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What series has the best balance of Pokemon characterizations for the Ash mons?

KrspaceT

KrspaceT

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Note, Ashmons only here. Psyduck and co need not apply here.

I was just thinking about this. In XY, I feel that Frogadier, Fletchinder, Hawlucha, and Goodra have gotten/got a decent amount of exposure each. None of them feel overused like Infernape was, or underused like Palpitoad. Sure, Goodra got a lot in a short period if time, but that was all Goodra got so I feel it deserves a pass there.

Am I the only one who thinks this? If so, what saga did it better? If you agree, what series come closest to this balance.
 
The first season, Kanto. I really liked the shy Charmander, suave Bulbasaur, spicy Squirtle, and motherly (other Pokémon, Togepi) Pikachu dynamic.
 
I think Kanto and Hoenn had a very balanced team of Ash-mons.

In Kanto we had Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander with very distinct personalities. And I think even Pikachu had the best chemistry with these three out of all of Ash's Pokemons. And the difference in their personalities was most noticeable in Island of the Giant Pokemon. Overall, they were a very charming and entertaining lot.

Hoenn group was balanced too I think. We had Treecko with a cool and calm personality, Torkoal with a too emotional personality (remember the black smoke?), Swellow being really stubborn and proud, Snorunt having a very mischievous nature before evolving and obviously Corphish, who IMO was the most entertaining of the lot.

And the current XY group is good too. I like Greninja's and Hawlucha's personalities the best.
 
Pallet Fangirl said:
I think Kanto and Hoenn had a very balanced team of Ash-mons.

In Kanto we had Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander with very distinct personalities. And I think even Pikachu had the best chemistry with these three out of all of Ash's Pokemons. And the difference in their personalities was most noticeable in Island of the Giant Pokemon. Overall, they were a very charming and entertaining lot.

Hoenn group was balanced too I think. We had Treecko with a cool and calm personality, Torkoal with a too emotional personality (remember the black smoke?), Swellow being really stubborn and proud, Snorunt having a very mischievous nature before evolving and obviously Corphish, who IMO was the most entertaining of the lot.

And the current XY group is good too. I like Greninja's and Hawlucha's personalities the best.
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That's exactly what I think, except that I don't like when Pokemon act bad or mischievous.
 
In think Sinnoh, but just in general it seemed to have the best balance for everything because it had 192 episodes of the same journey, same team, and same traveling companions. There was a lot of development for Chimchar of course, but also Buizel, Gliscor, and Gible. Torterra and Staraptor may have been lacking a bit, but Staraptor got more development than most other regional birds and Torterra had good development as a Turtwig. Not only this, but Dawn's team got very good development compared to other female companions and had a lot of different personalities beyond just Piplup and Brock's Sinnoh team got reasonable representation beyond Croagunk, as Sudowoodo and Happiny still had distinct personalities. It was also a very good mix/team dynamic and the episodes when all the Pokemon were out were especially memorable (one of my favorites was the Steamboat episode). Buizel had the must have overconfident mentality, while Chimchar was the underdog, Gliscor was wimpy at first but worked hard to improve, Gible was immature and difficult to control, and Turtwig was really spunky until evolution and then had to learn to deal with the changes.

Not to say I didn't enjoy other teams, but this one just seemed to have the most development overall. I really like the Hoenn teams to and Johto had Ash's Chikorita which is my fav ever, but they really never went anywhere with Noctowl after its first episode and Cyndaquil was just a whimp. Those series just had a disadvantage because they had less episodes for development, while BW had fewer episodes and spread it over more Pokemon and then only ever showed awful Oshawott anyway, which gave it a disadvantage. XY is still too early to decide as a whole, but I honestly feel like there is a pretty big Pikachu bias in a lot of XY episodes, which has led to underuse of some Pokemon in my opinion, although Greninja has had its good development as well as Hawlucha and Talonflame gets reasonable screen time for a regional bird. Its definitely shaping up to be a pretty great team, but I don't have the feeling towards it I did towards the Sinnoh team, but that definitely could change, especially with some dramatic league battles.
 
jnsharley13 said:
That's exactly what I think, except that I don't like when Pokemon act bad or mischievous.
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But I find it entertaining when there is at least one mischievous Pokémon in the lot otherwise it gets boring. Besides I don't think Snorunt was that much mischievous after evolving into Glalie. He was the one you were talking about right?
 
