This was fun. All the dex holders interacted was wholesome alot of plot threads came together the final fight was great the later half of the battle frontier plot was well connected to the main plot the villain was a nice suprise. There is so much to love about this arc... But sadly there is a but. This arc really only gets good during the second half. Dont get me wrong the first half wasnt unreadable but it just didnt engage me. Even though I love my shonens crazy thing about me is that Im not too crazy about fights. Having fights after fights without much reason given to care doesnt interest me. I will admit the fights all throughout are well done way better than the formulaic gym battles of SWSH. There is a big characterisation problem during the battle frontier portion that truly dampers this otherwise awesome conclusion to a saga of characters. Who the hell do I root for in the battles? Emerald is our protagonist but to tell you the truth I hated him. His design is too out there and feels almost like an oc and his personality and character arc just feel bland. So do I root for the frontier brains? Sadly they also dont do much for me. They get better later on but just seem petty and annoying. The only frontier brain I honestly liked was Anabel who is pretty much taking out of the story later on so... And then theres Todd Snap... The only good thing about him was how we basically saw the origin to pokemon snap. That was fucking sick and almost makes him worthit. Though throughout the arc he just serves as the boring stereotype that for some reason we need to have of the character on the sidelines that must nararate every bloody second of the battles. He was annoying and felt so disconnected from the rest of the characters. Its like they ran out of already existing pokemon characters so just took one from the spinoffs to give Emerald someone to work off of. All the old pokedex holders are great as always no complaints there and seeing archie return was a nice suprise. It almost felt like they were making fun of Pryce with that reveal as well lol. His reimergence in the story was still a little contrived and he makes some honestly stupid decisions throughout the arc like just assuming jirachi cant make any more wishes. And continuing with that another contrivance was Scotts stupid wish as well. Im sorry but that is the stupidest way to stop our heroes from easily winning. It by no means ruins the story but it was a bad decision. By the end Emerald does get quite a bit better though as I said before his arc was completely predictable. This arc is mostly saved thanks to old characters and how alot of game elements were used so I still do like it. I will say so far it is one of my least favourite arcs even behind johto but I cant say I hate it. Theres alot of good in this arc and I an see why people like it. Though I am somewhat getting tired of every arc basically consisting of one pokemon being the ultimate weapon. I know thats kind of the pokemon formula but alot of the time it feels forced. Overall not a bad arc it has alot of problems but due to a great engaging second half it definetly is an arc to remember