happy 1 year anniversary of Alain returning to pokemon after 8 years of nothing, getting his ass kicked and leaving immediately after

THE PROMPTS FOR TSME WEEK ARE OUT!

We are now some 2.5 months away from the 10th anniversary for the airing of the Strongest Mega Evolution Act I. I am excited!

Prompts for the week:

Day 1 - April 3rd: Anniversary / Pokémon Catching Day 2 - April 4th: First Time / Miare (Lumiose City) / Dragon Day 3 - April 5th: Mission / Family / Break Day 4 - April 6th: Hoenn / Mask / Release Day 5 - April 7th: Trip / Dark / AU Day 6 - April 8th: Love / Memorabilia / Legend Day 7 - April 9th: FREE DAY

1) How to participate?

Pick the prompt that you like best for each day of the week, create a fanwork for it and post it on tumblr, tagging #tsmeweek2024 or #tsme10thanniversary! You can also pick several prompts for one day to combine, or mix prompts from different days, as you wish. You can switch days up as well! Go wild! All forms of fanworks are accepted! Fanarts, crafts, fanfic of any lengths, cosplays... Pick the medium you prefer! Prompts can be interpreted however you want. If you pick "Miare" and want to depict an alternate ending for the Flare Crisis where everyone dies, go for it! Creativity is welcomed! Does "Break" mean "mental breakdown", "take a coffee break" or "break.....fast"? Up to you! Don't worry about having to participate every day of the week. Just do what you can! Once you publish a fanwork, don't forget to tag #tsmeweek2024 or #tsme10thanniversary! Those are the tags that will be scoured to be reblogged on this blog.

2) Does PokéAni XY&Z count? What counts as TSME?

The rules are lax. The XY&Z season of PokéAni definitely counts, as TSME characters played a very important role in it. So does the World Championships in Journeys, since Alan appeared in it. As a basic principle, so long as it involves a character that appeared in Act I-IV of TSME, it counts as TSME. So yes, you can absolutely create a fanwork about Daigo/Steven exploring Hoenn with Shouta/Sawyer, or Pachira/Malva dating Carnet/Diantha if your heart desires. You can also create fanworks with TSME characters and characters they never interacted with in canon!

3) Other rules

This blog will have ship art and will accept any ship. Do not harrass people over ships. Racy pieces or pieces with content warnings will be accepted on the blog and tagged with a "n/sfw" tag and "cw" tag. For viewers who do not want to risk seeing any such pieces, you can block these 2 tags. As an artist with a n/sfw or cw piece, please help making the blog friendly for all, by putting the full art under a preview and read-for-more. Please tag the full cw as well!

4) Like The Mega Evolution Specials, but don't know what to make?

Then, reblog, reblog, reblog!! Reblog the posts you see and like as a form of celebration! Share the love and keep it circulating so that it reaches more people!

Have more questions? Don't hesitate to drop an ask on this blog. you can also ask @potahun.

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR WORKS!!

TSME WEEK 2024 Day 2 prompt: "Dragon" (Dragon Type!)

This is very much a "what if" scenario, but i often think it'd be fun for Iris to finally go against a Charizard that is a Dragon Type. I also feel that Alan can learn things from Iris, in the specific way she communicates with her mons. She doesn't use Mega Evolution but isn't her understanding of Dragon Types another kind of strong bond?

also, indeed, a different mega bracelet. for reasons.

Love this caption. It's like "The Champions are here! And also Alain! He is also here!"

I continue to fall into old 2016 amourshipping kalosshipping wars (it’s so fun I’d love to talk about it more I was on both sides of this) and I’m just-

We can all agree now with hindsight that ash and calem aren’t counterparts? Like yeah ash stole the guys clothes and left him for dead in the river i guess- but they’re nothing alike

Alain is a much more accurate and obvious calem fill in if you ask me.

I missed most of TSME week, as I'm busy and can't stick to these schedules, but I absolutely couldn't pass up the chance to draw one of my most enduring and very canon* otps for TSME Day 6: Love. Please accept this very quick drawing!

(*At least one-sidedly in the original, in as much as protagonist ships can be canon in Pokemon, aha--Manon bluntly tells Alan he's her type during their first meeting, even awful Fleurdelys even calls her Alan's "unusually tiny girlfriend," as well as implying she's the "seed of doubt" planted into Alan threatening his plans... and albeit in a platonic way, dub Alain calls Mairin, Chespie, and Professor Sycamore the ones he loves ^^)

They're adorable, funny, heartbreaking, endearing, and I think they'd be super cute as a couple when they're older. ^^

(Mind the rules for the event, respect other folks' ships, the block button's free, etc.)

So now that it's fully over, here's my favorite returns in Journeys.

