Who Got the Bulbasaur and the Charmander on Ash's first day as a Pokemon Trainer?

[owenpeterson]

As everyone here is aware of, When Ash first began his Pokemon training journey, he slept in and was late to receiving his starter, of course Gary wound up with the Squirtle as we would learn later on, and two others got the Bulbasaur and the Charmander, leaving Ash with Pikachu. However, the series never revealed who it was that got the Bulbasaur and Charmander.

This would make for an interesting storyline: Ash and Gary being back in Pallet Town are suddenly confronted by 2 trainers, and they challenge Ash and Gary to a tag battle using only their starters. Ash would send out Pikachu and Gary would send out Blastoise, thus the 2 opponents would send out their Pokemon: A Venusaur and a Charizard, thus learning that the 2 were the other 2 Pallet trainers who got the Bulbasaur and Charmander on Ash and Gary's first day as Pokemon trainers. The battle goes on with Ash and Gary winning and the 2 sides make a truce and heading their seperate ways.

As for who I'm guessing to be the two trainers, I'm guessing it was Leaf's anime counterpart who got the Bulbasaur, and Yellow's anime counterpart who got the Charmander. I'm guessing so because Ash is Red's anime counterpart, and Gary is Blue's anime counterpart, and because of the color coding as Red got Charmander and Blue got Squirtle, so that would leave Leaf with Bulbasaur and I figured I'd throw Yellow in there for good measure, and because Yellow happens to have a Pikachu herself. In the anime Ash got Pikachu and Gary got Squirtle, so I figured I would give Leaf's anime counterpart Bulbasaur and Yellow's anime counterpart Charmander. I'm also referring to Leaf and Yellow as the "anime counterparts" because they haven't been introduced in the anime as of yet and wouldn't have names like those in the anime.

What do you think? Who do you think got the Bulbasaur and Charmander?

 

[Moe]

In episode 65, Ash and Gary were told that the other two 'got off to an excellent start but just didn't have the skill' - implying that they weren't good enough to get 8 badges. I certainly can't imagine they were intended to be the other anime counterparts, given that it would mean they aren't very good ones.

The opportunity to introduce Leaf would have been during the Kanto Contests arc - similar to how Lyra was introduced. But I can't see it ever happening, much less with a link to them being part of the four that started on the same day.

As an aside - given the game universe replaces the player character with the one of the gender you choose, so Ash and a female counterpart wouldn't exist simultaneously - the anime has been fairly consistent with only picking one of the two options and ignoring the other.

 

[garrison-san]

Mostly, they were just a plot device to justify Ash getting Pikachu instead of one of the official starters. They were brought up a couple more times in the early stages of Ash's journey and hinted to be promising trainers, but the writers were clearly never as interested in them as they were Gary, to the point where they were hand-waved out of the picture altogether.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm also pretty sure that Yellow is a character exclusive to Pokemon Adventures/Special, so she wouldn't be included as one of the starting trainers. At least Leaf is a video game character. Still, I doubt that they had any interest in ever showcasing those two other trainers. They were primarily used as a means to make Ash more of an underdog by making him feel like the weak fourth trainer that left from Pallet Town, as well as explaining why Ash would start off with Pikachu instead of one of the other Kanto starters. If they had any intention of bringing them up, they wouldn't have brushed them aside with a brief explanation, or at least they would have given them names.

They could have shown Leaf during the Battle Frontier arc, but for some reason never did. Shame since I like her design quite a bit.

 

[PockyAddict]

Mostly, they were just a plot device to justify Ash getting Pikachu instead of one of the official starters. They were brought up a couple more times in the early stages of Ash's journey and hinted to be promising trainers, but the writers were clearly never as interested in them as they were Gary, to the point where they were hand-waved out of the picture altogether.

