Thread: Looking back, How would you rate the Unova league arc?

With the league now over and Episode N beginning next week how would you rate the Unove league saga?

Inb4 Best Wishes hatefest.

Overall, it was meh. I personally didn't outright hate it, but there we're a lot better ones.

5/10

Rivals: 7/10
They get a point taken off because Bianca was screwed over. But Kotetsu did get build-up and you could tell how all the rivals were serious threats.

Battles: 6/10
The battles we did see were pretty good, but not great. The tournament felt rushed and I couldn't tell which round was which sometimes, and a few battles were rushed.

Ash's team: 4.5/10
Lack of any old reserves. Every Pokemon on his Unova team got battles, but there was a huge over-reliance on Pikachu.

I'd probably give it a 6/10. It was enjoyable, but I liked this League the least.

3/10. The only battle of the league that was good throughout was Ash vs Stephan. That completely pointless episode with Axew, and Oshawott...I still don't understand the purpose of.

Looking at all the episodes, this was not a very good league, in fact, it was really poorly executed overall.

For one thing, most of the battles were not very exciting, the only half-decent battle was Ash vs. Stephan, and Ash relied on Pikachu way too much, as well as a lack of using his reserves, but at least Ash used all his Unova Pokemon at least, even if they were pushed to the side for more Pikachu.

The ending of the league was also pretty weak, yeah, Ash lost, we were all seeing that coming from the start, but Bianca was screwed over early in the league, and Cameron was screwed over worse when he lost to Virgil (they only made Virgil win simply to market more Eevee merchandise), seriously, Lucario losing to Eevee, how is that possible, Lucario has a type advantage. It be understandable if it was to Flareon or Espeon, as both have advantages over Lucario's typing, but to a plain, vanilla Eevee is just plain ridiculous.

I also feel that the characters of Cameron and Virgil were wasted, Cameron was simply reduced to an "I only exist to beat Ash in the League" character when he could have been used for so much more things in future episodes, and Virgil essentially being a soulless existence made only to sell Eeveelution merchandise and nothing more.

Also, Ash got a Top 8 rather than Top 4 like last time, it's like Ash has regressed in Unova from where he was in Sinnoh for some reason.

The league was also a bit too rushed, I understand the Sinnoh League was rushed so they could get to Gen 5 faster and on time, but we have 9 months before Gen 6 comes out, so they had plenty of time to work with this league for several episodes, but instead, they rush it for no apparent reason, and in the end, they also wrote off a lot of the rival characters, and pretty quickly too, looks like we won't be seeing any of those characters throughout Episode N, aren't we? Here's hoping that Episode N, and eventually, X/Y, will be even better...

Overall, I think this league was pretty weak in comparison to previous leagues, even the Sinnoh League was done way better despite the ass-pull that was Tobias, so I'm giving it a 3/10, the anime writers know how to write better episodes than these ones, they just DON'T for some reason...

Originally Posted by Robo-Floatzel

It be understandable if it was to Flareon or Espeon, as both have advantages over Lucario's typing, but to a plain, vanilla Eevee is just plain ridiculous.

But Lucario lost to Flareon, who took Espeon's place. Here's the proof:

I'd rate it 0/10. Worst league so far.

I'm unbelievably disappointed with the league. Lets look at the negatives for this league and you'll see why I'm so disappointed

-The league was seriouly rushed and didn't focus enough on Ash's battles, only getting 3 battles shown.
-Top 32 and top 64 was skipped
-No wins for Oshawott, Snivy, Unfeazant, Boldore, Levanny, and Palpitoad.
-Ash only got a horrible 1 on 1(rather than a 6 on 6) with Trip, his MAIN rival and Pikachu takes so much damage before getting in a lucky shot and winning.
-Ash did not battle Katherine which could've been a chance for Scraggy to evolve
-Ash NEVER got to battle Virgil
-Most battles were uninteresting to watch
-Bianca was knocked out early even if she got a good battle
-Ash not only regressed to the top 8, he lost to a total idiot who only brings 5 Pokemon to a 6 on 6

Now lets look at the positives
-Great character interaction with the rivals
-An awesome battle with Stephan which I think is the best in the series.

