Ashes Of The Past / Tropes G to K

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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G

• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Trading as an evolution mechanic is replaced with simple battle experience or some other condition, such as Chuck's Machoke evolving mid-battle, or Clamperl simply being needing to be immersed in DeepSeaScale/Tooth-mineralized water to evolve.
  • Individual Pokémon can have more than one Ability, up to the three available naturally to any one species. Oftentimes (like Dexter having Trace, Download and Analyze) it's just a quirk, other times (like Whitney's Bidoof having both Moody and Simple), it's downright Game Breaking.
• Get Out!: After Miltank destroys her gym and Muk finishes the job, Whitney, after being dumbfounded for a moment, throws the Plain Badge at Ash and tells him to get out.
• Generation Xerox: Ash's father, also a descendant of Sir Aaron, was a Chosen and aura user, was also doing the Hoenn Gym Challenge, and is said to look very similar to Ash by the one person who remembers him. And he also got lost in Pacifidlog because he thought it still had a gym.
• Genetic Memory: In addition to egg moves (especially from Bulbasaur), Mewtwo apparently has flashes of memories from the Mew his DNA came from.
• Genghis Gambit: Professor Yung's Evil Plan: Denied the chance to get the Pokémon data needed to perfect his Mirage system (at least, in his mind that's the case, apparently he went to the press before the scientific community), he creates the Mirage Master, uses him to steal the data from Pikachu's brain, putting all the blame on him, and later he stops him to gain the accolade as a hero and genius.
• Genre Savvy: A Squirtle that the group meets sees everything in terms of Tropes, such as considering Kris as an Exposition Fairy, although seeing Max as The Protagonist isn't quite correct.
• Genre Shift:
  • The Delta Episode shifts the genre from To Be a Master to a Disaster Movie.
  • The final battle of Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior is interspersed with Rescue scenes as the area is wrecked and Pokémon are rescued from collateral damage.
• Get a Room!: Venusaur says this to Sceptile and Meganium to stop them from laughing at her.
• Glomp: This is the very first thing that happens when Ash encounters Pikachu in the new timeline; he opens Pikachu's ball, catches him, and gets tackle-hugged. It's doubly heartwarming because Ash didn't know in advance that Pikachu would remember the first timeline.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • A group of researchers testing a Fossil Revival Machine accidentally brought all the fossils in the museum back to life.
  • With all the firepower on their side, Ash and Co. during their return to the past of Michina to stop Marcus, do so with spectacular fashion. Against such overwhelming firepower, Marcus angrily surrenders and leaves, and ends up propagating changes that lead to the present being horribly changed.
• Grave-Marking Scene:
  • Upon his arrival to Pacifidlog Town, Ash and Delia finally visit the memorial of the man who broke a tidal wave over the town at the cost of his life: the lost Mr. Ketchum.
  • During his second arrival to the Rota Kingdom, Ash makes a pilgrimage to the Tree of Beginning to pay his respects to Sir Aaron's resting place.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Downplayed with Latias, who accepts that her crush on Ash isn't going anywhere, but still starts unconsciously growling when one of Ash's fangirls flirts with him during a battle — and blushes furiously when Pikachu points it out to her.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Ash's Lucario helps ambush some Pokémon kidnappers who were using a Skuntank to keep their victim subdued. After protecting his nostrils with Aura, he wields the skunk Pokémon as a club.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming:
  • Dexter develops sentience as a result of all the data he'd collected over the years being reminded into him by Ash all at once, and later becomes a Porygon.
  • The Mirage Pokémon (specifically, M-001/Mirage Mew and M-002/Mirage Mewtwo), do this, the latter especially when the system making a Riolu gives M-002 a conscience.
• Group Hug: Ash and Co. have one after they witness Ash come Back from the Dead and defeat Team Galactic once and for all.
• Gunship Rescue: With their new VTOL cargo plane, Team Rocket does this a lot.

H

• Handicapped Badass: Clair has a mute Noivern. Norman has a deaf Exploud. As Ash finds out, neither are any less of a challenge.
• Hand Wave: In chapter 206, this trope is name-dropped in reference to Lucario and Aura.
