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

Kaoz2014-04-26 11:17:24

So... Pokémon. About a year ago before Black and White 2 hit the States, I decided I had absolutely nothing better to do than marathon through the anime. Results were mixed, Kanto was a fun nostalgia rush, Johto was filler hell and I didn't remember that. As I was one of those kids who dropped the show when they dropped Misty, Hoenn onward was all new to me.

It was all going fine till Best Wishes Episode 1... but I digress. Long story short as I went through the show, I took notes, made comments, and had a fanmade timeline going, because yeah Comic-Book Time is one thing I get that, but did the narrator have to definitively say that he was still 10? When the audience can clearly see on his desk mementos Ash has gotten on his journey? Still, that's a rant for a later time.

Warnings, The follow posts will continue Enjoyment, Outrage, Swearing, and (worst of all) Personal Opinions and Fan Theories (The Horror!) If any poor soul is prepared to go on I just have one question: Are you a boy... or a girl... Welcome to the World of Pokémon off to Pallet we go. Here's what you're in for.

Evolutions count as seperate pokemon, assuming they evolved after capture. 69/647 out of 649 that Ash has caught/seen +3 Kalos Pokémon (Gogoat, Helioptile, Noivern) missing porygon2 and porygon-z

{pikachu, butterfree, pidgeot, bulbasaur, charizard, squirtle, kingler, primeape, muk, haunter, tauros {x30}, lapras, snorlax, bayleef, quilava, totodile, heracross, noctowl, donphan, larvitar, swellow, sceptile, corphish, torkoal, glaile, ambipom, staraptor, infernape,torterra, buizel, gliscor, gible, unfezant, oshawatt, pignite, snivy, scraggy, leavanny, palpitoad, boldore, krookidile} -1 if you only count aipom and not ambipom which I do, add +2 if you count the raticate and beedrill he had for like half an episode if that which I obviously do not.

1. times ash should have died= 26
2. of battles/badges ash won on technicality or cheating= 6/4
3. of battles/badges ash won fair and square= 206/47 (battles involving Team Rocket are not counted)
4. of battles lost= 52 (battles that are interrupted or uncompleted or that end in a tie are not counted)
5. times ash saved world= 11-15 (depending on the exact definition of world peril/Ash saving it)

Total eps that are "bad" filler and can be cut: 251/800

Total eps that are IMO opinion terrible enough to be non-canon: 5

Level of Canonicity each movie has from high to low, 1st [] definite canon, 2nd pretty much canon, 3rd circumstantial evidence in canon, 4th nothing says it can't be canon, 5th incompatible with canon:

[8,1,10],[4,2,13],[3,7,5,11,6,16],[9,12,15],[14]

Personal Enjoyment Rankings for the movies 1st [] must watch, 2nd good, 3rd poor but watchable, 4th terrible:

[9,8,3,1],[13,5,14,2,11],[12,16,15,10,4],[7,6]

(Posted July 19, 2013)

How this guide/time-line/dissertation/rant thingy/WTFIDK/huge block of text is organized...

1st is an abridged episode guide with all (bad) filler episodes skipped and about where the movies fit in the time-line placed accordingly, for any future viewers.

2nd is the actual time-line of Ash's journey with accompanying episode # and brief summary of what happens, followed by any personal thoughts I had/have when I watched it (note filler episodes are included in this.)

3rd Character-specific bios/rants, 4th Ash's trainer stats for the region, 5th Any final thoughts on eps,movies, whatever I didn't go over yet... I hope at least one person is interested enough to read this, so it doesn't feel like I wasted my time for nothing... Anyway enjoy.

Comments

WorldTurtle Since: Dec, 1969

Mar 7th 2014 at 11:21:22 AM

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

CaellachTigerEye Since: Dec, 1969

Aug 1st 2014 at 2:03:05 AM

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. :)