Pokemon Learning League
I Messages
Written By
Timothy Whitfield
(Episode opens with Cilan, Ash, Pikachu, Iris and Axew walking around in the National Park in Johto on a clear, blue afternoon. There are no clouds in the sky, a small breeze is blowing and there are many people & Pokemon going about. Ash looks over to the audience and casually speaks to them.)
Ash (casually): Hey, there.
Pikachu (casually): Pika.
Cilan (casually): Hello.
Iris (casually): Hi.
Axew (casually): Axew.
Cilan: This Park sure is beautiful, isn't it?
Iris: It sure is. The flowers are pretty and it's nice and calm.
(They continue onwards. Minutes later, they arrive in a clearing, where there's a white bench perched under a tree, a trash can's right next to it, flowers & grass are growing on the side and a patch of them.)
Ash: Hey, guys, what do you say we do some training here?
Cilan: Sure, Ash.
Iris: Yeah. I don't see why not.
Axew: Axew.
Ash: All right, let's get started. Snivy, I choose you.
Snivy: Snivy.
Iris: Come on out, Emolga.
Emolga: Emolga.
Cilan: It's time, Pansage and Stunfisk.
Pansage: Pansage.
Stunfisk: Stunfisk.
Cilan: All right. I want you two to try and evade as many of each other's attacks as you can.
(Stunfisk fires a ball of brown sludge from its mouth at Pansage, who jumps up and evades the attack, which explodes after hitting the ground. Then, he releases multiple gold seeds surrounded in a light green aura from its mouth at Stunfisk, but it bounces out of the way.)
Cilan: All right, very good.
(Pan over to Iris.)
Iris: Emolga, I want you and Axew to give each other your best shots.
(Emolga's body becomes outlined in light green and she puts her hands together in front of her. Three green-yellow orbs of energy appear in between her hands and separates them, firing the orbs at Axew, who dodges them. Then, he raises his claws in the air and one flashes white. Then, he tries to scratch at Emolga, who dodges his claws while leaving behind a white trail of energy.)
Iris: Way to go, you two.
(Pan over to Ash.)
Ash: All right, guys. Don't hold back and let it out.
(They both nod in agreement. The leaf at the end of Snivy's tail gets surrounded by a wavy light green aura. She then slashes her tail at Pikachu, while leaving a green trail of energy behind, but he leaps out of the way and her tail slams into the ground. Then, he releases a powerful bolt of yellow electricity at Snivy, but she leaps up over the bolt and lands back on her feet.)
Ash: Yeah. That's the way to do it.
(They continue to spar off. Later on, they spar off against different opponents.)
Cilan: Our Pokemon are really enjoying themselves right now.
Ash: You said it, Cilan.
(Emolga's body becomes surrounded in yellow sparks of electricity and then she fires multiple bolts of yellow electricity at Pansage. He leaps out of the way, but the attack accidentally hits Snivy. She turns and glares at Emolga.)
Snivy: Snivy!
(She lashes out a Vine whip at Emolga. She gets hit and then start firing bolts of electricity back at Snivy. They then both start to lash out at each other. Snivy fires razor-sharp leaves at Emolga, but she quickly hovers them, accidentally cutting up parts of the patch grass & flowers. All the while, the trio looks on.)
Iris: Ash, get Snivy to cut that out!
Ash: I will when you tell Emolga to stop!
(Snivy and Emolga continue fighting on while the others try to calm them down, but they all either accidentally get hit or pushed aside, while doing some damage to the section of the park they're in. Eventually, they both fall to the ground, completely exhausted. Ash and Iris run over to them.)
Iris (worried): Emolga, are you okay?
Emolga (exhausted): Emolga.
Ash (concerned): You doing okay, Snivy?
Snivy (tired): Snivy.
(They look at the damage left by the fight. Patches of grass & flowers are cut to pieces, the park bench is dented & broken in some spots, the trash can's been crushed & knocked over with some trash spilled out and a broken tree branch hangs over the bench. Iris turns over to Ash in frustration & agitation.)
