How come Ash's friends interfere in battles?

Teek

Teek

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I'm wondering, howcome Ash's friends Brock, Misty, May, etc etc get to give advice whenever Ash is battling in Gym or even in the final leagues. They're always near him sitting on a bench, constantly giving him advices...mostly Brock.

Ain't Ash supposed to with the battles all by himself, with no external help. No other trainers get to have advisers near them.
 
Re: Howcome Ash's friends interfere in battles?

There appears to be no set rule against coaching trainers during the middle of the match. Just as long as spectators don't tell the trainer how to fight move-for-move, there might not be a problem.

I always assumed that Ash had Misty and Brock coaching him in the Indigo League due to rookie's rights, being his first year in the competition, actually. Every subsequent league, he didn't receive as much as assistance (unless he got the same amount in the Johto League? Dunno.)
 
Re: Howcome Ash's friends interfere in battles?

I guess the gym leaders just don't care. That, and with the emphasis on friendship in the series, it probably puts out a good message that Ash can always rely on is friends for advice, even in the middle of a battle.

Although... the DP chapters of Pokemon Special specifically forbade Dia and Pearl from helping Platinum in her battles. Hmm...
 
Re: Howcome Ash's friends interfere in battles?

Often it isn't so much advice as it is exposition. Somebody has to explain game mechanics and how they work to people who don't play the games.
As long as Brock/Cilan aren't commanding Ash's battles for him, I don't see how it's a problem. I can't think of a time where it was one of Ash's companions who though of the winning strategy mid-battle and not Ash.
 
Re: Howcome Ash's friends interfere in battles?

As Winterdaze says, it's not helping Ash; it's giving exposition on strategies or moves or abilities... it's explaining to the audience what's going on.
 
Re: Howcome Ash's friends interfere in battles?

Of course, there's also the possibility they abandon him during the Gy, matches so they can party, shop, get drunk. What have you.) or aren't as close as we think (possibly being farther from the stage, or at least sitting quietly); he's just hallucinating them, and his mind works out complex strategies and ideas, expressing them through his friends.
 
Re: Howcome Ash's friends interfere in battles?

Because he's designed to be a moron!
 
Ash probably couldn't win if they didn't help. But not much the gym leaders could do to stop that. I mean, I guess they could just not let them in the gym and just let Ash in, but that probably wouldn't go over well.
 
The exception being in "The Fourth Round Rumble" where he kicks butt without help
 
Because there has to be people on the sidelines who play the role of the "spectators". Like in a chemical reaction, they are the spectator ions. They don't directly participate in the reaction, they just monitor the situation....ehh...OK, enough chemistry reference...

Yeah, they're there to observe and explain what's going on in the battle for the sake of the viewers...And Ash, because he's not designed to understand everything he encounters in battle.
 
This only really happened during the Kanto episodes... unless I'm wrong, but Ash really became independent, starting with that match with the bellsprout trainer. Of course he still occasionally received help but Misty/Brock and then the other later stars just keep the comments to themselves.
 
Yeah I think it's good idea about narrating the story to audience, but it still bugs me that many times his friends tell him to call his pokemon back, and to stop some move of opponent, like that. Just little advice.

The winning strategy is always Ash's though.
 
You've got a point Ryan. It was nice in the Hoenn region when everyone was in the bleachers not giving him any advice. I hope the same thing happens in the Unova league too. But as far a gym battles goes, Ash has the option of ignoring the advice, listening to the advice and pretend that he's not listening or change his strategy. But again like with the first batle in Cilan's gym, he can choose to or not take the advice. It all depends on the character. If you get pushy characters like Misty or Brock who doesn't care, then take it or don't take it. He can always tell them that he will do it on his own, but Ash is not that mean.
 
AshK said:
This only really happened during the Kanto episodes... unless I'm wrong, but Ash really became independent, starting with that match with the bellsprout trainer. Of course he still occasionally received help but Misty/Brock and then the other later stars just keep the comments to themselves.
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THIS. The days of Ash needing backseat training is long gone. He is independent at this point.
 
doesn't stop the fact that he doesn't quite pay attention to a variety of things... I mean it's only in Unova did he actually start rotating his team regularly. all the other times when past team members appeared were when Ash either went to a Pokemon League, or in a few key battles of the Kanto Battle Frontier.

plus, there's a lot of things that would normally be dismissed out of common sense that Ash attempted anyway... like how about attacking the sturdiest part of craniado's body (the HEAD) when he faced off against Roark!? if you'd listened to Dexter, you'd probably realize that's not supposed to be your target of choice.
 
Caseydia said:
You've got a point Ryan. It was nice in the Hoenn region when everyone was in the bleachers not giving him any advice. I hope the same thing happens in the Unova league too. But as far a gym battles goes, Ash has the option of ignoring the advice, listening to the advice and pretend that he's not listening or change his strategy. But again like with the first batle in Cilan's gym, he can choose to or not take the advice. It all depends on the character. If you get pushy characters like Misty or Brock who doesn't care, then take it or don't take it. He can always tell them that he will do it on his own, but Ash is not that mean.
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Yeah it's on Ash to listen to their advice or not. But my point was that, shouldn't this be prohibited in official battles. Ash is supposed to prove he wins gym badges and leagues on his own. Not with people's advice in the middle of the battle. It's secondary that he takes their advice or not. But according to rules, it shouldn't be allowed.

Many time, special benches are provided for his friends to sit just behind him, in the matches...which vanishes when others are battling in the same area. I recently saw this, in Season 6 somewhere.
 
Ash got loads of advice from Brock and Misty up till Johto - I remember in Johto, Whitney's gym, after spraying water on Miltank, Brock advised that since Miltank is wet, Ash should use Bulbasaur's Vine Whip (..or was it Pikachu with Thunderbolt? Can't remember the details.). Ash took the advice... but ended up losing. See, the results are unpredictable whether or not Ash takes advice, so I guess the gym allows those sort of things.
 
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