pokemon the animation : scarlet and violet

Chapter 36: Art of Fighting

Cover Story 40: Paul's Self-Reflection 1

Paul is an interesting enigma, he's cold, rude but feels lonely within his heart. He and his brother loss their parents when Paul was around 8 thus Reggie raised Paul, but Reggie wasn't put down by this loss and to cheer Paul up, he took him to see Professor Rowan to get Paul's first Pokemon and after spending time with Turtwig, Paul chose Turtwig and felt happy. Where did those times go?

Ever since he saw his brother lose against Brandon of the Battle Frontier, Paul decided that he wouldn't be like his weaker older brother and train even if it meant it would hurt his Pokemon. To his credit, he managed to beat down anyone around him successfully including Ash but after Paul lost against Ash at the Sinnoh conference, he's been doing some thinking for a while. He never really cared for Ash or Dawn but has some respect for Brock due to him being older and getting through to him at times but that didn't matter to Paul... at least initially.

Ash left some sort of effect on him during his journey such as his Gliscor, Paul was training him but although Gliscor felt superior to everyone, he also felt unhappy since his teammates weren't really friendly and was jealous of Ash's Gliscor (Gligar at the time) for having good companions and missed his friends in Gligar and strangely for Paul, when he saw that Gliscor wasn't interested in battling and encounters a horde of hurt Gligar, Gliscor changed from battle loving to worried even regretful and when Paul saw this, rather than scold him, he let Gliscor go so he can be truly happy.

After some years after Ash left Sinnoh, he began to hang out with his brother more and learning about how Pokemon felt and how he acted at times, he wrote an apology to Maylene for what he said to her but doesn't expect her to accept his apology and started to ease off on training his Pokemon to let them be themselves but he still kept watch on Ash's battles on TV and when he heard of his win in Alola, he felt happy for him and when he heard that he entered the World Tournament and eventually the Master's 8, Paul decided to test him by using the aces of other Champions Metagross, Garchomp and Gyarados and when Ash succeeded, Paul knew he was ready.

He also reunited with Infernape and although Infernape was calm, Infernape's eyes told him that he holds a grudge against Paul and Electivire because of Paul's abuse over Infernape and that caused Paul to reflect on himself but it wasn't the only thing that happened, while waiting for his taxi at Professor Oak's he gets a call from a trainer's organization about an offer to become Viridian City's Gym Leader and although it sounds promising, he says he isn't sure yet and the caller acknowledges it saying he has enough time to think about it.

It sounded enticing to Paul but after encountering Infernape again, something within him caused him some questions and heads back home. While he was training with his Drapion and Honchkrow, Drapion won against Honchkrow but insisted on battling more and became aggressive with the others when they refused and Honchkrow was hurt badly. When Paul tried to reach out to Honchkrow, Honchkrow panicked at Paul raising his fist (he was actually stretching) and hid causing Paul to think about how hurt Honchkrow was as a Murkrow after their fight with Cynthia, he realized the problem wasn't them, it was himself but before things could get worse, Reggie's Marill calms everyone down with Sing and that's when Paul wants to talk with his brother.

Paul reveals his call about being a Gym Leader but the thing holding back is himself and how he acted in the past feeling unsure about his future. Reggie understands and he feels that way too revealing he got offered a role as an elementary school teacher for teaching about Pokemon but he wants to prepare himself first before he prepares to teach. He offers Paul to go on a trip to the Johto Region to climb MT. Silver, a mountain that is said to reflects one's character and thoughts for the future, Paul decides to go to allow him to think about his past and his future going forward bringing along Electivire, Torterra, Gyarados, Magmortar, and his newly caught Corviknight and Toxapex for the ride as they head to the Johto region.