>>31965510Alain literally did nothing wrong.
He legitimately trained his ass off non-stop and traveled the world fighting mega trainers.
He had more conviction than Ash, he was literally fighting for Manon's smile.
He didn't just come out of nowhere like Tobias, he had actual development, and the main series only developed some actual conflict and plot when his arc crossed over.
Ash was the one who invited him to the league in the first place, he dug his own grave.
It's the writers' fault that the whole season was written like a victory lap for Ash only to pull the rug out at the last second. That they gave him a completely retarded special snowflake power and had it amount to nothing.
I'm not saying he was objectively stronger than Ash, the fight could have gone either way, but it was completely reasonable that he won, and the problems with the arc don't lie with him.