That said, 2016 has been quite the turbulent year; and one of the things that helped me get through it was the 20th anniversary of Pokémon. It will help with the next few years as well; with talk of new content for the upcoming Nintendo Switch and some new anime as well, least of all the "I Choose You" movie (not to mention the live-action Detective Pikachu movie from Legendary Pictures).
Still, it's time to finally put my issues with a character that's been one of the few blemishes of an otherwise great series to rest. I have mentioned before that I'm not a terribly big fan of Alain in the Mega Evolution Specials when I recapped all four acts of it last year. However, I did express hope that the character crossing over in the XYZ series would help flesh him out more. As time went on, that hope ended up being completely dashed.
Not only can I not even choose one episode to recap to express this as I originally planned; I can't even do my conventional "Top 13" list to illustrate how I feel. So, as one of the last couple pieces I have planned this year, I shall tell you 13 things wrong with the character of Alain.
As a warning, there will be spoilers for the XYZ series. If you haven't seen it yet and are planning on doing so, you may want to go see what Cracked has to offer. Otherwise, feel free to keep scrolling down and continue. Let's get this started.
1. The character's presence in the anime as a whole.
When the character was first introduced in the Mega Evolution Specials, many hoped that he would be a replacement for longtime protagonist Ash. I was not among them, largely because I've been trying to get people to understand that such a precedent is not as easy as everyone else thinks. In fact, Bill Watterson, creator of "Calvin and Hobbes" once said words to the effect of "believable characters are difficult to create and easy to destroy" in some of the notes he wrote for a book collection made for the 10th anniversary.
As a result, I often found that Alain's presence was easily overshadowed by most other characters not only in the specials; but once he actually crossed over into XYZ, he didn't really fit the dynamic that was established prior to that. The fact that even with four specials and a handful of episodes in XYZ to show what he can do, it doesn't really work in favor for him when I know less about his character than a bunch of characters of the day that have only appeared in one episode. I still submit that his role could have been filled much better by Steven Stone; who was genuinely entertaining in his appearances (and has the added benefit of tying into the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire games).
2. His interactions with other characters.
Tying into the above flaw, despite the potential I admit Alain had to deconstruct the qualities of a Pokémon trainer; none of the writers seemed to be able to convince me about how believable his actions on screen could be.
While some of the flashbacks (such as the one pictured above with Professor Sycamore) show that his character could have been a genuinely engaging look at an older Pokémon trainer's journey, Alain seems to talk to virtually every character he meets with the same level of interest as someone ordering a cup of coffee. The crossover with the main XYZ series did very little to change that. I kept hoping for more scenes that would have shown his transformation from an idealistic young spirit to a cynical teenager, but they never came. Even when he did start showing enthusiasm as the series was winding down; it was the utmost definition of "too little, too late." Even though the series finale of XYZ did tease a potential reappearance of the character, to be frank, there is very little I could see myself wanting from Alain meeting anyone else in the future. Gene Siskel once asked this question about how to gauge one's investment in a film: "Would a documentary about the same actors having lunch be more interesting than the film I'm watching?" I can easily answer "yes" to that question. Hell, I have so little attachment to Alain as a character that an arc about showing how he became so downbeat and depressing a character would have been more interesting than the one I actually got!
To say many I found many people's reaction to events I will detail later on this list hypocritical would be putting it mildly.
No matter who Alain talked to, he always had the same general manner of speaking and just a handful of emotional states. For a character that's supposed to appeal to someone like me, that isn't a good thing. It also didn't help that both the actors cast for him (Kensho Ono in Japanese, Johnathan Silver in the dub) made me yearn for Hayden Christensen. At least N had the backstory of preferring the company of Pokémon, hence why most versions of his character aren't used to speaking with humans. Alain, however, is never given a reason why he's so distant to other people; which will come back to bite him in the ass as I continue this list.
3. The circumstances of gaining what he needed for Mega Evolution.
Here's something that really furthered my dislike for the character. Not only was this a departure from the games (where the power is given to you by Gurkinn, the Mega Evolution Guru), it unfortunately ended up being highly detrimental to Alain's character. I still submit that if he had never taken the Key Stone and Mega Stone from Lysandre, none of the events that transpired from that point would have happened. He never would have met Maron, Team Flare never would have gone after the legendary Pokémon; and he never would have been complicit in Lysandre's plans.
