Should Casey have joined the group back in Johto?

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Cybersai

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I've noticed that the way the gang met Casey in the second episode of Johto almost mirrors the way May and Dawn are introduced later on.

Ash and co. meet a newbie girl trainer, in this case Casey, who was just starting out. She starts off with the cutest Johto starter, which was Chikorita, and Ash basically watches her stumbling as a beginning trainer. The only difference is Casey decides to travel by herself instead of tagging along with Ash like May and Dawn do.

Do you think Johto could have possibly worked with a four person cast, with Ash/Misty/Brock/Casey for that era? Granted Casey would have to be doing Gyms, but I think it might have worked better to cut down the filler that saga and give us a beginning girl trainer on the group, something we didn't get until May arrived.

Sadly Casey kinda fails as a trainer, by the end of Johto she only has 4 badges and then travels to Kanto for some bizarre reason and after that she just fizzles out and we never hear from her again.

What do you think the writers plans for her character was? Would she have worked on the show back then?
 
Oh god no. I'm sorry but her singing that horrid baseball theme song, EVERY SINGLE EPISODE would have caused more fans to quit than before.

I honestly think they planned on her being a rival. But they probably thought that in order to be a rival they had to have near equal power and strength. And that was lacking in Casey's team.

So the answer is no, she wouldn't have worked on the show.
 
That would have been a disaster. Kasumi and Takeshi would have been ignored even more than I hear they were.
 
As much as I like Casey, I agree that she shouldn't have been a twerp. It would have resulted in having to repeat every gym battle (like Scott said) and it's possible Casey wasn't intended to be recurring in the first place (like Lethal Carnivine said). She's like Nikolai from Hoenn and Nando from Sinnoh: the badge-collecting (and ribbon-collecting, in Nando's case) first CotD of the region that nobody thought would return but did anyway.

Plus, just about everyone hates her. XD Poor Casey.
 
Casey was kinda annoying. Not so much. If she joined the cast it would get on my nerves and mess up the chemistry between the three after completing Indigo, and Brock's return after Orange.
 
While she was a good character in a single episode appearence or two, she would have been terrible as a main character. There wasn't a whole lot that can be done with her.

In order for a main character to work, he/she needs to interact with her Pokémon in a way different then the star of the show (Ash, who trains his Pokémon in gyms and Pokémon leagues). Being like Ash was one of the main reasons why Misty was booted in the first place: She did everything Ash does, except that she only trained a single type of Pokémon (meaning that they all had similar moves and abilities) and she didn't compete in gym battles or many competitions in general (The whirl cup, but that's it). It was also the reason why May/Dawn were introduced and Brock was kept. Coordinators compete in Contests, which are different from gym battles, and Brock takes care of his Pokémon (this lets us know that Pokémon are more then just battle partners and are living things.)

Casey on the other hand, pretty much does the exact same thing as Ash, except that she's hardly interested in Pokémon training since it's only second to her #1 favourite hobby and pastime: Baseball. Plus it would get extremely old to have a character obsessed with something in a show that doesn't revolve around it.

It was also one of the reasons why Tracey was dropped quickly. His main thing was drawing Pokémon, This involves little to no interaction with his own Pokémon (Unless they were models of some sort, but Tracey's more interested in watching wild ones, his only Pokémon were only really useful in finding them).
 
I also didn't understand why Casey didn't make it to the Johto league. Ash has never had a female rival before, it would have been interesting to see Casey be something of a rival to Ash but it never really happened.

I can see why the writers dropped her now though, there's really nothing she could have added to the seasons that came after.
 
Scott85 said:
I also didn't understand why Casey didn't make it to the Johto league. Ash has never had a female rival before, it would have been interesting to see Casey be something of a rival to Ash but it never really happened.
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Perhaps the writers are not interested in having Ash have a serious rivial that was the opposite gender. Perhaps this is because they want to avoid all the drama that could be caused by such a relationship (Ash beating a girl would be seen as "sexist" by the crazy people here, Plus all the crazy shippings that could arise from it, by the same crazy people).
 
PDL said:
Perhaps this is because they want to avoid all the drama that could be caused by such a relationship (Ash beating a girl would be seen as "sexist" by the crazy people here, Plus all the crazy shippings that could arise from it, by the same crazy people).
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Is that really any different than Drew beating May 4 times in the series whereas May only beat him once?

