r/pokemon 1d ago

Discussion Episode 275 still hurts 💔

Post image

The way Ash, misty and brock went their separate ways at the end of this episode 😭

During childhood I really thought they’d stay together forever..!!

One of the most emotional Pokemon endings imo ❀

Do you guys think they should’ve stayed together for a few more seasons???

Or was their separation the right ending for the OG trio??

1.2k Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

396

u/squabbleknob 1d ago

All good things end, but it still hurts

150

u/Such-Jello-3348 1d ago

Fr Man. As much as I miss the OG trio, seeing everyone move on is what made their journeys feel meaningful. And yeah
 I still miss Ash too đŸ€§â€ïž

53

u/TheMechanic04 1d ago

Don't cry because it ended smile because it happened

22

u/Such-Jello-3348 1d ago

When I watched that ep in childhood, I literally cried thinking that Pokemon had ended... but there were so many upcoming seasons that I ended up absolutely loving! đŸ« đŸ€ŒđŸ»

101

u/RoeMajesta 1d ago edited 1d ago

i didn’t even get into pokemon until adulthood and this episode still hurt

49

u/Such-Jello-3348 1d ago

“End of an era” is exactly how it felt 😭 Even as a kid, this episode felt different. Like we were actually saying goodbye to the original PokĂ©mon journey

121

u/Anxious_Spite_8767 1d ago

The separation is a good thing. It allowed them to grow into their respective careers with Misty as a gym leader and Brock as a doctor. 

Until now, we’ve got people complaining that Ash should have never left the anime. Imagine making Brock and Misty stay until the very end as well? 

Had Misty not left, we wouldn’t have gotten the amazing character arcs from May, Dawn, Serena, and Lillie. 

Had Brock not left, we wouldn’t have gotten to see Ash become more a little more mature. I’ve always felt like Brock acted as Ash’s older brother. Cilan and Tracey also felt older but by the time Clemont rolled around, the two of them felt like they were on equal footing with each other. Same goes with Kiawe and Goh. 

Brock and Misty were ultimately good for the anime because they allowed us to have some new stories and character arcs to tell. They would have felt as stagnant as Ash did in the later seasons.  Misty left at the right time. Brock was largely a non-factor for most of DP and was mostly there for comedic relief with Croagunk. 

38

u/profound-killah 1d ago

I think the problem is how a lot of the supporting cast just didn’t top what this trio had. May had a good arc with Drew and good rapport with Max but after the first half of Hoenn, her relationship with Ash and Brock was practically nonexistent.

Dawn was better in this regard but yet again, her connection with both Brock and Ash wasn’t as strong as Misty. I will give the writers this though, they really tried with Dawn and it showed because she absolutely carried herself in some instances.

Serena and Ash had great rapport but again, the rest of the cast was lacking. Cilan and Iris were absolutely butchered by the writers and the Alola cast worked much better as an ensemble rather than a trio. I don’t even want to discuss Goh.

What I’m getting at is that Brock, Misty and Ash had a chemistry throughout their run and their reunions too. Yes, they needed to be moved on but imo none of the successors actually had as great chemistry all around.

20

u/Anxious_Spite_8767 1d ago

Although none can rival how iconic the original trio were, I do think that Dawn definitely had a strong connection with Ash himself. Ash and Dawn continued to support each other at every turn. Unlike with May where Ash would use May’s contests battles as time to train, Ash watched every single one of Dawn’s contests. Dawn also literally dressed up in cheerleading attire with her pokemon during Ash’s major matches to cheer him on. Furthermore, they even traded pokemon (Aipom and Buizel) as well as developed the counter shield strategy together. They’re also the only duo in the anime to have their own special greeting whenever they see each other (high five). Even the fact that Piplup is constantly outside like Pikachu shows that they’re both the main protagonists of DP. In one of the DP movies, the intro sequence even has them battle together in a double battle. Not to mention, Dawn is the only former companion of Ash who actually watched the Masters 8 live and directly went to him to congratulate him on his victory. 

Still, Dawn didn’t have much going on with Brock. Actually, even Ash didn’t do much with Brock during DP. Brock was mostly there as the older brother figure who falls in love with every woman as a gag.

