Satoshi without a starter, does it work?

[Rainbow-Rain]

(I typed this in another thread but I think it's relevant here)

Just based on how their personalities are and the way they're marketed, If Galar had been written like DP, XY, or SM I can predict that the Galar starters would've probably been written something like this:

Scorbunny would've been Ash's Ace this series
Cinderace is literally treated/hyped like Lucario and Greninja in terms of Marketing and would've hogged most screentime away from the rest of Ash's Team.

Sobble would've gone to the Female companion. It is paired up Gloria in a lot of merchandise and she has an Inteleon in Masters.
It would be... Well honestly probably nothing else would've really changed much regarding Sobble.
The way It's evolutions would be handled would've depended entirely on what Gloria's hypothetical motivation would've been

Grookey would've been the unevolved comedy relief of the show maybe forming a Rivalry with some other Galar pokemon. And being the star of multiple filler episodes. It would've either gone to the Male Companion or it would've been Ash's

Your Milage may vary on whether this would've been better or worse than what we got

 

[Eevee800]

No. Absolutely not. Ash not having a starter not only feels wrong, but Journeys has shown us it just doesn't work.

First of all, let's address the elephant in the room. Journeys has done a horrendous job at handling Pokemon. Its not an Ash or Goh issue. This applies to both of them. Goh catches far too many Pokemon he never uses to focus on. Ash's Pokemon only ever get ANY focus if they're battling, evolving, or getting an upgrade. We pretty much never get episodes focused on interactions, training, or developing their story.

I think though one of my biggest problems with Goh having all 3 srarters is that he is not the kind of character who uses them frequently enough in interesting ways that showcase their abilities. They've handled the development of all of the starters very poorly, with Sobble's standing out as the worst. While there's no guarantee that they would have been handled much better under Ash, I think we would have at least seen at least one of starters get to battle more frequently. We might have seen something cohesive, yet shallow, story surrounding them, similar to what Lucario got. I'd take that over seeing the starters do nothing. There's no guarantee though, but the chances of it with Ash are slightly better.

Also, I strongly disagree with the logic that Ash not getting a single starter makes his team more unpredictable. I don't ever recall people complaining about him catching any. Plus, he can still catch one starter and we'd still have 4 slots that would remain unpredictable. Plus, I'd rather have a good team that's somewhat predictable also than what we have now.

So no. Not giving Ash any Galar starters was a mistake.

I wonder why after 20 years they suddenly decide to shake up the formula we are used to. It is an unique experiment, I hope they learn from it. Maybe it is cause the writers thought the PWC setting wouldnt allow him to use a "weak" base starter (tho Riolu could). Tho I believe it can work if there is put in enough effort.

I think it absolutely could work, just unfortunate that the only series they’ve tried this they’ve failed epically at developing every single pokemon on the cast (including all 3 starters IMO), so we might never be allowed to see this experiment done right.

Oh I know, you dont have to tell me. The only pokemon with ok development is Sirfechted. Dragonite is a flying taxi, Lucario get too much focus, Gengar too less focus, Dracovish idk why it is even on the team, Inteleon was ****ed up in the two first stages, Cinderance evolved too soon and Grookey I have no single good word for it.

Yep, but you gotta give him a pokemon to fulfill that role. When properly developed, having a non starter as his regional ace works. Like Krookodile and Lycranoc. Lucario’s also a great candidate, but it obviously hasn’t been handled well. I think as long as you give the pokemon a good backstory, something to work towards and ample focus, it should be fine. It is jarring but doable imo.

Why should one pokemon take the spotlight? Cant each pokemon get equally focus?

 

[nickdt]

(I typed this in another thread but I think it's relevant here)

Just based on how their personalities are and the way they're marketed, If Galar had been written like DP, XY, or SM I can predict that the Galar starters would've probably been written something like this:

Scorbunny would've been Ash's Ace this series
Cinderace is literally treated/hyped like Lucario and Greninja in terms of Marketing and would've hogged most screentime away from the rest of Ash's Team.

