Companions NOT "the Player" or Gym Leaders

Most of the time the group is either comprised of "The Player" i.e. Ash, May, Dawn or Gym Leaders Brock, Misty, Cilan, Iris(although not phrased as a Leader as of yet or a Champion). Then we have Companions who are neither such as Tracey and Max.

So I was wondering. Would you prefer them to have a character that is solely based on the Anime or would you prefer to have a companion based on a game counterpart? Do you feel a character not associated with the game has more room to work with then the others? Is there any characters non "Player" or Gym Leader that you would have liked to have seen as part of the group?

I don't really mind personally because it doesn't really make a difference to me. I think they have plenty of room to work with when using a game counterpart character, take Iris and Cilan for example, neither of them had any of that personality, really, in the games. Misty too, Brock, etc. I don't really like Iris or Cilan personally, but I think they did a good job of taking a known character and transforming them into a new yet "same" person.

I also really enjoyed Max from Hoenn and he didn't really stand out to me as being a non game character in the show.

Whether or not the main characters are game-based or anime-exclusive doesn't matter to me, as long as they have good character development throughout the series.

I still think that Iris' position as a Gym Leader should be revealed at some point (since Misty wasn't revealed to be a Gym Leader until she, Ash and Brock got to Cerulean).

Except that in the anime she's not a Gym Leader. She's just a girl from the Village of the Dragons on a journey...

I'm pretty sure in the anime universe they went with Drayden as the Gym Leader.

Anyway I'd be perfectly fine with an original character being a traveling companion. Unfortunately I don't think that will ever happen because they like to use the anime as a showcase for the games to get people to buy them. So they'd rather have existing characters showcased on a regular basis.

I like them having a game counterpart, that way if I have a fave character it's more likely I'll see them in the anime haha :) It makes it more realistic to me as well that if he's travelling around say Hoenn with May and then there she is in the game. I don't know if that explains it very well haha :)

I wouldn't mind an original character. It'll be a nice to see a new face, like how Yellow was a protagonist in the Pokemon Special Manga. An original character has a lot more room for creativity, because they don't have a set story, so the writers would have to write in more for backstories and designs if need be.

I don't mind either way tbh. Giving anime characters a game counterpart helps link the two parts of the franchise and could help viewings/sales in either or.

But really, as long as the characters are good/interesting/not completely annoying, I'm happy.

To be honest, yeah, I'd like to see some anime exclusive main characters. While it's something I can easily live with, I just don't like how easily they can change our views on the gym leaders we got to know from the games. I mean, I wouldn't have expected Iris to be someone who tried to act mature for her age, calling everyone else a kid due to their at points childish actions, though I guess that applies for most of the other gym leaders too, whether they're part of the group or not.

But yeah, apart from the occasional companions, I don't think we're likely to see any characters join the main crew who aren't in the games.