#pokémon giga leak

[gigifluidcat]

Tumblr Pokémon fans right now be like "B-B-But it's just Old Mythology! It was normal back then! Did you READ that Mythology?!"

Yes. I did. I read Grimms Fairy Tales before, I've listened to Ancient Greek stories and have done projects on them, and I went to Church very often. That does NOT change the fact that Mary being 13 when giving birth to Jesus was fucking weird.

[glfry]

THE FIRST CONFIRMED AUTISTIC POKÉMON CHARACTER IS CYRUS. AND IT HAPPENED THROUGH THE GIGA LEAK

[xxtc-96xx]

Any thoughts on the Giga leak

A lot of leaks turn out to be fake when it comes to Pokémon but I also want to know what company HASN’T been hacked this year

[aquatoon22]

In Defense of Typhlosion

Now, I'm sure you all have heard the story of Typhlosion in the Giga leak already, so I won't waste time summarizing. What I will waste time on is stating I have no great passion for Typhlosion, it has a great design and I get why so many love the line, but I'm team Water type for life. So when I take the side of the Pokémon here, know it is from a rational place.

But before I give my argument, lets clear some facts. The story of the (cough) (cough) "active" Typhlosion, as well as all the other similar stories in the Giga leak (which aren't even canon, and should not be taken as canon) take heavy inspiration from Yokai folklore an other ancient fairytales. Typhlosion is itself inspired by the Mujina, a badger yokai with the ability to make will-o-wisps and shapeshift. That last power is important as Typhlosion shape shifted to assault the girl in the leaked story.

Maybe you see where I'm going with this, how could a mono-fire Typhlosion ever SHAPESHIFT LIKE A YOKAI in an ANCIENT FOLK STORY? Because it wasn't a mono-fire type Typlosion! It was THIS THING!!

Sorry if you like Hisuian Typhlosion, but doesn't this just LOOK like the type of creature that would kidnap and r*pe a child? Whenever someone online posts about the Typhlosion story, they always use vanilla Typhlosion as a reference. But we shouldn't besmirch the good name of this wonderful fire-type Pokémon, when the real culprit would obviously be it's ancient, extinct predecessor.

[boredomincarnate16]

So, I was questioning what people meant by those Typhlosion jokes in regards to that Gamefreak giga leak. And now I know... So here's the context: https://x.com/GireumNewTown/status/1845444298487234600

And uh, gotta say, the Typhlosion here commits like, 3 major felonies, and they say Pokémon is for kids! So like, brace yourself, it gets real screwed.

[blueikeproductions]

So the Pokémon Giga Leak happened and the thing that stuck out to me was leaked planning documents for HZ and various separate animation projects. I don’t want to discuss the leaks that show the future road map to HZ’s ending though, it’s the preproduction stuff that strikes my fancy.

I’ve been very upfront in not liking HZ, as the plot and characters never felt right for the main line anime. They felt more suited for Twilight Wings type stuff, and apparently I wasn’t far off.

One of the earliest phases was a movie, apparently they’ve been trying to push forward with a “movie universe reboot” post Pokémon Coco in an attempt to bring back lapsed adult fans, but nothing has gotten off the ground. There were rumors prior to this leak of a Liko movie, but nothing ever surfaced, so I’m guessing leakers found scraps of the original movie pitch and went wild.

That it was originally intended as a movie makes more sense, as the continual stretching out its main plot beats across the usual three year anime life span doesn’t work. It’s the same problem Digimon Tri had, unnaturally stretching out and waffling on its Meicoomon plot, annoying and confusing fans until they finally decided to kill her off as was originally intended. (Apparently the writers wound up liking Meicoomon and didn’t WANT to kill her off, creating one of the problems.)

As such the Terapagos plot and the general treasure hunt/Castle in the Sky vibe it has fits a movie plot far better. I’m not super sure if the Six Heroes were involved in this phase, but they’d make the script too bloated if so.

The concept then became the basis of the anime instead, but during development it was intended to continue using Ash as the main protagonist, lining up with previous rumors I’d heard from Japanese fans. These rumors stated Ash was to go to Paldea and meet up with two students, some prototype versions of Liko and Roy. It would appear in this version of the story Ash was intended to remain business as usual but late in development he was cut, intending to start fresh instead.

