No, Alain wasn't "nerfed". Leon's Charizard is just completely busted. Saying Alain was nerfed because he got destroyed by it is like saying Gary got nerfed in the original series after he got destroyed by Giovanni's Mewtwo.
Pokemon Journeys Episode 115
Jayden Peterson
Dylan Walker
>Leon's Charizard is just completely busted.
What determines a pokemon's strength in-universe? Is it some sort of emotional bond with the trainer? Is it age or experience? Is it some sort of special magic or diet? How do you fags accept Joe's rattata being so much stronger than Jack's rattata?
Jeremiah Thompson
It's just about shilling the relevant gen, just like Alain was shilled in gen6 because he represented Kalos
Christopher Gonzalez
Jacob Ortiz
This. Leon is the lousiest champion the series ever had, but the anime is contractually obligated to make him look like the bestest evar just because he's from the current gen.
Bentley Price
Leon is cringe, we got robbed, Alainbros...
Andrew Cook
Tbh most of the champions are garbage underdeveloped characters. Cynthia and Steven are the only good ones.
Asher Evans
Battle experience, general strength from what type of Pokemon it is (like genetics IRL), IVs being implied to exist but are never mentioned as IVs, training, and the bond between a trainer and their Pokemon can give one strength in battle.
Mason Sanchez
>the only non-champion in the tournament
>the first one eliminated
Of course. That's how it works in the anime. Power levels aren't organic, they're conditional. Things like training, strategy, general skill level, don't actually matter. Certain trainers (Champions, Elite Four, the Winstrates) are just defined as "strong", and thus they literally cannot lose to trainers who aren't "strong", no matter how good the trainer in question actually is. It's sort of like everyone has a level cap, preventing them from progressing unless they meet the right arbitrary requirements. You literally cannot beat certain Gym Leaders unless you collect X number of badges, how you got them doesn't matter. You literally cannot beat an Elite Four unless you won a League tournament, how you did it doesn't matter. You literally cannot beat a Champion unless you become one yourself, the details don't matter (*cough*Alola*cough*). You can train all your life, assemble the strongest team anyone's ever seen, come up with the most foolproof strategies in the world, and still lose to some twat with an unevolved Sunkern just because he got lucky and beat a couple gyms. That's how it works in the anime.
Brody Barnes
Starting matches should have been
>Steven vs leon
>Ash vs lance
>alain vs diantha
>cynthia vs iris
And the result of each match should have been something like
>Leon beats steven but steven actually manages to land a good hit on charizard with metagross despite type disadvantage
>ash beats lance and lance tells ash that while ash is the alola champ his journey started in kanto
>alain wins and now is truly the strongest kalos trainer
>iris vs cynthia should end with garchomp vs haxorus, i don’t care who wins
After that
>alain vs ash
>leon vs iris or cynthia
Then the ash vs leon finale
Justin Powell
I love Iris!
Oliver Allen
She cute
Jace Long
Only non shit post itt
Leo Foster
If Alain wasn't nerfed, that's basically saying Ash is going to get such a disgusting amount of plot armor for the fight as to be unforgiveable.
>Alain's Charizard proved superior to Greninja on all counts multiple times and tanky enough to survive the frog's Destructo Disc after a long fight
>Greninja in JN proved to be superior to Lucario (Ash's current regional ace) and even after the latter's training arc, shouldn't be significantly weaker if at all
If Leon's Charizard isn't oneshotting every single one of Ash's Pokemon besides maybe Pikachu, it's just pure bullshit. Especially when everyone knows it'll G-Max in the Ash fight for the narrative.
William Bennett
>He only used GMax Rillaboom to hype up the crowd
What a fucking flex.
Grayson Myers
>No, Alain wasn't "nerfed".
Cope, it's written by completely different people.
Alexander Walker
>Hyping up the crowd for Charizard
Good job, Shittaboom.
Carson James
Plot armor, that was the word I was looking for. There's no organic growth, there's just different levels of plot armor.
Christian Perry
>>Alain's Charizard proved superior to Greninja on all counts multiple times and tanky enough to survive the frog's Destructo Disc after a long fight
It's almost like this was complete bullshit forced by executives and not what the writers originally planned.
Jackson Wright
It's almost like you never paid attention to the show, just like all XYfags
Josiah Jenkins
Nobody sets out to write a longstanding rivalry where the protagonist never wins, not even the Pokémon anime until then.