Ashes Of The Past / Tropes A to C

Tropes A to C | Tropes D to F | Tropes G to K | Tropes L to O | Tropes P to S | Tropes T to Z

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A

• A Birthday, Not a Break:
  • Revealed to be the case for the events of Pokémon Heroes, as it took place on Ash's 13th Birthday. As a result of Latios' sacrifice in the original timeline, Ash didn't do anything for his later birthdays, and tried not to think about them too much.
  • The Mirage Master incident takes place on Ash's next birthday after Altomare, which is lampshaded.
• Aborted Arc: The Ever Grande Conference only reached the Top 32, during the battle between Ash and Ritchie before being interrupted due to the Delta Episode. After that, it was never resumed before starting the Battle Frontier arc.
• Absence of Evidence: When the head of a Team Rocket satellite organization in Canalave City stops sending dues back home, Cassidy and Butch are sent to investigate, but not only is he nowhere to be found, they cannot find any evidence of organized criminal activity in the city at all. This makes Giovanni highly suspicious, because crime doesn't just stop, and he sends in the trio to investigate.
• Accidental Discovery:
  • While hunting for Mega Stones, Gary comes across Lopunnite, which had until then been undiscovered in-universe.
  • Max accidentally discovers that Manectric can go Mega when his newly evolved Manectric spontaneously Mega Evolved during the gym battle with his dad. It turns out that the Mega Stone they found at Sea Mauville was a Manectite. The group then alerts Gary of the discovery.
• Accidental Kidnapping: A variation in that some of the Pokémon that are encountered by the main characters end up captured by accident. Examples include James's Moltres, May's Spoink, and Max's Deoxys.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Multiple instances, most of them involving Ash's Squirtle and his Beyond the Impossible antics.
  • A non-Squirtle example would be Corphish standing atop a pile of defeated Slugma because he "never was much good at thermodynamics".
  • Professor Oak had no idea that the design of the Pokédex would allow for Porygon to develop, and, combined with Ash's giant info dump, gain sentience.
  • In the previous timeline, Ash had no problems carrying extremely heavy Pokémon such as Larvitar and Hippopotas because he had no idea that he shouldn't have been able to lift them (also lampshading the anime's tendency to frequently do this with small Pokémon regardless of their weight).
  • Maylene is capable of punching through brick walls, parrying Aura Spheres with her bare hands and fighting her Lucario in hand-to-hand, all without any Aura powers. How? Her Lucario figured that any human could do those things with enough training, and so kept pushing her way past her limits.
• Acquired Poison Immunity:
  • Dawn thinks Brock is using one of his illusion Pokémon to test Pachirisu's skills at determining North, while it's actually a group of wild Stantler, who are baffled at how ineffective it is. Brock doesn't even notice the illusions, given that so many of his Pokémon use them that not only has he gotten used to seeing through them, they don't even register any more.
  • Ash and most of his Pokémon tend to shrug off minor to moderate electrical attacks, since Pikachu shocks them harder in training.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • When N and Reshiram discover that weakening a Pokémon helps when catching them, Anthea gets the mental image of the latter repeatedly flying into a mountain to do so, which Reshiram also finds amusing.
  • Serena admits this after Dawn sends some pics of her Pokémon being goofs after a serious email.
• Adaptational Badass: Everyone, or very nearly everyone.
  • Ash, obviously, is the most notable of them; not only does he become at least as masterful in Aura as Sir Aaron was (though that does take a while), he learns how to understand Pokémon speech, catches Ho-Oh (at the latter's request), and solves most of the problems they came across the previous time with a lot less difficulty. And that's just the stuff that ISN'T Spoilered Rotten.
  • Pikachu gets in on it just as much; Ash teaches him how to manipulate Aura and invents Volt Crash, an Electric version of Hyper Beam. Then there's the part where he half-evolves, keeping the form of a Pikachu but gaining all of the power of a Raichu and then some.
  • After Ash restores Jessie, James, and Meowth's memories, they agree on a permanent truce, but they have to put on a convincing Masquerade for the rest of Team Rocket, including Giovanni; in Ash’s (pre-rewrite) words, "We want this to look like you're not bumblers, but elite gangsters who are the only ones who stand a chance against me." The most immediate results of this are James getting his pet Growlithe onto his team and evolving it, and the trio being promoted to Executives, and they just get more and more competent and threatening from there, all while slowly fading from Friendly Enemies to flat-out friends with Ash and co.
    • Meowth in particular Takes A Level In Badass when he decides he's sick of being good as nothing more than a translator. He then takes some lessons from Koga's Meowth, and becomes a ninja.
    • Jessie even becomes a Kanto Top Coordinator during the Battle Frontier, beating May for the title.
  • Pretty much all of Ash's Pokémon, too, particularly in the case of the previously underdeveloped and rather weak Butterfree and Pidgeot. Butterfree is far stronger, having spent several years defending of his group of Butterfree from hostile Pokémon attacks. Pidgeot is capable of supersonic flight and, after the Shamouti incident, learns Lugia's Aeroblast technique and periodically takes over for him as the one to watch over the Legendary Birds.
    Pidgeot: Silver? Just so you know, it's important to start out by aiming for a backstop. That means you don't have to get the aim just right the first time.
    Silver: Pardon? You don't mean I should...
    Pidgeot: Today's lesson is how to hit a Moltres with the stop-being-stupid beam. You fire first, and I'll sort out what you miss.
  • Most notable in the case of Ash's Charizard when using Blast Burn. For context, in the games, Frenzy Plant, Hydro Cannon, and Blast Burn are the Grass, Water, and Fire (respectively) versions of Hyper Beam. In this fic, when Ash's Ivysaur and Squirtle use Frenzy Plant and Hydro Cannon, that's how they're portrayed: as powerful but draining finishing attacks. In contrast, Charizard's Blast Burn is second in power only to the Pokémon equivalent of a nuclear warhead...and that's before Ash decides to improve on the move.
  • Squirtle. Just...Squirtle. He's become an Expy of Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, complete with a Beyond the Impossible attitude that almost always works for him. Much later, he invents Squirtilite, and though he hasn't yet stabilized it to the point where it won't explode after one Mega Evolution, he has achieved and undergone Mega Evolution. Multiple times.
  • Muk is some sort of horrible amalgamation of Cookie Monster and the embodiment of pure murder, after eating his way through Professor Oak's TM collection. The first time he was used in combat involved him using twenty TM moves at once on Whitney's Miltank, utterly destroying the building, and the second time is summed up as "And then Muk opened his mouth, and all Weavile knew was pain." Eventually Ash decides to do some training to help Muk use less moves at once, and when Muk struggles with that, they settle on having him use the same move five times simultaneously.
  • In regards to the other protagonists...well, Misty establishes this throughout the story, especially the couple of times that she faces Ash in a serious battle; she nearly defeats him in Cerulean and does defeat him in the Whirl Cup, and she manages to fight Molly's superpowerful Unown-created Pokémon to more-or-less a draw. But it's cemented beyond any doubt when halfway through the Johto region, she receives a notice that she's up for consideration to replace Lorelei of the Elite Four. She took up the challenge, and succeeded. And that's not even getting into her team.
  • Brock is as skilled as ever, but it's shown most during the Orange Islands. In an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, Brock fought off a bunch of Unown...with a crowbar. That later results in him commencing a serious romance with Professor Ivy, which is still going even now. Again, not even getting into his team...though on the note of said team, a running joke is that he's a Rock-Type expert that doesn't actually have many Rock-Types. He eventually starts saying he's an expert in misdirection instead, due to his Pokémon capable of using illusions, such as Ninetales and Stantler.
    • At one point, Philena even sends him a Rockruff she found to address this, but it turns out to be a Zorua.
  • Max. Thanks to Ash running into him and May a year or so before he goes to Hoenn, he manages to start his Pokémon journey early with Ash as his mentor. While he's not facing the Gym Leaders at their best like Ash is, his progress is still impressive; he beat seven of the eight Hoenn gyms fair and square, only having to rematch one of them, and putting on a good enough show for the remaining one that he got the badge anyway. His team thus far is also impressive: apart from the Shroomish (now Breloom), Mightyena, Shuppet (now Banette), Ralts (now Gallade), and Jirachi that he met in the previous timeline, he caught an Electrike as his starter (now Manectric), caught a Mantyke in Dewford (now Mantine), and of course, he got a Porygon Pokédex as a gift from Ash long before Hoenn started. He does a similar run through the Kanto League, and ends up qualifying in the top 16.
