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Yeesh, I hope this will end up being an entertaining analysis instead of a sinkhole for opinion. Because if it is, I ain't reading further.

This looks very interesting. Can't wait to see how this liveblog goes.

Considering you've commented on a later post, I assume you read on and found this at least mildly entertaining. I hope that's the case anyway.

So Ash has won 206 Battles and lost 52? That's not bad really. Especially not as bad as Ash-Haters make him out to be.

I laughed at the first statistic being 'times Ash should have died'... Mostly because I've considered making the same list myself more than once.

Oh-ho-ho, I'm gonna love this.

I laughed so hard at the wedding line, you have no idea.

I personally disliked that Butterfree left so soon into the show, and so soon after pointedly [i]not[/i] giving him up. But the episode itself was good. Although, it could have been better if Butterfree had a chance to show off his psychic techniques.

Butterfree used Confusion! Rocketcopter was defeated! Ash: Whoa! That was amazing! When did you learn that? Brock: Wait, you didn't know? Butterfree learn psychic attacks very soon after their evolution. I can't count how many times they gave me a hard time back at the gym! Ash: Uh, really? Misty: How can you be a great trainer if you can't keep track of your pokemon's moves?

Personally, my Shipping Goggles reaction was that he was thinking 'Oh my god she CAN be fancy', as opposed to the tomboyish girl he'd been dealing with up to that point. Yeah, Sabrina TERRIFIED me as a kid.

Yeah, I still never got to this day why Ash decided to leave his Primeape? All of his work dealing with the Pokemon and eventually becoming his friend all just to threw him to some other trainer to never see him again. At least with some of his other Pokemon he abandoned, he at least visits them or puts them back in the team for battle. However, he never visits or comes back to Primeape, shame because Primeape could've been a pretty cool team-member.

Preaching to the choir. Although it might be because he's in the show for such a little amount, Primeape being left doesn't bother me that much except in how stupid the action was, Pidgeot and Ambipom get a worse deal in my opinion, which you'll read about... if you care to go on that is.

Yeah, poor Pidgeot...

I believe he wanted to spare Growlie his harsh, criminal life. Although why he left him in the first place is still up for debate.

Yeah, I admit its always disappointing go through a Battle Tournament arc because no matter how strong his pokemon should be and how hard he tries. Ash never gets a break and always loses to some over-powered player introduced to win the tournament instead of Ash. I'm not a big fan of Ash as a character but seriously this guy never gets a break.

I love that theory. It explains so much.

Why is it whenever Pokemon is mentioned, someone brings up Sailor Moon? Not that I don't love that series(I do), but it's weird since one is totally shonen and the other utterly shojo...

Since only a single opponent was shown in the Orange League "Championship", my headcanon was that the Orange League was a "No Game Character Were Harmed" version of the Elite Four because Writers Forbid we let Ash win against an actual Elite Four member. In light of the Battle Frontier, I reclassified them as being a similar order.

Summation, Ash excels at objective standards but when he's up against the luck of the draw, he strikes out.

That thought about why Ash doesn't use his old teams in new regions occurred to me too, but it really needs to be explicitly stated.

You know in the Donphan episode Ash (and Brock) wanted to catch it. Later, Ash gets a Phanpy. Just some bit of trivia to throw out there. This seems to happen every now and then: Ash encounters a Pokemon-doesn't catch it, but then catches another one of the species (or at least part of it's evolution line later) later. Pidgey (first episode), later catches Pidgeotto. The Corphish in AG 21, then catches one in AG 23. I suppose Flannery's Torkoal and Ash's Torkoal might count as an example as well. In Sinnoh the Gible Khoury caught, while Ash soon caught his own. In Unova we had Sandile (though unlike the others that was the same one).

^ I'm torn between accepting Unova as canon and invoking Fanon Discontinuity.

Personally, the problem I had with the Ecruteak episodes was that they shoved the Brass tower and Lugia out of Ecruteak's history. I suppose that at the time they didn't have the Whirl Islands plot in mind.

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.

I think the intended idea behind the Whiscash episode is that: "This isn't an RPG Mechanics Universe, there are logical ways around things that never fail in the games." I know they never said that the ball was fake. That said, I believe that Whiscash was caught from inside after it goes back underwater and was washed out to sea without anyone knowing. Serves it right.

That'd make sense, and also add precedent for how May gets Munchlax later. Thanks for pointing that out.

No, the conversation is:

Late comment is late, but for that comment I award you one rice ball... I mean jelly doughnut.

