Yeeeesh, the comments on that post, either insulting Ash and making everything about leagues [never mind how many times he saved the world, saved and rehabilitated abused Pokemon, or how many Legendaries he's met when most people search their whole lives and never meet them] or just trashing the anime's portrayal of Kuchinashi/Nanu for not being what they dreamed him up to be. I'm sorry you've got to put up with that!
good lord thank you I’m reading some of this stuff and it’s like? ash is 10. ash is a small very young human who behaves like a child and therefore values the bonds he has with these creatures instead of being a stone cold battling maniac. as a few people have pointed out, nanu’s partner pokemon is alolan persian which evolves through friendship so you can tell that even nanu doesn’t believe what he’s saying, he just knows it’s what will irritate ash the most. then there’s all the people saying #NotMyNanu but like..yes he is. he’s a closed off person, besides the behavior we saw from him with his distanced emotional vibes in the moment of whatever was happening, the only thing we knew is that he used to work for interpol and likes meowth. the anime hasn’t contradicted that so far. it’s actually stayed loyal to his character by giving him an interesting and underhanded battle tactic reminiscent of dark type trainers, which, up until now, have mainly been antagonists. giving him this characteristic was a nice twist in my opinion. dark type trainers don’t have to be evil but there’s a reason they’re drawn to that type and it can show through without making him an antagonist.
it’s obvious to tell this is the case (for those that watched) because as soon as the battle was over he went right back to his usual detached attitude but even for those that didn’t watch just from that post you can see he literally told ash that he was only saying these things to get under his skin and anger him and lycanroc. nanu also flat out told him his anger would be his downfall (because it clouds his judgement), and that’s why he was doing it. not only was he testing them physically but he was testing them mentally too and he found a weak spot in realizing that even though ash had addressed lycanroc’s temper he never learned how to deal with his own. I didn’t mean for this to get so long but every time I think about this I think about WHY I loved it so much and how upsetting it is to see a bunch of annoying comments saying it’s much better that nanu be the two dimensional Depressed Cat Grandpa™️ with the same battle attitude as every other trainer who rushes in, does some impressive moves, and tries to win with brute strength just because they don’t want to admit that the guy they made up in their head to be a poor soft old man is actually lazy, rude, cunning, and willing to be downright vicious for a win
