When watching pokemon battles, it can be surprisingly difficult for fans to choose a rooting interest. An endless parade of trainers and pokemon strive for greatness, but few allow viewers to distinguish them from one another; some trainers participate for years at the highest levels without showing enough unique strategies or simple flair to give themselves any sort of reputation. And yet it is a rare fan in Alola, even today, who can express apathy when someone brings an Incineroar into the ring.
Many years ago, there was no legend around Incineroar or its masked trainer – simply a young man, like many others, trying desperately to make it in a fiercely competitive sport. Some say the tactics the duo pioneered were simply common sense strategy, that Throat Shots, Darkest Lariats, and targeting weakened opponents in a Battle Royal were the most effective ways to win, but others felt that one or more of these ideas violated the spirit of honest pokemon battles.
Whatever his original motives, the Masked Royal and his Incineroar did not respond by toning down their controversy; instead, the Incineroar would leap into the stands and demonstrate the offensive techniques on any fans who booed it, while the Masked Royal would fight on with his less controversial pokemon. At times, he was even willing to endure disqualifications and suspensions in order to let his Incineroar do the same thing to any officials who ruled his new moves illegal; his half-hearted denials mixed with defenses of his pokemon only made the crowds angrier.
But the crowds came anyway, wherever they traveled, to boo Alola's ultimate heel. And in time, as others embraced his new strategies and Incineroar won tournament after tournament, they forgot why they had ever booed him, and began to applaud his victories.
