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Pokémon 14: White — Victini and Zekrom
Damon? Fuck that guy. Fuck him right in the ear. |
There, we find a man walking through the desert with his Reuniclus - which looks like a green foetus chilling in the ghost of an angry frog - and spotting an injured Blitzle (a baby zebra type thing) ahead of him. Reuniclus uses Psychic to lift Blitzle up onto the man's shoulder, and he carries it a small settlement where it is able to limp to a small child who hugs it. The child - a girl - thanks him, naming him Damon. Her father thanks him too, but tells him in no uncertain terms to go fuck himself over his desire to return their people to their "own land". They argue over whether the legend of their homeland is true or not (they're Jews?), and then a sand storm gets their attention. Birds fly overhead and Bouffalant stampede, but as everybody else freaks out, Damon walks towards the stampede and the massive storm brewing and throws his hand up, summoning.... MOTHERFUCKING RESHIRAM! He gets onto its back as it blasts a massive ball of power at the twister, then gets ahead of the Bouffalant and blasts blue energy in their path, stopping the stampede. Reshiram glides down to the started villagers and Damon tells them that it is time they returned to the Vale, and Reshiram speaks telepathically, agreeing that this is where the truth lies.
We join the twerps as they head through the forest, Cilan telling an excited Iris that they'll see "it" fairly soon. "Soon" turns out to be "immediately" as they emerge from the forest to a huge mountainscape in front of them.... and at the top, a sprawling city. It's the Mountain City of Eindoak, and the twerps are there for the Harvest Festival - what do the people who live on top of a big ass mountain harvest? Do they climb up and down the mountain each day to tend their crops?
A little Deerling is trying to eat a berry up on a narrow mountain path when a little Pokémon pokes its head out happily and startles it. The Deerling almost falls to its death but is saved by another which grabs it by the tail and tries to haul it back up, but it's too weak. The twerps, coming up the stairs built into the mountain, spot what is happening and Ash leaps into action to save the day. Jumping over onto the ledge, he inches along, a piece of ledge breaking away beneath his feet as he moves. Iris tries to jump over to help but Cilan restrains her, telling her that the path won't hold both their weight. Ash catches the second Deerling around the crotch as it goes over the ledge as well and lifts them both up, but the weight is unbalancing him. A piece of the ledge beneath him breaks away and he pivots around out of control, his foot sliding into the crevice where the little Pokémon grabs it and tries to haul him forward, a glowing light spreading over Ash and surprising him. The Pokémon loses its grip and Ash tumbles over the side, joined by Pikachu clutching onto his leg as he slides down the rock and into a jutting out piece of rock, desperately trying to maintain his balance as Nintendo Shareholders sit on the edge of their seats and clutch at their hearts.
Ash decides FUCK PHYSICS and leaps through the air like 200 feet, landing safely on another rock path far on the other side in front of a cave. Cilan and Iris are astonished, even amongst Ash's normal insane shit this is beyond the pale. He happily calls out to them that he is safe, but Iris wants to know how he intends to get back. Ash feels a breeze coming from the cave and declares he'll follow it out (out where?) and heads inside, as the camera pulls away to reveal the massive stone castle/Church looking thing looming over the town.
The little Victini is in the tunnel beneath the big ass castle, hiding when it spots Ash, Pikachu and the two surprisingly tame Deerling coming its way. It turns invisible and watches as Ash arrives at a series of tunnel openings and stares in confusion... until he is hit with a sudden squeaky vision in his head of which one to take. Being Ash, he kind of takes it for granted that he suddenly is able to see geographic locations he's never been to, and leads the Pokémon on. They reach a massive underground crystal network and Ash calls out to see if anybody can hear him, kicking off some kind of reaction in the crystals. Victini gifts him another vision of which way to go, and he leads the Pokémon on again till they reach a spiral staircase that leads to a wall. Ash pushes against it and it turns to open into some kind of storage room. He heads out onto a balcony and spots Cilan and Iris far beneath him on the stairs leading up to the castle. He calls for them to stop wasting time and come up to check out the view of Eindoak, and the share a weary grin over being worried about him.
Saying goodbye to the Deerling, Ash and the others check out the view while Cilan offers some history. The castle is called The Sword of the Vale, and he points out a valley in the horizon and says the castle flew through the air from the valley and landed here. They want to know how a castle could fly and he reminds them it's a fucking legend, then points out the berries down around the castle grounds. A hungry Ash forgets how perspective works and tries to reach for the berries from a good hundred feet away, moaning,"GIMME!" as he flails at the air. Iris asks smugly if he's hungry and he demands that she remember that he is ALWAYS hungry, though luckily Cilan comes to the rescue with a basket of home-made (well, on the road-made) Macarons. As they eat, Victini watches seemingly concerned (maybe a Macaron killed its family?), while the twerps head back inside the castle which seemingly has nobody in it, not even a security guard. As Ash goes to take another bite of Macaron though, it disappears out of his hand, and he appears to start crying as Victini hides behind a pillar eating the Macaron and clearly fucking loving it.