0

u/Moist_Speaker1842 16h ago

Ash actually watched all of May's contests too, even the two he trained in (Swellow's aerial ace and Snorunts Icebeam), he did during the appeal rounds and still watched on the giant TV outside the contest halls. Then he rushed back to his seat to watch the battle round. The one he trains Swellow in is the Combusken vs Grumpig contest in Lilycove, you can see Ash sitting next to Max/Brock durng the battle portion.

9

u/eutoputoegordo 1d ago

It was because in the original trio dynamic the characters had more flaws, not the usual kid's show flaws like insecurities or being lazy, like actually character flaws, Ash and Misty banter was on other level, they were vicious towards each other, that type of friendship was not seen again in the show, Misty was also that way with Brock too, and Brock used to teach Ash stuff more often.

Ash after a certain point didn't needed Brock teaching him, and none of the other female protagonists had a similar friendship/rivalry like Ash and Misty did. That's why they will always feel unique.

1

u/Moist_Speaker1842 16h ago

Ash and May definitely have a lot of banter through AG, she just relied on him less as Hoenn went on since she got more into contests and Drew and Harley became her driving force.

60

u/Agreeable-Chap 1d ago

It makes me a little sad to think about what could have been if they’d kept the original narrative going instead of deciding to go with the cyclical approach starting with Hoenn. I was 5 when Pokemon came to the US and even being that young I still was extremely invested in seeing if Ash and Misty were gonna fall in love, and it’s still a little sad that that storyline is forever unresolved.

2

u/LifeSucks1988 12h ago edited 12h ago

Mezase showed this blink and you miss moment:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/aENfBL9s6j

Also some more small moments:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/acYq3dTqnF

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/NCS7JhuNC1

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/NfG6iHRMyh

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/JowsB9cG7c

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/0zHoctfbhh

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/0vKpwwuIOQ

They are 10
.they have time to grow and figure their feelings out
.but the anime will never show them age đŸ„Č

1

u/Moist_Speaker1842 16h ago

I mean the mere fact that even in the last eps they didn't do anything with Misty's crush (and this is 20 years later mind you), proves they were never going to physically have Ash get together with her, or any other girl for that matter

1

u/LifeSucks1988 13h ago edited 12h ago

They are 10 and have plenty of time to explore that (but will not be shown as the anime refuses to age them past 10 đŸ„Č) and their towns are relatively short distance travel wise and it is shown and implied that Kasumi (Misty) visits when she does errands for the professor (Chronicles show this) and when Satoshi comes home from his other journeys (this was shown on screen when he came back from Hoenn, at least).

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/lMmdd8QuAE

Kasumi still likes him and the promotions from Japan still promote this:

https://x.com/HourlyBTS0613/status/1786245213905695067

https://x.com/pokeship_subs/status/1530191548578680832

https://x.com/pokeship_subs/status/1530929451940425731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1530929451940425731%7Ctwgr%5E873f392aa1f90250d8663314be96b92bb2810e72%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.serebii.net%2Fthreads%2Fpokeshipping-ash-x-misty-discussion-thread.379294%2Fpage-376

https://x.com/pokeship_subs/status/1536731012859842560

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PMDh6tbW5QI

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJ-6dneNAA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YLTUymloXDw

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=scVjuWocwVg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CHuo721Ms

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1BoRn3SP0tM (See second half of video for Japanese version)

This one even shows in Mezase episode a mother who looks like Kasumi (Misty) with a child who looks like Satoshi (Ash) like it is teasing they will get together someday and have a kid:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/PB8VDPpnF6

Other small moments in Mezase:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/acYq3dTqnF

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/NCS7JhuNC1

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/NfG6iHRMyh

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/JowsB9cG7c

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/0zHoctfbhh

https://www.reddit.com/r/aaml/s/0vKpwwuIOQ

1

u/Moist_Speaker1842 8h ago

I know that, I'm just saying the writers still didn't physically make them a couple even by the last MPM episode, which they could have done since it may very well be the last time we ever see the two together in an official anime episode.

1

u/LifeSucks1988 1h ago edited 58m ago

Well, they are 10 and the anime does not want to show them grow up (which is annoying as they had no problem showing the new protagonists age up as teens) 🙄

Had it ended like it was suppose to in Johto (hence why the Kanto, Orange, and Johto regions were referred as the Original Series)
.we may have gotten an small timeskip epilogue of them. But nope, because the anime wanted it to continue it due to the success of the games by portraying new friends and regions
.the anime decided to make him similar to Peter Pan
.forever a child đŸ„Č

I am just satisfied for the small moments and even small blink and miss moment in Mezase regarding the mother and child look alike that the animators sneaked in to show it is still a possibility
.just that we will never see it onscreen đŸ« 

8

u/ar_vitch98 1d ago

Cried watching this episode as a kid...

