[Spoilers] Alolan League!

I've only peeked at the titles but I'm still excited for next ep! Lana's pretty much gone yeah, but here's hoping they make it a interesting lose, she's pretty seasoned on her own. Super sad to see Hau go but things have to progress

Ash is outright confirmed to face Guzma in the semifinals, meaning that both Lana and Hau will lose in the semifinals.

A small bit of it had me spooked Satoshi was gonna lose, Ngl.

Excited for the next battles though! I think they've been kinda fun to watch~

i actually felt... bad that ash won. hau looks like he worked so hard for this moment but eh, plot armor is undefeated. one thing i noticed: hau's va sounds like he wants to punch ash or something haha.

well whatever, i guess ash got this win. I hope the battles become better though. so far, nothing's really piqued my interest.

wow I feel awful for Hau. He was so excited thinking he'd won, and then his grandfather of all people disagrees with the verdict and Ash ends up winning instead. geez Ash is great and all, but I would have preferred Hau win than see something so soul-crushing ):

At least Ash didn't seem to happy about the change in verdict himself. Thank for Ash for continuing to be a very Good boy.

But yeah they ... definitely could have handled the ending to the battle better, from what I know. But I guess there had to be one battle that was going to cause backlash like in most other leagues.

Yeah. Ash seemed really understanding about it, and I'm glad for that at least. :s It just could've been handled sooo much better. A lot of people are up in arms over this most recent episode, some are even considering it one of their worst episodes. orz

Personally, i don't like the battles that much, looks like good battle writers and dynamic battle animators are still resting since ash vs misty, first hau and gladion
And i think it would be better if the battles were Kaki vs Satoshi and Gladio vs Guzma... And the final match was Satoshi vs Guzma, that thing would make Satoshi win for plot things.
and, the third rival in a row that disqualifies Satoshi? the second OP rival that won to Satoshi IN FINALS in a row? This is getting predictable...

Kiawe's battle against Sophocles has been quite good so far, and I'm really happy seeing the latter grow and become so much stronger. Personally, I'm enjoying that match more than the rest, and certainly more than Ash's against Hau. I love both characters, but their battle felt....underwhelming, to say the least.

Though with Meltan being inspired by Rowlet's battle and calling its friends makes it seem very, very likely it'll evolve into Melmetal and face off against Guzma later? Seems like a good matchup since steel is immune to poison.

Today's episode was pretty good. Sophocles vs Kiawe was interesting and Sophocles put up a good fight throughout the league! Writers did a good job with the Lana vs Guzma battle, really made me concerned for Prima which totally delivers how dangerous Guzma is supposed to be. Ash is finally going up against him so eeeee : O

I'm mostly interested on how the battles with Guzma will go; and yeah, I'm interested to see how well Guzma will perform~

Yeah definitely curious to know how they'll be handling the Ash and Guzma battle and how it continues the plot with Guzma trying to overthrow the league to he can find Kukui! But on the other hand I'm over here quietly rooting for Kiawe as I'm sure Gladion is the fan favorite to be the league champ but ... let my boy kiawe win if Ash doesn't.

The ending with the matches have left me at a lost for words really. I mean really? Why have Guzma vs Ash in Semi-Final instead of the finals. At the moment I want Ash to lose so that Guzma goes forward but we probably will get Ash forward against Gladion which imo makes no sense to be in finals. Yeah, they are rivals great. But it makes completely no sense to put Gladion over Guzma in the league, when plot wise it would make way more sense for Guzma to be Ash's final challenge. This way either Ash or him faces Kukui, what purpose does Gladion have in the league? Guzma plot made way more sense in my opinion and has a way better narrative possibility.

I'll just take this last part of the episode with grains of salt as I am pissed with the way plot is being treated.

Eh. I can see them pulling a Gladion vs Ash which becomes a Lycanroc battle redux since Ash's Lycanroc lost the last time they fought and the anime loves to do rematches with that sort of setting. But yeah, for the plot it is kinda odd but eyy I'm just going with the flow here and waiting to see how it plays out!

Guzma's battle against Lana.....dear gosh, definitely the most uncomfortable battle so far. He's ruthless. Poor Primarina. :s

I hadn't seen the episode yet, but was it really difficult to watch?

It was definitely darker and more brutal than past episodes, especially when compared to the episode right before. Wasn't really difficult to watch consider it is Pokémon, but still quite grim. I don't think we've seen an episode like this since the Sinnoh days with Hunter J?

I loved people getting offended over Guzma using tactics and strategy to win his bout against Lana.

The more the anime tries to paint Guzma as the villain, the more it proves him right, which is amazing.

Well, the good thing about this league is that it means this godforsaken arc will be coming to a close soon.

I've enjoyed SM a lot! I always tend to stop watching during a league regardless of the series, but I've still been following and I'm excited to go and eventually see one of the battles myself. Guzma and Lana isn't one of them, but knowing me I'll watch it at some point anyways.

To be honest though I think I might be more excited for Gladion v Kiawe more than Guzma v Ash. I love both Gladion and Kiawe but let fire boy win and not the rival? Even if I have a big feeling that it's going to be Gladion.