How can you improve Ash/Satoshi?

I'd make it so he doesn't make rookie-level mistakes. He went from being a powerful trainer in Sinnoh to making noobish mistakes in Best Wishes.

His brilliant strategy for beating Elesa was bringing Palpatoid. Just Palpitoad. Nobody else. That's it. He didn't have a backup plan in case, y'know, that plan failed. There's no excuse.

I think the fact that Ash is forever a child is irritating because you never see Ash really develop anymore. You see him grow and mature until around the Advanced series, then he just kind of stays the same.

It also doesn't help that Pikachu's level seemingly resets with every generation and Ash has trouble battling rookie trainers. There needs to be continuity. Would the Ash from the Johto league/Orange league really lose so easily to someone like Paul when he just started out?

Dunno, maybe let him mature?

X4vv said:

Dunno, maybe let him mature?

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I think he already is, as XY alt Ash acts like original anime Ash

Entei Fan said:

I doubt that, Gary/Shigeru is bassicly Green/Blue and we ALL know how he acts

Sure he helps pokemon in generation 4 but he's bassicly android saga Vegeta, a selfish prick

Even Silver learned that hurting pokemon is wrong despite being Sasaki's son

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Yeah, I'm doubtful Gary would qualify as the Vegeta of any saga, let alone the Android saga (actually, come to think of it, none of Ash's rivals would have qualified for one good reason: None of them sought to prove their superiority to Ash due to a chip on their shoulder from being beaten. Actually, ironically enough, Ash himself matched Vegeta in that regard). Besides, Gary never ditched his Pokémon when showing either any weakness from losing or, heck, if it had a poor performance overall DESPITE winning, while Paul was rather notorious for doing that with his Pokémon. Actually, if Paul was comparable to ANY trainer, it was Damian, aka, Ash's Charizard's ex-owner who deceived it into getting itself killed in a rainstorm.

Quiji said:

Pikachu's resets are needed, though. If he had kept a steady growth and power level from OS until now with no downgrades, he'd end up one-shotting practically all his opponents, which would be ridiculous from a writing standpoint since his matches would become anti-climactic and predictable.

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While I somewhat agree with this, it still seems completely ridiculous to lose to an inexperienced Snivy.

Yeah, I take every chance I get to vent about that.

RickGrimes said:

While I somewhat agree with this, it still seems completely ridiculous to lose to an inexperienced Snivy.

Yeah, I take every chance I get to vent about that.

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Except Snivy wasn't inexperienced, as it already knew Leaf Tornado and had already evolved the next time Ash met it a few days later

"But Pikachu should've defeated it anyway!"

Sure, except without its electricity, it had no stamina and by the end of the battle was visibly panting and sweating

"But it still knew Iron Tail and Quick Attack!"

See previous statement about zero stamina

Twilight-kun said:

Except Snivy wasn't inexperienced, as it already knew Leaf Tornado and had already evolved the next time Ash met it a few days later

"But Pikachu should've defeated it anyway!"

Sure, except without its electricity, it had no stamina and by the end of the battle was visibly panting and sweating

"But it still knew Iron Tail and Quick Attack!"

See previous statement about zero stamina

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1. Ah, last I checked, Snivy alongside Trip were literally just starting out on their first journey at all, let alone together, when they fought (and beat) Ash for the first time, just exited the regional Pokémon Lab. That points to it being inexperienced, period. It knowing a high-level attack doesn't mean it's experienced. Or do I have to remind you of how Pikachu knew high-level attacks in the first episode even though it and Ash were explicit rookies. Now, maybe if he were like Paul and it's made clear that he was not from Unova, I'd at least roll with the idea that he was at least experienced enough to give Ash a hard time. But as it is, Trip and his Snivy were both inexperienced.