Ash isn't crying, of course, just having a laugh as he grabs out another Macaron to eat... and it gets pulled out of hand by Victini which flits away turning invisible. As it tries to swallow, though, fireworks from the festival go off and startle it, causing it to get the Macaron stuck in its throat. It turns invisible as the twerps rush by it, Ash running into it and getting confused before they all head on. Looking for a way out, they meet Damon who offers to show them the way down to the town to register for the contest. He doesn't ask how the fuck they got in there, but they introduce each other and they head down into Eindoak.
Down there, the town is buzzing for the festival, kids rushing around in excitement and proving themselves savvy locals avoiding the jacked up tourist prices by getting free berry drinks from a helpful Gothorita. A Gothita cuts up melons for watching tourists, and it turns out to be some kind of performance art by a girl in a Goth-maid costume and her two Gothy- Pokémon.
The twerps reach the streets in time to see a Golurk - a massive golem looking Pokémon. They follow it and end up in a stall run by a woman named Juanita, who sells Victini merchandise. She explains that Victini is said to have lived in the town since long ago, and Ash is excited to see one.... but she warmly explains that it is very rare to see one.
She tells the twerps that it gives people and Pokémon power (explaining Ash's huge leap earlier), and that it is said to have guarded the Sword of the Vale. As Iris buys a cheap wooden necklace of Victini, above them on a cafe balcony overlooking the main narrow road, Team Rocket listen in on the conversation while "disguised" as tourists.
Jesse giggles and leans forward, James and Meowth (who is wearing a grey wig and a big ass moustache) listening as she details a change in plans. They had been planning on stealing Pikachu and the other Pokémon at the Festival - but a Pokémon that grants power to people AND Pokémon? Now they want Victini!
"Simple!" declares Jesse, spearing some fruit with a fork,"All we do is catch it!"
As sound and well-thought out a plan as this is, the one subtle flaw in it is exposed when the invisible Victini takes the fruit from her fork unseen, and she just bites into solid metal instead.
The Mayor - Mannes - welcomes the assembled townspeople and tourists to the Harvest Festival, waving to Juanita and what is presumably her daughter (they're wearing basically the same clothes and look the same) when they wave to him. He announces a bumper harvest this year, and kicks off the annual competition by having his Pokémon Klink, Klang and Klinklang into a musical machine to set off the music as he announces the rules - each registered trainer has been given a wooden necklace, they set off through the narrow streets of the town and challenge each other. Each loser takes off their necklace and gives it to the victor, and eventually one person will have a Mr. T like collection of necklaces and be declared the winner.
Everybody sets off in excitement, the twerps having obviously registered at some point. Cilan is using Pansage, Iris using Emolga and Ash calls out Scraggy.... to tell it to watch the other Pokémon battling! Hahahaha!
So, do we have 90 minutes of battling to run through the length of the movie then? Haha, not bloody likely! As the opening credits finally play over a musical montage of the twerps battling random nameless nobodies who have worked their whole lives for this opportunity only to watch as three little assholes show up to steal their thunder. Well, not quite really, as Iris discovers Emolga's Volt Switch disqualifies her from the contest, and her excitement over seeing Juanita's big-titted daughter's Hydreigon seems to cost Cilan his battle as well. It seems only Ash is left to continue the tradition of destroying the hopes and dreams of locals, as he uses Oshawott to defeat Emboar - Scraggy celebrates in excitement, whipping its disgusting baggy pants about and stopping to high five Victini before realizing that he has no idea what Victini is before Victini pulls a fade. Ash continues on like a delighted spastic, rushing past a little girl whose long-suffering mother doesn't have time for any of this bullshit.
The credits end and it's Ash and Tepig vs. a skinny androgynous kid and their Samurott. Juanita pulls up her cart to watch, wishing them both luck, and Tepig proceeds to get its ass kicked all over the place, getting sent flying and crashing into Juanita's stall, knocking stuff everywhere. As she scoops up the shattered remnants of her pathetic business, Victini sneaks up and grabs Tepig's tail, firing him up with a burst of power. A roided-up Tepig zips out of the stand as Carlita arrives to bend over in her ridiculous short skirt (she's like an amalgam of May and Dawn!) and help her mother clean up.
Ash is happy to see Tepig fired up, and orders another Ember, much to Cilan and Iris' dismay - he already used that move and it sucked! But Ash has a plan, and his plan is to take advantage of things he is completely unaware of! Tepig lets lose a HUGE blast of fire-snot, completely overwhelming Samurott and leaving it unconscious - Ash wins! He scoops up a delighted Tepig which wriggles about energetically in his hands, both of them completely unaware that they just cheated and used performance-enhancing Pokémon to get the win. Cilan and Iris congratulate him on his victory, while Carlita ponders what could have caused Tepig to power up so quickly? Victini? Her mother tells her not to be silly, apparently she only believes in the marketing power of selling her shitty trinkets, not the actual Pokémon itself.
