Pokemon

The “Ash is Really in a Coma” Theory

written by some guy in /a/

 Did one ever know the reason why the
pacing and story development change after
Ash was hit by lightning in the beginning
episodes? How Ash and his world were rela-
tively normal until after the incident? I have
a theory. The accident with the bike put Ash
in a coma. Days later he was found and was
hurried to the hospital and treated with heavy
medications. This is why Team Rocket became
less menacing. The medication took effect and
stabilized his coma dreams, instead of being
terrifying, they became idyllic, and he’s able to
live out his Pokémon master fantasies.
If one had noticed, the early episodes of Poké-
mon were of amazing quality. The rest of the
series is just the results of his subconscious
mind fulfilling his desires, as well as attempt-
ing to escape them. Should Ash realize he’s
in a coma, he would wake up, but suffer brain
damage. So he has to take down all his mental
barriers one by one until he can come to grips
with what he is and escape his coma.
This explains why he doesn’t change much
physically. Also, the worldwide socialism can
be explained if you once again realize that this
is a dream world; he thought up a safe system
of government that would run smoothly and
keeps the world going allowing his adventures
to work like they do. It also explains a few
other things, such as how a child can go off on
his own in a world full of dangerous untamed
animals, and why every Pokémon center has
the same exact nurse. Joy and Jenny he knew
from his hometown, and they act as a safety
net or anchor, allowing him to feel safe no
matter where he goes. The professors, like
the Joy’s and Jenny’s represent stability, and
ash’s ideals. This is why Gary became a pro-
fessor. It’s also the reason that every time
he enters a new region, virtually no one has
heard of him, despite his conquests, and why
Giovanni leads Team Rocket. How could
Paul, the rival of the Sinnoh area, not know
of someone who has placed in at least the top
16 of all three leagues and has destroyed the
Orange league and Battle Frontier?
Ash’s travelling partners are actually aspects
of himself he can enjoy, but doesn’t like to
associate with himself. Team Rocket are his
qualities that he deems “negative”, but is
coming to terms with. Jesse and James want
to appease Giovanni, Ash’s Father. Meowth
especially wants to appease him because he
remembers the good times with Giovanni. This
Places meowth in a category known as ash’s
(corrupted) innocence, and another fragment
of ash’s humanity. If you note that meowth can
speak this quickly becomes apparrent. In fact
the whole reason for meowth’s speech is so
he can help Ash accept Team rocket as part of
himself eventually.
Brock is Ash’s repressed sexuality. He fell
into the coma a virgin and needed an outlet for
his growing sexual frustrations. Since he can
never experience sex, Brock must never suc-
ceed. Brock is a projection of his sexuality,
and is constantly shot down because Ash could
never “know” sex. Brock isn’t just Ash’s
latent sexuality, he’s also his fatherly instincts,
neither of which Ash can come to terms with.
Brock leaves his siblings to “journey” with
Ash. because Ash can’t cope with having that
much responsibility, much as his foray with
a real relationship ends on mysterious terms.
Ash just cannot handle commitment at his
mental level. Brock’s Stay with professor Ivy
was an.attempt to outright suppress his sexual-
ity. You’ll notice that James got much more
dialogue in this part of the series, as well as
getting more touchy feel-y with his pokemon
and getting most of his backstory. Ash didn’t
enjoy this much, hence the reasons Brock
comes back all horrified, and refuses to speak
about it. (ash’s subconscious was repressing
him at the time, so other than a general feel-
ing of dread he has no idea of what went on
then.) This is also why brock keeps coming
back to the series....Usually AFTER Ash meets
a new girl aspect of himself.Misty is an image
that Ash had of a girl. This is why she plays
so prevalently in the series but is ultimately
unattainable because he never really knew her
before the coma. Likely the one that helped get
him to a hospital. I have a theory in line with
this: Since Misty was his initial love inter-
est (if only subconsciously), he needed her
to reach a level of womanhood. He felt that
people could only have relationships when
they’ve matured. But in practice, it turned out
he couldn’t cope with it and just wanted the
normal, pushy, arrogant Misty he knew, and
wouldn’t let her keep Togepi anymore.
Misty is Ash’s first attempt at a girl he
could love, however, being a girl from the
real world, all he really he knew of her was
her anger, as a result she ended up quite hot
headed in his mind. Constantly berating his
sexuality, but eventually mellowing out until
she had faded into the background. This was
also traumatizing to him, being attached to it.
Since then, the thought of anyone around him
maturing to adulthood has been blocked, and
anyone who shows signs of it will quickly end
