Live Blogs The Great Walk to Masterhood: "Gotta Ketch'um": The Story of Ash

Kaoz2013-08-10 08:15:44

day 756 ash starts the prelimins of the conference {ep265-268}

The silver league, the last 10 episodes of Johto, start here. We are introduced to Harrison, the guy predestined to beat Ash and his awesome super cool new Pokémon, a blazeken. Ash gets through the prelims fine, and Misty gets pissed at Ash's female opponent, for trying to move in on her man. Ash's Kingler, Squirtle, Muk, and Charizard return and its time for the main event.

day 762 ash vs. gary ash wins {ep269-270} day 763 ash vs. harrison ash loses (top 8) {ep270-272}

This is what most people who grew up with the anime remember about Ash's Charizard, as in I'm basing my own recollections of childhood nostalgia as being general opinion. But seriously, Pikachu sets the standard utility for Ash's team set-up, sweepers who can dish out and dodge, but go down fast. By contrast, Char is a fucking tank who just soaks up damage throughout both these slug fests. He certainly redeems himself from his last league appearance. Respect.

A comparison of endings then, in Kanto even with movie1 changed to happen mid-season rather than after it, that montage of clips in ep80 I mentioned followed by a still frame of Ash running to his friends and family would have been a fine way to end it permanently in a story context, but still leaving the audience with an AndTheAdventureContinues unseen vibe.

Of course, that didn't happen and we trade off Pidgeot for a useless golden ball and go island hopping. That too could have ended the story satisfactorily, by the end of this mess Ash not only saves the planet from a global disaster, but also reconciles with his own failure, Charizard, grows apart from his mentor figure, Brock, grows closer to his romantic interest, Misty, and even faces down an undefeated facsimile of the Champion Lance, Drake, receiving the recognition he was denied at the League... but then Gary shows up.

You see, it could have finished the plot satisfactorily at either of those points, but not its principal character and his driving force: To be the best, like no one ever was, especially Gary Samuel MF Oak.

There needed to be a balls to the wall confrontation between these two, for Pokémon to definitively end on a thematic level, the rivalry people it had to be settled. I write this after having finally watched all of the episodes (circa bw87), and it might not be the best choreographed fight, or even the most emotionally nail biting but it is the most important.

Johto however does not end at 270 with that triumphant conclusion, there's still 4 more episodes, but unlike the previous region and a half, the sequel hook is a deal breaker. At this point, you could not cease watching the show assure in the knowledge that Ash will silently continue his Pokémon journey until he becomes a master, No you either broke fellowship because of reasons which should be obvious but I will shed light on anyway, or you were in it for the long haul. As I've mentioned before I was one of the former. So after the next bit, the nostalgia goggles are off and Hoenn and Sinnoh and Unova are looked at with hopefully unbiased eyes. (Unova became so fucking biased though, fair warning... here's hoping Kalos will be better.)

As for the Harrison fight, I don't have anything against it or him. He seemed like a genuine character, and not just a plot device like Ritchie was or that his two successors of dream crushing will be. To go with that, Ash's inevitable loss was handled in the least teeth grinding way possible, even if he would have won if Char had just stood up for a few more seconds. It says something that that is the least retarded way the writers keep Ash from winning anything ever.

day 768 misty gets her bike back... goodbye {ep273}

day 776 Ash sets out for hoenn alone with only pikachu... well played gary oak. {ep273-274}

day 788 Ash lands in hoenn (ash is now 13) {ag1}

So... what do we get for a new region hook? Well in OI Pr. Oak told Ash to go, and for Johto Gary reminded us that he existed. For Hoenn? Just that the guy who beat Ash is from the region and that ZOMG supah kewl new karate chicken could beat the Badass Charizard. Ash beat his main rival Gary though, and losing the league twice is enough to make a pattern, astute viewers could already see the writing on the wall.