Ash stops for a drink in a park, while a hopped-up Scraggy bops its head against the submerged, painted tires that Pikachu and Axew are playing on. Carlita shows up and asks Ash to be their next fight, and he eagerly agrees. Scraggy is eager too, leaping through the air and trying to headbutt Hydreigon, getting sent flying backwards. Carlita is surprised, he's going to use Scraggy? Ash seems incredulous too, but when he sees how hopped up Scraggy is for a fight, he says why not and agrees to it.
Iris can't believe it, and even the normally optimistic Cilan can't muster up too much enthusiasm. Iris is just pleased to see more Hydreigon on, and watches as Scraggy headbutts into Hydreigon... and goes bouncing off and crashes into the trees, then flops down into the bushes. Carlita and her ridiculous tits carefully positions herself to watch Scraggy's body, and she is amazed to see Victini appear out of the air and pump power into Scraggy. It leaps up (REALLY HIGH) and comes back down ready to fight some more, and Ash shows that amazing battling talent that has gotten him so far by ordering... another Headbutt! This time however, the effects are somewhat different.
Hydreigon is out, and even Ash seems somewhat surprised. He congratulates Scraggy though, while Carlita recalls Hydreigon and hands over her wooden necklace not to Ash but to the travelling ref - it seems there is to be no Mr. T looking victor staggering under the weight of all those necklaces after all. Once the ref is gone, Carlita frowns and heads over to Ash, stating that this was the work of Victini. Ash doesn't know what she means, but Iris thinks she is talking about the cheap little trinket she bought from Carlita's mother. Carlita explains she means the REAL Victini, she saw it power up Scraggy, and an excited Ash wants to see it, but she laughs that it is invisible now.
Ash remembers his disappearing Macaron, as well as all those visions in the tunnel (which he never mentioned to the others) or his giant ass hundreds of feet leaps. He steps towards the trees and calls out, asking if Victini gave him powers earlier. They hear Victini squeaking its own name in reply, and he asks it to come out and play. Cilan brings out his Macarons and offers one, and Victini - still invisible - comes out and begins eating it. Ash throws another one and Victini eats that too, settling down on the slide and becoming visible. It turns invisible again as Ash offers another, then turns visible and approaches Ash cautiously, freaking out when he and Pikachu lean forward. Ash pretends to be eating the Macaron himself, and an alarmed Victini reappears gasping for him not to take it. He laughs and offers it to Victini again, which takes the Macaron while still visible and eats it. The twerps are delighted and introduce themselves, though Carlita seems a little surprised that all it took to bring out Victini after all these years was a fucking Macaron. Ash asks Victini if it is responsible for making Tepig and Scraggy stronger, and it admits it is so, but instead of being pissed off or disappointed over cheating, Ash seems delighted to have had performance enhancers unwillingly/unknowingly pumped into his Pokémon. He rather unwisely lunges and grabs Victini out of the air, spinning around happily with it in his hands as it begins to sob in fright, not liking some fucking freak slapping his clammy, furless hands covered in the skins of slaughtered Pokémon all over it.
He asks what's wrong and Carlita tells him he was playing too rough. Victini lifts into the air and disappears, Pikachu grabbing a Macron and trying to get its attention, joined by Axew and Scraggy. Victini's greed gets the better of it and it becomes visible again, grabbing the Macaron and chowing down. They head off down the narrow streets, Victini on Ash's head, an excited Iris skipping and dancing around in delight, declaring how happy she is. She's not the only one, Team Rocket watch from an alleyway as they zip by, chuckling over what they'll be able to do once they get their hands on Victini.
The twerps leave the town (is the contest over? Ash is still a viable contender isn't he?), Victini pausing in midair to stare up in some concern as a floating pillar. Ash - completely misreading the situation as usual - grabs it by one tiny paw and hauls it along behind him as he continues along the road, only for a shimmering forcefield to hold it back as Ash continues. Surprised, Ash turns to see Victini turn into a fireball (I hate when that happens) and blast a huge gout of flame straight towards him.... which hits the forcefield and causes a pinkish discolouration in the air over half of the town, including the Sword of the Vale. Victini hugs itself in distress and heads away, fading into invisibility again.
They return to the town and Juanita, telling her about Victini. Cilan asks where in the town would somebody go who was looking for comfort, and rather than tell them she leads them on a long ass walk. Carlita ponders if maybe when Victini doesn't like "the barrier", which is apparently something they all know about. Juanita goes further, saying that the barrier protects their town but Victini is unable to go past the "pillars of protection".
