Ash only capturing 5 Pokemon a region

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Cybersai

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Well now that the Iron Island arc is done, its safe to say Ash likely won't capture another pokemon in Sinnoh. So in all Ash only captured 5 Pokemon this saga (I'm counting the Aipom/Buizel trade as a capture, if you want to count Aipom for this arc), so that is all.

In Sinnoh Ash only had 5 new Pokemon, and back in Hoenn Ash only had 5 new Pokemon. Back in Johto Ash got 7 new Pokemon, but unfortunately Heracross got Oak'd early and Phanpy didn't realize its true potential until Battle Frontier. Don't even get me started on the Johto starters and Noctowl in terms of screentime.

Do you think its a good idea that the writers only have him capture 5 new Pokemon a region? I think they realized that releasing so many Pokemon in Kanto was a bad idea, and in Johto giving a lack of screentime to his new captures was a bad idea too.

Now Ash seems to just get 5 a region that he trains throughout the arc. Do you prefer to see him train a small team like this each series?
 
Scott85 said:
Now Ash seems to just get 5 a region that he trains throughout the arc. Do you prefer to see him train a small team like this each series?
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Yes, I do Scott85.

Why?

Because it shows a more balanced team and Ash only uses a select few Pokémon anyway. Look at Kanto he captured Krabby, Muk, and 30 Tauros and how often did we see them anyway? The answer: Next to never.

Ash catching 5 Pokémon a region is fine with me and better balanced screen time wise for the Pokémon he uses in a region.
 
A part of me wishes he'd stick with 4 new critters instead, leaving one slot spare throughout the rest of the series. The balance of focus between 5 pokémon tends to strain, and no matter what, someone always ends up getting the short end of the stick. So why bother adding something that will likely be seldom seen when you can just leave things open for continual change?
He's already got PLENTY of rarely-used pokémon to choose from, that I feel would benefit if Ash were to actually allow rotation in this roster. With a space free, we'd still get to see constant development and screentime from the new guys, as well as being treated to something entirely different once in a while.

That's not to say I don't dislike how things are at the moment. I'm fond of all of Ash's new captures, and compared to earlier series, the balance of usage of each character has been significantly better. But favouritism (Buoysel) and a certain level of neglect (Mukubird and Glion to an extent) are still there.
 
Due to the 6 pokemon rule it`s natural for Ash to capture only 5 each region. And I think it better to have 5 well-handled pokemon than 20 just-for-battle-and-cathcing pokemon. I still think that Ash should have used Muk, Kingler and Taurous (I don`t count the match for the cup) in his main team.
 
You have to admit the Pokemon captured in AG and DP have been treated much better than their predecessors, especially their immediate predecessors. I like this trend and I hope they keep it up. I'd rather see a few new Pokemon be well developed and showcased than a bunch that are dumped on Oak and a select few given any appreciable screentime.
 
Well, of course. I'm mainly just glad the writers learned from a major mistake, allowing him to catch Gligar early on instead of really late in the game like Phanpy and Snorunt. Poor Glalie. :(

I could actually see him roating between his oldies in the future, but that's only for my somewhat crack-addicted "in several years Ash continues to be a main character and he still battles but it's not Gyms and instead some sort of special Battle Frontier-like thing with some kind of gimmick to seperate it from Gyms no clue what though and a new character takes over Gyms likely a girl for no particular reason oh and did I mention that Ash is now the oldest in the group or at least signifigantly older than the new gym battler maybe there was a short timeskip" idea.
 
Satoshi's smaller teams have been a real improvement. Not only are we no longer faced with Pokémon who are captured and then never do anything, but the Pokémon that are captured are given more time to shine, and we learn more about their personalities.
 
Yeah, I can never imagine an immediate Oak'd capture happening anymore, like what happened to Kingler, Muk, Tauros and to a lesser extent Snorlax. Remember, Snorlax was only around for like 10 eps of Orange before it got Oak'd, it didn't even get to participate in the final Orange league tournament.

Heracross got to last slightly longer but sadly never even got a Gym battle, and Phanpy at least got to come back for Battle Frontier.

The other funny thing is even though the Gyms in Kanto were handled differently, we still wound up seeing plenty of Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charizard. Of course all their comebacks in the anime probably account to this, as well as Orange Islands and early Johto being part of their screentime.

I'd argue Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charizard got as much development as his newer Pokemon.
 
The one problem with the 5 a season rule I have is the bird. It never changes. It's the same every season in a new coat. They never really do anything particularly interesting. I think the "Ash catches a bird-Pokemon because they appear early on in the games" cliche peaked with Swellow and they'll never be able to top the character development or innovation they got with him. I say, quit doing it and give him the four standard types plus TWO interesting ones instead of just a single original member.
 
