#archeos

So the episode starts off with (okay, for the sake of this, I'll use their English names.) Juni showing them this awesome fossil that Lenora gave them. LOOK AT CILAN'S FACE THO HOLY FUCK ROCKS MAN. Apparently Ash, Cilan and Iris met up with Juniper and Fennel at some point, and they invited them to watch the revival of Archen, an ancient bird Pokemon. I have this whole ridiculous headcanon that the lab thing they were in was kind of like Cynthia's Villa is to her where they just go and hang out and do science and shit and they were just out doing stuff and casually talking, ran in to Ash, and Ash was like "omfg you're going to revive a bird can i see PLEASE" and of course Juni was like "UM YES OMFG YOU'RE GOING TO LEARN BECAUSE SCIENCE AND YES" but Fennel was like :/// but anyway...

remember that time Iris said a fossil just looked like a rock and juni almost dropped it because that definitely happened doN'T MAKE FUN OF SCIENCE IRIS

So they discuss reviving the fossil and Juni shows them a picture of an Archen from a book, explaining that it's the ancestor of all bird Pokemon. That's cool I guess.

Whether this was intentional or not, Juni references Fennel's researchs omfg ~~they're going to make ~~their~~ dreams come true~~ 

I'm sorry that place is just way too big to just be a lab okay. their summer home. 

So they put the fossil in the revival machine, and Fennel basically orgasms over building a machine with Juni and fossils and has feels over science IT'S SO FUCKING AMAZING AND OMFG WE BUILT THIS MACHINE AND WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT REAL AND HOLY SHIT I DO NOT THINK YOU UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION. JUNI AND I BUILT A GOD DAMN MACHINE TO TURN A ROCK IN TO A FUCKING BIRD. DOESN'T THAT BLOW YOUR MIND OH MY GOD SCIENCE FEELS EXPLOSION but omfg she is so adorable in this scene i cannot

cilan is just like "lol dis bitch"

no one has any idea what is happening

but juni is just like nope that is just the way she is, she is not phased by this

also dub note in the dub, she said something like "Fennel certainly is a woman with big dreams" whAT

HOLY SHIT BALLS LOOK AT ALL THAT SCIENCE

Okay, this is just really, really cute. feNNEL UR SO KAWAII and this references what Juni said earlier too what

science ideas science dreams science talk science homo i mean what

and can we just talk about how they're staring at each other like "omfg i hope this works"

this is how Fennel looks doing science all kawaii with her eyes looking like they're watering

but juni doesn't play in to any of that emotional science bullshit damnit fennel THIS IS VERY SERIOUS DONT GET UR TEARS ON THE SCIENCE MACHINE

OH MY GOD IT WORKED THERES A FOSSIL BB IN THERE

GKAJGHDS THIS CAP JUST

Ash looks confused as all hell, Iris is just giving a blank stare but Juni is pretty fuCKING EXCITED ABOUT THAT SCIENCE

okAY!! TIME TO OPEN THE MACHINE TO SEE THIS FOSSIL BABY SPECIMEN!!! fennel is just so kawaii excited about this but SOMEONE ACTUALLY HAS TO DOCUMENT IT YOU CANT JUST BE KAWAII

JUNI IS LIKE FUCKING SHIT MAN THIS IS REAL LIFE SCIENCE AND THERE IS A BIRD IN THERE DO YOU NOT REALIZE WHAT JUST HAPPENED HERE but fennel just literally cannot handle this and she looks like she's going to cry SCIENCE EMOTIONAL OVERLOAD ALL UP IN HERE

archen REALLY doesn't hand out any fucks tho just u wait

THIS LIL GAL

NOW THEY'RE BOTH BLUSHING NEITHER OF THEM CAN ACTUALLY HANDLE THIS I MEAN JUST LOOK AT THIS SCREEN CAP NEITHER OF THEM CAN LITERALLY HANDLE WHAT JUST HAPPENED FUCKING SHIT THEY HAVE THIS FOSSIL BABY BIRD THING NOW

It's also always concerned me that they're both blushing when they whip out the camera??? like wtf were you guys using it for before???

but actually no let's discuss this. Whenever either of them refer to the bird, they almost always say "we"/"us", there's only one time when they don't, but we'll get to that when it comes. And it's pretty adorable omfg caNNOT WAIT

yeah, they were definitely talking about this for a long time before it happened

2 bad ur kid hates u already tho

LOOK AT IT'S FACE IT'S SO ANGRII

um

munna and marsharna literally do not care AT ALL. i just. just the two pink blognuggets derping around together while this bird thing is flying around attacking everyone, nbd