Before they can find out what the barrier is for, Damon and Mannes show up. Carlita is excited, Damon is her brother and Juanita is her mother. Is Mannes the dad then? Well maybe not, since Juanita gets pissed off to learn that Mannes has been giving advice/instructions to Damon on reconstruction of the castle... but maybe so since she and Carlita waved so happily to him earlier and he calls her,"My dear."
Damon has been away for six months and Juanita isn't pleased, but Carlita is more excited about telling her brother (who looks about the same age as his mother!) that Victini is real. He already knows though, leaving her somewhat deflated (not in the chest, ho ho!), and they continue on up through an orchard owned by Mannes family. Cilan is delighted by the smells of the growing grass, but Axew decides the hell with listening to this conversation and rushes off the path, causing Iris and Ash to chase after him. Pikachu calls out for Victini and Ash joins in, explaining he didn't know about the barrier (and we still don't know what it's for!), Cilan busting out the Macarons in the hope of bribing it again. All they find though is a Purrloin and a Drilbur, which indicate the twerps should follow. As they head along, other Pokémon join them, and they're all lead on in a veritable parade to a mill where the Pokémon call out and Victini appears, chilling on a lilipad. Ash rushes forward calling out, but it disappears and bumps into a bucket. He cries out that he's sorry for scaring it earlier, and spots a turning windvane and picks it was moved by Victini. He steps forward and slips on some algae on the side of the small pool outside the mill, and starts to slip forward. Straining to defy all laws of physics as he tries to keep himself from falling in, Pikachu tries to help by dragging on an ankle, and then he realises he isn't falling any further forward thanks to the invisible Victini clutching onto his hood.
Victini isn't strong enough to haul him back though and he ends up falling in anyway, his lousy fucking friends having done nothing to save him. The water is shallow though, and Ash sits up and mumbles it is cold, luring a concerned Victini in and allowing him to splash it. For whatever reason, Victini doesn't freak out by this sudden movement following deception from Ash, and they play about as the others watch, Damon declaring quietly that his plan is to borrow some of Victini's power.
Inside what is presumably Mannes library, they offer to explain the history of the People of the Vale. Mannes and Juanita are descendents of that tribe (is that why they look like a cross between Native and Southern Americans with Spanish names?), and the history goes back 1000 years which really isn't all that long if you think about it. In a storybook setting (apparently the history book is pop-up book) we see the ancient King and his Victini, ruling over the Kingdom of the Vale and drawing energy from the Dragonforce - an energy that flows through the planet (and is also a metal band I believe). By using this energy wisely, the lived in perfect balance with the land, and the King's own two sons were balanced too. Twins, both were filled with wisdom and courage, though each with a unique quality - one was "The Hero of Truth" and the other "The Hero of Ideals". Both Princes were accompanied by great Dragon Pokémon - Zekrom and Reshiram - which only granted great wisdom and strength to the worthy.
But (there's always a but) the country lost its way and the Princes became enemies, dividing their people in two and going to war, and so did the Pokémon. Zekrom and Reshiram beat the shit out of each other till they used up all of their life force (they died!), becoming reduced to two stones to slumber and regather their strength (and not be dead anymore). The two Princes realised what they'd done (apparently the tens of thousands of dead citizens weren't enough) and gave up the war, but shit was still pretty fucked up. The King decided to finally do something about this, demonstrating that amazing sense of timing Kings are so well known for, and asked Victini to lend him its strength. It happily agreed, and the King used the power to create a barrier around the castle, having put all the people left in the country into it. Using pillars of protection to hold the barrier in place, he shifted the entire castle to its new location, thus making everything all right because they just left all the fucked up shit behind and moved somewhere new and pretty so they wouldn't have to think about it anymore. The King was weakened by the exertion, however, and before he could dismantle the pillars and bring down the barrier he died (didn't slumber or turn to stone, he dead!) and that was that, Victini was stuck. The Princes took the stones and placed them deep underneath the castle in a hidden location, while the people of the Vale for some reason didn't want to hang around with people who had killed members of their family or who had members of their family killed by them, and they split up and went their separate ways.
Heading outside, Damon points out the still barren stone remains of what WAS the Kingdom of the Vale. He wants to use Victini's power to restore the Kingdom and bring the peoples of the Vale back. As he casually chats about his dreams (he hasn't asked Victini yet!), the object of his desires is fucking about down on the grass with Axew before taking off for a fun ol' romp around. The twerps follow after, and Damon reveals that all this shit is going on because his mother told him it would be nice back when he was a little kid.
