Partially an appreciation post for Zoey. DP with very little argument had the best rivals of the series(sans personal opinion) but I think of the two main ones Zoey is underrated.

Paul is great in that he gives a motivation to his rivalry with the ideological clash as well as abandoning Chimchar. I do however feel that this is really all Paul has going for him in being Ash’s shadow. His rivalry with Ash didn’t have as much impact on himself as it did on Ash with mostly his losses against Brandon and Cynthia that got him to reevaluate his training methods. Though it is satisfying to see him slowly start to respect Ash.

Then we have Drew who arguably laid the groundwork for both DP rivals. He, due to contests having multiple direct matches, had much more interactions with May than any of Ash’s prior rivals. Plus thanks to Ash not having any recurring rivals in AG he really gets to shine as being a notable rival. While he antagonizes May to some extent he is shown multiple times to be a relatively good person helping May or her friends occasionally. That duality really helps fit the rivals not enemies role. Also because Advanced crossed both Hoenn and Kanto we did get to see May lose to him in a climactic match and win in a climactic match making it satisfying to see May’s development as a coordinator.

Then we have Zoey who is (to my current knowledge) the only rival to accomplish her goal within her original series. She provides a great contrast to Paul being a purely friendly rival rather than an antagonistic rival. Going a step further than Drew and actively helping and supporting Dawn with her coordinating. We see a couple times how she isn’t perfect with her losses to Nando and May but she remains a challenging obstacle for Dawn. As well as her own relationship with a best friend of hers in the form of Candice a they way they develop their parallel dreams. To top it off she, like Alain in the future, remains undefeated in a tense match against Dawn. I’d say her only and possibly fatal weakness as a rival is that she only went head to head with Dawn twice…

Even if you disagree with Zoey being the greatest rival in the anime you do have to admit she is the greatest friendly rival in the anime. I do also have to note that both Zoey and Drew benefited from essentially sharing their runtime with Dawn and May respectively compared to Ash who changed rivals which in turn solidified Zoey and Drew as arch rivals.

I saw someone else do one of these a while back and thought I’d give my take on all of them

I want to clarify that I’m not trying to be an authority on the topic nor are my takes “objectively correct” despite my constructed reasoning. I can make arguments to favor whatever ships I like, but it’s all subjective at the end of the day

I hope you all enjoy!

What if in a plot twist, it's revealed that Liko is Ash and Serena's daughter and Alex and Lucca are just her guardians or adopted parents?

I mean, Ash is the World Monarch and is targeted by villainous teams. Naturally, Ash and Serena want to protect their daughter.

Thoughts? Would this be thr ultimate victory for Amourshipping?

It's been a while since Ash had his goodbye but at the time I was just tired and didn't even care about pokemon that much. Journeys just felt way to flat and I had literal zero intein goh as he took all the negatives of ash and amped them up and had no positives to speak of in my mind.

That's not what I was thinking about though recently. I kept looking back at previous seasons wondering what if Ash won the leagues when I asked myself this.

Would Journeys had been better if instead of Ash being a researcher and having goh tag along what if the season was him revisiting the previous regions one after the other. Each time he called in his team from that region. He would then travel around and beat the gyms again not as a newbie but as someone at an 8th badge level against high end teams. the early fights in the league tournament might be a quick montage and could let him meat some of the people again from that region.

The whole time the masters 8 is going on in the background so by the time he finishes traveling around beating up to Kalos he gets into the top 8 where he ends up fighting the champs of each region.

By the end all of his old teammates are seen to be absolute beasts and everyone is back together. The season ends with him being crowned just like in the normal season.

His journey team just didn't need to really happen, though I did like his riolu/Lucario. It could have been full of some nostalgic moments with faces from past seasons. Maybe some callbacks to some of the movies that happened like him having a little spar with mewtwo in MT. Quena or a battle with the 3 birds near Shamouti. Maybe checked on Latias in Altomare or had an episode where Ash finds Celibi visiting with oak. Those types of things.

Anyway I just wanted to see how many people would have rather seen something like this over what we actually got.