This is no doubt in my book the worst league that we've ever seen. The fans could write a better league than the writers did who've left me seriously disappointed. I give the Unova League a 3/10

Originally Posted by Cresselia92

Originally Posted by Robo-Floatzel

It be understandable if it was to Flareon or Espeon, as both have advantages over Lucario's typing, but to a plain, vanilla Eevee is just plain ridiculous.

But Lucario lost to Flareon, who took Espeon's place.

I know now, and I makes me really mad that Lucario lost to an Eeveelution, I mean, Lucario deserves better, it had it's own movie, it just makes me mad, cause I don't even like Flareon.

Wasn't it too short ;_;?

Compared to Ash vs Paul, and Ash vs Gary in the past Leagues, Ash vs Trip was rather terribly written.
The rivalry wrap up was what disappointed me the most. And I agree that Ash vs Stephan had been the best out of all the battles ;_; I had been hoping Bianca vs Ash here...but no...

3/10. I would've given it a zero if it weren't for Stephan.

This was a very disappointing league. I rated it 2/10 and here's why:

First off, we've been "treated" to more battles in BW due to the presence of the Don Tournaments and the JWC arc. However, the presence of these short story arcs also placed greater expectations for the league. The league fell short in fulfilling these expectations in a few ways.

The biggest drawback for the Don Battles (and especially for the JWC) was the fact that every match was a 1v1 battle. I understand that was necessary since the writers had different storylines they wanted to push (Iris is a battle prodigy, Iris's Dragonite isn't obedient, and Trip is the quintessential rookie trainer spamming his starter setting up his early exit in the league) but they were relieved of this responsibility when they arrived at the league. Iris (and to a lesser extent Cilan and their respective rivals) didn't matter anymore; this was the moment for Ash and his rivals to shine. The battles could be longer. The preliminaries could have been 2v2 or 3v3 and full battles could have started earlier.

Unfortunately they decided to have multiple 1v1 rounds, failing to differentiate the league from the Don Battles/JWC. It's not as if they're particularly pressed for time. If they were they wouldn't have included that awful Axew episode in the league. We had just come off an Iris arc prior to arriving at the league. There was no need for her or her Pokemon to take up an episode, particularly when neither she nor her Pokemon received development. As I said before, the league arc is reserved for Ash and his rivals. In previous sagas the supporting characters took a backseat for the culminating moment of the region. Unova shouldn't have been any different.

I have only a minor issue with the league result. I never expected Ash to win this league at any point of the saga. However, I never expected him to actually regress in the standings until it became apparent he would lose to Cameron. Given that Ash never won a Don Battle Tournament or the JWC you would think the writers would have thrown him a bone and at least had him hold firm as a top 4 regional trainer. Ash truly never won anything during this saga, and I doubt anything will occur during Episode N to change that. He mentally regressed and was defeated by a more bullheaded version of himself.

I guess in a way the Unova league fulfilled its role as the culminating experience of the region. Ash failed to exhibit the strategic thinking he developed in AG and Sinnoh, and rarely used the outside of the box thinking that got him wins in Kanto and Johto. He regressed from his previous self and it was represented in the league. That’s probably where the Unova league gets a point from me, the other point coming from the animation.

I wasn't directly referring to the league itself, i was asking how would you rate saga overall from the gym battles, fillers, side tournaments to the league.

Originally Posted by Creeping Shadow

I wasn't directly referring to the league i was asking how would you rate saga overall from the gym battles, fillers, side tournaments to the league.

Well I guess I explained how I felt about the overall saga too. Ash didn't really feel much like the main character this saga. He regressed and never won anything. The Roxie gym battle was a bit cringeworthy and I'm a bit disappointed he never battled Drayden or Marlon as tune ups for the league (especially after the Viribank gym battle). I did like that he expanded his roster with more than 6 Pokemon (and no releases!) and showcased the reserves in each gym so they wouldn't be huge surprises in the league ala Krabby/Kingler.

Still Ash never winning kind of makes him feel like a loser this saga.

For the whole Unova arc itself, I'd say 7/10. It's bad and messy as fuck, but the good very much outweighs the bad for me. And the characters are much more fun this time around. It's my favorite saga after AG.

But my rating will likely change after seeing Episode N, so ask me again in 9 months.

If that's the case then it only gets 1/10 from me then. I have officially given up on the Unova series and Episode N has no chance of changing that.