>>39272250You realize Ash only existed as a competent trainer, cause those same writers wrote him as such, right?
Is the implication that the writers wrote Ash as semi-competent, and thought the only believable way he could lose was an OP Darkrai trainer?
I'd like to remind you of the people who have beat Ash in Leagues before and after.
Harrison, Tyson, Cameron, Alain none of these trainers would stand a chance vs Tobais either.
Save Cameron, I'd argue they were all believably better trainers than Ash.
Ash was always destined to lose the Sinnoh league, the power ranking for Pokemon isn't Ash then Tobais there's plenty of trainers in between that also could have trashed Ash believably. You are right that no such trainer existed in the Sinnoh League story, as he had to defeat Paul from a story perspective, but they could have easily written a character slightly stronger than Ash and Paul to win the league also.
