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 relatively 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 hes able to
live out his Pokmon master fantasies.
If one had noticed, the early episodes of Pokmon were of amazing quality. The rest of the
series is just the results of his subconscious
mind fulfilling his desires, as well as attempting to escape them. Should Ash realize hes
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 doesnt 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 Pokmon 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 Joys and Jennys represent stability, and
ashs ideals. This is why Gary became a professor. Its 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?
Ashs travelling partners are actually aspects
of himself he can enjoy, but doesnt 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, Ashs Father. Meowth
especially wants to appease him because he
remembers the good times with Giovanni. This
Places meowth in a category known as ashs
(corrupted) innocence, and another fragment
of ashs humanity. If you note that meowth can
speak this quickly becomes apparrent. In fact
the whole reason for meowths speech is so
he can help Ash accept Team rocket as part of
himself eventually.
Brock is Ashs 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 succeed. Brock is a projection of his sexuality,
and is constantly shot down because Ash could
never know sex. Brock isnt just Ashs
latent sexuality, hes also his fatherly instincts,
neither of which Ash can come to terms with.
Brock leaves his siblings to journey with
Ash. because Ash cant 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. Brocks Stay with professor Ivy
was an.attempt to outright suppress his sexuality. Youll 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 didnt
enjoy this much, hence the reasons Brock

comes back all horrified, and refuses to speak

about it. (ashs subconscious was repressing
him at the time, so other than a general feeling 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 interest (if only subconsciously), he needed her
to reach a level of womanhood. He felt that
people could only have relationships when
theyve matured. But in practice, it turned out
he couldnt cope with it and just wanted the
normal, pushy, arrogant Misty he knew, and
wouldnt let her keep Togepi anymore.
Misty is Ashs 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 eventually 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
hes 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 Ashs ultimate ideal of a father figure)
when he disrupted the dynamic Ash had with
his other possibilities. Ashs 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 Ashs 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 (Ashs humanity) and hand it
over to his father, Giovanni. Jesse and James
will always oppose ash because ash is terrified 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 couldnt evolve
his Pikachu without challenging his concept of
who he was, something he wasnt comfortable
with while he was still working through his
original issues.
Another thing is the narrator. The narrator is
Ashs higher mind, recapping and explaining
the progress hes made and the tribulations he
will face allowing itself insight into how best

to awaken him.

disguises are always believed. He knows its

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 Im
escape. The filler episodes that dont focus
positive theyre quite dastardly, but I doubt
on Ash and the gang are his mind working
that ashs father is their leader, in fact the
through, and humanizing the parts of himself
head of the rockets wasnt really identified as
that he demonized. Its a way for him to deal
anyone until later on in the series. The split
with issues that Ash and crew wouldnt touch,
between ashs parents was likely over ashs
because it involves treading ground he himhomosexuality 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 Ashs vanfaceless Vile corporation, and Why he Berates ity and gullibility, she will trick Ashs submisJesse, James, and Meowth as much as he does, sive homosexuality into doing her bidding so
and why they keep trying to please him. Anshe can please father. James troubled childother thing to notice is the difference in unihood is his way of justifying his latent homoform, The rockets Wear Black and Red, where sexuality. Now James is Ashs latent homoTeam Rocket wears White....a symbol of their sexuality, hence why he is constantly punished
purity and naievete. Theyre willing to please
by Pokmon and attacked by random attractive
father despite his utter hatred of those parts of girls. I believe the split between Ashs parAsh .
ents was caused by this part of Ash, maybe
an incident at school, bringing shame on the
Team rocket are aspects of Ashs personality
family and forcing them to move to the small,
that he has deemed bad James implied hocountry town of Pallet. Ashs motivations for
mosexuality, and Jesses vanity. Youll remem- his journey were to escape mounting pressure
ber that Meowth has the potential for rehaat home.
bilitation, and doesnt 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 fathers 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 Ashs
When he found that it wasnt something for
father, one that cant emotionally abuse him
him, his Free side stopped playing with it.
or his mom. He is a Pokmon, a peace loving
Further, their methods of capture become more creature thats oddly humanoid, but that can
and more ludicrous (and physically imposnever hurt a human. Ashs was never really
sible) because Ash is just a kid dreaming these hurt by a Pokmon, so he sees them all as
things up. This is the reason Team Rockets
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 Pokmon 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 isnt leading a criminal organization 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 Cerulean City Gym or that by the Pokdex that
Pikachu is a rat-like Pokmon. But they
dont matter to Ashs psyche so they dont
come into play much. If Ash had loved puppies, everything would be about different
breeds of dogs, and a dog fighting circuit. But,
as the series goes on longer, weve been seeing
less realistic animals and more Pokmon. This
could be a sign of Ashs mind deteriorating. As
hes in this coma, hes losing concepts of some
animals and machinery and replacing them
with Pokmon. It could explain things like
electric Pokmon working as power generators. A sign that his memory of the old world
is slipping more and more as time goes by. The
Pokmon realm will be idealized continuously
the longer he has no stimulus from the real
world. He may or may not be mentally deteriorating , but he is becoming more accustomed
to his fake worlds rules. The wild Pokmon
are his rationalizations of the functioning of
the world. Its the A wizard did it Syndrome.
If he doesnt know how it works, his mind
says Pokmon. He justifies anything he cant
explain with Pokmon, and real animals fall

into the background because he has no real

interest in them.
The Pokmon in Ashs team are his issues, for
example Charmander represents his sex drive
(not his sexuality like Brock) at first its 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
Pokmon being stronger than the last, to display 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 Ashs
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 others, as evidenced by the gang it ran with, even
though he ran the gang, they were viewed as
one group, and ashs 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 moments notice for the win.
When Ash is trading Pokmon, its 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 hes growing stronger.

