Pokemon

The Ash is Really in a Coma Theory

written by some guy in /a/

Did one ever know the reason why the pacing and story development change after Ash was hit by lightning in the beginning episodes? How Ash and his world were relatively normal until after the incident? I have a theory. The accident with the bike put Ash in a coma. Days later he was found and was hurried to the hospital and treated with heavy medications. This is why Team Rocket became less menacing. The medication took effect and stabilized his coma dreams, instead of being terrifying, they became idyllic, and hes able to live out his Pokmon master fantasies. If one had noticed, the early episodes of Pokmon were of amazing quality. The rest of the series is just the results of his subconscious mind fullling his desires, as well as attempting to escape them. Should Ash realize hes in a coma, he would wake up, but suffer brain damage. So he has to take down all his mental barriers one by one until he can come to grips with what he is and escape his coma. This explains why he doesnt change much physically. Also, the worldwide socialism can be explained if you once again realize that this is a dream world; he thought up a safe system of government that would run smoothly and keeps the world going allowing his adventures to work like they do. It also explains a few other things, such as how a child can go off on his own in a world full of dangerous untamed animals, and why every Pokmon center has the same exact nurse. Joy and Jenny he knew from his hometown, and they act as a safety net or anchor, allowing him to feel safe no matter where he goes. The professors, like the Joys and Jennys represent stability, and ashs ideals. This is why Gary became a professor. Its also the reason that every time he enters a new region, virtually no one has heard of him, despite his conquests, and why

Giovanni leads Team Rocket. How could Paul, the rival of the Sinnoh area, not know of someone who has placed in at least the top 16 of all three leagues and has destroyed the Orange league and Battle Frontier? Ashs travelling partners are actually aspects of himself he can enjoy, but doesnt like to associate with himself. Team Rocket are his qualities that he deems negative, but is coming to terms with. Jesse and James want to appease Giovanni, Ashs Father. Meowth especially wants to appease him because he remembers the good times with Giovanni. This Places meowth in a category known as ashs (corrupted) innocence, and another fragment of ashs humanity. If you note that meowth can speak this quickly becomes apparrent. In fact the whole reason for meowths speech is so he can help Ash accept Team rocket as part of himself eventually. Brock is Ashs repressed sexuality. He fell into the coma a virgin and needed an outlet for his growing sexual frustrations. Since he can never experience sex, Brock must never succeed. Brock is a projection of his sexuality, and is constantly shot down because Ash could never know sex. Brock isnt just Ashs latent sexuality, hes also his fatherly instincts, neither of which Ash can come to terms with. Brock leaves his siblings to journey with Ash. because Ash cant cope with having that much responsibility, much as his foray with a real relationship ends on mysterious terms. Ash just cannot handle commitment at his mental level. Brocks Stay with professor Ivy was an.attempt to outright suppress his sexuality. Youll notice that James got much more dialogue in this part of the series, as well as getting more touchy feel-y with his pokemon and getting most of his backstory. Ash didnt enjoy this much, hence the reasons Brock

comes back all horried, and refuses to speak about it. (ashs subconscious was repressing him at the time, so other than a general feeling of dread he has no idea of what went on then.) This is also why brock keeps coming back to the series....Usually AFTER Ash meets a new girl aspect of himself.Misty is an image that Ash had of a girl. This is why she plays so prevalently in the series but is ultimately unattainable because he never really knew her before the coma. Likely the one that helped get him to a hospital. I have a theory in line with this: Since Misty was his initial love interest (if only subconsciously), he needed her to reach a level of womanhood. He felt that people could only have relationships when theyve matured. But in practice, it turned out he couldnt cope with it and just wanted the normal, pushy, arrogant Misty he knew, and wouldnt let her keep Togepi anymore. Misty is Ashs rst attempt at a girl he could love, however, being a girl from the real world, all he really he knew of her was her anger, as a result she ended up quite hot headed in his mind. Constantly berating his sexuality, but eventually mellowing out until she had faded into the background. This was also traumatizing to him, being attached to it. Since then, the thought of anyone around him maturing to adulthood has been blocked, and anyone who shows signs of it will quickly end up leaving for another, more naive ll-in. Max came with May, she played the Id with great aspirations, and he played the sensible Ego that Session. They worked for a little while but Ash, being a teenager, eventually had his sexuality had to come back into play. He kept reinventing himself and eventually wrote new aspects, but his mind slowly brought back the old ones as a crutch to make the transition easier.

