Follow TV Tropes

Live Blogs The Great Walk to Masterhood: "Gotta Ketch'um": The Story of Ash
Kaoz2013-10-29 01:26:43

Go To


How it all Begins: From Pallet to Pewter, and Rockets Beyond

Ep guide for Kanto and the Orange Islands... 1-7,10-17,19,21-32,37, spec.Snow Way Out, 39-43,45, 46,48,50,51,57-59,61-65, 69+70,m1,72-86,91,93+94,96-100,103-106,108,m2,110-116 (done) so 31 eps are cut.

Bare Bones for Kanto and the Orange Islands... 1-7,10-12,14,21-24,31,43,46,50,58+59,63,65,m1,74-86,93+94,103,105,108,m2,111-113,115+116 (end) (lose a number of great char. eps, mostly TR+ fun side stuff)

(Written circa 2012)

Kanto (1-82) ...day 52 is 11th birthday

day 1 ash gets pikachu, meets misty, ho-oh, and team rocket that night. {ep1+2}

The beginning, and as opening episodes go, Pokémon has a pretty good one, getting its premise across and its plot started up straight from the get go, Ash Ketchum Pokémon Master... eventually. Compare to say Naruto, whose 1st episode minus the prologue and Mizuki fight appears to be a comedy about ninja, and the slapstick continues until episode 6 in Wave when you realize no, its an action show about ninjas or Bleach which gets its characters across just fine but the main crux of the plot (for better or worse) the soul society only gets a brief mention until episode 14.

Speaking of characters, there's this writing trope called an establishing character moment, a scene in which a character does or says something that gets at the heart of who they are, case in point that 90 second scene with Ash protecting Pikachu from the spearows, that's all you need to know about Ash... dumb as a brick but his heart's in the right place and if nothing else, he's got balls. Not much to say about episode 2 except yay Team Rocket, and that Ash should have died twice already.

OK, I know he's the main character in a shounen anime geared towards kids, but there are limits. Pikachu gets rid of the spearows with Thunder, and they're just gone... not they flew away, or fainted, or even died, more like they disintegrated... and Ash was right behind him when he let loose... and the 2nd episode is when the Pokémon Center explodes due to Koffing's gas reacting towards the massive shock from the Center's Chus helping out Ash's Pikachu juice up and again Ash is right there next to Pikachu.

(Jul 2013)

I guess I should be blunt about my fanon timeline, it's accelerated and squished together as much as is feasible, for instance I assume that they don't stay a day in Viridian or anywhere else to rest/restock before heading out, unless stated otherwise Brock handles it off screen. All references to how much time has passed within the show will be ignored, as majority are dub only. It's just me noting sun-ups and moon rises and guestimating from there. Other assumptions include, Ash not sleeping very much because whether noon or night that boy is as chipper as ever and still trekking, and also that Ash can walk really fast... that will be be explained later in the commentary.

Lastly random trivia to explain my note about his supposed birthday, Takeshi Shudo the chief writer and director for the entire original series Kanto-Johto and the first 3 movies as well as Mewtwo Returns, wrote an official novelization stating that Ash's birthday is May 22, couple that with the conceit that Ash's journey begins on April 1, when the 1st episode aired, that means Ash is actually almost 11 by the time he starts. April 1st—-> May 22nd= 52 days.

Finally, the 1st ep, is such a good example of introductory story plotting that after having watched it all and rewatched some more, it's still one of my favorites.

(2012)

day 2 ash catches caterpie {ep3}

day 3 ash catches pidgeotto,team rocket begins their unending quest,caterpie evolves into metapod {ep3}

Not much to say, except Misty never introduces herself, what I mean is that Ash's first line is asking why she's following him around when she's afraid of bugs, and he calls her by name, but in the first two episodes it doesn't get a mention... yay off screen info dump. (2013) String Shot stalled Team Rocket out heh, nice to see Pikachu already growing into a leader/mentor role when he consoles the saddened worm that night

day 4 metapod evolves into butterfree {ep4}

Samurai, the first 1-episode character... is a retarded psychotic maniac! He attacks Ash with a sword when he's about to get a Weedle, then blames Ash for letting the weedle escape and summon a beedrill swarm! Then he says that Ash left Metapod behind when he's the one that dragged Ash away before he could rescue him. Screw that guy. (2013) One year later... yep, still a major tool... How did he deserve a spot in the 2nd opening theme?

day 6-7 ash loses to Brock, wins their rematch getting 1st badge and Brock joins the group {ep5}

I'm going to defend Ash getting this badge, first Onix got doused with water from the sprinklers before the electricity hit sorta like a manufactured version of the move Soak which changes the opponent's type to water, secondly Ash actually tries to forfeit the match and refuse the badge saying the sprinklers coming on were a freak accident.

(2013) yeah I didn't really go into too much detail with the plot summaries or analysis for a good chunk of Kanto and parts of Johto, mostly because it wasnt new to me personnally and there wasn't much (besides Samurai) for me to bitch about. The summaries will get progressively more weighty. As for that major thing I skipped with Brock in Ep 5, ie. his family situation, be at ease I tackled that mess later on in character discussion at the end of the region. Also I'm still kinda iffy about how to denote from what was written a year ago, from what I'm adding in... for any readers (if they exist) do the time stamps help?


Next time... "The Ball Keeps on Rolling, Though How We Got Here I Haven't A Clue" or "Rostered Out, Ready for Trouble, Doubling Towards Vermillion" Eps 6-14

Comments

ReikoKazama Since: Dec, 1969
Jul 22nd 2013 at 3:14:37 AM
Oh-ho-ho, I'm gonna love this.
Top