#can't wait to find out that actually Gary's perspective was revealed later or something and I had the entirely wrong idea lmao

[skyarly]

For no reason in particular I decided a while back that I would watch all of pokemon. I have not seen all of it yet, but 468 episodes in (I've seen all of the first series and just finished advanced, besides a movie or two that I'm about to watch) I got a lot of thoughts about Ash and Gary's rivalry.

Gary's opinion of him for some reason just means the entire WORLD to Ash, but Gary knows next to nothing about who Ash even is at this point I think. It's only natural seeing as he has like 40 episodes max and a pretty decent amount of those are 5 second cameos and/or imagined.

Just think of all of the shit Ash gets into in all that time. He deals with Team Rocket just about every day, he solves several crimes (most of which were related to Team Rocket), he changes countless lives for the better, he dies twice (maybe three I know I missed at least one movie) and he subdues several gods.

But all Gary sees, and might ever see, is just the same kid he's always known. So far Gary has only seen Ash do anything of note like four times and the rest of the time it's just Ash losing as usual. And Gary does show respect for what he's seen Ash actually do, but he hasn't seen ANYTHING.

And yet? The opinion of this guy who doesn't know the first thing about him anymore matters so god damn much to Ash. And because of that he ends up just how Gary underestimates him every time they cross paths.

Gary's opinion means so much to Ash, that even though Gary acting more neutral toward him should be seen as an improvement, Ash seems to miss when Gary used to insult him. The fantasy sequence Ash has after receiving Gary's post card depicts him exactly as he was before season 1. Gary hasn't been like that for what's probably years at this point and Ash still can't wrap his head around the fact that Gary could have any respect for him whatsoever.

Ash just generally has some really weird priorities with where he gets his self-worth from. He really truly can only see the value in himself he gets from winning pokemon battles. Nothing else he does seems notable enough to mention.

I actually made a post about this a while ago because it was just so mind boggling to me, but when Ash fought Gary for the first time he bragged about two things. Being in a higher place than Gary at the Indigo League, and winning the Orange League. Okay sure those are pretty good things to brag about. But you know what probably would've sounded a bit more impressive?

Being called upon by name in a prophecy to help the water god stop the bird gods from destroying the entire earth.

And it's not like the second movie wasn't canon either, because Ash literally mentions it in the series at one point. (That one little arc with Richie and the Baby Lugia and Butch and Cassidy)

Ash is trying so hard to impress someone whose opinion of him is inherently skewed and shouldn't matter anyway, and Ash can't even see his own merits as a person besides being a pokemon trainer. Really sad, honestly.