Taking it at face value, as HZ is functionally a continuation of JN’s globe trotting gimmick, I wonder if Ash would’ve taken a break from battling and just become an Adventurer. The original story map didn’t include battling in the Gym challenges, with the school arc we got being the result of executive meddling, but if they kept using Ash, would they have included the Gym challenge anyway… Also Amethio’s early rivalry with Friede makes far more sense if you put Ash in Friede’s place, which makes me think Amethio was conceived with Ash in mind, and is why he doesn’t really vibe well with Liko and Friede: he was never meant to be THEIR rival.

Also a big complaint is the lack of capturing other Pokemon, and how fans keep insisting everyone needs to get six Pokemon, but the show has stayed consistent so far on only keeping two Pokemon each. So does that mean in Ash’s case he would’ve had Pikachu and a spare? With Friede being Ash’s stand in, it stands to reason Ash might’ve had Charizard too, but with ATBAPM seeing Pidgeot return, I wonder if the original intent was Ash using Pidgeot as his secondary.

I mean it makes sense, long time fans have wanted Pidgeot to return, & the old children’s chapter books in America had two original stories that saw Ash keeping Pidgeot and using it, throwing a bone way back then. In an adventure setting, Ash riding on Pidgeot and using it more extensively to help with Explorer and Team Rocket stuff would be a great way to reestablish it. Also with Ash having obtained Mega Evolution, and Mega Evolution returning once more in the anime anyway for ZA synergy, we could’ve gotten Mega Pidgeot ideally. Ash’s removal is still weird, as lining up with other interviews and comments, it sounds like they intend to bring him back anyway. Some writers have apparently said outside the leak they were considering bringing him back for HZ, confusing the matter further. Adding on to this, despite Ash and other familiar characters not being present, the leaks confirm Liko’s thing not only is still happening in the Ash anime, but it actually happens in-universe immediately after JN. (This leads to a minor technicality, as ATBAPM is treated as its own thing, so does that mean Ash’s Latias story happens alongside it or it hasn’t happened yet?) The notes also mention an idea to include Iris at some point, but she’s older… That doesn’t really make sense with the provided time frame, but a couple year time skip is referenced after the kids capture the Six Heroes, so maybe Iris appears after that? It’s not clarified, nor does it help that Brock appears in the document but doesn’t seem to be included in this guest appearance otherwise.

Anyway Ash’s departure is still strange as it’s the result of the staff having waffled for years on continuing to use him, and they decided to finally put their foot down. Ok that’s fine. Then they decide to not definitively call this the end, avoiding finality like language, leaving it wide open for Ash to come back. So… the staff was wanting to move on for years, finally decided to, but plan to bring him back anyway, negating … all of this.

Then why not just keep him? Ash is the mascot alongside Pikachu and heavily ingrained in pop culture like Optimus Prime. It honestly feels like with this continued waffling, they’ve unintentionally set up Liko to be the Rodimus Prime martyr for if and when Ash returns. Whether any force in the universe can stop Ash remains to be seen. Also that makes it worse for Liko, as if Ash does guest star in HZ, it’ll suck all the oxygen out of Liko as fans will be far more invested in what HE’S doing, negating the whole point of getting people invested in a new character. And they know it!

This feeds into pry HZ’s chief problem: apparently the show’s unusual chaotic story structure is the result of the anime staff studying fandom reactions week to week, with the show being driven by that alone instead of the plot or characters.

-rubs temples-

Ok there’s a reason the Ash formula worked, and after using it for 25+ years you’re pretty much married to it. If you have to constantly guide the new show based on fan feedback only that tells me, coupled with Ash in the back door, that they had zero faith in this new idea, and the continued waffling has led to the show’s subpar production and performance. Even Game Freak staff in leaked notes have expressed dissatisfaction with the new direction, admitting it’s bad and confusing, with the main plot being sluggish. They also pointed out how little stuff like the Titans in SV are being used, if at all. Pokémon is a toyetic anime like it or not, you kinda have to properly advertise and use new Pokemon to get kids and veterans into them more. That’s why several of Ash’s and Team Rocket’s Pokemon are fondly remembered, vs here where the show outright admits in universe they completely forgot about Roy’s Kilowattrel.

This bizarre behind the scenes drama might be why other animated projects that were supposed to be out by now seem to be paused or outright cancelled until either another leak or official announcements say otherwise.

This loops back to the movie problem, where the only Parallel Ash movie that did well was I Choose You, while Coco and Power of Us shunted Ash to a supporting role and the new cast and stories didn’t wow audiences. Neither of these movies are fondly spoken of, or even remembered, with even in post COVID, Coco seems to have been forgotten entirely.

