Thoughts on why Tobius was introduced?

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RememberingGOODPokemon

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I didn't really understand why Tobius was put in for the Sinnoh League when he really didn't have anything to do with the show before or after that.

I also felt that a trainer with all legendary pokemon was a little over the top. PLEASE GIVE YOUR THOUGHTS!
 
He was put there so Ash could lose the tournament quickly and in a believable manner so they could move on to things like saying goodbye to Brock and Dawn and on to the new region.
 
Good point.. now that I think of it, it was nice to see him lose in that matter compared to when he lost in Hoenn and the Silver Conference.
 
come on if Ash lost to anything else but legendary/pseudo legendary types or a badass trainer that we met during that series, could you imagine the fan outrage?

this was a best possible scenario IMO
 
I think Dogasu provided the best explanation:
Japanese Episode DP 189

And we don't know whether his team was really full of legendaries XD For all we know, his team consisted of Latios, Darkrai, Rattata, Bidoof, Sentret, and Zigzagoon.
 
I actually liked seeing a trainer with legendary Pokemon in a league. It might have come off as being cheap, especially with just using Darkrai all the time until Ash defeated it, but I thought it was refreshing and after the battle against Paul, I kind of liked that it was legendary Pokemon that ended up defeating Ash, as opposed to some other kind of Pokemon. It would have been nice if they had another episode for the battle, instead of being full of mostly one-hit knockouts, but they didn't have the time to do that unfortunately.
 
Yeah, I also liked that it was a trainer who used ubers to defeat Ash in a league, rather than "normal" Pokemon like usual. I did think that Tobias' using Darkrai to collect all of his Sinnoh region gym badges, and in the whole league up until Ash, was an over-the-top decision on the writers' part, but outside of that, I had no problems at all about a trainer who had at least two rare, powerful ubers to defeat Ash in a league - unlike about 90% of the fanbase, it would appear. It really made Ash look like he had come far as a trainer.
 
Here's my theory: (And like all my theories, it may be completely wrong.)

I think TPTB may have originally meant for Sinnoh to be the region where Ash finally won the league tourney. I base this on all the talk about the winner being able to challenge the Sinnoh E4 and champ, which suggested that they honestly were setting up an eventual Ash/Cynthia showdown. Unfortunately, it took them four years to get Ash to the league, and by then the release of the BW games (and, by extension, the next generation of the anime) was rapidly approaching. TPTB therefore needed to wrap up DP as quickly as possible. Enter Tobias, and the ensuing curbstomping of Ash.

I think if TPTB had gotten Ash to the league in a more timely manner, they might have actually had him win the tourney and challenge the E4 and Cynthia. Unfortunately, they couldn't help stalling. Basically, they're the equivalent of the student who procrastinates on a school project and puts together a barely-mediocre product the night before it's due. (I've been there.)
 
As a cheap plot device to boot Ash out of the Sinnoh League, which would then lead to us being stuck with him forever...
 
Over the top? Half the kids who play Pokémon sweep everybody with their legendaries! Tobias was like a shout-out to players who don't bother to train non-legends. I thought it was funny and clever, if not a bit Diablous ex Machina-ish.
 
The Sinnoh league had to end. To do that Ash had to lose to somebody. At that point there just wasn't enough time to properly develop a Harrison/Tyson type character to have a meaningful final battle with Ash, and having a random trainer mop the floor with him in one episode using regular Pokemon would have been anti-climactic after the Paul battle.

Enter Tobias. Was having an adult character who uses legendaries to sweep through a league full of children ridiculous in the context of the story? Yes. Were there really any better options given the circumstances? No.

All in all, I'm kind of glad we got Tobias. Sure his mere existence in the league solely to beat Ash is some of the most contrived shit ever, but anything else would have seemed lame after Ash vs Paul anyway. At least they used that opportunity to show us something new and interesting.
 
Ninja_Oscar said:
So Ash would lose the one time he could have one. I hate Tobias forever!
Click to expand...
He would have lost the league regardless of who his new league rival was and what Pokemon the new rival had used - because the writers clearly have no intention of having Ash win a league in any series soon. Having him eliminated by ubers just made him go out in a grander, more epic way than ever.
 
Tobias was nothing more than an excuse by the writers so they could get to Unova faster, basically, higher-ups demanded that the writers sped things up because Black and White were being released, so Tobias was basically an excuse. As a result, everything was rushed just so they could get to Gen 5 in time for the release.
 
Trainer Gabriel said:
He would have lost the league regardless of who his new league rival was and what Pokemon the new rival had used - because the writers clearly have no intention of having Ash win a league in any series soon. Having him eliminated by ubers just made him go out in a grander, more epic way than ever.
Click to expand...

That's one reason why I never disliked Tobias like I think most of the online fanbase seems to do. Since he would have lost the league regardless of if it was Tobias or a regular League only rival, at least he went out in a blaze of glory with defeating a couple of legendary Pokemon. Losing to a regular trainer after the awesome full battle against Paul would have been a bit too anticlimactic. It still was kind of cheap to have a trainer use just a Darkrai for all of his matches, including his Gym battles, but I liked how they built him up from the start, which made Ash facing him a bit easier to go with.
 
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