Things you wish that did NOT happen in the anime

[ThelVadam11722709]

That one line in BW where they say Ash is 10. I wouldn't be fighting such an uphill battle to prove he's not if that meme hadn't started

 

[KrspaceT]

That one line in BW where they say Ash is 10. I wouldn't be fighting such an uphill battle to prove he's not if that meme hadn't started

I'm pretty sure the amount of vile thrown at Ash would decrease by 44.354% if that was to have never been said.

 

[ThelVadam11722709]

I'm pretty sure the amount of vile thrown at Ash would decrease by 44.354% if that was to have never been said.

I mean BW Ash would still get a bad rap, that much is obvious (The reset every region meme began with BW). But the forever 10 meme has become so prevalent since BW that it even seeped into canon (via Word of God) in the Reboot Movies (a writer confirmed in reference to M20 and M21 that the Ash in those movies is eternally 10).

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

That one line in BW where they say Ash is 10. I wouldn't be fighting such an uphill battle to prove he's not if that meme hadn't started

If the writers say he’s ten, he’s... ten? It’s literally canon if said in the show. It might be your headcanon that he actually isn’t 10, but officially Ash is 10 as of BW if it was said in the Japanese show or by a writer.

 

[ThelVadam11722709]

If the writers say he’s ten, he’s... ten? It’s literally canon if said in the show.

That depends on your interpretation of fictional analysis.
There is various pieces of in text evidence that contradicts the one statement in BW. (Magnet train, Seasons in show, Physical months stated to have passed between episodes which add up to at least 14 months).
For instance, in Spider-Man Homecoming (not Pokemon but bear with me), the movie was stated to be 8 years after the Avengers. But since most MCU films are set in the years they were made. That'd put Homecoming in 2020, 2 years after Infinity War and 3 before Endgame. The textual evidence within the other works is significant enough to warrant ignoring the one statement.
Alternatively, if you believe Authorial Intent should be canon. You would be forced to take the 10 statement as canon, and come up with a theory explaining why he still is (be it Ho-oh, Dialga or whatever).
I personally believe elements of the canon can be ignored if overwhelmingly contradicted by the rest of the canon. (ie statements in Indigo League and Johto about the specific number of Pokemon don't need complex explanations like 'So and so was this and that and that's why they didn't believe in Pokemon from Johto-Galar'.) And again personally, I believe the 10 statement in BW is one of these (especially since there are at least 2 pieces of chronological evidence in BW alone that contradict it)

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

That depends on your interpretation of fictional analysis.
There is various pieces of in text evidence that contradicts the one statement in BW. (Magnet train, Seasons in show, Physical months stated to have passed between episodes which add up to at least 14 months).
For instance, in Spider-Man Homecoming (not Pokemon but bear with me), the movie was stated to be 8 years after the Avengers. But since most MCU films are set in the years they were made. That'd put Homecoming in 2020, 2 years after Infinity War and 3 before Endgame. The textual evidence within the other works is significant enough to warrant ignoring the one statement.
Alternatively, if you believe Authorial Intent should be canon. You would be forced to take the 10 statement as canon, and come up with a theory explaining why he still is (be it Ho-oh, Dialga or whatever).
I personally believe elements of the canon can be ignored if overwhelmingly contradicted by the rest of the canon. (ie statements in Indigo League and Johto about the specific number of Pokemon don't need complex explanations like 'So and so was this and that and that's why they didn't believe in Pokemon from Johto-Galar'.) And again personally, I believe the 10 statement in BW is one of these (especially since there are at least 2 pieces of chronological evidence in BW alone that contradict it)

You can’t conpare Pokemon to movies like that: Pokemon in its essence is a cartoon that mainly aims to appeal to ten year olds. The seasons need to be changed to provide a difference in setting, but Ash’s age is set to 10 or whereabouts to relate to the target audience. BW seals that Ash is meant to be an eternally young character and not meant to age in a conventional sense.

There might be many theories on why a Ash is still ten, but the main reason is that the writers want him to as an aging protagonist is not feasible for the series they aim to create. Merchandise sales take precedence over literary value for Pokemon.

 

[ThelVadam11722709]

You can’t conpare Pokemon to movies like that: Pokemon in its essence is a cartoon that mainly aims to appeal to ten year olds. The seasons need to be changed to provide a difference in setting, but Ash’s age is set to 10 or whereabouts to relate to the target audience. BW seals that Ash is meant to be an eternally young character and not meant to age in a conventional sense.

