Shota being beaten by Ash is no prize or Struggle !
Ash has more experience , He should have beaten Shota that way .
And You pratically basising your point of "Imaginary Struggle" Shota gone though your imagination.
When In Reality , Shota just appear out of nowhere to battle Ash and Leaves ! Nothing else.
Just because he couldn't beat Ash doesn't make it a struggle.
Just like its no a struggle for Jessie and James to lose to Ash.
Shōta's goal is to overcome Satoshi. A struggle is represented by the setbacks one faces towards getting to that goal. Thus, Shōta losing to Satoshi represents his struggle to catch up to him, in the same way that Satoshi losing to Shinji throughout DP represented Satoshi's own struggle at that time to beat his rival. Or that Satoshi and Gekkouga fainting or losing battles to Alan, Carnet, Shōta, and Urup represent their own struggle to master the transformation.
This is basic ****, man. Let the fanboy bias go and see stories for what they are and not what you want them to be.
Why , Because your theory doesn't work ?
Those character are part of Pokemon anime , Not a Different Anime
Shota is no more Special then Burgundy is.
However , Burgundy never beaten Clian so there nothing that claim that Shota should have a victory over Ash.
Cabernet never beating Dent or even showing any notable improvement against him was a huge flaw in her characterization and one of the myriad reasons as to why BW was so bad. The writers set up a storyline and then failed to follow through with it. There's no reason to saddle Shōta with the same idiotic writing. If the writers set up a storyline with him ("get stronger against Satoshi"), it needs to be followed through in some way.
The good thing about it is now that Shōta has already done that in XY&Z026, Satoshi can beat him at the League.
That doesn't mean Shota had paid his prize for Mega sceptile.
Because Ash gone way more Struggle then Shota So he deserved to Keep Goodra and get Free Keystone.
But Writer still made Ash pay for it .
He got Goodra that he was force to release and a "Something like Mega" that kills him.
If you think that Shota defeat pay for Mega Sceptile Then that Humilating Unova League pay for anything Ash get in Kalos , He shouldn't have pay any more prize for it.
The Isshu League already happened and what's done is done. Writing a future series as a way to compensate for it isn't going to make BW any better, and just makes the current series worse.
Shōta already paid his dues for Mega Jukain, by struggling and having to steadily get stronger with it. When we first met Shōta, we see Kimori taking losses against Citron and Gekogashira. It evolves into Juptile during a battle with Satoshi and
still loses. We see their improvement (which Satoshi acknowledges) in XY&Z001 against Team Flare. By the time Jukain appears, it shows even more improvement against Satoshi's Gekkouga, even winning until the Satoshi-Gekkouga form knocked it out. Now, in XY&Z026, Shōta's Jukain has beaten Satoshi's Gekkouga and demonstrated how much stronger the two have gotten since then. Shōta hasn't been given a "free" Mega Jukain. It's something he's clearly had to work for.
Just because you're too biased against Shōta to see that doesn't mean it hasn't happened, or that the anime hasn't been building up to it.
Where did he has a Level Build-up ? Have you ever seen him to build up Level ? Or you just using your imagination because that where Shota exist off-screen.
Have you actually been watching Shōta, like at all?
In XY064, we see Shōta's Kimori being beaten handily by Citron's Rentorar.
In XY073, we see Shōta's Kimori knocked out by Satoshi's Gekogashira and his Tatsubay beaten by Mâche's Shushupu.
In XY075, we get the big 3-on-3 battle between Shōta and Satoshi. Satoshi dominates two rounds against Shōta (Pikachu vs. Tatsubay; Luchabull vs. Peroream) before Satoshi gives him some valuable advice. Shōta makes use of that in the Kimori-Gekogashira battle, which Kimori is losing until it evolves into Juptile. Although Juptile loses, it has a moment where it's able to surprise Satoshi and Gekogashira, suggesting that Shōta can perhaps grow into a strong enough trainer to challenge Satoshi one day.
In XY&Z001, Shōta and Juptile return and help Satoshi and Gekogashira deal with Team Flare. Satoshi acknowledges Shōta's help, suggesting that Shōta is getting stronger.
In XY&Z013, Shōta battles Satoshi again and introduces Jukain. Although he loses, Jukain dominates Gekkouga – which is acknowledged by Citron – until the latter pulls the "Satoshi-Gekkouga" form against it and wins.
In XY&Z026, Shōta's Jukain defeats Satoshi's Gekkouga – which it had shown the ability to be able to do in Shōta's very last appearance.
This was being built up to as early as the first Satoshi vs. Shōta 3-on-3 battle in XY075.
Lets see , Ash got nearly beaten by Paul if it wasn't for Infernape's power.
In fact , Paul still able to read him like a book and remain one-step ahead of him.
There is no proof Ash can beat Paul ever again.
Also May got her ass kick by Drew in her first Grand-festival while Dawn never even beaten Zoey.
Why Should Shota be treated any special then that ?
Haruka then came back and defeated Shuu in the second Grand Festival, so let's not forget that. Hikari's also showed far more improvement against Nozomi in the final battle of the Grand Festival than she did in their first battle in DP012, a fact that's acknowledged in the show itself.