• Happiness in Slavery: Several of the world's most powerful Legendary Pokémon choose to be officially caught by Ash, knowing he's The Chosen One, so that they cannot be caught by someone less scrupulous. Justified in that being caught by a good trainer is not especially onerous.
• He Who Fights Monsters: During the opening rounds of the Sinnoh league, Ash wipes another trainer's party just by using Latias. Having spent basically the whole story vehemently opposing emulating Tobias (who is elsewhere in that tournament) by just overwhelming his opponents with legendaries, Brock and Dawn are afraid that Ash is starting to drift this way. Then it turns out that it's not Latias, and Ash just swept the trainer's party with Noctowl who was pretending to be Latias.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: In the original first movie, Mewtwo claimed the trainers' Pokémon after handily trouncing the natural Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard. This time around, Mewtwo goes 1-2; the Venusaur goes down the same way, but Gary's Blastoise imprisons the fake Blastoise in ice, and Ash's Charizard turns Blast Burn into a Fantastic Nuke and all but one-shots the fake Charizard. Mewtwo abducts all the other Pokémon anyway.
• Healing Factor: Ash's Ivysaur and Erika's Gloom are resistant to each other's attacks and can rapidly heal themselves with Leech Seed and Synthesis — and neither is backing down. After a long period of fruitlessly slugging it out, they end up consulting a computer together, looking for a move one of them knows that might end it.
  Ivysaur hit the Page Down button again. "This is taking forever."
  "Well, if you'd just stop healing yourself…"
  Ivysaur Synthesized again, regenerating the damage done by the Leech Seed in the last few minutes. "You stop first."
  Gloom punched up yet another Sunny Day, the evening sun flaring to greater brightness. "No thanks."
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • The two feuding Gym Leaders of Dark City, Yas and Kaz, have managed to cooperate and get their act together after Ash was through with them. By the time Ash and Co. return to Kanto for the Battle Frontier and Max's Kanto League journey, they have their joint Dark-type gyms fully legitimized.
  • A few less-savory trainers that Ash meets along the way have turned over a new leaf and improved enough to meet Ash again in the Pokémon League, after Ash knocks some sense into them. Koji, the abusive trainer that was trying to catch Cyndaquil, and Anthony, the cheating trainer with a Pokémon-hiding Pelipper, battle Ash again in the Johto and Hoenn Leagues respectively, both saying that losing to Ash helped them realize their shortcomings.
• Here We Go Again!: Scott finally tracks Ash down... only to find that the Battle Pyramid location he gave the trainer was old, so he has to track him down again.
• The Hero Dies:
  • Ash uses so much blood to create Ghost-type attacks while battling Mewtwo that he expires. Whereupon he meets Darkrai and finds out what the Sacred Ash is for.
  • When the Original Team Galactic emerges into the new timeline, Cyrus's first order is for Ash to be destroyed. One Roar of Time from Primal Dialga later, Ash is nothing but dust. Fortunately, he comes back with the last of the Sacred Ash.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Comedic example in Ecruteak Gym Leader Morty when he saw Entei, Raikou, Suicune, another Legendary Beast trio (albeit shiny) and a Keldeo sitting in the stands to watch Ash's battle with him. At least he holds it together to give Ash a proper Gym Battle, but his reaction after the battle says it all.
    Morty: ...well, I guess you've earned the Fog badge. Now I'm going to go home, and... probably sit down for a bit.
  • Brock's Croagunk faints when he finds out that not only is his trainer no longer a womanizer, but he's actually going steady!
  • Iris has one when she's Reminded, as she tries to reconcile her memories of Ash the doofus kid, with those of Ash Ketchum the League Champion.
    • And then she has another one, complete with Flat "What" and Stunned Silence, when she is told that not only has Ash met Giratina, he captured him!
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • What really happened to Ash’s father: he sacrificed himself to stop a tidal wave that threatened to destroy Pacifidlog Town.
  • Non-lethal example: during a Triple Battle against Wattson's team, Ash's Meganium throws her teammates Totodile and Quilava away before she is knocked out by Wattson's team's giant Electro Ball.
