What if...Ash was not late?

[Greninjaman]

What if Ash was not late to get his first Pokemon? What if he got there on time? How would that affect the anime?

I think Ash, if he was able to, would have picked Squirtle. Of course, that would mean he will have an easy time with Brock.

What do you guys think? Discuss. I have seen this in other forums and such.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

If Ash were not late, from the writers' perspective he'd have probably ended up with Charmander to showcase the 'cool' and extremely powerful Charizard as Ash's faithful partner, and the writers would have an essier time showcasing it often out of its Pokeball due to its flying abilities (Venusaur or Blastoise walking behind Ash all the time would seem weird to say the least).

Ash getting Charmander makes the most sense if he were given a normal starter by the marketing team.
Gary would still end up with Squirtle and later Blastoise, showing off how the rival chooses the starter with the type advantage.

 

[Greninjaman]

If Ash were not late, from the writers' perspective he'd have probably ended up with Charmander to showcase the 'cool' and extremely powerful Charizard as Ash's faithful partner, and the writers would have an essier time showcasing it often out of its Pokeball due to its flying abilities (Venusaur or Blastoise walking behind Ash all the time would seem weird to say the least).

Ash getting Charmander makes the most sense if he were given a normal starter by the marketing team.
Gary would still end up with Squirtle and later Blastoise, showing off how the rival chooses the starter with the type advantage.

How do you know he would have started with a Charmander?

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

How do you know he would have started with a Charmander?

Er... did you read my post?

to showcase the 'cool' and extremely powerful Charizard as Ash's faithful partner, and the writers would have an essier time showcasing it often out of its Pokeball due to its flying abilities (Venusaur or Blastoise walking behind Ash all the time would seem weird to say the least).

Charizard is basically the second most popular Pokémon after Pikachu so it was pretty obvious to use it if Pikachu as an option wasn’t available.

The anime is ultimately a commercial for the games...

 

[Gengarzilla]

If Ash weren't late and Gary still chose Squirtle, then I actually Ash would have gone for his second choice of starter, Bulbasaur. I mean, Ash's Pikachu has the type advantage over Gary's Blastoise but that definitely didn't stop Gary from being twenty steps ahead every time, so we know the traditional type matchups wouldn't have any impact on their rivalry.

I think people forget that, contrary to Charizard's popularity, Charmander was written as Ash's third choice of the three and he would have only picked it if the other options were gone, by which point I really can't call him "on time".

 

[IncineROAR]

There was clearly a promotional reason why Ash was "late" getting his first Pokemon (Pikachu) and Gary's Blastoise not being revealed until sometime in Johto.

I'm surprised that Gary didn't appear in Kalos with Blastoise with a mega stone.

 

[LazySpy]

Maybe we could meet the two other trainers.
Oh, wait. HE would be the other trainer, and the 4th one would get pikachu, become Ash's rival and win the league.
...Wicked.
But all joking aside, think about it: There were four trainers; three "normal" starters and one Pikachu.
The question in my head isn't what would happen to Ash if he wasn't late.
I'd ask rather: what would happen to Pikachu? And even more importantly: would Ash not being late gave us a possibility to learn more about the two mysterious rivals and possibly give them a meaningfull role in the anime?

And most ultimate question in my mind: Would Ash not having a Pikachu would contribute in some way to him theoritically leaving the show after Indigo Leauge?

 

[gogeta]

Didin't a yonger Oak meet Ash in the Celebi movie?
I bet that Oak will give Pikachu to Ash even if he was not late.
There is a fan made story name "Ashes Of The Past" where Ash was send back in time to stop Cyrus and one of the first think Ash did after he got Pikachu was to ask Oak what if he was not late and Oak said that he still have Charmander becuse it trainer was late too.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

If he's the first one to get there? Then he would choose Squirtle, because we already know that it was his first choice. We also know that in the show Gary is the third one to get there and he got the Squirtle, so Ash will get it as long as he's not the fourth one to get there.

I'd ask rather: what would happen to Pikachu?

Well, if Ash was not late, then Gary would be the fourth one to get there, considering he was just leaving the lab when we first seen him, and he would be Pikachu's trainer.

 

[Sakuraa]

He probably just would have picked Squirlte as he originally planned which of course would have changed the entire course of the anime, and Blastoise would hold his rightful spot of being the most popular Kanto starter . Okay maybe not XD.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

We'd actually get to see the other two trainers... who would still get their starters in lieu of Ash because they were early.

 

[kantoskies]

See this is the alternate take they should have taken in M20....

I imagine whoever Pikachu was given to instead (Shigeru, most likely) would not be able to handle him, so Pikachu would eventually run away and have to fend for itself. Satoshi most likely wouldn't have met Kasumi until he challenged her gym, or the Rocket trio, he maybe would have still traveled with Takeshi because that encounter happened well after Satoshi was on his journey.

 

[EscLucy]

I think it would be in Ash's nature to choose a Pokemon that is at a type disadvantage to whatever Gary chose. Yes it is valid to talk about who got their first but I think the personality and nature of Ash is more important to the writers which in my opinion means that he would choose Charmander providing Gary chose Squirtle.

 

[Silktree]

The discussion loses its luster once you realize that we already got an AU take on Kanto and it wasn't good.