A Pokemon fan and artist has recreated another moment within the anime's long history, as they have chosen to make art of Ash letting go of the first Pokemon he caught. The artist recreated Ash's and Butterfree's farewell, as depicted originally in the episode "Bye Bye Butterfree" of the Pokemon anime's first season. The artist then posted their piece on Reddit, where other Pokemon fans complimented their work and remembered how they felt when the iconic 21st episode of the anime first aired.

To summarize, Butterfree was, when it was a Caterpie, the first wild Pokemon that Ash caught in a Poke Ball after departing from Pallet Town. The Butterfly Pokemon was one of Ash's go-to partners for several of the show's early episodes, with moves such as Whirlwind, Stun Spore, and Tackle in its repertoire. While it was on Ash's squad, Butterfree took part in a gym battle against Misty and helped Ash fend off several run-ins with Team Rocket. In Butterfree's last battle as a team member, Team Rocket interfered with the Butterfree mating season in which Ash's partner took part. However, motivated to free his fellow Pokemon, Ash's Butterfree saved the day and won the courtship of a pink, female Butterfree. Realizing that his Butterfree found a mate, Ash released the first Pokemon he caught, which stood as one of Ash's most iconic moments as a Pokemon Trainer.

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On the r/pokemon subreddit, a user named addyxiii once again used a pixel graphic art style taken from the Game Boy Advance era of Pokemon games, such as Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, to capture the moment that Ash and Butterfree. With a sad face emote hovering above Ash's sprite, and the flock of Butterfree ready to depart into the sunset, the scene evoked memories from the comments section of addyxiii's post. As stated in the post's title, addyxiii chose to make this scene after receiving a positive response from the subreddit for their work on recreating Charmander's heartbreaking scene from the same season of the Pokemon anime. Their newest post received over 900 upvotes within the first several hours.

Ash's Butterfree made sporadic appearances and was rarely referenced following its release. As such, many Pokemon fans called for a potential reunion between the kid from Pallet Town and one of his first partners, not knowing if they would ever get to see what Butterfree and his pink-colored mate were up to following their courtship.

However, those wishes paid off late in 2022, as Ash and Butterfree were reunited after over two decades during one of the last episodes of Pokemon Journeys that has only aired in Japan at the time of writing. Only time will tell if and when Netflix will air Ash's last appearances as the lead protagonist.

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