Victini grabs some berries off of a tree and gives one to Pikachu and one to Axew. Other Pokémon come in for the typical "we're all nice and enjoy hanging around just laughing but not really doing much of anything" bits, watched by the twerps. Completely oblivious to his intrusive presence, Ash leads the twerps down with him to get closer to the feeding Pokémon. Victini decides to do an impersonation of Carlita by bringing two round pieces of fruit on its chest over to Ash, then gives food to the others and heads up into the trees to eat as well. As the kids play and eat, the adults are in Mannes library discussing their own business. Damon explains his own journey to find the scattered people of the Vale and tell them about his plans to bring them back to his own land. At first none would listen (though one kid did give him a vial with a leaf in it), and when he returned to tell Mannes about his failure, he got two sudden telepathic flashes telling him "there is no shortcut to the truth" and "the truth is here". He sensed the source coming from the Sword of the Vale, and he and Mannes went and explored the cave beneath, moving along the crystal paths, becoming separated somehow, Damon appearing on a path that Mannes could not get to. Despite numerous obstacles, somehow Damon was able to continue on and on till finally he reached the Light Stone. Touching the stone caused flames to appear, but they didn't burn, and then coalescing out of the light....
MOTHERFUCKING RESHIRAM!
I told Damon that the truth within him had been judged worthy, and travelled with him to the places where the people of the Vale had scattered, impressing them enough to listen to him seriously. The door to the library opens and a small group of people walk in - the ones from the start of the movie. He tells them all that he has a found a way use the Sword of the Vale and gain complete control of the Dragonforce's energy.
The sun has set and it's gotten dark, Cilan sleeping in his sleeping bag while Iris sits up on a tree branch reading a book (in the dark?) and Victini is sleeping on Ash's lap as he dozes at the base of the tree. Victini is suddenly woken up a vision, seeing bizarre symbols and lights over the town, then the days and nights passing rapidly, seasons changing, and the ghost of the old King returning. It's delighted to see him, but all he can say is that he is sorry for trapping it there before disappearing into the light. Victini starts to cry and Ash wakes up, Victini still asleep on his lap, the vision apparently nothing more than a nightmare shared by Ash. He pets it on the back and says it is lonely despite the friendship of the various Pokémon. Waking up, it flies down the road followed by Ash and belatedly Iris and Cilan, who watch in astonishment as the sun rises.
The sun reflects off of the ocean, and an excited Victini points to it, Ash guessing that it wants badly to go there. He (rather callously) happily promises that he will get it there despite 1000 years of a fucking barrier being in place. But as he shares what are probably impossible dreams with it, Damon is planning his own impossible deeds. Calling out Sigilyph, which is a.... fuck it, I have no idea how to even describe this fucking abortion of a Pokémon, it looks like an Unknown got jammed up the butthole of a Gastly which they painted before turning it upside down and gluing wings to it. Anyway, he calls this monstrosity out and lets it perch ominously up above the central pillar right at the top of the Castle. Using Psychic, it lifts the four pillars beneath, causing the small model pillars before Damon to glow. Waving his hands over them, he is able to control the actual pillars surrounding the town and castle and begin moving them.
Everybody watches in astonishment as this happens, while Victini freaks out and the twerps try to figure out what the hell is going on. Victini zips up the mountain path towards the castle, followed by the twerps and also a surprised Team Rocket who were climbing the mountain and only seem to have spotted it by accident.
Victini flees before the closing in pillars, reaching the central chamber where Damon is waiting. He asks (FINALLY) for it to grant him its power, and for a second it sees Damon as the King and happily moves towards him. But when it sees it is Damon, it recoils... but it's too late, the little pillars surround Victini and zap it as it tries to break free, Damon either not noticing or not caring that Victini clearly wants no part of this.
Pink light runs down through the four main pillars, waking up hundreds upon hundreds of Duosions which belt out an odd chanting sound. Damon calls out to his watching mother and sister that Victini's power is amplifying the Psychic Pokémon he has placed throughout the castle, and as the twerps arrive to ask Carlita what is going on, the entire castle shifts. Before the astonished eyes of the watching townspeople (apparently nobody bothered to tell them) the Sword of the Vale rips out of the ground, revealing that it really is a sword. As it lifts into the air, Team Rocket are left to fall to their deaths as they struggle to clutch onto the side, and a huge hole in the ground left behind reveals the glowing green energy of the Dragonforce. Damon explains he is using the Sword to redirect the flow of the Dragonforce, pulling it out of the hole in the ground and sending it towards the stony remains of the old Kingdom. As the power reaches, grass grows and water erupts from the stone, bringing life back to the war-scarred regions. The gathered representatives of the people of the Valley are delighted, while Damon is all business as he continues to tear power out of the terrified Victini which finally manages to let loose a scream that catches Ash's attention. He rushes into the court and sees the clearly distressed Victini, but Damon approaches and tells him that Victini is lending him its power. Ash could give a shit about that, Victini clearly isn't a happy camper and he wants Damon to stop, but Damon refuses, saying that he won't stop until he has what he wants.