I am gonna say Hoenn. We didnt get as much for them as we did for say the Kanto starters but I feel they had the best balance of personalities.
 
Hoenn cuz it doesn't only apply to Satoshi.
Even Tasumi and Haruka got pretty decent Pokemon developed.
Not much for TR.

Kalos is the best for me right now for every character, but Hoenn for Satoshi.
 
DP for everyone.
You can debate the best balance of Satoshi's teams to high hell and back but even his I enjoyed best in DP (how could you not love Glion, Mukubird and Fukamaru best?!?!)
 
Kanto definitely, and Johto as well I suppose (I love Arbok and Weezing the best out of all TR Pokemon) with Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle (+Squad) then Totodile, Cyndaquil, and even Chikorita too. XY is at third for me (I liked all of Ash's Pokemon's personalities, though I wish Noibat had gotten more episodes to himself like Eevee had).

Hoenn comes at fourth place (especially for Sceptile, but I still think the way May's Blaziken evolved was stupid and rushed) while Sinnoh and Unova come at fifth and sixth.

I'm also still annoyed with the way they got rid of Ambipom and replaced her with Togekiss, whom I never really cared for much.
 
I can't really say Kanto because even though the starters and Pikachu got some good focus, you had Pidgeotto who just became a prop (remember against Erika when Ash thought to himself that Pidgeotto wouldn't be a good match against her? ASH YOUR FLYING-TYPE IS STRONG AGAINST LIKE ONE THING USE IT), Butterfree and Primeape who were let go way before their prime and Kingler, Muk and Tauros who were just boxed the whole time (I don't really understand why either, he had an open spot when he caught Muk and Tauros).

Hoenn, Sinnoh and Kalos seem like the best balanced. Johto was terrible at giving certain Pokemon attention, and while I liked that he actually rotated Pokemon in Unova it meant some of them went underutilized.
 
I was about to say Kalos, but Ash's team isn't really balanced imo - they're all speedsters. Sinnoh had the best balance imo because it showed Ash working with pokemon of various speed.
 
In terms of the most balanced characterization, I would have to say Sinnoh hands down. In the DP Saga, all of Ash's Pokemon received focus episodes and characterization (some more then others, but received nonetheless). They've all had to overcome struggles, whether it was taking several episodes to learn/perfect new moves or having to deal with changes from evolution/new trainers, and a good amount of time was allocated to those struggles. They've all had interactions with each other or other main character's Pokemon as well (although this was more common early and mid-DP than late DP). And finally, it his only team (so far) where you could really see their growth and power by the end of the series-rarely were there any asspull wins, learning of moves or evolutions, copouts or anything along that nature.

Kanto and Johto didn't give as much focus to actual party Pokemon (aside from character quirks such as Chikorita's Ash-Crush, Totodile's Jolly nature, Bulbasaur's reservedness, etc), instead focusing on Ash, Misty and Brock or various COTDs and their Pokemon. Hoenn started to change that by giving certain Pokemon focus episodes, but their personalities weren't consistently explicit over the course of the saga. Unova simply had so many Pokemon, with a central focus on Ash's three starters, that characterization was very rare among Ash's other captures. And currently in XY, Greninja has the most characterization/focus compared to Talonflame and, egregiously, Noibat, with Hawlucha faring slightly better. And Ash hasn't even caught his sixth Pokemon yet.
 
I'd say Sinnoh.
Unova is definitely one I'd put at the bottom. While I personally liked Krookodile and Pignite, and Leavanny to an extent, I found Oshawott really annoying far too early, Snivy got stale, Palpitoad was cool but horrificly underused, Boldore and Scraggy were just... there, and poor Unfezant was outright replaced by Charizard.
Quality over quantity is the lesson here.
 
sinnoh they all had the chance for their personalities to be shown as well as some good focus even if by the end it was arguably to focused on infernape I feel like it's the only series where I got to care about nearly all of ash's pokemon
 
Hoenn. In terms of personality and abilities I think they where more balanced.
 
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