>>46069302Fans should've suspected that something was off when Alain collected 8 Badges at the 11th hour.
If you were paying any attention to the Mega Evolution Acts, you'd know that Alain had no interest in Gyms. This guy was already throwing hands with the Elite 4, and basically had nothing to gain from competing in little league. The only reason why he shows up is because Ash invited him to stop by, and maybe have a good time. Cut loose, have some fun. Their relationship was 100% casual. This isn't like Gary or Paul, who had years of buildup, tension, and destroying Ash's self esteem. Ash has nothing to prove in this match. And Alain wasn't really invested in the crown. This was just another excuse to boot Ash out of the tournament.
I think the greatest failure of XY is trying to turn Ash into this cool, shounen protagonist. He's surrounded by people who like him. He has a special shounen frog. He makes Champion break a sweat during battle. They even gave him his very own waifu. What could possibly go wrong?!? They did such an excellent job of making fans believe that Ash was cool kid on the block, that they could barely process the possibility that he could fail...Even though thing like Tobias or Cameron happened prior, and made way less sense than the Kalos League.