Iris (flustered): Oh, now look at what happened! This is all your fault, Ash!
Ash: My fault?!
Iris: If you had told Snivy to stop, this wouldn't have happened!
Ash: Oh, no! You should've told Emolga to stop!
Iris: You know, you really need to stop being such a kid!
Ash (retaliating): No, YOU need to stop being a kid!
Iris: (gasps in shock.) What did you call me?!
Ash: You heard me! You're a kid!
Iris: You are so immature!
Ash (counters): Well, you're more immature than me!
Iris: Oh, yeah?!
Ash: Yeah!
(They both argue back and forth. Fifteen minutes later, they're still arguing. We pan over to see Cilan, Pikachu and Axew looking on with distraught.)
Cilan (worried): Ooh, this is not looking well.
Pikachu (agreeing): Pika.
Axew (agreeing): Axew.
Iris: You want to know what your problem is?! You always jump into action before you think things through!
Ash: Excuse me?! Well, you can't stand to be around ice-types because of what they do to dragon types!
Iris: Well, you've got some nerve telling me that!
Ash: Yeah, and you can be very impulsive and stupid sometimes!
Iris: Ugh! I can't stand you, Ash!
Ash: Well, I don't care about what you think!
Iris: All right, that's it! I don't want to see or speak to you anymore right now!
Ash: Okay, fine!
(They both turn their backs to each other and stand back to back in complete silence.)
Cilan: Oh, boy.
Axew: Axew.
Pikachu: Pika.
Cilan: I think I better call Quinn to see if he can help out with this.
(He pulls out the PokePilot from his pocket, turns it on and calls Quinn, but Diana appears on screen instead.)
Diana: Hey, Cilan. What's up?
Cilan: Uh, hey, Diana. Where's Quinn?
Diana: Oh, he had a few things to do, so he asked me to fill in for him.
Cilan: Oh, all right, then.
(She looks around the damaged area and notices Ash & Iris still standing in place.)
Diana: My goodness, what happened over there?
Cilan: Well, we were training our Pokemon by letting them spar off against each other.
Diana: Yeah.
Cilan: Then, Emolga and Snivy started fighting each other and did a lot of damage to this part of the park.
Diana: I see. Well, are they all right?
Cilan: Oh, they're okay. But then, Ash and Iris really got hostile over the damage, then went on a tangent about each other's faults and now aren't speaking to each other.
Diana: Oh, dear.
Cilan: So, I need to know: do you have any ideas on how to settle this?
Diana: Yes, I do. To help them settle the argument, you need to tell them to use I messages.
Cilan: Huh? How are I messages going to work here?
Diana: Let me explain. Basically, it's a statement that focuses on what you feel about someone's behavior and it states a problem without blaming that person for it.
Cilan: Okay, what's the first thing to be done?
Diana: The first thing to do is to identify the problem at hand so you can try and work out how to fix it.
Cilan: Okay, what else?
Diana: The next thing is you need to know how to feel about the situation.
Cilan: What?
Diana: Yeah. I know it sounds ridiculous, but what it means is you need to recognize what you feel when the problem occurs.
Cilan: All right, anything else?
Diana: The last thing is to ask of a solution. Telling someone what your solution is will let them know not to do a certain thing again.
Cilan: Well, it seems an I message can work well.
Diana: It can be effective if it's done right, so I'll show you an example of one.
Cilan: All right, Diana.
(Pan up to an upper panel, showing two people in a heated argument.)
Diana: Okay, here's an example of two people in an argument and you're going to tell me what you think that person is going to say in her I message. Are you ready, Cilan?
Cilan: Yes, I am.
Diana: Good. Here, we have a girl who is arguing with her friend. She has been told that what she did was wrong and she didn't know it was. How do you think she should start her I message?
Cilan: I think she should start with "I don't like it when I'm not told certain things."
Diana: Okay. Now, she's feeling upset about it. What do you think she should say here?
Cilan: She'll probably say, "Not knowing about certain things will get me in a lot of trouble, and it annoys me."
