comment with more thoughts on what I assume is going to be the same complaints everyone has about the masters 8.
Edit I only just got notified about this video rn 12 hours after it went live lol.

[@nInOwarrior0312]

I would've loved to see a type of tournament where 1 of the 8 guys fight the rest each, and whoever has the most points advances. But that's too long, and I know how impatient the fans can be. So...IDEA SCRAPPED"

[@Chaoskingdonovan]

1:07 he just used hyper beam tf you mean just move 😭

[@Pokiiii62]

That was a mistake, but earlier in the fight, the exact same instance happened, so my point still stands 😭 (it doesn't)

[@pawankhathuria3151]

What your thoughts on new pokemon series with new character instead of ash?

[@Pokiiii62]

Not crazy about it but it's not that bad

[@pawankhathuria3151]

@@Pokiiii62 I see , but i think they are doing experiment if it's hit with audience they will continue if failed I think they will bring back ash what you think?

[@user-rs8ky8hv6s]

It's.......okay. Getting better as of late, but still just......okay.

[@nehemiahalabi7156]

dracovish was still the goat of ashes team tbh.

[@Pokiiii62]

FRRRR I AGREE

[@Fraudulent-i2j]

Brooo😭😭 Pokemon could be the best anime in the WORLD if it had Demon slayer animation I mean don’t they make a lot of money? And overall pokemon journey felt underwhelming for me and despite Greninja being crowned most popular pokemon ever it only made 1 appearance is which training Lucario and another thing is the team ash went with
There were so many better options then the ones he went in with I mean sceptile inferape charizard and that gangsta crocodile and most fans wanted Greninja I’m not saying it’s a must but it would’ve been more exciting seeing all the og and their unique fighting styles then someone with a big ahh jaw overall the series felt like it could’ve been way better and I consider x y and sun and moon to be miles better. Oh and I forgot go💀 bro ash was struggling catching a pidgeot but bro be getting all the pokemon like there pokemon cards, zero effort just throwing balls

[@Pokiiii62]

Dude, if they wanted to pour more dough in the anime, it would be insane 💀

[@babyseal8822]

I wish pokemon was animated by ufotable, but you had to sarcafice it by making it seasonal anime instead of weekly anime, i mean seriously pokefan always feel angry whenever theres 2 weeks break when the anime is still ongoing
Also fun fact the pokemon anime DID have collab with ufotable but only for one episode during HZ the trio vs spinel and its not even full ufotable budget but it still look good, imagine if ufotable fully working on it

[@marinagaleotti]

Maybe the first time I fully agree with you.

[@Pokiiii62]

Uh huh...

[@marinagaleotti]

@@Pokiiii62 okay, I didnt get to the eternatus part yet. Still your actual motivations were solid.

[@raidguy78]

Yk for a battle between some of the best Pokémon Lucario and Garchomp you’d think they’d animate it like Pikachu vs Charizard or even Torrcat vs Incineroar but no! Let’s make them have a boxing match for a couple minutes

[@Pokiiii62]

EXACTLY LIKE WHAT

[@Scott-ws8yt]

Most of Garchomp's battle was in the second episode.

[@raidguy78]

@@Scott-ws8yt yeah the cause the writers decided to make Garchomp use most of it’s power on Dracovish and Sirfetch’d instead on using against it’s main opponent for the battle Lucario which was stupid.

[@genesisz3419]

Realistic dosent mean well written completely agree alain was to nerfed and rematch should have happened with greninja

[@zash1233]

number 1 all greninja did was knock gardivoir down and it got back up almost immediantly. number 2 back when the ash greninja form wasnt mastered that was when it was at its strongest with clemont even stating "these are the strongest yet", when ash battled alain in the syconicity test it wasnt nearly as strong but they still knocked charizard down pretty hard and it took a while for it to get back up heck they would have won if they stayed conscious which is insane cause it wasnt a back shuriken level transformation. number 3 diantha was literlly holding back the whole time to study it and see if it had anything to do with olympias prophecy, she wasnt aiming to win like ash. hence why she stalled out the battle with ineffective shadow balls instead of spamming moonblast or thunderbolt, the ep is called championing a RESEARCH battle for a reason. also diantha put up an actual fight against charizard alain did not.

