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Holy frick what this argument.
Alain didn't receive ANY special treatment until the very end. All that stuff showing how cool and strong he was, his own series, is totally and completely justified because he was an antagonistic force in the narrative, Ash's ultimate rival in terms of pure strength. He NEEDED all that to justify the tension in the final fight so he wasn't just another Tobias. The ONLY problem was the obvious last minute decision to make him win in the end. If you change that one thing, have Greninja be the one standing after that final blow in their league battle, and literally everything about Alain is perfectly fine. He's strong, he got his own series, he didn't face any consequences for his actions, but at the end of the day our protagonist beat him, so it doesn't matter.
This inane hatred of Alain like he's the source of XY's ending's problem is just sad. I'm the biggest Ashfag in the universe and I know the issue was the terrible executive meddling and not the rival who was obviously set up to finally lose in their league battle.
