• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Pokémon Anime Theories Thread

RedJirachi

Veteran member
One of the oldest theories is probably the idea that Giovanni is Ash's father ala Darth Vader. From what I understand it originates from Pokemon Live which hinted at the idea, but Delia said otherwise(though the subtext is still there). I'm not sure if it was a theory before then, if it was mainly aping the Sith Lord or what. Which would also make him and Silver(the rival, not the one shot character in Chronicles) his half-brother if he's canon to the anime as well. If my aforementioned theory is true as well, it makes Ash and Jessie half-siblings as well. Crossing canons, ever since HGSS it's a popular theory that Ariana is Silver's mother, which I consider more likely than the popular Ash theory.

With Silver from Pokemon Chronicles, I don't think he's Ash's father but I do think he's Delia's father, making him Ash's maternal grandfather. He reacts to Ash like he knows them but it isn't that big a reaction. The face looks kind of like Ash as well(well, his original design). And based off physical appearance he looks like he could be old enough to be a grandfather, though a young one(50s-early 60s at most). And there's the various parallels between him and Ash. I also believe, though this seems to have more evidence, that Sir Aaron is Ash's ancestor, a previous life or both. It would explain why Lucario mistook Ash's aura for Sir Aaron's. Riley is probably another descendant of Sir Aaron, making him and Ash distant cousins
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
The Sakaki and Satoshi father-son theory might have had a chance if we had seen them interact more when they met back in Best Wishes, but nothing came of that moment then so I doubt that there's some hidden connection between the two characters.
 

RedJirachi

Veteran member
The Sakaki and Satoshi father-son theory might have had a chance if we had seen them interact more when they met back in Best Wishes, but nothing came of that moment then so I doubt that there's some hidden connection between the two characters.
The writing staff has shifted alot from the original series. Ash's father may have been intended as a serious plot-point before things changed. We know Best Wishes had a lot of its plot altered from what was intended, due to the earthquake in Japan
 

BTS_fan

Immortal Queen
The Giovanni theory about him being Ash's dad doesn't really hold any weight since nothing in the show implies that they're related. The Pokemon play is the only thing that could support the theory, but it's obviously not even canon so it's not influential. Just my two cents.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
RedJirachi said:
The writing staff has shifted alot from the original series. Ash's father may have been intended as a serious plot-point before things changed. We know Best Wishes had a lot of its plot altered from what was intended, due to the earthquake in Japan

The staff may have been shuffled around a bit since the beginning of the series, but it seems way too late in the anime to introduce that kind of twist and have it work well. I'm not saying that it's not possible as some kind of endgame plan for the series finale, but since the anime isn't ending anytime soon, the theory feels kind of lackluster for now.
 

MockingJ

Banned
Do shipping theories count?? I'm not a shipper by any means, but I've always gotten the feeling that there was an off screen romance between Misty and Tracy since they hung out a lot in Pokemon Chronicles and as we know Tracy gave his Marill's offspring to Misty which is how she got her Azurill which could be symbolic. Plus Tracy was away visiting Misty in the last Black & White episode. So it kind of makes you wonder...
 

Kintaro

Banned
Do shipping theories count?? I'm not a shipper by any means, but I've always gotten the feeling that there was an off screen romance between Misty and Tracy since they hung out a lot in Pokemon Chronicles and as we know Tracy gave his Marill's offspring to Misty which is how she got her Azurill which could be symbolic. Plus Tracy was away visiting Misty in the last Black & White episode. So it kind of makes you wonder...

I wouldn't be surprised, since back when we were in early/mid AG, the writers probably already knew they were never going to bring Misty back to the main cast, as by the time we got into early Hoenn, May and the Contests had already exploded into popularity, so it seems the writers were trying to give Misty "closure" in AG by wrapping up her plotlines (Togepi evolving, showing her as a Gym leader in her specials, etc), so this was probably an idea they had to. As we remember, Misty's AG cameos were originally intended to be her final eps of the series, which is why she didn't appear again for 12 years from 2005 to 2017 all the way till SM came out. So trying to distance her from Ash a bit made sense, it's also why in her AG cameos there's no shipping hints between her and Ash at all.

Honestly looking back on them now, Misty's AG cameos were kinda lackluster. I enjoyed the first two-parter simply because they finally wrapped up Togepi's plotline and we had a good villain and it evolved and left, but her second appearance was essentially just a Pallet Town visit where she was treated like a female Tracey. Then she just got one episode with Max of all characters and it turned out to be her final episode for more than a decade.

If you look at the original Japanese airdates of her specials, you can really pinpoint the time the writers knew they weren't going to bring Misty back to the cast, and this is also around the time May's screentime really started increasing and the Contests were becoming a major part of the show, so it all checks out. As we know AG itself had shipping with May/Drew and Contestshipping, so it's not like the writers moved on from shipping either, in fact other than XY, AG probably has the second most shipping of the series. I guess the fandom made their choice back in the early 2000's, we really did.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
MockingJ said:
Do shipping theories count?? I'm not a shipper by any means, but I've always gotten the feeling that there was an off screen romance between Misty and Tracy since they hung out a lot in Pokemon Chronicles and as we know Tracy gave his Marill's offspring to Misty which is how she got her Azurill which could be symbolic. Plus Tracy was away visiting Misty in the last Black & White episode. So it kind of makes you wonder...