THESE FELL OUT OF THE MACHINE WHAT ARE THEY??? JUST U WAIT HANG TIGHT MAN

off to a bad start archen

so this thing literally runs around, smacks in to ash and falls asleep. 

i just. this is so completely adorable. fennel loves their little bb birdie even if it attacked everyone and ran in to some glass and just is not the brightest crayon in the box AT ALL but she really doesnt care SHE LOVES IT SO MUCH ALREADY

Yes, Iris, yes it is

and fennel loves their science child

basically we find out that the Rockets are creeping on them and listening to them. um. how long have they been doing that because wow awkward

We find out that they're trying to hack in to their computer system to steal their wifi and download the data on how to make one of these machines and the dream mist something something (which is successful - they use this information in a much later episode to revive a Tortouga fossil JUST WHY DON'T STEAL FROM MY BABIES OKAY THEY PUT A LOT OF EFFORT IN TO THAT)

fennel and juni made their wifi password super hard to guess

what is taking so long my internet is down and you need to get their wifi password you bakas

posted because um one of my favorite cilan moments

dento then goes to hang out with his own homo kind

okay this scene is one of my favorites in the episode SO PAY ATTENTION HERE.

Cilan talked about making bird food but Fennel doesn't acknowledge what he said at all, she's more concerned about her waifu's research

i just

they are giving each other this adorable loving stare and cilan's so confused

"OHHHHHHHH NOW I GET IT LOL"

Cilan wasn't sure what they meant in that conversation besides figuring out that they were def fucking, so he asks what they meant. Fennel interjects before Juni says anything; she obviously knows/cares a lot about what Juni is researching, and wants to help her do so. Can I also take the time to mention that this is the ONLY THING FENNEL SAYS DIRECTLY TO ANOTHER HUMAN CHARACTER BESIDES JUNIPER IN THE ENTIRE EPISODE. I'm not entirely sure what to think of it. But either way, the only thing she says to another character is about Juniper. 

Juniper steps in and adds some things because Fennel is too consumed talking in feels to explain it right plus I mean she's Juni she always gives tl;dr explanations. PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT SHE SAYS. ARCHEN CANNOT FLY. 

THIS IS SO CUTE I CANNOT. SHE JUST WANTS TO MAKE SURE JUNIPER'S EXPERIMENT IS GOING WELL AND SHE'S SO HAPPY AND PROUD THAT SHE COULD HELP HER SHE CANNOT EVEN LOOK AT HER WHEN SHE SAYS IT 

But of course then Juni goes on to explain that what she's gained already from it is it's cry because that's not something you can learn from just a fossil.

and the whole time she's going on about it Fennel just sits here like this because omfg she loves hearing her talk about science because she loves it and she just loves hearing her talk about things that make her happy kawaii desu

cilan is still really confused by all of this apparently

Archen wakes up and starts CRYING REALLY FUCKING LOUD AND IT PISSES EVERYONE OFF

then omfg what

feels good man

Archen is still really pissed off about idk BEING ALIVE and uses Dragon Breath on Cilan, and Ash um grabs it like a dick

calm yo tits archen

no u baka

This scene is really sweet though. Even though Archen is fucking shit up and breaking glass and basically ruining the summer home, Satoshi tries to calm it down BY SQUEEZING IT then setting it down, telling her calmly that they only want to befriend it. 

archen's face tho omfg he still hates everyone

dis food

junipers face tho

fuck u i dont want it!!!!

do you just ever hate what you ate so much you jump out the window

It climbed a tree and tried to eat one of the berries, but also spit it out

and this is when fennel and juni realized wow we were so busy being homos and talking about fossils and building this machine that WE FORGOT SOMETHING...

but munna is just forever oblivious and is like hey whats up i can fly what can u do right i'm moms fav u worthless piece of shitso archen flops around like a dumbass

and that's when they get this idea that they can teach a pokemon THAT JUNIPER HAS ALREADY SAID CANNOT FLY. REPEAT. IT CANNOT FLY. "so guys, what do you want to do for the rest of the episode?" "lol idk let's try to teach it how to fly lol"

Juni and Fennel seem to think it's pretty cute tho

Ash sends out it's Pidove evolution thing to teach it how to fly. "look how its done you fuck up YOURE NO ANCESTOR OF MINE"

i mean

HOLY FUCKING SHIT YOU MEAN I COULD DO THAT????????

yeah okay

Iris wants to help, too, so she sends out her Emolga. And it uses attract on it. and this happens.

what has science done

so maggyo electrocutes it, and archen gets all pissed again and SCREAMS REALLY LOUD LIKE THIS IS PEEWEE'S PLAYHOUSE AND EVERYTHING IS THE SECRET WORD which causes the seeds from earlier to grow!!