Ash decides to go with his usual technique of "just rush headlong at the problem" and tries to rush up to where Victini is, but Damon sends out Reuniclus to stop him and the other twerps, trapping them midair with Psychic. Juanita and Carlita rush in as well and neither are pleased to see what is happening, demanding that Damon release Victini, much to his surprise. Ash takes the momentary distraction, having Pikachu blast Reuniclus with an electric attack that jars them free, then orders an Electro-Ball to destroy the pillars.
OH SHIIIIIIIT!
Blasting the Electro-Ball out of the air, Reshiram enters the court and blasts a massive gust of hot air straight at the twerps, knocking them off their feet. Juanita counters by sending in her Golurk, which slams into Reshiram and knocks them both out of the flying castle.... and Reshiram makes quick work of Golurk in return, turning it into a molten brick of Golurk and sending it plummeting to the earth like a meteor, holy shit! The twerps, Carlita and Juanita are obviously pretty horrified by these actions, but they have little time to mourn as Reuniclus wraps them up in psychic once more, this time including Damon's own family members.
I can't help but feel there's something vaguely perverted about this Damon character.
Ash tries to get a Thunderbolt from Pikachu but Reuniclus binds them tighter with Psychic, causing Ash to seemingly pass out from pain.... and Victini feels the connection and flashes back to 1000 years earlier when the dying King told Victini that the Sword of the Vale could never be moved again because the disturbance to the Dragonforce could destroy the entire world. Ash is there in Victini's memory, watching the King die and hearing his final message before waking to find Cilan and Iris crouching over him. He, they, Juanita and Carlita are locked in the store room, the latter two apologising to Ash for their son/brother's actions. Ash is more concerned with the fate of the world now though (he gets that a lot), explaining that Victini showed him a vision warning of the danger to the world. Juanita thinks about it and remembers the old legend saying that the shifting of the Castle was designed to contain the Dragonforce which had become unstable.... but this happened AFTER Reshiram turned to stone so it's likely that Reshiram is unaware of the danger they have just unleashed. But it isn't likely to listen to them (they could.... try?), so they need some way to fight it, and what better to fight one pissed off legendary dragon-god than another pissed off legendary dragon-god? They need Zekrom!
Luckily for the useless Juanita, Ash actually knows something! He heads over to the secret door he came through earlier and opens it, they can head down beneath the castle and look for the stone that Zekrom became. As they head down, back at what used to be the site of the castle for 1000 years - Mannes is flying about in his Klink/Klang/Klinklang-powered plane getting increasingly troubled by the chaotic nature of the now pink energy kicking around down there.
Back beneath the castle, the twerps feel like they've been walking around in circles when they realise Ash is missing. Looking down, they see him and Pikachu on a different crystal path and he calls for them to join him, but they have no idea how he got down there... and neither does he! Sure, normally he doesn't know how he got from Point A to Point B, but in this case it's an actual mystery!
He and Pikachu head on, with shouted encouragements from the twerps, while high above Damon continues blissfully on unaware of the trouble in the bowels of the castle or down in the ground below. Victini cries out in fresh pain again and Ash feels it down beneath, but as he continues on a different mind intrudes, a booming voice demanding to know,"IS IT WITHIN YOU!?! THE WILL TO PURSUE YOU IDEAS!?!"
The Crystal behind him and Pikachu falls into the abyss, and Ash and Pikachu continue on as determined as ever - too brave and too stupid to go back. As they run, the crystal falls behind them, but they keep on going, leaping from shard to shard, tripping and tumbling till they hit bottom and find themselves in a huge black stone cavern.... and the Dark Stone lights up and lifts into the air, demanding to know what is Ash's ideal? He's confused, but then comes to a firm conclusion, he wants to help Victini and keep his promise to take Victini to the ocean. The stone lights up and lifts higher, flooding the cavern with light and electricity as Ash cringes from the sudden illumination.
MOTHERFUCKING ZEKROM
It roars and stands imperious and powerful above him, but Ash just stands staring, because by this point he's pretty much used to meeting Legends and God like it ain't nothing but a thing. It declares that Ash's ideal will be realised, it has returned in service to a new "Prince", but it will have to get through Reshiram to do it.
Up above, Juanita, Carlita, Iris and Cilan have found their way to the open areas of the castle from the Crystal Underground. They spot Mannes approaching in his plane and spot the pink energy down on the ground below, and reveal to a surprised Mannes that they know the Dragonforce is out of control. To Juanita's relief, Golurk returns apparently still alive after being turned into a death meteor earlier, but the first thing she tells it to do when it returns is to get back in there and stop the Castle (i.e, fight Reshiram some more).