Dawn is Ash giving himself a chance to love. since he already established Misty as someone hes not likely to go anywhere with, he created a new super female, one that was more like him, and less violent all the time. (One will note that both May and Misty had no tolerance for Brock whatsoever whereas dawn seems to try and shrug it off.) . Tracey, The Breeder was a possible future for Ash that he discarded. It was one that he sent off to work with the Professor (the professors being Ashs ultimate ideal of a father gure) when he disrupted the dynamic Ash had with his other possibilities. Ashs mind is ghting the coma and since Ash viewed this one as a companion he was quickly replaced with a more threatening Rival. Pikachu obviously represents Ashs Humanity, hence the episodes where they get separated, and ash wants desperately to nd him, even to the point of working with the rockets ( aspects of himself he woould never normally associate with) but for some reason cannot. They want to steal Pikachu (Ashs humanity) and hand it over to his father, Giovanni. Jesse and James will always oppose ash because ash is terried of the thought of his humanity lying in the hands of his father. However this is the same reason that he will work with those aspects of himself in order to save his humanity from just becoming at out LOST. He couldnt evolve his Pikachu without challenging his concept of who he was, something he wasnt comfortable with while he was still working through his original issues. Another thing is the narrator. The narrator is Ashs higher mind, recapping and explaining the progress hes made and the tribulations he will face allowing itself insight into how best

disguises are always believed. He knows its them (on some level), but chooses to ignore it, so he can better himself, in a sense the Ash who wants to escape is sabotaging the ash who Ash has issues With his Father; so he put him wants to stay lost in his mind. So that there can atop the evil corporation, and demonized him. be more conict, and hopefully an eventual There may be an actual team rocket, and Im escape. The ller episodes that dont focus positive theyre quite dastardly, but I doubt on Ash and the gang are his mind working that ashs father is their leader, in fact the through, and humanizing the parts of himself head of the rockets wasnt really identied as that he demonized. Its a way for him to deal anyone until later on in the series. The split with issues that Ash and crew wouldnt touch, between ashs parents was likely over ashs because it involves treading ground he himhomosexuality and some sort of incident as a self had sworn not to go near. As I said, Team catalyst, forcing his father to disown him and Rocket and the episodes they occupy are Ash his mother to move out of the city and down dealing with ground he feels uncomfortable to pallet town. This is why Giovanni runs the with tackling on his own. Jessie is Ashs vanfaceless Vile corporation, and Why he Berates ity and gullibility, she will trick Ashs submisJesse, James, and Meowth as much as he does, sive homosexuality into doing her bidding so and why they keep trying to please him. Anshe can please father. James troubled childother thing to notice is the difference in unihood is his way of justifying his latent homoform, The rockets Wear Black and Red, where sexuality. Now James is Ashs latent homoTeam Rocket wears White....a symbol of their sexuality, hence why he is constantly punished purity and naievete. Theyre willing to please by Pokmon and attacked by random attractive father despite his utter hatred of those parts of girls. I believe the split between Ashs parAsh . ents was caused by this part of Ash, maybe an incident at school, bringing shame on the Team rocket are aspects of Ashs personality family and forcing them to move to the small, that he has deemed bad James implied hocountry town of Pallet. Ashs motivations for mosexuality, and Jesses vanity. Youll remem- his journey were to escape mounting pressure ber that Meowth has the potential for rehaat home. bilitation, and doesnt want to be evil, so yet again this ts in with the conicting personali- So in a way, Ash IS Team Rocket. The rest of ties and demonized self theory. Team rocket the whole organization Including Butch and started cross-dressing because ash had to come Cassidy is symbolic of his inability to escape to terms with that part of himself. It was some- his fathers machinations. thing he was able to allow his gay/vain side to experiment with (and by virtue of that himself) Mr. Mime is actually a stand in for Ashs When he found that it wasnt something for father, one that cant emotionally abuse him him, his Free side stopped playing with it. or his mom. He is a Pokmon, a peace loving Further, their methods of capture become more creature thats oddly humanoid, but that can and more ludicrous (and physically imposnever hurt a human. Ashs was never really sible) because Ash is just a kid dreaming these hurt by a Pokmon, so he sees them all as things up. This is the reason Team Rockets harmless; whereas, in the real world they may

to awaken him.