Note: This is the halfway point. THIS IS ALREADY LONGER THAN EXPECTED BUT THE BEST IS YET TO COME JUST HANG TIGHT I PROMISE

there's a training montage of archen learning how to fly but really it's not learning at all it's just kind of jumping in the air for longer and longer each time

it was pretty successful if you ask me

lol hold on guys i gotta blog about this

the rockets are creeping and stealing their data, whatever

this is quite possibly my favorite screencap ever of them BECAUSE IT'S SO EXPLOITABLE I MADE A TON OF DUMB MEMES WITH THIS

Juni is all in science mode and says geez archen won't shut the hell up i bet there is a science reason for that

meanwhile

Juni goes on and on about Ash and how he likes pogeymans but Cilan just says that Ash's unique taste is why he travels with him

hmmm better not scroll through tumblr with the children around

so the machine they probably took forever to build is destroyed now...

yeah should probably tell her about that

but seriously how adorable is this

oh no

science strikes back

fennel what have you done

so the two scientists legit have no idea what's going on anymore either

BUT ARCHEN MAN

SHE FUCKING LOVES THIS LOOK AT THIS I MEAN DELICIOUS ANCIENT FRUIT ALL UP IN THIS

you know shit is getting real when fennel gets serious

shes like UM I TOLD U

and they figure out that the tree grows generated by Archen's cry. which is pretty cool, actually!

so it ate a bunch then evolved. yeah okay then.

omfg i just love how excited they all are LOOK AT CILAN'S FACE HE HAS THE BIGGEST SCIENCE BONER RIGHT NOW

cut to the Rockets, they stole the data, now they want to steal Archeops

and okay let me tell you right now

i am going to have a lot of feelings from this point on oh god prepare your bodies

They realized that Archeops was trying to create it's own habitat in the modern world, and Fennel suggests that she and Juniper make it a home for their bb

and okay she is like really serious about it. she has this deep thoughtful look for a while and Juni is just standing there listening very closely to her

feels incoming

Ash and his dumb friends think that's too much 

But Juni totally believes in her and gets this. Because, really, they were the ones that revived an ancient Pokemon (if not a bit carelessly- they didn't know what it ate, though I doubt that's something they'd have been able to find out beforehand anyway, and the thing with the plant..I don't know. BUT the point is, they brought this ancient Pokemon to life, and it's their responsibility to take care of it. Carelessness or not, bringing something to life has got to be a pretty emotional thing. This scene is also very interesting to me because usually Juniper is the one that talks about all of the science stuff, but here it's a switch. Fennel realizes what is going on and what they need to do, but is a bit unsure on how to. I would guess that Fennel is definitely the more emotional of the two, but here, Juni is all empathetic with her in that "yeah, we're the ones that caused it, so we need to fix it". She strikes me as a more analytic thinker than emotionally driven- and here it's both. 

and this is where pokemon tries to kill me. okay. just. so they have this very simple yet productive exchange in what they should do, and thEY JUST HAVE THIS MOMENT OKAY JUST FUCKING LOOK AT FENNEL SHE IS ALL COMFORTED NOW BY WHAT JUNI SAID TO HER IT'S ALL GOING TO BE OKAY BECAUSE JUNI SAYS IT IS AND WOW OKAY???!!!!!! LOOK AT THEM JUST LOOK IF YOU DONT SHIP THEM WHY NOT BECAUSE I MEAN THEYRE PERF THEIR FACES HERE I LITERALLY CANNOT THEY JUST HAVE THIS CALM UNDERSTANDING OF ONE ANOTHER THAT IS NOT JUST ABOUT SCIENCE 

but they get cockblocked by the rockets. THIS IS IRONIC TO ME BECAUSE I WAS A DIEHARD ROCKETSHIPPERS UNTIL SCIENTIFICSHIPPING CAME IN TO MY LIFE AND WOW ROCKETS U SURE KNOW HOW TO GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS TO ME geT OUT

Ii'll save the Dream Site episode for another day but WOW YEAH FENNEL FUCKING HATES THEM BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO HURT HER MARSHARNA OKAY AND NO ONE WILL STAND FOR THAT BULLSHIT

James' Yanmask used Night Shade which somehow caused a fire???? but Ash tells Oshawott and Roggenrola or whatever that asshole thing is called to put it out

so while they're trying to put out the fire, Archeops is facing off with the Rockets, who try to catch it in a net and omfg why why rockets why are yoU HURTING THE BB BIRD???

