Ash's empty promises.

[PokeDot517]

Notice how all the time in the anime when Ash and his friends say goodbye to a character they've met during that episode they'll sometimes say that they'll meet that person again but they never do?

Why don't the writer just have the characters say goodbye and that's it?

Kinda funny though.

 

[Hidden Mew]

It never really came off as being empty promises, but rather hoping that they'll meet again some day. It leaves the audience with a more positive idea that they could meet up again, rather than saying goodbye forever.

 

[Moe]

The last episode will be a five hour long montage of him making good on his promises throughout the series.

 

[EliteTrainerXeos]

Notice how all the time in the anime when Ash and his friends say goodbye to a character they've met during that episode they'll sometimes say that they'll meet that person again but they never do?

Why don't the writer just have the characters say goodbye and that's it?

Kinda funny though.

If you think about it from our point of view, spending a day with someone only for it to end on a low where you get that feeling that you'll never meet again. it's mainly used to give the characters hope, in that it wasn't a once only meeting, and that they'll see each other again.

 

[garrison-san]

It never really came off as being empty promises, but rather hoping that they'll meet again some day. It leaves the audience with a more positive idea that they could meet up again, rather than saying goodbye forever.

Agreed. I wouldn't call it an "empty promise" so much as a simple pleasantry.

(Inb4 someone brings up Pidgeot.)

 

[Ghurlag]

I think with Pidgeot it was something more than a pleasantry. That was a 'wait here and look after these pathetic Pidgey until I come back' followed by him (and it seems the show itself) promptly and completely (barring that one reference later in the Orange Islands arc) forgetting about his oldest remaining Pokemon that wasn't Pikachu.

Generally though, yes, he's saying it because he thinks it's nice to part like that. Ash just says stuff, he's not a consistent moral actor, he's a ten-year-old who just does whatever's in front of him.

 

[garrison-san]

I think with Pidgeot it was something more than a pleasantry. That was a 'wait here and look after these pathetic Pidgey until I come back' followed by him (and it seems the show itself) promptly and completely (barring that one reference later in the Orange Islands arc) forgetting about his oldest remaining Pokemon that wasn't Pikachu.

Generally though, yes, he's saying it because he thinks it's nice to part like that. Ash just says stuff, he's not a consistent moral actor, he's a ten-year-old who just does whatever's in front of him.

I mentioned Pidgeot because I figured it was inevitable that he would be brought up in this thread eventually (in fact, when I saw the title "Ash's empty promises", this is what I fully expected it to be referring to). Of the three major pokemon Ash releases/gives away during his time in Kanto, this is the one that fans tend to feel the sorest about, largely because, in this case, the perceived implication was that the departure was only a temporary measure, and that Ash fully intended to come back for Pidgeot when he was next in Pallet Town (in Butterfree's case it was clearly goodbye, and with Primeape it was the narrator's dialogue which pushed the whole "maybe they'll cross paths again" angle, not Ash himself).

I have no idea what was said in the Japanese original, but in the dub Ash's exact words are "We'll be back as soon as we get Professor Oak's pokeball" and "See you soon, Pidgeot". The implication that he intends to meet Pidgeot again is definitely there, although, in the dub at least, he technically never explicitly promises to have Pidgeot rejoin his active team. I can understand fans of the Bird Pokemon being upset that Pidgeot hasn't received so much as a cameo since then, but with hindsight the set-up to lose the most expendable member of Ash's team and free up a slot for the upcoming arc seems really obvious. By the time we got to Johto there was simply no incentive to bring Pidgeot back.

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

In the last ep of the whole pokemon anime, everyone will meet again.

 

[SaftOchBulle]

Still waiting for the samurai rematch!

 

[SammyW27]

I wouldn't say they're "empty promises" so much as the creative staff is never sure when they'll get a chance to bring a character back or how. It HAS happened a bunch of times when a character or Pokemon came back unexpectedly/after a long absence, afterall...
(Right, Gary and Charizard?)

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

The reason I think they make so many empty promises is because the writers are writing for little kids, who they generally see as having low attention spans. For instance, when they got rid of the GS Ball plot, they said that they weren't going to bring it back because they said that kids would eventually forget about it entirely; other time the writers just simply forget about them, since there's several hundred episodes of the show to go through.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

None of them, sans Pidgeot, are real promises. Considering that they're all striving to become champion/pokemon master/etc, it's their way of saying "good luck".

 

[ZoroarkPKMN]

Maybe it restarts every gen because you need kids who are playing the games to feel a sense of "me and Ash are adventuring simultaneously".

 

[Blazing Charmander]

I think that the promises Ash makes are never generally meant to be fulfilled. The notion of Primeape ever returning was implied more by the narrator iirc (although its appearance at Oak's Lab in one of the BW openings created more reason for debate). I used to feel disappointed that Ash had never met Samurai again for their "rematch" until I realised that he was to be the first of many COTDs that Ash would promise to meet again. Pidgeot, on the other hand... *Patiently waits another 15 years for its return*

 

[Madame Pika]

It's a traveling show. The characters travel. Most of the rematch promices are characters that are not going to be in the same place again. If characters do meet up again, it's usually by chance.

To be honest, I'd say that all of this is pretty realistic considering the nature of the pokemon world.

 

[PiccoloX]

During the series after their separation there's a few episodes where they reunite. Misty, Brock, Dawn, May, and even Tracy has been brought up several times after going to work with Oak. I liked how in the final contest of the Diamond/Pearl season Ash had the extremly rare foresight to call in some of his older Pokemon.