#it feels surreal even to be able to speculate about 'what will happen to Alan' in CANON

[potahun]

What I want for Masters 8:- Alain having good friends and friendships in masters 8 please. Also professor Sycamore and Marron cheering for Alain in all his matches.

(What do you think are the odds of this happening?)(are we going to see him go against Diantha or Daigo?) Is steven gonna reminiscence about their time together from the mega evolution specials and final battle against Flare?)

What would you want for Alan in Masters 8? (Even though we know he is destined to lose against Ash here for obvious reasons and probably specifically against greninja too. Which I am annoyed about but have generally made peace with)

T__T I think I want something very similar, yes <3 I mean both of what you mention sound so lovely for Alan and it's what he deserves!

I have not much experience predicting these things so let's see how off or close I am when we get there but I think seeing Manon is very plausible, and the Professor - I didn't expect it initially, but a simple panel of the lab watching Alan's match seems fair game? (and I would love it sm)

The Masters 8 developing something akin to an ensemble cast vibe is actually what I want most out of the entire tournament segment :D I doubt that PokéAni would deliver on that, but still, doesn't stop me from genuinely wishing for this incongruous bonding more than for any match/victory. it doesn't have to be very deep, all I really want is to see the downtimes, the in-between matches as much as possible (and I genuinely believe there are ways to do that while keeping the main kids cast in).

For the matches, I agree that Alan will be eliminated by Satoshi for sure, but I don't mind, so long as it is framed in a way that shows how Alan IS battling for fun now, he IS fine with losing because he's in a better place since XY&Z and he understands that being 'strong' is neither crucial, nor just battling and winning :') These two made a promise to battle again at the end of XY&Z and they get to honor that! For Alan, that can be enough and if so, it can be a very sweet episode: from a story-telling POV, Alan's loss CAN be very satisfying even for TSME stans, it just needs to be framed right and so I am crossing my fingers very hard for that ^^

I am putting this together with TSME goggles on, but the line-up I predict (through reverse engineering) is:

Finals: Satoshi vs Dande

Semi-Finals: Satoshi vs Alan; Shirona vs Dande

Quarter-Finals: Satoshi vs Carnet; Alan vs Daigo; Shirona vs Iris or Wataru ; Dande vs Wataru or Iris

Maybe this is me giving too much importance to Alan, but I think personal feelings/history is the easiest way to raise stakes, and for semi-finals, you do need to raise the stakes, so... Meanwhile, Dande has no rapport with any of this gang, except Satoshi, so the easiest way to raise stakes is a Number 1 vs Number 2 battle.

Similarly, I am a strong believer that Daigo could smash Alan on a normal day, but there is also an easy way out to explain a 'Daigo loses against Alan situation' (one that Daigo's PR team would be proud of if he had one) which involves direct acknowledgement that they know each other, so .....

I mean.... in all the predicted line-ups I've seen, Daigo gets no rights😂 no one seems to think he'll make it to the semi-finals, and that sounds fine to me too, I just think it'd be neat if he actually....goes easy on Alan and saves his own face? if PokéAni acknowledges them as acquaintances, keeps Daigo’s sharp eye as a personality trait, and if Satoshi wins his quarter final before Alan, who knows, that gives Daigo a window to be the greater person and go ‘you seem like you rly wanted to battle him (Satoshi), I hope you enjoy it’ EXIT STAGE. which I admit, is getting perhaps too specific and too delusional on my part, but I'd enjoy it 

on a less delusional side, I’ve seen many other match-ups and for each of them, I think, yeah, that works too.

im rambling again, sorry >< But thank you so much for asking!!!!! ;__; <333