  • May. Thanks to Ash running into her and Max a year or so before he goes to Hoenn, she is able to start practicing for contests a lot sooner once she gets Blaziken back. Due to this, she is able to pull off more impressive contest appeals. Along with coming up with strategies and plans on the fly, and training in martial arts with Blaziken as her teacher, May also has new members including Altaria, Grumpig, and Manaphy on her team this time.
    • She eventually becomes a Top Coordinator during the Hoenn arc, and defeats Captain Phantom in hand-to-hand combat in the Battle Frontier.
  • Gary, after Ash restores his memories. He's much more of a researcher than he is a trainer nowadays, and often seems to fall into the role of Butt-Monkey. But let nobody forget that quite apart from his breakthroughs in research, he not only made it to the finals of the Kanto league, but won the Kalos league.
  • Ritchie Getem, Ash's doppelgänger, gets in on it too; where Ash developed his untapped potential in Aura, Ritchie and Sparky developed their untapped potential in Psychic Powers.
  • Starting in Johto, even the Characters of the Day are getting in on it. This is hinted to be the result of the Butterfly Effect. Examples include Miki's Skarmory holding its own against two fully-evolved Fire-types at the same time, and the Bug-catching Samurai from Viridian eventually returning as a Silver Conference finalist. Also, Orville, that Pidgey who wanted to be the highest-flying Pidgey in the world actually manages to outfly Ash's Pidgeot in terms of height; she had to stop in the Stratosphere because her wings were icing up, but Orville was still ascending. The only reason he stopped was because he passed out from lack of oxygen, meaning Pidgeot had to catch him.
  • Casey in particular is worth noting; she was a minor supporting character from the Johto Arc, but here, not only does she manage to defeat Charizard (the same one that managed to take on copies of the three Legendary Beasts at the same time) using the FEAR strategy^{for those unaware…}Focus Sash, Endeavor, Quick Attack, Rattata. To elaborate, the user of the strategy sends out a Rattata holding a Focus Sash against a Pokémon that it is hopelessly outmatched against. Opponent uses offensive move. Rattata drops to 1 HP but doesn't faint thanks to the Focus Sash. Rattata uses Endeavor to instantly drop the opponent to 1 HP as well. Rattata uses Quick Attack. Rattata wins., she makes it to the League where she defeats Charizard with her Rattata (now Raticate) again, and on Ash's recommendation, the Lucario Kingdom grant her the right to train a Riolu. Ash also gives her a Beedrilite.
    • And then she captures a Zapdos. All because he wanted to join in on her baseball.
  • Lugia gets in on the action at Shamouti, actually demonstrating why he's the trio leader of the birds.
  • In the third movie, Molly Hale gave both Brock and Misty a Curb-Stomp Battle because her illusory Pokémon have no limits except her imagination. In this fic, though Brock goes down more or less the same way, Misty is able to fight her to a draw.
  • Of course, the bad guys get in on it, too; Vicious/The Iron Masked Marauder took advantage of Giovanni sending a squad of Rockets after him early to 'acquire' some of their Pokémon via Dark Balls. And then he manages to get Pikachu in one...
  • Butch and Cassidy in canon were the much more dangerous versions of Jessie and James. They weren't much more successful when they crossed paths with Ash and friends, but they were much more competent. In this fic, they briefly fall into Jessie and James's old roles, but that doesn't last long before they decide to upgrade their teams. Oh, and Cassidy is no longer getting her partner's name wrong (though she's the only one).
  • In Altomare, Annie and Oakley come at them with significant reinforcements compared to the original movie, where they just had an Espeon and Ariados. Unfortunately for them, they don't stand a chance when they push Ash far enough to call in his entire team.
  • Team Galactic undergoes an odd version of this. For a currently unknown reason, nobody apart from those Ash has Reminded can see, remember, or perceive them in any way, which they ruthlessly exploit. They are expecting Ash at Lake Valor, and use a Shadow Zoroark to keep everyone busy and successfully kidnap all three Lake Guardians. It later turns out the original Cyrus along with the Lake Guardians and Creation Dragons of the prime timeline have been responsible for the Perception Filter. And once they are revealed, Cyrus immediately kills Ash.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: With regards to meeting Ash and joining the main plot:
  • The Maple Family show up at the Orange League to watch Ash vs. Drake, with Norman as a guest referee. May and Max are reminded and wait through the entirety of Ash's Johto journey before joining him across Hoenn.
  • Dawn and Johanna show up at the Hoenn Grand Festival, Dawn is reminded by Ash, and an inadvertent wish drops Piplup (as an egg) in her lap.
    • And during the Battle Frontier, a certain Buneary shows up in her front garden. And a Pachirisu. And a Swinub. And a Cyndaquil egg. And a note gets sent to Princess Salvia. It turns out that Celebi and Mesprit have been collaborating on it.
  • Iris finally gets in contact with Ash at the start of the Sinnoh arc, and she has her memories restored soon after.
  • Silver (Lugia's son, not Giovanni's) ends up finding Manaphy's egg and delivering it to the group at the very beginning of the Battle Frontier.
  • Gible joined the group after the events at Mt. Coronet. Here, Celebi delivers him to the group after the Wallace Cup, way ahead of schedule.
  • As an example of a character not on Ash's team, Gary catches a Fearow early on - which turns out to be the same Fearow that was the original cause for Pidgeot leaving in the original timeline.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: A rare case of a work doing this with itself. In the original, pre-rewrite version, Pikachu’s encounter with a Thunder Stone in Lt. Surge’s gym caused a partial evolution — his cheeks went from Pikachu-red to Raichu-orange, and with a power boost to match. In the rewritten chapters, it’s not a partial evolution... but in all material after the Power of One, where the rewrite finished, they’re still referred to as “Raichu-mix” orange.
• Adapted Out: Dawn wonders why she never met her friend Kenny at all during this timeline, before finding out he's doing the Unova contest circuit.
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Apparently, all Squirtle are huge anime fans. Just check out the Shout Out page for this fic.
• The All-Solving Hammer:
  May: Aura. It's always Aura.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Fred Farrell, Ash's opponent in the Johto League finals. His Pokémon are all nicknamed with the same idea; his roster includes Floodwater the Feraligatr, Flambé the Flareon and Fowler the Farfetch'd.
  • Lampshaded by Lara Laramie of the Laramie Ranch, "and if that sounds confusing imagine me learnin' it when I was young."
• Alternate Universe: Very subtle, but there are some changes from the main Pokémon universe - and that's not including the changes that the main characters have wrought to the timeline. For example, Hunter J and Lawrence III are brother and sister, and Koga (Poison-type Gym Leader) adopted Meowzie, Meowth's old crush (meaning she left Hollywood, rather than stayed for the episode of the anime where she debuted).
  • Unusually for the gang, the Mirage Pokémon situation in the second timeline is apparently the first time the group has had to deal with it.
• Always Lawful Good: Riolu and Lucario have a sense of justice apparently written into their very DNA; Aaron's Lucario realizes that Ash is telling the truth when he sees his Riolu defending him, something that wouldn't happen if Ash was a bad person.
  • This is later exploited: during the Mirage Pokémon event, Dexter manages to access the system and manifest a Riolu briefly, which gives the Mirage Pokémon a conscience.
  • This is also why it's such an Oh, Crap! moment when Ash and Co. encounter a Shadow Lucario created by Team Galactic.
• Ambiguous Gender:
  • Mew responds to both male and female pronouns (and often switches pronouns mid-paragraph) because he/she finds binary gender boring.
  • Whenever anyone asks what gender the Lake Guardians are, they just say that it's obvious, so Suicune refers to them with "it" pronouns.
• Amusing Injuries: Ash has a habit of accidentally stumbling onto remindable Pokemon; this comes into effect on such occasions as tripping over Brock's Lotad/Ludicolo and getting landed on by Brock's Pineco/Forretress.
• And Mission Control Rejoiced: When the deflection of the Delta meteor was successful.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Delia has made it a habit of giving her son custom-made badges whenever he finishes a region.
• Anger Born of Worry:
  • Pikachu gets this whenever Ash has to have his life saved by his Sacred Ash.
  • Misty tries to say some words to Ash to this effect after he is resurrected from literal dust, but can barely manage anything.
• Anti-Climax:
  • On their way to the Tree of Beginning, Ash and his companions encounter the three Regis. After tough fights against Regirock, Regice shows up, and they prepare themselves for a tough fight. After a sequence of retargeting actions, Regice promptly runs out of memory and shuts down.
