As I am writing this, Ash Ketchum has just won his
sixth Kalos League badge from the Laverre City Gym. This means that he
only has two more gym battles left until he can enter the Kalos
championship. I am going to make a bold prediction here, and I know that
this has already been shared by other Pokémon fans. I believe that this
will be the time that Ash will win it all, and become the Kalos League
champion.
There are several reasons why I think that this
time will be his time to shine. For one thing, he has yet to meet any
significant rival that should make the tournament anything other than quick
decisive eliminations. Other tournaments, Ash has had someone who he has
been pitted against throughout the series who he has an emotional battle
with during the conference where he more often than not emerges
victorious. Notable rivals are Gary, Ritchie, and Harrison from the
original series, Morrison and Tyson from the Advanced Generation
series, Paul and Barry from Diamond and Pearl, and Trip and
Stephan from Black and White. So far, Ash has not met that many
rivals, either friendly ones or total jerks. The only rival characters he has met
are Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor. However, neither of them seems like they
are in the same league as Ash, or are taking the Kalos conference too seriously. Recently a new boy named Sawyer has been introduced, but
he was easily defeated by Clemont and will face Ash for the first time next
week. He is described as studious and careful, writing down notes
after every battle he has for future reference. Perhaps by the time the
conference starts he will have improved his skills and be ready to
face Ash again. There is also the chance that a previously
unknown ringer will suddenly appear during the tournament, much like Tobias
during the Lily of the Valley Conference. With a team of
legendary Pokémon at his command, Tobias made mincemeat of his
opponents. Ash put up a good fight, but he was still entirely outclassed by
Tobias's Darkrai and Latios. I'm sure I am not the only one who felt
Ash got robbed from that championship. He certainly would have
made it to the final round if he had faced a different
opponent in the semi-final.
Reason number two, is that Ash has returned to his
role as a mature mentor to his travelling companions. The Black and
White series saw a significant regression in Ash's character. He was much
more naïve and made mistakes that someone with his experience should never
make. I know that he is supposed to be forever 10 years old, but all the
events from the previous series still happened, and he should have learned a
lot from his past adventures. His gym battle against Elesa was a
disgrace. Iris says multiple times during the series that Ash is such a
little kid, and she has a point. I don't know why his character took
such a huge step backward between Diamond and Pearl and Black and White.
That being said, he seems to have put that stage of his life behind him.
Now he appears as a big brother to Serena, who has had a long time crush
on him. I see a lot of similarities between Ash's relationship with
Serena and his relationship with May during the Advanced Generation
series. At the time, May was a rookie trainer and Ash was a seasoned
veteran offering May useful advice. Eventually May found that
battling was not her thing, and discovered her passion in Pokémon contests
instead. Even so, I welcomed this change of tune for Ash. He
has seen a lot, and should help new trainers through the basics while
continuing to improve himself. Serena is the first female protagonist to
have an obvious crush on Ash. Whether or not Ash realizes this is up to
debate. Serena will cheer Ash on regardless, but if Ash has similar
romantic feelings for Serena, that may be the motivation he needs to pull
through in the championship. To quote the main character JP from Redline, one of my favorite movies,:
"I can't lose. I've got a goddess on my side and I'm gonna
win!" That's probably a bit much for the TV-Y7 Pokémon franchise, but I
chuckle to myself thinking of Ash saying something like
that.
The third reason to be hopeful is that Ash has a very strong team
of Pokémon at the moment. All of his Pokémon are fierce battlers, and are
willing to push themselves to the limit to achieve
victory. Frogadier and Hawlucha are both very proud Pokémon and
pride themselves on their skills. Fletchinder is no slouch, and of course
Pikachu will do anything it can to help Ash win. It appears that Ash will
acquire a Noibat in a couple episodes, and it will be interesting to see what
having a Pokémon like that on his team will do for his chances in
future battles. Still, that means in total he only has six Pokémon
with him. He ought to have more on standby for whatever his
opponents have during the conference. One thing I liked during the Lily
of the Valley Conference at the end of the Sinnoh League was that Ash used
Pokémon he had owned at various points throughout his entire
travels. This is probably one of the reasons he got farther in that
tournament than he has in any other one. It would be nice if
Charizard came back to help in the Kalos League. I am going to make a
wild prediction right now that at least Charizard will return to Ash’s team and
be able to mega evolve into Mega Charizard Y, due in part to the events
unfolding in the mega evolution side stories we have been getting
intermittently, in order to battle the final opponent's mega
evolved Pokémon and win the tournament.
Finally, I think that people are just tired of
waiting for Ash to win a championship and become a Pokémon master.
This franchise has been going on for almost two decades, and I
know that I have followed it from the beginning. I for one have
had enough of seeing Ash come so far just to fall short at the last
obstacle. A key theme of the anime is going for your dream, but what
is the point if the main protagonist is denied his dream six times?
Ash is worthy of a championship this time around for multiple reasons. To
further deny him victory goes against all that the show's ideology stands
for.
Of course everything I have just said is pure
speculation and can be overruled by the creators of the anime in a
heartbeat. After all, they are the gods of this universe. If for
some reason they wanted Ash to get a stomach bug that prevented him from
competing in the league, they could. All I am doing is presenting a rational
look of what has transpired so far and how future events could logically
play out. You can do it, Ash! We're all pulling for you!
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