The aforementioned push to capture lapsed ADULT fans lined up with some chatter I’ve heard previously where TPC seems only interested in targeting us, and not kids. Which is utterly ridiculous because kids are still super into Pokemon 20+ years later. I can’t walk by families in stores without seeing some kids wearing Pokemon clothing or buying merch. I over heard one boy sad he couldn’t find any Pokemon Journeys books he was looking for, while a girl was looking for Pokemon books at the library, and the library just threw out its well read Ash themed books.

Like are Japanese kids not invested as much anymore? Is that why they’re targeting adults? I guarantee that’s not gonna work in the long run going by Digimon and Transformers’ own current struggles to remain relevant with children and its own fickle audiences.

That’s where the other adult oriented pitches come in. After HZ was shunted into being an anime, they tried again with a pitch about cyber bulling and suicide, something that sounds more like a Digimon plot for their Adventure sequel films. The concept art sees a girl riding Pidgeot in what looks like a virtual space in an upside down world being chased by Aerodactyl pouring out of a cyber portal. Like replace the characters with Sora, Birdramon and Pteranomon, you have something that works. For DIGIMON.

They tried again with a more grounded plot about a teenage boy investigating a mystery related to (a shockingly violent) Mew, with a sequel tease involving an ominous Mewtwo observing events. This was fleshed out more and seems otherwise completed script wise, but it’s stuck in development hell. Having read it, it reads like the live action Detective Pikachu somewhat, and others who’ve read it have said the same. It also sounds kind of … boring. I don’t know if Ryan Reynolds would help here but it’d be a start.

It seems both films were only intending to use Kanto Pokémon, not helping complaints of Kanto pandering, but despite this, a new Pokémon seems to have been toyed with, as an unidentified dog like Pokemon crops up in the cyber world concept art.

The only other noteworthy thing is a 12 episode “all ages” kids anime intended for Netflix, but other than the Twilight Wings studio attached to it, there’s no character or plot details. It seems to be in an unknown status, which doesn’t bode well.

Until something official comes out about any of these projects, I’m leaning towards them all being cancelled due to creative differences.

So what’s my take away.

Removing Ash was the worst decision they made and I think. like with Hasbro and Good Boi Megatron, they’re slowly realizing they done goofed. Liko, Roy and Dot SHOULD have worked and on paper their story is interesting, but the writers just keep messing up. Maybe just get new writers/director, crack a whip, I don’t really know what to suggest here. The new kids haven’t been treated well at all in both ends and that really sucks.

Talk of letting him return and keeping the anime within the same universe seems to be a fail safe to do so if they need to. Continued fan demand/preference for Ash dominates especially in the US, where children’s books and activity books being published now in 2024, as of typing, are STILL Ash, going back and adapting later Journeys material. Some reports, anecdotal & recent pre Giga Leak, suggest the US heavily influences what Pokémon does, and with America side stepping Liko in merch right now in favor of Ash might guarantee a return. Emphasis on MIGHT, but TPC is fully aware of the demand, and increasing backlash at Liko’s character development, as of the school arc, isn’t endearing her to anyone still.

I think the situation should be as follows, and some past stuff implies it, that despite being in the same universe, HZ shouldn’t use Ash or any of his friends.

At all.

That will further undermine the struggling HZ cast, and it’s far healthier to just let the Rising Volts ride off into the sunset; and going by what I’ve read and heard for their story map, eugh, let LDR have that dignity of riding off.

My current theory, based on the leaks and what we’ve seen before that, is if Ash returns full time, it’ll probably be Gen 10. That’s pry the best way to start clean with him again, and going by internal complaints, I wouldn’t be surprised if the anime stops the Journeys formula and returns full stop to the loose game adaption with any upcoming new gimmicks and Gym matches intact.

All attempts to start over fresh seem to be imploding, so swallow your pride, and just accept the fans and kids want Ash and all that entails back. You tried a new direction but couldn’t commit to it well and now the dirty laundry is out for everyone to see thanks to a phishing scam. If you don’t want to go back to Ash, I’d personally recommend getting the PokeToons team to pick a kid from their shorts like the Nidoran girl, and make a new main line anime based on that. People seem on board with PokeToons, so that’s a start.

But until something is officially announced, I’m leaning towards the next anime being a compromise: Ash, Dot & a new kid that’s technically the new lead but not really.

Because if TPC is aiming at us only now, then veterans have spoken and majority would rather have the immortal 10 year old back over what we’re currently getting. For now let’s let LDR ride off when their time comes peacefully, be it next year or the year after, and go from there.

