Markov, I Choose You! – 𝚘𝚍𝚍𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚕𝚎𝚝

[Scene opens in Professor Oak’s lab]

(Ash and Pikachu are bouncing in, clearly hyper.)
Ash: “Professor Oak! We just found this weird map of arrows in the tall grass. What is it?”

Pikachu: “Pikaaaa!” (zaps the chalkboard accidentally)

Professor Oak (chuckling): “Ah! You have stumbled upon the work of a mathematician named Andrey Markov. He lived over 100 years ago in Russia — and had a beard so big, even Alakazam would be jealous.”

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[Cut to Professor Oak drawing on chalkboard]

He sketches: Pikachu → Bulbasaur → Charmander → Pikachu.

Professor Oak: “You see, before Markov, people thought maths only worked if events did not affect each other — like rolling dice. But Markov asked:

‘What if the next thing does depend on the last thing… but not on the whole past?’

That is like saying: If you just battled Pikachu, that is what matters for who shows up next. You do not need to remember every single Pokémon you have ever seen.”

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Ash (scratching head): “So… Markov invented maths that only cares about… right now?”

Professor Oak: “Exactly! That is why we call it a Markov chain — a chain of steps, where each link only depends on the one before it.”

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[Cutaway gag: Bearded Markov in black-and-white, surrounded by floating Pokéballs]

Third-Person Narrator: “Markov tested his idea by studying poetry — but if he lived today, he would probably use Pokémon encounters instead of Pushkin’s poems.”

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Pikachu (excited): “Pika pika!”

Ash: “He says it makes tall grass way cooler.”

Professor Oak (smiling): “Indeed. Thanks to Markov, we can understand random things that are not totally random — weather, language, even Pokémon battles.”

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[Episode ends with Team Rocket eavesdropping]

Jessie: “So you are saying if we just catch Pikachu once…”

James: “…we will always know what comes next?”

Meowth: “That is a Markov mistake!”

[BLASTING OFF AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT… again?]