Not only are Ashs Pokmon are a manifestation of different parts of himself, so are
Pokmon of other trainers as well. Koffing
and Ekans were symbolic of Team Rockets
willingness to change; hence, their evolutions.
Once his mind beat that roadblock down and
allowed them to change once, it gives him the
chance to truly change. Pupitar is a rationalization, a Pokmon that a rival caught before
he met him. Even Ash would become suspicious if everyone he met had no carry-over
from pervious places he had been to.
Ash releases his Pokmon because his mind
is forcing him to let go of them. The second
he raises an overpowered team, a tournament
comes up, and after fighting his way through it
he has to go to a new land for new challenges,
but with an overpowered team, there wont be
any challenges, and no way to motivate him
further, part of Ash wants to stay in the coma,
and keep journeying.

that he loses them, and unless hes desperate

(such as with Charizard) he cant get them
back. Its basically his mind forcing him to
deal with his issues. It would also be a good
reason why Paul has shown up at this point,
and Ash has been forced to work with him on
at least one occasion: Its his minds last ditch
efforts to snap him out of this, to force Ash to
actually come to terms that this perfect world
is not the best option and he needs to wake up.
Paul is Ashs dark side, one that wants to push
on even harder and harder, and the part of him
that will stop at nothing to escape this coma
world.

Ashs rivals and the Elite four are ultimately

the strongest part of this cycle. Having Pokmon that are essentially godlike, they represent both what can be attained and what is
unattainable. Gary Oak is what Ash wants
to be. He is wish fulfillment. He succeeded,
and settled down to a normal life. Ash needs
someone to succeed in his world or he wont
Ashs 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 hes where he is. Its a subconscious trap
he goes, and the answer for that is simple.
to keep him from becoming too aware of his
Ash just cant 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 hed have nothis 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. Ashs dual personality is one that
encountering Legendary Pokmon, theyre his
wants to maintain his fantasy world and slowly minds way of showing him he can do great
sort his thoughts out carefully. The other part things if he tries, and its a way to encourwants freedom, and to return to his real life,
age him to push forwards. The Legendary
to finally become a real Pokmon master.
Pokmon are Ashs mind telling him that he
However if hes allowed to keep his powerful has greatness in him and thus, can escape his
team theres no reason to meet and tame new
happygolucky reality.
Pokmon(Issues), hell lose interest, and the
chance of becoming self-aware comes around Ashs Rivals are all possible futures he enviagain. So its not that he gives them up, its
sions for himself (note that they are all older

than him). This originated with Gary Oak,

someone Ash knew from real life, and built
up into a sort of god within his mind. Gary
however progressed and changed to suit Ashs
vision of himself and ultimate desire, eventually settling down into a professor after beating the Elite Four. With Gary in retirement
his mind needed a new rival for him Thus the
births of Richie (the Good aspect of his rivalry) and Paul (as the darker aspect, a cut-throat
Ash, willing to do anything to escape the coma
world).

him comatose; the Pokmon of his world. The

clones were counters to Ashs mental safeties, and so each appeared to Ash as the exact
copy of his defense, intended to take it down
by Force. The clones didnt play by the rules
of Ashs world, they didnt use any special
Pokmon attacks or moves they just beat
down their counterpart by brute strength. The
treatment was working, but there were side
effects. The electric jolts were beginning to affect Ashs nervous system, and if the treatment
continued, he would be paralyzed. His mind
realized this and manifested it to Ash by petriRichie 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 Ashs 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 couldnt 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
Hes always pushing for something more.
him, and in order to reduce the danger Ashs
consciousness felt from it, Ashs subconscious
The reason he discarded his original hat and
began downplaying the effects of electricity in
the elements of japanese culture so prevalent
Ashs world, which is why Pikachus 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 hell 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, its enare 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 acciPokmon 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 reAsh out of it, taking down every last one of
cover? What would happen if he never does?
his mental guards (the original Pokmon in
There are infinite branches of possibilities that
the movie). In Ashs 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. Hes 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.

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.

Professor Oak is there to comfort her as they

take Ash off life support.

The worst part of all this is that Ash will die,

never having experienced actual love, imagine 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 guiding hand.

In Ashs world.

Ash has finally defeated the elite four, and one

by one the people around him start disappearing. eventually everything is black. Pikachu
comes dashing towards him glowing brighter
and brighter in the darkness. Eventually Pikachu 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-someyear bed ridden body on the bed. His head
appears bulbous from atrophy. As he utters
his last words, he barely opens his eyes, see-

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 imagination, 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 hell realize that his
mother loved him and was holding out hope
that hed recover all that time. On the flip side,
though, when he sees her he knows that the
hope she had is totally broken and shed 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 waiting 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 appear 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 Pokmon 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. Going through physical therapy, training harder
and harder with rehabilitative Pokmon, until
he can walk on his own again. This time, an
older and wiser ash sets out on a journey. Just
like last time, hes late getting to Professor
Oaks laboratory. And when theres only one
Pokmon 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, Pokmon and people die; he too
has aged.

He vows to become the Master he dreamed he

was. He vows to himself.