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Ash & Red

Captain Gizmo

Monkey King
4,843
Posts
11
Years
Why does the anime counterpart of Red, (Ash) seems more weak than Red himself?
Is there a reason for why they did that? I wanna hear some opinions :)
 

ShinyUmbreon189

VLONE coming soon
1,461
Posts
12
Years
Ash and Red are 2 completely different characters. I'm gonna put it this way. Ash is an idiot trainer who refuses to evolve 85% of his Pokemon. If they do evolve then they disobey him (Charmeleon and Charizard). Red is a trainer that would destroy Ash in every way. Red beat the whole Team Rocket organization alone while Ash can't even get rid of 2 people. Red is the Pokemon Champion and Ash is not. Ash fails everytime. Red probably filled his Pokedex while Ash only caught 10 Pokemon so no they aren't the same character.
 

Killjoy

"He was a laser fish."
584
Posts
12
Years
Red is a game character who doesn't talk. He requires no character development, or new challenges. He just rapes and pillages his way through Kanto and then becomes the ultimate bad ass of the Pokémon world.

If Ash did the same, it wouldn't work. Weather you like the Anime or not, ash needs to suck sometimes, or there wouldn't be a sense of improvement from season opening to end.
 

Kenshin5

Wanderer
4,391
Posts
15
Years
Ash and Red are 2 completely different characters. I'm gonna put it this way. Ash is an idiot trainer who refuses to evolve 85% of his Pokemon. If they do evolve then they disobey him (Charmeleon and Charizard). Red is a trainer that would destroy Ash in every way. Red beat the whole Team Rocket organization alone while Ash can't even get rid of 2 people. Red is the Pokemon Champion and Ash is not. Ash fails everytime. Red probably filled his Pokedex while Ash only caught 10 Pokemon so no they aren't the same character.
He doesn't refuse to evolve 85 percent much less half his pokemon. If anything they have pride enough to stay in their current form like Bulbasaur and Pikachu. Its more like Ash doesn't force them to evolve. And Sceptile, Torterra, Infernape are all fully evolved starters, did they disobey Ash? And even if they did at some point did they disobey to the extent Charizard did? Certainly not. Ash does not fail every time such as Orange Islands and Battle Frontier, he just fails when it really matters like the League or against Elite 4 members.

The reason I see Ash is not the way Red is would be largely attributed to the writers. They decided to reset him and give him the issues that he and his team has to struggle with. If he beat anyone and everyone would relative ease like Red probably would then there would be no challenge for Ash and how entertaining would that be. Even when Ash progresses in Sinnoh he largely digresses in Unova. There would have to be a turning point where they decide its time for this 10 year old to stop being a 10 year old and actually get somewhere in the world of Pokemon, but as it stands the Anime staff doesn't seem to want that.
 

PlatinumDude

Nyeh?
12,964
Posts
13
Years
Agreed with Kenshin. Red and Ash are 2 completely different characters in completely different storylines. While GameFreak made Red a Pokemon Champion, the anime writers chose to reset Ash each time he started a new journey so that they could continue marketing the games.
 

Captain Gizmo

Monkey King
4,843
Posts
11
Years
Yea I know they're different persons, but they're counterparts of each other :D
And yea, would make sense to make Ash seem weaker with every starting season, anyways his Pikachu would just volt tackle through everything^^
But even in the manga, Electric Tale of Pikachu, Ash is stronger. Maybe cuz the serie was shorter than the anime :)
 
458
Posts
13
Years
  • Age 34
  • UK
  • Seen Jan 29, 2013
Because the anime as we know it would pretty much end if Ash were to become a Pokémon Master (although it's not even made clear in the anime how one becomes a Pokémon Master). Some people might think that's a good thing though haha! But that's why Ash is kept pretty weak. Even if it means them re-doing all character development in every new series. It's all about making money, basically, whereas the manga isn't.
 

Rainbow Arcanine

now known as aslan
636
Posts
11
Years
Like everyone has said they're completely different characters.GameFreak didn't want to make Ash perfect,like a Gary Stu otherwise it would become uninteresting seeing him win all the time.

And it's kind of like a playthrough each region-anime style,so it shows how Ash goes through a region,with Pokemon levelled like in the games but a bit weaker.
 
50,218
Posts
13
Years
I agree with Kenshin and PlatDude, Ash and Red are completely different characters with different stories.

Even though Red is portrayed as a Champion in the games, the reason they reset Ash at the start of every new region is due to advertising of the games. The anime's purpose is to advertise the current generation of games. It helps them make money.

And if Ash ever became a Pokemon Master, it would probably be the end of the anime.
 

Sableye~

Back to PC~
4,016
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Jan 4, 2018
Perhaps to add a "comedic" effect to it. After all, what's interesting in seeing a person who is thought to be the strongest trainer in the entire franchise destroying every trainer in his path?

I personally would like seeing Red replace Ash, though. T: I'm aware that they're counterparts and it would never happen. But it'd be nice to see a decent trainer that isn't fighting against Ash.
 
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