I think they're just meant to be close friends, and the fact that Kenji was off visiting Kasumi at the end of Best Wishes seemed like an excuse to leave him out of the episode more than a hint of his supposed relationship with Kasumi.
 

PokemonBattleFanatic-

Well-Known Member
Theory #1) Paul's Drapion is actually his Brother Reggie's.

Theory #2) Paul's Drapion is the same one he tried to capture in the episode Chim-Charred.

Theory #3) Paul's Drapion is a completely different Drapion from the other 2 above and was caught in a different location off screen and trained intensely for the sinnoh league.
 

PokemonBattleFanatic-

Well-Known Member
Oh, I was always under the impression that that was the case already.
It more than likely is true but was never confirmed,it makes sense since Reggie's Drapion wasn't shown outside of a flashback if I'm not mistaken.It was really impressive at the sinnoh league vs Ash but this was it's only appearance in battle and wasn't shown prior like his other pokemon.
 

RedJirachi

Veteran member
The “Ash is in a coma” theory is actually Ash playing Pokèmon Sleep
TBH, coma and dream theories are about the laziest theories of them all. The show's already fiction, why do we need it to be fiction within fiction?
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
PokemonBattleFanatic- said:
Theory #1) Paul's Drapion is actually his Brother Reggie's.

Theory #2) Paul's Drapion is the same one he tried to capture in the episode Chim-Charred.

Theory #3) Paul's Drapion is a completely different Drapion from the other 2 above and was caught in a different location off screen and trained intensely for the sinnoh league.

Speaking of Shinji, I still remember the theories about Jindai being his father, which I think stemmed from the fact that they had similar eyebrows and because of Shinji's brother's name sounding similar to Regi. I wish the theories had been true.
 

Kintaro

Banned
Remember the theories that Brock would leave the anime for good instead of continually coming back and meeting up with Ash again while the female companion always leaves? Haha. The early 2000's were a crazy time.
 

PokemonBattleFanatic-

Well-Known Member
Speaking of Shinji, I still remember the theories about Jindai being his father, which I think stemmed from the fact that they had similar eyebrows and because of Shinji's brother's name sounding similar to Regi. I wish the theories had been true.
Yeah both are very similar in the looks department and would have made it more interesting if they were related considering it's the main reason why Paul became so obsessed with power.I don't think it was a good enough reason for Paul to pursuit power just because his brother failed against Brandon then gave up being a trainer.It would have been more believable if Brandon was the father and it would be more convincing as to why Paul is so driven,it could have been him trying to prove himself to his dad that he isn't a failure like his brother was.I mean hey May's dad is a gym leader so why not.

But at the same thing we could look at what Reggie did as a trainer before facing Brandon,he traveled to many regions and obtained gym badges,competed in leagues and eventually competed in the battle frontier and won all but one frontier symbol.We could draw parallels with him and Ash when it comes to experience and accomplishments except Reggie didn't win the final symbol and gave up.My theory is that Paul might have done what Reggie and Ash were doing early on but eventually came to realize that this isn't getting him anywhere so decided to try another method and went on from there.
 

Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
Yeah both are very similar in the looks department and would have made it more interesting if they were related considering it's the main reason why Paul became so obsessed with power.I don't think it was a good enough reason for Paul to pursuit power just because his brother failed against Brandon then gave up being a trainer.It would have been more believable if Brandon was the father and it would be more convincing as to why Paul is so driven,it could have been him trying to prove himself to his dad that he isn't a failure like his brother was.I mean hey May's dad is a gym leader so why not.

But at the same thing we could look at what Reggie did as a trainer before facing Brandon,he traveled to many regions and obtained gym badges,competed in leagues and eventually competed in the battle frontier and won all but one frontier symbol.We could draw parallels with him and Ash when it comes to experience and accomplishments except Reggie didn't win the final symbol and gave up.My theory is that Paul might have done what Reggie and Ash were doing early on but eventually came to realize that this isn't getting him anywhere so decided to try another method and went on from there.
and his reason is suck no offense and he doesn't really grow as characters other then started to gain respect towards Satoshi
 

PokemonBattleFanatic-

Well-Known Member
and his reason is suck no offense and he doesn't really grow as characters other then started to gain respect towards Satoshi
I don't think he needed to change as a character personally and honestly it wouldn't have made sense to do so unless the writers decided to let Ash bring in his big guns earlier on in DP but that would have stunted the grow for Ash.The whole purpose of Paul was to push Ash to get better as a trainer and be this big obstacle that he must overcome.
 
Top