#sorry i just feel ljke. ash and the ivysaur was a classic ash moment obviously but did gary not have that same dynamic with the shieldon

[kohakhearts]

i feel like yeah i mean, gary is essentially a palaeontologist, but he has this like, Thing established early in the narrative about Bonds between pokemon and humans - emphasized in his eevee evolving into umbreon, of course, but this part of his character is…interesting, because we’re given hints that kind of go against the idea that in the indigo league he’s not as emotionally attached to his pokemon as, say, ash (a nod to his character inspiration in blue, obviously, who professor oak says can’t win because he doesnt love his pokemon enough or whatever. similarly in the anime prof oak is the one to point out the difference in ash’s and gary’s styles of raising pokemon, that ash values friendship and gary values strategy, which……..aren’t really mutually exclusive and ash shows us this too but whatever. my point is gary has lines and actions prior to that exchange that are kinda contrary to what prof oak says there). anyway i just woke up from a pretty intense nap to say that i think we all should lean into gary being more anthropological in his pokemon research compared to goh in particular who is a lot more scientific and whose character arc kinda functions around learning to accept that humans and pokemon can and do have mutually beneficial relationships, something he rejected initially under the assumption that pokemon can’t learn to help themselves if humans are always rushing in to do the hard stuff for them. like in a way they have a common goal of research yes but i think this is an interesting disconnect that would be fun to explore because its a big area of potential conflict that the anime doesnt show us because they have so many OTHER conflicts that make them good foils to each other And by the time they meet this isnt something goh is grappling with nearly as much as he was in the beginning. but i feel like later in his life it’s something he believed so deeply for so long maybe it could affect his research. i dont know how to coherently put this into words - that nap really drained my brain power, which was already low anyway - but i am so interested in the idea that a cold, detached view of science is antithetical to the study of it. and like who better to prove that to you then the guy who pisses you off so bad you stop being cold and detached about things without even realizing it