The Training Daze dub is Unfortunate for so many reasons, obscuring a lot of facts about Kojiro/James and Musashi/Jessie (including references to their pre-established pasts!), but the saddest lost bit to me couldnāt be fixed even with main-series-and-not-Chronicles 4Kids dubbing, because the dub had changed the original motto from the start.
So, you kind of lose the fact that the very first lines of the motto were (very likely) thought up on the spot, by Kojiro waiting for the right dramatic moment to take off those bandages heās wearing over clothes, while moving freely, and clearly doesnāt need anymoreā¦
When Musashi/Jessieās wondering aloud to herself, alone again (aside from Nyasu/Meowth, really), as she walks, bitter about her lifeā¦
āIs this all that there is?ā
Even though this time, this time, she actually opened up to her partner, trusted him, and wanted to make this team work, sheās alone againā¦ to add further insult to injury, she had just opened up to him how she had been completely aloneup until now (all that moving from foster home to foster home, losing her motherā¦), with Kojiro admitting he had lived his entire life running away.
Leaning behind a tree, in the same dramatic way theyād often perform the motto together later, he echoes what she says (āNanda kandaā/āThis and thatā from Musashiās part of the motto, āIf you ask us about āthis and thatāā is a filler word, sheāll usually echo the last thing Satoshi/Ash and friends say when the Rockets are found out! + Itās always followed by Kojiroās same answer each timeā¦)
āIf you ask us āis this all that there is?ā Our answer will be the universeās compassion!ā
Knowing the context he came up with that line, that always seemed random or terribly ironic while theyāre committing crimes, it makes it a thousand times sweeter and also provides a really beautiful context for that line, when spoken from him to her in such a desolate situation, and itās such a shame dub-only watchers miss it! ;_;
āA team mate who wonāt run awayā¦ā I think thatās what she said as she wiped her tears, with her back to them, because sheās so proud, butā there it is.
Someone who had lived his entire life running away found someone he chose not to run away from and someone who had been alone all her life found someone who wouldnāt abandon her.
Oh goshā¦ He does this again in Ep048 too, before he pulls her into the balloon. Thisā¦. This is something he does whenever he wants to be of great comfort to her and remind her sheās not aloneā¦ And he does it MULTIPLE TIMES in canonā¦
And theyāve done the Pokemon anniversary speech here, actually. Big and very well done, pokeani. Thatās how you do Rockets but at the same time donāt really have them interfere with the plot.
š„ There is beauty in destructionš„ 