Pokémon anime

Awesome! They're finally continuing it!

I've seen speculations that because of the Special no one on the main cast will get Mega Evolutions. While this might turn out to be true. I don't feel that is the case just yet. My theory is seeing how Mega Evolution a big game changer, they're trying to hype up the concept and get people interested in the idea through the Specials. Mainly, because Ash-their usual marketing tool-having once again left every Pokemon he has save Pikachu at Oak's isn't in a position to be Mega Evolving anything.

With how mega evolution works, the only Pokemon Ash can mega evolve are Pokemon he has a strong bond with and that requires having a history with them (Charizard and Sceptile in this case), and we won't be seeing any of Ash's old Pokemon till the League at best.

Also because of the "bond" requirement he wouldn't be able to Mega Evolve with a Pokemon he just met. So even if he were to catch an Absol or Lucario he wouldn't be able to do anything with it till near the end of the series.

edited 31st Aug '14 10:04:28 AM by WorldTurtle

He could easily form a strong bond with a Pokemon over the course of the series and get a Mega evo going towards the end.

Doesn't Heracross also qualify?

Yes it does.

That's three contenders, though Charizard and Sceptile are the most likely (Charizard due to being Charizard, and Sceptile due to being Hoenn Charizard, and a good opportunity to hype up ORAS).

Which is why I didn't mention Heracross. Between ORAS Promotion for Sceptile and Charizard's Wolverine Publicity Heracross is unfortunately overshadowed.

That is also a possibility though one that decreases for me the further he gets into Kalos with how Mega Evolution apparently needs a developed bond to work, if he doesn't catch an Old Gen Mon (Gen III, what with ORAS and all) by the 5th Gym I'm not sure he ever will. Unless we're looking at Mega Greninja for Pokemon Z.

However, I'm talking about speculation where people believe because of the Specials, Ash won't get anything.

edited 31st Aug '14 10:33:15 AM by WorldTurtle

Even before the specials my belief was that if Ash's Pokemon Mega Evolves, it'll be a one-off thing for like a 2-parter or a movie. I don't think he'll permanently carry around a mega stone with him.

I've been thinking about a Pre or Post-League Filler Arc/Mega Evolution Tournament (13-20 episodes in length): Where Ash gets a Mega Ring (if he doesn't get one from Korrina during the upcoming Shalour Episodes), gets a Mega Stone(s), and starts training Charizard, Sceptile, Heracross, or Whoever (Mega Greninja?) in Mega Evolution. Once the training is done we proceed with the Tournament.

Once XY is done and Ash is heading for the Gen 7 Region Ash will leave his Mega Ring and Mega Stones at Professor Oak's for study. If he does at least bring his Mega Ring with him he'll shove it into his backpack till he needs it, if not Oak will send it to him.

edited 31st Aug '14 10:54:50 AM by WorldTurtle

It's the game's new gimmick. And one that caused X and Y's new pokemon list to come up short since they brought alot of old ones back for Mega Evolution.

Don't they kind of HAVE to let Ash do it?

So I just re-watch the episode Ash caught Heracross and it got me thinking about Ash's Bug Types. They've all been the “friendly” sort; as is none of the scary looking, aggressive, poisonous, or creepy ones ...I blame Misty for this. However what I find interesting (and why I felt bringing it up) is they each appear to cover a different sort of Bug Type.

Butterfree is the Early Caught, Fast Evolving Bug; and was the first among the many pokemon based on butterflies/moths. Who have been generally Bug/Flying (when not Bug/Poison) – a common dual typing for Bugs.

Heracross is Ash’s answer to Bugs like Scyther and Pinsir (also Escavalier and Accelgor), he is Ash’s “Warrior Bug” if you will which is fitting seeing his typing is Bug/Fighting which could also be a reference to Insect Fighting the sport that apparently inspired Pokemon.

