12/9/2022 c39 Dracofighter
Great chapter, well worth the wait, feel of ash, but i feel like the truth at that point would only have crushed Latias, that said, unless he tells her soon it'll definiately come back to bite him

well written excellent characterisation, looking forward to more

12/5/2022 c39 7ColsonOtis
Arcy, wow, you did an AMAZING job with this chapter!
So Ash could bring himself to tell Latias,
I don't blame him, I probably couldn't either if I was in his shoes...

Anyway, I think you did perfectly at writing the emotional scenes, and I hope to see more soon!

Thanks for writing!

12/5/2022 c39 5ShadowLDrago
Yeah, Ash has some pretty bad PTSD.

"Are you related to Ho-Oh in any way?" Sharp.

"We can't pry it out of you, can we?" No, but, good try.

Oh right, the Latis DO have pretty sharp claws.

Ash is such a good kid.

"Fire. Not a pretty way to go out." You're not wrong. Ash is lucky it was fast.

Ash's brown eyes became scared and uncertain the moment they locked with Latias' golden eyes, which reflected in them a powerful and vengeful bloodlust. How easy it can be to forget that as kind as Latias is, she is fundamentally NOT wired like a human. She's not incapable of causing death. She's just been choosing NOT to cause it until now.

He didn't even know the perpetually sweet and kindhearted Latias was capable of such fury. Beware The Nice Ones.

"I… I don't know who did it." Wait, what?

'No, no, no, what have I done?' You lied to spare her feelings. Let's hope it doesn't backfire.

"How is that even possible, though? I thought our dad killed him. That's what the legend says, anyway." The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some consider to be, unnatural.

"Seriously? Her? How do you know? She'd never do that!" Not deliberately, I agree. But in a fit of blind rage, well, when all you see is red...

"I suck." You made a mistake. If humans were damned for every mistake they made, I'd be in Hell SO many times over it's not even funny.

"Your mom is a lovely woman, but she'd be livid." She'd probably march up to Azrael himself and drag him to Arceus by the ear to apologize.

"It's not like you could've prevented it," And you could have? How, exactly, could you POSSIBLY have accounted for "the ghost of a long dead enemy of my Dad is going to show up right outta nowhere and possess my best friend just to be a dick"?

"Latias is gonna kill us when she learns the truth. Like, kill us for real." Oh yeah.

"Also, I'm exhausted because dumb nightmares haven't let me sleep." Fuck me, mood. But, yeah, PTSD is a bitch like that.

"Because it's true. There's a lot that's not my place to explain to you and no amount of poking will change that. I ask that you please respect that," I do like that she's upfront that she's not allowed to tell her instead of being evasive. I doubt she's any happier with this than Latios is.

"Yeah. I killed the guy. So what? Fuck him, I don't think anyone's going to mourn that dumbass." True, but I feel like you're missing the point.

"I care immensely about you and your sister. And it's because I care that I let you fight, learn, and grow at your natural pace." The baby bird has to eventually leave the nest.

"Gotcha. Anyway, your dad is Rayquaza, correct?" I'd very much like to know who else.

Latias was looking at herself. Gotta LOVE PTSD.

'I swear I won't let anything hurt you ever again.' She's gonna be PISSED when the truth gets out.

12/4/2022 c39 ShadowBloodedge9396
Damn…I was hoping Ash would tell her but it’s understandable why he couldn’t bring himself to tell Latias she killed him, even just accidentally…but hopefully he can break it to her before she finds out another way. Cus Ash and Latios are right, it’ll be a lot worse if she finds out another way than if Ash simply told her.
All in all, you did great on the emotional stuff here, at least to me. Glad to see Latios isn’t kicking himself over it, nor is Latias…hopefully when things cool down and Ash hopefully tells her she won’t beat herself up either…

12/3/2022 c39 Seimika
Holy shite it's alive...someone poke the author with a stick!... mainly cause I don't want to get poked

12/3/2022 c39 bednarczykmiki
Man,I hope Latias doesn't go nuts when she eventually finds out that she killed Ash,not Azrael.

11/27/2022 c38 TheFinalDragon
First off, I’d like to start this review by saying how I appreciate you dedicating a chapter to just the reactions of the characters to all of the major events that have transpired. I think that it’s important to add some room between major events in a story to describe the emotional reactions of the people involved.

I like Pikachu’s angry and gung-ho attitude towards the whole incident. I’ve always preferred characters who take action over ones who just sit around and do nothing. I also appreciate Brock and Bianca for comforting Ash and allowing him to reveal the truth about what happened at his own preferred pace.

It’s also good that you showed Phanpy, Treecko, and Larvitar’s reactions since they haven’t been seen for a while. When focusing on one set of characters too much, it becomes easy for other characters to become forgotten by the wayside.

I sympathize a lot with Treecko feeling like an outcast due to not having as much history with the group and desperately hoping for a better way to fit in. I tend to be a loner myself, not having too many friends and not really having the social skills to try and include myself in other group activities. If there was a group of friends I liked, but they were having an emotional discussion for which I would feel inadequate to participate in, I’d probably just awkwardly distance myself as well.

The way in which you wrote Larvitar’s emotional reaction to the news of Ash’s death was, in my opinion, a fairly accurate portrayal of how an emotionally troubled child probably would react to the threat of such loss. I know from experience what it feels like to be consumed by the fear of losing someone close to you, especially a parental figure, and I can definitely say that I’ve had similar thoughts as to what he’s feeling. The part where Larvitar implied that he was having suicidal thoughts was very dark, and I think it’s good how that has caused Ash to now prioritize rescuing his mother over anything else now.

I enjoy the dichotomy between Larvitar and Phanpy, Phanpy being a happy child who’s had a relatively safe and secure upbringing while Larvitar has had a much rougher childhood, already having been exposed to the cruelty that exists in the world. As a result, a lot of their character development stems from their interactions with each other as Phanpy learns how to empathize and comfort a friend who doesn’t see the world as innocently as he does. While Larvitar, in turn, learns how to open his heart to others by placing trust in his newfound family.

I enjoy how you’ve written Ash to be very mature and emotionally nuanced in this situation. His self-doubt over what happened to him. His newfound awareness and fear of death. And how he still decides to set his inner fears aside for the moment in order to comfort his adoptive sons. It really shows just how far Ash has come as both a pokemon trainer and as a person. That being said, it’s interesting how you bring up Ash’s selflessness as a partial fault here, with his friends warning him that he shouldn’t bottle up his own feelings all the time just for the sake of others.

You know, between both this and the New Island incident, I do wonder if Ash will start to question the necessity behind the legendaries’ decisions to conceal some of their actions by erasing memories. I know that I’ve brought this up before, but I find the moral ambiguity of the legendaries to be one of the most interesting aspects of ANC’s narrative.

It’s cool that Pikachu thanked Pidgeot for saving them all from Latias’s flames. I understand why Pidgeot blames herself for failing to protect Ash, though in all honesty I don’t think that there was anything she or anyone else could have done to stop that from happening. I look forward to seeing what will happen when the latis regain consciousness, and whether or not Latias will discover the truth about Ash’s death.