Where have you been all this time, Hop!? WHERE!? Ah well… better late than never, I guess… doesn’t mean I can’t still be a little salty he wasn’t a recurring character during Journeys’ run…
Can we get some cute/funny Goh/Hop interaction during the competition, please?? I wanna see the two have a friendly clash over who is gonna be crowned the new World Champion! Hop’s super dedicated to his brother—he idolizes him… and, well, we all know how Goh feels about Ash! ❤️ LOOK at those tears! That big smile! The boy cannot contain his love pride for his boyfriend! The back and forth between these two could be soooo good! Goh already thinks Leon is pretty cool (not AS cool as Ash, of course! ), but I’d love a scene where Hop admits to Goh that Ash isn’t “half bad” after Ash pulls some crazy, off the wall stunt that has like a 0.01% chance of working… yet surprise, surprise… works.
I’m cautiously optimistic the prediction I made will be wrong, but I’m still not 100% convinced Goh will be there for the entirety of the M8 competition. But, seeing Goh in the stands does make me feel a little better, and I’ll take it!
*Bernie Sanders voice* Once again, I’m here to post OFFICIAL ARTWORK of Ash and Gou and call it cannon. And the fact that Chloe is barely in any official art, only these two Heck, Leon and Raihan, too. Almost always by themselves. Cannon…(to a degree, let me have my serotonin ). If Pokemon had the balls to openly admit to making an androgynous character (Gou/Goh), they can do more…
Even though this is the final Project Mew mission, and Goh’s last chance to qualify as a Chaser, he doesn’t want Ash giving up what little training time he has left before the M8 tournament starts.
Ash has been a great help to Goh in past missions, and Goh knows he stands a better chance at completing the mission and being a step closer toward his dream with Ash at his side. As important as his dream is to him, he’s not willing to achieve it at the cost of Ash failing to reach Leon due to a lack of training.
Goh won’t risk both their dreams, and that’s so thoughtful of him.
I think this also ties in with what Goh said to Kiawe in episode 37:
As much as they support and cherish each other’s dreams, Ash’s dream of battling Leon is his own, as is Goh’s dream of catching Mew. There will come a moment where each of them will find their dream within reach, a point in their lives that will forever be special to them. It will be Ash’s moment when he is facing Leon from across the battlefield, and it will be Goh’s moment when Mew appears before him after years of searching.
Goh not only goes it alone on the final mission so that Ash can have more time to train, but he also does so for personal reasons. He needs to prove to himself that he has the power to reach for his dream, and wants to become stronger along the way.
This, in turn, strengthens the bond between Ash and Goh, because it once again shows how much they care about each other. Ash was willing to sacrifice valuable training time ahead of the most important tournament of his life, and Goh was willing to forgo help on one final, crucial Project Mew mission that he had to pass.
They are willing to put their own dreams on the line to ensure the other has the best possible chance at succeeding. That’s just about the purest form of love there is. ❤️