  • Gible evolves into Gabite because he was trying to reach something on the top shelf of the fridge.
• Apocalypse How:
  • The whole premise for the story is that Cyrus attained his goal of a Class X, and that daisy-chained into a Class X-4.
  • A Class 4 example if the Delta Episode meteor had made it to Earth.
  • While trying to repair the timeline after the events of Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life go awry, Ash and Co. get glimpses of several Bad Futures, including the aforementioned Class 4, a Class 0 (the Unown crystal effect spreading to Sinnoh), a Class 2 (Shamouti weather collapse), a Class 3a (Mewtwo's extinction plan succeeding), another Class 4 (the Primal's rampage not stopped), and even another Class X-4 (the Alamos universal collapse remaining unstopped).
• A Rare Sentence:
  • Chapter 82, Johto 24, when Misty decides to catch a Chinchou, she lists off her Pokémon to a curious school. One of them inquires what a Kabutops is, and she sends him out.
  Kabutops: Hello. I am a reanimated fossil.
  One of the Chinchou: That's something you don't hear every day…
  • Chapter 119, Hoenn 3, when Lucario subdues the Rockets' Seviper:
  Brock: I've never seen someone do an overhand knot with a snake before… And that really shouldn't ever need to be said.
  • Chapter 216, Battle Frontier 8, when Team Rocket's Moltres mentions having to convince someone that she wasn't being mind-controlled or held against her will:
  Moltres: Besides, what self-respecting mind control artist would implant a memory of himself in a Moltres wingsuit?
  Dustox: ...that is a sentence I did not realize I was going to hear.
  • After another example in Chapter 221, May says that they should make an "Ash Sayings Book" of all the silliest ones. Pikachu says that he could contribute a few, but Lucario says "hundred" before his Beat is over.
  • Lampshaded when Squirtle has to be warned off of triggering a Colony Drop.
  • Chapter 242 has Ash and Co. face down another reanimated Fossil rampage.
    Dexter: It appears that several Fossil Pokémon have been revived in the museum and have escaped. It says a lot about us that the word 'again' goes on the end of that sentence.
  • Chapter 258, Dawn's first order in a Team Galactic battle:
    Dawn: Quilava, handle that Leafeon robot! (Beat) Sometimes I can't believe the things I say...
• Armor-Piercing Question: Dawn asks Baron Alberto one regarding his prejudice against Darkrai.
  Dawn: Baron, do you think Absol are dangerous?
  Alberto: Of course not, only fools believe Absol bring catastrophes.
  Dawn: Then can't you see the same thing is happening with you and Darkrai?
• Ascended Extra: Some Pokémon-of-the-day in a few canon episodes or movies end up fully joining the teams of Ash and Co.
  • By default, any Legendaries that Ash and Co. had met and captured would count, like Mewtwo, Lugia, Suicune and the Eon twins.
  • Easily the most notable of these arrives in Chapter 3: the Lucario Kingdom, detecting Sir Aaron's lineage active again, grants him a Riolu egg. When Ash touches it, he inadvertently restores its memories of the previous timeline, revealing it to be the same Riolu that he saved from Hunter J. Said Riolu, which evolves into Lucario during the Shamouti incident, becomes as much of a partner and trademark for Ash as Pikachu.
  • The Houndour pack that Ash helps in Johto decide to live at Prof. Oak's ranch, and the one whose life Ash saved ends up fully joining his team.
  • Brock does the same with a young Stantler found in a filler story.
  • A good number of Max's current Pokémon are this, having befriended him in the original timeline but were unable to go along with him due to him not being an official trainer. So far, the Shroomish, Shuppet, and Ralts he befriended and the Mightyena he helped evolve are part of his team.
    • On the note of said Ralts, his older sister Kirlia and his mother Gardevoir travel with Ash and friends for a week or so until the group returns to Petalburg, at which point they move in with Norman and Caroline.
  • The Absol and Flygon from Forina end up joining Ash and Brock's team, respectively.
    • And Jirachi, who can now stay awake thanks to Mewtwo's help, ends up joining Max's team.
  • Similar to Stantler, a Swablu that May met joins her after they help him fly again, as does the pearl-losing Spoink that the group meets a couple of times.
  • Manaphy's egg is found early, so May is able to actually properly adopt her 'child' and spend some good quality time with him.
    • When Manaphy, Ash and Co. find Samiya this time, they literally drive the entire place to Pallet Town so Manaphy will remain close by. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Max properly captures the Deoxys he met during the Battle Frontier.
  • A Luxio that Ash and Co. met in Canalave City's sewers decides to join Dawn.
  • The Shiny Metagross that Ash and Co. encounter decides to join the group, because Ash managed to beat them personally in a fight.
  • Impressed with Brock's team's coordination, Marcus's Heatran decides to wait for them to return to Michina, and joins Brock when they return to the present.
  • In terms of humans, numerous characters have been promoted from fillers and one-offs to frequently recurring characters, such as Casey and Molly Hale.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The mindset of the Shiny Metagross that Ash and Co. meet in Sinnoh. They run off all other trainers because they are not strong by themselves, but decides to go with Ash because he could beat them in a fight by himself.
• Artsy Beret: In chapter 183, Latias wears a beret when she's painting.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Since Ash last saw him in the original timeline, Primeape has developed a new martial art that is purely offensive. The closest thing to a defensive tactic is when he punches an incoming Bubblebeam hard enough to split with it a wind gust.
• Attack Drone: A common tactic for Mega Alakazam is to telekinetically levitate their spoons around and either launch attacks from them or charge them up with power and use them to bludgeon their opponents.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Mew, Mewtwo's companion. May's Skitty is a close second.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Done at least twice.
  • First as part of Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker, Ash and Co. face off against a wish-generated evil facsimile of Groudon and Kyogre.
  • Secondly it was intentionally invoked in Chapter 192 with Mega Destroyer Goodra versus Rebirth of Tyranitar! Giant monsters all-out attack! Featuring Super Destroyer Robot Heracross! ^{Explain the joke?}The younger Pokémon built a sandcastle city and decided to destroy it in the most epic and fun way possible.
• Avengers Assemble:
  • As a result of a Fossil Pokémon Apocalypse in Altomare, Ash is forced to summon every single Pokémon on his team to help combat it (except for a few who due to responsibilities couldn't make it).
  • A notification goes out to all of Ash's Reminded companions when it comes in that Team Galactic has found the Spear Pillar and is enacting their final plans.

B

• Babies Ever After:
  • The pair of Articuno that Ash and Todd help find each other eventually have two hatchlings. And Todd gets to take pictures of the newborns.
  • At the start of the Battle Frontier, Sceptile and Meganium have a Chikorita egg that they consider giving to Max.
• Back for the Finale: The Battle Finale of Legend a.k.a. the battle at Spear Pillar, showcases a few characters that were very Out of Focus, like the singing Jigglypuff from Kanto and all of Tracey's Pokémon.
• Badass Boast: Ho-Oh, known as the "Storm's End", makes one to the Phantom Pirates, saying that he's classified them as a storm, and if they don't surrender, he will end them..
  • Meanwhile in the time bubble, Aaron is presented with the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon team base, and he wonders for a moment how Dialga and Palkia are going to fit in through the door. Palkia immediately declares that the doorway is as big as he says it is, and walks straight in without ducking.
  • During Arceus and the Jewel of Life, Dialga gets asked how the group is still around in the present to go back to the past after they screwed it up the first time, meaning they wouldn't have been around to go back in the first place. His response?
  Dialga: I'm Dialga.
• Badass Family:
  • This time around, the Entei created by the Unown gets joined by Suicune and Raikou. And they will all do whatever it takes to ensure Molly Hale's safety and happiness. Thanks to Mewtwo, they and the unusual Eevee are all real Pokémon now.
  • Sceptile and Meganium already qualify by dint of having Ash as their trainer, but their son Chikorita also qualifies, since he has Sacred Sword as an Egg Move.
• Badass Fingersnap: After Max won his Mind Badge, and Liza and Tate are giving it to him:
  Tate took a Badge, and put it on his palm. He concentrated, and it floated slowly across the room.
  "Cool..." Max said, watching it. "How long did it take to learn how to do that?"
