The first Satoshi-Alan episode was pretty nice, if not particularly spectacular. I liked how the protagonists' first meeting was pretty "normal", almost as if Alan was just a regular CotD. It did a good job introducing the Satoshi-Gekkouga concept (which we'd only seen fleetingly before) and establishing a relationship between Satoshi and Alan. The battle itself was okay, but very straightforward and a bit too one-sided in Mega Lizardon's favor. I expected Alan to win, of course, but it would have been nice to see Gekkouga actually give him a challenge. We already know how strong Alan's Lizardon is from the TSME specials, so I don't see why it had to utterly dominate Gekkouga in that battle just to reinforce that.
The second Satoshi-Alan episode is one of my favorites of XY&Z so far. Story-wise, it pretty much hits the same beats as XY&Z013, but I liked seeing Satoshi and Alan's friendship fleshed out a little more. The first time it was more about Alan just wanting to battle Satoshi-Gekkouga, like he would a Mega Evolution. Aside from his complimenting Pikachu, he doesn't really pay much attention to Satoshi himself. XY&Z023 is mostly about Gekkouga, too, but Alan and Lizardon's final scene in that episode shows that Alan actually does have a respect for Satoshi beyond that. I'm actually looking forward to what happens when it's revealed that Alan is working with Team Flare, albeit unwittingly. If the Onvern-Metang battle is any indication, maybe they'll even use more Pokémon.
XY&Z023's battle between Satoshi-Gekkouga and Mega Lizardon is much better too, in that there's more back-and-forth and more cool moments than just Lizardon dominating the whole thing. Satoshi and Gekkouga's trick with Double Team (that he also pulled on Citron earlier); Mega Lizardon catching Gekkouga's Cut attack and blasting it in the face with Flamethrower (my personal favorite moment); Satoshi-Gekkouga dropping Lizardon with cut and getting the upper-hand in the battle; the much improved animation compared for the first fight. You get more of a sense of the potential of Satoshi-Gekkouga, a good fight, and it made me eager what the anime does when Satoshi and Alan fight for real, with the perfected Satoshi-Gekkouga against Mega Lizardon.
But as for why people aren't talking about it, maybe it's because there's much to talk about. It's not like there's a lot to this rivalry that makes for in-depth discussion. You have to figure that there'll probably be one more Satoshi and Alan battle during the Team Flare storyline that Satoshi wins, Alan will realize who he's working with, and his story arc will conclude. Maybe the line about the Kalos League in XY&Z023, as well as the revelation that Alan owns more Pokémon than Lizardon, is a set-up and leads to Alan showing up there, but that's kind of a stretch and wouldn't necessary add anything to either character, anyway. But I'm enjoying what's been shown, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this storyline develops.
