#dr. uchikido

[vj87g]

Professor Ivy is so one of a kind. But even after 25 years, we still don't know what happened between her and Brock. Oh well. Guess we'll never know.

But I always know that she is still good looking.

[tobiasdrake]

Orange League, Episode 1 - Pallet Town! Setting Off on a New Journey!

Oh hey, new OP. There are no longer Pokemon in that girl's skirt. She can finally stop being harassed.

Returning to Pallet Town, Professor Oak throws a party for Ash to celebrate how far he went at the Indigo Plateau. Yes, just Ash. Screw Gary, I guess. Parties are for winners. Even though Ash only made it one round farther than him. Oak is as fickle as he is callous!

Naturally, Team Rocket crashes by impersonating foodservice employees and putting chili sauce in everyone's food. This feels less like a master plan to abduct Pikachu and more like they're just trolling out of spite.

Once the party's over, Oak has an errand for Ash to run. You see, Pokemon Gold and Silver were supposed to be out about a year ago; That's why Togepi dropped so early. But due to the unanticipated delay, it's going to be another ten months until Johto officially exists in canon. Oak needs Ash to go spend some time at the Filler Archipelago until then.

Specifically, Ash needs to retrieve a special Poke Ball from Dr. Uchikido/Professor Ivy on Daidai/Valencia Island.

Terrible with directions as always, Ash leaves north along Route 1 to go to an archipelago. This gives him the opportunity to have a surprise reunion with his very first archnemesis: The Spearow he naively threw a rock at back in the first episode, now evolved into Fearow.

Fearow's flock has been invading Route 1 and driving out the native Pidgeys. Ash decides to take some time to putting this right, using his Pidgeotto.

That's easier said than done. Fearow is built to blitz, coming in fast and hard with vicious Physical strikes, particularly their signature Drill Peck. Even a fully evolved Pidgeot can't compete with Fearow's Attack and Speed, but they compensate by being built much tankier. Pidgeotto, however, is outclassed by Fearow in every category.

Pidgeotto tries to save the Pidgey flock, but Fearow slaps them out of the sky before they even know what hit them. That's about right. It's practically a KO right then and there, with only Pidgeotto's determination keeping them alive at 1 HP.

That determination brings about another of the anime's signature mid-fight evolutions, which also restores all of Pidgeot's HP for some reason. Now it's a real fight.

(Fun fact, Pidgeotto's Japanese name is Pigeon. Pidgeot is the same in Japanese, but it's pronounced "Pidgeotto". So that's fun.)

Round 2 against Fearow goes a bit better. Pidgeot lands a Gust, followed by a Quick Attack. But then Ash gets impatient with the rate their HP is dropping and sends in Pikachu to speed things along with a Thunderbolt.

Ash tries to capture Fearow after that, but a catch rate of 90 isn't a walk in the park. Even damaged as they are, Fearow slaps the Ball away, and Ash gives up trying afterwards.

So rather than catch Fearow, Ash walks away with -1 Pokemon. He releases Pidgeot here to protect the Pidgeys of Route 1 from any further attempts by Fearow to take over their habitat.

D'aww. He's going to regret that when he no longer has a way of easily and efficiently popping Team Rocket's balloon.