#Ash cries when Pikachu refuses to be released in ''Pikachu's Goodbye'' too

[sage-nebula]

Now that I’ve got a moment at home, I want to elaborate a bit on my thoughts on the newest PokéAni episode, and why Pikachu’s behavior wasn’t OoC at all, but rather a demonstration of how he’s finally being treated like a character again, after just about two decades of being reduced to a prop to sit on Ash’s shoulder, look cute, and occasionally win battles. Disclaimer up front, I think this is easily the best episode Pikachu has had since the original series.

Let’s take his behavior piece by piece, shall we?

Jealousy:

Before the episode even aired, I saw people claiming that it was “out of character” for Pikachu to feel jealous over Ash training pokémon other than him, and for the most part I can kind of understand where people are coming from with this one. The fact is, since Pikachu has basically just been a series mascot rather than a character for most of the past twenty years, we haven’t really seen much from him with regards to Ash favoring other pokémon on his team (most notably in cases where the bond between Ash and the other ‘mon was super hyped up, as with Greninja). However, that’s not because it’s not in Pikachu’s character to be jealous, but rather because the writers didn’t want to spend enough time on Pikachu to show him being jealous. It’s a subtle, but key difference. Because Pikachu wasn’t “important” to the story in previous sagas, his thoughts and feelings on the given situation were pretty much ignored. But even then, we still saw flashes of it here and there, the most recent example of which I can think occurred in XY(Z). During the second battle with Alan, Pikachu really wanted to battle Alan’s Metang, only for Ash to call upon Noivern instead. (At least, I believe it was Noivern.) Pikachu got huffy over this, and Ash sheepishly said he’d let Pikachu battle next time. Pikachu’s response was to cross his arms and mutter to himself, pouting about it. It wasn’t followed up on after that (though notably, Pikachu got to battle Alan’s Metagross in the League finals), but nonetheless, we still did see Pikachu get jealous over Ash using another pokémon to battle when he wanted to, even in a saga that ignored his character for the most part.

So to say that it’s out of character for Pikachu to get jealous is just incorrect. I understand why some might think that, but it’s incorrect nonetheless. This isn’t to say that it wouldn’t be nice to see it build and build over multiple episodes, but I think it’s worth it to acknowledge the fact that it’s implied this has been building in the beginning of the episode. When Pikachu asks Ash if he can battle next, Ash tells Pikachu that Riolu’s on a winning streak:

For Riolu to be on a roll, this means that this is not the first battle Pikachu has sat out. It means that he’s sat out multiple battles, perhaps over the span of multiple days, and he’s still been a good sport about it up until this moment—the moment when Ash acknowledges that Pikachu is super pumped up to battle, and yet still tells him that, nah, he has to sit on the sidelines and continue to watch. It’s no wonder Pikachu gets pissed; it’s been days and he still hasn’t had his turn on the Xbox.

So while it would be nice to see an actual arc spanning multiple episodes, we’re still given enough information to know that Pikachu has been stewing for a bit and is finally hitting a breaking point, particularly when Ash continues to brush him off (and even scold him for falling asleep on the bench and not, I guess, being ~excited enough~ that Riolu is training instead, and even saying that Pikachu won’t get to battle at all if he naps, like, Ash, tf is your problem??) as the episode progresses. It’s been shown in previous sagas that Pikachu can get pouty if he isn’t chosen, and being looked over again, and again, and again, and then being scolded for not being excited about being looked over, is bound to wear on his nerves.

But that said, Pikachu has some other issues that should be addressed, too.

Abandonment:

In the OS, there were numerous episodes that implied that Pikachu had a fear of abandonment, which led many (myself included, and I’m still not convinced this didn’t happen between Pikachu leaving Mamaskhan and Oak finding him) to believe that Pikachu had a trainer prior to Ash who both mistreated (hence his hatred of pokéballs) and ultimately abandoned him. The most noticeable episode is “Sparks Fly for Magnemite,” in which Pikachu is so terrified of Ash abandoning him that he leaves the Pokémon Center in a severely weakened, ill state to chase after him. Ash is exasperated, but he agrees that Pikachu can come along so long as he rests and doesn’t push himself. (Ash, Misty, and Brock were actually going to the power plant to restore power to the Pokémon Center, so they really weren’t going to be gone long, but Pikachu’s illness made his insecurities come to the forefront and so he chased after anyway.)

Now, much like all other aspects of Pikachu’s personality, his fear of abandonment really hasn’t been brought up since the OS, at least not in any major way to my recollection. But JN started off with an episode detailing Pikachu’s early childhood, and his feelings surrounding no longer belonging with his family. In that instance, he chose to leave despite how much he still loved them, rather than force Mamaskhan to bid him farewell (which she would never do), or have something else terrible happen. Even though it was Pikachu’s own choice to leave, the fact that he felt he had to leave behind the only family he ever knew no doubt still left a scar on his heart, one that was possibly exacerbated by an awful previous trainer, one that might have been unwittingly reinforced in episodes like “Pikachu’s Goodbye” (where Ash legitimately tried to release him) and “Sparks Fly for Magnemite” (where Pikachu thought he was being abandoned) . . .

. . . and one that came up again in this episode.

Because in this episode, we see that Ash has been neglecting Pikachu for a little while, constantly overlooking him, brushing him off, scolding him for not being happy that he’s being brushed off, et cetera. Pikachu, obviously hurt and dejected, spends the night in Delia’s room . . . only for Delia to leave before Pikachu even wakes up, and almost leave without saying goodbye to him at all. Then he turns back to Ash again, but this time he barely has time to get two words in before Ash tells him “I’ll train with you later,” brushing him off yet again in favor of Riolu. 