  • When Original Team Galactic's Primal Dialga zeroes in on Ash, Ash barely manages to throw his Honedge Kari clear before he is vaporized by the Roar of Time.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • In the previous timeline, Gary and Zoey tried (and failed) to stop Cyrus from going Godhood Seeker at Spear Pillar.
  • Due to Ritchie being "Destiny Entangled" with Ash, he has his own heroic quest to complete... and will face his own world-saving trials. He even develops his latent Psychic Powers to contrast Ash's own Aura abilities, complete with a Ralts to contrast Ash's Riolu, and had some adventures in Almia after the Indigo Cup.
  • Some of the Pokémon that Ash lets go have had their own, separate, adventures, and gained unbelievable amounts of power. For example, Butterfree, Lapras, and Pidgeot all spent years away from Ash as defenders of their groups or areas.
  • In this fic, Professor Ivy studies the Reverse World, and gets attacked by a group of Unown. However, Brock is able to prevent a catastrophe by fighting them off with nothing but a crowbar. Of course, we don't hear about it until after he rejoins Ash.
  • Wes and Rui from Pokémon Colosseum (the events of the game having occurred prior to the start of Ash's journey) appear in the Johto arc when a Cipher group shows up in Johto, and Michael from the sequel game is also mentioned.
  • Molly decides to join Gary in Sinnoh for her first journey.
  • N has his own scenes in this story about trying to understand the real truth of the relationship between human and Pokémon. It gets to the point where he, Zorua and Reshiram end up derailing Ghetsis's plan and leave on their own.
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: May's Blaziken gives one to the Magma grunt that had cut their cable car cable.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Why Team Rocket is using their balloon again in Sinnoh, because their cargo plane would be too conspicuous.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Invoked by the ninja school, which uses colors like purple to help train the students to camouflage themselves.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Turns out that the Team Galactic from the original conquered timeline where they won had been assisting their counterparts in the new timeline, providing the Perception Filter behind the scenes and waiting until they could use the portal their counterparts generated to re-emerge in the new timeline and take that over too.
• History Repeats: Just like Ash, Max loses in the Indigo League to a trainer he met on his way in, who was using Pokémon from a completely unknown region.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • During the Whirl Cup, Misty manages to beat Ash, despite him using Suicune, by getting her to freeze the field and mess up her own footing.
  • Two of Brawly's Pokémon end up knocking themselves out, thanks to confusion and some mis-aimed attacks.
  • Tobias's Darkrai may have blocked off of Ash's Butterfree using the sun to assist in his attacks, but by darkening the battlefield with Dark Void, both he and his trainer fail to notice all the powders Butterfree was scattering about. By the time he does notice, all Butterfree needs is one spark to set the whole field alight.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs:
  Brock: Talk about closing the barn door after the Ponyta's bolted.
  Ash: Why would a barn door stop a Ponyta if it wanted to get out? Couldn't they just burn their way their way through the door?
  Brock: ...Actually, now you mention it...
  Misty: It's... It's just one of those sayings.
  • At one point Jessie mentions wanting to put a Ponyta in Jessebelle's bed. The other Rockets were confused until she elaborated that it would set the bed on fire and probably break a lot of her stuff while trying to escape.
  • Noctowl has some trouble with it in Chapter 147:
    Noctowl: I'll be back in two shakes of a Mareep's tail. Actually, that doesn't exactly bally well roll off the tongue, does it? Two shakes of a Lilligant's... no... hm, this is harder than I-
• Hold Up Your Score: The Shiny Donphan that the group meet in Hoenn judges the courting displays of all the male Donphan from a scale of 1 to 10. Pidgeot doing a Sky Attack flyover and dropping Ash's Donphan who does a hit-the-ground-rolling landing only rates an 8.
• Hope Spot:
  • Thanks to Team Magma's interference, the Kaiju Groudon has shown up and is thrashing Forina. Butler, Ash and Co. have their plan all laid out to hit it with Jirachi's Doom Desire, Butler's machine is channeling the Millennium Comet's power into Jirachi to fuel the devastating attack... and then it all goes pear-shaped when Team Aqua shows up and uses that power to wish for a Kaiju Kyogre.
  • Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre are going ham on each other, messing up the landscape and weather, and nothing Ash and Co. are doing are slowing them down. Then Rayquaza charges in, prepared to deliver the smackdown, only for the two Primals to deliver the smackdown on him.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Ash's Gym Battle against Misty was supposed to be this in order to teach him humility, since in this fic, Gyms are designed to test a Trainer's character as well as their battling prowess. Unfortunately, Ash didn't get the message and ended up accidentally bringing the roof down as a result of his refusal to give up. And thus was a Running Gag formed.
• Hopeless with Tech:
  • Noland's Articuno, of his own admission. The only example we see is, when trying to cook some microwave rice, he overcooks it and doesn't puncture the bag, causing an explosion and ruining the microwave.
  • Given his predilection for not using Poké-balls, N finds himself at a loss when Reshiram asks for one. And Reshiram himself isn't much better.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Some Pokémon with evolution forms significantly different from their original forms sometimes have trouble adjusting. For example, Ash's Lucario has to learn to adapt to Fighting-type attacks being more effective against him, Casey's Lucario is considerably taller and faster than before and thus has trouble hitting targets she could hit before with ease, and Tyranitar needs to work out how to move properly.
  • This works in the hero's favor with the Marauder's Scizor, who is freshly evolved and unused to his new armored body, allowing Bayleef to defeat him when she realizes this.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Ash's Mawile has this relationship with no less than three of her teammates: Tyranitar, Goodra and Tyrantrum.
• Humongous Mecha: With Team Rocket not buying up every giant robot on the market, they don't show up as often, but they still do, often in the hands of other mercenaries.
  • Some poachers try to capture a Larvitar with a giant robo-Tyranitar. Pikachu is a bit critical of their choice.
    Pikachu: Could do with being a bit bigger. And the joints are kind of poorly made.
  • Then in Sinnoh the group encounters the Eeveelution Rangers, who pilot a bunch of giant Eevee robots that transform/evolve into their evolutions.
  • The TRio use three in the form of Mega Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise to assault a Galactic base, as a diversion so that Meowth can steal some data from their facility.
  • And in the Battle Finale of Legend, the TRio come blazing in with eight Legendary-styled mechs.
• Humanity Ensues:
  • As in canon, Latias can turn into a human replica of her friend Bianca.
  • Brock's Zorua eventually develops a human disguise.
• Hurricane of Puns:
  • Team Rocket's Wobbuffet has apparently been doing this the whole time, but now everyone can actually understand him.
  • Ash's Glalie is just as bad.
  • The end of Chapter 304 has all of Ash's team getting in on the action with a bunch of knight jokes.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • On occasions, Ash complains or wonders how some Pokémon is using a move they can't learn in games but common sense says should be able to use (like Rock Throw — all you have to do is... well, pick up a rock and throw it). This is in spite of his Pokémon using moves they can't learn (Earthquake, used by Pikachu, or Aeroblast, used by Pidgeot), moves that don't even exist (Volt Crash, at least until Gen VIII), attacks that aren't even moves at all (half the things Squirtle does), and even being able to use Pokémon moves (for example, Shadow Ball) himself. He is sometimes called on this, and admits it is a fair counter-point.
  • Buneary tells Pachirisu that eating nuts is stereotypical... while eating a carrot, which the latter lampshades.
  • When Ash sends out a third Tauros against her, Pietra complains that he's joking around.
    Pietra: You are kidding! You've sent out three of the same Pokémon?
    Ash: They're still different! What's your third?
    Pietra: Uh... Dugtrio...

I

• I Choose to Stay:
  • James's Moltres was captured by accident, but when James gives her the option to be released, she chooses to remain instead.
  • Even after finding herself as a Honedge and a spirit inside a sword, the knight Kari Burns still pledges herself to Ash's service.
• Idea Bulb: One appears over Skitty's head in the Appeal she and May do in chapter 219. The judges think it's Flash...
• Identical Grandson: Ash to Sir Aaron, though there are too many generations in between for just grandson to be applicable.
• Identical Stranger:
  • Ritchie, more than one person has apparently mistaken him for Ash.
  • Lampshaded when Princess Salvia is registering at a contest as Dawn, but doesn't want Dawn's fame either; she claims to be some other Dawn who just looks similar. Not only does Ash pipe up to mention Ritchie, but the two timeline-duplicates of Zoey show up.
