#is dawn in alola what else do you need to know?

[love-is-a-pearl]

Sinnoh Dawn, Alola Dusk

Dawn has a charming way of describing things. Or maybe the world just tries looking prettier for her. That makes no sense, does it? But the more he thinks about it, the likelier it sounds. Even the smallest things seem to catch his attention when she is around. [...] Like the world is always reflecting her own light back at her.

[pokemon-ash-aus]

I'm more curious on what reverse betrayal AU is, i couldn't really find anything in the tags sorry

Damn i SWEAR i wrote it down already. I guess Tumblr's tags are extra extra broken.

OKAY 👏

So everyone knows the canonical fanfiction trope of Betrayal AU's yes? Where the Main character of any fandom (in this case Ash) gets abandoned and spit on by their friends and partners except for the brief few that usually end up being the love interest?

In this case it's

Ash's friends leave him, ash's pokemon leave him except for the strong ones (pikachu is usually leaving him behind but i call bull so whatevs), Ash gets new pokemon, stronger and so much better (also legendaries, whoda thunk), he gets a love interest or a harem (cause why not) and then gets WICKED OP to the point its a bit unbelievable. Theb the betrayers come back and Ash wipes the floor with them while mocking them the whole time.

Its a well known trope, one that i used to adore myself, but i found it lacking after a hot min. The characters were always OOC, and the progression of events started to lean on terrible for me. No hate to the trope, i wrote one nyself once upon a time (unfinished), but it's nit in my wheelhouse anymore.

And so i made the Reverse Betrayal AU, mostly as a kick but really it started on the same premise but executed differently.

Ash's friends gather round, in this case, it had only gone up to alola so im sticking by that. My reasoning was that the little field trip down in Kanto was an excellent opportunity to get the rest of Ash's friends down there as a surprise!

Now, i want to point out the crucial information that Ash acts differently with each friend group. Not intentionally being deceitful, but more of, trying to fit into the type of person they need. For Misty that was a Brat, for May that was a Mentor, for Dawn a Sibling, for Iris an idiot, for Serena a hero. Etc etc.

Alola was the place where Ash *couldnt* do that so he finds himself in a mix of Mentor/friend/sibling role.

But when they all are there, Ash has a hard time trying to figure out what he should be and what he should stray into. And that leans into him being a Brat because Misty is a VERY loud personality in a way no one else was.

And boy do they grate on each other's nerves.

Misty is teasing him playfully, but Ash is biting back HARD. Not because he wants too, but the stress of the situation makes it hard for him to fight back just as playful. Especially with Iris there since her words used to cut before, but now he's painting Misty with the same brush but twice as deep.

And Misty doesnt appreciate this right, so this playfight on her end turns into actual fighting, words of anger and resentment speaking out on both sides.

"I WISH I NEVER MET YOU." Get's thrown out and the entire field goes quiet.

"Ditto." Ash growls.

And they turn away from each other.

And Brock is already trying to placate, he's seen this before a million times but then...

Everyone else jumps in.

Accusations are thrown, some side with Misty some side with Ash. None of these people are friends with each other, they all are connected through Ash.

And so Brock cuts them all off, cause the two were BOTH being uncalled for. And when he turns to Ash to ask what he was thinking.

The kid is outright gone.

No words no nothing and that leaves a deep deep dread in Brock's stomach.

"Oh he left, just like a little kid." Iris sighs, shaking her head as the others glare at her.

"No," Brock's voice trembles and that stops everyone else from really saying anything. "Ash can be rude and angry and wrong all he wants but he doesnt ever leave a conversation mod way- hell he doesnt even run away from a confrontation- this- this isnt right."

And while they look for him it starts ti become more and more clear that... None of these people are /friends/. They know Ash and Ash only.

And that starts *arguments*, screams of whose right and whose wrong and why Ash doesnt need to have a friend like *you.*

Its the take of, instead of Ashbeing abandoned by his friends. Its instead Ash 'abandoning' his friends instead. But its not really true, cause Ash wabts to be with his friends he's just...

Very mad right now.

Whoo i went on a tangent. I have more- somewhere- so ill need to look for it.

[wishmaker1028]

Farewell to You, ch 4

"Toge?"

A Togetic perked up, sensing something terrible coming. Seems like she wasn't the only one. A few other Togetic perked up too. This was the Togepi Paradise, protected by Misty's Togetic. But several of the Togepi had evolved into Togetic and the eldest had evolved into a Togekiss. The Togekiss flew over to Misty's Togetic. She seemed to be sensing the same thing. She seemed to have nodded to the guardian. It was time. The guardian seemed to have understood and made itself a portal. She knew what she had to do. She had to find Mama.

...

Pikachu, Buneary, and Piplup were starting to sense it too. Ash and Dawn both perked up.

Dawn asked, "Piplup? Buneary?"

Ash asked, "Pikachu?"

Misty frowned, "Their faces look familiar."

Brock agreed, "Yeah, they do."

Brandon turned to Anabel and Looker, "Didn't you two have news?"

Anabel explained, "Yes Mr. Nanu had told us that the temperature in Alola, near the Wela Volcano Park had been increasing."

Looker added, "We originally thought that Solgaleo had been up there but that didn't make any sense."

Lillie was admittedly worried about Solgaleo. She had a feeling that the Psychic/Steel type had gone back to Ultra Space with Lunala. Gladion saw her face.

He asked, "Worried about Nebby?"

Lillie answered, "Yeah but I'm pretty sure it went back to Ultra Space with Lunala. So it couldn't be our suspect here."

Looker stated, "Oh, we know. We think Moltres is hiding there."

Lucy frowned, "Moltres?"

Anabel confirmed, "Yes and not just any Moltres. The one you and your friends encountered years ago."

Tracey started to say, "You mean where..."

Anabel interrupted, nodding, "Where Lawrence was starting to collect the legendary birds."

To that, everyone paled.

Daisy pointed out, "But isn't, like, he still in jail?"

Looker stated, "You are right Daisy but we don't want to rule anything out."

Melody told them, "Lugia did ask for the trio to go hide elsewhere since Shamouti was no longer safe. And to take their treasures with them."

Rudy commented, "So we at least know where Moltres is. Just in case things start going south."

Mahri turned to Melody, "Guess you practicing for hours on end might be coming in handy."

To that, Melody blushed.

Lily said, "But we only know where Moltres is. Won't we also, like, need to know where the others are too?"

Before anyone could say anything, Looker's Pokenav rang.

He answered, "Hello?"

Nanu said, "Looker. Anabel."

Anabel blinked, "Mr. Nanu!"

Nanu stated, "Heads up. We've got an airship heading towards Lumiose City in Kalos."

Clemont was confused, "Why would someone be headed towards our hometown?"

Bonnie thought for a moment, "Wasn't there a lot of surges of power there before we left...?"

Serena confirmed, "Bonnie's right. Maybe Zapdos is there."

Ash stated, "I think we ought to split up. If this is really starting again, I'll need more help."

Pikachu said, "Pika pi."

Piplup said, "Piplup!"

Buneary said, "Bun!"

Nanu commented, "Good luck kid."

With that, he hung up.

Professor Kukuki asked, "Want us to check out Wela Volcano Park?"

Ash answered, "Yes please. And be careful."

Professor Kukui nodded as the Alola group headed out first.

Goh asked, "Where do you want us to go?"

Ash told them, "I would rather some groups hang back. We still need to find Articuno and Lugia."

Chloe stated, "We could do that."

Ash regarded, "Thanks."

Clemont told Ash, "Then we'll head out to Lumiose City."

Ash said, "Thanks Clemont. Be careful."

To that, he nodded. Bonnie and Serena followed him. Serena had a blush on her face when Clemont passed by her. Misty saw that and grabbed Serena real quickly.

Misty whispered, "Tell him!"

Serena yelped, "Right now? While we're on a mission?"

Misty stated, "You'll regret it if you don't."

Serena replied, "Speaking from experience much?" To that, Misty didn't deny it. She added, "Look, my crush on Ash ended a long time ago. When I realized that he had feelings for someone else, it took me a while to move on. And when I started to, Clemont was there for me." She blushed again, "And you know something? I'm glad. It means you can finally ask him who he has feelings for."

Serena gave Misty a quick hug before running off to catch up with Clemont and Bonnie. Misty knew that she was right but how was she going to ask... Before she could say anything, that's when they saw the weather changing. It was starting to rain. The population of Pallet Town ran off inside.

Delia stated, "I can't believe that this is happening again." Ash hugged his mom. Delia returned the hug, starting to cry. Ash rubbed her back, holding her close. She sniffled, "I miss your father."

Ash admitted, "Me too."

Pikachu looked up at the two humans sadly. None outside of Pallet Town actually knew what had happened to David Ketchum. Not even Misty knew.

Iris was very hesitant in asking her question, "So, if I'm asking the wrong thing, just let me know. But uh..." She paused as she played with her hands. She looked Delia in the eyes and finally asked, "What happened to your husband? Ash's father?"

Delia looked at her son for a minute, the tears in her eyes. There were tears in Ash's eyes too. Professor Oak looked at the two, as if he was seeking permission to tell the group. It was Delia who nodded.

The professor answered, "He died...a long time ago. When Ash, Gary, and Erika were all three years old. He had cancer."

...

Everyone was oddly quiet. They had no idea. Misty placed her hand on Ash's shoulder. Ash looked at her, sniffling. Misty gave him a small smile.

She admitted, "At least you remember your father. I...barely remember mine."

Daisy started to say, "Misty..."

Misty looked to her oldest sister, seeing the sad look on her face. Lily and Violet had the same look.

Gary asked, "I hate to ask but what happened to your parents anyways, red?"

Misty looked at him, back to her sisters, and then back to him. Daisy placed her hand on her little sister's shoulder.

Daisy answered, "Our mom was in a bad accident. And our father tried everything to help us but...he eventually left."

Erika raised a brow, "He just left?"

To that, Daisy just nodded very sadly. Tracey was instantly at her side.

Daisy sniffled, "Sorry, I don't like talking about our parents much."

Erika understood that so she just nodded. She decided to change the subject, "So...what now?"

Ash sniffled, "Not sure, Erika. Not sure."

...

Wishmaker1028: This is in a different universe where Ash's father just dies from natural causes. I liked doing that better. Please read and review! And always think outside of the box! 

[neon-moon-beam]

Just my thoughts on whether or not Ingo is a Faller

This is just my opinion. Contains some spoilers for Legends: Arceus.

Blankshippers dni, I will block you.

Ingo probably isn’t a Faller, because if he were, the Ultra Beasts would be showing up, looking for him.

Now granted, I haven’t gotten to the Alola games yet, but my understanding is Ultra Beasts mistake Fallers for another wormhole due to the energy around them and start chasing them down.

Space-time distortions, unless it officially says otherwise, are not wormholes. They’re what it says on the tin; distortions in space and time, and if they were more than that, we’d likely be seeing Pokemon from other regions that would be in a National Dex the player would have to put together rather than just Hisui’s Regional Dex (which, obviously the Hisuian variants are part of despite many having been first introduced in Unova or later). From a developer perspective, they’re a way to get the fossil Pokemon and the entire Porygon line, both Pokemon where the technology to have them hasn’t been created yet, as well as items that wouldn’t exist yet needed for evolution (Dubious Disc, Linking Cable, etc). Ingo and Dawn/Lucas being described as having come from “another world” doesn’t necessarily mean they’re from a different dimension. It could just be a way of saying the time and place they come from is so different from Hisui that it’s like a different world. Ingo also has even less of an idea where he’s come from than Dawn/Lucas, who might be recognizing they’re in their own home region, just in the past, so it might not be the best idea to take Ingo literally when he asks about the “world” Dawn/Lucas came from, or mentions his “world”. Legends is also considered a mainline game; chances are it won’t be considered an AU, but rather taking place between 4th and 5th Gen given Dawn/Lucas being about three years older than in D/P/Pt/BDSP, and possibly at least four, if not more years between the Sinnoh games and Unova (evidenced by Caitlin).

While nothing says Ingo fell out of the space-time rift, nor does it say he's been sent back in time by Arceus itself the way we see with Dawn/Lucas, that doesn’t mean he wasn't (after all, the game is from their perspective, not Ingo's, and Dawn/Lucas' mission seems to entail much more than Ingo's potential purpose for being sent to Hisui would--more on that later). We don’t know his story, and neither does he; he mentions “standing there”, not knowing anything that happened when the Pearl Clan showed up and took him in. We don’t know where this happened, or how the Pearl Clan found him. Was it by chance, or did they see him come tumbling down from somewhere? It does sound like they found him almost immediately when he arrived. And how else would he have gotten to Hisui since wormholes most likely aren’t happening there?

Potentially they could add an DLC to Legends that would have the Ultra Beasts show up, but I think it’s more likely if we get a DLC, we’ll get more added to the story (can we get confirmation Ingo and Dawn/Lucas go home, please?), but nothing added to the PokeDex. Legends requires the PokeDex to be complete in order to complete the main storyline; it would suggest the game was released incomplete if they were to decide more Pokemon should be added. This wasn’t the case for SwSh adding more Pokemon in two DLCs because the main storyline was completed when the player became Champion and then caught Zacian or Zamazenta. So to complete the game, including the PokeDex and catching Arceus, and then have a DLC come out and tell you there’s now more Pokemon you have to catch even though you completed a clear-cut objective wouldn’t look the best.

I’m not saying they 100% wouldn’t do that though. After all, I don’t work for Nintendo. Just giving my opinion that it would mess with the fundamental storyline to have Ingo be a Faller and add the Ultra Beasts (unless they did find a way to work it in nicely), and backing it up with what’s actually in the games.

[snarkylinda]

As much I love Pearl, I can't stop thinking of Appeal-Pallet solidarity. Because....the possibilities.

Like....Zoey is fond of Ash and so is Gary with Dawn, so I could see the four of them going on double dates during their teenage years. No to mention how mature Zoey and Gary are so I am sure they would get along very well, often looking with a fond smile at their SO's direction as they run around pointing at random stuff and wild pokemon with that dumb grin on their face the other two adore.

Both Gary and Zoey are bluntly honest when it comes to training, especially with Ash and Dawn, because they know that both of them have an amazing potential sleeping inside of them. Dawn takes her GF's advice a bit better than Ash with his bf's tho, but before an (rather one-sided tbh) fight can start, Zoey steps in and goes full "Ash Gary only says that because he wants you to be better....it's only he is too much of prideful brat to say it aloud. Now apologize to each other and go buy ice scream" Ash breaks into a smile and drags his bf to the nearest ice cream shop, Dawn giving Zoey a lil peck on the cheek for her amazing job at taming their friends. Zoey simply makes a sarcastic remark about how they don't need to adopt kids when they are older, the other couple and the pokemon are more than enough.

Needless to say, their pokemon also get along perfectly. Particularly Zoey's Leafeon and Gary's Umbreon. The two eggs of that union are Christmas gifs toward their respective SOs, they love them so much they become their second shoulder mon along with Pikachu and Piplup, respectively. Even after evolving they still keep them out of the Pokeball most of the time. (Espeon for Ash, Glaceon for Dawn)

Despite their busy agenda as Top Coordinators, Pokemon master in training, and Professor in training respectively (I like to think that Dawn won the Grand festival at the same time Ash won the Alola League in canon, but similar to him and Iris, she realized that she still has much work to do in the field to actually feel fulfilled) they manage to meet for dinner at either Sinnoh, Kanto or Alola every month.

Ash and Dawn can't bear the thought of missing each other most important match in life so even if they have to drag their SOs to the other side of the world to be there for them, they will.

No to mention when the other (particularly Ash-) is in trouble. One day Dawn and Zoey were just chilling in a restaurant in SnowPoint, the TV showed the news saying than famous pokemon trainer from Pallet Town was seen near what seemed to be a Zekron in the middle of one of the biggest storms of the century; Zoey was already putting her hoody on before her girlfriend could even declare they had to go there to check on her best friend. Gary feels very relieved there is someone else he can trust to keep his BF out of trouble when he is not with him, but feels bad for poor Zoey since she is the one that has to keep two troublemakers in check as the world is ending for the 5th time that month. To thank her he started a new project with his investigation team along with Brock, Cilan and Mallow's help: special food for feline pokemon.

Now, when Zoey is the one that can't be around as Dawn stays with the two boyfriends is when things get a bit messy. Normally is just Dawn feeling lonely because her gf can't be with her at the moment for a job appointment, so she just drops by Pallet town, goes full "Ash's let's have an adventure, I am bored" and just happens to step in the moment he is helping Gary with his newest investigation....he is just holding the flashlight and bringing tea but it's ok, Gary constantly tells him he is helping a lot. But now he has two of them and both are bored.

It doesn't help when Dawn notices that "Ash you aren't helping, he only wants to keep you busy so you don't get in the way" An argument issue, something in the lab that Gary didn't even know was flammable explodes (But Ash somehow knew because he dunked with both of them plus their pokemon under a table- Gary simply couldn't stay mad with his BF, he was too amazing)

When Zoey comes to visit because she knew Dawn would be here; another lab is destroyed, the group is covered in soot and currently washing it out of their pokemon, and she lowkey wants to let Dawn on her own more often because the sight is very funny.

[mattzerella-sticks]

Just a thought I had after seeing  the announcement of the Big 8 Conference of Pokemon trainers for the final arc of the Royal Championship Tournament with Ash, but with this new region and game coming out I don’t see a future for the Pokemon anime with Ash as the protagonist anymore after this series.