up leaving for another, more naive fill-in.
Max came with May, she played the Id with
great aspirations, and he played the sensible
Ego that “Session”. They worked for a little
while but Ash, being a teenager, eventually
had his sexuality had to come back into play.
He kept reinventing himself and eventu-
ally wrote new aspects, but his mind slowly
brought back the old ones as a crutch to make
the transition easier.
Dawn is Ash giving himself a chance to love.
since he already established Misty as someone
he’s not likely to go anywhere with, he created
a new super female, one that was more like
him, and less violent all the time. (One will
note that both May and Misty had no tolerance
for Brock whatsoever whereas dawn seems to
try and shrug it off.) .
Tracey, The Breeder was a possible future for
Ash that he discarded. It was one that he sent
off to work with the Professor (the professors
being Ash’s ultimate ideal of a father figure)
when he disrupted the dynamic Ash had with
his other possibilities. Ash’s mind is fighting
the coma and since Ash viewed this one as
a companion he was quickly replaced with a
more threatening Rival.
Pikachu obviously represents Ash’s Humanity,
hence the episodes where they get separated,
and ash wants desperately to find him, even to
the point of working with the rockets ( aspects
of himself he woould never normally associate
with) but for some reason cannot. They want
to steal Pikachu (Ash’s humanity) and hand it
over to his father, Giovanni. Jesse and James
will always oppose ash because ash is terri-
fied of the thought of his humanity lying in the
hands of his father. However this is the same
reason that he will work with those aspects of
himself in order to save his humanity from just
becoming flat out LOST. He couldn’t evolve
his Pikachu without challenging his concept of
who he was, something he wasn’t comfortable
with while he was still working through his
original issues.
Another thing is the narrator. The narrator is
Ash’s higher mind, recapping and explaining
the progress he’s made and the tribulations he
will face allowing itself insight into how best
to awaken him. disguises are always believed. He knows it’s
them (on some level), but chooses to ignore
it, so he can better himself, in a sense the Ash
who wants to escape is sabotaging the ash who
Ash has issues With his Father; so he put him wants to stay lost in his mind. So that there can
atop the evil corporation, and demonized him. be more conflict, and hopefully an eventual
There may be an actual team rocket, and I’m escape. The filler episodes that don’t focus
positive they’re quite dastardly, but I doubt on Ash and the gang are his mind working
that ash’s father is their leader, in fact the through, and humanizing the parts of himself
head of the rockets wasn’t really identified as that he demonized. It’s a way for him to deal
anyone until later on in the series. The split with issues that Ash and crew wouldn’t touch,
between ash’s parents was likely over ash’s because it involves treading ground he him-
homosexuality and some sort of incident as a self had sworn not to go near. As I said, Team
catalyst, forcing his father to disown him and Rocket and the episodes they occupy are Ash
his mother to move out of the city and down dealing with ground he feels uncomfortable
to pallet town. This is why Giovanni runs the with tackling on his own. Jessie is Ash’s van-
faceless Vile corporation, and Why he Berates ity and gullibility, she will trick Ash’s submis-
Jesse, James, and Meowth as much as he does, sive homosexuality into doing her bidding so
and why they keep trying to please him. An- she can please father. James’ troubled child-
other thing to notice is the difference in uni- hood is his way of justifying his latent homo-
form, The rockets Wear Black and Red, where sexuality. Now James is Ash’s latent homo-
Team Rocket wears White....a symbol of their sexuality, hence why he is constantly punished
purity and naievete. They’re willing to please by Pokémon and attacked by random attractive
father despite his utter hatred of those parts of girls. I believe the split between Ash’s par-
Ash . ents was caused by this part of Ash, maybe
an incident at school, bringing shame on the
Team rocket are aspects of Ash’s personality family and forcing them to move to the small,
that he has deemed “bad” James implied ho- country town of Pallet. Ash’s motivations for
mosexuality, and Jesse’s vanity. You’ll remem- his journey were to escape mounting pressure
ber that Meowth has the potential for reha- at home.
bilitation, and doesn’t want to be evil, so yet
again this fits in with the conflicting personali- So in a way, Ash IS Team Rocket. The rest of
ties and demonized self theory. Team rocket the whole organization Including Butch and
started cross-dressing because ash had to come Cassidy is symbolic of his inability to escape
to terms with that part of himself. It was some- his father’s machinations.
thing he was able to allow his gay/vain side to
