>>54883319I have, always wondered about the disparity in reception between the XY-era TV and the XY-era movies. Given how 'cool' and well-received the XY Ash was- why didn't that success rub off on the movies? It is still the same Ash. Having watched this movie I think I can provide a diagnosis. The XY era stuck to the same formula. And no-one was willing to watch more of the same. Not the same old Pokemon movie with the same tired old tropes. Let's call it Pokemon Movie Fatigue.
Course, they were still willing to watch- if it came with the promise that their childhood hero could win.
Which brings us to the TV Series. This movie had an evil scientist (Jarvis) manipulating someone. Sound familiar? Replace the Prince with Alain, replace Jarvis with Lysandre. I do not know if the TV writing room was sharing notes with the Movie writing room, but this unhappy coincidence does lead me to further question the decisions made during XY. Why did Yajima and co think Ash beating the villain would garner interests when that is something that goes without saying (unless that villain group is TRHQ) in both the movies and TVs.
What made them think there would be much care given to how some OC feels about being played like a fiddle rather than the catharsis over, at that point, 20 years of frustration? And surely, they'd have noticed the similarities, the reception to Volcanion and at that point- alarm bells ought have rung. No-one really cares if Ash beats the bad guy- again. He always does that. If you wanted to be subversive, there was but one thing left to do at this point- and they were building towards it.
But, in the end, this is all conjecture and musing with hindsight. The Movies were probably being written and animated at the same time as the finale- meaning that even if they wanted to, at some point it was too late to course correct. Hence, it fell on Tomiyasu to give the fans what they wanted- for better or worse.