Like, whether he wins or loses against Leon I think Ash will be stepping down from being the protagonist of the series. If he wins, there’s nowhere else for him to go forward so it does beg the question ‘why’ of him starting over again in a new region. It’ll make no sense for them to nerf Pikachu for this new region. If he loses, I don’t see why that would be motivation for him to go to a new region and engage in the same type of stuff he’s already done before despite not doing so with this latest incarnation (the Galar region).

Which brings me to this point - I think, if Ash steps down, either Chloe, Goh, or both, are his replacements.

I think that’s why we’ve gotten this kind of story in Pokemon Journeys because the writing is on the wall for Ash and he’s going to pass the baton on to a newer generation.

Does this make sense? Well, thinking about it I believe both Goh and Chloe were based on the sprites from Pokemon’s I Choose You Pikachu/Eevee, which was a reboot of the Pokemon Red series which started it all (with the protagonist, Red, who Ash is based off of). I think the final arc of Pokemon Journeys won’t have anything to do with Ash but instead be about Goh finally capturing Mew - or realizing he doesn’t have to capture Mew, but after completing that goal means Goh will need something else to chase after. You also have Chloe, whose character arc this series has been about figuring out what she wants to pursue and whether or not she and Eevee can bond. Plus, recent years have done a LOT to push Eevee to the forefront of the series along with Pikachu, so if they do decide to switch Pikachu for Eevee I wouldn’t be surprised. I could see both of them going off to the new region to explore while Ash either goes off to train for the next World Championships or fulfills his responsibilities as the strongest trainer in the world. Goh goes to compete in his own type of training so he can face off against Ash (because as we know Ash’s love language is battling, and I mean that in like the purest ways Ash communicates best when he’s in the midst of battle and it’s helped connect him to so many people afterwards). I also see Chloe maybe going with him in with her Eevee as she pursues contests (because I think they’re bringing that back again what with the emphasis on both Dawn and Serena coming back and pitching Chloe with it). Maybe the third in their posse is someone from the region specifically or that white-haired kid with the Bayleaf (or maybe he stays on with Project Mew if Goh decides he no longer wants to capture Mew, who knows).

I’ll end this by saying it’s children’s animation and it doesn’t have to be that deep, but the fact that this season broke the formula they’ve been working with for so many years shows that they are open and willing to change how they operate and tell the story. They tested the waters with Alola and then completely threw the script away for Journeys. Could they continue on like Journeys, just without the Championship arc and keep it grounded in Goh and Ash travelling around and learning about Pokemon, helping where they can? Maybe. But I see this getting staler faster than the original storyline.

Journeys is special, and I don’t think we’ll get a season like this for a long while. I would not be surprised if this is Ash’s last season, and they retire his character to let Goh and Chloe pick up the narrative.

[alolanrain]

how old is ash on yours au’s?

It really really depends and I’m finding out that I’m absolutely horrible at actually giving out somewhat concrete ages, barring a few Au’s.

Unspokenly Ash is usually around late 20 to very early 22, unless I did write down and post an age for him in what ever Au has it, but thats also more drabble and fillet based. That is… basically my standard and I really need to vocalize that more from the content that I do write him as younger.

Basically how it goes is that with each region he ages up a year. Spending his birthday at home with his mom and the Oak’s that are present at the time before going off on another adventure. This gets kind of tricky around Sinnoh because Ash stay’s there to take on The Brain. I have that written down that it takes 3 month’s to even half a year. Which then put’s off the ‘sharing the birthday with mom and oak’ thing. This lands his birthday in the middle of his current journey at the time or a bit later like right before the league or a month before, if that makes sense. So in the end he comes home obviously older. Though I have been messing around and making the time in Orange Isles shorter to around 9 months instead of a full year.

Like here’s a time table and I’ll keep both set’s of ages if I do mess around with Orange Isles time line and add it as concrete. It gets really complicated so if you want a little more explanation please don’t be afraid to ask. I am also keeping the Brain Arc to half a year.

Starting age to finishing age *0/12 means how many months he is instead of a full year.

Kanto: 10 to 11

Orange Isles: 11 to 12 or 11 to 11 + 9/12

Johto: 12 to 13 or 11 + 9/12 to 12 + 9/12

Hoenn: 13 to 14 or 12 + 9/12 to 13 + 9/12

Sinnoh: 14 to 15 or 13 + 9/12 to 14 + 9/12

+ battling the Brain: 15 to 15 + 6/12 or 14 + 9/12 to 15 + 3/12

Unova: 15 + 6/12 to 16 + 6/12 or 15 + 3/12 to 16 + 3/12

Kalos: 16 + 6/12 to 17 + 6/12 or 16 + 3/12 to 17 + 3/12

Alola: 17 + 6/12 to 18 + 6/12 or 17 + 3/12 to 18 + 3/12

Galar: 18 + 6/12 to 19 + 6/12 or 18 + 3/12 to 19 + 3/12

I just want to say that typing all this out looks like one hell of a long ass math equation, kinda hate it and might change it later. But this is my completely basic format of what I use. Of course there’s a lot of wiggle room as I write Ash starting around 20 to 21 in Alola and Galar. He’s obviously going to probably spend more the one complete year in a region and less then another. The end of the league doesn’t dictate when he stays and leaves. Theres also the months that build up between each “arc”, another word I use to refer to his journeys, and to account the HC that some leagues start off at wildly different times then others.

It’s literally just a pick-and-pull basket and just a large general target where Ash would be ages wise. As you see in the end the two different age lists end up being only 3 months part from each other. It really doesn’t matter and I’m mostly just playing around with it. Another note thats… vital isn’t the correct word but I’m use it is that I don’t take Cerise Laboratory and the research assistant job into account. This is based off if Ash travels Galar to his normal standard with every other arc but Alola but I did keep the characters.

You didn’t ask for this but I want to add in other traveling buddies and side rivals ages and how they are compared to Ash as well. Usually Ash is the youngest if not one of them up until Hoenn. With the exception of being exactly 24 hours older then Ritchie. And all of this have way to much detail but its making my ADHD brain go brrrr happily.

He’s older than May, surprisingly, by like a month and a half but he doesn’t realize that and mentally clocks that he’s younger than her because of how responsible and adult like she acts a good chunk of the time. Max is obviously the youngest while Brock is the oldest. The same thing kinda happens in Sinnoh. He’s older then Dawn by a good year and a half to maybe even two years. Though Ash is younger then Paul and Barry by a varying few months between each boy.

Unova is where it changes a lot. Going from one of the youngest to one of the oldest out of his group of friends. Iris is drastically 3 years younger then Ash, making her around 12 at the start of the arc and somewhere around 13 at the end, and around 3 and a half with Cilan. This causes her to constantly pick against Ash because to her he’s older. Ash should be acting more like a seasonal trainer with known responsibilities and shouldn’t be so excited about everything. That’s also an expectation that was subconsciously taught to her by Drayden when she was still in School in the Dragon Village. Virgil is actually the oldest being freshly turned 18 years old while Cameron is the youngest at 11 and 5 months. Stephan is like the closest to Ash’s actually age but also acts a lot more older and more adult like then he really is just by his laid back attitude. Bianca actually just turned 18 before starting her journey.

Age Note: the reason why Cilan is weird and awkward around Burgundy is not because of her short temper and brash attitude but because Burgundy just turned 13 years old. She is a legitimate child just like Iris, compared to Cilan’s 16 years and 6 months when the meet on the road for the first time and not at a connoisseur event. Her deep infatuation and how young she is really puts Cilan in a active land mine field. Unlike Iris who listens to him and actually talks, he has no clue how to interact with her. Burgundy isn’t a normal gym challenger coming to his and his brother gym for a badge or even a normal crazed simple fan. As a gentleman at heart as well he raised to talk between certain age limits close to his own and this ends up making Cilan see Burgundy actually younger then she really is. Kind of like how Iris clocked Ash as a ‘kid’ when he’s obviously older then her and more experienced.

Kalos then thrusts Ash or being the oldest out of the main group but not as a whole. Bonnies around 8 while Clemont is 2 months and a half younger then Ash. This is where I struggle a lot in placing peoples based age in Kalos is actually because of Serena. I don’t want to make her too young to which the point it’s weird and also I based the other contest girls age’s around hers. But I also don’t want to make her too old to the point that Miette, the oldest out of the contest girls no matter what, is older then Ash. The general consensus is that Miette is right in with Clemont and Ash age wise while Nini is the youngest out of the trio. So that places Serena around 13 to 14 while Nini is like 12 and 7 months. Sawyer is obviously just turned 10 while Trevor, Tierno, and Shauna are between 12 and a half to 13 and a half years old. Giving that easy bonding connection with Serena and Shauna while giving Miette a older more experienced vibe and the childlike wonder to Nini. You’d think with Alain and all Ash would be the second oldest but your wrong. Ash is exactly 1 whole week older then Alain but, much like May, he doesn’t know that and mentally clocks Alain older then he really is.

In comes Alola and this is again where I usually bump Ash up to 20 to 21 but for the sake of everything I’m going off the basic target. Ash is obviously the oldest of the class by a good year on them alone though the classes collective smarts pushed them up different grades in school so thats how their together. Kiawe was the oldest at 16 and 9 months while Sophocles is still the youngest at 12 and 3 months, again bringing in the fact that the class is super smart and its based off intelligence instead of age like with every other class. Mallow is the third oldest at 16 and 2 months with Lana following on by at 16 and 1 month. Lillie is specifically around 15 years to 13 years and 4 months based off if I want her to suffer more as a older teen or as a child, literally her age is based off if I want to traumatize her more or not. Hapu is around 12 to 13 years old despite her obvious size and squeaky-ish voice. Acerola despite being very very mature for her age is only 17 years and 4 months old. Horacio is about Ash’s age at an even 17 years old when he and his lackies first meet Ash, Sophocles, and Kiawe.

Age Note: Horacio absolutely used his age as a card against Sophocles as many times as he could to the point it was so overused. This made Ash especially angry because he hated it when people used their age against much younger kids. Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you’re right.

Then we reach Galar as our final stop. Ash is once more the oldest out of him, Chloe, and Goh but not everyone else. That would be Hodge at a straight 19 years old when he first meets Ash and Goh at the Battle Frontier Flute Cup. Chloe comes at 14 and a half years old with Goh just freshly turning 14. This makes Ash’s relationship more of a mentor type distant older brother thing. Those two actually don’t find out about Ash’s age up until he and Goh get their letter so of recommendation and have to fill out the normal personal stuff. If you think Hop is close by in age with Ash then you’re wrong again. He’s actually two days younger then Chloe making Hop around 14 and a half years old as well. Marine is 13 years and 9 months old. Bede is much more closer to Ash then the others at 16 years 8 months. For Leon, Raihan, and Sonia their still very much the same in a way. Leon is still the youngest at 20 years while Raihan is the oldest at 23, leaving Sonia in the middle at 21 and a half years old.

Age note… once more: this fits perfectly for the Kanto and Galar Trios as they basically get opposite of themselves in a way. Goh who’s very oriented, loud, and on the go gets paired with marine who’s very quite and shy for the most part and their going to subconsciously teach each other that its okay to come out of your shell or its okay to take a moment and relax. Hop is very much like Ash and Goh combined with the strategies and the none stop puppy own straight crack like energy and he declares himself as Chloe’s, who’s silent and very critical and almost broody like it’s not quite there but it’s close enough, rival and is trying to teach her that battling is fun and okay and a lot of Pokemon like battling for those reason. Ash and Bede are the obvious choice for each other because once again Ash is very bright, happy-go-lucky, just sweet in general to everyone while Bede is completely broody, extremely sour, and just utterly rolling in his own image and being way to cocky.



[buttmuncher91]

a lot of advanceshippers love to say such bs about Drew even to this day. Drew is not my favorite character & it’s fine to prefer advanceshipping over contestshipping and I kinda like advanceshipping , but some of the things they say are ridiculous! This is not bashing on all advanceshippers or advanceshipping in general, this is just some quotes (not exact) I’ve seen that I’ve had problems with.

”Drew is a jerk! Ash would treat her right!“

Both would treat her just fine! Drew watches out for her & tells her when Harley is tricking her, saved her friends & brother when she was busy, saves her friends, cheers her up when she’s down, & they both calmly talk to each other when alone.

Besides, there are some things to point Ash being a jerk to her too! Ash yelled at her because he was butthurt he had no boat to get his next gym badge & skips out on watching some of her contest when May even watches him battle regular trainers.

And it’s not like May is an innocent angel herself. She yelled at Ash & Drew for no reason, had her torchic attack Ash, & forced Ash to agree to let her travel with him by bringing up her bike.

I know May & Ash have developed a lot sense than, but so has Drew & y’all are just stuck viewing him how he reacted at the beginning.

”May hates Drew & loves ash!“

She doesnt hate Drew. At the very worst, she sees him as a friend & has seen him that way by “Who, What, When, Where, Wynut.” Like I said we seen them talk a lot when they run into each other & heck, she even ditched the group, including Ash as he was talking to her, to talk to Drew when she saw Drew. So tell me again how she loves Ash way more than Drew lol!

And in ”Spontaneous Combustion“ May blushes at Drew after he waved and walked off. May never blushed around Ash, even when some weird couple accused her of being Ash’s lover. And there was nothing in that scene that indicates her getting red met something else. She wasn’t sick, doesn’t look mad, didn’t do anything embarrassing, etc... so it looks as if she really likes Drew.

”Drew is a flirts with any girl & would cheat on May, but Ash would never cheat on her!”

You people have nothing to back this up. Drew had fangirls gushing all over him? May being Norman‘s daughter and probably because she’s referred to as hoenn princess, has a lot of fanboys! In fact, Ash is more likely to cheat on May then Drew dispite him being oblivious, as Drew showed 0 interest in his fangirls & ran from them. If he was such a flirt, he wouldn��t run from fan girls, but would try & you know, FLIRT with them. Drew also showed 0 interest for other girls, & only teases May. You advanceshipper fanbrats (not saying all advanceshippers are fanbrats just the advanceshippers who think this) only pretend he is to make up reasons for May to reject Drew.

”He only likes May for her rack, & wouldn’t care for her if it was flat!“

Talk about reaching. Drew only stares at her FACE! He never stared at them, & the anime gave her chest 0 focus. He isn’t just some creeper. Despite not being interested in her, he treated Breanna nicely & she was flat. He may just have puppy love/a crush on her, but saying he’s just trying to win her because of her rack is complete bs!

”Think about it, Drew & May would make ugly babies!”

Based on what? Cuz Drew has green hair? As someone whose least favorite color is green (okay, okay dark/forest green is pretty), I think this is a stupid claim. Even with a weird hair color, there’s a chance the child could be cute, & really beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Hair color is NOT even close to a huge factor to what separates not ugly to ugly. And they don’t have to make babies if they do get together. They can just choose to adopt to help out those who need a home or just happily be with each other with no children at all.

”Drew is in less episodes with May than Ash, so advanceshipping is better & will be canon!”

🤦‍♀️Misty has the most screen time with ash. By this cruddy ”logic,” Misty & ash (so far) are canon. Yes, misty has much more screen time with ash than May. Misty had all of Kanto, Orange Islands, AND Jhoto with ash... as well as a cameo with ash in Hoenn, and TWO separate cameos in Alola. And at this point, May could have spent more time with Drew. It’s been 4 regions that Ash hasn’t even thought of 1 of her Pokémon after all this time. I’m no pokeshipper, but let’s be real here.

And most of the time Ash & May are on screen, it’s them focusing on their goals/Pokémon. They cheer & encourage each other too, but it’s mostly friendship stuff. Could something happen later on between them to spark love? Sure. But nothing in the anime ever pointed to that. And you can literally say that with Ash and... ANYONE! Like Ash could grow up, met back up with Roxie & they could fall for each other.

When Drew appears on screen, you mostly see hard evidence for contestshipping, weather on Drew’s side, May’s side, or both. Yes, there’s evidence on BOTH sides that they like each other. At best, advanceshipping looks one-sided on May’s side. And even then, it mostly looked that way in the beginning of AG. There’s way more evidence that May likes Drew & vice vesa than with ash & May, even with “less contestshipping hints!“ A lot of hints for shippings are overblown. Not just advanceshipping hints, but poke/pearl/negai(actually never mind, negai is under looked & over hated)/amour/etc... are over blown & it’s just ash being his usual nice/childish self. With Drew, it’s obvious he likes her as how he constantly stares at her, teases her, gives her red roses (& says they’re for beutifly), etc... While I think I covered how May likes Drew enough already. And yes, this could just be a kiddy crush for the both of them, but in the end there’s still harder evidence that Drew & May like each other.

Plus there are a lot of canon fictIonal couples who had less screen time with each other than other characters. Naruhina, ichihime, Hinny, gochi, etc...

“Drew never saves May’s life, unlike Ash!”

So? May never even tried to saved Ash, like she did with Drew!

Ash has also saved: Angie (who has a more confirmed crush on ash), Dawn, Pikachu (3x I can think of), Chinchar, Lillie (or at least attempts to help a lot of times), Celiebi, Erika’s Gloom, Serena, Misty’s sisters Pokémon, a ton of CotDs & their Pokémon...

And what of those who saved Ash? Misty, Sabrina’s... family photographer, Gary, Iris, Clemont’s father, Zeroara dude, a ton of officer jennys, Pikachu, a lapras, Paul, Drew (ya keep on hating him if it werent for him Ash Brock and Max would probably be dead in that crate Jessie, James & Meowth trapped them in so not even advanceshipping could happen).

“Rivals can’t be dating!”

Where did you get this bs? Even in the pokeani IN THE AG SERIES this has been proven false. Watch Pasificlog Jam again. Who put you in charge of how couples should work anyways? If a writer wants to have rivals hookup in their story, than they have that freedom to have the rivals hookup regardless how upset you get over it.