There might be many theories on why a Ash is still ten, but the main reason is that the writers want him to as an aging protagonist is not feasible for the series they aim to create.

As I stated, Authorial Intent is irrelevant. Purpose of the work is irrelevant.
Within the continuity itself, the situation is an external statement (Narration vs Title Card), vs Temporal Evidence.
The situation is identical.
Ash's age was ambiguous up to DP, and likewise is in XY and SM. It was not stated in canon and need not be. BW was initially intended as a reboot to the series with a new Ash, hence the 10 comment. The return of Charizard, and Dawn, retconned the 10 comment in the same way the TR vs TP story was retconned by Episode: N.
Chronological addition of time in the series puts the lower bound on Ash's age at 11.

 

[Blaine.]

Porygon being banned

 

[prog rocker]

Porygon being banned

Doesn't help that it was banned because of something Pikachu did, making it seem like it was just a scapegoat.

 

[Greninjaman]

Well, Pikachu is the mascot of Pokemon. You really can't ban Pikachu.

 

[Blaine.]

I mean, it is shocking that Porygon even has its predecessors

 

[Daenerys]

Porygon being banned

I know right? I mean I get that someone had to take the fall for that incident and Pikachu the cash cow sure as hell wasn't going to suffer, but it still feels like Porygon got the short end of the stick. At most I think Porygon's screentime should've been cut for a few years, but that it should've returned by the Johto saga to promote Porygon2. Porygon's eternal anime ban (not counting cameos) is just tragic...

 

[RustyTrubbish]

I think that Ash releasing Butterfree was a mistake. The whole breeding angle just seemed like a forced way to get rid of Butterfree but it didn't make sense since the writers clearly had no idea of who to replace Butterfree with since that 6th spot on Ash's team was never permanently filled during Kanto...

 

[KrspaceT]

I think that Ash releasing Butterfree was a mistake. The whole breeding angle just seemed like a forced way to get rid of Butterfree but it didn't make sense since the writers clearly had no idea of who to replace Butterfree with since that 6th spot on Ash's team was never permanently filled during Kanto...

Kanto had a tendency towards 'release to keep Ash from being too powerful' that was thankfully rare after the O.G: while Goodra got very few episodes it was at least comprehensible while he stayed at his old home after that point and it got a bit more time to set that idea up.

 

[Daenerys]

I think that Ash releasing Butterfree was a mistake. The whole breeding angle just seemed like a forced way to get rid of Butterfree but it didn't make sense since the writers clearly had no idea of who to replace Butterfree with since that 6th spot on Ash's team was never permanently filled during Kanto...

I feel like they might've had an idea for the replacement, but ultimately changed their minds when they decided to expand the anime past its original intended end point.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Kanto had a tendency towards 'release to keep Ash from being too powerful' that was thankfully rare after the O.G: while Goodra got very few episodes it was at least comprehensible while he stayed at his old home after that point and it got a bit more time to set that idea up.

Butterfree really wouldn’t have made Ash much more powerful, at most it’d be at Pidgeotto power levels.

 

[game3524]

I think that Ash releasing Butterfree was a mistake. The whole breeding angle just seemed like a forced way to get rid of Butterfree but it didn't make sense since the writers clearly had no idea of who to replace Butterfree with since that 6th spot on Ash's team was never permanently filled during Kanto...

Butterfree was a plot device to highlight Ash's growth as a person and his bond with his Pokemon. It is one of his finest moments as a character and I think it was a great move.

 

[Daenerys]

Butterfree was a plot device to highlight Ash's growth as a person and his bond with his Pokemon. It is one of his finest moments as a character and I think it was a great move.

But Ash didn't really grow from that particular experience; he was the same person from the time that he caught Caterpie to the point where he released Butterfree, minus the experience that he had gained as a trainer in that time, but you could easily cite his other battles as a reason for that development.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Butterfree really wouldn’t have made Ash much more powerful, at most it’d be at Pidgeotto power levels.

Wouldn’t say that especially with Butterfree’s capability of learning psychic-type attacks. And given just how OP psychic moves were back in the early series, it could’ve been a great battler. Seems more like the writers didn’t know what to do with it and opted just to get rid of it entirely.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Wouldn’t say that especially with Butterfree’s capability of learning psychic-type attacks. And given just how OP psychic moves were back in the early series, it could’ve been a great battler. Seems more like the writers didn’t know what to do with it and opted just to get rid of it entirely.

They could’ve just not given it psychic moves... Butterfree wasn’t really a huge powerhouse on Ash's team and didn’t have to be removed to keep him less powerful.