GoH048

**Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow** (別れの方法？！ 青葉の心からのさようなら, *Parting Ways?! Aoha's Heartfelt Goodbye*?) is episode 48 of Season 1 and the 48th episode of the *Guardians of Harmony* series overall. It is Season 1's final episode, and it's notable for bringing made-up fans to tears.

## Summary

*Everything's finally back to normal, and everyone thinks they should celebrate their accomplishments. But Victoria...*

*She has to face the last thing she knew would happen to her...and she will finally confess to Arcturus as a result.*

## Plot

***July 15, 21 A.D.*** A week after the events of the previous two-part episode, Victoria wakes up and walks around in Jubilife Village like usual. However, something feels different. She feels like she is going to die soon, but decides not to tell anycreature about it.

On the other hand, Mira and Robin Hood can tell that something is off about Victoria and the latter gently asks her what's wrong, but she denies anything is wrong and tries to brush it off. Mira, however, can tell she's lying and gives her a "don't lie to me" glare, and Victoria knows she's busted now and breaks down in tears. The three of them head back to her house to talk, and Victoria says she feels like she will soon die. She begs the two of them not to tell Arcturus or Joy about this, and they agree, since the former would get excessively worried and the latter would panic and bombard her with questions. Arcturus, meanwhile, is a bit concerned since Victoria hasn't written any letters to him in over a week and decides to head to her house to make sure she's okay.

When Arcturus arrives at Victoria's house, however, Mira and Robin Hood and their Pokémon immediately shove him out and lock the door without explanation, which leaves him confused. He wonders what could be up and knocks again, but they don't open the door, and he starts to get suspicious. Samu suggests bashing down the door and barging in anyways, only for his Trainer to slap him since he is too much of a gentleman to just wreck somecreature's home like that, *especially* of his crush. Joy, who has been eavesdropping from afar, starts banging on the door whinily demanding to be let in and has Shake use Rollout to smash down the door, and she gleefully runs in demanding to know what's wrong. However, Victoria snaps and *screams* for her to get out right now. The others then arrive, now knowing something is up, and while Victoria yells that they leave as well and tries to push them out, Aaron says they won't leave until she tells them what's bothering her and Arcturus agrees with him. On the other paw, Lucar gets so annoyed that he accidentally causes Aaron to teleport the Guardians and himself to Castelia in Unova, which is still being restored from the war that happened in the past week.

Kiara yells at Lucar, but the Aura Pokémon ends up fighting her, being stopped by Aaron. Victoria, meanwhile, flashes back to all that happened before the Great Multiverse War I occurred, and once she finishes flashing back, she finally begins to weep. Arcadia, however, teleports herself and Victoria back to the latter's house and gives her some news: Arcadia will become a Lord of the Golden Kingdom, and somecreature must give up its life to make the transitions complete. Victoria realizes that the feeling that she'll die means that *she* needs to give up her life, and thinks to herself that she needs to tell Arcturus her feelings before it's too late.

Meanwhile, Samu is strangely beginning to feel like he'll also die, and Arcturus becomes extremely concerned. He brushes it off as nothing, but Arcturus tells him not to pull the same stunt as Victoria and he admits that he's also feeling like he'll die. His Trainer demands to know why he said "also," and he lets it slip that Victoria has been feeling the same way, shocking Arcturus beyond belief and leaving him standing still for several seconds in shock. He starts to cry at the thought of losing both his partner Pokémon *and* his love interest and imagines burying both of them and visiting their graves before saying nothing more and continuing on his way, repeatedly angrily asking "why" to himself.

Victoria soon teleports back to Arcturus and immediately hugs him, starting to sputter numerous things at once before catching her breath and tears start to fill her eyes. At that moment, the fading begins to happen to her and Samu. The former Ruler of Unova notices that it's finally time, and Arcadia ends up crying for a moment. When Joy asks her what's wrong, Victoria says this:

> ...Sorry, my friends. I kept this to myself for a very long time... It looks like... I have to say goodbye...
>
> - Victoria

Everycreature becomes shocked after she says that. Samu spits out that he's also facing the same fate as Victoria (fading away), and Joy is unable to think of it as a stunt, crying. Before her lower body disappears, Victoria hesitantly walks up, confesses her love to Arcturus, and gives him a kiss (which is censored in the English dub), leaving the other Guardians stunned and blushing. She expresses her gratitude to him as she falls down from her legs fading, and the Light of Hope residing in everycreature's heart causes Victoria and Arcturus's chests to glow, with purple and cyan light spheres appearing out of thin air, merging and forming into an infant girl with purple and cyan hair who lands in Arcturus's arms.

