Hey, I don't remember the details, but I had a dream about Lysandre coming back after the Flare crisis for a short arc (it felt like it was still Pokéani) and he came to Alan to blame him for a lot of things or something like that. That bastard! Oh and I've watched all the XYZ episodes you listed! It was pretty cool. I loved the Alan/Lizardon moments, the ones with Sycamore (I admit I would've loved to see more!) and with Ash too~ In any case you made me love Alan and seeing him live was great!
Oooh, I’m happy to hear that you both watched those episodes, and that you enjoyed them!! You got through them pretty quickly, haha. ^^
Yeah, I definitely would have liked more moments with Alan and Sycamore as well, especially a hug (which we were denied and I’m just—I’m so salty about it), or Sycamore actually confronting Lysandre about everything Lysandre had done to Alan (which I felt like was set-up in TSME 4, but I mean, I guess not). But there were a lot of nice moments, though, such as Sycamore watching Alan during the League, and expressing both concern over and pride for him, or Alan being the one to call out to Sycamore when he and Ash were running for the Megalith, and Sycamore was captured. ♥ Ash called out to everyone else, but when it was Sycamore who was captured, Alan was the one who stopped and called back. I thought that was a very nice touch. ♥
Speaking of, though, YES, I’m so glad you liked Alan’s relationship with Ash!! Honestly, this is a relationship I don’t do nearly enough with, which is a capital crime considering it’s so good. Ash is the one human being that Alan actually opens up to—the one human being that he actually feels comfortable confiding in, without having it pried out of him. And it makes sense; Ash is not someone that Alan feels he has to protect, someone that he has to be strong for, in order to keep them safe. Ash stands on Alan’s level; he’s someone that Alan can battle all-out against, someone that he can battle alongside, someone that he can rely on in this way. And because of that, because Ash isn’t someone that Alan has to protect, Alan feels comfortable showing some of his weakness to Ash. He can confide his troubles in him, can be vulnerable and perhaps not the strongest in front of him.
And it’s not just that! Because that’s all well and good, but that’s serious, it can be rather heavy (such as their conversation in XYZ044, which sounded an awful lot like Ash was talking Alan down from suicide). But it’s not just about the heavy and serious stuff. Ash and Alan genuinely enjoy each other’s company, they genuinely like spending time together, and we honestly really, really do see this from Alan’s side!
Alan is introverted. He likes spending time with just himself and Lizardon, he tends to stand on the edge of crowds, he’s not one to go out of his way to interact with others, generally. We see this in TSME, in fact, with Manon. Although they travel together for a time throughout those specials, they don’t travel together because Alan wanted to. Rather, they travel together because Manon kept hounding him, chasing him down and insisting on being his travel companion whether he wanted to be travel companions or not. By contrast, Alan kept ditching her, repeatedly told her not to follow him, and eventually was just worn down by her constant badgering and, as a result, gave up telling her to stop following him. They didn’t “travel together” so much as Alan just did what he needed to do while she tagged along (for a time, but eventually that had to come to an end because it was too dangerous). He never sought out her company, and we never actually saw them hanging out or having fun together throughout all of TSME.
But with Ash, it’s different. While it’s true that his interest in Ash is at first sparked by seeing Bond Phenomenon in action during one of Ash’s battles against Shouta, we see the second time they meet that he is genuinely interested in talking to and spending time with Ash. After all, when he comes across Ash again at another Pokémon Center, he’s the one that approaches Ash first, smiling as he remarks upon the fact that Ash is always battling whenever Alan happens across him. Ash is the one to then suggest a battle between them, and while Alan agrees because he’d like to battle Greninja again, I feel it’s still important to point out that he didn’t approach Ash seeking a battle, he approached Ash simply because he wanted to talk to Ash. And even then, Greninja needs time to heal before they can battle, so they have some time to kill before the Lizardon vs. Greninja battle can take place. When this is pointed out, Alan starts trying to come up with something they can do in the meanwhile. Again, he’s introverted, he’s not one for socializing much, he doesn’t have ideas at the ready. But because he genuinely enjoys Ash’s company, he casts about for a non-battle activity to do (until Ash suggests battling using other pokémon) because he actually wants to spend time with Ash. Ash’s company is nice, he’s a fun guy to be around. Alan wants to hang out with him.
And that’s so significant, all of it is significant. Ash is so good for Alan’s mental and emotional health. Lizardon is definitely Alan’s absolute best friend (platonic soulmate!!), no doubt about that, but when it comes to human beings? Ash is Alan’s human best friend. He is not only Alan’s human confidant, but he’s also the human that Alan most enjoys spending time around, the human whose company Alan seeks out. And that’s so good, it’s so important. It’s such a significant bond that is so overlooked in this fandom. I really need to do my part to fix that.
(And make no mistake, it’s not one-sided. I’ve talked about it all before so I won’t type up a whole essay again, but because Ash was seen as such an unbeatable hero in Kalos, he had a lot of pressure placed on him to always be the best, to always win, because it was treated as world-ending if he happened to lose. But with Alan, it was different. Alan was someone who was so fantastically strong from the start that it didn’t matter if Ash lost against him, because people understood. Ash could battle his hardest, lose, and have it be okay, and because of that, battling Alan was fun, it didn’t carry the strings or pressure that battling others did. So aside from clicking with Alan almost immediately (and aside from the way they met with Alan and Lizardon being Big Damn Heroes, framed by the sunrise), Alan was as much a welcome presence in Ash’s life at that time as Ash was in Alan’s. The relationship was mutual and just so, so good.)
So yes, I’m really glad that you enjoyed Alan’s relationship with Ash as well, because it really is just so good! They have so many fantastic, significant moments. I’m really glad you enjoyed that. ♥
All of that aside, as far as your dream goes—well, fortunately, Lysandre is quite dead in canon, thanks to Squishy obliterating him (on Bonnie’s command, too—I still can’t believe Bonnie called for Lysandre’s head and got it, it’s amazing), but maaaan, would you believe that I’ve had similar thoughts before? Scenarios where Lysandre perhaps did survive, and he ends up encountering Alan again … I’ve imagined a few different ways it could go, but … hmm, perhaps I should write a little something? What do you think?
Anyway, I’m really happy to hear all of this, and I’m so happy you enjoyed Alan’s story. The more love he gets, the better. ♥ Thanks for sharing!!