be quite feral or vicious (as seen in the early episodes). Again falling back to the theory that the only real Pokmon are the ones from the rst season, and everything else is just further speculation coming from his mind on what new species would look like. The new teams ( magma, aqua, and galactic) are Ash attempting to work out the problems he has with his father. to do that he rst needs a new bad guy to feel good about beating, and if Giovanni isnt leading a criminal organization he can more easily relate to him. If one recalls, there were real animals early in the show and references to animals in the game and show. For example, a clear case to point out is the aquarium of sh in the Cerulean City Gym or that by the Pokdex that Pikachu is a rat-like Pokmon. But they dont matter to Ashs psyche so they dont come into play much. If Ash had loved puppies, everything would be about different breeds of dogs, and a dog ghting circuit. But, as the series goes on longer, weve been seeing less realistic animals and more Pokmon. This could be a sign of Ashs mind deteriorating. As hes in this coma, hes losing concepts of some animals and machinery and replacing them with Pokmon. It could explain things like electric Pokmon working as power generators. A sign that his memory of the old world is slipping more and more as time goes by. The Pokmon realm will be idealized continuously the longer he has no stimulus from the real world. He may or may not be mentally deteriorating , but he is becoming more accustomed to his fake worlds rules. The wild Pokmon are his rationalizations of the functioning of the world. Its the A wizard did it Syndrome. If he doesnt know how it works, his mind says Pokmon. He justies anything he cant explain with Pokmon, and real animals fall

into the background because he has no real interest in them. The Pokmon in Ashs team are his issues, for example Charmander represents his sex drive (not his sexuality like Brock) at rst its a cute easy to control thing, but eventually becomes a raging inferno of disobedience. Acquiring his team means getting at his issues, but as he trains them, he works said issues out. Other trainers are more direct forms of his issues, ones that he must either come to terms with or outright supress. Gym leaders are more primary aspects of his personality with each Pokmon being stronger than the last, to display a level of skill he could be capable of if only he gave into it. In effect, he is doing battle with a part of him that he would rather not have in control. Bulbasaur was Ashs unwillingness to change, this is reectedwhen it declines to evolve and how it almost decided to stay behind unless he battled it. Squirtle was his willingness to follow the lead of others, as evidenced by the gang it ran with, even though he ran the gang, they were viewed as one group, and ashs subconscious just gave him the strongest one. Butterfree was his crushing loneliness, which he dealt with when he released it to join a ock. His bird types are his recklessness, always willing to sacrice something at a moments notice for the win. When Ash is trading Pokmon, its an attempt to push his own problems away on someone else; however, he realizes this and usually trades back fairly quickly. Originally ash had the battles, which evolved into team battles and contests. The explanation for this is that his issues became more and more complicated, and the means of dealing with them needed to become more complex. the fact that he uses issues that he has already dominated to win these are signs that hes growing stronger.

Not only are Ashs Pokmon are a manifestation of different parts of himself, so are Pokmon of other trainers as well. Kofng and Ekans were symbolic of Team Rockets willingness to change; hence, their evolutions. Once his mind beat that roadblock down and allowed them to change once, it gives him the chance to truly change. Pupitar is a rationalization, a Pokmon that a rival caught before he met him. Even Ash would become suspicious if everyone he met had no carry-over from pervious places he had been to. Ash releases his Pokmon because his mind is forcing him to let go of them. The second he raises an overpowered team, a tournament comes up, and after ghting his way through it he has to go to a new land for new challenges, but with an overpowered team, there wont be any challenges, and no way to motivate him further, part of Ash wants to stay in the coma, and keep journeying.

that he loses them, and unless hes desperate (such as with Charizard) he cant get them back. Its basically his mind forcing him to deal with his issues. It would also be a good reason why Paul has shown up at this point, and Ash has been forced to work with him on at least one occasion: Its his minds last ditch efforts to snap him out of this, to force Ash to actually come to terms that this perfect world is not the best option and he needs to wake up. Paul is Ashs dark side, one that wants to push on even harder and harder, and the part of him that will stop at nothing to escape this coma world.