  "A while," Tate admitted. "But it helps-"
  "-when I help!" Liza finished. She snapped her fingers, and Max caught the Mind badge before it hit the floor.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The end of Chapter 261 - despite Ash and co. being on the scene, they can't stop Jupiter from abducting the Lake Trio.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: The Shamouti Legendary Bird Trio end up like this while both Lugias and Pidgeot were off dealing with the Delta meteor, as they were tasked with taking care of Silver and keeping him out of trouble, who is all of a sudden determined to cause as much havoc as possible. Little do they know, Silver's father told him to be that way in order to keep them out of trouble, knowing what they might get up to if not occupied.
• Bad "Bad Acting": A lot of Ash's Pokémon, from Charizard and Lucario to Pikachu, Mawile and Latias, are often excessively overdramatic or get the giggles when they have to take a dive during beginners training.
• Bad Future: Ash and Co. get a look at several when their attempts to restore the past of Michina Town lead to horrendous unforeseen changes.
• Bag of Holding: Sir Aaron's bag. Lampshaded when Misty boggles at Ash pulling an entire chalkboard out of it. He says the real trick was getting it in there in the first place.
  • A later chapter shows that part of how Brock keeps having the ingredients to do glorious meals in the wild is the fact that there's a literal fridge in it.
  • At the end of Battle Frontier, they clean the bag out. Everyone is practically stunned at how much he stores in there, and they just dump several gallons of water inside the empty bag and someone else goes in with the detergent.
• Bait-and-Switch: Ash unwraps the ribbon from his birthday present, opens the box...and it's empty. Turns out that the ribbon was the gift.
  Brock: Told you he'd fall for it, Misty.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: May reassures Max that his second battle against Tate and Liza will go better than the first — because it's not like it could be any worse.
• Barrier Warrior:
  • James' Abra tends to surround itself with Light Screens when it bothers to fight.
  • Agatha's Mega Sableye uses its enormous gem as a shield.
• Battle Couple:
  • Ash's Sceptile and Meganium are used against Tate and Liza and their Gallade/Gardevoir Brother–Sister Team.
  • During Max's Gym Battle against Mavis, she uses Gray the Alolan Ninetales and Juvia the Primarina Expies.
  • Pikachu and Buneary count, especially during the Battle Finale of Legend.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Used via Ash's Aura Purge. It turns out that the original purpose of the Aura Purge technique was to fight against the Shadow Pokémon of Pokémon Colosseum and XD.
  • The first time was to help cure Misty's phobia of Bug types by going back to her memory of the traumatic event that caused it and battling a horde of Bugs led by a mental projection of Genesect.
  • That fight was used as a practice run for the battle against Sabrina, which culminated in the only sane fragment of her personality cutting down her inner darkness with a representation of Keldeo's Sacred Sword, Excalibur Galatine.
  • Then came the incident with Molly Hale and the Unown, though that wasn't a battle so much as a therapy session.
  • Jessie's Cubone has also had a therapy session, involving Ash going through an entire army of Pokémon skeletons.
  • During the Whirl Islands mini-arc, Ash uses it on Lugia's mate, who had been turned into a Shadow Pokémon by Namba and Cipher, while falling in midair.
  • When meeting with a Swablu that can't fly in Hoenn, Ash uses this to excise his subconscious fear of storms, which ends with the entered Pokémon fighting Thundurus.
  • Ash uses it on the released Spiritomb they encounter in Sinnoh.
• Beach Episode:
  • A few scenes of beachtime are shown during the trip from Lilycove to Mossdeep (Chapters 161-162).
    • Chapter 162 even includes Gary's team relaxing in Barbados for a conference.
  • Ash and Co. take a well-deserved vacation in the Orange Islands after the Delta Episode.
• Beam Spam:
  • Muk's default method of attack is "Use all his moves at the same time." The first time he used this "Tactic," he unleashed twenty moves at the same time at a single target.
  • Judgement. When Skitty uses it via Assist, it is an uncontrolled mess of beams that hits allies just as much as enemies. When Arceus uses it, it is a precision-guided onslaught that annihilates all of Team Galactic's power with surgical accuracy.
• Beam-O-War: James' and Misty's Gyaradoses compete with clashing Hyper Beams. James's Gyarados wins the contest, but then gets flattened by Brock's Steelix.
• Bear Hug: Casey's Riolu keeps complaining about her trainer hugging her so hard her ribs hurt in "Mystery of Mew".
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Directly referenced by Arceus when he decides to banish Cyrus and his willing followers to his long-desired "world without spirit", making sure that they won't enjoy the experience.
• Been There, Shaped History:
  • Victini's V-Create is apparently responsible for the historical destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki/Slateport.
  • The last time Groudon and Kyogre underwent Primal Reversion, they sank Pokéatlantis.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: One way to make a Shadow Pokémon is to torture a Pokémon until they break.
• Benevolent A.I.:
  • Dexter and the other Porygon.
  • Mirage Mew and post Heel–Face Turn Mirage Mewtwo also count.
• Bequeathed Power: Non-lethal example. Right before Azelf is captured by Team Galactic along with Uxie and Mesprit, and thus cutting Ash off from his Reminding ability, he manages to impart one last packet of Reminded memory to Ash... which allows him to Remind Giratina.
• Berserk Button:
  • For Pidgeot, being mistaken for a male. The first time it happened, she retaliated with a massive Sky Attack and left the message "I'm female, twit" carved into the surface of the glass lining the resulting crater. Subverted the second time, when the culprit managed to apologize for his mistake in time to prevent her wrath.
    • Norman's Lopunny shares the same Berserk Button, and he's male.
  • For Squirtle, mocking Gurren Lagann or, even worse, breaking his Kamina style glasses. Brawly's Pangoro and Casey's Raticate, respectively, push those buttons. I'm sure we all know what happened next.
  • For May, DO NOT HURT MANAPHY. She's very protective of the little guy.
  • Blaine's Ninetales really hates it when others touch his tails.
  • Just mentioning Kyogre's name causes Palkia to smite Sir Aaron's character sheet and turn it into neutronium.
    Palkia: The normal-time Palkia had a bad breakup with her. I think it carried over.
  • It's more of a Tranquil Fury, but Giovanni's greatest grievance against the Iron Masked Marauder is that if history were to be changed, then he might never have met his Persian. Which is why he has Persian use Shadow Claw to give the Marauder a fatal stroke in his prison cell.
  • Steve's Hydreigon is not entirely focused on the battle — until Steve (falsely) claims that her opponent ate her last Klondike bar.
    The red glow that came into Shadow's eyes was visible from the stands.
    "DESTROY!" she shouted. "DEATH! MURDER! AND MY POOR KLONDIKE BAR!"
• Berserker Tears: After witnessing Ash's death at the hands of Primal Dialga, Meganium, Mawile, Absol, and Pikachu are all seen shedding tears, even as they lay into the Galactic forces with everything they've got.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • Ash's Squirtle has broken space. To quote Dexter:
    Dexter: Also, battles will almost invariably end in some improbable manifestation of power.
    • Given that this fic's version of Squirtle is a massive fanboy of Gurren Lagann, the Trope Namer of Beyond the Impossible, this is to be expected.
    • At the Battle Tower, when an opponent notes that Squirtle knows a move he shouldn't be able to learn, Ash says that he doesn't bother to tell Squirtle if anything is impossible, because he takes it as a challenge.
    • Squirtle created Squirtilite and Mega Evolved into Mega Squirtle. It broke after one use, but it worked. Reproducibly.
    • Apparently Squirtle's been reading physics books for ideas; everyone who hears about it finds it terrifying.
  • Dexter tells the group not to ask how the distortion in Alamos cut them off from the rest of the universe, or he might get a headache despite lacking a head.
  • Due to a Lucario's innate sense of justice, brainwashing or Shadow-fying them is supposed to be impossible. Which is why everyone is shocked when it's revealed that Team Galactic has a Shadow Lucario.
  • During the Battle Finale of Legend, Original Team Galactic's Primal Giratina throws Charizard and Pikachu into the Reverse World. They subsequently blast their way out.
  • Also during the Battle Finale, Squirtle breaks one of Primal Palkia's shields.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Occurs whenever Ash and Co. get into large-scale Pokémon conflicts where they bring out a large majority of their teams to match a numerically equal or superior force. Examples include where they face off against Colonel Hansen in the Togepi Kingdom, against Marcus's forces in Michina's distant past, and especially the Battle Finale of Legend versus Team Galactic.
• Big Damn Heroes: Many times:
  • Team Rocket during Ash's battle with Mewtwo.
  • Togekiss when Lawrence III is trying to capture Lugia.
  • Charizard and Pidgeot during the Unown incident.
  • Bianca and Latias during the Forina incident with the artificial Legendary Pokémon.