“Ash & May kissed in a banned episode, so advanceshipping is canon not contestshipping!”

Come on guys, they’re 10. The anime creators aren’t gonna have two 10 yr olds kiss on the lips. Its really creepy some person came up with this. No, it’s not creepy cuz I don’t like advaceshipping (I actually like some aspects of it). Again, it’s creepy because they’re 10. If they were like 13+ yrs old, it‘d be okay, but NOT 10. Plus, even Japan is very sensitive when having kissing on the lips happen with kid shows. Even with adults, they censor it/show something else as the kiss happens & just imply it happened. Expecally how they view kissing on the lips in the first place, they ain’t having 2 ten year olds kiss.

And there would be NOTHING to imply that they where going to kiss. Around this time this episode that they kissed claimed to happen (episode 357), Ash & co. where heading to fortree. Nothing ever was implied from the both of them even want to kiss each other. They just where supportive friends of each other with no hinting there where secret feelings or developing feelings from ether of them. Theres also nothing beyond that episode that implied the kiss happened. Because if it did actually happen, I’m sure something like that would impact the next few episodes, but nope no mention of any kiss nor do ash & May act any differently around each other in 358 and beyond. So even if it did happen, it was going to more than likely sink the ship, like it was some akaward thing they did because they were “under the mistletoe“ & afterwards just agreed to be friends & forget about it. The pokemon anime was always about friendship, adventure, and Pokemon themselves, never romance.

Also episode 357 is “Take This House and Shuppet!” not “A Kiss Under the Mistletoe!“ The Japanese episode is the same as the English barring names & episode number.

Were do you get such a sorce for this info? “my friend’s japanese friend who talked to the director of the AG anime & saw it!” or some other ridiculous unreliable garbage like that? Give me actual sources with interviews from the writers talking about this supposed banned episode. Bet you can’t, unless it’s fake & unreliable. If it existed, it would have floated up by someone from Japan. After All, even if for 20 mins that episode should’ve existed if it was just banned. Like “Electric Soldier Porygon” was banned completely & only aired one time in Japan. However, there are places that you can watch the episode despite it being completely banned due to putting a lot of children in the hospital from seizures. That was older than the supposed advanceshipping kiss episode as ’Electric Soldier Porygon’ is a Original Series episode in Kanto the 38th episode. No one can find this supposed advanceshipping episode nor is it even listed in the banned episode list. It should be harder to find this older banned episode than it should be to find this supposed banned kiss episode.

“Why should May choose Drew over Ash? Ash is like a literal god!”

What? Yes, he’s befriended every legendary & come back though poketears, save the world so many times, has arua abilities (he rarely uses), & whatever else, but it’s not like he seems that BA or whatever. Ash not aging seems over focused on, when in reality NO ONE is aging. It took him 7 regions to win 1 league (a questionable one at that), can’t remember Pokémon he seen before & sometimes forgets what he learned, & needs saved by others sometimes. Some god, can’t even rescue himself. Besides, who knows what Drew has done on his adventures. Drew has also saved Ash, Brock, & Max from trouble, isn’t Drew awesome saving someone ”like a god!”? Drew also has beat him in a battle as well, is that y’all’s problem?

And where is Ash’s voice in all this? It’s like this in all this anti-Drew bs. “Drew is just this terrible creature who possesses all 7 deadly sins & is the creation of Giratina & thus May hates & so does everyone else! However... blessed by Arceus himself, we all just know not dense Ash Ketchem is waiting to sweep May off her feet & save her from the demonic spawn that is Drew who is lusting after her bewbs😡” (<-original ideas, do not steal jkjk). Like there’s NOTHING to indicate ash wants her. And do you think this of May as well? Like do y‘all think May is just this perfect, sweetest, most divine woman in the pokeani that only Ash “blessed by Arceus“ is the only guy that should be blessed by such an angel? 🤣

Look, I like Ash & I like May. But even with my favorite characters I wouldn’t go as far as to think so highly of them that it makes Helga’s obsession with Arnold look like nothing. And just because Ash is more amazing with more feets & whatever, doesn’t mean May has to love ash or that Ash has to choose may because Drew doesn’t measure up to him.🤷‍♀️ Just think about it, should Timmy’s mom go with Dinkleburg? After all, he is smarter than Timmy’s dad, has more money & is more successful than he is. And Wandesemo is more popular, not stupid, & mostly competent unlike Casmo. Should Wanda dump Casmo for him? Of course i understand wanting the best person to end with you’re favorite character. But that’s not how love works & in the long run isn’t fair to both Ash & May (& Drew, but I know you haters don’t care about that).

[punz4lyfe]

MisPokonceptions: That bad “Pikachu lost to a Snivy” argument

TLDR: This argument is bad and easily refutable and people who still use it don’t even know what they’re talking about.

Okay, show of hands, who has brought up an iconic win on Pikachu’s belt and/or tried to discuss how powerful Pikachu is, only to get immediately shot down by some asshat saying that Pikachu isn’t really all that powerful because “hE lOsT aGaInSt SoMe LeVeL 5 sNiVy”?

These people are everywhere. Polls, predictions, anipoke discussions, versus debates, power scaling discussions, Reddit, Youtube, Twitter, literally anything that could remotely involve anipoke topics. And even to this day when Pikachu has done so much more since that one outlier, people still like to use this argument to try to justify the most blasphemous claims like those like Dawn’s Piplup or Goh’s Cinderace would be able to defeat Pikachu as well just by that one lose. Truth is, people who use this horrible argument don’t actually know what they’re talking about and are unaware of how easily refutable their stance is to the point they just look like nonsensical children who believe they’re right and no one else. And just how easily this argument can be refuted? Let’s see:

1. Context

Pikachu was literally fucking depowered by the legendary Zekrom in the same episode prior to Ash and Trip’s battle, you ignoramuses. He was not at his best and this sudden turn of events caused Ash and Pikachu to panic, which didn’t allow them to be in the best mindset for the battle as well. It honestly really baffles me that people barely bring up that point of the episode up which directly led to Pikachu’s lose. And yes, despite the typings, Ash has relied on Pikachu’s electric attacks to take down Grass-types before. That’s how he defeated and captured Bulbasaur and Treecko in the past. Arceus, it’s like people just purposefully pinpoint to Ash and Trip’s battle instead of the events that happened prior because they’re too afraid to look like utter fools.

2. Levels in the Anime World are non-existent

There have been many retcons in the anipoke history. One example would be Pokemon like Butterfree and Beedrill leaving behind their cocoon forms after evolving in the original series where episodes nowadays portrays their evolutionary process no different than any other Pokemon. Another would be trainers always be needing to weaken Pokemon before capturing, even if they seem significantly weak, but Journeys kinda has proven for that old concept to be moot, huh? Levels are one of those other retcons.

Quick question, when was the last time levels have been canonically name-dropped in the anime? The latest examples I can think would be in the Original Series at best, such as when Meowth declared Pikachu’s power to be “beyond its evolutionary level” or the time where Oak and James were quizzed on what move a Slowbro would learn at Level 46. In regards to all of anipoke’s latest series, levels don’t necessarily be a thing anymore. In fact, what usually grants a trainer and their mons a win usually depends on their strategic approaches as well as experiences.

I mean, just think about it, do you really think it would take Ash’s Cyndaquil an entire trip at Johto to reach Level 14 to evolve into Quillava at Sinnoh, especially since Cyndaquil already knew moves that its species would normally learn at levels beyond 14 in the games like Flame Wheel?

3. One fucking lose doesn’t taking hundreds of more impressive wins

Get real, guys. So a literal depowered Pikachu lost to a Snivy. And now you’re vaguely implying that same Snivy can take down a Dragonite, a Regice, and a Froslass and tie with a Latios?

Now anyone who still tries to use this argument REALLY look like fools. Hope they got their clown makeup win.

4. Context.... AGAIN

People who use this argument apparently did not watch the rest of the Best Wishes series after the first episode.

Let’s look into things. The next time Ash had Pikachu battle Trip was in episode 10 of the series, where it was revealed Trip had evolved Snivy into Servine between appearances. While Pikachu still lost, if you even understood a semblance of Trip’s character and motive (in that he has a huge regard of respect for Alder since his childhood and wants to match him battle), then it wouldn’t hard to believe that Trip is a hardcore trainer who wants to reach at least close to Alder’s level as soon as he can, so Servine’s second victory isn’t THAT bullshit as it is. Plus, you can literally argue that Zekrom, through anime bullshit, probably depowered Pikachu completely at the start of the series considering Pikachu lost to a fucking Panpour few episodes prior. Besides, the second battle ultimately wouldn’t mean a thing in the long run for what’s about to come.

The very next and last time Pikachu faced against Servine was in episodes 103 and 104 where Servine was now a Serperior and Pikachu should very well be back in his prime. And Pikachu ultimately won. Yeah, your whole “Pikachu LoSt to Snivy” argument doesn’t look so good anymore now, does it? (not that it looked good in the first place)

And 5. Additional Wins

As of now after And and Pikachu’s rivalry with Trip had ended, Pikachu has taken down a Mega Lucario owned by a gym leader who had previously scored a 100-win streak, a Metagross and Tyranitar owned by probably Kalos’ strongest regular trainer, a Hariyama owned by an Island Kahuna, a Mega Gyarados owned by one of Kanto’s most creative and well-versed gym leaders, a Nihilego who’s a freakin’ Ultra Beast, a Zoroark despite handling a Silvally prior to their match, and a fucking Tapu Koko... ordered by one of Alola’s strongest trainer... with a Legendary Z-Move... despite having been weakened by Kukui’s Empoleon prior...

The Snivy argument literally holds no weight anymore.

[bubblytarts]

The Adults of the Emissary AU

Because of course our protagonists can’t take on all these bad guys by themselves! There are lots of grown-ups who TOTALLY know what they’re doing, haha! (Which, of course, is a lie. They have no idea what’s going on either!)

And there’s also the bad guys here that play important parts, because they’re here too, and some play some very interesting roles.

*Also disclaimer that there is some shipping. 

HAHA AND THE THEME OF THIS GOING UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE IT’S WAY TOO LONG CONTINUES

Giovanni - As if he wouldn’t be included. After being defeated by Blue and then completely decimated by Red, Giovanni disappeared. But not to hide, but to gather his new forces. He would love for Silver to join him, but his son wants nothing to do with him. Giovanni is not someone to empathize with. He is cold, calculating, and willing to do terrible things to get his power and revenge. 

Lance - Lance is an interesting case, but a crucial one. Lance is normally very calm with an intense edge, but recently that’s changed. He’s been having nightmares about a little girl, who warns him of terrible things yet to come. This has been going on for a while, and Lance is getting a little desperate as to what it all means. 

Steven - As the Champion of the Hoenn region, Steven wants to do what’s best for both people and pokemon. He convinces Brendan to feel the same once he realizes that Brendan might defeat him in a challenge. However, his father and the pokemon league may not agree with some of Steven’s environmentalist methods, as the league is pushing for a more industrial approach. It makes the confrontation with Teams Magma and Aqua more intense for Steven, who agrees with their end goals, but not the means of going about it. 

Wallace - Wallace is the Sootopolis gym leader, a contest idol, the guardian of the Cave of Origin, and Steven’s loyal husband. Wallace is much more laid-back than Steven, and so is helpful in calming Steven, Brendan, and May down when they all get hyped up about something. Wallace also is an incredibly skilled trainer, and fights both Archie and Maxie at the same time, defeating Maxie before Archie slips away. 

Archie - Archie’s motivation is the same as it always has been. However, he would very much like to be friends with Maxie again, as it seemed like their friendship was developing into something more before they split into Magma and Aqua. But now, Kyogre is all that matters. Beat Maxie. Increase the sea. Those are the only rules. But there should have been an extra rule about making sure to not touch the Blue Orb, because that’s where the real problem is.

Maxie - Maxie’s motivation is the same as it always has been. While he wants to talk to Archie about their past, his pride won’t let him, and if that fails, Tabitha definitely won’t let him. In the meantime, summon Groudon. When Maxie is defeated by Wallace at the Cave of Origin, Archie surges ahead to summon Kyogre. While Maxie is able to summon Groudon to fight Kyogre, he has much bigger problems with Archie’s situation. And then of course, is when Giovanni makes his entrance.

Cynthia - Cynthia is a bit scatterbrained and tends to ramble on, but she knows that something is amiss. It’s pure luck that Dawn, Barry, and Lucas figure out Team Galactic’s plans before her, but she’s always right there to make sure the kids never get in over their heads. As for the leader of Team Galactic, she never thought she’d see him again, and as soon as she stops Giratina, she’s having a very stern talk about how you don’t abandon friends. Unfortunately, Cynthia doesn’t really get to have that talk. 

Cyrus - Cyrus’s motivation has always been the same. To get rid of spirit. Dawn and Cynthia just keep interrupting his plans and trying to talk to him about feelings and happiness. Getting trapped in the Distortion World isn’t the worst, if it means he can avoid talking to Cynthia, but Giovanni has other plans. 

Ghetsis - Ghetsis is the worst. There’s literally nothing else to say. He tries to kill N constantly once N figures out that Ghetsis isn’t as kind as he says he is. He’s dismissive of Colress. And he’s the reason that Hilbert goes missing for two years. Ghetsis is so mean he makes Giovanni look like a Dunsparce. He inserts himself into Giovanni’s evil boy band with the plan of taking over. At least he’s not subtle about it. Giovanni knows exactly what’s going on.

Colress - Colress is one of the only members of Rainbow Rocket to voluntarily join, and the only one of the voluntary ones to not be seeking revenge. He’s merely interested in what Giovanni intends to do with this “Ultra Space” plan of his. If he can study the strange readings he’s been getting from certain trainers, then he’ll be happy. That, and if Ghetsis and Rosa will both leave him alone. 

Sycamore - Sycamore has a lot of issues. All signs point to Lysandre somehow being involved with Team Flare, but he would never do something that stupid. And when the truth comes out, how can Sycamore ever forgive the man he thought he’d spend the rest of his life with?

Diantha - Diantha knows that Lysandre must be involved with Team Flare, but she doesn’t want to accuse him without having any solid proof. If it’s not true, she’ll ruin her friendship with Lysandre. If it’s true, Sycamore will be inconsolable. Diantha’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Lysandre - Lysandre knows the world must be purified. Even at great personal loss. His plan is to keep Diantha off his back and Sycamore blissfully unaware. But then a crucial part of his plan goes missing, and Lysandre fails to see his best laid plans falling to pieces around him. Even when he is left for dead, Giovanni and Colress can’t seem to let him die in peace. 

Kukui - Kukui’s pretty chill, considering that the kids are discovering portals to a suspicious alternate world. That’s more Burnet’s thing, anyway. He figures that Selene can handle herself with that, and he might need to hop in to help Elio with taking down Team Skull. He’s got some unfinished business he really would like to discuss. 

Burnet - Burnet is one of the lucky ones. She avoids getting involved with the Ultra Space fiasco in Alola, but manages to learn a lot from the experience. What comes first in her mind now is to fix the friendships that have been damaged by past events, like Kukui and Guzma’s. Her experience with Ultra devices will definitely come in handy though.

Guzma - Guzma had a tough time when Lusamine got involved with Ultra Space, but now he’s having a nice time helping Kukui around the lab. They’re on much better terms now, and Guzma’s ready to put his past behind him. It’s a shame Rainbow Rocket goes after him first.

Lusamine - Lusamine went into hiding after being defeated by Selene, Elio, and their friends. Giovanni quickly reached out to her, and Lusamine became one of the most loyal members of Rainbow Rocket. She even got Colress to promise her a Nihilego sometime. She has yet to cash in the deal, but it’s there.

Faba - It was Lusamine who recommended that Giovanni invite Faba to help Colress with his latest project. Colress despises the man, but Faba definitely helped to get the project off the ground a lot quicker. 

Leon - As Galar’s champion, Leon’s a busy man. Lucky for him, he’s got Rose to support him. However, some of Rose’s behavior is a bit concerning. Leon may be the worst at reading directions, but he’s got a knack for reading people. Rose is up to something, and Leon’s going to protect Hop and his friends from whatever Rose is scheming. 

Sonia - Sonia’s got a lot on her plate as the new pokemon professor of Galar. Most recently, she’s been invited to help work on the Universal PokeDex and help write the entries on Dynamax. If only she wasn’t a technology disaster. 

Rose - Rose knows what has to be done for Galar. He also knows that Leon isn’t clever enough to catch on. That may not be true. Rose hires Victor as his personal photographer, and while the future of Galar comes first, Victor has a very interesting story from his time in Kalos, and Rose is desperate to know what secret the boy is leaving out.

Looker - Looker’s investigated teams Rocket, Galactic, and Flare, and been hired to help track down former members of every other team that’s popped up in the past decade. Too many coincidences are happening to let the leaders of these organizations escape him, and Looker knows he’s about to crack the case. 

[love-is-a-pearl]

Watching Pokemon mezamas for the first time because I can't binge DP rn orz

If you wanna see me ranting and reacting, I'll leave things under the readmore >w<)b

Starting with ep 1 and 2! Cause I dont have as much free time as I wish I had so I'm doing 2 episodes per day till friday.

Winds of Beginning! The Endless Road!!

It's just me or the music at the beggining was Alola music? If yes.. That's just the cutest. Alola music as Ash's music QAQ

The best part of the episode was the 5 minutes we spent with Ash and Pikachu before the stupid Latias appeared. Add that one to the pokemon I now hate because of the anime..