Leavanny is the Bug whose design takes cues from some sort of clothing-in this case 1600 Western European Fashion (at least Bulbapedia suggests so and I can see why they would). Others would be Volbeat (Greasers), Illumise (Flappers), Kricketune (Musical Conductors), Vespiquen (Royalty), Accelgor (Auto Racer or Ninja), and Escavalier (Knight).

The only other sort of Bug Type I can think of (that Ash would get based on what there presently is) would be a Bug that has a Shell that it uses for Defense like Shuckle, Pineco/Forretress, Dwebble, and Shelmet.

I could get behind a Bug Type based on a Pill Bug. It could be Bug/Ground, Bug/Rock, or Bug/Steel (just imagine it curling into a ball and rolling at the enemy).

edited 1st Sep '14 1:18:32 AM by WorldTurtle

Hmmm... I may be misremembering, but I don't think a gym leader outside of the main gym leaders had such extensive focus before. So yay for Korrina and her Character Arc! It's quite enjoyable.

The anime has a tendency to make the third gym take a very long time to get to. We'll be on episode 43 before the Shalour Gym battle finally happens.

Hmm... let's see. Kanto (7 episodes between 2nd & 3rd) was pretty average considering that region (though both the 2nd and 5th badges came about 2 episodes after their predecessors); Johto was about the same as all of them (which is, of course, excessive episode numbers). Hoenn had only 9 if you're counting when Ash actually got his 2nd badge from Brawley (they had that Mini-Arc on Dewford Island, which I actually think should be repeated one of these days - it's nice that he didn't just rematch the leader the very next episode, especially since that's happened ALL THE TIME before then and since). Sinnoh DID have a big gap (thanks to Fantina's overlong absence, so they had to keep travelling back and forth), but the faster-paced Unova only had 7 (it was meant to be 9, but... well) - the only big gap THERE was between 3rd and 4th (the others were much quicker). And the 19 episode gap between 2 and 3 in Kalos is about the same as 1 and 2's battles (episodes 6 - 24/25).

(To everyone):

What's the bet on Froakie's evolution? Right now, I'm betting on an evolution between the 5th and 6th Gyms (I think that between the 4th and 5th will be the Grass-type capture). Froakie - who hasn't been the biggest presence in the big battles yet, surprisingly (not at all in the 1st Gym, only beating the 2nd Gym's 1st Mon; compare to previous Starters, especially the main ones) - will probably be Ash's trump against the Psychic Gym once he evolves (or at least he'll seem to be so).

As for Korrina, the presence of a Mienfoo POSSIBLY suggests she'll be using more than Lucario in the battle, but I'm not completely holding my breath there... The title strongly suggests, however, that Pikachu vs. Mega Lucario will be the deciding final match-up (so Pikachu has actually got 3 Gyms in a row where he was the decider; not sure if I should feel glad his strength is recognised, or annoyed that the writers aren't letting any of the others have that opportunity yet, though I do daresay that Ramos' Gym will fix that for Fletchinder and/or Hawlucha - and maybe Ash WON'T use Pikachu there, who knows?)

Titles can be misleading. Don't forget, Fletchinder's debut episode had the title featuring Hawlucha vs. Talonflame. Were it not for the preview footage, the title alone would have led to beliefs of Hawlucha being the star of the episode.

You just made something go off in my head and I'm not entirely sure I like it (mainly because it limits what Ash will catch). Do you guys remember when I discussed remake influence and how Ash's Kalos Pokemon might turn out as Mix and Match Composite Characters of Ash's Hoenn Team?

Wasn't Ash's AG/Hoenn Team which is when FRLG came out pretty much that for his Kanto Team? Though some were straight examples, I mean we had Swellow the Normal/Flying Bird, then Sceptile who was Charizard as the Grass-Type (Bulbasaur), also what does Sceptile have in common with the Kanto Starters that neither of the other two Hoenn Starters do? They are all based on reptiles.