[@funimationfreeaccauntfree28]

How is eternatus weak when it took the zacian, zamazenta, goh, and ash to beat it at filull power while zygarde lost to a mere mega charizard x make it make sense, also eternamax has a greater feat of warping space-time than zygarde just keeping balance, and if we go by feats than almost all thw people in the masters 8 suck because all the champions are featless, and its been shown in a video by smithplays leon is ahead of cynthia in power based on ranking so there you go.

[@Pokiiii62]

First off, zygarde wasn't beat. They used team flare tech to sedate him, and even then, it was challenging 💀

[@havingfunwithelijah214]

Ok buddy cool video but now it's time to get roasted.
First up animation the animation was fine it wasn't offensive and Ash vs Leon 200% makes up for it as it is PEAK FICTION
Also different animators work on different episodes that's why most are just fine but the ones that look the best are done by the same people Ash VS Leon was done by a GOAT animator as a example.
One last thing Eternamax Eternatus is the pokemon with the highest BST in any pokemon game at over 2000! Thats crazy and one point in favour of it being the strongest as game wise it literally IS.
Ok second off the match's were cool and the match's up fine Leon vs Alain his Charizard beat Leon's OP Rillaboom which is Ace Level.
Btw Leon's Charizard is Ace of Ace Level in game terms champion ace is level like 60 Leon's Charizard is like level 100.
Also this is the same Charizard whose strongest max move MATCHED Pikachu's Legendary killing z move.
Also Ash vs Alain if it were to happen would happen in the Ultra Class in my Opinion not master class as the writers clearly wanted Ash to face the top three strongest.
Also there was no way anyone other than Ash could beat Leon all throughout Journeys this man was beating Champion Level Pokemon for breakfast Alain was cooked.
Lance vs Diantha was fine and like a game fight so that was cool also the only fight to be non controversial. (Ash vs Leon is only controversial because some people thing that Ash using all three of his mega z move and Gigantamax was unfair even though it wasn't)
Iris vs Cynthia was fine and Mega Chomp was Cool.
Ash vs Steven was cool letting Ash FINALLY beat a champion level trainer on screen.
The only reason Mega Metagross even survived the Z move is the didn't get hit by any of it also fun fact against Metagross Pikachu has a 100% win rate!.
Now for the semifinals
Leon vs Diantha first off this was the only bad battle but only because we didn't get to see all of it.
What we did see though was good Rillaboom being a threat here and in the finals show just how strong Alain's Charizard was back in the first round.
G max Charizard vs Mega Gardevoir was cool and Diantha did something no one else has done before and stopped one of the G Max Wildfires from hitting it with psychic too bad for her that Leon just used another one straight away.
Ash Vs Cynthia was Entertaining and fun Ash Struggled but pulled through Cynthia use D Bond to get rid of Pikachu but even with out his ace he still won.
Also Cynthia references the sinnoh league when Ash uses Counter Shield.
Mega lucario beat D Max Togekiss then after that had a brutal slugfest vs Cynthia's Garchomp and won it was thrilling and exciting and meny consider this to be one of the best battles in the anime next to Ash vs Leon Speaking of....
Ash VS Leon the PEAK of Pokemon battle and my favourite battle in the anime history and yes I grew up and watched X & Y and SUN and MOON I even seeked out The Subbed version to watch it live.
Ok call Leon a fraud all you want but this battle proves why he's the world champion (untill Ash takes the crown at the end)
Leon here first off gave Ash the chance to use his full power in a battle in the finals of Worlds making this a one of a kind battle we will never see again.
Next Leon uses strategy here that I think if he used more in the Anime people might have liked him more I liked him from the start but that is not the norm.
First Leon used Libero on his Cinderace to make it immune to Pikachu's Thunderbolt after it used scorching sand.
Then.. THEN
This man saw Ash use Counter Shield then in just a day or two teaches it to his Inteleon and uses it masterful here vs Gengar.
Then on Ash's side we have Gengar G max and beat Inteleon giving him the first win of the match but not before Inteleon forced it out of G Max also it can duel wield how sick is that.
Ok I could gush for hours but I will cut to the case.
Leon's Mr. Rime was stacked.
As was his Dragapult and Rillaboom I mean Dragon Tail worked in the anime for once and it took down Mega Lucario.
And Rillaboom was stacked as always no nerfs so Ash can beat it it as shown consistently powerful
Leon and his Charizard VS Ash and his Pikachu was PERFECT.
Gmax VS Z Move was awesome and you could tell Leon and Ash had so much fun in this battle also it was animated beautifully.
Then Eternatus shows up give them one more G max so that was cool
Pikachu VS Cinderace was fast but Flashy.
Then Charizard comes out and we continue with the stunning battle
Ash declares this is the Peak of his and Pikachu's adventure and that's why he is going to win
Then
The unova theme plays as Pikachu and Charizard duke it out
Then Pikachu can barely stand and everyone of Ash's friends cameos but Pikachu faints face to black then we get EVER SINGLE ASH POKEMON CHEERING PIKACHU ON then Ash Cheers them on
Then We get Aim to be a Pokemon Master playing or Pokemon Theme in the dub (good job tpci) Ash Turns his hat back and Leon throw his hat off and we get the greatest clash in anime history cut to ads then after the ads we get Pikachu at the centre nerves dill you like did Ash lose then we play the ending and ASH WINS and beats the UNDEFEATED CHARIZARD.
After that Ash gets his trophy and the episode ends after a call from Goh.
So yeah every match and match up was good.
And on your last point.
Leon is shown to be so strong you can't take more then two of his Pokemon down untill and beats five of them and then does the unthinkable and does six.
So Leon Wrecking his opponents with ease makes sense.
Also Leon destroying Alain makes sense in that the writers want to prove to you how strong he is by him taking down someone fans consider strong.
what better way to do that then crush some guy the new fans don't care about while the old fans know how strong he is and to see Alain the one rival Ash could never beat get ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED by Leon proves not only how far Ash has come to be on the level of this guy but it also show to Ash that he has to step up his game if he wants to win it.
Also Diantha wasn't winning she beat Lance because the JN writers don't like to do rematch and also we know no matter who faces Leon was going to lose so he could face Ash.
Ok that all I have to say.
Person overall the Master 8 is my favourite with Sun and Moon then X & Y after that as those are the league's Ash did his best in.
My personal Rating Rating is 20/20
Ok before I go may I suggest you show this video of yours to the people of the Pokemon anime subreddit as they will have some interesting Opinions when it comes to the masters 8.
Ok that is all have a great day or night.
Edit: spelling of gardevoir.
Goodbye.🎉