Let me make clear that this sort of thing is not the same as a bunch of 10-year-olds being swindled by a couple teenagers in Halloween costumes. In fact, even Team Rocket abhorred what Team Flare was doing and how Alain helped them accomplish their goals. When a villain faction that has little to no qualms about stealing (anything from Pokémon from enough food to keep from starving) thinks what you're doing is horrible, you've clearly misunderstood what you need to do as a hero.
I will be detailing more on how this event was an indicator of things to come from Alain as this list goes on; but I want to touch on more points from the specials before I officially transition to how he did in XYZ.
4. Inconsistencies as a trainer.
Despite being billed as "The Strongest Mega Evolution," neither the specials nor the XYZ series were able to display Alain's skill as a trainer, perceived or real in a consistent fashion. One episode will show him becoming Champion (I will finally assess that mess as the list goes on), another will portray him as losing to the Hoenn Legendaries and having to be rescued by Maron of all people, as shown in Act III (still the only act I really enjoyed).
The point is, it doesn't really work in the character's favor when the writers can't even establish how they want him to behave; much less battle. This isn't like Pikachu being able to take down a Regice but getting nerfed before he fights a Snivy: I've battled trainers online that have had more consistent attack patterns than Alain. In the time that he was given on screen; I've learned more about strategies that people overseas use in battle than about he does.
His doting on his Charizard doesn't help the matter either. As someone who likes Charizard and his mega evolutions (really enjoying training mine, Toothless, in my new copy of X); I wasn't a big fan of how it came at the expense of other members of his roster. If reaming Trevor's Mega Charizard Y in the Lumiose Conference (not helped by the fact that I actually like Trevor's character) didn't show how little I gave a damn about his perceived bond, then how the tournament treated the rest of his roster certainly did. Even in all the previous stories, I admired how even with Pokémon that I don't think very highly of; there was always an effort to show how they could be fleshed out as characters and even change my stance on certain monsters from the games. Instead, Alain barely connects with an entire roster of powerful Pokémon in favor of shilling his Charizard.
Even when he claims he wants to get stronger, without any clearly-defined motivations; his character is as inconsistent as anyone holding a political rank. Depending on what happens after he leaves Kalos, maybe that might be a more sound option. He wouldn't be the first conceited blowhard with a bad haircut to try that (make your own assumptions).
5. The way he treats Maron.
Yeah, you knew this was probably going to be on the list. Even though I'm not a big fan of her character either, even she didn't deserve what happened to her! Honestly, why her? She was only a little girl starting out on her journey! She needed a friend, a shoulder to cry on when things were tough, and he shunned her! He, as I pointed out before; is even responsible for what happened to her Chespin and by proxy, the events of XYZ! Of course, even he doesn't seem to understand that for reasons that will be detailed in the next entry on the list.
6. His inability to grasp the consequences of his actions.
As the final moments of the Mega Evolution specials wore on, it became inherently clear to me that Alain had a fundamental problem of being able to grasp the consequences of his actions. Granted, he was at least angry at what happened; but rather than realize what he had done, he just kept going with the same course of action in XYZ without an ounce of foresight. It just compounded the same lack of understandable motivation that dogged him the moment he appeared onscreen. Still, I hoped things would get better with his inclusion in XYZ. As I'm about to tell you, they didn't.
7. His arbitrary introduction to the XYZ series.
While the inclusion of his character may have been something of an admission that Alain couldn't carry a whole series like other fans thought he could, regrettably; he didn't fare much better when he became a supporting character in XYZ. His introduction in "A Meeting of Two Journeys" just felt so tacked-on that you could have introduced him there, which should tell you something about how little impact the Mega Evolution Specials had on me as a viewer. While they were at least better than Chronicles (especially The Legend of Thunder), they paled in comparison to Origins and now Generations. Alain being transplanted to the main anime did little to change that, and the next spots of the list show what did change was NOT for the better.
8. His willingness to help Lysandre and Team Flare.
After Alain was introduced to the the XYZ series formally, he did very little to develop as a character; and the developments he did have just raised further questions as to what the people in charge were trying to accomplish.
