Tear Jerker / Zorua Trainer

• Ash at the start of the story. He was abandoned as an egg in a cardboard box, forced to fend for himself in the streets, and had been kicked out of his "home" by a gang of Pokémon.
• After seeing AJ's training method, Ash feels like he is no better than AJ as he attacked his team as part of training. After dropping his illusion, it is shown he is crying at the thought that he might be an abusive trainer for getting his team hurt.
• When Charmander learns that Damian isn't coming back for him, he breaks down, questioning if he wasn't doing good enough, recalling that Damian called him stupid and better off dead for losing to a Gloom.
• As a result of Misty telling Agatha about Sabrina's mishandling of the Saffron Gym, a complete audit of the Kanto Gym circuit is called. Including the Cerulean Gym. Her sisters utterly fail against the inspector, leaving Misty with two outcomes. Either she wins, keeping the gym open but leaving her stuck running it, or she loses, meaning that her grandfather's legacy will be shut down. And all because of her. She puts her team through a major bout of training in preparation, but in the end falls short of defeating Joy's Latias. All she can do is berate her sisters for failing to put in the work and forcing her to shoulder the burden of the actual Gym side of things, before leaving them behind as she continues journeying with Ash, her future uncertain.
• The battle with Blaine. The Cinnabar gym leader starts the fight by telling Ash he's not going to win, and he means it. Ash manages to impress him slightly against his first two Pokemon, but he tells the Zorua that his team simply isn't strong enough. And to make his point clear, he presents Ash with a wall in the form of a Mega Camerupt. It's not even a contest. The Mega Evolution absolutely demolishes the rest of Ash's team with its sheer power, with not even Storm able to land a hit on it because of the sheer heat that it generates. Ash is left so distraught he spends hours just letting off Night Dazes simply to vent.