Pokémon: Princess Debut! [[ Explained ]]

Journey through Kanto

EP. 76: Taking Down the Mighty Dragon!

In case her name wasn't enough, we now have Lani Fa Ping to represent our favorite not-Disney Princess, Mulan! Obviously named by combing the character's full name of "Fa" Mulan and her male persona, "Ping." And of course since Mulan has her trusty partner Mushu with her, Lani is a Dragon-Type Specialist! We also get to meet her in her hometown of Ecruteak City later in the story and learn more about her family's connection to the Dragon Masters, which is really cool! I would also like to point out that I totally had written my character of Lani before I'd ever seen Disney's Descendants (Mulan's daughter is named Lonnie), so I still consider myself as doing it first, thanks...! But as for her team, UHM... I just picked Dragon-Type Pokémon to go up against Kari's Team. With her it's more about the outfit and accessories to match the 1st outfit Mulan wears in the movie (with the lime green top and high-waisted blue pants) as well as her bag representing Cri-Kee's colors. 

Of course, everyone is SHOCKED when Lance appears as Kari's coach. This was a cute and interesting concept they included in Ash's first go-around that they never had again, so I figured I'd take advantage of it. lol And now that she's beaten Lani, Kari has officially moved onto the Top 8 (one step higher than Ash Ketchum!) and will be facing off against her rival, Jenna!

Unlike with the Grand Festival, everyone we know competing this time around has already dropped off... so these episodes are moving along way faster. We're over here watching Kari collect friends like its a game while all the faceless extras competing win or lose, we don't really care... hah 

EP. 77: Kari versus Jenna! Who's Leading Whom?

I mentioned before that Jenna is based off a girl I once knew while working at a Subway during college... lol And while her "punk" sense of style and adoration for puppos might be spot-on to real-life Jenna (her outfit is literally one I've seen her post photos of while out partying), the snarky and totally full of herself attitude is noooot! Yes, in real life I feel like Jenna's always had a lot of self-confidence, but she was also really nice and fun to be around! So don't get the wrong idea with how insane this character is being written out... 

Something to note is the fact that Kari's friends are starting to realize she isn't such a "normal kid" after all. Yes, they make jokes and call her a monster knowing that she's an insanely powerful and naive Trainer, but the more they think about it (thanks to our more mentally mature ladies, Tiana and Elsa) they're noticing this trend Kari seems to have. I've mentioned before how she just throws herself into Training and Battles because she's never really had anyone to care about stopping her. It's just how she was taught to Train, right? But something that happens when a child loses their parental figure and is forced to adapt and become more mature than their age, is called parentification. The child becomes the caregiver of the family or, in Kari's case, must learn to take care of herself since the actual parent isn't around. They're forced to take on more mature responsibilities like providing for themselves and the home- Kari was taking care of the house and all the Pokémon (even taking on the responsibility of caring for Al) in her father's absence ever since she was 6 years old. Then when she was 8 years old she was practically thrown out of the house by her father (and by her own choice) to go on a journey where she still had to provide and learn how to take care of herself. When she came across people like Brock, Nachi, Erika, Santi, and several others, they were immediately drawn to the poor child who (though she never said it out loud) so desperately wanted fo someone to take care of her...

Tiana's finding it hard to believe that an 8 year old could be so calculating, but Elsa disagrees. What we don't know (unless you're comparing to the movie) is that Elsa and Anna lost their parents when they were young, too... but they had each other. So Elsa can understand and relate to how traumatizing it can be for a child to have to fend for themselves. This would also explain why Kari never talks about her family or her past... This will come up more in the future of our story, but for now it's just an important realization for the friends to have come to...