#leader iris

Hey, bit late, but we finally have the actual Iris vs. Ash episode title and summary! (Also, perhaps Iris became a Gym Leader since her traveling companion days?)

I still hope these episodes will one day get released, BW had been a pretty decent series up to this point (loss to Snivy aside, but hey, Zekrom foreshadowing was hype!) , but after tsunami and earthquake (and with the coming B2W2), it seems like they would have likely had to do their fair share of rewrites. It would be fascinating to know what was originally intended for the Plasma arc.

Rest under cut due to length.

Some Alder appreciation? Imo, he's one of the best Champions, but from what I've seen, he's really underrated given how proactive he was.

Most Champions do get involved in the villain plot, but stop shy of actually fighting the main villain (the only prior exception to this was Steven in Emerald, but he's one of the most popular Champs.) Even Cynthia stands off to the side and makes you fight Cyrus, the guy literally trying to reset reality and purge it of spirit (and also everyone else.)

Alder? Goes on to the League to fight N, Plasma's King, who is armed with a Legendary Pokemon. Sure, he fails due to being out of practice, as he hadn't had a serious battle since the loss of his partner Pokemon (and because it would be an enormous anticlimax when the game had been setting up You vs. N), but I commend the effort.

I talk some serious shit about BW on other accounts, but I gotta say, the Episode N arc OP was pretty hype. Like, for a while, there were people who believed we’d never even get Plasma after the cancelled two-parter, and then they announced the arc, and went and dropped this on us.