I dunno, Roy before the timeskip didn't remind me of Ash at all. He felt very different for the first year and a half of the series, with his singing and stuff. But post-timeskip Roy definitely feels more like an Ash stand-in, and not just because of the Lucario. His character is written now like a mix of late DP/XY Ash, and it feels a bit weird.
I do think this is exactly why they made Liko more important for most of the series, to avoid making the character who came after Ash just feel like a carbon-copy. Making the show more female-centered for most of it was a smart move, so you don't feel like Ash 2.0 being around.
Edited by precita on Jul 2nd 2025 at 8:09:20 AM
I think if Roy had a clear character growth arc like Dot and Liko did he would resonate more with but eh it's probably just me. He's obviously a bit different from Ash (he lacks OG Ash's rudeness for instance) when he started but he still feels like the standard boy protagonist. I don't think he would change that much in a year personality wise. Singing with Crocalor used to be his thing but he barely does it now.
Honestly the time skip felt like it was 2-3 years in the future.
Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 2nd 2025 at 1:47:12 PM
Macron's notesLegit Roy and his annoying Lucario has basically muted my enjoyment of the anime, at least Ash having Pokemon that could beat Champions made sense since we saw them from the moment they got caught
Is like when you begin a new RPG and then get some free overpowered characters that trivializes everything or in Pokemon terms, begin a new game blind and then use the free Mewtwo
Edited by Roliq on Jul 3rd 2025 at 6:17:18 AM
Tbh sometimes I feel like Go would have fit Horizons more than JN. Go was all about exploring and meeting new pokemon, and the Project Mew missions were like prototype versions of the Lucius/legendary raid battles we get in Horizons.
I honestly think if Go and Roy were swapped series, it might be better. Go almost feels like he came one series too early.
This is petty but I actually hope Roy doesn't end up catching Black Rayquaza in series proper even though i know thats what will happen.
Macron's notesThey actually could of done something with Ash doing the PWC while a companion does the traditional Galar Gym leader 8 badge quest, that way all the Galar Gym leaders could have been shown even if Ash didn't battle them all.
In the 25 years Ash's series went on, they purposely prevented any of his companions from taking on the Gym quest. None of the female companions were allowed to do Gyms, and of course none of the male companions. It was especially notable that it seemed off-limits as long as Ash was around.
^^ Yeah that's when they also has Ash try contests right? Think they decided to try out each other's paths. Honestly, I kinda wish they went further with it as Dawn was essentially a co protagonist. I can see why it would seem repetitive to watch two gym battles and possibly more than one rematch
Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 3rd 2025 at 1:21:16 PM
Macron's notes![]()
Yes, but they did have the rivals challenge additional gyms offscreen and show unidentifiable badges. I guess they thought having Ash challenge original gyms himself (besides in the Orange Islands, and a few others like Dorian whose Gym was unofficial anyway) would deviate from the games too much, or something like that.
I don't think it's possible for her to get a mega anymore, also it's been a year in universe you would think that Charcadet would have evolved by now.
Edited by The-Azure-Star-Of-Orion on Jul 4th 2025 at 11:24:37 AM
After 10 year plus years I have the confidence to be here. My one and only Fate servent.I haven't watched the last three eps yet but according to the footnotes I read, he is still MIA and I don't think Zirc and Onia were shown again after Hamber gave them the mission to seek him out.
EDIT: Ninjaed but I wonder if they will hit two birds with one stone and feature Friede and Amathio re-appearing in the same episode
Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 5th 2025 at 5:48:07 AM
Macron's notesI believe they popped up briefly still searching for him last week, and they are going to pop up again next week.
Man, Zirc and Onia are like if Jessie and James dumped Meowth and you know, stopped being idiots.
Well, they're still idiots, but they're idiots who've changed things up a bit by not being with the evil team anymore.
One Strip! One Strip!For some reason, Zirc’s name in Japanese (in English, they changed Zir and Conia to Zirc and Onia) is apparently officially romanized as “Gilles”, despite obviously being derived from “zirconia”.
Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!If not Gilles, the other more phonetically accurate romanization for ジル would have been Jīru or Jir it looks like his name was romanized by sound and not the intended meaning. Romanization can be tricky sometimes.
Also, not sure if the Gilles romanization is what the show/franchise actually uses or if it was unofficially created by fans.
Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 5th 2025 at 6:37:09 AM
Macron's notes

Eh, to be fair Pokemon has had the boy-girl pairing in it since its inception.
Granted it'd be more interesting if the girl was the fighter of the two this time around.