Victoria happily names the new baby "Melody Harmadale," and the baby girl gets her cheeks kissed by her parents. Now lying down, and before her arms disappear, Victoria gives Arcturus her Believix Charm as a keepsafe, while Samu decides to give up his Scalchop and give it to his Trainer. Victoria says to Arcturus (in her last words) that he should take care of himself and Melody, and she fades away completely, as does Samu, causing Arcturus to break down in tears. Although Arcadia permanently transforms into a new form, she shows no regrets only to cry over the loss of the main heroine, alongside the other Guardians.

The next day, the remaining heroes decide to disband the Multiversal Guardians. Aaron tells everycreature that as of tomorrow, he is never going back to the Cameran Palace...and he'll also never see them again. A minor argument occurs, but Lucar makes things worse by jumping to the conclusion that he is abandoning everything he knows. Robin finally tells everycreature to shut up, and they calm down. With everycreature (minus Arcturus who tries to smile) saying "we will meet again one day!", the Guardians finally go their separate paths, but Arcturus looks at Arcadia with a death glare before moving on.

The ending of the season takes place two weeks before the events of Season 2, and the season finale ends with a grown-up Melody (who is now wearing her mother's Believix Charm on her right bang) singing Inori no Uta.

## Major Events

* Victoria and Arcturus have a Relationship Upgrade that sadly doesn't last long, as the former and Samu fade away from existence.
* Melody Harmadale is born thanks to the Light of Hope.
* Arcadia becomes the Lord of the Golden Kingdom and gains immorality. She moves away back to her birthplace of the Magic Dimension as a result.
* The Multiversal Guardians disband their Galaxy Team branch and go their separate ways. Arcturus grows hatred and grudge against Arcadia in the process (being completely blinded in hate, anger and revenge), thus unintentionally starting a chain of events that leads Kyubey to being unable to leave Yumesora until two weeks before the next season.
* Following Victoria's death, Arcturus's life as a jerk begins. However, this nearly results in making him develop *psychosis*.

## Characters

### Guardians of Harmony

* Victoria Daisy (dies)
* Arcturus Porter
* Kiara Takanashi
* Princess Ellis
* Joy Cherrysnow
* Princess Emilia
* Liam Brennan
* Twilight Twinkle
* Robin Hood
* Marian Cerise
* Sir Aaron Ketchum
* Arcadia
* Calliope Mori
* Gura Gawr
* IRyS
* Nicole Miles
* Sparkle Hope
* Mira Freedman
* Melody Harmadale (debut)

### Mascots

* Kyubey
* Sparkler (flashback)

### Pokémon

* Rowlet (Victoria's; Quilina; flashback)
* Cyndaquil (Kiara's; Cindy; flashback)
* Oshawott (Arcturus's; Samu; dies)
* Lucario (Aaron's; Lucar)

### Secondary Characters

* Commander Kamado (flashback)
* Captain Cyllene (flashback)
* Professor Hunberct Laventon (flashback)
* Aphrodite (flashback)