  • Rayquaza during the Scuffle of Legends. As both Groudon and Kyogre have undergone Primal Reversion, this doesn't go nearly as well as planned.
  • Mewtwo during the Mirage Pokémon incident. Right through the roof in fact.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Or the equivalent of one, at any rate. In the semi-finals of the Johto League, Ash faces a trainer named Steve, whose team appears to be dysfunctional and even more insane than everybody views Ash to be. Upon losing (though with good spirits), he immediately leaves the country without bothering to remain for the third place playoff and once the league is over is only mentioned again once.
• Black Knight: Since Lucario are Always Lawful Good via justice being literally part of their DNA, and them even having their own kingdom, they're often compared to knights. As such, the Shadow Lucario corrupted into serving Team Galactic counts as one, especially since it's later revealed he vanished from said Lucario Kingdom a while ago.
• Blatant Lies: From Chapter 167:
  Max: Did my Pokémon just do a flying leap off one of my other Pokémon? That happened, right?
  Pikachu: Eh, it's a good tactic.
  Lucario: So is throwing your teammates. Not that I would abuse that tactic...
• Blessed with Suck: Dark types being immune to Psychic Powers means that a Dark type can't hear psychic communication or be teleported when not in a Poké-ball.
• Blood Magic: The secret to using Ghost-type attacks while still alive and not getting fatigued. But it's not foolproof. In fact, the first time Ash uses it is when he's fighting Mewtwo. And he overdoes it to the point where all he can do just before he completely blacks out is give Mewtwo his memories back.
• Both Sides Have a Point: When Ash and Tobias finally face each other, both of them end up confronting each other over their contrasting approaches to Pokémon matches. Tobias believes that you should always go all out and use your strongest Pokémon, especially for important matches, otherwise you come off as disrespecting your opponent by using a weaker team and making their victories against you hollow should he win. Ash believes that you should allow every Pokémon, yours and your opponent's, to have the best battling experience possible, even if it means using a weaker team than you could put forward, otherwise you come off as a bully by Curb Stomping your opponent and not giving them a chance to show their best.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: May borrows Mr. Sukizo's "Remarkable" when helping judge the open air Contest she got set up, since the latter is out with a bad leg. Nurse Joy says she doesn't have the same flair that Sukizo has.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: All Pokémon captured in Dark Balls, briefly including Ash's Pikachu.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: James' Abra, Misty's Psyduck and Arceus are guilty of this.
  • Squirtle, as per his Beyond the Impossible habit, declares that he references a series before it even existed. Pokémon was first released in 1995, while Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann appeared in 2007.
• Breather Episode: Many:
  • Chapter 101, to unwind after the action-packed Heroes movie. It acts as a Day in the Limelight to various supporting characters, and Ash, Misty, and Brock, while mentioned, do not appear at all.
  • Chapter 174 is an unwinding chapter after Ash's loss against Wallace.
  • Chapter 191 is a wrap-up chapter after the Delta Episode.
  • Chapter 262 has the group and their allies gathered together to discuss Team Galactic, their Perception Filter phenomenon, and their kidnapping of the Lake Trio.
  • Chapter 268 is another unwinding chapter after the encounter with Giratina, Shaymin and Zero. Then directly after that is the week-long events with Professor Rowan's Pokémon Summer Academy.
• Brick Joke:
  • When Misty became a member of the Elite Four, she tells Brock she's considers putting swimming pools in her new home. Come chapter 120, she has done just that.
  • As Misty is leaving to become a member of the Elite Four, she specificially tells Ash to contact her when 'that thing with Manaphy' happens, to call her since it's her speciality. The story even has Misty complain about how long it took them to call her about it.
  • When Ash and Co. first meet Jirachi, Max wishes that Jirachi could stay around for longer, a wish that apparently did nothing. At the end of the arc, we find out what it did: teleport instructions and a book on orbital mechanics to Mewtwo.
  • Barry comes to the conclusion that Rhododendrons attract time Legendaries. Later, Celebi's Troll of a future self tells her and Uxie to hide in one when Ash is returning Ambipom, which Lucario notices. Dawn says that they're lucky Barry's out of town, or the town would be plastered in the plants.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: James's Abra is a good example of this trope. The entire reason he's developed his abilities as much as he has is so he can do things as quickly as possible and go back to sleep sooner.
• Bring Help Back: During the Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon event, Max's Kirlia Roland has to teleport quite a ways to get help from Mewtwo.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Implied to happen to Damian, the guy who abandoned Ash's Charizard back when he was a Charmander, when he is confronted by a fully-evolved Charizard who is legally entitled to make a single return strike in retaliation for being left for dead.
  Then he wrinkled his nose; apparently Damian's fear had loosened his… let us just call it his 'control' and leave it at that.
• Broken Win/Loss Streak:
  • Winona ends Max's winning streak of Hoenn Gym Battles.
  • Wallace does the same for Ash's Hoenn run — but still gives him the badge for showing adaptability.
• Brother–Sister Team:
  • In this fic, Hunter J and Lawrence III, who team up at the end of Chapter 37 to begin the attack on Lugia.
  • The Eon Dragons of Altomare. Latios is Spared by the Adaptation, and while only one of them is typically with Ash at a time, they team up both for Forina, the Scuffle of Legends and many other large-scale events that require both siblings.
  • The Mega Gardevoir and Mega Gallade that Tate and Liza use against Ash (not to mention Tate and Liza themselves).
• Bullet Hell: Mewtwo uses a Shadow Ball spread of this called Shadow Sweep as an anti-ghost tactic, and Jirachi can use a minefield version of this using Future Sight.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • The Too Dumb to Live Rocket Goon that tries to capture Molly's Shiny Eevee — with all five Kimono sisters, League Champion Ash and four Legendary Beasts in attendance. And he still doesn't back down when he realizes what he's up against. Jessie and James use him as an example for their next goon class, to hammer home the lesson that you don't mess with Ash Ketchum.
    Meowth: An 'dat's why Joseph ain't getting' broken out of prison. Da team ain't gonna spring morons!
  • Captain Phantom who never ceases his attempts to attack Ash and Co. and capture Manaphy, no matter how many times his crew fails, even ordering his men to shoot Ho-Oh. His Chatot actually defects to the heroes because he thinks that his trainer's gone mad!.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • Ash tells Riolu after he joins Ash that he considered the time they saved him from Hunter J a slow week.
  • Falkner is kinda scared that Ash reacts casually to a quarter-mile sized ball of electricity.
  • Morty and Eusine are understandably stunned at the sight of the legendary Beast trio, their shiny counterparts, and Keldeo acting as the peanut gallery to Ash's gym battle with Morty. Ash, Misty, and Brock don't even bat an eye.
    Misty: You've not started yet, have you, Ash? Sorry, we were a bit... late... huh. Hi, Legendary Beasts.
  • Brock lampshades this when a Contest Appeal May is doing with Wartortle that involves creating a giant ice tower doesn't feel flashy enough.
  • Celebi popping out of nowhere to congratulate them on an event that unhappened doesn't even rank in the top ten events that have happened to the gang.
  • Lucario barely raises an eyebrow to a Mirage Machoke using a flamethrower attacks, considering he learned the move from a Machoke.
  • Pikachu's reaction to a Mirror Match is just annoyance at having to fight himself again.
  • Both Buizel and Staraptor take the time travel thing in stride, remembering how much crazy stuff Ash tends to get involved in.
  • Dexter lampshades how it says a lot about them when rampaging revived Fossil Pokémon are almost a regular thing.
  • Rayquaza is a little nonplussed by how Ash reacting to his offer to become his Pokémon by simply saying that while he likes the idea, he doesn't have any Poké-balls he feels are appropriate for him.
    • The Mismagius trickster, the real identity of the above individual, is a bit nonplussed by how the gang keeps reacting to the weird stuff she comes up with with barely any surprise. The fridge Rotom even pops up to complain, which they find more interesting than anything the trickster did.
  • When Ash tells Zoey that things have been normal since the last time they met, Pikachu has to remind him that it's "them" normal.
  • Even the Elite Four have to check with Misty if this is normal for them, after they are roped in to assist in damage control during the Giratina incident.
• Butterfly of Doom: Occurs in ugly effect during Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life: because Ash and Co. foiled Marcus's scheme by force instead of diplomacy, the cascade of effects lead to a large variety of Bad Futures and outright Apocalypse Hows - see the trope above for specifics.
