Has Ash's Pokemon over the course of the show become more tough and less cute?

Have Ash's Pokemon become more "tough looking" over the years?

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Cybersai

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I was just thinking about Ash's Pokemon from the last two generations, and they're all more "tough" than they are "cute." Let's take a look:

Sinnoh:

- Grotle. A sturdy grass tank.
- Monferno. Absolute badass, even as a Chimchar.
- Staraptor. Regional bird.
- Buizel. Tough Pokemon.
- Gliscor. Whimsical in nature, but menacing looking in design.

AG:

- Sceptile. Strong, grass lizard loner Pokemon, in all three of its forms. Used a twig in mouth.
- Swellow. Regional tough looking bird.
- Corphish. Used for comic relief, but not cutesy.
- Torkoal. Very ugly looking Pokemon, lol.
- Glalie. Demonic floating head.
- Donphan. Came back for BF, Donphan's look like sturdy tanks.


Let's compare to Johto:

- Bayleef. Cutesy girly grass Pokemon in both forms.
- Cyndaquil. Small cutesy fire starter.
- Totodile. Cutesy dancing crocodile
- Noctowl. Non-cute bird.
- Heracross. Ash's only tough Johto looking Pokemon.
- Phanpy. Small cute pokemon...didn't evolve till AG.


In Kanto Bulbasaur/Squirtle were tough as was Charizard, so I think Pikachu was his original cute Pokemon. Kanto also had a number of strong non-cute Pokes like Kingler, Muk, Tauros, Snorlax, Lapras and the releases.


So why the change from an almost all small and cutesy team he had in Johto to what followed? Would anyone care to explain?
 
Scott85 said:
In Kanto Bulbasaur/Squirtle were tough as was Charizard,
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These two are just as cute as all the others you called cute...
As you said about Gliscor, look=/=personality or power

Kanto also had a number of strong non-cute Pokes like Kingler, Muk, Tauros, Snorlax, Lapras and the releases.
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LAPRAS ISN'T CUTE?! I'll throw a huge Weedle on you if you dare say that again
Even Snorlax is considered cute by some... but I can understand it... but Lapras?! it's not a cute little plush but it IS cute

So why the change from an almost all small and cutesy team he had in Johto to what followed? Would anyone care to explain?
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I explained that in all the 4364363463 previous times you mentioned this
From the moment AG began - Poké is aimed equally at boys and at girls
We have two stars
A male star with plot/personality and Poké that supposed to be more appealing to boys
And a female star with plot/personality and Poké that supposed to be more appealing to girls

They go with the fact that typically, most boys prefer cool/strong/big things, while girls prefer cute/little/beautiful/girly things
 
Its funny though that his Johto roster was his only overly cute roster of Pokemon. Not a single "badass" among them. Of course it should have been Quilava, but we all know how that went.
 
So in other words you only opened this thread to tell us how Johto was hell
Ok, I think I got it during the 3532 time you told us that
I know you probably couldn't resist to open such a thread before your vacation, but you should at least find new things Scott, it's getting old how you constantly repeat yourself with exactly the same threads again and again
 
Yes, I agree.

The majority of Ash's Kanto and Johto pokemon remained unevolved in the series (even if they did evolve, namely Bayleef and Noctowl, they were only the size of a small human). Charizard was the only one exception, basically towering over Ash and any of his pokemon. It was also the only "intimidating" pokemon Ash owned (Pidgeot was half-half but it was only there for 3-5 minutes of an episode anyway).

Ever since Hoenn started, the writers felt that they needed to evolve a main character's pokemon in order for it to have good development. In fact, the only pokemon Ash did not evolve during either of these timespans were Pikachu and the two water-types (Corphish and Buizel).

Basically, to sum this up, I would compare Ash's Kanto/Johto team with Ash's Sinnoh team. The majority of his Sinnoh pokemon are bigger and overall more furious, especially how "intimidating" they looked in DP133 in their collection photo.
 
Bleeeh.....

There's a dozen or so ways I would describe Ash's Pokemon... I'm not subscribing to there simply being 'Cute' and 'Tough'. You could call some of them 'Playful', 'Dopey', 'Emotional', 'Emotionless', and 'Affectionate'.

And a Pokemon can be cute physically and be something else behavior-wise or personality-wise.
 
In the eariler seasons, Ash's Pokémon had to be both cute yet powerful. Considering that only the Pokémon he owned were the marketable ones and were fleshed out in terms of personalities (kinda...).

Unfortunately, people found this "unrealistic" to have Ash's unevolved Pokémon take down powerful Pokémon so easily when it was difficult to do in the games without serious grinding. Naturally people complained about Ash's "Tiny Titans".

One way to solve this issue was to give more focus to other character's Pokémon. Psyduck was a start, and it developed from there. Even Team Rocket's Pokémon have developed personalities.
 
Ash having more evolutions and tougher looking Pokemon also make him look like a more experienced trainer.

Whenever Ash faces opponents in the league, they used almost all fully evolved Pokemon. Ash's rivals do the same. Its about time Ash got powerhouses of his own instead of just seeing everyone else use them. Its quite a nice change of pace.
 
