... Wow.

I wrote an entire oneshot in several hours and posted it. I forgot about an idea I'd had, remembered it in the morning, wrote some of it in the afternoon and then wrote the rest at night. It's dialogue-heavy rather than having a lot of introspection, but still. It's in the neighborhood of 5,800+ words. It's been a while since that happened.

Basically, the idea was "... What if some jerk who wanted Meowth kidnapped him and put another Meowth in his place, a badly hurt Meowth, and Jessie and James think that it's their Meowth and he's been hurt so badly he doesn't remember how to talk?" Then that combined with me wanting to write something involving the instructor from The Ultimate Test episode. I did not like that guy for several reasons. I thought parts of the test were unfair. I didn't like that he was determined to have Meowth, even though he knew Meowth was with Jessie and James and he must have surely thought one of them was Meowth's Trainer. When he's hailed as a good guy, I rather expect better behavior from him than from the antagonists! Then I really didn't like that when he knew his Meowth got blasted off, he wasn't even worried about the poor thing and was only focused on having a chance to get the talking Meowth. So he got set up as the antagonist in the fic. I hope it's not OOC. I definitely based it on those things in canon, but I don't know what the general fanbase opinion of the guy is (if the fanbase has an opinion on him at all).

On ... Sunday, I think it was, I had a very weird and bizarre and unsettling dream that ... seemed to involve Team Rocket discovering that their final fate was being sealed in wax, as statues, and they could not escape it. Jessie even tried a decoy of herself, hoping that would get zapped instead of her and then she could escape and try to save the others, but it didn't work. (There was also some really weird thing about her being older than she looks/never aging, which I of course don't plan to do anything with.) It was one of those dreams that sticks with you and continues to be unsettling when you're awake, and I decided the only thing to do was to blurbize it and write a solution to the problem, because it being their final fate is unacceptable. Haven't written the solution yet, but I did have Ash and Pikachu find them and determine to save them and everyone else the Pokemon has coated in wax in the chamber. It feels very movie-like, so I may or may not try to make a full fic out of it. I'm planning that Ash either tames the Pokemon who hurt everyone or else he finds another one that's willing to reverse the damage (since movies seem to have at least two Legendary Pokemon in them). I'm picturing that the Pokemon releases everyone else first, then comes to Team Rocket and asks Ash if he really wants them released too. Of course, Ash says yes, that even though they cause him so much trouble, he doesn't think they deserve such a horrible fate. And at times they've been helpful, so they have good in them.

I like Ash way more than I used to. I would really get bent out of shape 15 years ago, frustrated with the constant blasting off since he could really, seriously hurt Team Rocket. I still don't like that, but I'm frustrated with Team Rocket for a lot of things too, so overall I've decided the whole cast is flawed, the whole series has cartoon physics and logic on both sides, and hey, let's love the characters and the show for the good in them and try to bring out those sides in the stories instead of having up and down characterization for both good and bad guys. I love having Ash interact with Team Rocket in my fics these days. It's a lot of fun.

On one of my many rewatches of Mewtwo Returns (which got watched, I think, about nine times in two weeks ... I renewed it, but had to send it back for real yesterday and I am very sad about that), I then watched a very early season 1 episode right after. The contrast was quite striking. It was neat realizing how much Ash matured and grew by the time of Mewtwo Returns!

(I also wonder why I never really heard much about it 15 years ago. I was on the lookout for anything that was good to Team Rocket and I would have been all over it. Instead, I really didn't understand what it was. All the different Mewtwo names were really confusing to me. Like, the first movie seemed to be called both Mewtwo Strikes Back and Mewtwo vs. Mew, so that really confused me, and then there was this other thing called Mewtwo Returns. I just wasn't even sure what was what. And then now I've found out there's a female Mewtwo in Best Wishes and I just don't even know what to think. It didn't sound like they did much, if anything, with the Team Rocket organization wanting her back, like they did the first Mewtwo, unless that was only in the prequel episode, and the movie with her sounds like a complicated mess and just a way to try to bring back a popular character without necessarily having a good storyline or reason why. Why not check in with the original Mewtwo instead of creating another one?! From what I read, it just felt so very badly done. Team Rocket would be frantic to get her back after losing the first one. WTH. Of course, they do have the trio trying to catch her, but there's not the intensity of the entire organization after her and such. And I'm glad, at least, that with the trio trying to catch her, it's not the same Mewtwo as before, because in light of Mewtwo Returns I would really get bent out of shape if the writers did that and had Team Rocket turn against the original Mewtwo after their adventures.)