It was nice getting closure for the Aether family, Iris is Champion and had a pretty solid battle with Cynthia (I do wish we had seen her battle with Alder tho), I liked Paul coming back to help train Ash and make sure he's ready for the Masters Eight, and it was cool to see Gary getting focus in the Mew arc.

The worst is easily Alain. He barely acknowledged Ash at all until he's leaving, they don't even battle since he got Leon in the first round (I would have preferred Steven or Lance again for Leon. Alain is the one main rival Ash never defeated, and even without Greninja, I would have liked the XY closure), and he barely emotes:

As for the worst Pokemon returns, Incineroar and Squirtle. Incineroar was really just used as a heater, we never really saw it battle, and I didn't really like the main conflict of Squirtle's episode at all.

The best Pokemon returns were Team Rockets'. I loved seeing them working together to try and capture Pikachu, and the plan of splitting everyone up was pretty solid, only getting foiled thanks to Latias:

dripping like a saturated sunrise 41

-Last Time-

“I suggest you wake up.”

Alain felt a sharp pain, as if someone had yanked at his hair. The world of white shattered, replaced with a house that he didn’t recognize. Alain struggled, realizing his limbs had been tied, his body ached.

And there, the one grabbing his hair, was Volo.

“Rise and shine!” Volo greeted with a chirp.

“Volo?” Alain asked. What was going on? Why was he tied up? Why was Volo here?

A wicked grin spread across Volo’s face. “Good morning, Arceus’ Chosen One.”

-.-.-

He felt grimy and dirty, as if he had been dragged through the mud. A quick glance down at himself suggested that it did happen.

Alain grit his teeth as he looked up at Volo. “Why are you doing this, Volo?” he demanded.

Volo laughed.

Alain tried not to flinch, not liking the look in Volo’s eyes. There was a manic gleam, so focused on whatever his goal was, not looking at the world around him.

He used to look like that, didn’t he?

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@tsmeweek day 7: free day

Better late than never, right? I saw that at least @runawaycarouselhorse was expecting more Marisson in this event, so here you have it! And yes, they're both adults here. Alain's orange&yellow clothes are a callback to his clothes in the Sycamore lab flashbacks. And yes, Mairin/Manon has a key stone in her necklace.

lisia fun fact (this legitimately shocked me):

so BASICALLY this means that if alain is anakin once the XY remakes happen his child will defeat him once and for all?????? also this means that alain will turn evil and apparently like, do unspeakable horrors to young trainers??? i need some alain anakin fanart sometime i guess?? also this means he was a rhyhorn racer i guess??? this has so many implications for fanon

he is my second favorite edgelord (first if N doesn't count)

this is from the bulbapedia page about alain!

I’m riding some sort of high from Riley being released in Pokémon Masters and @/lussterpurge’s posts about Alain being in masters have been living rent free in my head

I know Red already has Mega Charizard X, but we have duplicates of other Pokémon, so it’s fine. We literally have three Lucario units, so I don’t think there’s a problem with two Charizard units

Day three - Break

actually todays theme is break because i need a break

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, TSME & XY&Z FANS

On 3 April 2014: Act I of the Strongest Mega Evolution (TSME), also known as the Mega Evolution Specials, aired in Japan and introduced us to the adventures of Alan, Manon/Mairin, Lizardon/Charizard and Hari-san/Chespie, beloved characters who defined the final arc of the Pokémon XY&Z anime. 3 April 2024 will mark the 10th anniversary of Act I! 10 years is a special number. In celebration, join in from 3 APRIL to 9 APRIL 2024 for a week dedicated to loving TSME, where art and writing in any form is welcome! The prompts will be released in January, leaving 2 months and a half for everyone to prepare something. The guidelines on how to participate will also be included. Visit and follow this blog to stay updated, and/or to check out information! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop an ask on this blog, or @potahun. Do you have prompts that you would like to see featured? Feel free to drop suggestions in the ask box!

See you for TSME Week!!

TSME WEEK 2024 Day 7: FREE DAY!

It also works for Day 5's "Trip". Once more, happy TSME week to all, happy 10th year to the TSME gang! May they continue to have many, many adventures even if we don't get to see them all

Alain from the Pokemon XYZ Anime would turn into a witch in Puella Magi Madoka Magica!

Cause of Witchification: As he witnessed the effects of the fruits of his and Lysandre's labor - the Mega Evolution energy system -, Alain realized that he had been deceived and played an integral part in Lysandre's goal of wiping out all of humanity so that Team Flare could rise from the ashes. All this time, he only wished to help professor Sycamore with his research in Mega Evolution- he wanted to be of good use with his knowledge on Mega Evolution and desire to continue researching this mysterious phenomenon, but it appears that his efforts have led to nothing but catastrophe.

Estimated time of witchification is said to be around the Kalos crisis.

Requested by anon.

His name's pronounced fucking Alon!?