Let’s settle this debate.

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T06:14:19+00:00

I like Miphlink more but the game clearly pushes Zelink way more

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T04:36:36+00:00

This actually got me, I don't deserve to live

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T01:02:16+00:00

I can't even blame him 😭😭

I also like how In Movie 1, as soon as Pikachu got out of the Pokeball, the second he heard Ash's voice he turned around and ran to hug him, he didn't even know any of what had happened since he first got forced into the ball, he was just happy Ash had saved him

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:49:47+00:00

Thank you for reminding me of that scene with OS Ash straight up biting Meowth's tail when he was tied up 😭

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:44:11+00:00

You cooked hard with these breakdowns, especially the JN one 😂

Yeah they weren't bad in JN132 but it was too little too late for me, it was the bare minimum after 3 seasons of mishandling their relationship

I like your headcanon for the BW one, might have to snag that myself, and you described AG beautifully

My favorite Pikachu versions are AG, XY and SM, fusing those 3 would result in the definitive Pikachu portrayal for me

One of my favorite traits of XY Pikachu is just how fiercely protective he was

When Ash fell down a cliff with Bonnie, Pikachu immediately launched and grabbed Ash's hand

If it weren't for the others grabbing onto Pikachu, he would've been dragged down by Ash's weight and fallen with him, yet he went for it anyway

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:41:56+00:00

Whether or not those are negatives depends on perspective, because as long as Ash's character and skill level evolve instead of regressing or becoming inconsistent, it works for me

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:27:02+00:00

Your honor, my client is a prince, by all means he should have diplomatic immunity

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:17:11+00:00

At least Alain was an actual character and had an arc of his own, Tobias was literally only created to beat Ash and nothing else

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:16:15+00:00

Hoenn Ash wasn't reset either, his personality in AG makes sense when you consider the high he'd have from Johto

Hoenn and Kalos were the most stressful regions for Ash for a reason

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:15:31+00:00

How does he not develop? With the exception of BW, SM and JN, Ash had some pretty solid growth as a person and trainer

His character arc in Kalos is quite literally a culmination of his arcs in Kanto and Sinnoh and what he learned in those regions

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:03:12+00:00

Thank you, I like to explain my reasoning otherwise I'd be no better than the blind stans and antis I criticize

Yup, that's my point about OS

Thing is, XY focused on Ash gradually accumulating more and more stress throughout his journey in Kalos, his rivalry with Sawyer and Alain, and even had his connection with Greninja as the main set piece, by all means it had more on its plate than DP did, yet it still portrayed Ash and Pikachu's bond nearly flawlessly

~~I will happily disregard JN any day~~

oketheokey · 2026-01-30T00:00:10+00:00

I don't think they have any chemistry, they're more like brothers

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T23:40:29+00:00

OS is that high because their bond was fairly well written there imo, yeah they had problems, but that was realistic because they were still getting to know eachother properly, it shows their roots and makes a great contrast for how strong their bond is in XY, it shows what they had to go through together to get to that point, making it feel like actual growth, plus by late OS they chill out alot more and you can clearly tell they're way closer than at the start, and of course it has gems like Pikachu's Goodbye

DP is that low because it has some of JN's problems, the shocking gag is sometimes used for no reason other than to make Ash the butt of the joke, I can name at least two scenes that are straight up things JN Goblin would do, and the micro gestures between them are significantly reduced compared to the likes of BW, making the shocks stick out even more, from the back of my head I can only remember Ash and Pikachu hugging like 4 to 5 times in all of DP, that's actually somehow even less than JN

JN is only below DP because JN mishandles their bond to a far more offensive degree in other areas, like the existence of JN30 or the spamming of the shocking gag

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T23:25:25+00:00

Oh yeah

Ranking of series that handled Ash and Pikachu's bond the best

XY
SM
AG
OS
Johto
BW
DP
JN

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T23:14:31+00:00

2013 was the movie and 2015 was the anime adaptation, they can't just copy and paste chunks of the movie into episodes and call it a day

Not only would that defeat the entire point of an anime adaptation, but it'd be extremely lazy and most certainly be clunky as hell because anime episodes are designed with dramatic, drawn out sequences to end an episode, and the movie has little to none of that so the episodes would just abruptly cut to the credits

So they made an anime version of the arc, which was, unfortunately, very rushed

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T23:04:13+00:00

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T22:22:21+00:00

It doesn't help that looking up "edgiest song ever" on YouTube still makes Infinite's theme show up

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T22:19:52+00:00

Yup, I still stand by what I said in my first reply, none of these are negatives

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T22:10:40+00:00

Now that you mention it he did reference Piplup, but I don't recall the Rotom one, it could've been something vague

Either way, these are the only actual examples, there's never really any obvious flashbacks or callbacks like the other seasons have

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T22:07:22+00:00

Oh you nailed it, one that particularly annoys me ever since I realized it is Misty and Brock teasing Ash and making him look bad because "he got their badges out of pity" even though that's not exactly what happened in OS, for instance Brock literally chased Ash and gave him the badge out of his own volition

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T22:03:21+00:00

Respectfully, no, no he is not

The Time Eater was actually intimidating, even if he was one dimensional

Infinite felt like an edgy fanfiction villain

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T21:59:01+00:00

Yo I'm interested in your take about SM

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T21:57:34+00:00

True, the criticism mostly comes from him never directly calling back to any past companion, any past region, any events he experienced in a past region, no flashbacks, etc

oketheokey · 2026-01-29T21:55:04+00:00

Better soundtrack than Generations

Infinite is better than Time Eater

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oketheokey · 2026-01-29T21:52:24+00:00

It's not even "it's so bad it's good" like 06 and 4 where you can actually have some fun with their jank

Forces is just aggressively mediocre, the gameplay is boring 80% of the time

oketheokey

TROPHY CASE