Zeta said:
The one problem with the 5 a season rule I have is the bird. It never changes. It's the same every season in a new coat. They never really do anything particularly interesting. I think the "Ash catches a bird-Pokemon because they appear early on in the games" cliche peaked with Swellow and they'll never be able to top the character development or innovation they got with him. I say, quit doing it and give him the four standard types plus TWO interesting ones instead of just a single original member.
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I wouldn't write off Staravia just yet, since it hasn't fully evolved yet. Staraptor might have something that sets it apart from Swellow. Swellow's known for being extremely fast, Staraptor is known for being extremely strong in terms of attack power.

Also, Staravia does seem to get silly moments, but it hasn't really been focused on lately.
 
PDL said:
I wouldn't write off Staravia just yet, since it hasn't fully evolved yet. Staraptor might have something that sets it apart from Swellow. Swellow's known for being extremely fast, Staraptor is known for being extremely strong in terms of attack power.

Also, Staravia does seem to get silly moments, but it hasn't really been focused on lately.
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Hmm. . . I wouldn't mind Ash's Staraptor being shown as the extremely strong attack power Pokémon, since you do have a point that much of Swellow strength was in it's speed (and ability to take a nasty attack hit, too).

My only problem is that it feels like it's taking FOREVER for Staraptor to show up. I just hope it show's up soon. ASAP.
 
Luxio2k8 said:
My only problem is that it feels like it's taking FOREVER for Staraptor to show up. I just hope it show's up soon. ASAP.
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The biggest problem right now is that the writers are juggling with a main cast of 25 characters: 5 humans and 20 Pokémon. If they all should get proper screentime and development, sacrifices of other's screentime need to be made at certain points. Also, lets not forget the current plots as well, right now they are focusing on Team Galactic and their antics on Iron Island. Staravia/Staraptor will have to wait it's turn before it gets an episode focused on it. Remember Swellow? It barely got much screentime as a Taillow, but when it evolved, it managed to get much more then the previous birds.
 
I hope Mukkubird doesn't get OAKed because the writers developed a personality for him and it would be a shame to put him on a bus.
 
I think it would be nice if Ash caught more than five pokemon in each region. Most other trainers have more than six pokemon they use in one region, it seems. I know in Season 1 it was stated that the average trainer captures around 20 pokemon in one region, but then that was Season 1. Given the size of Sinnoh I'm disappointed that Ash hasn't caught a 6th new pokemon in the region yet.
 
I love the fact that Satoshi's teams are more compact and have LOADS more personality than certain Kanto/Johto/Hoenn counterparts.

I DON'T love the fact that Satoshi filled his team of 6 a bit too quickly, considering we've still got two gym badges, a Pokemon league, some kind of arc at Stark Mountain, some kind of E4 arc, and some kind of BF arc.
If the writers weren't so worried about advertising the new pokemon for the games, I would have much preferred seeing old pokes rotated within the blank spots of his team until the team was eventually filled with his 5 Sinnoh Pokes + Pikachu.
I still wouldn't mind seeing a rotation, actually.
 
It's really good that Ash only has 5 Pokemon. In the past, whatever got Oak'd barely had any second chances to appear. The writers have given Ash's Pokemon some development and they have a good amount of attention paid to them. The past generations were treated unequally which has led to some of them being short-lived on the show.
 
Well I fully expect Ash to use his old Pokemon again once Sinnoh is over.

For either the Elite 4 or whatever happens after, I'm betting we still see Ash call forth some of his old Kanto, Hoenn and Johto Pokemon for battle.

One thing that bugs me is now that Ash has so many Pokemon at Oak's lab, there are probably some of them that will never get used again. I hope Kingler and Muk return this time, they got skipped in BF and all we saw Muk do was massage Prof. Birch's shoulders. :/
 
This thread got me thinking earlier today... if we ever do get some more specials, we need to focus on the Oak Ranch. Badly. None of this "Butch and Cassidy causing trouble" nonsense, but some good old-fashioned cartoon mayhem starring the Oaked Pokémon would be an Arceussend. Especially with the Hoenn gang- who simply have got to appear again- hanging out there now.
 
Lil Brother said:
Especially with the Hoenn Pokemon gang- who simply have got to appear again- hanging out there now.
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Yeah, like some Corphish/Kingler interaction, and I am a bit disappointed that Charizard and Sceptile never met each other.

I guess the problem is now that Ash has so many Pokemon, its increasingly harder for the writers to bring them back for screentime every now and then.
 
I always thought it would be nice if one of Ash's Pokemon laid an egg back at Oak's ranch. I mean, they have nothing else to do back there.
 
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