And Shinji was only a step ahead of Satoshi for part of that battle. Satoshi wrecked that when he had Goukazaru blow up the field, which is acknowledged in-series by Reiji. Not to mention the clear efforts of Bouysel, Pikachu, and Glion in defeating Shinji's other Pokémon. And that Satoshi and Goukazaru had even grown to a point where they could control the latter's power was itself an improvement in their abilities, and something that Shinji could never do.
All of these examples work against you.
Shōta isn't treated any differently than they were. The only difference is that he's not a main character whose growth can be chronicled in over a hundred episodes. He loses to Satoshi, gets stronger, and narrowly beats him, much like Satoshi did with Shinji.
Oh , your saying Manon should Just pay prize for Alain just because of her small role.
Here is a suggestion , If Alain gets another Mega Pokemon or Anything Special then the Anime should kill off Prof Sycamore .
After all , That should be right prize because Alain want to protect Prof Sycamore that most So Prof Sycamore should suffer for Alain .
Truth is , Manon's Chespin just a excuse for Alain receiving free thing! Because Real Prize is something that only Alain pays , Not someone else pays for him .
No, I explicitly said that you could criticize TSME for having Manon be the "price" Alan has to pay. But criticizing something doesn't mean you get to ignore that it happened, which you seem to have trouble understanding. A "price" can be anything so long as it affects the main character (and TSME Act IV showed decisively that it does), you don't get to make arbitrary rules as to what it is.
Ash and Alain are the character of the same Anime on same storyline !
They have two different personal arcs and fuctions in that storyline. They're not the same character, which means the writers get to have them do different things.
Actually it is ! Alain just make it sound like its for others sake but at the end its for his own sake.
That what lead Manon to suffer.
What lead Manon and Hari-san to their problem was that Alan told Manon not to travel with him anymore and chased her away, but his stated goal was always "get stronger, so I can protect the people close to me". He says this in TSME Act IV. This is even shown in TSME Act II when Fleur-de-lis plants the idea him to "become the strongest" in the first place. This is undebatable.
Even what Ash did in Original series trump Alain !
Just because your theroy does work doesn't mean you can ignore all Ash's struggling from other series.
Of course it does,
because Alan didn't exist in the original series. How the hell are Alan and Shōta supposed to be able to struggle in a series they didn't exist for?
This is precisely why only
XY and
XY&Z are relevant to discussing their characters. It's not a fair comparison if we're taking 19 years' worth of history that neither character could ever possibly measure up to.
Conflicts ?
Shota Conflicts is just losing to Ash and appear out of nowhere with free power-up.
Alain's pay no prize for his Free Mega Charizard and Metang ! He just make Manon pay prize for him.
Those aren't conflict.
Even Ursula shown better conflict then Shota ! And She was a far better rival then Shota.
As long as a situation affects a main character negatively, then it is a conflict.
And the one thing of note Urara ever did as a rival was get inadvertently get Hikari over that "Pikari" problem in DP161-162. Her characterization is better than Shōta's by far, but she brings about as much to Hikari as a rival as Shōta does to Satoshi – which is to say, not very much.
If Writer want to show Shota's growth then they create another Punching bag for him.
Ash already been Punching bag for Shootic , Cameron and Iris !
That was ENOUGH .
If writer care so much of Shota development then they should find another guy to lose to him.
In what universe is
XY's Satoshi – who has beaten Shōta twice to Shōta's one victory, so far – a "punching bag"? There are only about four characters in all of
XY and
XY&Z I can remember who've defeated Satoshi without him getting a win back at some point: a CotD from XY013, Sanpei, Carnet, and Alan. One of those four people is a freaking champion.
This is just fandom entitlement.
XY!Satoshi gets a special transformation with Gekkouga, gets to have the upper-hand against a champion in battle (something no other character can claim), and goes about a year without losing a battle on-screen, and you still think he's a "punching bag" because he has to go through a trial that will inevitably make him even stronger than he already is.
There was no point in Shota from the beginning.
Even Beating Ash won't gave him any point ether! He was just a boring ass rival from the beginning.
The Main reason for Gary and Paul to be a better rival was due to Ash's intense desire to beat them. Ash hated the idea of losing to Gary and he wanted to change Paul philosophy of training ! But Shota is no different then Conway or Barry.
In feat , I would prefer someone like Ursula instate of Shota ! That would be more entertaining rival.
There's about as much of a point with Shōta as there is with any other rival not named Shinji, Shuu, or Nozomi, who are the only three rivals I can think of who've actually helped their protagonists develop. But that's not what we're discussing.
Shōta has had to struggle more for what he has than Satoshi has had to in
XY, or even other characters like Shigeru (who was always presented as "better" than Satoshi for no real reason other than that Satoshi needed a rival).
My point come from what happening in Anime.
Your point is Writer knows better then everyone.
Ya like Writer knew what they are doing when They made Ash lose to Cameron in 6 vs 5 battle.
I guess writer also knew what they are doing when they kicked out Goodra.
There's plenty of room to criticize the writers for the decisions they made with this anime. But the thing about constructive criticism is that it requires one to actually engage with the work instead of childishly ranting in every other thread about how the writers won't do what you want.
That's the problem with your posts. You don't care what they're trying to do or what's being presented to you. You just want the story to bend to what YOU want – and more often than not, what you want reads like a bad fanfiction. And you apparently think that saying anything differently than that is to believe that the writers know better than everyone else.
