Leon is the new Tobias
Cynthia is the new Paul.
Cynthia vs Ash : 3 episodes like Paul, and then Leon will overpower Ash like Tobias did
I'm going to be honest, I...
I really don't think they're gonna do an entire season of buildup just to have Ash get completely and utterly pulverized by Leon like that. Ash vs. Leon is supposed to be the big finale of JN/PM19 and what this entire generation's anime series has been building up towards, and if Ash fails to defeat Leon,
especially if Ash just gets completely destroyed by Leon without putting so much as a dent into Leon's team while the latter just effortlessly crushes him, then these three years of buildup and this entire anime season would effectively be a complete waste of time.
The thing with Tobias is that he was not ever meant to be an important character or an obstacle for Ash to overcome. He wasn't even a proper character either. He was little more than a plot device wearing the skin of the character whose sole purpose in the DP series was to keep Ash from winning the entire Sinnoh League. The narrative finale of DP for Ash, for all intents and purposes, was Ash vs. Paul. That was the big finale battle and the grand climax of Ash's Sinnoh journey, and one they spent four years, with an entire anime season, building up towards, over 100 episodes of a bitter rivalry between Ash and Paul, a clash of their ideals and attitudes towards training Pokemon, all coming to a head with their ultimate finale battle at the Sinnoh League. And the end result was that Ash
finally won. He defeated Paul, who was his greatest rival yet, finally ending their bitter rivalry. Tobias showed up last minute, and there was no buildup to him and Ash having an important battle. The writers wanted Ash to defeat Paul, thus finally coming out on top after 100+ episodes of a bitter rivalry, but they didn't want Ash to win the whole Sinnoh League, so they created a half-assed plot device in the form of Tobias so they could find a way to quickly eliminate him from the League to prevent him from coming out as the League Winner.
That is not the case with Leon. Ash's goal in this series is that he wants to reach Leon in the World Coronation series and he wants to be the first Trainer in the world to
defeat Leon. They've spent three years, an entire anime season, building up towards Ash vs. Leon.
And if you still have serious doubts about Ash being able to put up a close fight against Leon, we can look back at the Kalos League and more specifically, Alain. Alain pulverized most of his opponents before Ash with mostly just his Charizard and Metagross, but then come their actual battle and Ash managed to put up a damn close fight, Ash even managed to take down Metagross with ease. It was a battle down to the wire, it ended down to their very last Pokemon for both sides, with Ash-Greninja vs. Mega Charizard X. Yes, Ash lost, but it was a narrow defeat as Alain's Charizard only barely managed to stay standing. And there was a narrative purpose for this: it worked narratively because the Kalos League was building up towards the Team Flare villain arc, with Alain and Ash's character arcs and relationship reaching the finale in the collective effort to defeat Lysandre and Team Flare. Same with Ash-Greninja. It was Alain's battle that led Greninja to finally master its Ash-Greninja form, and then we see its true power in full in the battle against Team Flare. Say what you will about the outcome here, but the Team Flare arc was XYZ's proper narrative finale and that ended with Ash and Alain's character arcs concluding and them prevailing against the big bad.
Given the actual way Ash vs. Alain went comparatively, there's no reason Ash can't put up a close fight against Leon narratively, and more importantly, Ash vs. Leon
is the narrative finale of Journeys/PM19 for all intents and purposes. This
has to be a good battle: intense, action-packed, and down to the last mon for the both of them. If it ends up with Ash getting completely and utterly overpowered then there's no point. That insinuates all the hard work Ash put in to reach Leon was a waste of time, his goal, his dream to battle and defeat Leon, never had any chance of happening and that his goal was hopelessly idealistic, and it gives a bad message to children watching the show. It's telling them that they shouldn't pursue their dreams, that they shouldn't work hard towards their dreams and goals no matter how impossible it may seem, that their hopes, goals, dreams are impossible to reach, and they should just give up. Do you think that's a good message to convey to the young elementary school children who are the target audience of this show? No. Moreover, as I said, they've been building up to Ash vs. Leon for nearly three years. Why spent all that time building up to something if it's going to end up a horrifically disappointing finale?
Now you may think that Leon overpowering Diantha like this basically crushes any hope of Ash winning, but frankly, if Ash gets overpowered this badly himself, that means he failed to heed the wake-up call he got from this battle. Say what you will about the execution of Leon vs. Diantha, I'm also miffed that Diantha got crushed this badly and think the execution of Leon's character has been pretty bad, but this battle had a narrative plot purpose. You know how Ash saw the scoreboard, Leon only losing one Pokemon while Diantha lost four, and how he reacted in complete and utter shock? How he commented during the remainder of the battle "I've never seen Diantha get so overpowered like this.."? This battle was a
big wake-up call for Ash. This was a big warning sign to him of just
how powerful Leon is. That this guy is a big obstacle for Ash to overcome, and that he's really gonna have to pull everything he's got and really come up with a way to prevail against such a massively powerful Trainer like Leon. This is the guy he has been working hard throughout this entire series in hopes of defeating him.
This is his big wake-up call. This means Ash vs. Leon is being built up to be an important, high-tension match, with Ash being the underdog of the Masters 8 up against Leon, the unbeatable Champion, the world's greatest Trainer of all time. And it's the underdog's job to come out on top and win. Leon vs. Diantha is Ash, the Masters 8's underdog and rising star, getting a big wake-up call that he has to pull everything he's got in order to take on this massive obstacle of a challenge and prevail. He has to pull out everything he's got, all the special training he went through and the powers his Pokemon have unleashed through training with people like Iris and Clemont and even his old mons like Greninja and Infernape, all of that has to be unleashed in full against Leon. His biggest strength is his unpredictability and his ability to think on the spot, combined with the bonds he has with his Pokemon, and he really needs to pull that off to prevail against Leon, who is a master of preparation. As messy as the execution is, Leon vs. Diantha's outcome
raises the stakes for Ash, so now for Ash vs. Leon, which is the big finale that Journeys/PM19 has been building up towards, the battle's stakes are much higher on Ash's end.
Moreover, Leon's character is that he's really waiting for someone to finally give him a proper challenge, and he thinks Ash is that one who can do so. The fact that he's so strong and has never lost has scared him, and has him worried that he's reached his peak, but the Eternatus incident proved to him that there will be even stronger opponents than him for Leon to challenge, and that excites him. This is setting up for Ash and Leon's battle to be high-tension. It has to be a close match. It has to keep both Ash and Leon on their feet and high in tension, and Ash has to give Leon the best battle he's ever had. It has to be a close 6v6, down to the last mon, for the sake of Leon's character.
Making Ash vs. Leon like the Tobias battle, let alone Ash losing at all, would be utterly insulting to both Leon's character and Ash's arc and all the work and buildup he's had towards this battle. Ash losing would also be terrible, because unlike the Kalos League, where that at least had narrative purpose as it was building up towards the next step of Alain's character arc, the Team Flare showdown, this has no excuses. Ash vs. Leon is the narrative finale of JN, the conclusion to both of their arcs in this series, and the grand finale. To make this any less than a 3 episode 6v6 would make this entire generation's season a waste of time, an insult to all the characters involved, and would make this go down in history as the most disappointing finale of all time. I would not accept anything less than a close, high tension, 6v6 battle, and I am still rooting against all odds for Ash to win this.