Sobble would've gone to the Female companion. It is paired up Gloria in a lot of merchandise and she has an Inteleon in Masters.
It would be... Well honestly probably nothing else would've really changed much regarding Sobble.
The way It's evolutions would be handled would've depended entirely on what Gloria's hypothetical motivation would've been

Grookey would've been the unevolved comedy relief of the show maybe forming a Rivalry with some other Galar pokemon. And being the star of multiple filler episodes. It would've either gone to the Male Companion or it would've been Ash's

Your Milage may vary on whether this would've been better or worse than what we got

I feel like Ash would have gotten Sobble, cuz its a project mon (He tends to get those kinds of starters in every region)

Gen 1 - All three
Gen 2 - Cyndaquil
Gen 3 - Treecko (Was kinda a project as well)
Gen 4 - Chimchar
Gen 5 - Tepig
Gen 6 - Froakie
Gen 7 - Litten
Gen 8 - Sobble

Scorbunny's coloration being a Fire type falls in line with Gohs red.

 

[Eevee800]

I feel like Ash would have gotten Sobble, cuz its a project mon (He tends to get those kinds of starters in every region)

Gen 1 - All three
Gen 2 - Cyndaquil
Gen 3 - Treecko (Was kinda a project as well)
Gen 4 - Chimchar
Gen 5 - Tepig
Gen 6 - Froakie
Gen 7 - Litten
Gen 8 - Sobble

Scorbunny's coloration being a Fire type falls in line with Gohs red.

Hmm. Idk if Sobble would have worked with Satoshi. Scorbunny screams Satoshi.

 

[Unireon]

Hmm. Idk if Sobble would have worked with Satoshi. Scorbunny screams Satoshi.

Unless you are implying to go with a full SwSh Anime and disregard Journeys; then yeah, it could be.

If not, it won't ever happen since Gou having Hibunny was known from the very start.
And it is very rare in the anime to have two main characters with the same Pokemon.

I'd retcon Lucario, it never existed, and put Messon in that place instead.
I admit that this is due to me hating it. There was no need for the staff to add it just for pandering and shilling.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I feel like Ash would have gotten Sobble, cuz its a project mon (He tends to get those kinds of starters in every region)

Gen 1 - All three
Gen 2 - Cyndaquil
Gen 3 - Treecko (Was kinda a project as well)
Gen 4 - Chimchar
Gen 5 - Tepig
Gen 6 - Froakie
Gen 7 - Litten
Gen 8 - Sobble

Scorbunny's coloration being a Fire type falls in line with Gohs red.

What the heck is a Project mon?

And I meant that if this were a standard Galar series then Goh wouldn't exist.

Ash's Companions would've likely been Gloria and some other Male Galar Gym Leader (most likely Milo or Allister)

 

[Eevee800]

What the heck is a Project mon?

And I meant that if this were a standard Galar series then Goh wouldn't exist.

Ash's Companions would've likely been Gloria and some other Male Galar Gym Leader (most likely Milo or Allister)

I guess a Project mon is a mon where Satoshi has alot of room of growth

 

[Sai]

The thought process into Ash's team was to give him two popular Kanto pokemon he never had, (Dragonite and Gengar), a popular Sinnoh pokemon he never had to tie into the remakes (Lucario) and then two Galar pokemon got the current gen (Sirfetch'd and Dracovish).

I can see why they didn't give him a starter this gen, although Riolu is probably the closest to be handled somewhat similarly even if it evolved rather fast.

 

[Unireon]

Then that logic falls flat due to how badly Pokabu was handled.

It was a continuation of the trend of Fire-Starters with an unhappy backstory.
But lacking the charm that Hitokage and Hikozaru's stories had.
Making it even worse, it never reached its final stage...... Which felt even worse when the other Starters didn't as well.
I was wondering if the writers didn't knew what were they doing.

Messon had some room to grow after it decided that it wanted to grow strong and become an Inteleon.
That could have worked if Satoshi were its trainer, unlike Gou who prefers the hands-off approach.
What's worse, the writers decided that they didn't want to deal with Jimereon's issues and banished it until the time for evolving again.

I would have preferred a standard SwSh anime, but having Mary and Onion as Satoshi's companions.

Answering the question, it depends since that won't change the fact that the rest of his Pokemon are being mishandled.
Having a Starter would mean it getting more development, but the rest probably suffering neglect.