Man, I'm still bitter those 10 episodes weren't focused on Ash and his Pokemon only. It would've been the absolute best way to use those 10 episodes (and still reach the same conclusion Mezamas as it is reached), why couldn't Ash ever be alone with his mons? He can be enjoyable if the writers tried. Sigh

At least Buizel is here ♥ Also it was adorable to see Noivern and Sceptile in security duty while everyone else slept! Babies! However I'm sad Buizel and Donphan didn't go to cuddle with AshPika and Latias ù3ú

What was the point of all the drama about "Ash's pokemon not being able to attack TR because it could hurt him" when... Pikachu just went and... did just that? (also, Noivern going there and breaking the glass would've hurt Ash less??????) I get they needed "Ash suicidal tendencies make him likeable" moment but gosh, it could've been done better, for sure.

And you know, mandatory Dawn mention, but it's kinda poetic that both Ash and Dawn got done dirty in their final moments because of some stupid legendaries. They're trully one and the same. Even in shitty writing decisions from anipoke staff LMAO

Satoshi VS Kasumi! Seaside One-on-One!!

I know that Misty's metaphor about how her and Clauncher are meant to be is an obvious Pokeshipping hint, of course it is! I know that! but...

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but the fact Pikachu ignored Psyduck for Misty, and Clauncher didn't seem at all to reciprocate Misty's feelings is... interesting... Added to that how Ash just replaced her lure with Cilan's is.. Almost like adding to her own metaphor, that while Misty still has feelings for Ash and believes that they're meant to be, because of fate, because she is the "OG twerpette" like TR called her, Ash himself is like.. Pikachu to Psyduck and Clauncher to her. Neutral at most, and with someone else having their favoritism.

And y´know, it's even more interesting that at the beggining of Sinnoh Ash still had her lure (and was protective of it) and immediately after Sinnoh he changed her lure for Cilan's. I sure wonder what happened between those events for him- It's Dawn! its Dawn that happened!

Dont judge me I can make anything be about pearlshipping if I try hard enough.

Shipping aside, I adore seeing episodes with the general same plot but with different characters. Compare this to the Buneary catch and it's really interesting to see just how different Ash acts with Misty and Dawn about the same thing. Him and Misty have a battle about who is gonna get it, which does makes sense, they will resolve all their arguments with battles instead of actual talking and I adore that trait of their relationship~

And even Misty's disappointment at the end, that Clauncher still likes hanging with Corphish is very different than Dawn bringing up her closeness with Ash to win Buneary over. I love those sort of similar episodes, it's great to understand how each character thinks.

Gosh, even comparing to Totodile's catch shows how Misty and Ash themselves have become closer and more understanding of eachother! In here they make rules about how to catch Clauncher instead of fighting the whole time, it's a nice showcase of how they've grown! I'm just sad that Totodile was in this episode and no one mentioned the similarities :T

Also I will never get tired of Pikachu's "Pikachupi"! Ikue Otani does it in the cutest voice and I just want to squeeze the rat's cheeks every time he says it!!!

Speaking of Pikachu, I love that at the very least in those 10 episodes he went back to having some hint of a personality since he hadn't shown much of it for... a long time before it (and remembered the names of the people he cares for. I was so angry at the lack of "Pikapi" in Alola).

Same goes for TR, is nice to see their motto being animated instead of some re-used footage. One of the things that made their apparitions enjoyable in OG-DP was that they always added some personality to it. That was fun to see again.

---

And that's it for today.

[hayleyb100]

Light My Way, Part 5

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 the end

⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️  -It is a twisted story of Pokemon Sun and Moon, and a crossover of Pokemon SM and SWSH. -It features Hau and Kabu as the main characters. -Extremely angsty. -Everything is headcanon.  -It isn’t spoiler-free.

"This will be your room from now on. If you need anything, let me know anytime, dear."

Kabu smiled as he introduced Hau to his new room. It was cozy and lovely, filled with a comfy bed, bookshelves full of storybooks, and pokemon stuffed toys. Hau stared at Kabu with a little intimidated look. He kept asking if it was alright for him to go in, and Kabu nodded with another grin.

Hau hesitantly went into the room and looked around. He fiddled with some toys for a bit, but soon sat down on the floor and stared back at Kabu. It seemed like the child was lost on what to do. Kabu felt great pain for him. He should be a carefree child who would run straight to play with toys, but he was busy reading Kabu's face.

"Well, it is late and you must be tired after a long flight. I'll leave you to sleep, alright? See you tomorrow morning."

___________________________________

The next morning, Kabu went to check on the child first thing, only to have his heart sink. There was no sign of the child. Hau was missing from his room. The bed was still neat and tidy - without a trait of using it. The toys were still staying in the boxes.

"Hau? Hau! Where are you??"

Kabu called out completely flustered. How did such a thing happen only after a day they arrive in Galar?

 Then he noticed that the door of the wardrobe was peeking open. Hau was hiding in the wardrobe holding his breath.

"Phew, you gave me a fright... Isn't it stuffy in there? Come on out."

Kabu tried to get the child out of the wardrobe by holding him in his arms. But the boy shook Kabu's hands off freaking out a bit.

The Fire Gym Leader felt as if his heart was torn apart, because he had a feeling of what was going through the boy's mind. Ever since he stepped into Galar, Hau never complained about anything. He must have been uncomfortable since Galar is a lot different from Alola from climate to food. But the boy never complained about anything. He was only a child who ought to complain a lot when they don't feel like home. Instead, Hau was acting as if he was walking on eggs.

Hau had enough of getting abandoned by someone. He was scared he might experience it yet again. That pain. The feeling of being someone worthless. Hiding was the compromise he reached after going through all the turmoil. He was dead thirsty for love, but if the foster parents see something that doesn't suit their taste, they will abandon him again. So he decided to keep it down. Behave and don't show himself. He was desperate for affection, but he wanted to stay here more. It's even okay if he was to be fed and raised like a pet. All he ever wanted was to stay. He was his way of screaming, "I will behave. Please don't dump me."

It was such a heartache for Kabu to see his boy like that, but he decided to stay strong and keep to Hau's pace. He sent messages to his acquaintances to please restrain from calling or visiting so that he can focus on his new boy as much as possible. He was glad that it was the close season with no Gym Battles. He made a little world for just the two of them, so that they can relax and bond.

Kabu didn't rush things. He didn't try to pull the boy out by force or scold him. All he did was to bring a pile of books to entertain himself, and read it by the wardrobe. 

And when his eyes met Hau's, he smiled gently, sending a silence message: "I'm always here for you if you need me. Call me anytime."

During the meal and bath time, he gave Hau some food or bath products, and strolled around the Motorstocke City for a bit. He knew Hau didn't feel comfortable around him yet, so he gave him time to do it himself. But as he cleared away the empty plates, he dreamed of dining on the same table with Hau someday. Kabu did everything to win Hau's trust that he isn't someone to hurt him.

When Hau fell asleep in the wardrobe, Kabu tirelessly studied how to care for an adopted child. He never gave up his dream to adopt him one day, when Hau was ready. He didn't forget to jog around the Wild Area with his pokemons at dawn before Hau wakes up, so that he relieves stress before taking care of the child. It was a tight schedule since he had to be by Hau most of the time, but he never felt tired. In fact, Kabu started to feel joy from the bottom of his heart.

The way the child was slowly becoming the center of his life.

That was the procedure of becoming a parent.

It was the bliss Kabu never felt in his life.

Living and dedicating purely for someone else.

And after a few weeks...

His effort paid off.

Kabu was exhilarated that Hau finally came to him, but kept calm as best he could. He wore the same warm smile as he asked him.

"I am very happy that you have decided to let me spend some time with you. Very brave boy. Would you like me to read you a story?"

Hau nodded, still a bit nervous.

Kabu pulled out a children's story book called Scorbunny and Chewtle from Hau's shelf and started reading. Kabu's soothing voice calmed Hau down. Before Hau noticed, he completely forgot about the fear and was leaning on Kabu's arm, concentrating on the story. The warmth from someone else gave Hau such relief. Sooner or later, he yawned. Sleeping all curled up in the wardrobe was so uncomfortable that he had catnapped all the time. The relaxing from Kabu made Hau drowsy instantly. He tried to keep awake, but fell asleep without noticing.

When Hau woke up, he was shocked. Kabu was sleeping next to him, patting him gently. It's been a while since he felt such tranquil feelings. His fear and sorrow melted away like snow in spring. Hau kept as still as possible, because he wanted this to last forever. He wasn't completely sure if Kabu would accept him as he is, but hope started to bloom.

Few days after that, when Kabu was setting up the table for dinner, another miracle happened. Hau came close to him, showing interest in meals.

"Are you hungry, dear?" Kabu asked with a slight excitement.

Hau nodded.

Kabu happily allowed him to sit next to him, and gave him some food. But soon after, Kabu noticed Hau was shaking his hand a lot. It was the aftermath of the cold sleep. Hau tried his best to keep his hand still, thinking Kabu will dump him if he finds out he is still unwell. Kabu calmly suggested.

"Would you like my help? Or would you like to give it a try?"

Hau gripped his spoon tight, indirectly saying he can do it alone. Kabu was sad that the boy doesn't fully rely on him yet, but he reminded himself to let Hau do it at his own pace. Hau was surprised at how Kabu never raised his voice when he spilled food or dropped utensils. The hope grew more and more.

________________________________

Weeks turned to 3 months, and there were a lot of changes. Hau stopped going back to wardrobe and started to have a little bit of brightness in his face. He no longer ate alone but dined and slept next to Kabu.

It wasn't only Hau who changed, though. Kabu learned just how wrong he was. He started fostering Hau out of sympathy honestly, but he realized that he can't adopt a child with that sort of trivial emotions. It was so much more than that.

Even the tiniest smile on Hau's face pushed Kabu on cloud nine. The smallest pain on Hau's face pushed Kabu down to pits of worries.

The attachment he shared with the child was so much deeper than he thought. It wasn't something to be taken lightly. It made Kabu brace himself once more to take the child-parent bond seriously. Kabu was surprised at how he was so attached to the child already, that it will be impossible to turn back.

[depressedkakashihatake-fics]

Dusk Time Evolution

Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai

1802 words

For: @alumort

Edited by: @mireleth

Kakashi had only been back in the Kanto region for a day, and he had already returned to his regular training regime. Well, the training regime that Gai made him keep up with whenever he would find time to visit him at his gym. Something that Kakashi had not been keeping up with during his visit to the Alola region, resulting in his current situation.

Flat on his back in the middle of Gai’s gym, staring up at the ceiling as it slowly opened above him. Apparently Gai had decided they needed to do some stargazing in his gym while Kakashi was gone, because he didn’t remember his boyfriend having a gym with a roof that could open before. 

“You like it?” Gai’s face showed up above his, a bright smile on his face. “I thought it would be a nice change. The gym was starting to feel boring.”

Boring was the last word Kakashi would use to describe Gai’s gym. The place had been set up as an obstacle course that trainers had to navigate their pokemon around in order to even have a chance at fighting Gai. The whole gym screamed ‘extra’, and with an opening rooftop it only became more obvious how much extra Gai thought he had to be.

Kakashi loved it. 

Reaching his hands over his head, he smiled up at Gai and waited patiently for him to understand what he was trying to do. It took a moment, but when it finally dawned on him Gai chuckled and got down on his knees, lowering himself to press a gentle kiss against Kakashi’s forehead. 

“I love it.” He smiled, resting his hands on the back of Gai’s neck so that he couldn’t pull away anytime soon. “The view is beautiful. Especially when you’re in it.”

Seeing the light tinge of a blush, Kakashi chuckled. He loved embarrassing Gai because no-one else in the world expected that of him. The hardened tactician that no pokemon trainer could beat and receive a badge from, being adorable? Unheard of. 

A heavy weight came to rest across his waist, pulling his attention downwards so that he could see the small Rockruff that had now decided to make him its bed. A perfectly acceptable way for him to find himself pinned to the ground for the rest of the night, in his opinion.

“She seems to like you.” Gai beamed, reaching out to pat Rockruff on the head. “How long into your journey did you find her?”

Thinking back, Kakashi couldn’t help but smile as he recalled the playful Rockruff that had come charging up to him on his second day in Alola, bumping her head against his leg until he finally got up and started to play with her.

She had even gone so far as to bump her nose against a luxury ball that Kakashi dropped while they were playing, allowing herself to be caught without any fuss. A happy accident that Kakashi didn’t have any repeats of during the rest of his visit. 

“Two days,” he responded after realizing that he had never actually answered Gai’s question. “I was two days into my trip when she decided to join me.”

“Impressive. Is she always so…” Gai made a gesture with his hand, the descriptor that he was searching for clearly not coming to mind.

Playful would work in most cases, as Rockruff was quite the playful pup. But Kakashi didn’t think that was what Gai meant since he had quite a few playful pokemon of his own. No, instead he was probably trying to address the fact that Rockruff had gotten quite aggressive during their battle, biting Gai’s Hitmonchan in the leg even when Kakashi hadn’t ordered her to.

That was a much newer personality trait that Kakashi was trying to deal with.

“I asked professor Mabui about her aggressiveness a few days before we came home,” he explained, glancing back down at Rockruff as she relaxed on top of his stomach and looked up at the sky. “She was starting to get a bit more aggressive during battles a week before we were due to leave. The professor said it was perfectly normal for a Rockruff, and that in most cases it meant that they might be ready to evolve soon.”

During the plane ride home Kakashi had done a bit of research on Rockruff’s evolutions, wanting to know as much as possible about the pokemon that he might end up with. It had been quite an interesting read and Kakashi had found himself stuck trying to decide which form he would prefer. The midday form looked cool and the rock typing was certainly a new addition to his team, but he always had a certain fondness for a dark type pokemon as well. He didn’t have many of those either, since he was mostly an electric type trainer.

“It’s about what, 5:30 pm? If Rockruff were to evolve right now I think she would end up taking the midnight form. It’s really quite a sight, with beautiful red eyes and a dark typing that would compliment my team nicely I think.”

Gai laughed above him. 

“As long as it’s a dog, do you really care what type it is?” He smiled back down at Kakashi. “Either way you’re going to spoil her rotten and play with her all the time, regardless of how much the rocks around her neck bruise you.”

He certainly wasn’t wrong about that. Kakashi loved all of his pokemon, and even though his dogs didn’t really fit into the electrical theme of his teams he still loved to play with them and spoil them as much as possible. The type of pokemon they were had never really mattered to him.

Still, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t love a dark type pokemon, or even a rock type. Most of the dog pokemon were normal type and keeping Growlithe from Obito’s greedy fire-loving hands was difficult most days. 

“Hmm, someone’s excited.” Coming out of his thoughts, Kakashi frowned when he saw Gai staring down at Rockruff, who had only just started to move again. Following his boyfriend’s line of sight, Kakashi stared at the pokemon as she sat up on his stomach and looked up towards the setting sun over Gai’s gym. “What do you think she’s looking at?”

“The sun, maybe?” Kakashi suggested, watching as Rockruff stood up on all four paws, her body starting to give off a faint glow. “Oh… oh!”

Was it really that time already? 

Sitting up, Kakashi watched as the faint glow slowly grew stronger until it covered Rockruff's whole body. “What are you going to be, hm?” He was tempted to reach out and pet Rockruff, but that really wasn’t a good idea when she was in the middle of evolving. Especially given her more aggressive nature over the last week. 

“Beautiful.” Gai’s hand came down to rest on his shoulder. “She’s going to be beautiful.”

That he couldn’t disagree with.

As Rockruff’s body started to grow, Kakashi felt the pressure of her heavier weight pushing down on his abdomen. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to let Lycanroc put all of her weight on him anymore or he’d be crushed under her body weight. 

He was already threatened with death by cuddles whenever he shared a bed with Gai. He didn’t need to take that risk with his pokemon as well. 

“Oh…” His eyes widened when the glow started to fade away, Rockruff’s blue tinted fur now a darker hue with spikes of fur all around her neck. When she looked back at him she had brilliant green eyes, and an extra long spike of rock that arced over her head sort of like the midnight form. “That’s… uh…”

“Not what you were expecting?” Gai finished for himself, reaching out once again to pet Lycanroc’s head. “What form is this?” 

“That I do not have an answer to,” Kakashi admitted. “This doesn’t look like either of the forms that I read about. It’s something new.”

Gai looked back down at him, confusion etched on his face. “You’re telling me your Rockruff just evolved into a completely unknown form?” The only response that Kakashi could give was a short quick nod of his head. Taking in Kakashi’s answer, a small smile started to pull at Gai’s lips. “Does that mean you get to name it?”

Thinking about it for a second, Kakashi reached out and gave Lycanroc a gentle pat on the head, ignoring the slight pain in his chest from the increased weight now on top of his body. “What do you think, hm?” He smiled up at her. “What kind of name suits such a beautiful pokemon?”

Lycanroc responded by leaning in close and licking a long stripe up the side of Kakashi’s face. “Right, you don’t care what it’s called,” he chuckled. Wrapping his arms around the pokemon, Kakashi hugged her close to his body and turned his attention back up to the sky. “Well, the other two forms are named after the time of day since that’s what determines the Rockruff’s form when it evolves, so how about ‘Dusk form’?” 

“It’s perfect.” When he glanced back at Gai he couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw the way his boyfriend was gazing back at him. “What?”

“Sometimes I forget how adorable you are.” His eyes widened while a blush started to creep its way up the back of his neck. “It’s true, Kakashi.”

Throwing a hand over his face, Kakashi glared up at Gai from between his fingers. “Stop it,” he grunted as Lycanroc laid down over his chest. “Stop it right now. I am not adorable. I am a scary ruthless gym leader that no one likes.”

“A scary ruthless gym leader that lets his pokemon cuddle up on his chest and asks them if they like the name he’s trying to give their new form.” Gai reached out and poked Kakashi in the nose, laughing when the electric type user glared up at him. “But if it’ll make you feel better, I could join the cuddles.”