This example stands out as particularly bad, since as I mentioned before; Alain deliberately chose to help Team Flare and Lysandre, which is on a whole other order of magnitude then just a 10-year-old being tricked by a couple teenagers in Halloween costumes.
This can best be displayed by the episode "An Explosive Operation," wherein he openly accepts a call to help Team Flare capture Zygarde 50%. Did anyone read the script for that episode out loud? Needless to say, it was definitely an indicator of things to come. From that point forward, Alain's chances for redemption continued to dwindle.
9. Constant appearances at the expense of other characters.
Alain's minimal impact on me and others as a character also hasn't been helped by the fact that there are numerous other characters that could have been utilized instead. In addition to my mention of Trevor, other characters from the Mega Evolution Specials such as Astrid and Remo would have been more interesting to see; as would more of Siebold. Granted, Malva did help the story; but the fact that this character was being pushed instead of other ones from the games that would have worked better (such as the other members of the Kalos Elite Four, Drasna and Wikstrom). Yet, despite the constant bombarding of his character in XYZ; how the character was written always seemed like an afterthought to me, especially in the remaining points on this list.
10. His entire role in the Lumiose Conference.
Yeah, it's almost impossible to talk about this character without mentioning this event nowadays. When Alain became the winner of the Kalos League, the fandom reacted with a level of backlash normally reserved for real-life individuals like Ryan Locthe (I note that comparison will officially date this list, but I digress). At the time, it got so divisive that the most rabid supporters of the anime were hate-bombing TV Tokyo's YouTube channel with downvotes (disregarding how it's OLM that actually makes the show, but whatever) and the harshest critics of it refused to admit anything about it was good. I can definitely understand why a lot of people were upset (I was, but not to the extent others were); though I can at least agree the battle itself was pretty well-made and its outcome was totally ridiculous (though it was an improvement over a team of Legendaries and Lucario ex machina). On a personal level, however, I think the Nostalgia Critic said it best for his look at Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain for his "Was that Real" series: "I'm kind of disappointed that I'm not more disappointed."
I know that a great many people were angry about what happened, but I personally think that a lot of their rage was hypocritical given how the lion's share of it was leveled against the runner-up and not the subjective champion. I would have been a lot angrier at Alain winning myself, but I can now officially say that I found him on a personal level too underdeveloped to care. The fact that you could replace his character with a throwaway league rival and my reaction would have been exactly the same does not work in favor for him representing me as an older fan.
While a few holdouts are also clamoring for a rematch, there is honestly nothing I would want out of one that the series could offer.
Yet, even after winning something many would die for, he still didn't really change as a character; which will be addressed in the final three points.
11. His role in the Team Flare Crisis arc.
As we wind this list down, I want to make clear that a lot of people that were up in arms about the League personally pulled the trigger too early in my opinion. The Team Flare Crisis arc was exactly what I wanted to flesh the faction out more after how hokey their incarnations in the games were. So what's the deal?
Well, even with the circumstances of his dealings with Team Flare revealed; Alain still didn't change a bit as a character until the arc itself was winding down. He didn't really do much of anything until the later parts of it.
This is also what set the two protagonists apart for me: even after finding out what Alain did and everything he put him through, Ash didn't have it in his heart to take the same actions Alain did and decided to help him set things right.
Moreover, despite his claim that he would "make Maron smile again," it was ultimately Steven Stone and characters that had been established before Alain that saved Chespy and cured her illness. Even when he finally stood up to Team Flare, it was ultimately with the help of Ash and the Kalos gym leaders. With that on the table, I highly doubt Alain would have done such a thing under his own volition given the way he was established before all this happened.
At the very least, he does finally realize how he was responsible for everything that transpired and shows actual emotion at this reveal beyond "stoic blankness" and "fake social smile." As I said earlier in this list, however, it was still the very definition of "too little, too late."
12. His role in comparison to other protagonists and characters.
Perhaps one of the biggest ways to gauge how disappointing Alain was as a protagonist for me is to compare him to some other ones. I was very skeptical about how the character could live up to Origins Red as well as a whole swarm of previously-established trainers, and it turns out that my doubts were justified. Even though Red hadn't been adapted into an animated format before Origins, that special still took the care to establish him as his own character and made it easy to get invested in his journey. No matter how often Alain appeared, all I knew about his character is that he wanted to be strong and little to nothing else. Like I said before, there are side characters that have only appeared in a single episode that I know more about than Alain.