I'll make two things clear

- no ship is objectively better than the other

- this is my own ranking so don't be a dick for it because I'm not telling anyone to agree with me

And here's on how I ranked them,

1. The ranking isn't based on hints (if it was Amour is #1) but on rather how their dynamics are with Ash

2. How much they can keep up with him

3. How much they know/understand him

4. How much they're similar to each other

5. How they balance each other's positive and negative traits

Lastly, I'd request to not start a war but I'm open for a healthy discussion. Again this is a subjective opinion since no ship is objectively better than the other as each attracts a different demographic of audience

Note: This is not hatred towards Armarouge himself, it's just a silly joke.

Original Screencap by Dragon Ball Z

If you could give any of Ash’s friends Pokemon that they could have caught after their debut series (Ex. Misty after the Original Series) which Pokemon would it be and why?

A little rushed comic but had fun making it lmao
Liko x Roy and Meowscarada x Skeledirge

Which of Ash's Pokemon, that are from different regions, do you think are good friends at Oaks lab?

The one thing I don't like about Iris is that she keeps calling Ash a little kid despite her being around the same age as him.

I know the idea of a Persian walking on two legs sounds ridiculous as heck, but considering in the anime, most normal Meowth walk on four legs, it makes me wonder

Could you get a pokemon to use explosion or smth

Ash being the knight and the prince for princess Diancie in movie 16

I still wished that Ash's Gible get a chanced to evolved all the way into Garchomp or at least evolved into Gabite during the battle against Conway at the Sinnoh League while final mastering Draco Meteor at the same time.

Because Ash's Gible is his very first Dragon type Pokemon that he caught and never gotten a chanced to evolved just like the rest of his Dragon type Pokemon which really sucks.

The Japanese writers could have used this opportunity in either Pokémon Black & White or Pokémon XY Series for Ash bring his Gible on his Journey in the Unova or Kalos Region so it can get a chance to evolve all the way into Garchomp just like Phanpy/Donphan and Aipom/Ambipom even though they choose to rejoin Ash's team.

I mean in Pokémon Sun & Moon Series Ash ride a Garchomp while part of the Ultra Guardians mission which makes sense and if Ash found a Garchompite in Pokémon Journey Series then he could Mega Evolved Garchomp into Mega Garchomp because it definitely suit Ash's team.

Albeit offscreen.

"*The Endless Zero! Until the Day We Meet Again!!" in Japanese

Ah yes, that episode that made the Pokemon fandom (the Amourshippers especially) lose their minds. And now ten years have passed since then. There have already been plenty of posts by now regarding this, but I figured I might as well pay tribute too.

After saying goodbye to Mairin, Alain, and Professor Sycamore, it was time for Ash and his Kalos friends to part ways. However, pulling a page from Piplup's book, Dedenne winds up throwing a tantrum over saying goodbye to everyone. Bonnie encourages and comforts it by going on about she wants Dedenne by her side when she becomes a trainer, and how she wants to measure up to her friends someday.

And now for the scene everybody talks about regarding this episode. I don’t know what I can say about this part that people haven’t already said. The entire series had Serena struggling with expressing her romantic feelings for Ash (and the few times she did flew over his head), and right as she's saying goodbye and leaving, she pulls the bold move of doing an actual lip-lock in front of all her friends (and you know it was actually lips-to-lips because why else would the camera pan away when Pokemon has shown kissing on-screen before?).

The rest of the episode is dedicated to a montage of what all the Kalos characters are up to as Ash flies back to Kanto. The final scene of the episode has Ash returning home, with no teaser of traveling to the next region (in a similar vein to Diamond & Pearl). Unlike previous series finales, which ended with "Next Time...... A New Beginning!", the episode, and the Kalos saga as a whole, ends with "And To Our Own Way."

IMO this was one of the best series finales Pokemon's had, and I swear I'm not just saying that because of that iconic scene. Most (if not all) series finales in the Pokemon series did a good job with saying goodbye to Ash's friends in that region, and this was definitely not an exception. Serena's "special goodbye" to Ash was just icing on the cake.

So what is your opinion on the XY finale ten years later?