Turning his head away from Gai, Kakashi dropped one arm to the ground beside him and waited for his boyfriend to take the hint. With no further commentary Gai laid down on the floor beside Kakashi and cuddled up to his side, laughing when Kakashi brought his arm back up around his waist and turned to look back at him.

“So, is it a good name?”

“Perfect.” Gai beamed. “Just as I would expect from my eternal rival.”

Gai in his arms, a newly evolved Lycanroc resting on his chest, and a beautiful sunset in the sky above. Kakashi really couldn’t think of anywhere he would rather be at this moment.

[medea10]

My Review of Pokemon Sun & Moon

Hi all. Sorry for the delay on this one. I usually go all-out on my Pokemon reviews that I wanted to let out everything I wanted to. Plus I had real-life work and other stuff. With that said, here’s my final review of 2019 as well as the final review of the decade. See you in 2020!

As Ash mentioned at the end of XY, Ash said he was going back home to Pallet Town and “start at zero”. This means when he decides to go on his journey, he leaves all of his other pokemon at Oak’s lab and goes on a new journey with Pikachu. But unlike the start of other journeys, this one started with Ash’s mom, Delia and her pokemon Mimie winning a contest which resulted in a trip to the Alola region. And since they were heading that way, Professor Oak asks them to bring a pokemon egg to his cousin in Alola. So let’s begin with Ash’s adventure in the Alola region.

The Alola region is split into four different islands. Each of these islands contains trial captains, island challenges, pokemon of different forms, and pokemon guardians! But unlike the game, Ash ends up in the Alola region to go to school. That’s right, after being the envy of every child for the last 20 years, Ash must go to school. In this school, Ash will learn all he needs to when it comes to living in the Alola region. Along with new friends, a helpful professor, a Rotom Pokedex, an enthusiastic Oak that does impressions, and a special bracelet capable of unleashing powerful Z-moves, Ash’s journey is getting very interesting.

MEET THE CHARACTERS: This seriously has got to be the biggest ensemble for Ash’s posse. Each character has their own unique charm and their own speciality when it comes to their pokemon type preference (and their hairstyle will say so too). At the beginning, I was just okay on some of these characters, but I have definitely enjoyed watching them evolve. Here are all of Ash’s new classmates, professor, Pokedex and a brand-new Oak.

Mallow is a very cheerful girl with the love of grass-types and cooking specialty dishes for friends and pokemon. While some of her dishes can be a little surprising, even shocking, she has a knack for using only the freshest ingredients, mostly coming from wild pokemon.

Lana has a passion for the water and yes, even water-type pokemon. She’s quite soft spoken and spends a lot of her days fishing. She may even look into becoming a fisher like her father. But she does have an edge that makes her and her Popplio tough to beat. Not to mention, quite the sense of humor! She also takes care of her two younger sisters Sarah and Harper.

Kiawe is very handy in a battle with his fire-type pals. Unlike the other students in the class, he’s been given a Z-ring first as he has attempted the Island Challenge. Because of this, he’s rather high-strong about those who own a Z-ring. His days start early in the morning with delivering MooMoo Milk, then he goes to class, then comes home to take care of the farm pokemon, and let’s not forget all that training with Charizard and Turtenator!

Sophocles is what you’d call a computer nerd (yeah, we have another one). He’s able to handle any electrical error that comes his way with the help of either Togedamaru or Charjabug. The only thing he’s unable to challenge is sleeping in the dark!

Lillie is the mysterious girl with no pokemon (at first) and seems to get scared by them real easily. However, she knows quite a bit about pokemon without having physical contact with them. Luckily, Lillie lets her guard down later in the series when she gets the opportunity to take care of an egg. And when it hatched, she kept it. Other pokemon, it still takes her a while to open up to them, but when she does open up, it’s adorable!

Professor Six-Pack is too hot (hot damn)! Call the police and the fireman!

FINE, I’LL DO THE RIGHT THING!

Professor Kukui is the teacher to these fine pupils and has even allowed Ash to stay with him while Ash attends school. He seems a little laid back at first glance, but he does take special care into each and every lesson he gives his students.

Rotomdex is the talking Pokedex for Ash. Unlike all the other Pokedexes up to this point, this one can actually carry on a conversation with Ash. Not just that, but come up with strategies, watch detective shows on TV, and even write screenplays. It’s amazing how so much can come from a fushion between a Rotom and a regular pokedex!

Principal Oak…Okay, no, I can’t do that! Over 10 years ago, I wrote a fan fic called Romance 101. And I spent a good five years writing the words “Principal Oak” because that’s what I called Samuel Oak. This Principal Oak is just giving me vivid flashbacks.

…fine Principal SAMSON Oak is of course the principal to the Pokemon School. This Oak is a much tanner, buffer, and at times sillier man when you compare him to the original Professor Oak. He really loves doing pokemon impressions. And much like Professor Oak’s poems, Samson Oak’s jokes goes over a lot of people’s heads.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: With the exception of Kiawe, Rotomdex, and Samson Oak’s voice actors, this is literally a brand new experience for most of these new characters. And I gotta say, I hope these voice actors get more attention. I know Reina Ueda (Mallow) has been getting a lot more roles in the last three years and I love that. The Pokemon anime has had quite a history of either getting very prominent voice actors or voice actors who aren’t known for much else. But I do hope for more exposure for Lana, Sophocles, and Professor Kukui’s seiyuus. Extra points for having Nobuhiko Okamoto play Gladion!

I’ll mention more later in the review but due to the death of a very, very, VERY prominent voice actor, there was a major change. With the passing of Unshou Ishizuka, there were three important characters that had to be changed; Professor Oak, Samson Oak, and the Narrator. I started noticing the lack of these three (yes, even the narrator) in episodes prior to Ishizuka’s death. If we go several episodes without one of the Oak’s, it’s not a big deal. But the fact that the narrator wasn’t heard before the start of the show or at the end for several episodes at a time, it felt very weird. But after hearing about how Unshou Ishizuka died of Esophageal cancer, I can’t help but think he was doing treatments during the Aether Foundation arc. His replacement, Kenyu Horiuchi is not bad. But after listening to Ishizuka since…well at least two decades, it’s very noticeable.

The dub once again is putting hope in brand new voice actors and even a few veterans from the XY series. And so far, this is very promising since they casted Alsyon Leigh Rosenfield. However, one prominent voice actor who has been around for a LONG time has retired. Kayzie Rodgers, the replacement voice of Max and Wobbuffet (and long-time voice to Mr. Mime and Professor Ivy) has retired at the beginning of SM (2016). I can honestly say, I will miss hearing her voice. Out of all the dub changes, you were one of a few I accepted. That and I will always remember you as Professor Ivy and Mimie! With that said, here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Lana is played by Hitomi Kikuchi

*Mallow is played by Reina Ueda (known for Kisa on Fruits Basket 2019, Shiori on Sakura Quest, Jiro on Tokyo Ghoul, and Katra Paige on Inazuma Eleven GO: Galaxy)

*Kiawe is played by Kaito Ishikawa (known for Genos on One Punch Man, Naofumi in Shield Hero, Sakakibara on Assassination Classroom, Kaito on Tsurune, Mitsuo on Golden Time, and Urie on Tokyo Ghoul :re)

*Sophocles is played by Fumiko Takekuma

*Lillie is played by Kei Shindou (known for Carissa on Index III and Shijimi on Rosario to Vampire)

*Professor Kukui is played by Keiichi Nakagawa (known for Salamander on Beelzebub)

*Rotomdex is played by Daisuke Namikawa (known for Rock on Black Lagoon, Jellal on Fairy Tail, Italy on Hetalia, Kazehaya on Kimi ni Todoke, Fai on Tsubasa Chronicle, Yuu on Persona 4, and Arima on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Narrator & Samson/Samuel Oak (ep1-93) is played by Unshou Ishizuka (known for Mr. Satan on DBZ Kai, Jet on Cowboy Bebop, Hohenheim on FMA: Brotherhood, Dr. Gel on Space Dandy, and Grandpa Joestar on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Pt 3) [R.I.P.]

* Narrator & Samson/Samuel Oak (ep93-present) is played by Kenyuu Horiuchi (known for Pain on Naruto, Mako’s father on Kill la Kill, Sasaki on Bakuman, Hachiken’s father on Silver Spoon, and Takafumi on Sekaiichi Hatsukoi)

ENGLISH CAST: *Lana is played by Rosie Reyes

*Mallow is played by Rebecca Soler (known for Hart on YGO Zexal)

*Kiawe is played by Marc Swint

*Sophocles is played by Alyson Leigh Rosenfield (known for Rio on YGO Zexal, Aina on Promare, and Ally on YGO Arc-V)

*Lillie is played by Laurie Hymes (known for Prana on YGO: Dark Side of Dimensions)

*Professor Kukui is played by Abe Goldfarb

*Rotomdex is played by Roger Callagy

*Samson Oak is played by Marc Thompson (known for Chaz on YGO GX, Astral on YGO Zexal, and Kevin/Mr. O’Neill/Mr. Demartino on Daria)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Pokemon…why do you keep doing this to me? Do you want me to lose what little faith I hold onto?

With that said, this season has given me a “best girl”. Yes, the term “best girl” is given to the…well, you know, the best girl of the series. And ever since the creators decided to shake things up by giving Ash a new female companion every couple of years, fans have fought to the death on who is best girl of Pokemon. For me, my best girls of Pokemon were Prima, Zoey, Blue/Leaf Green, and Bonnie. But there are just a few problems there. None of them are Ash’s piece of arm candy! And there’s some unwritten law that it has to be the possible love interest like Misty, Dawn, or Blushy McIdiot. And my best girls have either been in only one episode of the anime, was just a rival to someone who isn’t Ash, a girl who was never in the anime, and too young. BUT…Sun and Moon did it! It friggin’ did it! It gave me a best girl! And that girl is…

LANAAAAAAAA!

I never tire of that Archer joke! But yes, Lana is best girl.

I knew I was going to like her when she first debuted, but I had no idea how awesome she was going to truly be. Is it her prankish nature? Maybe! Is it this creepy yandere vibe I get off from her every now and then? Possibly! Is it the way I’ve seen her grow as a trainer throughout this series. You fucking bet! Lana at one point seemed like the one character who wasn’t getting much growth when it came to catching and evolving pokemon. Then again, everyone (including Ash) gave me that impression compared to other arcs. But then she caught the shaggy Eevee! Serious wild card! No one expected Lana to catch Eevee. And then there’s Popplio. She and Popplio trained like crazy later in the series and it shows when it evolved into Brionne and eventually into Primarina. ESPECIALLY WHEN PRIMARINA EVOLVED! Did you see Lana and Brionne going toe-to-toe with that Kyogre? That was epically awesome!

Plus, she was like the only female in God-knows how long to reach the top 8 in the Pokemon League.

DISLIKED CHARACTER: My tolerance has taken a slight dip because there are three people I feel should be up here!

First, I would like to put up Cross from the 20th movie, I Choose You. I know that he isn’t in the actual SM series, but I’m putting him up here because I just downright hate him. He is on Damien levels of shit. That’s how much I hate the son of a bitch. He could cure cancer, kick Donald Trump in the crotch, and bring peace in the Middle East and I would still hate him. Cross was like a very bad combination of Damien and Paul. Abandons a pokemon the same way as Damien and shows this power assholeness that Paul has. But add to that, a bit of a cruel edge to him and sprinkle a bit of whiny little bitch on that. He has to hold a grudge against Ash in this movie because he was blessed with Ho-oh’s feather, but when he saw Ho-oh, he got nothing. Oh boo-freakin-hoo! Cry me a river!

Next…Faba! You fucking testicle! Heads up, I like calling Faba a testicle! When I first saw him, I thought that Lusamine was gonna be the one to hate because of the game setup. But this anime just proves how much Lusamine loves both of her children. The same can’t be said about Faba! At first, I thought Faba would be like Colress in a way…creepy how they almost look and act the same. But then his true side started to show. Oh, this guy wants them Ultra Beasts. And will not let anyone get in his way. Not little children, not birds suffering from Insomnia, not Team Rocket, not even his boss’s child! This greedy sonuvabitch is literally the reason why Lillie was afraid of pokemon and re-triggered it AGAIN thanks to UB Nihilgo. Yeah, fuck you Testicle!

Now after that incident, Testicle was demoted and serves under Wicke and Clefable (which is literally the best thing I could ever ask for). And in most scenarios where he’s shown, Faba was silly with his fanboy obsession with the Masked Royal or his stupid experiment shrinks the kids. So other than him being a dumbass nothing too damning! That was until the Pokemon League where he decided to play dirty by having his Hypno bring out Ash’s Meltan instead of going up against Pikachu. I’m glad he got beat within less than 2 minutes because this testicle needs to shrivel up now.

Who else?

Viren! I can’t help but think he’s this anime’s answer to Donald Trump. But I hate both of them so that’s a start! I could let things slide with him just being there for one episode where he’s trying to buy out Kiawe’s family’s farm and be done with it. BUT NO! This sonuvabitch has gotta wear out his welcome by showing up another three or four times doing that same shit! And even his very first episode where he uses illegal tactics to get Rango and Sima’s farm was warrant enough to hate this fucker. I just thought he would just be a one-and-done character much like the Mayor of Trovitopolis (OI episode). Aggrivating to say, this dickhead came back numerous times to do more shady-ass shit. And I hope to Arceus I never see him again!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Kiawe and Lana’s mothers are total milfs.

DON’T ACT LIKE I’M THE ONLY ONE HERE! Kiawe’s mama, hell yeah total milf! Lana’s mother, I ended up having a lesbian dream about her and she became a milf.

Hey, usually I’m straighter than a honeymoon dick. But sometimes I peak over and can easily say that Sima and Lana’s mother are Mothers I Like to Fantasize about. Again, in the words of Forky, “I’m Trash”!

SHIPPING: Okay…let’s have some fun with this one. This is less vomit inducing than XY. Just keep that bitch in Hoenn for as long as it takes. I don’t want to see her for a long time.

Ash x Lillie: I honestly think this is rather cute. Ash is one of the very few who’s been able to help Lillie with her poke-phobia. Though this ship isn’t heavily pushed on us like a certain OTHER ship that just won’t DIE. I swear Amour is like the herpes. I really can’t say there’s much romance here. Although her goodbye to Ash was just honest-to-God cute! Now if there was one Ash ship that caused some sort of blushing, it would have to go to…

Ash x Lana: Whenever she could, Lana would drag Ash along with her. Whether it’s looking for a missing pokemon or on the hunt for a legendary pokemon in the water, she would take Ash by the arm and take him by force. However, none of this was romantically motivated. The only thing worth mentioning was her tsundere way of blushing and brushing off romance when her sisters pester if Ash is her boyfriend.

Mallow x Lillie: This was my OTP to be perfectly honest. While Ash was the actual first person to nudge Lillie to help her with pokemon, Mallow was like the best friend of Lillie’s. She would always show concern for her. I know this is more big sister syndrome, but I’ll still ship it. I never thought anything would happen until the episode where the class puts on a play and I see Mallow and Lillie dressed like Utena and Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena. To which I said, “HOLY SHIT, THIS IS AWESOME-BALLS”! Pokemon, are you trying to tell us something with this? You trying to tell us something with this clear and direct reference to one of anime’s famous Yuri couples?

Kukui x Burnet: THIS SHIP HAS SAILED! I’m actually surprised how fast this ship was. I know they’re married in all four games, but in the anime it seemed like they didn’t know each other that well prior to Burnet’s first appearance. And anime wise, they only spent 11 episodes with each other. And on the 11th episode not only did Kukui propose to Burnet with a ring, but they freakin’ got married! I guess there are such things as love at first sight. Kukui wanted it and put a ring on it. There’s a real man, yo! Now, he does lose some points here as he does lead that double life as the Masked Royal where he keeps it a secret from everyone, including his fangirl of a wife. But once she knew, she let him off the hook. And you know how much this ship is cemented? Watch the last 30 seconds of the final episode! It’ll blow your socks off!

On a side note, the way Kukui proposed to Burnet…BEST FUCKING PROPOSAL!

Nurse Joy x Officer Jenny: Amazing, it has taken over 20 years for anyone to think this is even humanly possible. But in Alola, there’s a Nurse Joy and an Officer Jenny that are constantly together. Maybe it’s because I hang out on Tumblr a little too much that it gets implied a lot, but I can’t help but have a guilty pleasure for this.

Pokeshipping: AAAAAAH! Yeah, Medea has to bring this old war back. Okay, okay, I won’t be long here. Just to let you know that I’m a fan of this ship, especially back in the day. As for Sun & Moon, at least we don’t see that classic tsundere syndrome Misty is known for. But she still cutefully teases Ash about several things from the past including the broken bike and their past gym battle. To add to this, Misty (and to lesser extent Brock) were the only ones from Ash’s past companions to see him this region...much to my dismay!

Brock x Olivia: Holy crap! Did Brock seriously get lucky? Is this it? Is this the woman to finally fulfill this pervy breeder/doctor? To me, it just feels like just another day in the life of Brock’s love life. However he has done his research of Olivia that makes me think he’s dead serious about her…I just think it’s a creative way to say he’s in the early stages of stalking. But nothing else came from it after Brock (literally) proposed marriage to her and joined in doing a Z-move with her. Then again, Brock does get a lucky break with at least one lady in each region. Sadly, that’ll probably be the end of that much like Professor Ivy, Pike Queen Lucy, Holly, and Autumn.

Ash x Gladion: Guilty pleasure…is it wrong that I want these two to dress up like Yuri and Yurio from Yuri on Ice. No, didn’t think so! Not sorry for that image!