Despite it all, there’s really no easy answer to this, all we can hope for in the context of the anime, is they figure out something that works, either being the familiar Ash or a new kid with a smoother introduction. We don’t know until they try something.

[manticxre]

Pokemon Verse for Inwoo! 

35 years ago a boy was born in the comfort of Celadon City, Kanto. The oldest of three, his father was a high ranking executive in Silph Co., and when his mother (who’d migrated to Alola to be with him) died due to an incident with a wild group of Shinx on Route 16, his father finally revealed his abusive nature by remarrying immediately and physically abusing the boy constantly as he grew up to groom his incompetent younger brother to take his place. 

After being assigned his first Pokémon, a Clefairy from the Celadon Game Corner that was barely worth the time or Coins put into it, Inwoo was pushed outside to start his own journey with nary a goodbye the moment he showed little interest in taking over his father’s business. In truth, Inwoo had been working subtly against him, even leaking information to Team Rocket in an attempt to curry favor with them and eventually was dispatched by them towards Ula’Ula Island of Alola in order to obtain relevant information and steal even more Pokémon. 

He’d settled down on the guise of being a tourist, and the kind Alolan folk barely bat an eyelid at him: but he started being plagued by strange dreams as a result, of a red bull-like beast who taunted him for how far he’d fallen and how they hadn’t expected the one they’d left a mark on to be as craven as he’d been. This drove Inwoo up the wall when nothing he researched told him anything of value, and armed with only his Clefairy (the only Pokémon who put up with his shifting, erratic temperament as his sanity dwindled over the years), dove into the mazelike desert of the Haina Ruins in a final bid to find out what exactly was tormenting him in this way-- 

Only to see the land spirit Tapu Bulu emerge from their hiding place and manifest themselves to condemn Inwoo for working against humanity, aiding in the destruction of those who’d worked hard to keep his world the way it’d been, and most of all, failing his mother’s legacy when he’d chosen to turn his back against the city and funnel information to those who would ruin her adopted city as well as the one she originated from with whatever he’d willingly given up to them. He was branded with the marks of the Pokemon on his shoulder blades with a Nature’s Madness, gaining insight but splintering his sanity even further from the chaotic experience. 

Inwoo now travels relentlessly through Alola and its surrounding regions, trying to undo every mistake he’d made thus far by sabotaging Team Rainbow Rocket’s takeover through faulty information and an uprising of the common folk with his companions: a peppy, Johtoian breeder named Dongshik and a stern Kantonian cop named Bokyung who’d tracked his misdeeds to Alola.  

His goal, eventually, is to prove that he is worthy of Tapu Bulu: if they’d known who his mother was, they’d have to recognise him eventually too. 

Inwoo’s Pokémon are as below-

Clefairy the Clefairy:

Moonblast | Minimize | Meteor Mash | Calm Mind 

Inwoo’s first Pokémon, who stuck through thick and thin with him. Purchased from the Celadon Game Corner illegitimately, her morals are about as murky as the master she recognises, and is even then a force to be reckoned with having followed her chaotic trainer for the longest time. 

Despite how rare Clefairies often are, people have returned Clefairy to Inwoo after realising how utterly unmanageable this particular one actually is. 

Krookodile the Krookodile:

Swagger | Throat Chop | Earthquake | Iron Tail 

The first thing Inwoo caught by himself after overcoming his incessant and aggressive need to be sufficient on only Clefairy, Krookodile was taken in as a Sandile and put through a strict training regime. Despite being taller than Clefairy, he sure as hell takes orders from the tiny Clefairy. 

Ampharos the Ampharos: 

Thunderbolt | Dragon Pulse | Signal Beam | Cotton Spore

A gift from his boyfriend Dongshik as a Mareep, which Inwoo was too annoyed to turn down. Absolutely baby and has no idea who the monster she’s actually serving is. 

Cheonche the Oddish: 

Strength Sap | Giga Drain | Sludge Bomb | Tickle 

A service Pokemon Inwoo carries in his arms at all times- rumored to be the last thing his mother left him, and his actual first Pokemon. It’s happy to see you, and everyone else really. The most well-adjusted Pokemon in his little army, and nobody has ever seen it fight. He spends an obsessive amount of time pruning its leaves and talking to it like it’ll answer him. Most of the time it just says “Oddish” and snuggles up to him. 

[filippo-draws]

Sobble’s Evolutions

Sizzile and Intelleon!