  • A more literal example happens early on in Kanto, as Butterfree's constant use of weather-inducing moves triggers the rainstorm that nearly killed Charmander ahead of schedule.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • The Oaks. Professor Oak is often the butt of many Pokémon's hijinks (primarily Ash's), while if something bad is happening, it's usually happening to Gary. Note that this doesn't make them any less competent — Professor Oak is still a foremost Pokémon expert and the best Pokémon trainer in Pallet next to Ash, and Gary is still the latter's equal to the point of even winning the Kalos Conference on his own.
  • Harley. From his Cacturne being burnt to a crisp by Ash's Ho-Oh to his humiliating defeat at the Hoenn Grand Festival, it seems the universe is repaying him for antics in the previous timeline tenfold.

C

• Call-Back:
  • When Suicune is talking to her brothers about being captured by Ash, she comments that Entei would look good with hair ribbons. Guess what happens to the Volcano Pokémon later on?
  • When Ash dealt with Anthony, the trainer who was trying to cheat by hiding smaller Pokémon in his Pelipper's beak, he said that the trick would work well in Double or Triple Battles. Anthony shows up again at the Ever Grande Conference, in the Double Battle round.
  • Misty thinks of a few tactics that her sisters could use in Gym battles against stronger opponents while she is checking up on them. These tactics come into play when Max challenges the Cerulean Gym during the Battle Frontier.
  • When Ash handled the Dark City gym the first time with its two feuding gym leaders, he offers a suggestion on how the two can cooperate and become a legitimate gym. When they return for Max's Kanto League journey, they've put his suggestions to use and are now fully legitimized.
  • When Ash and Co. reached Fortree, they met Steven Stone, who took an ancient Key Stone they had found in exchange for a promise to search for a Mawilite. He finally comes across one right before Ash and Co. reach Snowpoint in Sinnoh.
  • During Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life , Ash and Co.'s first foray at saving Damos and stopping Marcus has them return to a Bad Future where the Delta Meteor of Doom was not stopped, and the scene changes to Gary on the moon base refuge feeling that something had Gone Horribly Wrong, ending the first half of the movie. After Ash and Co. finally get it right and restore the current present, the scene changes again to Gary looking up at the moon and thinking about how he could've ended up there permanently if things had gone differently.
  • The Silver Conference had Ash fighting Steve and his absolutely insane team, including a Garchomp that claimed to be a Legendary. Post-Battle Finale of Legend, the Mirage Mew and Mewtwo notice a Garchomp on Mars challenging the Olympus Mons mountain and saying that beating it would make her a Legendary.
  • One contest had May ending up in a draw in points when time runs out, and she lost when the tiebreaker was rock-paper-scissors. When another similar draw happens during the Sinnoh Grand Festival and Dawn asks if the same game would be used, Mr. Contesta answers that someone complained and a tiebreaker speed round would be started to break the tie.
• The Call Put Me on Hold: Since Gary and Zoey were taking on Cyrus during the original timeline's collapse, their proximity to the epicenter of the collapse means that Ash can't initially remind their new timeline selves until the Lake Trio does some troubleshooting.
  • Out of all of Ash's travelling companions, Cilan is the only one who doesn't get reminded until after the main plot is over.
• Calling Your Attacks: As the dialogue of the Pokémon in this fic is translated, and they quite often are allowed to determine their own fighting styles, they often do this. Gary's Nidoqueen even lampshades it in Chapter 34.
  • May prefers Calling Your Strategies.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: After Iris is reminded, her Excadrill reveals that she has posters of Ash.
• Can't Catch Up: Subverted. Saph takes great lengths to ensure that other protagonists, including minor supporting characters such as Casey, are able to keep up with Ash (to some degree). Even Brock, whose talents gear towards Pokémon care, is shown to have taken levels in badass. Yet, the ultimate subversions would have to be Misty and Gary — the former becomes a member of the Gold-Silver version of the Elite Four, beating out Koga for the spot, while the latter takes on the Kalos Gym Challenge and wins the subsequent conference.
  • It's even subverted for Team Rocket: Jessie beats May and wins the Kanto Grand Festival.
• Canon Foreigner: During the Elite Four meeting where the current members discuss the status of their potential successors, aside from Will, Karen, Koga and Misty, some other candidates mentioned are characters taken from other Pokémon games, such as Courtney and Isaac from the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and Rosie from Pokémon Battle Revolution.
  • Aqua Admin Amber and Magma Admin Blaise from Pokémon Adventures also show up.
• Canon Welding: Characters and events from some of the spin-offs appear and/or are mentioned, like the Canon Foreigners above.
  • Ransei is the first realm Arceus creates so that he, Aaron, and the Creation Trio he created can pass the time until Ash stops Cyrus, the second being the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon world.
  • Ritchie has some adventures over in Almia after the Indigo Cup.
  • Wes and Rui (who is confirmed as having Aura sensitivity) from Pokémon Colosseum, the events of the game having taken place before the start of Ash's journey, show up to stop Cipher from creating and controlling a Shadow Lugia, with Michael also being name dropped.
    • Vicious/The Iron Masked Marauder's Dark Balls are earlier confirmed to turn Pokémon into Shadow Pokémon by way of torture.
• Cats Hate Water: Skitty, which May turns into an appeal in chapter 219.
• The Cavalry:
  • Happens literally in Sinnoh during the abduction of the Riolu (a different Riolu this time around). The Lucario Kingdom is notified and arrives on the scene to assist Ash and Co.... with actual Rapidash cavalry mounts.
  • In the middle of the Spear Pillar battle, Team Rocket arrives with a cavalcade of Legendary-stylized Humongous Mechas.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: More often than not, authorities or more powerful trainers arrive at the scene of a crisis after Ash and Co. have already handled the worst of it. These include Drake and Phoebe arriving to the Mirage Kingdom, or Sidney to LaRousse City. The latter is starting to get wise to it.
  • Mewtwo is this during Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker, but only because he was busy trying to put a chunk of the Millennium Comet into orbit around Earth so Jirachi can stay awake.
  • After Dialga and Palkia calm down and their spatial distortion is lifted, all of Ash's reinforcements that were cut off teleport in all at once.
  • Once Arceus shows up, Original Team Galactic is beaten and their Perception Filter is neutralized, other reinforcements begin appearing in the Spear Pillar, including a very disgruntled Ho-Oh.
• Celeb Crush: Once she realizes her connection to the famous trainer Ash Ketchum, Serena thinks she may be developing a crush on him for exactly this reason (and maybe a bit of Hero Worship).
  Serena: Well, yeah. Who wouldn't?
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Though Dexter can transfer Ash's Pokémon directly to him in the field with a satellite uplink, this uplink has sometimes been jammed during major Movie events, preventing Ash from calling in reinforcements.
• Cerebus Retcon: Despite how unseriously this story takes itself, there is one thing that isn't Played for Laughs like it is in canon: Brock's Running Gag of going into a Corner of Woe every time he hears Professor Ivy's name. In the original timeline, she was researching the Unown and was trapped in their dimension like Spencer Hale after a resonance cascade, and Brock, who had genuinely fallen in love with her, couldn't react fast enough to save her. This trauma was the reason for his constant adverse reaction to her name, and ended up Flanderizing him into a Casanova Wannabe in an attempt to rebuild his heart. But in this timeline, he was able to save her in time, which has turned them both into the fic's Official Couple.
• Chain of Deals: Gary Oak gets caught up in a chain of deals while trying to teach his Alakazam Teleport. The chain ends up getting derailed when Gary talks to his grandpa, who reveals he has several of the items needed, including several Heart Scales and the TM for Teleport. Gary decides to finish the chain anyway, which results in Gary getting an Anorith and Furfrou.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Maylene has no overt signs of Aura, but is still tough enough to spar with her Lucario.
• Chekhov's Armoury: At the beginning of the Hoenn saga, Norman gives Max a box of Pokémon accessories that includes a Magnet, a Shell Bell, an odd-looking scarf, a Toxic Orb, and a couple of shining stones. The Magnet becomes useful immediately because Max's starter is an Electric-type, and knowledge of the Pokémon he befriended in canon makes it easy to guess what the Toxic Orb and one of the stones will be used for, but the other three items... The other stone is a Moon Stone, and it gets used in the Delta Episode. Later, he gets an Aron, a Pokémon not among those he had befriended in canon, and starts working out the SABER strategy, explaining the Shell Bell.