Maybe May did run after Ash independently, but Max got there first. He came with Professor Birch at the end of AG 132 and Ash was more excited to see him than he was to see Misty. May didn't rejoin the group until AG 133. I was under the initial impression that she went after Max.

I still can't believe Misty not sticking around, why is she even helping Daisy in the first place? Her sisters' doucheness was established within the first ten episodes of the original series, I mean, really!

I always contend that, with regard to the Brains, the Anime goes by Asskicking Equals Authority:

• Number of Legendaries for the other Brains discounting Noland's factory: 2, both in Gold rounds
• Number of Legendaries for Anabel: 3 (1 Silver, 2 Gold)
• Number of Legendaries for Brandon: 6 (2 complete sets, 1 per level.)

Incidentally, the 2 legendaries for the other brains prevent Anabel from having a set of her own (L@tias and the Gerbils.)

And, presuming your theory holds, Ash should remember the old adage (or Charizard): You play with fire, you get burned.

Ahaha, I love how you look at how the writing team gives more respect to Dawn than they ever did anyone in their series.

I hope you remember to mention all the stupidity around what she and Paul do.

I think I remember this, the thing that bugged me about Paul applying metagame logic here is that he's applying it to the common Starly. You can search all you want for the strongest bird, but you're better of just training the one you have IMO.

I really like that bit about how Paul was created specifically to piss Ash off, I never thought of it that way!

No, they fired all of those writers after the Team Galactic story ended. But that's for later in the show.

Ahahahahaha! I bet anything those writers were fired; they did drastically change the animation after all. And Paul IS a cunt, but that's why I like his character. The fact that this show—this delightfully cheesy and cutesy show—was able to pull that off decently impresses me.

Yeah, stuff like that is why this show bothers me sometimes. In a better written show those plotholes would have addressed, or at least mentioned. I didn't like Paul at all when I first saw him. I think I started to like him around the whole Snowpoint City thing, when we learn more why he is an ass. I actually thought he was FROM Snowpoint City for a while since that's where half his development occurs. And he gets better at the end; not EXTRAORDINARILY better, just a tad, but it was good enough for me.

Pun... Um... I don't know, actually. I'll look it up and get back to you.

I think Paul was more annoyed that Reggie just stopped and never really bothered to continue getting stronger, so he vowed that he would be stronger always. Still, yeah, that doesn't excuse much.

You were remiss in that the Camp featured the girl that, at least for my part, would be named: "Most Likely to Gain a Post in Ash's Harem Without Having Traveled With Him".

Yeah, as an avid fanfic reader I can vouch that Donald is VERY right. Angie is practically in every harem-eaque fic... It's kinda irritating by now.

Sir or madam, do you write fanfictions or anything else? I would enjoy reading them. You are quite funny. xD

I think Deoxys is the Boring Pokemon.

Unfortunately, someone in the writing staff in Japan thinks Empoleon is ugly, so Piplup will never evolve because of it.

PIMPQUIN. If I ever train an Empoleon again I'm naming it that! :D

I'm not a Piplup person, anime or no anime.

heh heh, I like Paul now, but I loved that Brandon episode for the same reasons. xD

I still hate Paul with a passion. I never did like him, or his hair. Who has hair that shade of purple?!

Can I just say I don't like Lyra? I mean, she's okay as a character, but the thing is... I hate her because of her hat. It's weird, but true.

I've always thought that one reason why Kenny likes Dawn was because of that incident. Sparkles make everything better. Don't know what that says about Kenny, though.

Incidentally, I think that even without Ash, Kenny's just out of luck when it comes to romancing Dawn. Three words: Gary! Explicative! Oak! Could you imagine the sort of monster he'd be if he discovers that Dawn does cheerleading on the side? That could be enough to get him out of retirement, turning Pokepan into a burning wasteland while Ash is abroad.

So, would you be interested in adding in one more traveler to the FLS? And, no, I'm not talking about the one debuting in the next post, I'm talking about the one that would debut in Entry #61.

Also, the seven murder attempts. Get someone that writes holy texts for a living!

A bunch of Sunkern?! I lost it. MY SIDES.

I pity you. Going from the impressive outro of the Sinnoh series straight into the harsh dumbing down of Unova without going completely mad takes a lot of mental strength. Of course, once you start seeing all the crap to do with Team Plasma, Inassure you your faith in humanity will be lost.

Yea to the above, but let not your heart be troubled, this will end. Best Wishes, I mean. And with what replaces it, well if it wasn't for an Early-Bird Cameo plus the obligatory "Bus" Episode (which is probably far off), we could consider this saga non-Canon. Ah, perchance to dream...