    Zoey: Maybe she just looks a lot like the person you're thinking of?
    Zoey: I hear it happens.
• I Meant to Do That:
  • May and Jessie both have this as a contingent plan for some of their contest appeals, in case a move doesn't work as planned.
  • In a battle against a ninja Weezing in the trees, Casper tries to use a vine to pull a branch down and pin her in place, but the branch breaks, crashes into her, and she falls to the ground and is disqualified. Casper acts like that was his plan.
• Improvised Platform: Blaziken can use Ethan's (May's Porygon) Reflect screens as stepping stones. Later, Cinder, Max's Mightyena, uses Casper, his Shuppet, in the same way.
• Indy Ploy: May likes to employ these through Skitty's Assist and Munchlax's Metronome. It certainly helps her when she fights a Shiftry using Mind Reader to anticipate her movements.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Professor Oak takes several swigs from a hip flask while Ash fills him in on the time travel situation.
  • Mr. Contesta declares that he needs a drink after the Sinnoh contest circuit finishes up, after Mr. Sukizo (who in every single previous appearance has said nothing but some form of the word 'Remarkable') sums the contest up while Joy delivers his catchphrase instead.
  • Sir Aaron wishes for a stiff drink when it turns out that their current RPG quest has him and Dialga fighting against Palkia.
• I Never Told You My Name:
  • At the Shamouti festival, Ash greets Maren by name, then realises his mistake.
  • Keldeo bumps into Iris and says her name before she says it, leading them to go and talk about how.
• Innocent Innuendo: While Jessie and James are challenging Koga at the Fuchsia Gym, Meowth is led away by a female of his species who offers to help "remedy his depression" over feeling worthless as anything other than a translator. The next Jessie and James hear from him, he's crying out ecstatically, which Squicks them out to no end when they realize the implications. Then Meowth walks in and proudly offers to show them why he's so happy now... before demonstrating that the female Meowth has taught him how to finally use Pay Day.
• Insane Troll Logic: Barry practically runs on this. If he can't remember what Pokémon a Legendary is, it's automatically a UFO. Later, he encounters Celebi in the bushes, and comes to the conclusion that time Pokémon are attracted to rhododendrons...
  • Later chapters reveal that this is his way of trying to make sense of the outrageous stuff Ash can do, which clearly require equally outrageous explanations. If he just comes up with enough theories, eventually he'll stumble into the truth.
• Insistent Terminology: Mawile insists that Larvitar is her little brother by virtue of the fact that he hatched after her, even though (due to time travel) he's actually three years older than her. And as of Chapter 121, he's twenty times larger than her, too, but...
  Mawile: ...nope. Still my little brother.
  Tyranitar: I'm older than you and nearly twenty times your weight!
  Mawile: Little brother means little brother. Size doesn't matter.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Dexter, as well as Gary and Professor Oak's Pokédexes, develop full sentience as a result of uploading all the information Dexter had cataloged from the future and become Porygons.
  • And now May and Max both have Porygon Pokédexes as well.
  • One of the Porydozen created a hunter-seeker program to invade Team Galactic's systems, which also unexpectedly developed full sentience.
• Instant Costume Change: Seviper lampshades how fast Cosplaychu can change outfits.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Chapter 119 has the trainer-of-the-day Anthony espousing his Pelipper as "the world's most powerful Pokémon". After Max and his Electrike have a go at it, Ash, knowing Anthony's game, brings out Suicune, who uses Roar to scare Pelipper back into its Poké-ball and expose all the other Pokémon hidden in its beak.
• Insult Backfire: In 217, Harley tries to insult May, but she turns his insults into positives.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Humorously, Ash and Pikachu still manage to wreck Misty's bike.
  • Even though Ash and Co. manage to fix the problem with Jirachi by convincing Butler of the disastrous consequences of his plan, the Kaiju Groudon still appears when Magma Admin Blaise shows up and wishes for one. And then it gets worse.
  • Although May goes out of her way to try to be nice to Harley this time around, he still ends up antagonizing the group when he finds out she's friends with Ash — who had just roasted his Cacturne in the Lilycove Pokémon Contest.