This basically. They pretty much were plot device just so ash can get a pokemon. I have a feeling that they were never meant to be anybody. Or like the gs ball, they were forgotten.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Even though I know they're just plot devices since a few years ago I always imagined the Bulbasaur user as a smart jerk that uses multiple psychic types and the Charmander guy as a Barry but not dumb but more angry. I also think they could of easily resumed their journeys gotten that one last badge from a weaker substitute gym leader that showed up before Agatha. After that they couldn't not run into Ash just by being in different regions at all time in Hoenn during Johto, in Kalos during Unova etc. But yeah they probably won't appear. I wrote a blog a year ago that shows how they could've been handled using only dialogue (Representing battles by repeating words).How it should've happen EP1 Pokemon Anime Season 1 - Blogs - Bulbagarden Forums

 

[BlackButterfree]

I have no idea, but I like to think they're still on their journey. Otherwise, we would've met them at least ONCE in Pallet Town in the 20+ times we've been back there in both the main anime and Pokémon Chronicles.

 

[Master Cyrus]

They were doing a nuzlocke and accidentally fainted their starters on route 1.

 

[Cilan]

I always had this idea that maybe Damien was the trainer that got Charmander and the reason he thought it was weak was because it might have lost a gym battle.

As for Bulbasaur, your guess is as good as mine. It's possible that if there was an anime equivalent of Leaf then maybe she got it since there was old artwork of a female character alongside Red and Green in the games (although the girl in the artwork was shown with a Squirtle so I dunno.)

 

[Agent 007 Squirtle]

I always had this idea that maybe Damien was the trainer that got Charmander and the reason he thought it was weak was because it might have lost a gym battle.

As for Bulbasaur, your guess is as good as mine. It's possible that if there was an anime equivalent of Leaf then maybe she got it since there was old artwork of a female character alongside Red and Green in the games (although the girl in the artwork was shown with a Squirtle so I dunno.)

The thing about Damien is likely, however Gary being the Bastard he is could've assumed that Melanie was weak for getting a Bulbasaur and not competing for the badges.

 

[majormanafemale]

Like other Damien makes most sense for charmander. I figure some girl got bulbasaur and by episode 65 didn't like battling and they never fleshed her out. It was primarily plot device so Ash got pikachu.

 

[garrison-san]

I always had this idea that maybe Damien was the trainer that got Charmander and the reason he thought it was weak was because it might have lost a gym battle.

Like other Damien makes most sense for charmander. I figure some girl got bulbasaur and by episode 65 didn't like battling and they never fleshed her out. It was primarily plot device so Ash got pikachu.

Damian stated that he caught his charmander (in the dub at least), so no, it wasn't given to him by Oak.

Not to mention, some of Nurse Joy's dialogue in episode 11 implied that Damian and his gang were quite well-known and feared in the local area, which they probably wouldn't be if he had just wandered in from Pallet Town.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I also think that they would have referred to Daimen as being a trainer from Pallet Town if that was the case. Even if he was just going to appear in one episode, it would have still be worth bringing up due to how they kept making Ash feel like an underdog compared to the other trainers from Pallet Town and seeing that they weren't all well skilled trainers would have been something different. Plus, Professor Oak said that the other two had promising starts, but I would fail to see any of that in Daimen based on the little we saw.

 

[Solayoh]

I agree they are probably still out on their journeys somewhere.

As we've seen in the games, like in B2W2 people from all over the region get starters, the other 2 could have been from elsewhere in the region, even if they were in Kanto it's shown in the anime to be much bigger than in game, they probably didn't even know Ash, and probably didn't stay in touch with Prof Oak either, think how many trainers he sends on their journeys, really doubt he keeps in touch with all of them.

Probs wouldn't care about Ash either if he wasn't banging his mum Ash hadn't been so needy in the beginning constantly ringing up for every little thing. Think Oak felt sorry for him maybe as he was the under dog.

 

[Jukain]

I thought it was said they failed. This is something I wish a lot more people would realize. Training is not everything. They can do other things. They don't need to stubbornly force this one thing simply because they think that's all there is. I think they just simply moved on with their lives like Gary did.