experiment with (and by virtue of that himself) Mr. Mime is actually a stand in for Ash’s
When he found that it wasn’t something for father, one that can’t emotionally abuse him
him, his “Free” side stopped playing with it. or his mom. He is a Pokémon, a peace loving
Further, their methods of capture become more creature that’s oddly humanoid, but that can
and more ludicrous (and physically impos- never hurt a human. Ash’s was never really
sible) because Ash is just a kid dreaming these hurt by a Pokémon, so he sees them all as
things up. This is the reason Team Rocket’s harmless; whereas, in the real world they may
be quite feral or vicious (as seen in the early
episodes). Again falling back to the theory
that the only real Pokémon are the ones from
the first season, and everything else is just
further speculation coming from his mind on
what new species would look like.
The new teams ( magma, aqua, and galactic)
are Ash attempting to work out the problems
he has with his father. to do that he first needs
a new “bad guy” to feel good about beating,
and if Giovanni isn’t leading a criminal orga-
nization he can more easily relate to him.
If one recalls, there were real animals early
in the show and references to animals in the
game and show. For example, a clear case to
point out is the aquarium of fish in the Ce-
rulean City Gym or that by the Pokédex that
Pikachu is a “rat-like” Pokémon. But they
don’t matter to Ash’s psyche so they don’t
come into play much. If Ash had loved pup-
pies, everything would be about different
breeds of dogs, and a dog fighting circuit. But,
as the series goes on longer, we’ve been seeing
less realistic animals and more Pokémon. This
could be a sign of Ash’s mind deteriorating. As
he’s in this coma, he’s losing concepts of some
animals and machinery and replacing them
with Pokémon. It could explain things like
electric Pokémon working as power genera-
tors. A sign that his memory of the old world
is slipping more and more as time goes by. The
Pokémon realm will be idealized continuously
the longer he has no stimulus from the real
world. He may or may not be mentally deterio-
rating , but he is becoming more accustomed
to his fake world’s rules. The wild Pokémon
are his rationalizations of the functioning of
the world. It’s the “A wizard did it” Syndrome.
If he doesn’t know how it works, his mind
says Pokémon. He justifies anything he can’t
explain with Pokémon, and real animals fall
into the background because he has no real
interest in them.
The Pokémon in Ash’s team are his issues, for
example Charmander represents his sex drive
(not his sexuality like Brock) at first it’s a cute
easy to control thing, but eventually becomes
a raging inferno of disobedience. Acquiring
his team means getting at his issues, but as he
trains them, he works said issues out. Other
trainers are more direct forms of his issues,
ones that he must either come to terms with
or outright supress. Gym leaders are more
primary aspects of his personality with each
Pokémon being stronger than the last, to dis-
play a level of skill he could be capable of
if only he gave into it. In effect, he is doing
battle with a part of him that he would rather
not have in control. Bulbasaur was Ash’s
unwillingness to change, this is reflectedwhen
it declines to evolve and how it almost decided
to stay behind unless he battled it. Squirtle
was his willingness to follow the lead of oth-
ers, as evidenced by the gang it ran with, even
though he ran the gang, they were viewed as
one group, and ash’s subconscious just gave
him the strongest one. Butterfree was his
crushing loneliness, which he dealt with when
he released it to join a flock. His bird types
are his recklessness, always willing to sacrifice
something at a moment’s notice for the win.
When Ash is trading Pokémon, it’s an attempt
to push his own problems away on someone
else; however, he realizes this and usually
trades back fairly quickly. Originally ash had
the battles, which evolved into team battles
and contests. The explanation for this is that
his issues became more and more complicated,
and the means of dealing with them needed to
become more complex. the fact that he uses
issues that he has already dominated to win
these are signs that he’s growing stronger.
Not only are Ash’s Pokémon are a manifes- that he loses them, and unless he’s desperate
tation of different parts of himself, so are (such as with Charizard) he can’t get them
Pokémon of other trainers as well. Koffing back. It’s basically his mind forcing him to
and Ekans were symbolic of Team Rocket’s deal with his issues. It would also be a good
willingness to change; hence, their evolutions. reason why Paul has shown up at this point,
Once his mind beat that roadblock down and and Ash has been forced to work with him on
allowed them to change once, it gives him the at least one occasion: It’s his mind’s last ditch
chance to truly change. Pupitar is a rational- efforts to snap him out of this, to force Ash to
ization, a Pokémon that a rival caught before actually come to terms that this perfect world