And that’s when Pikachu breaks, and decides to run away.

Pikachu running away in this instance speaks volumes to me, as someone who also has abandonment issues. Because if you think about it, Pikachu going to Pallet Town was his way of benching himself. After all, provided he hasn’t released them, where do all of the pokémon that Ash isn’t actively training live? Either in Pallet Town with Oak (or in this case Delia), or in Alola. (Or in the Charicific Valley / with the Squirtle Squad etc, but those are special cases.) Pikachu decided, “Okay, I’m not going to wait around for you to bench me. I’m going to do it first so you don’t get the chance.” And that’s something that’s so familiar to me, because I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve decided to stop reaching out to / being around people because I felt like they didn’t want me around / didn’t like me / were silently rejecting me and so I said, you know what, I won’t make you reject me outright, I will just remove myself from your presence so it doesn’t come to that (which, yes, is always the wrong move to make and I try not to make it, but mental illness is a real bitch sometimes). It’s called Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, and I think that Pikachu displayed big signs of it in this episode. Ash wasn’t “rejecting” Pikachu from his perspective, but Pikachu felt that he was being rejected and reacted accordingly. Issues from his past flared up to make this a much bigger deal than it might’ve been for other pokémon, and as a result Pikachu turned tail and ran.

So what we saw in this episode was not only Pikachu being jealous / irritated that he was passed over for battle (though he was, and that’s not out of character for him either), but also Pikachu exhibiting Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria that was likely borne from abandonment / displacement / rejection issues that have been building in him since he was a Pichu. Neither Ash nor Delia meant to stoke this in Pikachu, but they still did nonetheless, and so his behavior makes total sense (so long as, again, you consider his history and the implication at the beginning of the episode that he’s been passed over for multiple battles before this).

And finally, one more thing . . .

The attitude:

Man, I was so happy to see his attitude come back!

Here’s the thing about how Pikachu behaved back when he was focused on more as a character: he was a brat. Later sagas often give the implication that Pikachu was only bratty in the first episode, before he came to like Ash, but that is far and away not true. Pikachu got a little skull and crossbones reaction emoji when Delia called him “weird” and shocked the whole crowd. Pikachu got irritated when Ash told him to hush and not blow his cover in Celadon Gym and shocked the disguise right off him. Pikachu would pull out a sleeping bag and pretend to sleep if he didn’t want to do something (such as battle or go into a haunted tower). Pikachu showed open disappointment when Team Rocket, and Meowth especially, didn’t drown to death after a shipwreck:

So the Pikatude that we saw in this episode? 100% IC characterization from start to finish for the first time in what feels like a very long time. Pikachu sulking after getting passed over? IC. Pikachu stubbornly trying to get Mimey to leave him alone because he is leaving Arceus-damn-it and you can’t stop him? IC. Pikachu getting tired and refusing to walk and angrily shoving Mimey off when Mimey tries to drag him because he wants to take a rest? All Pikachu had to do was pull out a literal sleeping bag and it could have been a scene right out of the OS. And that glorious bit at the end when Pikachu shocks the daylights out of Ash (as Ash wonders “why . . . ?”) and then pulls this face?

THE MOST IC THING I HAVE SEEN FROM THIS ANIME IN YEARS. That’s the Pikatude that Pikachu had when the series first started out and he got to be an actual character! That’s the Bratachu I know and love! While Ash has never really had a return to his Sass Ketchum days (and oh, how I miss those), to see Pikachu treated like an actual character again, separate from Ash, allowed to have his own thoughts, feelings, reactions, and arc . . . it’s wonderful. Masterful. Chef’s kiss. The whole episode was amazing, but seeing Pikachu actually be himself again really sold out.

So, TL;DR:

Pikachu has been jealous before, albeit in much smaller instances because the narrative hasn’t wanted to really treat him as his own character in a very long time.

Pikachu had abandonment issues established in OS, reaffirmed that he has issues with not feeling like he belongs / leaving before he can be openly rejected in the first episode of this series, and brought all of that up again in this episode after multiple on-screen “rejections” and implied ones before the episode.

Pikachu always had an attitude until it was smoothed away so he could be a cute mascot and other pokémon could get narrative focus; having it come back in this series/episode is wonderful and no one should begrudge that. Let Pikachu Be Interesting Again 2020

And that’s that on that.

#pokemon #pokeani #pikachu #meta #long post for ts #but seriously that bit at the end was like . . . a little mini love note for OS fans #bc that's SO MUCH of how they acted in OS like #there was a lot of love as well #in fact I've seen some people wish we had Ash's thoughts on this episode & if you feel that way #go watch ''Fit to be Tied'' from the Orange Islands season #in that episode Ash and Pikachu are separated & it flips between both of them #and Ash is running himself ragged trying to find Pikachu again - refuses to rest until he does #Ash cries when Pikachu refuses to be released in ''Pikachu's Goodbye'' too #but even so there was a lot of Pikatude and when you consider that Ash was still Sass Ketchum back then #we got scenes like the above quite a bit #and it was SO GOOD #i loved it so much #anyway this is one of the best episodes we've had in 20 years so #you're free to dislike it ig but if you do you have bad taste and are also wrong #sorry not sorry that's just the law according to the rules