The inevitable happens, and as the two Pokémon fight, the humans get into the relative safety of Mannes plane and watch the one-sided fight continue.... while far below clinging desperately to the very base of the castle Team Rocket are still clinging on for dear life as an explosion of energy catches their attention. What the hell else will they have to deal with today? The answer is coming as Golurk is smashed into the wall of a castle and powerless to move as Reshiram prepares to melt it into lava..... and a blast of black energy nullifies the attack. Even Damon is distracted from his stubborn, single-minded quest as he ponders what could have stopped Reshiram's attack.... and there it is - Ash fucking Ketchum riding on the back of a motherfucking Zekrom!
Okay, even if you've personally met God, this is still pretty awesome!
Of course Reshiram is too tied into serving Damon's "ideal" to stop and say,"Hey bro.... sup?" so it immediately attacks. Zekrom blocks the attack and gets Ash down to the castle, leading Reshiram away to fight away from the castle as Ash tries to save Victini. Damon tries to send Reuniclus in to stop them but Ash is ready and has Pikachu blast it, while the two Legendary Dragons fight down into the corrupted Dragonforce.
A weary Golurk is returned to Juanita's Pokéball, while up at the top of the castle, Reuniclus continues to fight with Pikachu so they can get to Victini. Damon finally actually pays attention to Ash to admit that he actually straight up means to kill Victini if he'll get what he wants, telling Ash sacrifices are necessary for the truth. Ash tells him bullshit (not in so straightforward a way), saying he doesn't recognise that truth and rushes up towards the pillars. Reuniclus tries to stop him but gets blasted aside by Pikachu, and Ash arrives at the top of the pillar structure and... finds Reshiram in his way! Damon instructs Reshiram to stop Ash, but it ignores him - it's been inside the flames of the Dragonforce now and it knows that something is wrong and they need to stop this. Ash tries to rush the pillars (oh Ash) only to get knocked back, and Pikachu's attempt to blast them does nothing. Reshiram rears back and blasts at the pillars too, blasting and blasting as a shocked Damon looks on.... and finally the barrier breaks and the pillars fall away. Ash leaps forward and catches Victini as it falls, the little Pokémon smiling at Ash as everyone else (including Zekrom) arrives and Damon finally hears/sees what everybody else already knows - the Vale (and the land, and the fucking PLANET) are all in trouble because of what HE is doing. He runs to stare down beneath the castle as it slowly descends through the clouds, but there are too many clouds to see, so Zekrom and Reshiram burn them clear with a huge burst of joint power. He looks down in shock at the pink paths of corrupted Dragonforce burning through the forest and destroying everything in their path. He can't understand... he was just trying to make his mother - who he imprisoned in a storage room - happy!
So how does he fix this? Zekrom and Reshiram boom that he must use the sword to soothe the anger of the land and he realises he must use the sword to drain the excess Dragonforce energy. He calls on them to lend them his power, this strange momma's boy with half-white/half-black hair like some weird cross-stitch of the two Princes from 1000 years ago. They plummet down into the Dragonforce as it reverses on itself, pounding up into the Sword and channelling right up into Sigilyph. Damon tells Mannes to get everybody out, Ash carrying the exhausted Victini but stopping at Damon's side, insisting that he stay with him. Damon insists he has to do this alone (this is what got him into this trouble in the first place!) but then the pillars close in around the Castle, trapping Victini and thus Ash who is holding it in his arms. The Castle begins to tilt, the closed in barrier upsetting its balance, and they slide towards one of the open windows. Damon grabs Ash and manages to push him to safety, but then the tilt worsens and he goes flying out the window and over the side, presumably to what is honestly a pretty well-deserved death. I don't care how pure his motivations were or what a nice person he actually was.... fuck that guy. Fuck him right in his ear.
As the Sword/Castle lifts up higher and higher into the air, carrying all that excess energy, the Duosion that were lining the interior come spilling out in a panic, blasting past Ash who clutches Ash and Pikachu as close to him as possible. The Sword lifts out of the clouds and lifts high into the upper atmosphere, the cold and the thinning air getting to Ash who struggles to think - problematic at the best of times.
But it seems he isn't done yet, as Zekrom and Reshiram fly up to join them... as well as Damon, still alive and on Golurk's back. Golurk is pretty reasonable considering Damon tried to turn it into molten lava. Damon has Zekrom and Reshiram blast the pillars, wanting to shatter them so that the energy Victini can get free, but their blasts only momentarily knock them loose, they quickly come zooming back in and crash around Ash, sealing him into a small tomb of pillars. Damon yells at him that he can't give up, he's been chosen by the Legendary Dragon Pokémon. Ash staggers to his feet and tries to stagger on, but crashes to the ground unable to move as the Sword lifts so high up you can see space now. Golurk tries to haul open the pillars but they slam shut again, while Ash lies twitching, unable to get his body to respond to his dying brain's desperate attempts to get it up and moving.