he met him. Even Ash would become suspi- is not the best option and he needs to wake up.
cious if everyone he met had no carry-over Paul is Ash’s dark side, one that wants to push
from pervious places he had been to. on even harder and harder, and the part of him
that will stop at nothing to escape this coma
Ash releases his Pokémon because his mind world.
is forcing him to let go of them. The second
he raises an overpowered team, a tournament Ash’s rivals and the Elite four are ultimately
comes up, and after fighting his way through it the strongest part of this cycle. Having Poké-
he has to go to a new land for new challenges, mon that are essentially godlike, they repre-
but with an overpowered team, there won’t be sent both what can be attained and what is
any challenges, and no way to motivate him unattainable. Gary Oak is what Ash wants
further, part of Ash wants to stay in the coma, to be. He is wish fulfillment. He succeeded,
and keep journeying. and settled down to a normal life. Ash needs
someone to succeed in his world or he won’t
Ash’s travelling also never really nets him be able to validate it and will start questioning
any fame, no matter what he does, or where why he’s where he is. It’s a subconscious trap
he goes, and the answer for that is simple. to keep him from becoming too aware of his
Ash just can’t picture himself as famous, so situation. His mind must have figured out that
he essentially adopts a new identity every few awareness of the coma would snap him out of
months. it, but it would cause major brain damage, so
it took something the boy already loved and
The reason he never truly becomes a master built a way out for him with it. However Ash
is because that would mean he’d have noth- is too complacent to finally fight his way out
ing left to dream, and would wake up from of it, and cannot escape. This is why he keeps
his coma. Ash’s dual personality is one that encountering Legendary Pokémon, they’re his
wants to maintain his fantasy world and slowly mind’s way of showing him he can do great
sort his thoughts out carefully. The other part things if he tries, and it’s a way to encour-
wants freedom, and to return to his real life, age him to push forwards. The Legendary
to finally become a real Pokémon master. Pokémon are Ash’s mind telling him that he
However if he’s allowed to keep his powerful has greatness in him and thus, can escape his
team there’s no reason to meet and tame new happy–go–lucky reality.
Pokémon(Issues), he’ll lose interest, and the
chance of becoming self-aware comes around Ash’s Rivals are all possible futures he envi-
again. So it’s not that he gives them up, it’s sions for himself (note that they are all older
than him). This originated with Gary Oak, him comatose; the Pokémon of his world. The
someone Ash knew from real life, and built clones were counters to Ash’s mental safe-
up into a sort of god within his mind. Gary ties, and so each appeared to Ash as the exact
however progressed and changed to suit Ash’s copy of his defense, intended to take it down
vision of himself and ultimate desire, eventu- by Force. The clones didn’t play by the rules
ally settling down into a professor after beat- of Ash’s world, they didn’t use any special
ing the Elite Four. With Gary in retirement Pokémon attacks or moves – they just beat
his mind needed a new rival for him Thus the down their counterpart by brute strength. The
births of Richie (the Good aspect of his rival- treatment was working, but there were side
ry) and Paul (as the darker aspect, a cut-throat effects. The electric jolts were beginning to af-
Ash, willing to do anything to escape the coma fect Ash’s nervous system, and if the treatment
world). continued, he would be paralyzed. His mind
realized this and manifested it to Ash by petri-
Richie and his Pikachu were another success fying him in his dream. Were it not for the end
story for Ash, but he wanted one he could be of the treatment by Ash’s mother (knowing
closer with. One nearly identical to him. One her son would never want to live in a world he
that even used a similar roster to him. Paul and couldn’t explore) Ash would have remained
his Chimchar are the polar opposite of Richie, as stone in his dream. After this, Ash needed
Paul wants nothing to do with any kind of to recover from the damage of the electric
weakness, and is almost aware of his situation. therapy. Obviously it was greatly dangerous to
He’s always pushing for something more. him, and in order to reduce the danger Ash’s
consciousness felt from it, Ash’s subconscious
The reason he discarded his original hat and began downplaying the effects of electricity in
the elements of japanese culture so prevalent Ash’s world, which is why Pikachu’s electric
in the first season is simple. He wanted to attacks -once noted for their strength by Team
travel and broaden his horizons, every time Rocket – no longer have any effect on Ash,
he reinvented himself to do so; he lost touch other than comic relief.
with his original self. If he ever does escape
the coma he’ll likely have achieved a sort of Even the world Ash lives in evidences this.