[@Pokiiii62]

I love how you write all of this, but forget that stats have nothing to do with lore once o ever not to mention you say the ash vs leon fight makes up for it when all the other fights took up more than a months worth of time to get through so heck nah it was a complete waste of time for only 2 minutes of good animation 💀

[@havingfunwithelijah214]

​@@Pokiiii62 hi!
Ok fair. stats don't effect lore I just wanted to point that out but lore wise it is strong but gameplay wise it is also ment to be strong so that is why I mentioned stats.
Also we all how our own opinions also I don't know if you know this but the anime lost about half of the staff who worked on it right before the masters 8 tournament so I can forgive them for having less then stellar animation and wanting to save the big guns for the final fight.
That's all have a nice day.

[@talon1776]

My gripe with Leon is basically my gripe with Galar as a whole. SOMEONE on the Game Freak team REALLY pushed Galar, it’s mind boggling.
- Lance’s uniform is apparently based off Raihan’s gym uniform because he trained there. (This is disrespectful. Why does it HAVE to be Lance’s uniform is based off their uniform when Lance came first and is from an ancient clan of Dragon specialistis, how about THEY based their unifom off famous CHAMPION Lance who comes from a clan of dragon trainers that predate them. It makes no sense.)
- Raihan is Champion level (the FUCK? Only Gym Leaders this strong were Volkner and Wallace, Volkner was probably at or close to E4 level since his rival was Flint and Wallace in the games went from GL to Champion but it’s still weird how one region has the strongest Champion and a GL who is Champion level)
- Leon is the strongest Champion and beat Cynthia 99 times. (This one is also disrespectful because Cynthia is a very well developed and CHERISHED character who would deserve it more, especially given she has a reputation as the most fearsome Champion in the games. She’s ICONIC)
- Eternatus has stats higher than GOD (How. Why.)
And finally, Pokemon Journeys, I HATE Journeys.
1. Goh: His goal being Mew is whatever I guess, a Mew sighting is kind of crazy but at least that’s an interesting and cool goal to catch Mew and be a Researcher. But how and why does this mf catch a Suicune, I know we’ve seen trainers have Legendaries before with Pyramid King Brandon, Nurse Joy, and Tobias but it still feels wrong and comes off as them trying too hard to make their new main character special as even Ash only ever caught glimpses of Legendaries at first, only in the movies was he really caught up in them and ever befriended them - which if anything makes this worse because Ash was out here having near death experiences to befriend Legendaries and this Goh mf just runs into one and befriends it magically, AND Suicune is a Pokemon somewhat connected to Ash too as Ash’s Johto anime legendary sighting was a Suicune, Suicune was Johto’s Ho-Oh for Ash AND Ash ran into Suicune again in the 4th movie. And Goh JUST became a Pokemon Trainer too, it took Ash up until the Battle Frontier anime to become a trainer capable of actually beating Legendaries and some rookie trainer just CATCHES one(even if he might not actually use Suicune, it still shoots him up the ladder as far as power goes)
2. Empty fan service: Ash catches new Pokemon that people wanted him to catch in the past, these writers are trying to butter us up and give Ash a “good” sendoff but they don’t fucking know what they’re doing. Why does Ash get a RANDOM Gengar and not his old Haunter? Why does he get some random Riolu egg and not the Riolu he befriended in the Sinnoh anime?
All of this has left me with a disdain for Generation 8 as a whole.