• Chekhov's Gag:
  • During one of the early Johto chapters, Muk started acting like the Cookie Monster and starts eating TMs like cookies. In the first chapter after the Spell of the Unown arc, Ash summons Muk as his last Pokémon against Whitney. After taking a Rollout which does little to no damage, he proceeds to fire off no fewer than twenty successive TM attacks (including Hyper Beam and Flamethrower), which wins Ash the match but absolutely destroys Whitney's gym in process, including setting part of the gym on fire. Everyone is at a loss of words at the sight of the carnage.
    Muk: I like cookies.
    • Also included: Rain Dance and Sunny Day. At the same time. Somehow.
  • After Squirtle is left behind at Oak's ranch at the start of Ash's Johto Journey, a few throwaway lines in later chapters mention his usual antics involving Ash's five Tauros, including him trying to ride all five at once and teaching one to Walk on Water. Come Altomare and a Fossil Pokémon Apocalypse, we get to see what they've been working on: the Bull-Dozer. (Which does indeed involve one of the Tauros running atop the water in the canals.)
  • During the attack on Mount Chimney, an Aqua grunt can't find his main Pokémon, and has to use his backup, a Luvdisc. It turns out that Jirachi teleported it (a Remoraid) to help Delta evolve so he could save Max when the cable car was cut, and it evolved as well.
  • When the group arrive at the Saffron Fighting Dojo, Master Hamm mentions martial arts for several different body types, including serpents, avians, and the subtle blob martial arts. When Lucario is cutting a swath through the dojo's Pokémon, the one that finally takes him out of the fight is a Goomy.
  • When Squirtle was doing his initial experiments in creating Squirtilite, Ivysaur mentions the formation of a "giant Vaporeon made of water, which exploded". Come the events in Gracidea Vale, Squirtle deliberately damages his piece of Squirtilite to create that giant Vaporeon made of water, and uses it to successfully neutralize a rogue stormcloud. By exploding it.
  • At the beginning of the Silver Conference, Ash ran into a trainer named Nelson who was overwhelmed by the number of Legendary Pokémon that show up around him, and asked, "Is Arceus about to jump out of your backpack or something?" Well, Ash had been holding the GS Ball in his possession for a while...
  • For some reason, Celebi keeps bringing Dawn's Pokemon from the old timeline to her backyard during the Battle Frontier arc, while Gible is brought in months before Ash officially captures him. It's later revealed that the Lake Guardians are responsible for Ash's ability to Remind others, and after they're captured by Team Galatic, Ash loses it. With Ash's Sinnoh journey starting soon, Mespirit had Celebi bring the Pokemon in earlier so Ash could Remind them in time before Team Galactic sets their plans in motion.
  • Similarly, all through the fic, there were snippets of Arceus, Sir Aaron and the Creation Trio he made (referred to as the God Squad), playing Pokémon games like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon in alternate realities to pass the time. They finally emerge into the real world via the GS Ball.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The Sacred Ash from the first chapter, which is used to revive Ash after Mewtwo kills him. Then it's used again during the Scuffle of Legends. To Pikachu's horror, half of it is gone after that. And the last of it is finally used during the events under Climactic Battle Resurrection.
  • It was mentioned early on in the fic that limestone is the result of the combination of several fossilized remains. As it turns out, Altomare is built on limestone, allowing Annie and Oakley to unleash a Fossil Pokémon Apocalypse onto the entire city via the DMA.
  • When Absol first talks to Ash about Mega Evolution, she gets a small twinge from her danger sense. Several chapter later, after Ash has gotten Gary's Absolite and tries Mega Evolving her, the evolution causes her to go into a Super-Power Meltdown like Korrina's Lucario in canon.
  • When Keldeo goes to ask Misty for help getting back to Unova, Golduck tells him that she's been gone for a while. A few other scenes show a new Team Aqua recruit with a Milotic.
  • For helping save the Togepi Kingdom, Ash gets a ceremonial sword. It eventually becomes his focus for Sacred/Secret Sword.
    • And then it's revealed to have the soul of a female knight inside it, turning it into a Honedge.
  • Ash gets his hands on the Meteorite that Maxie and Archie were after at Mt. Chimney. If you've played ORAS, you know what it does to Rayquaza during the Scuffle of Legends.
  • Max receives a Moon Stone from his father at the very start of his journey. When the Delta Episode comes around, it turns out a Moon Stone supercharged with Infinity Energy makes a very good Meteorite to allow Rayquaza to go Mega.
  • During the events of The Rise of Darkrai, Mawile tanks and No Sells a direct hit from Palkia's Spacial Rend, thanks to being part Fairy-type. The same thing happens in the Battle Finale of Legend, which utterly dumbfounds original!Cyrus.
  • We finally understand what the GS Ball is used for: It is the fortress of Gold and Silver, the last ultimate refuge of Arceus, and it's used by the God Squad to emerge into the new timeline.
• Chick Magnet: Apparently Mavis's Alolan Ninetales, Gray, has a Primarina girlfriend that assumes this is the case for him. Fairy Tail fans should see this coming.
• Childish Older Sibling: Raikou is the eldest of Ash's Legendary Beast trio (as the embodiment of the lightning that first struck the Burned Tower, followed by Entei representing the fire that sprang up and finally Suicune representing the rain that put the fire out), yet he is the most bombastic, fun-loving and childish of the three. Ash initially thought that Suicune was the eldest because she is the most level-headed.
• Chirping Crickets: A bunch of Kricketune chirp after Ash's outburst about his refusal to dress up as Ashley again. Lampshaded when the narration points out how they aren't native to Kanto. This was removed in the remake.
• The Chosen Many: There are actually many Chosen throughout history, including Sir Aaron's line of Aura Guardians, the Dragon Clan, and the Stone family.
• The Chosen One: Aura Guardians, and those descended from them. Sir Aaron's Lucario knew full well that Ash (a descendant of Sir Aaron) was one when they first met, because, according to him, it's hereditary.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Chapter 73, part of Pokémon 4Ever: Pikachu is caught in one of Vicious's Dark Balls.
  • Chapter 186/Hoenn 59: The Ever Grande Conference is cancelled in the middle of Ash and Ritchie's rematch due to an upcoming catastrophe. And the Delta Episode begins.
  • Subverted in Chapter 204: Manaphy has just been kidnapped by a bunch of pirates... only for May to recall him out of their reach.
  • Chapter 285: Ash and Co. have just defeated Marcus and helped Damos in the past, have returned to the present... only to arrive in a Bad Future where the Delta Meteor of Doom was not stopped.
  • Chapter 291: Ash and Co. are notified that Team Galactic has finally found Spear Pillar, and that the endgame of their entire time travel journey is beginning.
  • Chapter 294: The Original Team Galactic emerge from the portal with their own Creation Trio, and vaporize Ash.
• Climactic Battle Resurrection: Primal Dialga vaporizes Ash during the Battle Finale of Legend against Original Team Galactic, but he is resurrected a few scenes later by the last of his Sacred Ash.
• Clingy Jealous Girl
  • Latias shows a bit of this with Ash when one of his opponents is a Fangirl.
  • Juvia, Mavis's Primarina, apparently thinks that every female that gets within ten feet of her Alolan Ninetales teammate Gray is immediately attracted to him, as per their namesakes from Fairy Tail.
• Cloning Gambit: Pikachu has just been given the runaround by Wallace's Greninja, it's coming in with a Giga Impact, it hits... and Pikachu delivers a Counter-Attack that knocks it out... only to burst the Substitute that it was.
• Clothes Make the Superman/My Suit Is Also Super:
  • Ash's Aura Guardian outfit is attuned to his own aura, and each part gives him a special ability: from the nice hat that gives him a Dark-subtype, to the boots that allow him to walk on walls and jump really high.
  • Just like in the games, Cosplaychu's outfits give her new moves when she wears them.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Barry's new Smeargle has resigned himself to this role for his trainer, especially since said trainer wants him to use Sketch to collect Legendary Signature Moves. In fact, pretty much all of Barry's Pokémon have to keep an eye on their Keet of a trainer.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Every Deoxys that shows up in this series has a different coloured chest gem to differentiate it from the rest. Tory's Deoxys friend is green, another Deoxys that comes looking for it is purple, the Deoxys inside the Delta Episode meteorite is blue, and one that Max meets during the Battle Frontier is orange.
  • When using Aura Purge on the Spiritomb they fought in canon, the more reasonable spirits all have a purple marking or garment on their body somewhere, while the revenge-crazy majority has green on them in a similar manner, like armbands.
• Combining Mecha: Team Rocket once employed a Humongous Mecha Tao Trio, the Zekrom and Kyurem of which then combined into a Mecha Black Kyurem.
