What do you think of the way Season 1 (Indigo) ended?

strangerhypno said:

It was a fair ending. Ash's character growth was still incomplete and he didn't train his pokemon much and relied on luck and the loyalty of his pokemon to get through his Kanto journey.

Don't know why Ash used Charizard, couldn't he have used Bulbasaur instead? The referee should be fired, the sleep = KO thing was stupid. They also should of postponed the match considering Ash wasn't ready and had to deal with criminals.

But in the end Ash losing was best for him cause he wasn't ready (unlike now where he should be but is still 10 and losing). How would he have won the Indigo League when he made decisions like using unreliable pokemon like Charizard and untrained pokemon like Krabby to win some battles? Losing would help him learn from his mistakes.

Also it's funny that Ash got further than Gary.

Click to expand...

VisionofMilotic said:

When I first saw the episode I did not like it because it seemed so unfair. Ash was at such a disadvantage, having been kidnapped and left with exhausted Pokemon. Richie's team was a joke that could be easily cut to pieces, his only fully-evolved Pokemon being a butterfree that even Pikachu on his last leg was able to push over.

Yet nowadays that the emotional sting has been taken away I think that it was a good ending for the season. It was not a happy ending but it was a realistic one, and I think it was also a fair loss.

Whether Ash should have even been in the Pokemon league that year at all is debatable. Half of his gym battles did not get properly finished. He came close in some cases and in others showed another good quality like helping out the gym leader and their Pokemon. However, he probably would not have enough badges to get in if he had been held to the same standards that other trainers had to meet. Would he have beaten Giovanni or Sabrina under normal circumstances? Probably not, I don't think he would even beaten Brock without the sprinkle system malfunctioning.

Had Ash not received any special treatment that year he would not even have gotten to be a Pokemon trainer because he overslept during the starter giveaway.

It was really unfortunate that this time he lost a battle that should have been his, but it was time for Ash's luck to run out. He still didn't do so bad. Out of hundreds of people, he was in the top 20.

I have also come to accept that even though he was at a disadvantage there was still a window of opporunity for Ash to win. Not everything was Team Rocket's fault, he lost because he did not make the best decisions under pressure. Because it took up too much space you can read below why I think he still could have pulled off a win.

Spoiler:

Ash knew what Ritchie's team was but never made use of that knowledge. The most logical matchup was lead with Pikachu's electricity against the flying type Butterfree. Squirtle should have been withheld as the check to Charmander instead of his lead Pokemon, leaving Bulbasaur around to resist Richie's Pikachu.


Also Ash never attempted to train his Charizard at any point in the first season. As Oak pointed out when Ash was sulking if Ash had put some prior work into getting this Pokemon under control than this would never have happened.

What is worse is that he did not even have to use Charizard if he did not want to. He made that call-- nobody forced him to test Charizard out right in the middle of the most important battle he had ever been in. He had other healthy Pokemon on him. Why not send Muk? The pokemon that had just won the very last match for Ash on the grass field. He was a fully-evolved Pokemon that was bigger, bulkier and harder-hitting than anything on Richie's team and had no type disadvantage in this match. Muk was not fatigued from any fighting beforehand. Ash could not see all of the options.

Ash had no excuse to have Charizard anywhere other than in a pcbox during the Pokemon league. Since he was unruly then that spot needed to go to Kingler or Tauros full-time. Because you only can have 6 Pokemon why was he ever carrying a Pokemon that he could not use? His team should have been rearranged a long time ago for something as important as the pokemon league.

While I was disappointed for Ash and so mad I switched off the TV first time I saw it, in hindsight now that I have seen season 1 a few more times while he has my sympathies his flaws are more obvious to me now. He ultimately was not ready to be a champion and even needs to bear some responsiblity for that loss.

Click to expand...

weedle_mchairybug said:

Pretty much agreed for the most part. At the very least, he should have actually modified his team so that he'd not have to rely on Charizard beforehand.

If there's only one thing I can disagree with, it's the whole "it's not a happy ending, but a realistic one." Not that I disagree that it's realistic, don't get me wrong, but I just disagree with the notion that happy endings are unrealistic or that sad endings are somehow realistic. I can name a few sad endings that actually are very unrealistic (so much so that even Disney-style happy endings are more realistic than them), like the ending to The Matrix Revolutions, or the ending to Metal Gear Solid 4, even (heck, let's not forget the infamous finale for Lost).

Click to expand...