Welcome to Endless, a one page mini-shrine dedicated to my favorite parts of the vast universe of Pokémon. [1]

Ash Ketchum is a boy with a totally impossible dream. How can he "catch 'em all" when new pokémon pop out every now and then? Regardless of if it's possible to be a Pokémon Master or not, let us take a moment to look at Ash's beginnings.

It all started in Pallet Town, where Ash lived with his mother, Delia. It was hinted that he had a father, which is rather logical since humans typically require both a mother and a father to come into existence. However, his father's identity was not revealed though many episodes passed. The enigma became one of the biggest mysteries in the universe, which Neuro [2] wanted to consume, even if he is from an entire different anime.

You might remember the theories that have been thrown around about the identity of Ash's father, one of those theories claimed that he is Giovanni, the leader of the Viridian City gym and secretly the Team Rocket boss. Team Rocket is an organization that steals powerful pokémon, conducts various experiments, and is probably out to take over the world, since that's what any worth-while evil organizations should be doing.

Picture it, the final episode in the long awaited finale of the series (or series of series), Ash vs. Giovanni, at last face to face in a pokémon battle which will somehow save or doom the world. Ash will win of course, because someone has to save the world. Finally, as the Death Star falls apart, Ash and Giovanni put their differences aside and... Wait, wrong universe. The point is that the possibility of Giovanni being Ash's dad is such a lovely Star Wars [3] rip off that it's totally awesome. In fandom GiovannixDelia is called diamondshipping.

Ash was to choose a pokémon from Professor Oak's lab as his first. He expected to be able to choose between Bulbasaur, Squirtle or Charmander, but discovered that they were unavailable and thus ended up with Pikachu. I think he was lucky, Pikachu is the cutest! Although he did electrocute Ash a lot at first...

Ash began to travel all over the world along with Pikachu, catching new pokémon and meeting new friends, some of whom began to travel with him. Over time, Ash had a lot of traveling companions, but the ones that originally traveled with him were Misty and Brock, forming the classic two guys and a girl trio of friends, which became truly famous later with Kingdom Hearts. [4]

Misty first joined Ash stalking him with the excuse that Pikachu ruined her bike and he owed her a new one. Some theorize she just liked him. Personally, I like Ash and Misty as a couple (pokeshipping). Misty is the youngest of the Cerulean City gym leader family, her sisters are Daisy, Violet and Lily. Having grown up in a water themed gym, Misty loves water pokémon and is a very good swimmer.

Ash's other original companion, Brock, came from Pewter City where he was the gym leader. His specialties include training rock pokémon, doing house work and babysitting, he had many younger brothers and sisters to take care of. When his father finally returned home, he was able to leave and travel with Ash. One of the jokes of almost every episode is that Brock falls in love with nearly every girl he meets and Misty drags him away by the ear before he freaks them out with his flirting.

If there are protagonists there should be antagonists, right? A rival, not really a villain, Gary Oak also comes from Ash's home of Pallet Town. He is the grandson of Professor Samuel Oak and started his pokémon journey on the same day as Ash. At first, Gary used to be a cocky showoff, though he went on to become a serious pokémon trainer, and later a researcher. Gary is one of my favorite human characters right after James and Jessie, albeit I admit I liked him better as a showoff because he was funnier.

The main antagonists of the story are Team Rocket's Jessie, James and Meowth. The incompetent yet endearing 'not so bad' villains, form another classic trio of two guys and a girl, though the second guy is a pokémon, I'm counting him because he talks like a human. They have been trying to capture Pikachu for a long time, believing the powerful electric pokémon to be special.

Jessie and James' backgrounds differ greatly. James grew up in luxury but ran away from home because of his arranged engagement to Jessiebelle, an overly controlling sadist who looks a lot like Jessie, who is also a sadist; then again, all girls are, it's just that some hide it more than others... Anyway, James is the bishounen of the series, he's pretty and he even has a rose! [5]

In contrast, Jessie grew up poor, but that certainly didn't stop her from dreaming big. She had many goals, such as becoming a pokémon nurse, though in the end she joined Team Rocket. As random a fact, Jessie likes to eat snow.

Team Rocket's Meowth, one of the few pokémon who can speak the human language, started out as an abandoned kitten, who joined a gang of street Meowth led by a Persian. He fell in love with Meowzie, the pet Meowth of a rich lady. Meowzie didn't like him, thus he set out to impress her by becoming more human-like and learning to speak, except that only made Meowzie like him less because he was a freak. Meowth joined Team Rocket and was added to Jessie and James' team as Giovanni's way to get rid of him.

Because a pokémon page isn't complete without it, here's the Team Rocket motto:

Jessie: "Prepare for trouble!"
James: "Make it double!"
Jessie: "To protect the world from devastation."
James: "To unite all people within our nation."
Jessie: "To denounce the evils of truth and love."
James: "To extend our reach to the stars above."
Jessie: "Jessie!"
James: "James!"
Jessie: "Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"
James: "Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
Meowth: "Meowth, that's right!"

Since this mini-site centers around my favorite parts of the pokémon universe, I'll be talking about the pokémon I like best for each of the main characters, which are from their original teams. Ash's first pokémon was the adorable Pikachu and from there he went on to 'catch' many others, albeit some of them were found, rescued or simply followed Ash.