This can be furthered by the fact that over the course of this year, the YouTube series Pokémon Generations managed to succeed in every area the Mega Evolution Specials failed for me. I really enjoyed the "less is more" approach to the characters and the Pokémon world. By focusing only on the key events from the games, it allowed characters that couldn't be adapted before in other versions to stand out in ways that I could only have imagined in the past. The player characters of the games had little to no dialogue, yet I am a viewer was totally invested. Despite the attempts to appeal to me with Alain, the first skit managed to get me into the journey all over again by doing something as simple as putting me on the same intellectual level as a young man with a Game Boy in his hands. As the weeks went on, the skits did provide a good template for my personal idea of a reboot for the series, straddling the line of a darker version of the premise while also being true to its family friendly roots in a similar vein to Star Wars (which is seeing a return of original trilogy influence with Rebels, The Force Awakens and now Rogue One) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which is quickly building a narrative every bit as entertaining and unique as their source material). The final short, which detailed the ending of Pokémon X and Y is exactly the kind of anime that I wanted Alain to be a part of. Even after all the times that people tried to market Alain as an older protagonist to me, the ultimate irony was that seeing AZ reunite with his beloved Floette was a truer bond to me in less than 5 minutes than Alain had with his Charizard in all of his multiple appearances.
13. His overall disconnect between others.
Last, but not least by a long shot; was just the total disconnect that Alain had overall. Not just with me as a viewer; but with virtually every other character he interacted with. The way he spoke to other people and how he always chose to distance himself from who he interacted with was ultimately detrimental to not only his role in the anime, but also to the potential the character had.
Even though many people thought he had the potential to be a new protagonist to rally behind, I submit that potential was never realized in the slightest. In fact, I can officially say that Alain is my least favorite rival ever. At least other rivals had some qualities I could talk about beyond being some dour-faced hipster. This guy was so sullen he made me look like Aziz Ansari!
Seriously, the whole mold of his character didn't fit the world that was being built with the XY series at all; to the point where it almost feels like he was transplanted from a totally different anime. He's basically Shinji Ikari without any of the sympathetic qualities that made that character memorable for me. Exactly what was missing from the franchise that the powers that be decided this emo teenager was it? I've seen fanfics that had more believable characters than Alain.
Even in the case of characters I don't like, I usually have something for them in terms of my head canon before I consider just cutting them out or killing them off. Alain doesn't even have that. The best I could do is just have the character get killed and have a large part of the story investigating his death. The disconnect is just so great that there is nothing that the character can offer me as a viewer that I would want. The final appearance of him in the series finale of XYZ did little to nothing to change that.
With the Sun and Moon anime potentially setting up appearances from Gladion and Lusamine via a photograph in the newest Japanese episode as of this writing; I think it could be an opportunity to do the things they could have done with Alain. Their relationship in the games has more than enough backstory to work with (still not spoiling any specifics, go play the games yourself and you'll know what I'm talking about), so I am wondering where it might go from there. As for an older protagonist: I honestly wouldn't mind if the next attempt had more of a Deadpool or Star Lord quality to him, or at the very least a more idealistic take on the series. Again, the likes of Goku and Monkey D. Luffy are great examples of characters that never lose their adventurous spirit even when they get older.
This article not only took longer to write than I thought, but it also comes in the window of the death of someone I admired: Carrie Fisher, best known as Leia Organa in the Star Wars saga died of heart failure at age 60 as I was working on this piece. With her work on Episode VIII completed, every time I watch a Star Wars film from now on (including going to see Rogue One again with my family) will remind me of how much I admired her as a character and a person. This whole year has been full of traumatic events, and I honestly have no idea what to expect from the future anymore. On top of that, my grandfather is now going to be moved into a new hospice facility; so I'm going to wrap this up before I help take care of him for the next day or so.
With the new year drawing closer than ever, I am definitely going to make good on my oft-delayed plans of a tribute to those "New Year's Evil" marathons they used to have when I was younger. So, check back with me New Year's Eve for my Top 13 Favorite Pokémon Villains, and as the new year begins in 2017 for my Top 13 Favorite Anime Villains! See you, space cowboy!
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