  • Celebi turns out to be invoking this, making sure Ash still meets the same Pokémon and companions from last time in mostly the same manner. Of course, she can't control everything...
• Interface Screw:
  • How Brock defeats Shingo, a trainer the group meets in Johto who battles with his laptop showing a data-based display that amounts to a typical Pokémon game battle. With Shingo fully focused on his laptop, Brock's Stantler overlays his laptop display with an illusory display of a fictional battle, while keeping up an illusion of said fictional battle over the battlefield, while letting Shingo's Scizor basically beat himself up under the illusion via Confusion.
  • The first trainer that Max faces in the Indigo League tries this by getting his Chatot to imitate Max's voice, but the referee soon puts a stop to that.
• Internal Reveal: Various people find out about the time travel at various times. Brock telling Professor Ivy is especially touching.
• In the Name of the Moon:
  • Or sun, in this case; otherwise invoked pretty much word for word, by Quilava, when taking advantage of a Sunny Day to attack Suicune.
  • Later lampshaded when she makes a similar declaration to a Jolteon, and then immediately admits that she's just joking.
    Quilava: I just like the show, I'm not obsessed... mainly, I wanted to shock my trainer.
• In-Universe Catharsis: As his teammates cheer around him, Ivysaur admits that even after all the other Leagues Ash has won, finally beating Tobias and winning the Sinnoh League still feels different. Suicune identifies it as settling unfinished business.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure:
  • Dexter mentions a piece of research that incorrectly states that Psychic-types are immune to Ghost-type attacks. The Psychic-type being researched was Meloetta, which is part-Normal-type (rendering it immune to Ghost moves); apparently, the study failed to account for Meloetta being a dual-type Pokémon.
  • Remember those punks that were abusing Lapras? Apparently, they were doing that because they thought Lapras could learn Earthquake. They can't, but in their defense, Ash did once make Pikachu use Earthquake, and plenty of other Pokémon in this story use moves they can't in the games or anime, so it was worth a shot.
  • Misty's encounter with the Invincible Pokémon Brothers comes barely hours after she is inaugurated as the newest member of the Kanto-Johto Elite Four, and it's noted that most of the audience had been watching the news, something the brothers pointedly did not do.
  • The flashcards used to test potential Pokémon Trainers before they get their licenses use the Trainers' Choice questions from the dub of Advanced Generation, including the infamous "Arbok evolves into Seviper" answer. Not only does Max point out all the errors immediately, but the proctor is mortified, and is last seen preparing a list of all the ways that an eight-year-old knows more about Pokémon than the company who wrote the questions. It's mentioned later on that the company who made those is being sued for being so blatantly wrong.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Stated word for word by Ash, when Tracey recalls that he became a bit obsessed with fighting gyms in the original timeline.
  Lapras: Isn't it resent?
  Pikachu: Not with Ash. For that particular remark, it is definitely 'resemble'.
• Ironic Hell: Invoked by Arceus when he decides to exile Cyrus and his willing followers, making sure that they will not enjoy the "world without spirit" they had desired for so long, which he makes clear when there's a protest that they're getting off lightly.
• Irony:
  • A book about Pokémon riding that Serena reads gives the advice that the Pokémon need to do light exercise after hard work to cool down - and gives the Fire-type Ponyta as an example.
  • A talking fridge comes out to protest the outlandishness of seeing Legendaries, aliens, Sentai heroes and time travellers, and the fridge is the only thing Ash and Co. haven't encountered yet.
• It Tastes Like Feet: When Max's new Aron Ferris is nicknamed, his Manectric Arc gives him a friendly lick.
  Arc: ...you taste like bicycle.
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That:
  • Ash was aware that Pokémon evolve around him unusually frequently, but Brock telling him some Pokémon take years of training to evolve when he was chastising Team Rocket for their evolution machine took him by surprise.
  • A Houndour belonging to Team Magma doesn't think that erupting Mount Chimney would be a problem, since his Flash Fire ability means that lava doesn't hurt him. Cue Blaziken telling him that no, not all Pokémon have that ability.