## Trivia

* The **Harmony Color** is not announced in this episode.
* Victoria and Arcturus sharing their last moment together was so emotional that production of Season 2 got delayed due to issues with the staff. Made-up fans also cried over their farewell scene.
* Oddly, Reshiram and Zekrom do not appear in the flashbacks. Victoria was most likely flashing back to the memories she made before the first two wars occurred.
* As of the first episode of Season 4 (since he won't appear for the next two seasons), Arcturus is no longer the gentleman type.
* This is the first episode where the birthmarks of the Daisies and Porters glow very bright. This isn't the first time that Victoria's and Arcturus's birthmarks have glowed, however.
* When the other Guardians are left stunned and blushing in shock from the kiss, Joy instead has an excited expression despite her still blushing, looking as if she is silently squealing in joy.
* This has tempted GaryBones, one of the founders of the series, started to work on a non-canon, unofficial AU series called *Arcturus's Perpetual Sins*, an alternate universe that was set shortly after the events of Season 1 and during the Great Multiversal War I where Arcturus couldn't bear the loss of his love interest and his partner Pokemon for any longer, decided to give up his loyalty and put the baby Melody down the river to let someone take care of her instead then starts to do arcane rituals and create beliefs and propaganda of his own. Being focused on his belief too excessively and got corrupted, making him into a heretic himself and betrayed everything he knows (thus causing the Arcturus Heresy event) throughout the series.
* It is very heavily implied that Victoria and Samu die because Arcadia ascending to immortality also requires her to take away somecreature else's life. If this is true, it provides an understandable reason for Arcturus delving into madness and grief.

### Errors

* As a baby, and when first created, the cyan part of Melody's hair is on top while the purple is on the bottom.

### Dub Edits

* The kiss got censored in the English dub, instead showing Victoria tiptoeing her legs. Since the reaction from the other Guardians was kept, it is still clear that she was kissing Arcturus.
* In the English dub, the scene of Melody's creation is altered slightly: in the original, Aoha and Arata's chests glow and a color-coded sphere is released from each of them that merge and form into Akami. In the English dub, this is altered to their chests still glowing, but the spheres are replaced with purple and cyan lightning bolts appearing in midair (and not coming from Victoria and Arcturus) that crackle and flash like a lightning strike and then create Melody. In both scenes, however, they need Nicole's help to know what's going on.

### Easter Eggs

* Even though Victoria gave her Believix Charm to him as a keepsake, Arcturus may have given it to a grown up Melody. This seems to foreshadow Melody giving the Charm to Elis in an unknown episode from the next season.
* Victoria and Samu fading away has similar glowing effects from PMD2. It is *also* a bit similar to Madoka parting with Homura in the final episode of *Puella Magi Madoka Magica*.
* It is revealed in the GoH adaption of *Lucario and the Mystery of Mew* that after the Guardians went their separate ways, Sir Aaron tried to stop another war, but he didn't call upon the Guardians to help him out. In *Memories in the Mist!*, Aaron says that he should've known better than to fight alone.
	+ The way Victoria and Samu fade away is also similar to the way Aaron and Lucario fade away in the canon version of said movie, except that they didn't transfer any energy.
* When Victoria asks Mira and Robin Hood to not tell Arcturus or Joy about her odd feeling, the latter remarks, "Yeah, because she'd panic like Torchic Little."
* Arcadia's appearance after gaining immortality is similar to her canon *Winx Club* counterpart, but she retains her Power Necklace and Harmony Gem (the latter which is now located on the added-on headband).
* Victoria dragging herself by one of her arms over to Arcturus to give him her Believix Charm (and also her lack of legs, due to her starting to fade away) resembles the scene of the horribly burned Anakin Skywalker dragging himself by one arm after he lost both legs in *Revenge of the Sith*.

### Runes

* When Victoria realizes that she must give up her life, she says "Etal oot s'ti erofeb mih ot ssefnoc ot deen I!" (I need to confess to him before it's too late!) Notably, this was accompanied by Archaic runes acting as subtitles reading the translation.
* When Victoria and Arcturus stare at each other and confess their feelings before the kiss, the runes on their rings (the items which are somehow glowing in their wielders' respective theme colors) do not read out their first names like usual: instead, they read out (in Archaic runes) "Melody," referring to the first name of the daughter they'll receive thanks to the Light of Hope and just before Victoria disappears.

## Gallery

GoH048 Melody debut.pngMelody is bornGoH048 Victoria's last words.png"Take care of yourself and our daughter, 'kay?"GoH048 End Card.pngEnd card

### Fanart

They finally pulled it off...Arcturus thinking of Victoria.pngHe can't stop thinking of her...