Thank you super accurate leak for coming up with the names because I suck at that. So yeah those are probably gonna be the names but these designs are mine

Sizzile(water): It’s very shy so it hides his face in his scarf very often. Fast and agile, Sizzile prefers running away rather than fighting its opponents directly.

Intelleon(water/ghost): It can become invisible hiding under his ghostly cloak. It keeps its invisible tail under it. When Intelleon hunts, it strikes the unsuspecting prey with a vicious, incredibly quick, strike. Its stealth, speed and strength make it one of the best Pokémon for espionage operations. 

Gigantamax: Intelleon embraces its ghostly nature and its ghost-type moves become Giga Fate Clash, which hurts its opponent and activates Destiny Bond for itself. In the legends of the Galar region, its appearance is a bad omen.

Entry for Pokémon Millennium’s drawing contest: https://www.instagram.com/p/B0VckvrhNbV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[mlarayoukai]

Shiny Pokémon are also being leaked but we still haven't seen all the gigamax forms 😧 show me the dragon apple gigas

[blueikeproductions]

I had it in mind Ash, Iono, Alfie & Team Rocket would find ancient PokeBalls on their end and in some instances fight the Explorers for them. The Giga Leak reveals earlier ideas for the Six Heroes roster that makes me feel justified in this direction, as Ash, Team Rocket and the Explorers would find the “RetroBalls” of Blastoise, while Liko and her cousins find Pachirisu. I’m not sure who deals with Zerora yet.

I saw Team Rocket finding at least one RetroBall that contains a Pokémon they’d send to Giovanni, as I saw them having better luck in capturing other non-Pikachu Pokémon.

Some ideas I had for Ash & Liko were Hisuian Samurot, an Ursaluna, an ancient Meowth that wears a Gimmieghoul Coin instead of the usual coin, Hisuian Typhlosion and Hisuian Decidueye in particular.

[blueikeproductions]

I think part of the reason I’m so focused on Pokémon and worried about the anime is because I can’t understand the marketing they’ve had for HZ in the states.

In Japan they’ve had no issue advertising it, but they have partially dialed back on the kids for merch, only focusing on the Pokémon after, from what I was told, a Volt Tekker play set sold horribly. Even early advertisements started focusing more on Friede, which informs a lot of my biases and concerns for this anime era. It really did feel like the company started to get cold feet on Liko or early audience reactions were poor from the start, the later seems likely due to the giga leaks emphasis on the anime only writing based on reactions over just doing the story properly.

In America, they’ve largely ignored HZ, even the social media kinda blithely addressed it only when it had to, bizarrely cutting out the humans and only focusing on the Pokémon. They were doing this with older Ash stuff also for awhile, so it makes me think there was an intent to only focus on the monsters and forgo the humans as much as possible.

Perhaps due to some criticisms, they’ve gone back to including posts about Ash and Liko more recently, but it’s still fairly rare to see much about Liko specifically outside of episode batches.

The social media blogs, to advertise HZ, swapped out Pikachu for Captain Pikachu. While it makes sense to advertise the new thing, I always hated this change since I never felt Pikachu was specifically Ash’s but making it Friede/Roy’s instead rubbed me the wrong way.

Surprisingly Japanese socials abandoned Cap pretty quickly, with other countries following suit. The American blog toughed it out longer but it too went back to regular Pikachu. Presumably the ad just ran its course, but I can’t help but think HZ’s poor performance in Japan might’ve influenced this reversion, as well as the social media blogs being more inclusive to Ash and his friends again when they were hellbent on ignoring him. Perhaps they felt honoring the past was preferable to trying to bury it like Star Wars tried, and/or fans kvetched enough to change it. Probably the later if we’re being honest.

This is where my concerns get more complicated: American merchandise. The toys, books and what have you are pretty clearly influenced more by the anime, with merch of Ash and his pals being pretty common, but when HZ started, no attempt was made to make any HZ themed toys or books. Like there’s barely any Paldea merch also, which bothers me in terms of kids books related to SV, it’s just the Paldea Pokédex and a sticker book that uses anime models, but specifically avoid using Captain Pikachu, giving the impression it’s Ash’s instead…

The only anime themed kids books, as of typing, have been chapter books and preschool books … of Ash during Journeys. There’s also a new Pokémon Field Guide about the anime that stops during early Journeys. No such follow up is published to include Liko, Amethio and the others so far. Again it’s very bizarre.