But without "Mr. Perfect Connoisseur," Burgundy wouldn't have a rival. Unless you wanted them swapped. Perhaps that would be a story?

That is indeed exactly what the title of this post implies.

Having Cilan be the untouchably better but hardly appearing rival to Burgandy as a callback to the Kanto Gary-Ash deal, having Iris be a more inexperienced trainer with a memorable schtick ala Casey (but this time with her own distinct rival due to Georgia/Langley) and having Bianca act as the audience surrogate for the saga/region due to her explicit lack of knowledge and out there personality would have made for a much less painful slog through Unova.

Incidentally, the way the Dub (at least) fills the BW37 Plot Hole is to temporarily give Ash the Smart Ball and scan Yamask for Bianca's benefit.

To the above, I will say this - it helps that Ash and Co. had met that other Yamask, back in BW014, at the Museum, so him scanning it for himself seems really silly. It's part of the problem of Ash's travelling companions not carrying Dexs of their own, unlike AG and DP - and it's odd that Bianca didn't use hers more, when she appeared.

So I too give the writers props for turning Ash's scanning into the Smart Ball and doing it for Bianca (as best they can). I still mentally edit out Bianca leaving though, since I prefer the episode being the final part of Castelia (like it was meant to be, and it better explains Bi's presence in the group (whereas she otherwise appears out of nowhere, suddenly with them which is not how this show typically rolls).

Okay I love your teasers to the movies. Ash being so nonchalant about it is hilarious.

Despite the maps in the anime looking just like the games, I always got the impression that they actually look rather different than the games. Castelia City, for instance, is actually more on the south-east coast of the Central Unova region, rather than smack-bang on the southern-central coast like in the games. Desert Resort is due west in the mainland, which is the direction they flew in for the aborted 2-part arc (it's also quite massive relative to Unovan land mass overall area, but not as all-encompassing).

Therefore after their not-adventure in the Desert Resort and Ash getting a badge, they are travelling along the eastern (and central) part of Central Unova, far enough from the desert that we don't see it but far enough inland that we don't see the coast. That's also why it takes 24/25 episode of travel in-between the two Gym Cities (I say 24/25 because it depends on whether you consider the Fishing competition episode to be in Castelia like it's meant to be, or later where the writers want us to think it's actually in).

To recap, the not-adventure in (aborted) 23-24 is all we see of Desert Resot (plus more of Castelia), and after their adventures in the area(s) they bypass the desert and travel along greener terrain more to the east until they pass it, then go more central until Nimbasa (City, not Town). This lasts 24 episodes. :)

Nope... sorry mate, you blundered there. Big time.

The movie(s) take place in between the Archeops episode BW036 (though it should be BW037), and Luke's introductory episode BW038.

See, this is actually WHEN they were meant to air in the original Japanese debuts of the episodes - with M14, both versions, in the week between those two. Because two episodes were scrapped, all the OTHER episodes got pulled back two weeks, and because of that the movie first debuted right after the first Club Battle arc episode (BW039. THIS is why you're confused, dear boy.

Not only that, but the viewers in Japan had ANOTHER week in which the anime took a break (for Naruto Shippuden to have a double-episode, which was caught up with the Nimbasa Subway 2-parter), which meant that after Part One of the Nimbasa Town 4-part Tournament, they had two weeks of nothing PKMN related before the next 3 episodes aired, week after week.

6 weeks waiting for a single arc to wrap up could not have been fun back in Japan, and the sad thing is that the gap was meant to be just before they met Luke. I can't help but wonder if this is the reason they did stupid sh*t like throwing a Filler episode in the middle of the Unova League - because for some reason, they thought the audience didn't have the attention-span togo for more than 3 episodes without some sort of break

Gah... Stupid earthquake/tsunami for ruining things so much - bad enough you KILLED people, including kids, but then you couple that with braindead writers and... kablamo! Not that the show didn't have problems already in BW (so much wasted potential, even for me), but throwing the blame in the wrong place like I think the writers did (which is why the so-called "World" Junior Cut was such a farce) just makes it worse...

I'm going to go into a corner and cry, before I plot to write fanfiction which makes SOME of this stuff look better than canon made it...

Honestly, if you need three big exceptions that all take multiple episodes, you really shouldn't be saying this generation is good. I also notice you fail to mention how stupid and contrived the Kamen Rider parody is, or how it takes an in-universe Memetic Badass and turns him into an Idiot Hero.

And what do you mean, "Ash is at the top of his game in the 15th movie"? All he did was stalk Keldeo. He didn't try to fight at all.