ANIMATION: I’m sorry, I can’t stay quiet about this like most of the other fans of the show. What the hell were they thinking? This is not supposed to be One Piece. This is not supposed to that Rock Lee spin-off. This is Pokemon. Poke-fucking-mon! Ash went backwards on the evolutionary chart. And people have nerve to go off on the BW series for giving him wider pupils and a mediocre outfit. You people owe the animators for BW a fucking apology for one! Ash’s design now looks like he’s cosplaying to be Monkey D. Luffy’s retarded cousin. Even my own mother, who watches one episode once every couple of months commented to say Ash looks stupid. Thank you!

SADDEST MOMENT: It’s been a good while since I’ve had a Pokemon episode touch me to a point of almost crying. Close, but the Misty/Togetic goodbye still has it beat (which was then beaten by an episode of Violet Evergarden…Dammit 2019!). And even then, the touching moments in Pokemon would be because someone of the main cast released their pokemon like Ash releasing Charizard, Jessie releasing Dustox, and OH MY GOD, NO! ENOUGH WITH THE SAD TOGETIC SCENE! But that was just it, at least no one died!

…Until now! That’s right, deaths were usually only a movie thing as we saw in the fifth movie with Latios. But in the last three years, Pokemon got a little dark in both the anime and the movie trilogies. The 20th movie we saw a Luxray freeze to death, the 21st movie we saw a Snubbull burn to death, and because the 22nd movie is a rehash of the very first movie, we’re going to relive Ash dying.

The SM anime did a few things we haven’t seen in the Pokemon anime before. In the early episodes of SM, we were introduced to Litten and watched a very sad episode dealing with death. Before Litten joined Ash, it lived on the streets with a very old Stoutland. Now think of every sad animal movie you’ve ever seen and you’ll have your answer of what happens to Stoutland by the end of the episode. They don’t show Stoutland’s death on screen, but we know. This episode was very clever at tackling the death topic on a kid’s anime. And up to this point I thought this episode was going to take the cake in the sad department. Boy was I wrong!

The 108th episode of SM gave us one hell of a tear-jerker and it almost got me. It almost got me! We learn in this episode that Mallow had a mother. And this is a first because no one in any of the main cast talked about a dead parent before this episode! We learn about Mallow’s mother being sick a lot and it caused a rift between the two. Especially when Mallow snaps at her mother because all she does is apologize for not being there. Unfortunately that exchange was the last time she ever spoke to her. Where does the sad part get heavy? Here!

While everyone was on Poni Island, we hear about how Tapu Fini is able to communicate with the dead. And among some of the dead we saw Hapu’s grandfather, Kiawe’s grandfather, and Stoutland. But in the mist, Mallow came across her mother. And that one moment where she finally can see her mother after so many years! She breaks down and cries. She apologizes for the horrible things she said as a kid to her. But those sorrys turn into thank yous. She thanks her mother for what she’s done, thanked her for being her mother! God damn it, this is now #2 in saddest Pokemon moments. The second I saw this I thought it was going to make me ugly cry and trounce all over the Misty/Togetic moment. To my surprise, it didn’t. But came super close!

In short, Mallow seeing her mother again…this moment! Feels! Fucking feels!

COMEBACK: I have pretty much given up on people from the previous series to pay Ash a visit in the newest region. After XY where we didn’t get a single sighting of Iris and Cilan getting shafted to an episode that they didn’t even bother giving an English dub, I just gave up. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t get characters who “came back”.

In SM, there were two times where we got a blast from the past. In two episodes we had Ash, Kukui, and the class make a trip to Kanto where (that’s right) we get to see Professor Oak, Delia, Misty, and Brock again. Not only that but we get two more episodes where Misty and Brock come to Alola!

As much as I love Misty…and toler…ate Brock, many other characters are overdue for a get-together with Ash. If you want me to be blunt, May, Iris, and Tracey are the only ones who should get attention and everyone else needs to FUCK OFF. That’s right, we don’t need to see Brock hit on more whores of the day. No more fishing competitions for Dento-fruit (much as I love him). Blushy McIdiot, Dingus, and Bonnie can go fuck off! And that goes double for Dawn!

Shit Medea, that was cruel.

Yeah it was cruel and I’ll continue to do so. It’s been 11 years since May was last seen/heard. Iris got royally butt-fucked by everything in the anime. And as for Tracey, I don’t owe you pissants a fucking explanation. Tracey deserves better! Speaking of…

AN UNFORTUNATE THEORY: With the comebacks of Misty and Brock, Tracey has just been NOT THERE! They go to Oak’s lab and he isn’t there. Not even mentioned. Not a word about him. When Ash calls Professor Oak randomly, Oak is there and even Muk, but no Tracey. When Ash asks Misty and Brock about back home, they don’t mention Tracey…which is to be expected since they have to talk about their siblings, but still.

Pokemon doing anything island adventure wise kinda comes with a mixed bag. The Orange Islands came with immediate hate because loyal Brock fans are ass-hurt about Tracey’s existence. The Sevii Islands were a bust during the FR/LG games. And the less mentioned about Decalore Island in the BW anime, the better. But when they decided to do Alola, fans caught on quite quickly with some comparisons to the Orange Island anime portion.

Unlike all the other gyms in other regions, Alola had four grand trials/leaders. Orange Islands had the Orange Crew, which was essentially four gym leaders. Both the trials and the crew had Ash do different tasks before an actual battle. Next, pokemon with different colors/forms! In the early episodes of the Orange Islands, we saw pokemon just a smide different from their normal looks. We saw Vileplume with a different flower pattern, other pokemon with a different shade of color to them, and interesting designs on Butterfree. In Alola, they expaneded on that by giving “Alolan forms” to pokemon like Meowth, Diglett, Exeggutor, Marowak, and even Raichu! I do love Alolan Raichu! However, the pokemon that had small changes in the Orange Islands were not brought to the Alolan table. So maybe Orange Islands and Alola are in far different parts of the world.

Where my theory goes from here is that I think Pokemon really wants to pretend the Orange Islands never happened. That means the gym battles, the special pokemon, and yes, even Tracey. That’s the only way to explain why no one has mentioned him even when we’re standing in Professor Oak’s fucking lab! I hate to be blunt and say something so horrible, but every time I watch SM, it really does feel like that. Yes, I admit it, the Orange Islands were just filler until Ash and crew could go to Johto. First of all, it exists. No matter how much you try to white-wash us with Alolan features, the Orange Islands was a thing. And it was a great thing! Ash was in his first six-on-six match (and won), Ash’s first double battle happened here, and stellar episodes like Pikachu Re-volts and Tracey Gets Bugged should not be cast aside. Those were all great! Pokemon, you cannot run from your past! You can improve upon it, yes. But never forget! These were a thing! These were great things!

Thankfully, my death theory was put to rest in the first episode of Pokemon 2019 when the Orange Island trophy was shown. That’s great, now where’s Tracey?

Another theory! They couldn’t get Tomokazu Seki. That could also be it!

RUNNING GAG: We got two running gags throughout the SM series! First, there’s the return of that singing ball of pink, Jigglypuff! This little singer has not been seen or heard from since AG. That’s well over a decade, people. Well…when Ash and crew visited Kanto, they ran into Jigglypuff and by sheer coincidence, wound up riding the airplane back to Alola. So now we see it every now and then in Alola, singing in a Karaoke bar.

And the other…Bewear! It hasn’t been officially caught by Team Rocket. They don’t use it in a battle. But Bewear has literally made it impossible for Team Rocket to BLAST OFF ever again. Their life-long running gag died the minute they fell into Bewear’s meaty arms.

Also it doesn’t help that I constantly scream “KUMA SHOCK” every time it comes to collect Team Rocket. Anyone who gets that reference deserves a high five!

BANNED IN THE USA: Welcome back, banishment! I knew you couldn’t stay away for long as we do live in a SJW/PC time. So what episode never got to see the light of day in the U.S.?

This one…yeah, I can totally agree with. So in the U.S. there is indeed ONE episode we were not given. In this episode, Ash decides to help a group of Passimian. And throughout the majority of the episode, Ash is dressed up like a Passimian from the pajamas to the…OH MY! I actually let it slide when I saw the Japanese viewing (because I’m half-awake at 2am), but I can definitely see why this one would ruffle a few feathers. Let’s just say Ash’s costume was a little too borderline blackface and that’s why it’ll never air in the states.

Anything else!? Not in terms of full episodes. Certain scenes, absolutely! Little baby things were edited due to being not kid-friendly. What’s in those drinks Kukui and Burnet are drinking out of at their own wedding? Champagne? Blasphemy! That’s Orange Juice now! What’s in Delia’s drink in the first episode? Oh we can’t have her pull a Miriam Pataki here! Turn that shit into Pinap Juice! Okay, besides the censorship of drinks, was there anything else? Why, yes, yes there was!

We all know how creepy Team Rocket’s Mimikyu can be. That’s why it’s placed in my top 10 list of characters that scare the shit outta me! Well one scene had Mimikyu’s shadow scare Meowth so horribly, the next scene had Meowth DEAD! Face down in the water! Don’t worry kids, Meowth comes back to life. The U.S. said “OH HELL NO WE CAN’T SHOW THIS! FUCK IS WRONG WITH JAPAN!” And so the face down scene was completely chopped from the dub. Add to that, there were several instances where Meowth almost dies and parts of those scenes are cut from American broadcast.

REFERENCES: If there was one thing this new animation has given us, it has open the doors to using references from other animes and even a few western media projects. And we haven’t really seen much of this since the original series and AG. And even back then, it was mostly just Rose of Versailles references with Team Rocket. I know I give the animation flack for it being a pile of shit compared to better animation shown in XY and DP. But I think the animators do have a little more fun when doing Sun and Moon. And I think it’s loosened them to using other animation styles seen in different and popular animes.

And boy did SM use a butt-load of anime references! Here’s a list of what I was able to remember!

*Facial expressions matching those scene in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in several episodes *A Mr. Osomatsu reference tossed somewhere *Ping Pong the Animation being used when Illma entered in the Ping Pong competition *Kiawe doing the famous Gendo Ikari pose from Neon Genesis Evangelion in the same episode mentioned above. *Ash and Kiawe making the scary, demonic face Popuko makes when she’s mad on Pop Team Epic, when the two missed out on catching a UB Pokemon. *Transformation scenes with Ash and crew that match those of Power Rangers or every magical girl show. *The girl with many Pikachus has one Pikachu with hair like Boruto (Naruto Uzamaki’s son) *Ash and Pikachu looking like they’re doing the Kamehameha attack during their league match (DBZ, duh) *Rotomdex mentioning it wants to do a sci-fi feature and the image strikes a chord with Star Wars fans everywhere. *Lillie dressed like Utena. Mallow dressed like the rose princess, Anthy. HOLY SHIT, MY OTP IS DOING A REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA REFERENCE! Take my revolution!

And the mother of all references goes to Jessie! Or should I say, her seiyuu Megumi Hayashibara! Pokemon animated many of her iconic roles in one epic scene. Just to name a few of Hayashibara’s roles shown there was Ranma Saotome (Ranma ½) Rei Ayanami (Evangelion), White Kitty (Hello Kitty), Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), and everyone’s favorite Lina Inverse (Slayers). At least in the English dub, Lisa Ortiz popped in for the Lina Inverse moment! Epic on epic on epicly God levels of YES!

MUSIC: Okay in recent years, the English openings have gotten tolerable and the same can be said about the opening themes used this time around. So I won’t bitch about that. So how about I bitch about the BGM?!

Background music, I know a lot of complaints are expressed by loyal Japanese version fans that the English version has completely changed the BGM throughout most of the episodes and even the motion pictures! Yeah, in the I Choose You movie only ONE original BGM was used. The BGM topic never really got to me. But if I remember correctly when 4Kids lost rights to Pokemon and went to the new company, they said that they were going to keep a lot of things true and the BGM was one of them. Yeah, that went to the waist-side real fast! I do believe that they listened to that complaint because in the following movie, the entire score was kept (with the exception of the ED theme by Porno Graffitti).

The Japanese openings…I used to like Alola by Rica Matsumoto. Yeah…used to. Okay, that’s too mean. I don’t hate it on the lengths of V(Volt) from the previous series. It’s just that they used this song in certain scenes that took me out of liking it fully. Now anytime I hear Alola, all I can think about is Ash, Litten, Pikachu, and Rockruff wiggling their asses. Some of the other openings were just okay, I wasn’t too thrilled about them. But there was another thing I feel I should bring up.

Just like the English dub to XY, they wanted to capture a nostalgic feel to the general audience watching, Sun and Moon gave us some of that here. Because of the release of the 20th movie, Rica Matsumoto ended up singing her signature Mezase Pokemon Master again. And as a result, it was the show’s opening for quite some time. Not only that but the last ending theme to Sun and Moon was a cover of Rica’s other hit song Type Wild (now sung by Shoko Nakagawa).

MOVIES: The movies have taken a different turn from what we’ve seen previously. Let’s face it folks, the 10 movies that came out prior to these last three were average AT BEST. And with many other series doing reboots to their old classics, I guess Pokemon decided to do it on a large scale when it came to the story of Ash and Pikachu. With all new animation and a new story, we follow Ash and Pikachu in a much different take on their journey. A much faster-paced story where Ash doesn’t have much of the filler stuff and doesn’t travel with Misty, Brock, or the rest! To which I say, good! I know it means the Sun & Moon gang will never be in a movie, but it also means that animation won’t be there either.

I Choose You was the first movie and from the get-go, fans were upset over seeing a reboot of Ash’s beginning journey with Pikachu and not seeing Misty or Brock. Instead we get a kind of condensed version of certain moments of Ash’s original journey, mixed with new material and get introduced to new characters (who come from Sinnoh of all places). The pokemon featured was Ho-oh, who after all this time was going to be featured in a film and Marshadow because it’s not a pokemon movie without featuring a brand-new pokemon from this era.

The Power of Us, Ash ends up on an island where he meets several new characters who each have their own story to tell including a high school girl, a shy scientist, a pathological liar, an old woman who hates pokemon, and the daughter of the mayor. And we are introduced to another new pokemon, Zeroroa. All five characters (plus Ash) are put through their own trials and tribulations in order to save their town during a festival.

Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION: It’s the first movie…in CGI/3D/Robot-Chicken-ized, whatever! There’s no need for a synopsis since everybody and their mother knows this story. It’s literally the same story as Mewtwo Strikes Back. Ash and company get invited to an island, Mewtwo causes storms and clones to mess with the people, Mew appears, Pokemon fight, Ash dies, Ash doesn’t die, Mewtwo says profound speech that even Jon Stewart praises, everyone’s minds are erased, and that’s all! They even got the original cast to come back and reused Unshou Ishizuka’s old footage as the narrator for this movie!

The thing about this last movie is that, The Pokemon Company dropped the ball on this. SEVERELY dropped the ball on this! They had the perfect setup, the perfect opportunity to get this in the theaters just in time for the 20th anniversary of the first movie’s release in the U.S. and they do jackshit with it! Not even on Disney XD. For shame!

I will say that these three are a SEVERE improvement on the Pokemon movies. Can anyone with full honesty say that any pokemon movie that came out after the Lucario movie that any of the others were even good? Be honest, almost every movie since AG was just essentially a long side-story with an annoying mythical/legendary that can talk. It got annoying! Plus it just felt like Ash and whoever he was with would just be dragged in the middle of some bullshit and have to save the day. It was fine in the first couple of movies, but the pattern got worn out.

Plus with this alternate timeline to the Pokemon story, it gave the Sun and Moon anime more to work with legendaries and mythical pokemon. Hell, all the main cast was able to catch (and later release) an Ultra Beast pokemon. Not only that, but Mallow got to take care of the mythical pokemon Shaymin for over 40 episodes. Don’t you wish we got that with May and Manaphy? Plus, Ash got to take care of Cosmog and Poipole for an extended amount of time. Okay, my favorite movie of the three.

I Choose You is my favorite out of the bunch. I loved the retelling of Ash and Pikachu starting out on their very first journey. I love the new path they took with this story. I love the new characters introduced, Verity and Sorrel. I love the pokemon that were shown as it gave us a bit of everything from every region up to this point. Yes it was a cluster-fuck in some portions as I had to see past characters shown way different. Cynthia’s Verity’s mother! I can’t unsee this shit! And I will never unsee the messed-up dream Ash had where he was in actual real-world with no pokemon and in a real school where I’m given vivid flashbacks of my fanfic. Regardless, I enjoyed this movie so much. And I got to see many things here that I would always imagine would happen in a final episode of Pokemon (where Ash dies, Pikachu speaks, and an epic fight with Ho-oh). It is now my 2nd favorite Pokemon movie.

+1000000000 points for showing Tracey in the ED credits! Medea screeched in the theaters. I apologize for nothing! Best five seconds I’ve had in years.

TEAM ROCKET UPDATE: As this region does not have Pokemon Contests or that tact on Princess crap from Kalos, we’ll find our favorite trio (+Wobbuffett) going after the twerps and wandering around the area. And while I do enjoy Jessie dipping her foot in the contest arena, this pace can be boring and a blessing at the same time. Unlike previous seasons, we will go episodes at a time where we don’t see Team Rocket. But the episodes where they do show up aren’t the most thrilling. Usually they’ll just be in the background serving treats to background characters.

However, one major improvement with Team Rocket this season is with their pokemon. In the past, Team Rocket has had some unique pokemon that they’ve captured (or stolen…still not letting the Yamnega thing go). In Kanto, James had Victreebel that would eat him. In Hoenn, James had Cacnea that would pinch him every time it came out. In Sinnoh, James had Carnevine that would eat him…Okay, a lot of it is James torture-porn! Regardless, they were entertaining to watch. And I felt a complete slump with their pokemon during BW and XY. This season, pretty much ALL of Team Rocket’s pokemon are entertaining.