The new Pokémon Magazine recently shifted to HZ, but also does the bare minimum with it, in contrast to when it focused on Ash and Team Rocket and was loaded with content centered around them. It’s a stark contrast and I’m utterly confused why they didn’t just go into HZ with confidence and guns a blazing.

it really does feel like a part of Pokémon as a whole died the moment the anime staff got their way and removed Ash, because nobody outside of the loudest Twitter fans have been doing much with Liko, Roy or Dot.

I’ve joked before that if it doesn’t have copious amounts of porn, then it’s not popular. Turns out I was unintentionally correct, as there’s very little anything even here. Like you’d think you’d find weight gain art (the most common and relatively tame kink art compared to most) of Orla, Mollie, and a poorly aged up Liko (in the vein of May or Hilda), but nope. At best you just find rare poorly photoshopped foot fetish art of Liko, and from what I’ve been told, rare Japanese sexual fan art of Liko getting plowed by the adult men (Homer Simpson dousing his eyes with bleach gif here), but aside from some one off thing about Spinel, that seems to have ceased (thank god), as did early gay art of Friede and Dot’s uncle. It was trendy for five minutes and people got bored with it apparently.

I wouldn’t be so persistent about these observations if they had a healthy dose of HZ merch to balance it out here, but there shockingly isn’t. Most of the recognition HZ gets is from unofficial magazines and that’s stopped also.

It’s why I’m concerned about Gen 10’s anime roll out, as leaks say they’re going back to a boy protagonist, but to my knowledge as of typing it’s not clear if it’s an outright new character, most are rightfully assuming it is. More than likely it is a new boy, but I would get a dark chuckle if it was TPC trying to deflect and hide that it’s Ash, in a vain attempt to throw off their leaker problem. Heck it could be a reverse HZ problem where the anime staff try to develop a new kid, but come to the conclusion to reinstate Ash instead because the character either isn’t coming together, the tone fits Ash better, or internal pressures from higher ups.

Still the Liko phase comes off as being poorly received, not entirely for lack of trying, but a passive, meek, semi directionless girl was far from a good idea for a shonen monster fight club anime. It’d be different if she grew into a role, but she never did, and that’s why even little kids with no nostalgic attachment are going back to Ash, because he was fun to watch and had cool fights little kids could get into.

It’s why I’m curious what the American branch does with merch, because they’ve been pretty consistent on using Ash still well into HZ (he was the main focus of a streaming event during Pokémon Day also), and unless they get the ok to just publish new content with Ash in kids books or even comics, similar to what happened during PokeMania, they are going to run out of Journeys related content to adapt eventually. If they refuse to go near New Kid like they’ve done with Liko and Roy in merch, what’s going to happen?

A friend said they may just cease making anime related merch in the states altogether, and while I can see that, I’m hesitant to think that will happen. It really does feel like there’s this waiting with bated breath on whether they’ll cave in and go back to Ash so they can continue to make merch with him, because otherwise they’ve skipped an anime generation entirely, and may do so again if New Kid isn’t well liked either or ignored in marketing.

I think Pokémon to some extent has gotten into an apathetic position like Digimon and Bakugan. At first there was a bunch of ancillary merch during the first two eras, but then that steadily ceased to be as Tamers, Gundalian, Frontier and Mechtanium rolled around, and it repeated itself with Bakugan G2.

Indeed the general vibe I get is HZ is considered extremely underrated like Cyberverse, because no one really connected with either except the loudest niche super fans. The vibe I get is indifference to Liko, hatred of Roy (in Japan as he’s otherwise usually absent in fandom discussion), sheer hatred of Ult (seriously, I’ve yet to see anyone claim on both sides of the pond admit they like him), and Dot as best girl (she’s so far taken a huge back seat role and isn’t used much despite people liking her the best).

While Mega Voltage feels like post game content, it also feels like a huge course correction that feels much closer to what I think HZ was trying to be from the start, it just took far too long to get here and it’s almost over, go figure.

God speed to a potential New Kid, cuz I think the future quite literally rests on you. No pressure.

[blueikeproductions]

I don’t know how much the Japanese Pokémon toylines match what the anime is doing or is planning on doing, but I can’t help but look at this toy and wonder…

The incredibly specific use of Mega Lucario and Mega Charizard X harkens to Ash and Alain, and the two never had a proper rematch despite fan demand and the opportunity to do so in Journeys.

Now as much as I’d prefer that were the case, it’s probably supposed to represent Friede and whoever has Lucario in the Mega Evolution arc of HZ.