Hands up who saw "Ash dies in the upper atmosphere of the planet entombed in a 1000 Year Old Prison made by a dead Sorcerer-King to stop a war between two Legendary Dragon Gods" way back in episode 1 when he was running in terror from a pissed off flock of birds?He apologises to Victini for not being able to fulfil his promise to take it to the ocean, and a single tear rolls out of his eye and freezes as it falls... and then Ash dies. That's it. Show's over, hope you all enjo-
It blasts up into a fireball that warms Ash's chilling body, then flies up into the air and smashes open the top of the pillars, before it appears to go Super Saiyan 4 and smash fucking shit out of the pillars that have held it captive for 1000 Years, exploding them AND itself into oblivion, releasing the pent up corrupted energy of the Dragonforce and sending it deep into space. Ash staggers up and then collapses, and the Sword lowers back down into the atmosphere, pushes along by Reshiram and Victini with a hand from Golurk and all the reassembled Psychic Pokémon, piloted by Damon who has a fucking lot to answer for. Ash is bundled up in a blanket, Pikachu sleeping next to him when he finally wakes up. Iris and Carlita fly in on Hydreigon's back, Iris rushing to Ash while Carlita goes up to ask Damon if he is alright, and thankfully he doesn't answer because fuck that guy. Fuck him right in his ear.
Mannes flies in and points out the leading edge of the Dragonforce, which is still chaotic but not as all out insane as it was before. They push/fly/pilot the Sword into place, ready to settle it in and contain the energy once more. Zekrom and Reshiram pull loose, then Golurk, and the Sword rapes into the land once again. On one of the balconies, Team Rocket stagger up surprised to discover they're alive. They look out over the Castle's new sea view and declare with relief that they're alive, and on land, land is good, which means together... life is great!
The Dragonforce now contained, the pink light is replaced with the natural green, everybody is happy and content and pleased... except for Victini, which is dead, because of Damon. Fuck that guy. Fuck him right in his ear.
They head down onto the beach where a crying Ash apologises to Victini which gave them every bit of its power, and they gave him nothing. He takes out a Macaron and, in a final gesture, throws it into the air to land in the ocean and symbolically represen.... nah, fuck that! An invisible Victini catches one in mid-air and begins to eat it. Delighted, Ash takes another from Cilan and holds it up to his mouth, declaring that he guesses he'll just have to eat this one himself. Victini appears at once, scrabbling frantically for the Macaron for itself. He hands it over and starts to eat, and Ash gets overexcited again and hugs Victini, causing it to choke on the Macaron and almost die a second time. He apologises and Victini smiles, the hits him with a vision of its plan, it wants to go back to the shattered Kingdom and restore it back to the green valley it used to be. Ash is delighted, wishing it the best of luck, and Cilan offers it the rest of his Macarons, which it happily takes. Damon collapses to his knees, begging forgiveness from his Mum (what about fucking Victini, asshole?) and she makes him get back up, telling him it's the future that is important, not the past, and the important thing is bringing the truth of the People of the Vale. With that, Reshiram and Zekrom let lose a roar and fly from the top of the Sword, casting a rainbow behind them as they fly off into the distance, leaving the twerps and the rest behind to stare up at the rainbow.
So the movie ends, but not before the end credits - the twerps fly over the regrowing Vale, Iris on Hydreigon with Carlita, the rest in Mannes airplane, waving to the small tribe of People of the Vale that got hauled into this mess by Damon. They join them and meet up with Victini again, and the next day a delighted Damon watches the massive progress of the regrowing Vale already, though it turns out just to be a dream on Damon's behalf, as shown when the 1000 years dead King appears in the dream to say hello to Victini. It'll be years before the growth reaches the point seen in Damon's dream, but it HAS started, small sprouts are coming up everywhere and growing up over the rock.
The twerps finally wave a goodbye, even though we never do find out just who won the big Contest they made such a big deal out of getting to. They head off on their journey once again, leaving behind the Vale, Eindoak, the Sword's new location, and Victini. As they move along, a bizarre fucking Pokémon called Tornadus zips through some flying Pokémon and causes a storm, which the twerps get caught in. That night they watch Pokémon flying against the backdrop of the moon, and the next day move through a field of flowers before settling down around a campfire for the night. They reach a town, seen only in reflections as they pass a cafe window, Team Rocket inside hiding their faces behind newspapers. Meanwhile, Reshiram and Zekrom are enjoying their freedom after 1000 years as stones, while the twerps reach that same fork they came to right back at the start of the episode, and we come full circle and the movie ends. There was another movie, of course - Pokémon The Movie:Black - the differences mostly cosmetic. Of course, in Black, Damon was chilling with Zekrom and it was Reshiram that Ash finds and uses to free Victini. There are different Pokémon seen at various points in the movie; the twerps take a different path in the fork in the road; some Pokémon are different colours/shinies; Damon travels through an icy, Alaska-esque country in Black rather than the desert seen in White; there's slightly different music; and at the end Thundurus is the one who creates the Thunderstorm. The story remains the same, though, and there's one thing that remains an absolute constant.