Marenie loves James so much that she would blow off being with her own kind to be with James. Even hearing the sounds of wedding bells every time James asks a favor of her! It’s actually adorable to watch Marenie. Jessie’s Mimikyu…I’m almost convinced Mimikyu is the reincarnation of a serial killer. And the biggest pokemon to cause Team Rocket so much grief is one they didn’t even catch, but it sticks around to take care of them like they were children, Bewear! And trust me, they’ve tried catching Bewear. And Bewear smushed the pokeball into poke-dust! Bewear would just come right the fuck out of nowhere, defying logic, gravity, and absurdity to bring Team Rocket back to its cave! This, making it the longest period of time where Team Rocket went without blasting off!

Every time they had the twerps cornered, in comes Bewear to take them back! Whenever they were about to do their traditional blast off, Bewear would come in and take them back to the cave! Even when they’re in fucking Kanto, it managed to swoop in and take them back to the cave. Team Rocket even DEFEATED Ash in a battle and had the perfect opportunity to take the twerp’s Pikachu. But no, Bewear came in and swooped them up! These pokemon were fun to watch this entire series! This was definitely an improvement from the last few seasons. Seriously, I can’t even remember what pokemon Jessie and James had during BW!

BIG TEAM BATTLE: Just like in Unova, Team Rocket ended up getting more attention than the antagonists of Alola. Except here, it’s a little more accepting. It’s just that in Alola, was there really a big team to cause major havoc with world-shaking consequences? Technically, the Aether Foundation wasn’t the big bad team and Team Skull was just a bunch of angsty punks. Regardless, there were two arcs with something epic happening.

The first of course was opening the wormhole and discovering the Ultra Beasts. And in almost the same fashion as the game, Lillie and the rest have to go and rescue her mother from the Ultra Beasts (because Lusamine got taken over by one). Only difference is that game Lusamine wanted to use this power. Anime Lusamine pushed her children out of the way so they wouldn’t get taken away. We did get some great moments with Ash doing a new Z-move with Pikachu, Nebby evolving, and Lillie’s relationship with her mother become stronger.

The second big battle was with Necrozma. Now this one heavily involved Team Rocket as Giovanni disbatched several other members including his assistant Matori and some eye-patch gorilla to try and get this pokemon. However after this incident, we never see Giovanni try to get his hands on this pokemon again or talk about it again. Even when he makes a big foreshadowy deal when he dialed Nanu about it! But in this arc, a mysterious power throughout Alola was making all of the adults listless and lazy. And it was up to Ash and the other kids to get to the bottom of this strange phenomenom.

ENDING – POKEMON LEAGUE: Yeah, this league was going to be different. In the Alolan League, just about anyone can join this certain Pokemon League, as long as you have a Z-crystal, it’s all good. Well, Alola has never had a Pokemon League, which is sort of like what was in the game. So Professor Kukui decided to put this dream into an action and now Alola will hold its first ever Pokemon League! So expect to see the entire cast compete! I’m not kidding!

From the get-go I was worried since Ash’s team here in Alola is pitifully underdeveloped compared to past arcs. And if he were to fight, he’d probably lose to Gladion or Guzma! But since the first task was to knock 151 competitors down to 16, we all know Ash was going to survive this trial. Now in past league competitions and even Pokemon Contests, thinning a big number down would take some time like an episode or two. Here, IT’S A FUCKING FREE-FOR-ALL BATTLE! Trainers coming at you from all angles and you can only use one pokemon! It’s like a mini-game from Mario Party it was that crazy!

The 16 trainers that made the cut are all trainers we know! They all had at least 1 debut episode prior to this moment. So no surprise bastards like Tobias to muck things up! The sixteen competitors are Ash, Mallow, Lillie, Lana, Kiawe, Sophocles, Jessie, James, Faba, Aceorla, Mina, Ilima, Guzma, Hau, Gladion, and Samson Oak! Unbelievable! The entire main cast, Team Rocket, trial people in the games, the head of Team Skull, the island heartthrob, Ash’s two main rivals, and a freakin’ Oak! We could not make this up!

From the Top 8, we wind up with Ash, Guzma, Hau, Gladion, James, Sophocles, Kiawe, and Lana advancing. These next battles had some pretty decent moments including James trying to hold his own against Gladion, Lana and Primarina trying to survive a poisonous dick move from Guzma, and action-packed moments with Kiawe and Sophocles.

…

…

I don’t want to talk about it. NO, I DON’T! NO ONE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT ASH’S BATTLE WITH HAU! First of all, their rivalry only expands to like two episodes. One episode prior to the league and the rest during the league! You’re just butt-fucking us on this sweet little cinnamon roll. I know the anime really wants to stand out on its own by not giving us awesome rivals that we get in the games like Cheren or Brendan, but God-forbid if you give them some awesome moments before you have them get beaten by Ash and sent back to wherever the fuck they came from! And this battle is just an insult of every level!

I know Ash has been known to pull off some stupid moments in his day when it comes to pokemon battles. He’d put a clear type-disadvantage against a powerhouse pokemon. He’d put all his faith in one pokemon and if it failed, absolutely fuck all. And most common of all, have one of his non-evolved pokemon go up against a fully evolved pokemon. We get the latter when Ash’s insomniac-stricken bird, Rowlet, go up against Hau’s fully-evolved Decidueye. But before the battle, we get some last minute training in done by Toucannon and its bird-kin. You’ve got to be the stupidest mother fu…Forget it, you’re just wasting your breath! Well, it’s because Rowlet is DETERMINED so that gives the green flag to fight in Ash Ketchum’s book.

You stupid fucking idi…

During the fight, Ash and Hau did use their Z-moves early on and both did little to no damage to either one. But it’s freakin’ clear that Hau’s Decidueye is clearly more trained. That’s why the two birds duked it out to a point of both of them being close to knocked out. But in the end, Nanu calls the battle for Decidueye because it got up first. AND ASH LOST!

…Or did he?

No, upon further inspection, ROWLET WAS FUCKING ASLEEP! God, no! No! Good fucking God, what were you writers thinking? You’re trolling us again, aren’t you? Ever since the Sinnoh League, you thought it was a good idea to troll the fucking audience. Like Tobias having another legendary or Davey winning with a fucking Eevee or Ash losing to Alain. You people are fucking with us!

Long story short, Ash and Rowlet get a second chance. They win the battle. Hau cries. Moving on!

NO, WE’RE NOT MOVING ON FROM THIS SHIT! WHO THE FUCK DECIDED THIS TO HAPPEN?! A lot of us fans are still sore over that retarded call back in the Kanto League where Squirtle falling asleep was a K.O. I can’t accept this, not after all the league battles Ash has had before this. Especially the last league against Tierno, Sawyer, and Alain! They are probably watching you and facepalming. Bonnie is laughing at you! Lysandre is calling you a dickhead from beyond the grave! Serena tore up a picture of Ash and went lesbian! Okay, that didn’t really happen. But this episode got me so fucking twisted I find myself eating thunder and shitting out lightening.

And now with Lana’s defeat by Guzma, we’re now in the final four. So…huh…um, new category! I know this is where I’m supposed to talk about the ending with the league, but I feel like I should talk about this.

GENDER AND LEAGUE PLACEMENT: Is it just me or are most competitors and even winners of these things majority male? It’s unknown who won the Kanto League. Johto went to some douchebag no one remembers. Hoenn was won by Tyson. Sinnoh went to Trollbias. Unova went to Davey. And Kalos went to NOT ASH…Alain! And even in the top 4 and 8 sometimes, it’s all men. I really don’t want to put the pussy hat on and claim unfairness to a show I’ve been watching for over 20 years, but…putting Lana up against someone we all know is going to go to the semi-finals…come on man! I probably should have questioned some gender stuff especially with that princess crap in Kalos where it was most, if not all female. But Pokemon Leagues are usually coed! It’s just that prior to Lana, the only other girls I remember competiting in past leagues were Katie from AG and Astrid from XY. Maybe I’m making too much out of it.

BACK TO THE LEAGUE: Thankfully the semi-finals fights were great (compared to that bullshit Hau/Ash match I wish would die). Gladion and Kiawe bro-downed with their match! Guzma learned the hard way of being defeated in the semi-finals by a twerp. Guzma, you may be older than Ash, but Ashy-boy has been defeated so many times in this position it’s not even funny. So the finals were a three-on-three match between Ash and Gladion.

Ash got some good traction with his newly evolved pokemon Melmetal. Gladion was able to put his father’s pokemon, Zoroark into good use. And there was even a double knockout near the end. But somehow, we knew it would go back to a finale of Lycanroc vs. Lycanroc. And this was a nail-bitter. Who the heck knows who was going to end up victorious?

…Actually, a certain publication leaked the result three days before the episode aired…

I fucking hate the internet sometimes.

So Ash won…

*CRAZY-ASS APPLAUSE TIME*

You’d think Jesus “Tap Dancing” Christ rose from the dead with how crazy this was. The internet lost it because after the Kalos League’s close-call and Sinnoh’s B.S. match against the legendaries, they saw this as Ash’s staple in becoming a Pokemon Master. Whatever…

WHAT NEXT?!: Actually, much like what happened after Alain won the Pokemon League, the ceremony was quickly interrupted by the appearance of the gluttenous Ultra Beast, Guzzlord. And it took the power of everyone’s Z-Crystal to get rid of this beast. However, at the end of this powerful battle, Ash and everyone else learned a shocking secret of Professor Kukui.

Kukui is really Alola’s most famous battler, Masked Royal!

Well now that the Delcatty’s out of the bag, might as well have Kukui actually go up against Ash in a six-on-six match. NOW THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! This was one hell of a match, spanning over three episodes (it was that bad-ass). Kukui’s got one hell of a line-up featuring pokemon from nearly every region. Now because of a certain battle, seeing Rowlet take out one of Kukui’s finest kinda pisses me off. But the biggest fights came from Incenaroar and Torracat. Because they fought, not one, not two, but THREE times! And their bout ended with Ash’s Torracat evolving and a double knockout! OH MY GOD, HOW COULD THIS GET ANY BETTER?!

In comes Tapu-Koko! He said, “Fuck your sixth pokemon, Kukui. I wanna battle this boy I’ve been stalking since 2016!” Yeah, we get one major fight between one of the Tapus and Ash’s Naganadel and Pikachu (and whatever pokemon that isn’t dead) and believe it or not, Ash won! He defeated all of Kukui’s pokemon AND Tapu-Koko. He’s seriously out-doing everything he’s ever done from XYZ! Even going above and beyond with Pikachu by doing a solid reference to Dragon Ball Z…You all know what they referenced.

So Ash, you just won the Pokemon League, you defeated your mentor, you took out one of the island deities, what are you gonna do next?

I’M GOING TO DISNEYLA…PALLET TOWN!

Yeah, I would choose that too Ash. Only for different and hornier reasons! Actually, Ash gave a lot of thought to what was next. Not only him, but everybody in his class! The biggest one of course was Lillie as she has been reading up on her father’s old journals and trying to figure out that gift he left her as a baby before he disappeared. I still can’t believe he got her quite a rare pokemon like Magerna. But Magerna has been a husk until Lillie took care of it and now it’s freakin’ mobil. Back to Ash, it wasn’t really until he fought Kiawe in a post-match fight that he buckled down on what he wants to do next. And I think Olivia mentioning traveling kinda sparked Ash for his next journey.

And wouldn’t you know it, Team Rocket at the same time gets word from Giovanni to pack their shit up and return to Kanto. Mimikyu in its satanic fashion tries to take out Pikachu one last time. But it failed, almost drowned in the water, and was then SAVED by the very Pokemon it’s tried to kill the last 145 episodes. Okay, vendetta over, later bitches. Team Rocket ended up leaving Maernie and Mimikyu in the dead of night. And Bewear promised to watch after them in their absence and gave us something we haven’t seen since this show began…a proper blast off! Team Rocket blasted off once more. I’m feeling quite nostalgic because it’s been a while.

Hey, I just realized. What happened to Jigglypu-

WHO CARES!

Okay then, I’ll probably see it in another 10 years.

Lillie decided to go off with her mother and brother to travel. Lusamine handed over her responsibilities to Rotomdex. And on the day of Lillie’s departure, she ends up almost in the same fashion as Serena’s goodbye (but thankfully we’re on a boat and she can’t do any last-minute smooches). Lillie remembered all that Ash has done for her and how much she’s grown, so she gives him a very earnest “Thank You”. Now for Ash’s goodbye to his host family! Now I’ve pretty much heard and seen the internet cherish this cute bond between Kukui, Burnet, and Ash. And yeah, it’s pretty genuine! Whenever we get an opening scene of them in Kukui’s home, they’re usually doing something family-ish. And they’re definitely going to miss that! Poor Burnet was even crying!

On Ash’s flight back to Pallet Town, he looks out the window and sees his friends giving him one final farewell as they fly through the skies with their partner pokemon.

In the aftermath we see, Sophocles leaving to go with his cousin, Mallow’s older brother returning home, Shaymin transforming into its flying form (yes, flying away leaving Mallow), Kiawe is doing some training with Olivia, Lana traveling with her father to fish for a mythical pokemon, Hau taking on Nanu in a grand trial, Team Skull just hanging there, Bewear looking after Maernie and Mimikyu, Lusamine traveling with the kids, and something that shocked the shit out of me! Even though I called it in the back of my mind!

We close out the episode with Kukui and Burnet sitting together and...

WHAT THE WHAT?!

NANI?

NANI THE FUCK?

IS THAT A BABY BUMP?! It is. It freakin’ is! God I hope Ash didn’t walk in on them having sex. Don’t be silly Medea, they probably conceived this child when Ash was either training or having a sleepover. Truthfully, I say they did the nasty when Ash, Kiawe, and Sophocles spent the night in the woods training.

OOH, BETTER IMAGE! They did roleplaying during sex and Kukui wore the Masked Royal mask! Just let me have this moment guys. I really enjoy frolicking in my gutter mind!

Oh and closing message, “and your dreams!”

I seriously hope the English dub keeps the end credits to this. They have a lousy reputation of skimping on things like that. They even skipped the photo scene at the end of BW. Please for crap’s sake, keep the ending scenes!

Yes, in the back of my mind I thought Sun and Moon would be radical and give us a pregnant Burnet. I knew this would happen sometime after that wedding episode a year and a half ago. But then a few weeks before the Sun and Moon finale, I wound up dreaming about Kiawe’s mother pregnant and she was wearing the exact same dress Burnet is wearing in the final scene. Sometimes my dreams can be fucking spooky and spot-on at the same time.

WOW-EE-WOWEE-WOW-WOW! Okay, um. Some thoughts! This anime gave me such a huge slump during a lot of it. I cannot lie. There was a long period of time where I was just disinterested in Sun and Moon. And seeing how other people were (especially those who were staunch XYZ fans) yeah I can see that. One big, annoying factor was once again, the animation. Yeah, you whiny bitches complaining BW Ash was the worst? You owe that one an apology! Because this Ash looks nothing like the past 5 Ash’s! And they tried this comedic style that won on some parts and failed in other departments. Though, spot-on whenever we get a Jojo’s reference! There were episodes that were just absolute MEH. And this is coming from the same person who sat through all the fillers in Johto, MORE THAN ONCE! And I had some severe reservations about seeing a main cast this huge trying to get some character growth. I had absolutely no expectations for anyone and thought they were gonna serve as dead weight (except for Kiawe and Lana).

Once again, I’m glad to see my expectations are blown away. There has been massive character development and they managed to hit all the main characters and even some of the minor ones. Lillie especially has blossomed throughout the series. As a girl who was afraid of Pokemon, I am impressed at how far she’s come. She was able to overcome her fear of pokemon eventually, hatch a pokemon from an egg, excel the power of Z-moves, bring back to life a rare/mythical pokemon, and even make it to the top 16 of the Alolan League. While Lana is still my best girl of this season, Lillie is definitely a wonder to behold. Sophocles, I had the littlest of hope or care for him. I still am not a fan of him really, but when you see this boy overcome certain anxieties, hurdles, and one sad moment involving the meteorite pokemon, you see he’s a pretty solid character.

And then there’s Mallow…Dammit! So I just realized as I’m wrapping up Sun and Moon.

One of the biggest things I saw was “Family”. And seeing as Alola is a take on Hawaii and one of the biggest things people pride theirselves upon is family, this totally makes sense. In Sun and Moon, we saw a lot of different kinds of families. Small ones like Sophocles. Bigger ones like Kiawe and Lana. Families that have had their own share of heartache like Mallow and Lillie. Ones that end up starting like Kukui and Burnet! Hala and Hau’s little relationship. And even families that are reunited like Bewear and Stuffel! These particular moments and episodes were ones that touched me in a way only Miyazaki can reach. Particularly Mallow’s story! I already mentioned this in the saddest moment category, but Mallow with her deceased mother is one of the best character growth episodes in Pokemon history. Up until that point, we’ve seen Mallow pretty perky, a good cook, and a supportive friend, especially to Ash, Lana, and Lillie. But then we get hit with this one story that no one expected. And now, let’s discuss Ash in this part! We got to see Ash settle in with a second family life with Kukui and Burnet. I mean let’s face it, all the other places Ash traveled he would roam from town to town. Here in Alola, it’s like Kukui was the father he never had and Burnet was like a second mother. And I suppose they felt like Ash was a son to them. So quite fitting they wound up having a baby after his departure.