As of typing it’s not clear who has Lucario, but what I find baffling is the lack of advertising of the shiny Lucario that was revealed in a HZ teaser. All the toys with the Japanese HZ logo specifically use the normal Lucario, so either there was a last minute change or using the normal Lucario was a way to prevent spoilers. It’d be like if Japanese product only used the normal Rayquaza for HZ themed merch instead of the black variant. Either way it’s strange. Also peculiar are the toys using Ultra Balls for Lucario and Charizard, when Ash, Friede and Alain use normal Pokeballs for them. So if we’re to assume the specific use of these Pokémon refers to either of them, it conflicts with their PokeBalls, so it could be new characters with Ultra Balls if we’re to take it literally.

Meanwhile the more “show accurate” version with Ray and Zy uses the Ancient PokeBall for the former but uses a Master Ball for the later. I don’t remember off the top of my head if Gibeon used a Master Ball on Zy, but I don’t think Master Balls were invented yet 100 years ago. Still feel free to correct me on that because I legit don’t remember for sure.

This also sticks out.

While part of a separate set of individually sold Pokémon Battle toys that lack the HZ logo (as far as I can tell), it still uses Mega Lucario as one of the main toys. Mewtwo in its Mega form has only appeared in story for the Best Wishes anime, and they made the point of making it a separate Mewtwo that assumes the Y form. (Both forms appeared in one of XYZ’s Japanese openings, but did not appear in the anime otherwise.) The common theory is the one Ash knows would probably become the Mega X form, but if we’re to assume this is related to HZ, it’s likely this isn’t Ash’s typical Mewtwo, but then it begs the question who this is in relation to Liko.

As a fun aside, I made a Mx. Mewtwo for my own Pokémon musings, a non-binary Mewtwo created by the Explorers to unlock the path to Rakua, but it failed and was cast aside.

Obviously the Japanese staff didn’t see my stuff and make their own Mewtwo plot for Liko, but it’s a potential funny coincidence Liko might know a Mewtwo officially and unofficially.

As for a possibility for Ash returning during HZ, as much as I’d prefer that greatly to what we’ve been getting, I still lean towards that being bad for Liko, as Ash returning will suck the oxygen out of the room for her. If Ash returns, I still believe saving it for Gen 10 would be better and allow Liko and Roy to get to the finish line of SV’s life span without too much hiccups.

However if they caved in and did, here’s my guess how it’d go.

Most likely he’s a guest character that participates in the storyline at a later date, possibly some kind of Pokémon tournament to battle Alain and Roy if we want to look at it that way.

The least likely option but still possible is Ash becomes a permanent character in the remainder of HZ, like he was supposed to be according to the Giga Leaks, and along with Roy/new kid with Lucario, and Korrina they band together to use the power of Mega Lucario to stop the new antagonist. I mostly bring this up due to the prominence of Lucario in the marketing, its popularity and the fact that Lucario in the general lore is the first Pokémon to Mega Evolve. So to me, it would make a cool anime story to have the three prominent Mega Lucario users in the anime team up against the main villain.

They won’t do that (at least not this specifically), but I still think it’d be fun.

[blueikeproductions]

It’s looking like Pokémon Horizons might be coming to an end due to recent episode titles and the story finally seeing the Six Heroes come together.

Now I want to emphasize MIGHT, because I have no idea if it is, this is just me guessing based on trends I’ve seen other series do.

The story has been built entirely around Rakua, the Six Heroes, Terapagos and the freaky crystals of Rakua.

We have no indication as of typing they have concrete plans beyond Terapagos, with the Giga Leak only offering rough, but seemingly scrapped ideas they considered such as Friede joining the villains to find his long lost kid brother we never heard of.

So if HZ is ending, prematurely, in the final year of SV’s life span, what do you replace it with?

I think we all know where I’m going with this.

This might be Ash’s return.

It’s becoming undeniable fans aren’t jiving with HZ, with many rejecting the show, to the point PokeTubers who cover the anime have admitted covering it doesn’t give them views anymore. There’s still a huge demand for Ash to return, with recent Japanese fan art opting to instead focus on Team Rocket to celebrate the year of the snake over Gibeon and Zygarde. Western fans, in particular UK fans, have outright rejected LDR and have demanded Ash come back or else they aren’t watching anymore. Apparently the Giga Leaks also mentioned HZ is being written based only on fan reaction instead of truly focusing on the plot, something Ken Sugimori hates. Game Freak apparently didn’t want Ash to leave, with HZ originally intending to continue using him, until an anime staff member instead wanted to focus on Liko to give girls a role model. Now that is a good idea on paper but it means nothing if she’s given nothing to do and the show clearly struggled on what to do with her (Roy, Dot and the adult cast). I’m not asking for Jenny Wakeman or Kim Possible here, but a somewhat meek wallflower type wasn’t the best idea for a major character change if she isn’t going through decent, coherent character development to grow out of that.