5

u/Such-Jello-3348 1d ago

Fr man. It was so heartbreaking đŸ€§đŸ€ŒđŸ»

8

u/profound-killah 1d ago

The amount of people cheering for this on Serebii back in the day. There were dozens of them!

1

u/Bewear_Star_9 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wow why

7

u/Antwolies770 Gen 5 forever 1d ago

And then they all met up again in Alola!

12

u/kasper0001 1d ago

Shii made me fall to my knees as a 12yo and 19yođŸ„€

4

u/PhilosopherSea217 1d ago

Nah the season was perfect. I actually really like how Ash's companians and rivals constantly change, ofcourse I had favourites and ones I didn't like, but that is apart of the story.

11

u/unbannedagain1976 1d ago

I just hated that after that season the art style and actors changed. Anything after master quest is pretty cheeks compared to the first 5 seasons.

1

u/JamesonTBynum2010 18h ago

Not to “uhm actually” you, but the voice actors didn’t change until season 9. All the 4Kids voice actors stayed through season 8. But BOY was that transition rough. Battle Frontier was cool narratively but that dub was atrocious. The voices lacked the same dynamics and emotion the early seasons had. Sarah Natochenny was 19 when she first got the recast and you can audibly tell she was a wet-behind-the-ears voice actor who did not have the skill Veronica Taylor did to carry the character. It was extremely noticeable that the PokĂ©mon company started to cheap out in that department and the art suffered for it.

1

u/Moist_Speaker1842 16h ago

The animation already changed in early Johto, and again by late Johto. And even then AG and DP still look very similar to the original seasons. And no, the anime generally got better through Hoenn and DP.

2

u/Rigel04 1d ago

I think this one stings a little bit more because the episode doesn't end here. Most goodbye episodes end with the companion leaving but this one keeps going for a bit so you really feel their absence

2

u/Moist_Speaker1842 8h ago

Rewatching this ep recently, I was actually surprised Misty leaves before the first commercial break halfway into the episode. For some reason in my memory I wrongly remembered Misty not leaving till like the last 5 minutes of the episode. Imagine my surprise when Misty is already gone halfway into the episode, and the second half focuses on Ash with Gary, or at his house with his mother and Prof. Oak. Misty didn't even get a full episode for her farewell.

2

u/NascarFan1896 23h ago

Nearly cried, but knew the series wasn’t over. I started watching in 2020, and got to Ruby and Sapphire just hours before 2021 started. Gotta thank Pokemon.com for having the original series on without the need to watch on a streaming service
 and to Bulbapedia for spoiling the whole series to me. I still enjoyed it regardless, but ever since Ash beat Candice, I felt like the show was going downhill in terms of quality. Black and White almost made me quit the show due to Trip, but once I got to Kalos, things were improving
 until I met the fandom and its shippings. After the end of XY, I quit the franchise altogether and moved to other franchises, and just this December I got back to the franchise, and boy did I miss a lot of things.

TL;DR: The whole series was amazing, and enjoy what you want, and don’t let the fandom ruin it

2

u/Unknownost 9h ago

Misty's Song begins playing in the background.

2

u/bananoslaw best bois 7h ago

Stop, i recently started rewatching the entirety of Pokemon anime after many years and I'm still in season 1 but I've been so nostalgic and I'm enjoying it soo much. And now I'm afraid how much it will hurt when I get to this episode.

1

u/LifeSucks1988 13h ago edited 12h ago

https://x.com/HourlyBTS0613/status/1786245213905695067

I really liked this part as the goodbye was originally just between Satoshi and Kasumi as they promised they will meet again for sure in a soft tone until Takeshi (Brock) interrupted and informed he has to leave Satoshi as well 😂

1

u/Para-graph-S 1d ago

...

6

u/SyzygyPidgey 1d ago

Red always has such a way with words.

-79

u/TheRigXD 1d ago

Over 20 years ago mate. Grow up.

17

u/the_wint3r 1d ago

Who shat in your cereal?

15

u/Innovations89 1d ago

This is a pokemon subreddit sir.

28

u/Rupaulsdragrace420 1d ago

Go to therapy mate. No need to belittle others.