2. Since when does Iron Tail require stamina? Last I checked, that wasn't a move like, say Double Edge, where using the attack drains your own HP via recoil. Quick attack, I can sort of understand due to low stamina resulting in a loss of speed, and speed being essential for a move like Quick Attack, but Iron Tail definitely doesn't work like that, just results in a hardening of the tail to deal a heavy blow to the opponent, and it doesn't even need electricity either.

And quite frankly, I also consider it ridiculous that Ash's Pikachu would lose to two rookie Pokémon after beating a Regice single-handedly and with minimal effort, oh, and also a person who doesn't even DO Pokémon training anymore due to retiring to take over the family business. Slightly below the Snivy incident, but still pretty ridiculous.

LadyJirachu said:

Ash should confess that he like's Dawn in some point in the anime.

Pearlshipping should be made 100% official 'cuz pearlshippers are awesome people :D

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I prefer AshxMisty but AshxDawn works too, specially since she is voiced by Minnie's VA and previously by Twilight Sparkle's VA in the polish dub

he'd end up one-shotting practically all his opponents

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You meant that Ash's Pikachu isn't a weakling? O_o

I don't get why the Snivy argument is still used, as if fans hadn't learned by BW that Pikachu gets weaker at the beginning of each new saga naturally. Zekrom coming in was just the cherry on top that helped seal Pikachu's loss against Snivy, but Pikachu would've lost even without that extra handicap thanks to PLOT.

Alloute said:

I don't get why the Snivy argument is still used, as if fans hadn't learned by BW that Pikachu gets weaker at the beginning of each new saga naturally. Zekrom coming in was just the cherry on top that helped seal Pikachu's loss against Snivy, but Pikachu would've lost even without that extra handicap thanks to PLOT.

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It still comes across as stupid. At least justify the loss by making clear that Trip is about as much of a veteran as Ash, and even have him use an evolved starter to prove the point. That would at least neatly allow Pikachu a loss to indicate there are bigger fish without making him look weak and humiliating him.

weedle_mchairybug said:

Yeah, I'm doubtful Gary would qualify as the Vegeta of any saga, let alone the Android saga (actually, come to think of it, none of Ash's rivals would have qualified for one good reason: None of them sought to prove their superiority to Ash due to a chip on their shoulder from being beaten. Actually, ironically enough, Ash himself matched Vegeta in that regard)

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OK i was kinda wrong, Red is no doubt Goku since he trains his pokemon to be number 1 and his good at heart, while Green/Blue is Vegeta since he's all cocky and tries to be number 1

Quiji said:

This. If anything, Zekrom's meddling made Ash's loss less ridiculous than it could've been had Pikachu lost to Snivy at full power.

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Eh, not really. Yes, Zekrom basically draining Pikachu of its electric attacks was a factor, but you're forgetting that he had access to two attacks that didn't even require electricity to use, such as Quick Attack and especially Iron Tail, any one of those would have been enough to take down Snivy.

I've had trouble with this perception, and literally everything I could come up with wasn't so much improving the character as it was wrapping up his loose ends because I felt like they took him as far as he could go short of an actual ending to his story.

Granted, there are the new films in a separate continuity as well; I haven't seen them yet, but maybe they're shaping the character in their own way. Probably was the way to go about it; start from scratch if he must be kept.

Enigmatic_Owl said:

Is it too late for me to chime in? Some things I'd like to improve about Ash is have him age, actually win a Pokemon league for once, and maybe replace him with a fresh character. Honestly I like Ash and his bonds with his friends and Pokemon are amazing. However, I think the Pokemon anime could benefit by following someone new. They could still have a Pikachu or any other mascot Pokemon and follow their adventure around the new region. I think that would be a lot of fun. Ash has overstayed his welcome. He's a good character but be needs to achieve his dream and pass down the torch to another new and upcoming trainer. That's just my two cents

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Well, to be fair, Ash DID technically win a Pokémon league once: The Orange Islands league. That being said, though, he has yet to win an actual league from the games, and that's part of the reason I actually have very high hopes for him to actually win Alola's league (and it is definitely going to have a league. SM043 all but confirmed it). They had the perfect opportunity to have him win in Kalos, and they blew it.

