#may maple

POKEMON DAY YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

⟡ ⠀⠀⠀⠀late night calls

i've finally redrawn an older piece again!! this one took me 15 hours (embarrassingly enough) and, frankly, i think it looks a whole lot better than the previous one, which i made in november of 2023 (will be shown below!!)

also reminder that contestshipping day is a month EXACT!! i might make an animatic to celebrate :3

-> 21 november 2023 more versions below cut :))

-> version without drew

-> drew bubble :3

"Let's lay in the dead grass, stare at the stars"

Happy CS Day 2025

(Note: the Porygon Seizure Incident is too important to the history of the Pokémon Company to prevent — like the JFK assassination of anime adaptations — but I digress.)

By far the biggest, most-noteworthy departure requires a lot of set-up, starting small with Brock fulfilling his narrative arc in Hoenn and saying goodbye a region early. Ash and Dawn are accompanied through Sinnoh by Max, who is now old enough for an internship under Professor Rowan and imperceptibly less annoying than in Hoenn.

Between the three, Max is begrudgingly shanghaied into the role of "the responsible one" but isn't all that good at it. He's the one who uses the Pokédex most often and desires to shore up his knowledge of Pokémon by completing the Regional Dex. He'd have three, maybe four Pokémon in total, counting his starter Turtwig, (Brock's) Croagunk, and one of the Pokémon he befriended back in Hoenn. May and Max often check in on each other via long-distance phone calls until they reunite at the Wallace Cup.

Some consideration is made towards the chemistry between Max and Pikachu. They are very much opposites — Max is analytical where Pikachu is gung-ho, cynical where Pikachu is optimistic, defensive where Pikachu is headstrong. And while Pikachu and Ash end up joyously winning the Lily of the Valley Conference, the events of Sinnoh leave Max in a very, very dark place.

Either one or both of the following might happen so that what comes after is sufficiently justified:

One of Max's Pokémon is heavily implied to die during the Iron Island arc. Gets fuckin' merc'd. hydrogen bomb vs coughing turtwig. Nothing definitive, of course, but enough to get a good downward spiral going.

In the act of protecting her brother, May and half of her Pokémon are caught in the radius of a Galactic Bomb and vanish. (It's okay though! May won't be stuffed into the fridge, 'cuz later it turns out she's been starring in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity where a refrigerator beats the stuffing out of you.)

Max is understandably in no fit state to continue traveling, so he is returned home and remains out of focus until the final few episodes of Diamond and Pearl.

After his victory at the Lily of the Valley Conference, on the cusp of his Elite Four challenge run, Ash is called by Max's dad Norman in a panic. Max has parted ways with his remaining Pokemon and cut contact. Brock manages to catch Max before he boards a transfer flight to Unova, but after a long talk, he accedes to Max's wish to travel across the sea and visit Celestial Tower (where closure might be found).

Now, Ash must earnestly consider whether or not he should put his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master on hiatus in order to be there for a friend, to make sure Max ends up in an okay place.

In each preceding region, Ash has managed to quantify one thing a Pokémon Master should be — someone people can rely upon (Orange Islands), someone who has the fortitude to deny the easy path (Johto), and who understands the role kindness and understanding can play within nature's balance (Hoenn). And yet, to live out these principles now would mean messing up his path to mastery, perhaps forever.

It's a hefty decision to make alone — but Ash has never been alone. When he and Pikachu put their heads together, the answer becomes laughably simple; it is their absolute belief in each other that makes it possible. This isn't goodbye — not by a longshot!

Max wakes up mid-transit to discover that a Pokémon has been transferred to his Trainer ID. When he later opens the corresponding Mystery Gift, out comes Pikachu, coughing and sputtering.

Canon events fly completely off the rails from here.