Ashs rivals and the Elite four are ultimately the strongest part of this cycle. Having Pokmon that are essentially godlike, they represent both what can be attained and what is unattainable. Gary Oak is what Ash wants to be. He is wish fulllment. He succeeded, and settled down to a normal life. Ash needs someone to succeed in his world or he wont Ashs travelling also never really nets him be able to validate it and will start questioning any fame, no matter what he does, or where why hes where he is. Its a subconscious trap he goes, and the answer for that is simple. to keep him from becoming too aware of his Ash just cant picture himself as famous, so situation. His mind must have gured out that he essentially adopts a new identity every few awareness of the coma would snap him out of months. it, but it would cause major brain damage, so it took something the boy already loved and The reason he never truly becomes a master built a way out for him with it. However Ash is because that would mean hed have nothis too complacent to nally ght his way out ing left to dream, and would wake up from of it, and cannot escape. This is why he keeps his coma. Ashs dual personality is one that encountering Legendary Pokmon, theyre his wants to maintain his fantasy world and slowly minds way of showing him he can do great sort his thoughts out carefully. The other part things if he tries, and its a way to encourwants freedom, and to return to his real life, age him to push forwards. The Legendary to nally become a real Pokmon master. Pokmon are Ashs mind telling him that he However if hes allowed to keep his powerful has greatness in him and thus, can escape his team theres no reason to meet and tame new happygolucky reality. Pokmon(Issues), hell lose interest, and the chance of becoming self-aware comes around Ashs Rivals are all possible futures he enviagain. So its not that he gives them up, its sions for himself (note that they are all older

him comatose; the Pokmon of his world. The clones were counters to Ashs mental safeties, and so each appeared to Ash as the exact copy of his defense, intended to take it down by Force. The clones didnt play by the rules of Ashs world, they didnt use any special Pokmon attacks or moves they just beat down their counterpart by brute strength. The treatment was working, but there were side effects. The electric jolts were beginning to affect Ashs nervous system, and if the treatment continued, he would be paralyzed. His mind realized this and manifested it to Ash by petriRichie and his Pikachu were another success fying him in his dream. Were it not for the end story for Ash, but he wanted one he could be of the treatment by Ashs mother (knowing closer with. One nearly identical to him. One her son would never want to live in a world he that even used a similar roster to him. Paul and couldnt explore) Ash would have remained his Chimchar are the polar opposite of Richie, as stone in his dream. After this, Ash needed Paul wants nothing to do with any kind of to recover from the damage of the electric weakness, and is almost aware of his situation. therapy. Obviously it was greatly dangerous to Hes always pushing for something more. him, and in order to reduce the danger Ashs consciousness felt from it, Ashs subconscious The reason he discarded his original hat and began downplaying the effects of electricity in the elements of japanese culture so prevalent Ashs world, which is why Pikachus electric in the rst season is simple. He wanted to attacks -once noted for their strength by Team travel and broaden his horizons, every time Rocket no longer have any effect on Ash, he reinvented himself to do so; he lost touch other than comic relief. with his original self. If he ever does escape the coma hell likely have achieved a sort of Even the world Ash lives in evidences this. Zen state. Considering the amount of personal The sprawling forests and eco friendly cities issues he deals with inside his head, its enare all his childish innocence. He never travels tirely likely that he was the next Buddha of the on a bike despite the distance due to the acciPokmon world, and that the lightning strike dent having given him a phobia of them. and subsequent coma are a way for him to realize his true self, and destiny. As one could see, it is very likely that Ash is trapped in his world. But like every dream, Mewtwo was a new form of treatment, done everything, there is a beginning and an end. with electric impulses and a machine to knock What would happen if Ash could fully reAsh out of it, taking down every last one of cover? What would happen if he never does? his mental guards (the original Pokmon in There are innite branches of possibilities that the movie). In Ashs mind, Mewtwo and his spiral upwards and intertwine towards the top clones were the treatment for the mental safe at a single point, both in his world and the guards that were protecting Ash and keeping real world. In his hospital room, we see De-

