>>54954677>>54954721It's amazing how much of the English-speaking anipoke fandom was sustained off of the idea that Ash would suddenly grow interested in girls, confess his love to [insert your favorite Pokegirl] and validate all of their shipping desires. Or, that Ash would defeat Giovanni, gain access to his aura powers, win a League, meet his dad, etc. XY was a great series, but its surge in popularity cannot be extricated from the fact that it initially seemed to be leaning into all of the fanfic desires that the community had. SM kind of killed those prospects. Though, ironically, SM gave Ash his first League win and allowed there to be a canon romance (between Kukui and Burnet), even if it had been perfect, it was never going to be enough. The Kalos Disaster and the art shift burned people too much. MPM was the last hurrah of that level of hype because with Ash retiring, people believed that anything could happen -- Ash could take on Team Rocket, reunite with his father, and start dating Misty finally. As much as it pains me to say it, when Famon spouts his fanfic nonsense every thread, he's not completely divorced from what the typical Ashnime fan wanted. He's not wrong; he's just obnoxious and mindbroken from the fact that no, he's never going to get what he wanted. He stuck around, but the other fans just left. So it goes.
Unfortunately, Liko and Roy could have been the best written characters of all time, and they will not get that same level of fervor, because TPCi is completely uninvested in trying to cultivate new English-speaking fans, or maintaining their old-ass autistic ones like /padt/. Japan has had Liko and Roy mascots going to schools and youth groups; we can't even get official subs. So now the the remaining western fans retreat to Discords and reddit, where they become increasingly fragmented and die off with age. All of us will too, eventually, and there aren't enough newfags to replace us.
