>>57554689Forcing this result after most of the episode was spent on Ash being kidnapped and having to fight his way to freedom was abominable. Ash was obviously wronged and not given the proper time to prepare or the same fresh start that Ritchie had. Instead of the league (which knew something was amiss) delaying the battle, things just went on ahead, putting Ash in a universally unfair, unsporting situation. The ref's calls were also nonsensical, with sleep uniquely treated as a OHKO for this battle alone, and even in the final fight, Charizard at least did some stomps and wing flaps first. Sparky never did anything, yet Charizard alone was blamed. Instead of telling a story where Ash's poor training habits were the core and he was genuinely bested, the writers made everyone else look corrupt and shoddy first with the Charizard troubles being second.
What made things worse was that the next episode acted as though Ash lost an entirely fair battle. Nobody had sympathy for the fact that he was kidnapped, nor did they even acknowledge it. The show felt like it was just dogpiling the protagonist for literally no reason in a thematic clash. The narrative itself didn't seem to understand what the previous episode featured, as opposed to the characters having intentional views on the matter that might discount certain aspects.
Furthermore, even after trying to tell a sketchy sportsmanship moral with Ritchie, the winner of the Pokemon League wasn't given a face or name! The very moral of sportsmanship was ruined by demeaning any non-Ash successes as literally unimportant, plunging straight into myopic selfishness. The adventure to that point gave each person a name and a face, stressing their differences as people and the value of understanding and respecting others. Here, on the most important stage for the series, the person who accomplished the goal everyone wanted to achieve was dehumanized for no reason, and so were the competitors in second and third place.