Diana: Good. Lastly, she thinks of a solution. What do you think she's going to say?
Cilan: She might say, "I would prefer it if you would let me know about these things ahead of time."
Diana: All right. That was really good, Cilan.
Cilan: Thanks, Diana.
Diana: No problem. Well, I better be going. Good luck with settling the argument.
Cilan: Okay, see you.
(He turns the PokePilot off, puts it back in his pocket and goes over to Ash and Iris, who are still standing silently & are seething with anger & frustration.)
Cilan: Hey, guys?
Both: (yelling) WHAT?!
Cilan: Whoa, calm down. I have something to tell you.
(Cross fade to six minutes later, where he's finished explaining.)
Cilan: …and that's all you have to do. So, will you give it a try?
Ash (hesitantly): Sure, I guess so.
Iris: Okay, then.
Cilan: That's good. But before we get to it, we better see if the viewers want to do it.
Iris: Okay. (She turns over to the viewers.) Would you like to do it? (She casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one second.) All right.
(Cut to a split screen, showing Ash and Iris in a listening position, ready to hear each other out.)
Cilan (V.O.): Okay, Iris and Ash are going to say what their problem is and you're going to say what you think each of them should say in their I messages. All right. Let's get started.
Iris: Ash told me that I can't stand ice types because of what they do to dragon types. What do you think I should say about it? (She casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one and a half seconds.) "I hate it when people bring it up." All right.
Ash: Iris had called me a kid. What do you think I should say about that? (He casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one and a half second.) "I really don't like it when she calls me that." All right.
Iris: All right, I was very insulted by what he said. What do you think I should say here? (She casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one and a half seconds.) "Every time someone brings it up, I find it very annoying & insulting, and it gets me flustered." Okay, then.
Ash: Okay, I got very annoyed by it. What do you think I should say here? (He casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one and a half seconds.) "Whenever she calls me that, I get very annoyed by it and I feel like she doesn't respect me as a trainer." Okay.
Iris: Now, I want to say what my solution is. What do you think it should be? (She casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one and a half seconds.) "I'd really appreciate it if it would stop getting brought up & used to get me agitated." Very well.
Ash: Okay, what do you think my solution should be? (He casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one and a half seconds.) "I would like her to stop calling me a kid and start respecting me more as both a trainer & friend." All right.
(Dissolve back to the trio and Ash casually speaks to the audience.)
Ash (casually): Thanks a lot, guys.
Pikachu: Pika.
(Ash and Iris turn around and face each other. They now each take a deep breath in.)
Iris (embarrassingly): Ash, about what I said to you earlier. I really didn't mean any of that stuff.
Ash: It's all right, Iris. I didn't mean what I said, either.
Iris (heartfelt & truthfully): And I'm sorry for all those times I called you a kid. You may act silly, but you've got a good heart and you're a really skilled trainer.
Ash (honestly & meaningfully): Thanks, Iris, and I'm sorry about what I said about your fear with ice types. I know that you'll get over that someday and become a great dragon master.
Iris (touched): Wow, Ash. That's really means a lot.
(They both reach their arms out & give each other a handshake, and then a friendly hug. Cilan, Pikachu and Axew come over to them.)
Cilan: Well, it's nice to see you two finally got everything settled down.
Pikachu (agreeing): Pikachu.
Axew (agreeing): Axew.
Iris: Cilan, thanks for recommending that to us.
Ash (concurring): Yeah.
Cilan: No problem, you two.
(They turn over to the audience.)
All (casually): Thank you, guys.
Pikachu: Pika.
Axew: Axew.
(Dissolve to moments later, where we see the three trying to fix up the section. Cilan cleans up the spilt trash & fixes up the can, while Ash & Iris are fixing up the park bench.)
Cilan: Well, that was certainly an interesting episode. Did you enjoy it? (He casually waits for an answer from the viewers for one second.) Oh, all right then. We'll see you next time.
(They casually wave goodbye to the viewers and they resume on working. The scenery fades to black ending the episode.)