[@RoggenrollaWT]

I fully agree, but one thing in particular still makes me very disappointed... Leon is just such a bad, blank, unappealing charecther. Him being number 1 was so dumb, he is litteraly there to just be strong, he got no inteteresting backstory and the battle with him doesnt mean as much as battle agains(for example) Alain or any other plot relevant guy(

[@babyseal8822]

Journey is so bad that it almost stop airing in television on japan, even if ash faced alain, greninja wont be there, he still busy cutting root on kalos
Some even said that journey is example of nostalgia bait since they tried to make us remember about the pre XY era like dude.. We already know these, and more ironic they choose to make ash and goh visit hoenn for lab quest thing over ash fulfil his promise to max for battle (which we know the result, ash win) at least they return to alola to fulfil something that not finished in SM like lilie father, also chloe story can be completed faster if she meet the trainer from unova (im forgot his name) who own all eevelution (except slyveon) and then she meet serena in next episode for the sylveon, but yeah... You cant change the past

[@LittleAl016]

Journeys is actually good.

[@JennyBlaze253]

I can't speak on animation quality since I'm not super nitpicky about that kinda thing, but I will argue I don't think it's that bad that they picked the champions of each region for this as well as Alain. These trainers are the strongest of their respective regions (save for Alain, but it's clear he was put in for fanservice) and despite onscreen losses that doesn't detract from their power. Blame bad writing and the Worf effect for showing them as weak.
I will not defend the matchups, though! We were absolutely ROBBED of an Ash v Alain fight and it frustrates the hell outta me that he gets taken out like a chump! Personally, I would've changed the round 1 matchups so that we have Lance versus Leon and Diantha versus Steven. Not only would be have our salty runback and a good capstone to show Ash has improved as a trainer since their last fight, but we'd have a fun callback to XYZ with Diantha v Steven and we'd have the first Pokemon champion (excluding Blue, but obvs Gary has his own thing going on) versus the newest Pokemon champion!

[@kannan07]

Leon is definitely the strongest trainer canonically
And that's the problem,
We're just supposed to believe it
And that's why I legit used to hate him ngl, "he's the strongest trainer, he's the strongest trainer" in the games and anime got annoying, quick
And in the start,he's seen having a pretty even match against lance
Who,like you said
Is the fraudest of them all☠️
Every other champion got some sort of feat against a legendary and meanwhile bro was playing dress up against sealed form groudon and kyogre☠️
And yes, there's a clear difference in strength between main legendaries and trainers
But sealed SEALED eternatus is who you get destroyed by?
And it's all perfectly fine,not like Pokemon has been good with scaling
1 hit kos every match, THAT'S MY PROBLEM
You went from two of the best looking leagues to this garbage until the final 2 fights

[@MysticAstrea]

I think you are being to biased. After Leon fight eternatus, he gotten more stronger realizing there were more powerful trainers and a lot of the gym leaders in Galar is pratically elite 4 level. It even stated Raihan can be easily be champion if he go to a different region. You said Leon has no feats, but you can say that fighting alain and diantha is them showing his feats.

