Pokémon’s Misty Foreshadowed Mega Evolutions A Decade Before the Games

The Pokémon anime has occasionally come close to predicting features from the games well in advance–one episode featured an ancient Jigglypuff, and such a “Paradox” Pokémon now exists in Pokémon Scarlet. It’s much less often, however, that a character in the anime predicts the future–and for Misty, her vision foresaw not just the franchise’s future, but her own as well.

In the Johto era episode “Enlighten Up!”, Ash and friends visit a temple dedicated to Slowpoke and are encouraged to meditate. Unsurprisingly, the young and energetic Ash has trouble with meditating, seeing a vision of himself as the Johto League’s champion (which, sadly, did not come to pass).

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Brock and Misty are two of Ash’s closest allies within Pokémon, but as it turns out, their relationship started long before either of them met Ash.

Brock just sees the girl at the temple, but Misty sees herself at a beach, watching a “Legendary Water Pokémon” with massive spined fins on its back breach the surface of the water and swim away. All three are berated by the monks for letting their minds wander, but Misty’s vision may not have been quite so off-base as it appeared.

Misty’s Mysterious “Legendary” Pokémon Could Be Mega Gyarados

When one thinks of Legendary Pokémon specifically, there aren’t any that really match what Misty sees. However, there is another rare and powerful Pokémon that could easily be mistaken for a Legendary which does: Mega Gyarados. When a Gyarados Mega Evolves, it gains large, sail-like fins on its back, and its body becomes more bunched up, giving it almost the same silhouette as the Pokémon in Misty’s vision.

The episode first aired in Japan in 2002, over a decade before Mega Evolution was introduced in X and Y. It’s possible this could be a coincidence, or that the animators were allowed to use some unfinished or rejected Pokémon design here that was eventually reworked into Mega Gyarados. It’s interesting that they would choose that, though, rather than sneaking in a glimpse at Kyogre, as Ruby and Sapphire versions were only a few months away from release when this episode aired.

Misty’s Mega Gyarados Prophecy Makes Her a Deeper Character

As it turns out, though, this vision was a lot more personal to Misty. Misty has always been afraid of Gyarados, a fear she had to conquer in an episode of Pokémon Chronicles, which ended in her catching a Gyarados. Misty still had that Gyarados, when she reappeared in the Sun and Moon era of the anime, and had (in the time since), managed to acquire a Key Stone and Mega Stone for Pokémon’s Gyarados, allowing her to Mega Evolve it the next time she saw Ash. Though neither she nor the writers could’ve known about this at the time, that “Legendary Water Pokémon” really did lay ahead for her.

Although she never recreates the exact shot, it seems that Misty might have actually snuck a glimpse at her own future–a future where Gyarados wasn’t so scary anymore, and where she’s a lot closer to being the Water-type Pokémon Master of her dreams.

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