I don't recall anyone crying sexism about that. Male characters can beat female characters in battle without anyone reacting oddly.
 
Scott85 said:
Is that really any different than Drew beating May 4 times in the series whereas May only beat him once?

I don't recall anyone crying sexism about that. Male characters can beat female characters in battle without anyone reacting oddly.
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The big difference is that May is the protagonist, the person you're supposed to be rooting for.

The writers just don't seem to want a male main character beat a female rivial for some reason.
 
I like Casey, but she wouldn't really have worked as a permanent twerp for the reasons everyone's already given, the biggest one being that it would be sooooo boring to sit through every gym battle twice. She would have repeated the same growth arc that Ash went through in Kanto and it would have sucked enormously.

Was Casey originally intended as a rival for Ash? I have my doubts, because Ash completely pwnd her in her debut episode. We never would have bought her as a threat. All the rivals so far have either been of an equal or greater experience level to the protagonist. Casey was too n00bish in Johto. She could plausibly re-enter at a later stage and be a rival to Ash, though, especially if he carries on starting fresh with low-level Pokemon in every region. But she could only ever be a main character if Ash left.

Regarding the argument that the writers don't want to risk letting the male main character beat up on a girl because the crazy Bulbagarden feminists will come round to their house and eat them... silly person say what? Practically all the rivals in the show are male, whether it's Ash, May or Dawn who has to fight them. The only recurring female rival is Zoey. In virtually all television programmes, male characters will outnumber female characters unless the programme is specifically aimed at women. I imagine Ash gets a string of male rivals because the writers love to use either the 'buddy movie' template (Gary, Richie, Morrison) or 'mortal enemies' (Paul), both of which are traditionally m/m.
 
Casey kinda started rival-ish, but she only got a grand total of 3 episodes so we hardly ever saw her.

That's one of the bizarre things about the Johto saga, they introduced new characters and/or Pokemon but none of them ever went anywhere. Its not like they didn't have time to flesh them out because it lasted 3 years and even then the writers spent more time on useless filler and less time on the established cast.

Sakura was another Johto girl I wouldn't have minded joining the cast, but yet again, she was only ever in 2 episodes and then she disappears entirely.
 
Oh god no. I'm sorry but her singing that horrid baseball theme song, EVERY SINGLE EPISODE would have caused more fans to quit than before.
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:p Heh. I liked it. It would have been awesome if she had joined them. I think there was a lot of potential.

I like Casey, but she wouldn't really have worked as a permanent twerp for the reasons everyone's already given, the biggest one being that it would be sooooo boring to sit through every gym battle twice.
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They could have found something else for her to do. Even just tagging along like everyone else.
 
I was never really happy that the girls never did gyms or became rivals. At first it looked like Casey would change it, but she clearly didnt. She wasnt a good trainer and we didnt even see her in the Johto Leauge. It is the same issue with Ritchie. he was practitcally the star of Rival! (the seccond japanese opening) sure, it was all of his rivals, but mainly richie. and what happened to him? who knows! probably still stuck in Johto plotting new ways to be Ash's clone.

Casey was also in an opening. Yes, we all remember Ready, Go! But Casey never bacame a real rival or threat. She was kinda just an annoying girl that Ash could pwn. Plus her song was painful to hear. So I dont think shes coming back. She, like Ritchie, wasnt so popular. I wonder if theres a shipping for them? I bet its called Unwantedshipping. lol.
 
We really don't see many female trainers going for Gyms. As said Casey started, but what does it say when the only recurring female trainer who tried Gyms ended up failing miserably and giving up?
 
Casual_Furi said:
What about all the female gym leaders that Ash and countless other guys beat?
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They don't count as reoccuring rivals.

They could have found something else for her to do. Even just tagging along like everyone else.
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The writers had enough trouble giving Brock and Misty something to do, adding an additional character would only aggrivate the situation even further.

And need I remind everyone that Casey never viewed Pokémon training as a serious pastime? In order to actually succeed in anything related to Pokémon, you need deciation to it. Casey didn't have it because she's far more interested in baseball. That is her true love. She really only collected Pokémon that were yellow with black stripes, like her favourite baseball team's colors.
 
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^ That's not true. Casey was very dedicated to training, partly because she wanted to be like the Electabuzz baseball team and 'never give up'. She seemed pretty strong when we saw her in Chronicles, IIRC, which is why I think she could theoretically re-enter as a convincing rival to Ash in the future. She probably won't, though.
 
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