And it wasn’t just the humans that have grown, but their pokemon too! Many of Ash and his friends’s pokemon were able to grow and shatter all expectations. Two of Ash’s pokemon especially deserve that praise and that’s Lycanroc and Incenaroar. Back when Lycanroc was a Rockruff, he always strived to get stronger. And in later episodes, it looked up to other Lycanroc like Olivia’s and Gladion’s. Then it evolved and it’s been quite the journey to try and train this doggo to it’s full potential. And because this is one of Ash’s pokemon, this has gotta be a one-of-a-kind pokemon (dusk form). Well Lycanroc has overcome some tough obstacles (yes, including bearing through getting dirty) and went on to be one of Ash’s top pokemon.

Litten, THANKFULLY didn’t have a dickhead trainer abusing him like many of Ash’s other fire-type pokemon. But Litten’s story was far from perfect as it was a stray cat pokemon living on the streets with an old Stoutland. And Ash took in Litten after Stoutland passed away. Litten was a pretty decent member of Ash’s team, but definitely got the fire in his eyes when he saw Masked Royal and Incenaroar. That encouraged Litten throughout the series to get stronger. Even leading to one of the best fights during Kukui and Ash’s match! Good doggo, good kitty!

Oh yeah, probably should talk about the battles! Unlike the other gyms up to this point, Ash went through Grand Trials (just like you would in the game). Except Ash really didn’t do that many of those mini trials since Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, and Sophocles were his classmates and not giving out tests! But Ash still wound up battling the big kahunas like Hala, Olivia, Nanu, and Hapu. And in the old Ash fashion, there were battles he won like a champ, ones where he’d have to try again, and ones where he got supremely lucky. Yeah, that Ash vs. Hapu match was such bullshit. But I’d still take that match over Ash vs. Hau in the Alolan League!

I will NEVER get over that match. Yeah aside from that travesty, a lot of the Pokemon League matches were pretty stellar, even the ones not involving Ash. I really enjoyed Sophocles vs. Kiawe and the Lana vs. Mallow match.

LET’S LOOK BACK AT MY HIGH HOPES: At the end of Pokemon XY, I made a nice list of things I would like to see. Did any of my high hopes come to fruition? Let’s see…

First of all, NO, I DID NOT SEE MY ANIME HUSBAND! For fuck’s sake Pokemon! If Snorlax exists at the Oak lab, Tracey Sketchit should too. They both came from the same arc. But NO! He’s not at the lab and doesn’t even get a mention. That is messed up! I don’t know if this is because they couldn’t get Tomokazu Seki to stop playing Gilgamesh for a second to come back or they’re trying to distance themselves from the Orange Islands as much as possible, or if they just FORGOT his existence, but I’m not digging this. No, Medea hates this with a holy fucking passion.

Old characters returning under this new style! Yeah, it happened. I think I was only a fan of how the women looked, so Misty and Delia looked okay to me. I just wasn’t a fan of Professor Oak and Brock. Although, kudos to the anime for having Brock take his shirt off and show off his six-pack. DAMN BOY! The animation ended up staying the same throughout the series, but I managed to tolerate/muscle through it.

I know I forgot to write this part, but I really wanted Kukui to remain single for the series. Yeah, that fell at the waist-side! Kukui was single…but then he got married. Okay, I can accept it. That was the cutest proposal, I have to admit that. And I was howling when I saw pregnant Burnet at the end. So alls well that ends well!

Let’s see, Lusamine wasn’t voiced by Miki Itou like I wanted. Then again, this Lusamine wasn’t a psycho bitch. Although kudos for getting Nobuhiko Okamato voicing Gladion. I am forever happy with that outcome.

Did I get more Clefables? FUCK YEAH, I DID! Holy shit, I forgot Lusamine had a Clefable in the games and didn’t even think the anime was going to keep that, but HOLY SHIT THEY DID AND I’M SO HAPPY! Not only that but we were able to see Clefable every so often. It’s so adorable. I just wanna hug her!

Lillie’s egg of course wasn’t Cosmog, it was Alolan Vulpix. Cosmog can’t be hatched. It just magically appears. Hey, cute choice though!

Did Ash catch a psychic pokemon? Uhhhhhhh…no! Still no psychic type.

Did I see Wicke and Olivia, fuck yeah I did! Wicke is adorable especially when she bosses Faba around. My only thing with Olivia is that, I wish the anime didn’t make her into a clumsy oaf the whole time. My God, she tripped more times than Bianca did during Best Wishes. That’s sad! Now her being the object of Brock’s eye, that I wasn’t expecting. I’m wondering if Brock will keep in contact with Olivia or if he’s moved onto another booty-call of the day.

Overall, it was a bumpy start for me to get into Sun and Moon. But it wasn’t until we got to important things like the Aether Foundation, Mallow’s mother, and Guzma’s debut that got me back fully invested. I know it’s damn near impossible to convince staunch XYZ fans to watch this, but give it a shot for the stories. The animation is just so undoable after what XY has given us, but still.

Currently, most (if not all) episodes of Sun and Moon dubbed will be available on Hulu, Netflix, Pokemon TV, and Disney XD. Yeah, no one has gotten around to giving us legal subtitled episodes sad to say. Here’s hoping Disney XD will continue holding onto the Pokemon license as they happen to be the ONLY one that literally has all episodes available. On the channel, they still kinda restrict themselves to only playing the current season, but sometimes we get lucky with the movies.

MORE HIGH HOPES: Okay, new high hopes for the new Pokemon series, Pokemon…um, 2019? Seriously guys, what’s up with this cryptic-ass series?

*Signs that Tracey Sketchit exists. Just show him at Oak’s lab or somewhere in this series. That’s all I ask. I will even swallow my pride and allow him to be at the Waterflower Slut Brigade in Cerulean. Just please, for the love of Arceus, show him to me. That flash in the 20th movie does not settle me. Give him to me, now! Don’t care how, I WANT IT NOW! I am the Veruca Salt of seeing Tracey again.

*Aside from Tracey, and seriously show him to me already…If at possible, update on May and Iris. Everyone else can go fuck off! These two deserve an update if Ash is doing this around the world adventure with his new boy-toy Gou. I know it may be difficult to get their voice actors back as I’m sure Aoi Yuuki’s schedule is insane and Kaori has an illness preventing her from voicing. Still! Something from those two…AND ONLY THOSE TWO FEMALES! I’m sick of Misty popping in without giving us what we want. Dawn and Serena need to go to the Pokemon version of Antartica until 2030. And unless Mallow, Lana, and Lillie make a shocking discovery, I don’t want to see them for a few years.

*CLEFABLES! Okay, yeah, that goes without saying!

*YAMPER or as I call him, Winston Corgles Ein Handbanana the Breadloaf must be seen at least once every two episodes.The opening theme doesn’t count. I want to see Winston Corgles Ein Handbanana the Breadloaf.

*Eventually spend some time in Galar and fight gym battles there. I know the Pokemon anime wants to take a sharp left turn into WTF territory, but sometimes don’t mess with the status quo and have Ash take on some gyms. Mmkay?!

*If Team Rocket and Giovanni really have to show up again, could we PLEASE finally get Ariana, Archer, Petrel, and Proton to be in the anime? Or as my friend calls them, the Stupid Sexy Rocket Execs!

*And while we’re at it, could we get an arc in this series where Ash goes to the Battle Tower in Sinnoh?

*Give James a Galarian Weezing.

*Rica Matsumoto must eventually sing an OP theme for this series. Goes without saying!

*Give Ash a Psychic type.

*I know nobody ages in this show, but please don’t keep Burnet pregnant forever. Also, if Ash decides to visit Kukui and Burnet again, I wanna see their baby.

Final category (I promise)!

IN MEMORIUM: I would like to close my review to Pokemon: Sun & Moon to talk about a certain voice that has been at the center of the Pokemon anime from day one. That was Unshou Ishizuka. If you watched the Japanese version of Pokemon, chances are you have heard this man’s voice in any episode you watch. Whether as Professor Oak or the narrator! Not only those two, but voiced Alder in the Black/White series, Samson Oak in the Sun/Moon series, several versions of the Pokedex, Magikarp Salesman, and many notable pokemon including Misty’s Gyarados, Cilan’s Stunfisk, Dawn’s Mamoswine, Ash’s Muk, Brock’s Onix/Steelix, and even Tracey’s Scyther. In August 2018, he passed away from Esophagus Cancer. So losing someone of this caliber is a huge hit to Pokemon.

I didn’t start watching the Japanese version religiously until 2006 (right around the time the dub murdered eardrums). But I was able to hear him as Onix and Gyarados early on because they had the same voice throughout the entire series run in English. But I had a lot of fun listening to him as Professor Oak when I switched to the Japanese version.  Not to mention his other roles outside the Pokemon series including Mr. Satan in the later Dragon Ball series and Grandpa Joestar on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I seriously miss him. May he rest in peace.

[deiiawrites]

image

pairing: implied milo and leon

rating: pg-13

word count: 1,027

so I wrote this at 2 am the night after the direct on impulse and while I’d like to make it far more detailed I’m too lazy for that so hopefully y’all enjoy what I got

“Are you seeing anyone?”

“Pardon?”

“Have you been seeing anyone recently?”

Leon blinks. The reporter flashes him a sweet smile as if she didn’t just ask a question completely unrelated to the discussion at hand. One moment he’s recalling his latest match with a powerful trainer that’s migrated from Unova. Suddenly, she wants to know if he’s in love. It throws him off briefly, but he doesn’t let his composure falter. He shakes his head lightly in response. “No. I’m not.”

The reporter looks surprised. Leon doesn’t understand why until she opens her mouth again.

“Really? But you’re so handsome!”

He flushes, giving a sheepish laugh. He was never good at handling compliments when it came to appearance despite his confidence in everything else otherwise.

“What about that redhead girl we’ve seen you around the region with?” The reporter teases with a childish glee.

Sonia? He’s snorts, and, unable to help himself, goes into a small laughing fit startling the journalist. Seriously? But he can’t say he’s surprised. Everyone thought he and his best friend would fall victim to the Hallmark trope; that they’d fall in love and have multiple, tinier versions of themselves running around behind a classic white picket fence. That is until she came out. The paparazzi doesn’t seem to be aware though. He decides to correct them.

It takes a moment for Leon to clear his throat, and he swiftly dispels the mountain of rumors that were growing all too quickly. Rumors aren’t his thing. They don’t work with his image.

“I’m going to assume you mean Sonia.”

“Ooo. Her name’s Sonia?”

“She’s a lesbian.”

The reporter’s face falls. She looks disappointed. Leon assumes she wanted to be the first to get some non-existent scoop on his personal life. She wouldn’t be the first to try. Having reached his mid-20s it seemed as though everyone was suddenly oddly obsessed to see him ‘settle down.’ To ‘Start a family.’ He’d managed to dodge the questions at the start of his career when he was slightly younger, but it was rapidly becoming more frequent. He doesn’t get it, why everyone is so desperate to know when he’s going to get married. Leon’s got at least 50 years left. Why should he slow down now? It was annoying. Almost aggravating. But he’d never let that on. It wasn’t a part of his image and his image has fans to please.

The reporter recovers and offers another thin smile and he’s starting to feel uncomfortable. The lady is quiet for a few moments when Leon assumes the interview is over and that she’s preparing to close when she drops another question.

“Any gym leaders?”

Her question makes sense, oddly enough. Leon spends a lot of time with gym leaders. More so, he’s sure, than champions in other regions where the leagues are not based in stadiums and crafted carefully to cater to the masses. In fact, he’s pretty sure every league other than Galar only require mandatory meetings during emergencies. Galar has one once a month, in which every leader and elite four member gather. His manager says the meetings are meant to promote the “growth of the league” but it’s really about planning to gain more sponsors and viewers. The dreadful meetings have allowed him to become well acquainted with pretty much everyone but a few have struck a close chord with him.

Specifically Milo.

Milo is in every sense of the word, an angel. A farmer from a small town in Unova, his charming accent is so sickly sweet it gives moomoo ice cream a run for it’s money. He’s built like a bewear, muscles sculpted carefully from years of hauling hay and herding tauros from dawn till dusk. His soft spoken demeanor and friendly eyes are inviting. His tends to his pokémon like a mother would. The first type Leon saw Milo coo at his eldegoss Leon’s heart nearly burst from the sound. He honestly didn’t think he could appreciate Milo more than he did in that moment until he received one of his hugs. Milo’s hugs are shockingly gentle and incredibly warm; it’s like being wrapped up in a sweater stitched in a wooloo’s fur while sitting next to a fireplace. Leon has never been to Alola but be imagines the feeling he got from that embrace is what it’s like to receive a flower crown from a comfey.

‘Shit.’

Leon feels his skin heating up just thinking about the man and it’s hard to maintain eye contact with the journalist as he lies through his teeth.

“No.” He hopes that his darker complexion hides the flush in his cheeks long enough for him to escape. “We’re like a family.”

He can see it in her eyes. She doesn’t buy it, and he internally begins to panic. Leon’s not ready to confess his god forsaken feelings; admitting he likes one of his coworkers nonetheless is just too much. It would cause a social media frenzy and a new influx of paparazzi he isn’t sure he could handle this time. He’s sick of these types of reporters; ones that dig like a Durant for information without regard for anyone’s privacy. She’s about to comment again and Leon braces himself for the new set questions in which he’ll have to lie again when off to the side one of the sound crew motions to cut. She’s out of time.

“Oh alright! I’ll stop pestering you now. Good luck with your next match!”

‘Thank Zacian.’

He walks away hoping that his fib wasn’t brutally obvious on camera. That’s not the kind of attention he needs right now giving his first scheduled overseas battle around the corner. Leon decides it’s time to train for it, and pushes the thoughts of Milo out of his mind. He’s got sponsors to gain. Fans to please. A brother he can’t disappoint.

Focus on the battle. He thinks. Just focus on myself. No love. No Milo. Just focus on myself.

Everything else is just a distraction. A champion doesn’t do distractions. They aim to please, and please he will.

Leon’s got an image to maintain. Whether he wants to or not.

[maxskulline]

Max and the others stood out like a splotch of dirt on this ark of blinding white marble, synthetic perfection cut into the oceans of Alola, a polished diamond where endangered Pokémon frolicked and flourished. All around her, sterile coats busied about, in preparation for something big. ‘Somethin’ really great is going to happen, Maxie, you wouldn’t believe it if I told ya’, he’d grunted under his breath just mere nights ago. She was clinging to his enthusiasm up to the very moment she had last set foot on Aether Paradise.

At first, Aether Foundation dismantled her faith with a projection of Paradise to the outside world, a world where Team Skull had no place in. Something this perfect wasn’t real, couldn’t be fucking real. And yet they’re all here, lined up in perfect formation against the front of that perfect, polished mansion where the perfect President was locked up under top security. They’re all speckles of dust on this diamond. Dirty little pawns under the command of a blinded king, who stood under the control of a self-proclaimed queen. There’s no faith left to hold on to, and maybe that’s why she felt like the black sheep of the herd.

No, it’s way more than that. It’s not just the loss of faith in a good cause. It’s the way her belief was crushed under the horrors she wished she had never seen. Now, an invisible force tore at her insides, beckoning the logical side of her brain to reason with her undying loyalty for the pack and it's blinded alpha. Tremors shook Max to the bone. Nothing could possibly erase her memories of all these poor Pokémon. 

Never in her life would she have thought the puppeteers of this paradise to be so utterly sinister. Sketchy at the most, yes, and certainly untrustworthy, but downright evil? Just what had happened to all the countless of Pokémon Team Skull had traded over to the Aether Foundation - Pokemon she was responsible for, and cared for. Pokemon she had handed over with good intention. She'd send them straight into the hands of this psychotic bitch, doomed them, possibly killed them.

The wrongness of it all grew into such an urgent itch that Max, at last, broke free from her position among all the other good, obedient grunts. Begging that her heart won't fail her now, several multi-coloured heads turned when she crossed the avenue and headed straight towards Lusamine's mansion. A scenic moment if she were the heroine of a movie, whose resolve would grow with every step, but this wasn’t a movie and Max wanted to die when Guzma’s attention snatched her. It’s all thanks to her Marowak that the grunt kept on moving. His presence by her side, the reassuring nudge of his muzzle to her palm, that’s why she did this in the first place. 

Under closer inspection, Guzma looked more eccentric than usual, and it felt like currents of raw electricity buzzed from his body in waves. Under the piercing ice of his stare, she barely dared to challenge him. But someone needed to try and reason with him - someone who shared a connection with the oh so hated boss. 

Guzma assumed a cocky position when she stepped into his space. To Max, those crossed arms and that wide-legged stance resembled a cornered dog more than anything else. Why else would a man of his size need to make himself look even bigger? Guzma was scared shitless. He wouldn't admit it, ever, but the Prez terrified the shit out of him too. Good. She finally exhaled some of that pent up tension, comforted by the knowledge that the Boss may be more aware of the danger they're currently put under. With any luck, trying to reason with him could end up better than she initially thought. Or would it?

“Boss”, fuck it, Guzma knows, doesn’t he? His eyes dare her to speak up, made Max swallow against the knot in her throat. Another gentle nudge from Kili was all Max needed to find her voice. More heads turned and tried to pick up on the hiss she presses through her teeth. 

“Guzma, how can you fuckin’ stand for what’s happenin’ here? You, of all the people I know? I mean, you saw what she did, right? Why the fuck are we still here? Let this bitch do her shit alone. We can do our thing without her shitty money!” Something then dawned upon her. It’s hitting her like an ice brick, and it made her want to hit Guzma with a real brick. 

“You’re too fuckin’ far gone to see how fucked up this whole crap is, aren’t you?”