If Ash had kept Charizard every season the show would get boring and he wouldn't get much development as a character or trainer.

As to the topic. Eh, they have. Though most of them start out remain cute for a while. I guess it's a way of developing him and his Pokemon teams.
 
Kameinu said:
If Ash had kept Charizard every season the show would get boring and he wouldn't get much development as a character or trainer.

As to the topic. Eh, they have. Though most of them start out remain cute for a while. I guess it's a way of developing him and his Pokemon teams.
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Psht. Goku used his kamehameha in every season and it never got boring. Anyway, Ash's Johto team was a waste cause in the league he just used his Kanto Pokemon. His Pokemon are getting tougher which is good and it also fits the more battle oriented D/P.
 
Scott85 said:
- Torkoal. Very ugly looking Pokemon, lol.
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Fail. :D Maybe not cute, but it's a turtle and therefore not ugly but rather unique and charming in its own special way.

*loves turtles*

In Kanto Bulbasaur/Squirtle were tough as was Charizard, so I think Pikachu was his original cute Pokemon.
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Eh? I don't care how tough they act, a light blue "tiny turtle" Pokémon putting on biker shades in order to take charge of situations after reforming from a life of crime and a little creature with a bulb on its back initially acting untrusting and angry at the world while harboring a firecely protective and peace-keeping nature are absolutely adorable and make me want to hug them. Even Charizard is cute, especially in comparison to almost every fully evolved starter that came later and even Venusaur and Blastoise! I'd say, ignoring reserves, Kanto and Johto are tied when it comes to cuteness.

AG, on the other hand easily made for the most intimidating-looking team Ash has ever had. Sure, Treecko, Taillow, Snorunt, and Phanpy were all cute, but each evolved, all pretty quickly except for Taillow (In context, I'm counting Phanpy's starting point as its grand return). For attitude we have the most badass Pokémon ever, and each Pokémon aside from Glalie, who was barely around at all, fought by coming in close range and physically beating the crap out of you. Even with Corphish, Torkoal, and Snorunt being complete goofballs and Treecko/Grovyle/Sceptile's and Taillow/Swellow's funny facial expressions, this group just exuded toughness.

DP has been shaping up to be pretty tough too. Obviously there's Buizel, but I honestly just can't take it seriously while it still has the appearance of one of the five cutest Pokémon Gen IV introduced. They all seem fittingly tough, but I don't know... they just kind of lack the sass that the AG team did. Maybe it has something to do with Grotle and Staraptor rarely if ever showing their personalities, maybe it's because everyone took so long to finally evolve. And being a dub-watcher I can't really comment on Monferno, although as a Chimchar its power has always been overshadowed by its cuteness, its traumatic experiences and resultant skittish behavior, and freakin' losing its mind. But it's still ongoing; ask me in a couple years and I'll probably be able to give a more clear, decisive opinion.

So yeah. Starting with AG the trend definetly became make the Pokémon cooler, as I think everyone is already aware of. Whether that increases or not remains to be seen, at least imo. Which is why I put "a little"; we'll always have the goofy personalities and it's not like there's a continually ascending scale of toughness.
 
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Well, IMO the writers want to show that Ash has developed as a character by giving him more "seriously" looking Pokemon...

The thing is that in the beginning they didn't evolve his Pokemon so much and they stayed cute...but since they had started to evolve them more the little cute ones became badass battlers... both in appearance and personality
 
Also, the "mostly cute" Pokémon have mostly moved to the female coordinator's teams. negating the need for Ash to have both tough and cute Pokémon.
 
I would say the writers are trying to make it more ambiguous rather than just "cute" or "tough". As in they should be able to look cool/tough or funny/cute depending on the situation rather than one or the other. If we're looking for examples, Gliscor would be the best one that fits this.
 
Yup. Ash isnt really "cutesy" himself anymore. It makes sense, I guess. Like PDL said, the coordinators get the cute ones now.
 
Lil Brother said:
Eh? I don't care how tough they act, a light blue "tiny turtle" Pokémon putting on biker shades in order to take charge of situations after reforming from a life of crime and a little creature with a bulb on its back initially acting untrusting and angry at the world while harboring a firecely protective and peace-keeping nature are absolutely adorable and make me want to hug them.
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Yeah, but its their personalities that made them essentially tough. Ash's Bulbasaur was a stubborn, arrogant Pokemon who while remaining unevolved, always showed its tough side to its opponents. If Treecko never evolved, it and Bulbasaur would have showed the same examples of toughness despite being unevolved.

And while Squirtle's in general are cute, Ash's Squirtle had a prankster type of personality and the shades made it look very tough. Just compare it to May's Squirtle...now that Squirtle was very small and cutesy, and you can see how Ash's wasn't.

Charmander was of course cute, but it evolved quickly. Ironically enough, most of Ash's other Kanto Pokemon evolve even though they were released.


I guess the writers realized the fans were sick of the cute, cuddly, Pokemon Ash had in Johto and went to making Ash's team look more impressive, while sticking the cute Pokemon with the girls.
 
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