• Commuting on a Bus: As in canon, some of Ash's Pokémon leave him from time to time for various reasons. This time around, they take a transponder with them that acts as a portable version of the Pokémon transfer system at Professor Oak's lab, allowing Ash to use Dexter to call on them if necessary.
  • Since Ash started recruiting Legendary Pokémon onto his team, he has made an allowance that if they need to take part in their jobs as Legendaries, they can leave and come back if they want.
• Continuity Cavalcade: Villainous example in Chapter 261: Team Galactic has apparently been going around collecting technology used by other villains, such as Hunter J's petrification gun, Cipher's Shadow Pokémon and even an Apathy Styler only seen in use by a couple of thieves, and make use of it all to capture the Lake Trio.
• Continuity Nod: One of this fic's strongest points is that it has a far stronger sense of continuity than the original work, allowing for unique solutions to be devised by pointing out relatively simple solutions to formerly complex problems. For example, Jigglypuff's long-standing issue of putting people to sleep with her song is avoided by pairing her up with the old man who plays the Poké-flute in the first Snorlax episode. Many episode plots are solved by pointing the problems of one spot out to people from previous episodes who have solutions, or pairing up people who have solved these problems already.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: After Zorua successfully pranks Brock and Philena, knowing how much she likes his cooking, Brock gets his own back by giving her only bland food for the next couple of days.
• Cosmic Retcon: The author's plan for the Pokémon X and Y new type, Fairy. And Mega Evolution, as Gary specifically admits that this didn't happen in the previous timeline, and speculates that this was the result of the time travel. His theory is confirmed when Korrina's grandfather admits that one of his Lucario Mega-Evolved the same day Ash went back in time, at the start of his journey.
  • As of "Celebi, Voice of the Forest", the Retcon has officially occurred via a Time Crash, interfering with Creation to make Fairy types a thing, and Mega Evolutions appearing at the point where Sammy travelled back to. And apparently making Max fail on a Pokémon Types test.
  • Related to the Mega Evolution thing is that Sea Mauville now exists where the S.S. Cactus did last time.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • It seems to be Celebi's job to make sure all the little hiccups in time are smoothed out, and one of them is making sure Ash and Co. meet the right Pokémon at the right time. Some of these are more elegant, such as how they nearly seamlessly altered people's personal histories to include the Fairy-type, while others... not so much, such as when one just drops one of Ash's Pokémon on his head.
    • But even she can't stay in control of everything: During the Grand Festival, she keeps trying to arrange for Ash to meet Dawn early, but other random events conspire to thwart her. Until the last time though.
  • A few of Jirachi's wishes can resolve themselves like this. A freak gust of wind, teleporting a trainer carrying a particular item, etc.
  • Dawn's team keeps showing up early. It turns out Mesprit and Celebi are collaborating.
• Could Say It, But...:
  • Invoked by Team Rocket when they "drop" the Sceptilite they got from the TR Armory next to Ash, in order to maintain Plausible Deniability that they are actually friendly with each other. Though Giovanni doesn't seem to buy it.
  • When Ash finally meets Giovanni in person, rather than outright deny his association with Team Rocket, Giovanni simply talks in the hypothetical, speaking as if he was the head of Team Rocket.
• Crazy-Prepared: After Ash was through with the Cerulean Gym, the sisters installed a bunker in case another strong trainer comes along. Like Ash's apprentice, Max Maple.
  • May has considered possible contest routines for pretty much every Pokémon in the group.
  • Professor Oak's Pokédex also counts in terms of technology. Lampshaded by Max's Porygon Pokédex, Kris; apparently, "Professor Oak's idea of appropriate processing power is being able to scan and analyze a new Pokémon in about fifteen seconds".
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Brock's Marshtomp prefers punching to any other form of attacking, which has led to problems when it comes to fighting Flying-types.
  • Muk's Beam Spam strategy is hilariously devastating, but as the Battle Pike Tent battle against Lucy's Shuckle shows, he's gotten so used to it that he has trouble not firing off half-a-dozen moves at once, a problem when he needs a specific move or move type, when the moves interfere with each other, or when the situation calls for precision rather than power.
• Crisis Crossover:
  • What could get Ash to call on just about all his Pokémon to handle one big crisis? A Fossil Pokémon Apocalypse in Altomare, for one.
  • How big a scope is the Delta Episode? Big enough to call in Champions, Mega-Evolution-capable trainers, and literally hundreds of Legendaries from all over the world to focus on one big meteor-sized problem.
  • The effects of the Reverse World's destruction causes so much damage that Ash has to call in not only his own team, but the Elite 4s from all four Japanese regions to assist.
• Criss-Cross Attack: Blaziken and Ethan pull this off as their final attack in the Hoenn Grand Festival, with Blaziken leaping back and forth between Ethan's barriers at Super-Speed, rapidly striking their opponents from all directions. While using Flare Blitz.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Wallace's Magikarp, which can shatter one of Glalie's ice shields with raw strength alone.
• Cruel Mercy: When Arceus finally comes out of the pocket dimension and stops Original Team Galactic, he decides to exile Cyrus and his willing followers to a new "world without spirit" like he always wanted. Their Pokémon will be significantly weakened, and no other human or animal life besides the exiles exists; they will have to struggle to survive and all of Charon's knowledge will be useless, preventing them from ever leaving.
• Cult: Team Aqua and Team Magma are explicitly described by the author as cults.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Due to Ash being able to restore the memories, and power, and evolutionary level, of his Pokémon, and that of his friends (including Jessie, James and Meowth) to whatever they were before Cyrus did his thing, they meet some people whom they completely overpower.
  • Early on, when Ash encountered the samurai guy who uses Bug-type Pokémon a second time from his point of view, well, it is easy to guess how that went.
    Narration: We draw a veil over the scenes of indescribable carnage.
  • When they did the Princess Tournament again, the early rounds, in the author's words, were one-sided.
  • Misty's confrontation with the Invincible Pokémon Brothers when they try to take over Cerulean Gym predictably ends this way, especially considering she just got inducted into the Kanto-Johto Elite Four.
  • Ash's first round with Roxanne ends up like this, due to her mistaking Ash for a rookie and using one of her mid-tier Golem... against Pikachu.
  • May's battle with Nicolai. After he insults Max's battling skills (despite that being Max's first battle) May sics Blaziken on him. Nicolai ends up eating his words.
  • When Jessie and James encounter Rico, the Poison-type poacher who is stealing Ekans and Koffing from Rocket turf (and who originally forced them to release Arbok and Weezing), things... go very differently this time around.
  • Ever since Shamouti, this has been happening less and less, as the world itself seems to get stronger and stronger. The events of the Third movie, for example, don't just involve a copy of Entei, it involves copies of the rest of the Beasts of Ecruteak as well. This has the side effect of making curbstomps less frequent.
  • Lilycove Pokémon Contest. Ash vs. Harley. Harley uses his Cacturne. Ash uses Ho-Oh. Need we say more?
    • And Harley's luck doesn't get any better, given that he's knocked out of the Hoenn Grand Festival by a Natu well within the time limit. And even later in the Kanto Grand Festival, Jessie's Audino essentially uses him as a living prop in a cooking show.
  • Arceus against Original Team Galactic.
• Curse Cut Short: Ninetales is partway through calling Houndoom, "You son of a-" when she cuts herself off, since of course it's true, but not helpful.
• Cutscene Incompetence: Invoked explicitly by Arceus to the God Squad during their Pokémon Mystery Dungeon run: none of the Creation Trio can use their time/space/symmetry powers because it's a cutscene, allowing them to be overwhelmed by a horde of Sableye.
• Cutting the Knot:
  • With their knowledge of the future, Ash and the other characters are able to avoid a lot of problems with relatively simple solutions. For example, teaming up the man with the Poké-flute that helped them with the Snorlax early in their travels with Jigglypuff, to counteract her sleep-inducing song.
  • Team Rocket was supposed to do Koga's dungeon of traps before facing him. What instead happened was that they used Abra to teleport directly to Koga at the end of the dungeon.
    • Ash does something similar by using Aura to sense the traps and just punching through the walls.
  • Celebi is running late getting Ash's Corphish in place in time for them to meet, so she just drops the crustacean on Ash's head and leaves.
  • Being a Combat Pragmatist, this is also Corphish's solution to most problems. Pokémon hiding in a tree out of reach? Cut down the tree.
  • When Manaphy is first kidnapped, May just returns him before the crooks get away.