 

[Eevee800]

Answering the question, it depends since that won't change the fact that the rest of his Pokemon are being mishandled.
Having a Starter would mean it getting more development, but the rest probably suffering neglect.

A starter always takes the spotlight compared to "regular" mons.

 

[Sai]

It's true for example if Ash also got Mudkip in AG he wouldn't have gotten Corphish. I liked Corphish a hell of a lot more than Mudkip (assuming Mudkip's personality was the same under Ash) so I prefer he only got 1 starter.

 

[nickdt]

What the heck is a Project mon?

And I meant that if this were a standard Galar series then Goh wouldn't exist.

Ash's Companions would've likely been Gloria and some other Male Galar Gym Leader (most likely Milo or Allister)

It would actually have been unlikely to be Gloria, since Gloria doesn't have a role in the games (Unlike May, Dawn and Serena), while the other females who didn't have a role never even appeared in their respectives animes.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Coming back to this thread, I have come to a decision and I think that, Yes! Ash without Starters can work


The real question we should be asking tho is:


Does Goh (or anybody else) with all 3 Starters work?

Imo Ash not having the Starters isn't the problem

But what they actually did with the Starters.... Now that's a problem

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Goh....Absolutely not. He doesn't have a goal that requires the starters to actively participate in any battles of any kind. They don't get to regularly show off what they can do because Goh just simply catches Pokemon. Plus, the way they've developed them has been horrendous.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Goh....Absolutely not. He doesn't have a goal that requires the starters to actively participate in any battles of any kind. They don't get to regularly show off what they can do because Goh just simply catches Pokemon. Plus, the way they've developed them has been horrendous.

Imo most if not ALL of the problems with the way the Galar Starters have been handled could've easily been fixed if Goh were an active Battler in addition to his goal of catching Pokemon

The Galar Starters are Pokemon that are meant for Fighting not sitting around idlely until it's time for Evolutions

If they were meant to be just cutesy Pokemon like Pikachu and Piplup then that would've been annoying but at least it would've made sense but they are very clearly giving Goh all 3 Fully Evolved Starters which is very much not fine since Goh is getting Strong Pokemon without doing shit to earn them.

 

[Hidden Mew]

If they can't make Ash getting all three starters work, I have a hard time seeing it work for any other character, regardless of having a battle active goal or not. It wouldn't be impossible, but it just seems more unlikely if they couldn't balance out the screentime and development of three starters with the main character.

 

[ManUtd22]

In my opinion, having the same types of pokemons, having starters is so borning so i am happy that ash is different this time. I just hoped ash got the ice etectric fossil as he doesn't have another electric other that pikachu.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

If they can't make Ash getting all three starters work, I have a hard time seeing it work for any other character, regardless of having a battle active goal or not. It wouldn't be impossible, but it just seems more unlikely if they couldn't balance out the screentime and development of three starters with the main character.

Which is all the more reason they should have been split between the Protagonists.

Or at least Goh could've gotten like 2 while one of them went to Chloe

 

[Hidden Mew]

Which is all the more reason they should have been split between the Protagonists.

Or at least Goh could've gotten like 2 while one of them went to Chloe

As cool as it would have been to see Chloe with one of the Galar starters, I'm not surprised that they didn't do that. Chole doesn't really get a lot of screentime and unless they started to include her more often with Ash and Goh, I don't think giving her a starter would have worked, especially when Eevee is getting more attention than Yamper. The starters tend to get better treatment when they are split among the main cast though.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Coming back to this thread, I have come to a decision and I think that, Yes! Ash without Starters can work


The real question we should be asking tho is:


Does Goh (or anybody else) with all 3 Starters work?

Imo Ash not having the Starters isn't the problem

But what they actually did with the Starters.... Now that's a problem

For Go, absolutely not. The writers couldn’t even manage to properly balance all 3 starters when they gave them to Ash and he has a goal in which his Pokémon are constantly active and put on display being able to take an active role. With Go, the implementation of his goal so rarely actually uses his Pokémon that most of the time the starters end up as props more than anything else when they’re in their base stage and only become anything other than that upon evolving. And even then, once they reach the final stage, their appearances become sporadic at best.

Compare that to the showing of Ash’s starters in the past and it’s actually much worse off. Even at Ash’s worst, his starters got more of a showing than Go’s, which says a lot.