Headscratchers / Ashes of the Past

• Wait a minute. Why couldn't Arceus have done anything himself about Cyrus?
  • 1. He's an Eastern conception of the creator god, very powerful but not omnipotent like the modern Western conception, and 2. He works in mysterious, Ash-centric ways.
    • OBJECTION!!! If he can create the Poke-gods of space, time, and antimatter, then stopping ONE human from doing something stupid should be easy for him.
    • Author here. Basically, he didn't notice until time was already imploding, so was somewhat limited in his options. (Watsonian explanation). Or, for the Doylist explanation, it's the reason for the time travel to set the plot off...
    • Oh...Also, are you going to continue the fic past Black and White?
    • Just noting that with Cyrus' Dilaga mucking up the rules of time around about the time WHEN he had his Victory, that made it impossible for Arceus to directly interfere with said event. So, the ony way He could sop it is by sending someone - in this case, Ash - back to before Cyrus' Victory to stop it before the fixed point in time made from the Victory happens, thereby making it no longer a fixed point in time - or so to refrence Dr. Who.
    • And thanks to Ash having the GS ball during the battle against Team Galatic - both this timeline's and the original timeline's, Arceus was finally able to pass Judgement on Cyrus.
• Oh boy. How's Saphroneth going to get around the introduction of the Fairy type?
  • He's mentioned he's going to invoke Cosmic Retcon
    • Which he just did.
• At what point of the Unova sage did the world end?
  • Mad Writter is guessing between Skyla and Roxie
  • He did recognize Genesect, so perhaps sometime past that movie is another possibility. During the film he had absolutely no idea what it was after all, yet he could tell what it was in Misty's battle in the center of the mind
    • Plus, he also knew about the 'other' Mewtwo which was involved in said film. So it would be after that, but before X/Y.
    • The revamped Prologue explains that it was while he was at the Delcore Islands, just after New Tork.
• Early on, Ash goes to Cameron to get Aaron's outfit and free Lucario from the staff. He says it is Aaron's clothing is the costume he got originally. This does not make sense since Aaron died in the Tree of Beginning with that same clothing on (sans the gloves which he took off but are still in the tree). Where did that outfit come from? Did Aaron have spares?
  • I believe they eventually mentioned that those were spares.
• Why did Misty's Togetic evolve into Togekiss upon being reminded? When Bulbasaur was reminded, he didn't evolve to his final stage, and all the Pokemon that are reminded evolve back to the stage they were in before time broke?
  • Chapter 19: Misty forgot her anger, staring at the face of perhaps her most beloved of Pokémon. Others felt to her like allies, comrades… Togekiss (as she had learned her little Togepi had evolved into shortly before the end) felt like a daughter. In other words, she evolved offscreen at some point between Togepi Mirage and the Decolore arc.
• So, in chapter 87, Saph's author's notes on the Take That! to 4Kids Entertainment Pokémon Trainer's Choice makes it seem like all of the questions were incorrect. However, starting with Clamperl of Wisdom!, the questions got a lot better. There were two incorrect ones (Stating Teddiursa would last longer against a Psychic-type move instead of Poochyena and Kirlia would win in a fight against Arcanine (at the time)). There were three true at the time (Stating Tangela didn't evolve, Flaffy wasn't pure Normal-type and Ralts kept the same type when it evolved), two true but questions (saying Castform wasn't a Water-type despite its ability and saying Salamence was weak to its own type despite the fact that Graveler was too) and one eh... question (saying that Mudkip was the best choice against Plusle and Minun instead of Treecko despite the fact that Electric-types don't resist Water-type moves). These can be seen here starting at Pokemon S 8 E 1 Clamperl Of Wisdom.