I MEAN LOOK ITS IN PAIN AND OMFG GUYS JUST STOP OKAY

but see this is just a coming of age tale and we learn that Archeops um ate enough I guess in that it can take care of itself

and then the Rockets disappear in a cloud of smoke I am not exaggerating that is what happened

and okay they show all these sad shots of their destroyed lab summer home and the whole tiME ARCHEOPS IS JUST LITERALLY SITTING THERE CRYING OKAY IT IS JUST SOBBING ITS HEART OUT BECAUSE NOW WHAT I MEAN THAT WAS GOING TO BE ITS HOME AND ITS PERF MOMMIES WERE GOING TO HANG OUT AND TAKE CARE OF IT AND ITS DREAM IS JUST CRUSHED NOW OKAY???? AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT TO DO BECAUSE ITS CRY ISN'T WORKING ON THE SEEDS ANYMORE AND DAMNIT LOOK HOW SAD JUNI AND FENNEL ARE THEY HAVE THIS BIRD AND THEY WORKED SO HARD TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO CARE FOR IT AND NOW THEY'RE BACK TO SQUARE ONE

OKAY AND THIS IS LIKE. Archeops was sitting there CRYING ITS HEAD OFF so I feel like Juni said this more to make Fennel feel better than the bird because she's standing right there and omfG SHE IS SO SAD AND ITS NOT LIKE ARCHEOPS CAN HEAR HER WHISPERING OVER THERE OVER ITS LOUD ASS MOUTH

there is this 3 second pause where no one knows what to do and it is really sad okay but theN THEY HEAR A CRY IN THE DISTANCE?????

THERE ARE MORE OF THEM JUST HANGING OUT IN UNOVA OKAY SHHH ITS A SECRET I JUST when this episode first aired I was so angry that that was how it ended. Juni and Fennel spent this whole episode doing something that they thought was very special and that they could learn so much from, and were going to raise their little bb in a habitat until that got fucked up but, lol nope. science cockblock. 

But now I think, well, it's kinda cool. They know their Archeops will be safe with her own kind, and WOW HEY, LIVING FOSSILS??? BETTER GET ON STUDYING THAT SHIT JUNI

but wait

at first they're not really sure how to feel about it either i mean

But they bid their farwells. Fennel...doesn't say anything, she lets Juni handle it. But everyone else does?? I always thought that was a bit weird. But she was alright at the sentiment, it's going off to be happy with the others.

just look how kawaii happy their fossil child is at this thought okay WOW IT GREW UP GOING OUT IN TO THE WORLD

They were talking about how there's probably a bunch of other living fossils, but Fennel thinks it's best to just leave them alone.

And even though she RESEARCHES THE FUCKING ORIGINS OF POKEMON JUNI JUST AGREES WITH HER. I MEAN. I totally get that they probably don't want to disturb them, but I thought for sure she'd at least be interested in where they are and what their habitat is like. But, nope, Fennel says to leave it alone, and she does.

we can just think and dream about it 

and it ends with everyone waving in to the sunset. 

BUT WOW OKAY. DOES EVERYONE SEE WHY I JUST LOVE THESE TWO SO MUCH NOW???? 

They spend time before the episode building this machine together (off screen, obviously), that is going to revive a rock in to a bird, which, assumingly, they were going to care for together before all of this shit went down. But it was important enough to both of them no matter in what way you think about it- it's obvious that Fennel knows how much Juniper's research means to her, to embark on a project like this with her without any obvious benefit to herself. She already knows how Dream Mist works, so it wasn't like she was testing that out. Another thing - Fennel stated in BW006 that she quit researching after the Dream Site explosion, so it's no wonder this was all so emotional to her, as well, and it's a pretty big deal to go through something like that. But in the end, she uses her research to help Juniper in hers. I do realize I totally watch this episode with my shipping googles on, I will be the first to admit to that, but to me, throughout the episode, even though on paper they're just doing science together, you can see that they genuinely care for each other very deeply as well. Ash & Co were not neccessary to their research. I highly doubt they would have been trying to teach it how to fly, because they knew it couldn't. But Juniper especially, I think, let them do it so that she could see how trainers would interact with such a (assumed to be) rare Pokemon that was just brought in to the modern world. Maybe that part of it wasn't planned, but I think that'd be something she'd be interested in seeing as well. 

No, they didn't think it through all the way. They didn't know what it ate, or what kind of home it needed- but they were prepared to deal with all of it. While it WAS for ~science~, they are both actualized enough to realize that they were dealing with a Pokemon's life here, as well.  They would of figured out a way to care for their precious little bb Archen thing because it was important to them for their respective reasons.