So if the anime is scraping LDR in favor of going back to Ash & Team Rocket, what can they do for the remainder of the SV life span?

Realistically I don’t know. Speculatively on the other hand…

It would have to be an abridged version of the game’s events HZ skipped over, and HZ skipped over A LOT.

The games’ events are implied to have happened off screen, Arven (until the final school episode) and Kieran were both absent from the school and Kitakami mini arcs as are the professors, Okidogi’s group, and bike dragons. Team Star is also implied to have been dealt with off screen as recent as the Geeta episode, and I might be mistaken, but the robotic Paradox Pokémon haven’t appeared yet in story in favor of the prehistoric ones.

The solution seems pretty simple. Ash and Team Rocket swing by the school and enroll for their own reasons, Ash competes in the Tera class LDR did, but has a better go at it, and gets involved in fighting Team Star among other things. Notably his friend/roommate is Arven, and the two hang out a lot, explaining why he wasn’t around when Liko was there. Perhaps during LDR’s time, Ash and Arven were off helping his Mabosstiff or dealing with the four treasure Pokemon.

This is where the robotic Paradoxes come in, as they could be stand ins for Team Rocket’s mecha in this scenario. I’m sure at some point they’d find a way to Combine Iron Treads, Iron Hands, and a Meowth mecha to make a Paradox Meowth to mirror the Mega Meowth from XY.

Okidogi, Fezandipiti and Munkidori also feel like they’re made with Team Rocket in mind, and they’d be associated with them also in a Kitakami scheme, while Ash & Arven meet Kieran.

I’ve neglected contributing a female companion but I’m not sure who that’d be. Nemona, Iono and Penny are pretty heavily associated with LDR. and while they likely would meet Ash, I don’t see them contributing as much to his story officially. I feel like Raifort would be involved more heavily, but I don’t think she’d constantly be with Ash either unless she was also working for Giovanni. The simple answer would probably be Juliana, a return to the female player character traveling companion. The out there answer would be Poppy because I think that would be funny, and Ash would be shocked a kid younger than him is an Elite Four member. Now Poppy is also fairly involved with LDR, so she probably hangs out with Ash and Arven the most, but has to excuse herself when duty calls involving LDR.

Now what Pokemon would Ash have with him? I’m still partial to my fanon of Pikachu, Miraidon, Primeape, all three Paldean Tauros, Baxcaliber, Kilowattrel, Orthworm and Fuecoco.

I feel like the splitting of the difference would likely be Pikachu, Pidgeot, Charizard (or Lucario), leaving three slots open for Paldean Pokemon. Who those would be is a coin toss, but popular choices are Annihilape (evolved from his returning Primeape), Lokix, and Flamigo. Quaxly comes up a lot for the Starter pick, but I feel like that ship has sailed due to Dot.

Team Rocket is also a coin flip they’re either just using their old Pokemon like Ash possibly would or they just have brand new ones. Again I like my fanon of Scovillain, Oinkologne for Jessie and Grevard and Maushold for James, but what other Pokemon they’d have I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve seen other fans speculate that much on Jessie and James, though I’m fairly certain I’ve seen Scream Tail brought up for Jessie before.

If they are ending LDR, and switching over to Ash to buy time and reignite interest in the anime makes sense. Gen 10 would either be a full return to Ash or another try with a new lead kid, but with how apathetic fans have become to LDR, I’m not sure if another brand new kid lead would make sense here…

[gigifluidcat]

"They didn't say the girl Typlosion was with was underage"

She still fucking COULD be, because in the Mythology yall love so much a lot of underage girls get into shit like this. The Aforementioned Mary being 13 when birthing Jesus, Muhammad marrying girls under 10 years old, most of the Disney Princesses being underage INCLUDING in their Brothers Grimm originals, the list goes on.

Tumblr Pokémon fans right now be like "B-B-But it's just Old Mythology! It was normal back then! Did you READ that Mythology?!"

Yes. I did. I read Grimms Fairy Tales before, I've listened to Ancient Greek stories and have done projects on them, and I went to Church very often. That does NOT change the fact that Mary being 13 when giving birth to Jesus was fucking weird.