than him). This originated with Gary Oak, someone Ash knew from real life, and built up into a sort of god within his mind. Gary however progressed and changed to suit Ashs vision of himself and ultimate desire, eventually settling down into a professor after beating the Elite Four. With Gary in retirement his mind needed a new rival for him Thus the births of Richie (the Good aspect of his rivalry) and Paul (as the darker aspect, a cut-throat Ash, willing to do anything to escape the coma world).

lia, obviously distraught talking to a doctor with a grim look in his eye. Hes saying that their insurance is up, and the boy has had no change in brain activity for seven years. That a shock like this may awaken him. She tearfully agrees. Professor Oak is there to comfort her as they take Ash off life support.

ing a silhouette of the gure at the center of his turbulent emotions, his mother, her face obstructed by her hands wiping away tears. He makes contact with her eyes and lets out one last tear before losing all strength. She breaks down in hysterics. The worst part of all this is that Ash will die, never having experienced actual love, imagine if you will, having lived in a world like his, completely shut off from all things but yourself, and your perception of yourself, with nothing but better yourself. No other people to interact with and issues to solve with no guiding hand. The boy will die, never having known his dream, except as naught but a dream. The second he gets out into reality for that last moment, part of him knows it was all a lie, his faithful Pikachu? His friends? All his imagination, and maybe, he could have fought and clung to life, maybe even made a full recovery. But knowing that his efforts and ambitions had all been for naught, he just gave up and let the motion carry him away, just so he could be with Pikachu, in a place where his friends were waiting. I would like to think that hell realize that his mother loved him and was holding out hope that hed recover all that time. On the ip side, though, when he sees her he knows that the hope she had is totally broken and shed come to the crushing realization that the worst thing that can befall a parent has happened to her: outliving her only child. At once he knows he is loved and that it means that the one closest to him is utterly crushed.

In Ashs world.

Ash has nally defeated the elite four, and one by one the people around him start disappearing. eventually everything is black. Pikachu comes dashing towards him glowing brighter and brighter in the darkness. Eventually Pikachu reaches ash and the two embrace one last time.

Back in his room, as his life signs fade, Ash mutters his genuine, nal words.

I...Want...To...Be,

The...Very...Best.

The image of his gaunt, tube-fed, ten-someyear bed ridden body on the bed. His head appears bulbous from atrophy. As he utters his last words, he barely opens his eyes, see-

Still, there are other possibilities. The foun-

tain of time ows in mysterious ways. One could not go back, against the current such as He vows to them. Gatsby; but, one could never see what is waiting for him downstream. Ash nally defeats Lance, only to be confronted by not Gary Oak, but a mute, mirror image of himself. I WILL be the very best! The voice of the narrator speaks to him, telling him that now he can nally escape the prison of his own mind. One by one, his friends appear and melt away into more copies of him, all cheering him on. After a long tough battle against himself with the assistance of all of his Pokmon he had ever befriended, he jolts awake.

In his hospital room he sees his parents asleep; he nds himself unable to speak. Ash pushes forward towards his recovery. Going through physical therapy, training harder and harder with rehabilitative Pokmon, until he can walk on his own again. This time, an older and wiser ash sets out on a journey. Just like last time, hes late getting to Professor Oaks laboratory. And when theres only one Pokmon left....He suddenly recalls all his memories of his life and realizes that all his friends are gone forever.

As he sets out with his new companion, he nds the world is darker than he imagined. More real, Pokmon and people die; he too has aged.

He vows to become the Master he dreamed he was. He vows to himself.