  • Maylene's Lucario figured that anyone could, with enough training, punch through bricks and fight Pokémon with their bare hands. Of course, Ash's exploits on television don't help matters either.
• It Only Works Once:
  • Squirtilite only works once; after use it breaks in a massive explosion of water.
  • Ash has been working on some aura battery crystals to provide a power boost if needed, but the only way to use them is to break the crystals and let the aura out. The final battle against Cyrus is a good enough reason.
• I Was Just Joking:
  • When Dexter announces that the Fire and Rescue Grand Prix is coming up, but that there's a problem, Misty jokes that they're probably banned because of Squirtle's antics. She's right.
  • Chapter 166: Hoenn 39:
    "This I've gotta hear," Terrakion chuckled. "What, did he eat it?"
    "Yeah," Keldeo agreed.

J

• Jedi Mind Trick: Lucario jokingly tries one on Brock, but it doesn't work.
• Just Friends:
  • Since Ash can understand his Pokémon now, he finally learns that Bayleef has a crush on him. She's disappointed, but not surprised, that he doesn't return it.
    Ash: Bayleef, I don't think... I can't be quite what you want, because I don't have feelings for you that way. But I can be a friend. Would you like that?
  • He responds similarly to a (less developed) crush from Latias.
    Ash: I don't think that I'm old enough to know what to think about this. I'm... it's flattering, of course, but I don't...

K

• Kick Them While They Are Down: During Ash's Gym Battle with Flannery, Goomy ends up evolving into Sliggoo mid-battle, but while he is trying to adjust to now being blind, Flannery's Pyroar knocks him out. No-one, not even Flannery, is impressed.
• Kid from the Future:
  • Drew's Leafeon finds out that her newly-produced egg is actually May's Glaceon.
  • Brock's Zorua shapeshifts into one to prank her trainer and his girlfriend.
• Kidnapped by the Call: While Ritchie is on his Hoenn journey, Celebi appears and teleports him back to Johto to the previous day to help a Nurse Joy save her Pokémon Center as per canon, no matter what he says about it.
• King of All Cosmos: Arceus and the second Dialga and Palkia, much to Sir Aaron's dismay. "Every hour I'm in here with you guys, my image of the Kami becomes a little more tarnished..."
• Knighting: For their efforts in saving the Mirage Kingdom, Ash and Co. end up with knighthoods. As well as a few bits of territory to call their own.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • At one point, Team Rocket steals Dexter, planning on making a copy of all that useful data he'd cataloged over the years for themselves. By the time Ash and the others catch up to them, they're about to make their getaway in a jet that they'd acquired. Then the situation triggers Dexter's emergence as a full-fledged Porygon. Jessie and James share a look, realize that this new development does not bode well for them, chuck Dexter out of the cockpit, and take off while they still can.
  • Ash invokes this when Vulpix turns herself into a Ninetales by remarking that he will make sure to forfeit if Brock gets involved in Pokémon contests.
  • Butch and Cassidy, of all people, get in on this when Ash shows up at one of their scams; they recognize him as the Indigo League Champion and how one of his Pokémon beat back three Legendaries. They waste no time skedaddling, not even bothering with a battle. Giovanni praises them for it.
    • They do this again later, this time accompanied by some other Rocket grunts, while spying on Professor Oak's lab and debating if they should go down and steal some of the Pokémon. Butch points out repeatedly that no, this would be a very bad idea due to the presence of an ex-champion that is Oak himself, and the abundance of Ash's Pokémon and Legendaries; he calls the Oak Corral "the hardest target in the country". They finally turn tail when they get noticed.
  • Jessie and James give lectures and classes at Team Rocket HQ on exactly this sort of situation - specifically, those revolving around Ash. Their advice: stay away from him.
  • One of Giovanni's agents, in contact with her boss, is approaching Mewtwo's last known location. Then Giovanni notices Ash is in the area, and orders her to stand down and scrap the mission.
    Giovanni: Besides, if Mewtwo truly is hostile, then that boy will stop him with ease. And if he is not... yes, that could work to our advantage.
  • On a more mundane level, for official matches, Pokémon in unwinnable situations can choose to tap out and surrender, which counts as them being knocked out.