Zen state. Considering the amount of personal The sprawling forests and eco friendly cities
issues he deals with inside his head, it’s en- are all his childish innocence. He never travels
tirely likely that he was the next Buddha of the on a bike despite the distance due to the acci-
Pokémon world, and that the lightning strike dent having given him a phobia of them.
and subsequent coma are a way for him to
realize his true self, and destiny. As one could see, it is very likely that Ash is
trapped in his world. But like every dream,
Mewtwo was a new form of treatment, done everything, there is a beginning and an end.
with electric impulses and a machine to knock What would happen if Ash could fully re-
Ash out of it, taking down every last one of cover? What would happen if he never does?
his mental guards (the original Pokémon in There are infinite branches of possibilities that
the movie). In Ash’s mind, Mewtwo and his spiral upwards and intertwine towards the top
clones were the treatment for the mental safe at a single point, both in his “world” and the
guards that were protecting Ash and keeping real world. In his hospital room, we see De-
lia, obviously distraught talking to a doctor
with a grim look in his eye. He’s saying that
their insurance is up, and the boy has had no
change in brain activity for seven years. That a
shock like this may awaken him. She tearfully
agrees.
Professor Oak is there to comfort her as they
take Ash off life support.
In Ash’s “world”.
Ash has finally defeated the elite four, and one
by one the people around him start disappear-
ing. eventually everything is black. Pikachu
comes dashing towards him glowing brighter
and brighter in the darkness. Eventually Pika-
chu reaches ash and the two embrace one last
time.
Back in his room, as his life signs fade, Ash
mutters his genuine, final words.
I...Want...To...Be,
The...Very...Best.
The image of his gaunt, tube-fed, ten-some-
year bed ridden body on the bed. His head
appears bulbous from atrophy. As he utters
his last words, he barely opens his eyes, see-
ing a silhouette of the figure at the center of
his turbulent emotions, his mother, her face
obstructed by her hands wiping away tears. He
makes contact with her eyes and lets out one
last tear before losing all strength. She breaks
down in hysterics.
The worst part of all this is that Ash will die,
never having experienced actual love, imag-
ine if you will, having lived in a world like
his, completely shut off from all things but
yourself, and your perception of yourself, with
nothing but better yourself. No other people to
interact with and issues to solve with no guid-
ing hand.
The boy will die, never having known his
dream, except as naught but a dream. The
second he gets out into reality for that last
moment, part of him knows it was all a lie, his
faithful Pikachu? His friends? All his imagi-
nation, and maybe, he could have fought and
clung to life, maybe even made a full recovery.
But knowing that his efforts and ambitions
had all been for naught, he just gave up and let
the motion carry him away, just so he could
be with Pikachu, in a place where his friends
were waiting.
I would like to think that he’ll realize that his
mother loved him and was holding out hope
that he’d recover all that time. On the flip side,
though, when he sees her he knows that the
hope she had is totally broken and she’d come
to the crushing realization that the worst thing
that can befall a parent has happened to her:
outliving her only child. At once he knows he
is loved and that it means that the one closest
to him is utterly crushed.
Still, there are other possibilities. The foun-
tain of time flows in mysterious ways. One
could not go back, against the current such as He vows to “them”.
Gatsby; but, one could never see what is wait-
ing for him downstream. Ash finally defeats
Lance, only to be confronted by not Gary Oak,
but a mute, mirror image of himself. I WILL be the very best!

The voice of the narrator speaks to him, telling

him that now he can finally escape the prison
of his own mind. One by one, his friends ap-
pear and melt away into more copies of him,
all cheering him on. After a long tough battle
against himself with the assistance of all of
his Pokémon he had ever befriended, he jolts
awake.

In his hospital room he sees his parents asleep;

he finds himself unable to speak.

Ash pushes forward towards his recovery. Go-

ing through physical therapy, training harder
and harder with rehabilitative Pokémon, until
he can walk on his own again. This time, an
older and wiser ash sets out on a journey. Just
like last time, he’s late getting to Professor
Oak’s laboratory. And when there’s only one
Pokémon left....He suddenly recalls all his
memories of his “life” and realizes that all his
friends are gone forever.

As he sets out with his new companion, he

finds the world is darker than he imagined.
More “real”, Pokémon and people die; he too
has aged.

He vows to become the Master he dreamed he

was. He vows to himself.