In which Cass is the anonest anon that ever anon'd

COUUUUUUUUUUUGH, I’m not sure Pachira sees a fatherly dynamicbetween Lys and Alan, I mean, Act IV:

(Dumdumduuuuum.)

(How can you look at that boy and put “straight” in your sentence, tho.)

Pachira, what the actual fuck.

(Jk, I really think there is a surrogate father-son relationship going on, especially with the way Lys is basically, well… towards Alan, sometimes benevolent, sometimes scolding, sometimes threatening, sometimes indulgent, sometimes congratulating?

Alan has two dads and no mom.

Unlike anime!N, who had two moms and no dad.)

At the very least, I don’t think Fleurdelys asked her to lose. Alan was getting a bit out of control (in Act II and Act III? Alan was just “Yes, I understand” at everything Lys was telling him. At the end of Act III and Act IV? Alan was “No, I want-”, and Lys’s faces were making it clear he wasn’t pleased about it); I’m guessing that the best way to get Alan back into ~faithful mode~ would have been to make him rely on&grateful to Lys again, if Lys had a ~plan~ about the challenge that would involve rigging the results? And Alan losing the challenge and losing his “right” to keep the stones but being granted another chance would have perfectly done the trick.That is, if Hari-san was still alright, but nobody could have predicted what happened when the challenge was set!

So, Pachira could have faked it. Or it could be genuine. We don’t know, and her attitude (snarky and amused and playful) when she lost wasn’t indicative at all becaaaaaaaause…

… it’s 100% faithful to her portrayal in the games. (Pre-battle and post-battle screens - look at that Queen who didn’t even bother standing up to battle you.)

Part of me wants to believe she faked it because ~the first League member we see being defeated by a non-League member is a woman~ (okay, nobody else could have played the role of the “strong fighter from gameverse who is acquainted with Fleurdelys”, but still…); however, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a genuine loss. I really don’t think it means Alan “is E4-level” - so far, Alan had been shown fighting one-on-one. He specialized in one-on-one. His goal is to “master mega-evolution with Lizardon” (Act I) and to “get stronger with Lizardon" (Act IV): it has been the most consistent thing in his character. Alan may be pretty good at one-on-one, but it doesn’t say anything about his potential in Full Battles. Can you picture, if Satoshi had only travelled with Pikachu and only trained Pikachu all along? There is the meta-reason of getting each new series more accessible to new viewers (which is understandable and fine!) but, even in one region, Pikachu probably would have accumulated way more experience. So even if Lizardon took down Pachira’s strongest legitimately, it surely doesn’t mean Alan would have been able to win against her in a Full Battle.

(I’m a bit more cautious about the Metang’s case as long as XY&Z023 hasn’t aired, because it could be intentional trolling from the preview (the sequence in which Alan is throwing a monster ball is divided into two, the “regular” one with the ball spinning on itself which used to stop when the ball is near the screen / another “new” segment in which SUDDENLY THE BALL IS STILL AND FLIES UP IN THE AIRwhat is happ, the junction is so bad, so it’s an edited add-on… but is it just edited together for the preview, or is that a real sequence from the episode?), and it kinda… doesn’t make any sense compared to how Alan was portrayed until now? :”D He doesn’t care about the League, doesn’t care about getting new ‘mon, was shown to be uninterested in fighting non-mega (remember Louie? and Alan challenged Gekkouga because he had already witnessed the new form and wanted to check what it was), only battled in 1 vs. 1, so it will sincerely feel “bullshiiiiiiiit” to me if suddenly, Alan is getting new ‘mon Just Because (while COUGH, we never got to see Fla-chan ever again and Sana wasn’t allowed to use her other ‘mon for Performances without any justification. Winkwink.) Like, I get that it would serve ~Satoshi’s training~. But how would it serve Alan as a character researching ME-and-now-searching-for-a-cure-for-Hari-san?)Unless, of course, there is a stated reason as to why he suddenly has a Metang of all ‘mon and it’s an isolated case. Daigo was there? It’s screaming Daigo and I will scream Daigo if there is no stated reason, anyway.)

tl;dr Pachira’s win or loss can be whatever you want /o/