And yeah, he most certainly should age. Heck, the notes for Pallet Party Panic by Hideki Sonada in The Memorial Book of Orange Islands actually implied that Ash DID in fact age, since it said something along the lines of "What's that? The Spearow who appeared in the first episode and gave Ash and Pikachu such a hard time has evolved into an Fearow and is attacking them!? They say that you normally tend to forget things after one year." And don't get me started on Pikachu and Pichu, which dealt as the plotline Pikachu and Ash's anniversary of the day they met, which was his birthday.

And honestly, if removing him means actually allowing him to accomplish his goal, go on ahead and remove him. We barely got ANY indication on his goal until DP (even winning a league didn't seem to cut it since he continued his journey in Johto despite winning the Orange Islands).

Honestly if ash was just like tai from digimon and had some character development.

It would make Pokémon better.

If only Pokémon followed digimon then we would have a better show.

Ash is a (f word) idiot. He never learns from anything.

He never ages.

He never has caught any legendarys

He isn't heroic as he just keeps on collecting and collecting

He has a harem full of girls

Honestly he is the reason why Pokémon anime is horrible compared to digimon anime

Pokedigifan1178 said:

Honestly if ash was just like tai from digimon and had some character development.

It would make Pokémon better.

If only Pokémon followed digimon then we would have a better show.

Ash is a (f word) idiot. He never learns from anything.

He never ages.

He never has caught any legendarys

He isn't heroic as he just keeps on collecting and collecting

He has a harem full of girls

Honestly he is the reason why Pokémon anime is horrible compared to digimon anime

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Well, to be fair, he'd probably be allowed to learn stuff if the writers weren't so adamant on level/character resets. Other than XY, the closest he's gotten to actually showing his aptitude and intellect as a trainer was in Johto.

As far as legendaries, again, to be fair, Regis aside, trying to capture them pose catastrophic risks if the movies are of any indication, so capturing them would not have worked anyways. Still, wouldn't have hurt to at least evolve Pokémon and actually keep them.

Wasn't fond of the whole "non-aging" bit, especially when commentary from the writers as well as Pikachu and Pichu effectively implied that he DOES in fact age.

I won't comment on the whole harem of girls bit (wasn't fond of May and Dawn at all, Misty was fine, and Iris I'd argue made an adequate successor to her, Serena was in the gray area, and it's hard to tell whether Lillie, Mallow, or Lana are even main characters), though replacing them, especially for "eyecandy" reasons, was stupid.

I'm not fond of Digimon at all, yet even I have to agree that the Pokémon anime right now is inferior to Digimon right now.

weedle_mchairybug said:

Well, to be fair, he'd probably be allowed to learn stuff if the writers weren't so adamant on level/character resets. Other than XY, the closest he's gotten to actually showing his aptitude and intellect as a trainer was in Johto.

As far as legendaries, again, to be fair, Regis aside, trying to capture them pose catastrophic risks if the movies are of any indication, so capturing them would not have worked anyways. Still, wouldn't have hurt to at least evolve Pokémon and actually keep them.

Wasn't fond of the whole "non-aging" bit, especially when commentary from the writers as well as Pikachu and Pichu effectively implied that he DOES in fact age.

I won't comment on the whole harem of girls bit (wasn't fond of May and Dawn at all, Misty was fine, and Iris I'd argue made an adequate successor to her, Serena was in the gray area, and it's hard to tell whether Lillie, Mallow, or Lana are even main characters), though replacing them, especially for "eyecandy" reasons, was stupid.

I'm not fond of Digimon at all, yet even I have to agree that the Pokémon anime right now is inferior to Digimon right now.

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Are you not fond of it because your one of those Pokémon fans who think digimon is a rip-off