[@randomtexan]

Not to mention no returning pokemon

[@jv_iskool2474]

Tbh the whole series was just a big waste of potential for some of the characters😔

[@BattleBondShowdownist]

We needed ash and alain rematch and they ruined it

[@BloodRedNegative]

You guys wanna know what's one of the real reason why this arc sucked? It's because...
This entire event exists for one thing and one thing only...AND THAT'S FOR ASH TO WIN IT, PERIOD!!!
That event should've been called the Pokemon Ash Coronation Series
Honestly, at first, I wanted Ash to win this whole thing, of course. But what wind shifted after I'd seen how Ash treated his other title, which is being the FIRST-EVER champion of Alola, he couldn't even carry that title with Pride, and look what he does after becoming the Pokemon World Champion (SPOILER ALERT)...
He loses to Misty, in a normal 1v1 Pokemon battle, and based on those alone, he clearly doesn't a damn about high reputations. Again, he couldn't even care that much about the Alola Champion Title, let alone being the Champion of the freaking Pokemon World.
And don't even get me started on Ash's development in battles, like CMON!!! The 10-year-old is clearly holding back, AND HE'S STILL WINNING ON THE SAME STRATEGY EVERY SINGLE TIME, like can he win with at least 3 or 4 Pokemon on his side left on a 6v6 battle?!? Because it's always left with one Pokemon each in the end. WHERE HIS ACTUAL EXPERIENCE?!?!? We know he has so much better Pokemons in Oak's Lab than using Dracovish, Sirfetch, or Gengar DAMMIT.

[@ZA.HCK-]

Ok you make a good point but i didnt get to see the other pokemon animes becayse i was born late so i really enjoyed the masters eight but xyz will always be better

[@Pokiiii62]

It's alright man, at the end of the day enjoy whatcha like!

[@Aoi_shade]

I truly understand where you're coming from but, I think you're missing the full picture. When power scaling pokemon you have to take into account the games and not just the anime even though there separate timelines alot of things do add up. Like stats abilities and storylines. I love the galar region and games but, the story is just not there and the anime doesn't help with that much because journeys is a global storyline instead of being a central focus on all the regions. In the games we here that Leon takes multiple raids on his own with dynmax energy going amuk. We also see that Leon is a trainer battle focused trainer and not a legendary focused trainer. So, it makes sense that he would easily defeat alon because alon specialty is in facing legendaries instead of trainers. I'm not disregard his feats in the XYZ series either. Even you said yourself that alon seems to have gotten weaker in the time between XYZ and Journeys. Alon seems to be helping the professor instead of battling and his prep for the league doesn't seem to be much at all outside of ranking high in matches. Alon could have been rusty at the time. We just don't know because the matches weren't a round robin format. We only see one battle out of all the contenders which kinda sucks. For eternatus we may see one feat but that feat should be enough in mid balling his power. The way to scale eternatus is by scaling the legendary dogs go ash and maybe the games stats. Since it's like looking at guide and reference books. We know that gmax eternatus is overpowered. He is the zygard of his region looking at his official stats. It's one of the reasons why we don't get to dynmax him in game. It's just to overpowered. But, he is on fraud watch as well because we just don't have that much information on him and power scaling is about match ups at the end of the day. It's like power scaling GER from JoJo's he's one of the strongest stands but, he could also be not as strong as we think he is because he only has one feat defeating diavolo. Remember that we're also talking about an amped eternatus as well because of all the energy he consumed and Leon was able to hold him off for a bit before gmax. With only Charizard base Charizard. Which we don't see with alon to often because mega evolution. Honestly it's comes down to that Alon is a main character with tons of screen time. He isn't the final boss like Leon is. That's just a writing mistake that can happen sometimes. We have to go off of speculation and character development. Leon is a trainer who is written like an older version of ash. he is supposed to be an ultimate trainer who takes runs at any challenge. He's just very one dimensional. Where Alon is very well thought out and is supposed to be the other side to ashes coin. We just need more feats from Leon and I don't think that will happen anytime soon. But who knows it's all just speculation at this point.

[@reels2shorts368]

So you think sawyer or alain are more powerful than like of steven and diantha , i don't think so and if you look at ash vs diantha battle then you can realise that she is just holding back herself

[@Pokiiii62]

When did I ever say alain and sawyer are stronger than steven? Nowhere in the video did I say that ou my gosh the gaslighted is crazy 💀

[@Raisinair]

Yeah I was really disappointed when it was Alain vs Leon, like cmon bring back greninja, or do something to hype the community