Point of order, grasping at straws with the Kamen Rider thing I'll admit that, but I wanted to at least say something positive, the exceptions thing was a joke as I sincrely do hate Best Wishes except for like... 6 episodes-ish and I meant the 14th movie(s) with Victini and the dragons. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Ah. And actually, that is unjustified hate for associating a reference with the rest of the generation.

I guess not everyone likes the Striaton Triplets, because I'm fine with them and so I don't dislike the episode (even if I think the 4-move thing is utterly contrived for the anime).

With Skyla, I don't have as much a problem as some other people do with her - she's not a completely hateable character to me, it's just that the idea is so bloody silly, which is why Volkner works better. It's like the writers wanted to go back to Kanto so much in terms of storytelling and arcs, without realising that not everything from Season One was good. That's why there's over 20 episodes between Gyms (similar to nearly episodes between Fuschia and Cinnebar in Season 1), or Skyla being like Erika in being bratty/immature given her job.

This is actually why I liked Clemont's arc from early XY so much - like Skyla, he wanted more free time from the Gym to do something he loves, but unlike her not only is his solution far less ridiculous, it's handled so much bloody better overall (which also helps Clem grow as a character and in likeability). Both people are well-meaning (which is what the writers are going for), both make mistakes which they're meant to be called on, but Clemont's is handled much better overall.

That said, I actually thought the battles with Skyla were structured reasonably well overall. Not the best, but better than some (especially that travesty with Elesa - talk about a total waste of potential!)

Personally, I would've had Cilan v Skyla end in a tie. This would dumbfound Skyla, ("Inconceivable!") and open her up to a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Cilan. Granted, it would likely have prevented Ash's Gym Battle from happening until after the Clubsplosion, but we may have seen some Character Development as a result... yeah...

Regarding [up], maybe the BW writers were industry-standard hacks who only saw that "X was successful, so we should copy X"; whereas the XY crew are Promoted Fanboys (and girls) whose fan-views give them some insight as to "what works here and now."

Actually, my impression of the Movie 15 placing - again different from yours - is that it would be after Iccirus City, but before they get on the boat to Virbank. Which could'' actually happen between BW080 and BW081, plus it actually corresponds with where the Sacred Swordsmen/Musketeer Trio fall in the games (in a marshland west of the Bridge that leads from Western Unova to Central Unova).

I think this might be because they were forced - most likely - to create a new Season 2 arc in correspondence with the sequels. A theory on the YMMV page (which I think was since removed for distillation on the page) seems to suggest that they probably planned the story at least up until Iccirus City, but everything after that was changed by both the sequels and by the disaster that scrapped the 2-parter... but this is just my theory, what do I know.

I still don't think the movie is meant to be before Iccirus, though, and you can't make me budge from that position...

You... don't recall a two-part battle in a Gym? Really?

OK, let me remind you of Juan at Sootopolis City Gym, back in Hoenn. It was a 5-on-5 match, and it took the better part of two episodes to play out in full.

You are right of course, but in my mind I had seperated the Juan battle into a set-up and then a delivery rather than a cut in the middle of the battle type deal, so I forgot about it completely.

I know this is months late, but still - thanks for acknowledging it.

You're not totally wrong about that either, though - there is often some set-up before the battle. Of course, this happens here, too - and also with the final match with Gary at the Silver Conference.

If you remember, the first 2/3 or even 3/4 of the first episode (of Ash vs. Gary) were build-up, and only 1 vs. 2 Mons were knocked out by each of them (Ash and Gary), with the remainder playing out next episode (and the last 5 minutes weren't battling, either).

So it's more of a technicality thing... just like the Harrison battle starting at the very end (without any battling, just first Mons on either side sent out), and most of that one played out in the next episode until only Blaziken and Charizard were left.

Really, it's no big deal, and you do recognise that you sometimes forget things, which is only human after all. ;D

So we have:

Trolltchie Trollison Trollson Trollbias and now Trolltetsu

More like Trolleron. Darn, one letter off and Virgil would've won by Capture!

Well, Manon from the Mega Evolution Special made a mention about Ash's heroics during the Garchomp Incident, so it hasn't gone completely unnoticed by everyone except Serena. Also to note, this perhaps the first time that Ash is no longer accompanied by a big brother mentor (unless you count Tracy), considering Clemont's lack of confidence and his wish to have the same courage as Ash.

Froakie was the best part of the two-partner IMO. He saw through TR's disguises and how he joined Ash's team was adorable. Also marks the first time a Starter has been caught first before either the Bird or the Bug.

YAY!! I didn't read all 61 pages, but I read enough that I'm looking forward to more analyses. :D

I wonder if this blog is ever going to be updated?