Corphish, the water type, is another crustacean like Kingler, Torkoal is a Fire Type Squirtle Turtle, Glalie is as I said a page or so back the "Muk" of Hoenn, both being literal living beings of their type though Muk was more Elemental Embodiment while Glalie was Nature Spirit.

Then in DP with HGSS Ash caught Flying, Grass, Fire, Water, and Ground mirroring his team at the end of Johto. And of course he caught the Pseudo Legendary near the end of the arc. It was like the anime staff was making up for not letting Ash keep Larvitar who they at least gave honorary status to with a cameo in the Spurt! Opening.

While AG didn't give Ash a Fighting Type and neither AG or DP gave him a Bug, but in AG (and in DP with the Paul Rivalry) I always got the impression they wanted to have Ash work with single close knit teams and the anime staff gave Ash what they felt worked best. That and if you think about it Butterfree and Primeape were Put on a Bus leaving only Muk (and the Herd), so was Heracross though his Bus went to Oak's at least.

For the record: I count the Tauros Herd (the Safari Zone Captures-Ash hasn't been to another Zone since) as Early-Installment Weirdness, and Lapras, Snorlax, and Aipom are Filler Captures and thus not part of this (Hooray for Filler and the chance of original captures! Even though he only kept Snorlax...).

BW had no remakes, it was a reboot and used the best choices they could to feel like Kanto with rotation. The Bird, the Bug, The Starter Trio, The Back Up Water Type, The Fighting Type (albeit a Bratty Half-Pint version), the Elemental Embodiment, the only difference was Krookodile (Ground), unless he's supposed to be Phanpy's counterpart and were counting the OS as a whole.

XY (with ORAS remakes) is looking to be to BW what AG was to OS-Kanto. I mean Palpitoad and Froakie are both frogs like how Kingler and Corphish are both crustaceans. Froakie and Corphish even evolve into dual Water/Dark Types!

I'm honestly curious here. These parallels just seem too much to be a coincidence to me. I really think the Anime Staff might be working with a Formula where they call back to previous series (perhaps trying to connect the current series with the remakes). Is that a good thing, a bad thing, I don't know I just thought I'd bring it to attention.

edited 2nd Sep '14 8:50:53 PM by WorldTurtle

Maybe so, but maybe we as fans just read into things too much. Though there are definitely options we can rule out - I kind of knew that Ash would never capture a Skrelp in XY 024 (a confirmed fact) - as a Mon that can only move well in deeper waters, it wouldn't have much use in regular battles and have little screentime... remember Misty's Goldeen and Horsea? The latter was Put on a Bus (at least in part because it never got to do much barring a couple of episodes), and the former was overshadowed by Staryu, who was overshadowed by Psyduck (and later on by Poli(wag)/(whirl)/(toad), then Corsola), and of course by Togepi... It would be wasteful of team space, even if Skrelp and its evolution Dragalge are Made of Awesome.

Still, don't fret too much over it - it's not like we ever got a Flying-type that doubled as the Fire-type of the team before, nor a 2nd Bird. And we'll probably have a Dark-type water frog when Froakie evolves a 2nd time... And even if he doesn't go the 2nd stage he will evolve at least one - because Ash has never had a region go by without at least one Starter evolution. To clarify, Bayleef evolved in Johto (and Cyndaquil evolved far later), Grovyle in Hoenn (and a 2nd time in the Kanto Battle Frontier arc), & Pignite evolved in Unova, along with the ones who did reach their final stages within the same region (ie: Charizard, Torterra & Infernape).

True enough... plus, I believe that Froakie was depicted as fighting Mega Lucario (or was it just plain Lucario?) in the opening, though that could be a case of Spoiler Opening being subverted, and not without precedent: we had the wool pulled over our faces back in "Episode N" with Charizard, but also with Boldore fighting Team Plasma (he didn't even appear during that arc, if I remember correctly). Anime in general spoils you during the openings with stuff that never even happens, tantalising your tastes to make the show more exciting and then not following through (which is even more annoying because at least spoiling it outright isn't an outright lie). But I guess we'll see - either the opening is lying, or the title is being sly (one guess as to which I would prefer).

