>>55189390This.
It was bullshit, but the keypoint is, that unlike Kalos, people weren't led on.
Furthermore, Ash had already "won" because he defeated Paul, the thing that was built-up and developed through the entire season, so him losing to Tobias didn't hurt as much because Ash had "accomplished" something in the season so it was not completely meaningless.
And again, the over the top and asspullish nature of Tobias also did a lot to soften the blow. You knew Ash was gonna lose yes or yes, but at least he wouldn't go down like a bitch. At the end of it all, he still defeated the Darkrai and then a Latios on top of that too.
The episode had been leaked for a while too.
Even if Tobias happened today it wouldn't have caused even a tenth of the butthurt the Kalos Disaster caused.