Pikachu is by far my favorite of Ash's pokémon, as well as my favorite overall. Aside from being absolutely adorable, Pikachu has a fun personality, cheerful, energetic, stubborn, strong and free. He prefers to stay outside his pokéball and would not listen to Ash until he proved himself, having protected Pikachu.

Bulbasaur refused to change despite the pressure from the other Bulbasaur, which had all but him evolved into Ivysaur. Be who you want to be and if you happen to ruin some evolution ceremony while you're at it, who cares? All that matters is that you stood up for your true self and didn't let others tell you who to become.

Squirtle will always be extra amusing to me because of the pokémon's resemblance to the koopalings [6] and I really like the koopalings (especially Ludwig). He was a bad boy pokémon with his cool Roy style shades and even had his own gang of turtle mischief makers.

Other than Pikachu, Charizard holds a top spot in my favorites list and it was Ash's Charizard that made me appreciate this pokémon so much. As Charmander his story was bittersweet, he was abandoned by his trainer and rescued by Ash.

When Charmander evolved into Charmeleon, he stopped listening to Ash. Maybe he started looking down on Ash and thinking he was being too dependant on his pokémon while having little to offer himself. In a sense he 'abandoned' Ash, even if he didn't run away, ironically acting in a similar way to his original trainer by 'leaving behind' someone he saw as weak.

Charmeleon evolved into Charizard and more so refused to listen to Ash, becoming even more stubborn and arrogant. When Charizard was defeated and injured, Ash cared for him with absolute dedication, it reminded Charizard of how Ash never stopped believing in him and they became friends from that point on.

Butterfree remained with Ash for a relatively short time, so he doesn't stand out as much as the others, but his story was cute. He used to scare Misty as Caterpie because she has a fear of bugs. Plus there was that epically amusing duel of Ash's Metapod versus the Metapod of some weird samurai kid in the Viridian Forest. It consisted of the two Metapod sitting there and was more like a staring contest between the two trainers.

Butterfree fell in love with a pink Butterfree and went away with her. I wasn't happy when Ash released a pokémon I liked, but now I appreciate that selfless aspect of his character and his treatment of pokémon as friends who should not be forced to tag along if they rather be elsewhere. Ash's pokémon team has varied over time, with Pikachu being the only constant; his pokémon also included Pidgeotto, Muk, Krabby, Primeape, Lapras, a lot of Tauros and many others who joined after some of his old pokémon were released.

Misty has mostly water pokémon. Psyduck popping out of his pokéball uncalled became a classic joke, either that pokémon was an absolute genius who was smart enough to hide it, or he was the stupidest pokémon on the planet. With his constant headache and tendency not to listen to Misty's commands (or not understand them), he was often the cause of her frustration. More of Misty's pokémon were Staryu, Starmie, Goldeen and the absolutely adorable Horsea. As with Ash, there were others, but those are the ones I like best.

Brock's pokémon didn't come with as many special background stories and jokes as Ash and Misty's. From his pokémon, the ones I like best are Geodude and Onix. His other original pokemon include Vulpix and Zubat, which I also like, even if they don't fit his rock pokémon theme.

Aside from Pikachu, who is my favorite, I like Team Rocket more than Ash's group. Other than Meowth, my favorite among their pokémon are, not surprisingly, the originals: Jessie's Arbok and James' Wheezing. I also like James' Magikarp that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth for James. There were also others which were part of the original 151, such as Jessie's Lickitung and James' Victreebell.

In my opinion, the later Pokémon series don't measure up to the first. I miss the original trio of protagonists, the original 151 pokémon and the hints of pokéshipping (AshxMisty). However, if there is one thing that amuses me about those later episodes, it's Meowth's Boss Fantasies. Meowth has various daydreams in which he imagines Giovanni's reaction at receiving a pokémon and finding odd everyday uses for it, such as an Articuno to replace his broken air-conditioner. It might just be an excuse to throw some Gio fan service on the screen, but it's still hilarious (plus fan service is always welcomed).

My ideal pokémon team is all about having my favorites, because nothing beats the power of cuteness. Pikachu is totally cute and he's an electric type, which I like best. I was amused by how they used Pikachu at a Pokémon Center as the energy source for the emergency electric generator. It's very convenient never having to worry about a source of electricity. Raichu is cute too, but not as cute as Pikachu. Though Pikachu is called a mouse I think he looks like a bunny.

I want to have a pokémon who is able to fly on my team, one big enough to fly me places and that pokémon is Charizard, who has the power of fire. He looks like one of the strongest, non-legendary pokémon, powerful and proud. My favorite legendary pokémon are the super cute Mew and the beautiful Articuno, whose blue feathers remind me of Harvest Moon. [7]

Another favorite is Jolteon, an electric type that's all cool and spiky like 'respect my personal space or else'. Butterfree is adorable, it can fly and many of its attacks are very shiny, it's a beautiful pokémon. I like both Meowth and Persian, they're cats and that's a big plus. My other non-legendary favorites include the koopaling-like Squirtle, the elegant Ninetails and the cute and fluffy Flareon, I also occasionally take a liking to Gengar. My favorite legendaries are Mew and Mewtwo.

My favorite Pokémon movie is Mewtwo Strikes Back and I loved the short in the beginning of the movie Pikachu's Vacation it's the cutest ever! Aside from the Indigo League, I also like the Mystery Dungeon world. My favorite games are Leaf Green and Mystery Dungeon Red.