My Jessie and James figures are here! Right on time too. They look exactly as pictured! It's always nice to get exactly what you think you paid for. They're a lot heavier and sturdier than I was thinking, though, which is awesome. I was picturing them being about like my YGO figures. These are way heavier, even though they're around the same size. I love it! With Jessie I did the same thing I did with my Marik figure and wrapped a piece of white cloth around the bare midriff, LOL. One never knows when Dad might wander in and see the figures. Of course, he wouldn't like the short skirt either (nor do I), but the boots come up so high that I usually don't think as much about the skirt. Meowth has shipped and will hopefully come soon!

Random thoughts from watching Pokemon the Movie 2000

As much as I love Articuno's design, color, and ice powers, it seems like he and the other Legendary Birds are all really rather jerks. The moment one is taken, the others just want to take over the kidnapped one's territory and have more power. And the way they attack Lugia ... oy. That was brutal. I love when they all harmonize at the end, but I have to wonder if the thing would repeat all over again if one was taken or otherwise disappeared.

(Also, honestly, Articuno is a way cooler name than Freezer, LOL. So unimaginative. And I think I read that Moltres's Japanese name is Fire? Seriously? Boring!)

Then I had the thought of an AU branching off from the movie. Team Rocket is apparently thought dead in the movie, or at least, we don't see anyone acknowledging they're alive except Slowking, and he breaks the fourth wall talking about all the people watching them. ROTFLOL. I know the novelization has Ash and company see them alive, but I don't like how the novelization handled the scene. It downplayed their sacrifice and had Ash saying something about how they'd never change (meaning it negatively). So, I won't accept the novelization version. Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of Team Rocket running with the idea that hey, while they're thought dead, maybe they really will try going into business for themselves like they talked about at the end of the movie. Every time I watch the film, I always hate the thought of things going back to the status quo afterwards. It's just too meaningful to be dismissed that way. Of course, they'd end up drawn into the conflict again anyway, but they'd probably be or end up on Ash's side in it.

I put aside Johto for a while because I was getting frustrated with all the formulaic episodes. I tried one again tonight and got frustrated again. Honestly, the first two seasons had so many episodes breaking away from the formula and having Team Rocket be awesome/show their softer sides/etc. Johto seemed to hardly ever do it. Most episodes were formulaic, with them as the bad guys, and the few times fun things with them did happen, like the Wobbufett Festival one or the one with Articuno saving them (and what's he doing in Johto when the movie says he only lives in the Orange Islands?!), the writers mostly trolled the viewers by having them turn traitor again. Ignorance is Blissey and the flaming Moltres episode are two of the only ones I've really liked so far on this Johto set. They seemed to be pretty rare, breaking away from the usual Johto formula. I have enjoyed some of the others, like the first owl illusion one and the two with the Snubbull, but as far as good Team Rocket content goes, those are about the only season 3 ones I can think of that are good for them. Maybe there's some other nice Team Rocket episodes on the set, but the summaries all sound like the rest are pretty formulaic.

I also watched Training Daze again. It was sweet seeing how they first bonded and how nice James was. I still wish they hadn't changed the dialogue about him running away and such, but I did love the heavy emphasis on teamwork and being loyal to each other. It was cringeworthy that not even Cassidy could say Butch's name right, though. Although it was funny when, after "Hutch" he goes, "That's it. I'm changing my name." ROTFLOL.

The episode really does contradict earlier canon, though. We know from season 1 that Jessie and James knew each other long before Team Rocket. Training Daze heavily implies that they only met in Team Rocket. I like the origin story, so I tried to bridge the plothole by saying that they'd had a falling out after the bike gang and hence, were cool to each other upon meeting again in Team Rocket.

Another plothole not so easily explained, however, is that James clearly doesn't know Butch and Cassidy in The Breeding Center Secret. But in Training Daze, there's no way he wouldn't be aware of them.

One more reason to consider the first two seasons as absolute canon and everything else is nebulous. They were rebooting things as early as Johto!