The franchise would have to be effectively dead, revived, killed again, brought back as a zombie, killed again as a zombie using healing magic, and then finally buried, consecrated, cremated, and scattered in the wind before Ash ever fully achieved his dream. Thus, they needed to come up with a beta plot that could hold interest and hopefully resolve itself before doomsday.

Luckily Pokémon Contests were a thing now. However since the writers were smart enough to realize they could not shoehorn an existing character into that role they made a new one, and in a misguided attempt to stop the show from becoming about shipping and Ash into a harem protagonist <that failed miserably considering all the fanart/fiction/Die for Our Ship> they got Misty off the show.

I won't bore anyone with the details, really nice emotional send off, Misty admits her feelings, but since she didn't use a neon sign Ash doesn't get it, and Misty's sisters are all horrible bitches for forcing her to do this at the last minute indefinitely. Though the dub overplays it a tad too much and they cut out a still frame of Ash in the rain distraught over losing yet again, while his friends can only watch that really sells the moment of the entire group splitting up.

Only other thing I'll mention is that Ash sees Ho-oh again in a nice tie in to the 1st ep, and that the only real actually true reason Ash sets out with only Pikachu on his team is that he heard from the Professor that Gary had left with two of his Pokémon, Blastoise and Umbreon, and of course Ash wanted to out do him.

Character Bios: Ash Ketchum (12-13): He's still a stubborn little shit, who gets lost at the drop of a hat, but he's a little older, a little wiser, and actually has some idea of what the fuck he's doing. No major changes, for now.

Gary Oak (13-14): I like to think that Gary is older than Ash by a fair bit, and hung around Pallet waiting on Ash as a show of friendship, or just to rub it in Ash's face more that he could beat him without a year's head start. Gary Oak is a self-entitled egotistical ass hole of a brat, but he's awesome because he can back the shit he talks up with action, and the only person he messes with is Ash, his nominal best friend. This is an important aspect to note about Gary, and the reason he's immensely preferable to another guy I won't get to tear into for quite awhile. Also when he finally does lose he's all like “Whatever, I'll just become a genius Pokémon Professor instead” and that audience is how you make write a character out successfully.

Themes: Pokémon Johto borrows a cue from World, and invites the audience to join in the all new exciting adventure! Same comments from World apply to this. Born to be a Winner had the bright idea of partially remixing the original theme into its chorus, while keeping its forward momentum of overcoming new challenges. Believe in Me is an honest power anthem I can do this sort of thing, which perfectly fits with the last leg of the original series journey.

27/247 (bayleef, cyndaquil, totodile, heracross, noctowl, phanphy, larvitar) out of 251+4 from Hoenn (lati duo+blazeken, kecleon) missing raikou, togetic, porygon2, typhlosion

1. times ash should have died= 1 (took hyperbeam by red gyrados in the face)
2. of battles/badges ash won on technicality or cheating 0/0
3. of battles/badges ash won fair and square 24/8
4. of battles lost 9
5. times ash saved world ½+½? (stopped pack of reality-warping super unknown, fixed time stream + stopped potential world conquering between the three events they add up to at least 1 full world save if not more depending on counting preference)

Comments

DonaldthePotholer Since: Dec, 1969

Apr 20th 2014 at 9:14:33 PM

I consider Ep 274 to be AG 000, #1: as Ep 273 ends with Ash anticipating his new journey and Ep 274 starts with him on the boat and, #2, without Ep 274, you don't know why this kid needs help with his Pikachu in Ep 275/AG 001. I also consider it the first of a Five Episode Arc that I call "Enter AG", as all its episodes can be retitled Enter [Character] (274/00: Ash & Pikachu, 275/01: May, 276/02: Team Rocket, and I'll leave the last two secret.)

Also, no final retrospective on Misty? Or is that being held for her "Return Bus Trip" moments?

I also think that Gary had just turned 11 in the first quarter of the starting year, partly due to reasons that would show themselves later; i.e. older but not by more than half of a year.