Oh, and Torkoal is not a turtle - it is a TORTOISE!

...Though, it is another reptile Mon: same with Torterra (a full line of tortoises) Charizard (lizard, then later more draconian but still a reptile), Squirtle (turtle), Lapras (loch ness monster-like creature, so still reptilian), Totodile (crocodile/alligator), Sceptile (gecko), Gible (land dragon), Krookodile (crocodile), and Snivy (snake)... and possibly Bulbasaur as well (what exactly is it meant to be, anyway - dinosaur, lizard, what?)

So they have at least one reptilian Mon captured in every series, as if this show didn't give me enough reason to love it (Reptiles Are Abhorrent is grossly overrated in western fiction, I'm all for them being more positively depicted!)

edited 4th Sep '14 3:22:40 AM by CaellachTigerEye

Ironically it is BECAUSE fans read into things too much that I started trying to categorize Ash's Pokemon. I just got so tired of the circular arguments, the bias, and more importantly hearing stuff like "no one has caught a Fossil before so no one will", like people didn't think that once about Dark (Scraggy, Krookodile), Dragon (Gible, Axew), Pseudo Legendaries (Gible again oh and DRAGONITE!), another Electric Type on the cast (Pachirisu, Emolga, Stunfisk, Dedenne), etc.

It's called ODDS we have 100+ or just counting by evolution family like somewhere between 50-80 options to choose from (till Gen 6 where we've gone down to 32). They are not all going to be on the main cast.

Anyways, I got so tired hearing about 'patterns' one day I just sat down and went okay let's just see how many 'patterns' we have in the first place and all these coincidental dots started to connect.

The only 'patterns' I put any real faith in is the Five-Man Band formed between Pikachu and the Classical Elements Fire and Water are what they say on the tin Flying is Air, and Grass is the 'Mother Nature' aspect of Earth, to round things off we also tend to get Ground, the other aspect of Earth as the occasional Sixth Ranger. Heck Krookodile even had a 'rivalry' with Pikachu (The Leader).

Because these are the go to classical elemental powers for The Hero. I'm okay with this. If they ever choose to avert it I'm okay with that too.

Technically the anime takes what the games give and didn't have much of a choice when it came to the Fire/Flying Bird and just when I thought Fletchling would be pulling double duty as both the Fire & Flying Types they gave him the only other Flying Bird in the game.

I could get behind Ash getting a Tyrunt as his Gen 6 aversion to Reptiles Are Abhorrent. Also in my defense it isn't uncommon to use the words 'turtle', 'tortoise' or even 'terrapin' interchangeably when talking about them. They are all members of the Order of Testudines (Turtle just apparently became the common name when talking about them).

edited 4th Sep '14 9:32:04 AM by WorldTurtle

Regarding the "Will Ash get a Mega Evolution?" speculation, I'd just like to bring up the fact that having Ash and the protagonist of the Mega Specials meet and engage in a Mega Charizard X vs Mega Charizard Y battle would be completely epic.

I was thinking something like that would cap off Ash's League loss, assuming he does lose. It'd be the best way for him to lose ever because we'd actually meet the guy before the League and he was off having his own epic adventure!

Soo...even thought Serena was the first casualty in the 3-on-3, who wants to bet people are STILL gonna call her a Mary Sue because she won anyway?

She lost but won anyway, how does that work?

What three-on-three? What's happening? I don't understand anything anymore!

Serena was the first to lose, but Ash and Clemont won for the team.

Serena, Ash, and Clemont vs Trevor, Shauna, and Tierno. Just today.

why go with Mary Sue ? you could go with her being too much of a weakling even after 40 eps,if one wants to hate.