SPOILERS: Masters Eight Discussion/Speculation Thread

[Articfoxgamez]

This isn't really Masters Eight related but I have no better spot to put this but, I just had a horrid thought
What if they pull a SWSH and have Rose return and interrupt the Ash Vs. Leon fight for no good reason.
That is all.

 

[Rath]

What's your reasoning behind that though?

They have history together from the Mega Evo specials, whereas Ash has the least interaction with Steven out of any Champion.

 

[Rath]

But what if the finals ended up being Iris vs... someone? I'm honestly not sure if her beating Leon or Lance would be worse.

Edit: Actually, Lance beating Iris is probably the ultimate troll. Literally no pay off to anything, and Lance goes back to rank #1 where he was at the start of the series.

Last I checked Lance didn't have the #1 spot, the PWC was a new thing at the time, so there wasn't a Monarch. It was Lance and Leon battling for the title, not Leon taking it from Lance.

 

[Sai]

Even after Cynthia was revealed, we had no reason to believe that Lance still didn't hold the #2 spot. I would have expected Cynthia being #3, but Lance being bumped down to #4, Cynthia taking his old rank, and Steven also being ranked above him were surprises.

The thing is they held Alan back to be a surprise reveal. No reason he couldn't have gotten a solo ep and told Ash he was competed in the PWC. They purposely hid him whereas people wouldn't speculate him as easy as the other champions like Steven and Diantha for example.

And as others mentioned people can just as easily say Ash and Iris look like they could battle again even though we know they most likely won't. They haven't built up anything between Lance and Ash the same way they did with Raihan and Cynthia.

 

[FelipePR]

Since everyone is giving their ideas for the Masters Eight rounds, I'll provide my fanfic (Lol):

Round 1:
Ash vs. Alain -> The retribution
Iris vs. Lance -> Battle For the Dragon Master Title
Cynthia vs. Steven -> I ship Lol
Diantha vs. Leon -> The Shining Stars

Round 2:
Ash vs. Iris -> The Young Talents
Leon vs Cynthia -> The Old Battle Masters

Round 3
Ash vs Leon -> The New Monarch

--- The Anime Ends ----

 

[Sai]

There's also no reason to have Cynthia or Alan battle Leon, they have no connection with him. Keep in mind any champion/champion battle will probably be offscreened to save episodes and animation time. I can't see them doing that with any major characters like Cynthia, Alan, etc. Diantha is going to get the worst of it

 

[Broseph08]

There's also no reason to have Cynthia or Alan battle Leon, they have no connection with him. Keep in mind any champion/champion battle will probably be offscreened to save episodes and animation time. I can't see them doing that with any major characters like Cynthia, Alan, etc. Diantha is going to get the worst of it

G-Max Charizard fighting Mega Charizard is reason enough. Many of the battles not involving Ash in the tournament won't have connections. Alain/Steven is the only one I can think of that actually has build up from before

 

[Sai]

G-Max Charizard fighting Mega Charizard is reason enough. Many of the battles not involving Ash in the tournament won't have connections. Alain/Steven is the only one I can think of that actually has build up from before

And that's what I mean, off-screening most of Alan's battle or treating him like Trevor or even Flint would defeat any purpose of reviving his character for this point in the tournament. It would mean his character is an afterthought and I can't see any reason to include him in the Masters 8 then. They might as well have just kept Flint in it if they needed a fodder character for the roster.

Likewise the writers knew what they were doing. He's the only non-game character here, seeing an anime original character placed at this point of the tournament has no reason to happen without fansevice incentive. Hugely suspicious when he's the only non-game and non-champion character there. He's essentially the odd one out, and the only reason why people would know he's there is if you watched XY and know his significance to Ash

 

[Broseph08]

We'll see, I might end up being wrong. I have had a feeling about his 3 opponents in the Masters 8 this entire series so I'll stick with it until I get proven wrong

 

[Audino1008]

Calling it now, Ash will fight Alain, Cynthia then Leon.

 

[Sai]

We'll see, I might end up being wrong. I have had a feeling about his 3 opponents in the Masters 8 this entire series so I'll stick with it until I get proven wrong

Probably because all we knew were Lance and Cynthia being part of the Masters 8 all series till now. We had no idea who else would be there and we thought Raihan would be part of it for the longest time

 

[Broseph08]

Probably because all we knew were Lance and Cynthia being part of the Masters 8 all series till now. We had no idea who else would be there and we thought Raihan would be part of it for the longest time

Nah it's mostly just the graphics they've shown this whole time. Bea, Raihan, Lance, Cynthia, Leon. I'm gonna ride and die with this prediction lol. Feel free to quote if I end up being wrong

 

[Rath]

Nah it's mostly just the graphics they've shown this whole time. Bea, Raihan, Lance, Cynthia, Leon. I'm gonna ride and die with this prediction lol. Feel free to quote if I end up being wrong

Yeah, pretty much.

Bea, Raihan, Lance, Cynthia, and Leon have been teased as Ash's "rivals" multiple times, and Bea and Raihan have been defeated.

 

[Blob]

Excadrill is a Steel-type, though.

I know it is, the point was he had 3 Steel types and 4 Rock types.

 

[Blob]

Excadrill is a steel type, while Claydol is not. And actually, in most instances, Steven has a team with more rock-type than steel-type Pokémon. This occurs because Steven doesn't just stick to steel type, but always used fossil Pokémon in his team, which tend to be rock type.

I know Excadrill is a Steel type... the point was he had more Rock than Steel.

Actually, Steven has only had more Rock than Steel types once.

 

[Blob]

Yeah, pretty much.

Bea, Raihan, Lance, Cynthia, and Leon have been teased as Ash's "rivals" multiple times, and Bea and Raihan have been defeated.

I don't get why Iris can't have Lance as a rival over Ash. Ash could have Diantha instead of him or heck, Lance could have been replaced by Alain.

I get the "early JN" stuff promoting Lance over Alain, but since late JN focuses on Iris so much more, it makes little sense to keep Lance an Ash rival. It's like the writers didn't plan ahead at all and Iris is just there to fill a spot...

 

[Beatsy Ray]

Yeah, pretty much.

Bea, Raihan, Lance, Cynthia, and Leon have been teased as Ash's "rivals" multiple times, and Bea and Raihan have been defeated.

That's one correlation, but another one would be that these group shots have always shown every revealed PWC contestant who outranks Ash. Alain has only been absent from them because they didn't want to spoil his reveal. On that note, why be so secretive about the remaining Masters 8 members if all of Ash's matchups were spoiled from the get-go?

 

[Broseph08]

Yeah, pretty much.

Bea, Raihan, Lance, Cynthia, and Leon have been teased as Ash's "rivals" multiple times, and Bea and Raihan have been defeated.

Yup. And when Bea was finally defeated, it showed a new graphic with the remaining 4. That made me even more sure that Ash would eventually battle everyone in this picture

 

[swampertus]

I don't get why people still believe Ash will have to fight Alain. Keep on dreaming. Lance->Cynthia->Leon. These are battles for Masters 8. So, stop being delusional.

NO ALAIN VS ASH!!!

 

[Sai]

I don't get why people still believe Ash will have to fight Alain. Keep on dreaming. Lance->Cynthia->Leon. These are battles for Masters 8. So, stop being delusional.

NO ALAIN VS ASH!!!

Because bringing Alan back in a tournament of champions is pointless then. The writers themselves chose to bring him back instead of just including Champions or Elite 4.