Why do you think Elm, Birch, and Rowan didn't become major characters?

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Cybersai

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Why is it that only Prof. Oak became a major character in the series, so much so that we see him in every region with Ash making phone calls? Obviously Ash leaves his Pokemon with him and he's related to Gary, (although we barely see Gary), but why did the writers make such a big deal out of Oak?

With Prof. Elm, Birch and Rowan, we see them make a few appearances throughout their regions but they're not major characters at all. After Johto ended we never saw Elm in a speaking role again, and likewise since the end of Hoenn we never saw Prof. Birch again. Its also likely after Sinnoh we'll never see Rowan again.

So what made Prof. Oak so special that he continues to appear in every series, even in the videogames he makes a cameo in DP, and the other Professors are treated like crap?
 
Because Professor Oak has a thing for Ash's mom.

Really, who cares? The professors arent that great, just old nerds.
 
Its almost as if Oak became special just because he was the original Professor, and none of the others are important.

This is despite the fact that May and Dawn started with Birch and Rowan respectively, yet for some reason May/Dawn don't leave their old Pokemon with their professors?

Why did May leave her old Pokemon at her house/Gym in Petalburg? And I'm sure when Dawn gets more than 6 Pokemon, she'll leave the old ones with her mother.
 
Scott85 said:
Why is it that only Prof. Oak became a major character in the series, so much so that we see him in every region with Ash making phone calls? Obviously Ash leaves his Pokemon with him
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You pretty much answered your own question right there. Oak has all of Ash's Pokemon and he was Professor of Ash's home region. What reason would Ash have to call up Professors Ivy, Elm or Birch? Why would he leave his Pokemon with them?

Maybe if May were on the show she would still be interacting with Birch, but she isn't, so there isn't much reason for Ash to be calling Birch up out of the blue. There's even less reason to feature Ivy or Elm.

As for Dawn not interacting more with Rowan, I guess it would be because Ash is still the star of the show over Dawn. It would be nice if we got more May/Birch and Dawn/Rowan interaction though... I mean, Birch and Rowan are supposed to be the girls' versions of Oak.
 
Because Elm, Birch, and Rowan did not have so much influence over Ash than Oak did. Oak is still his primary mentor, the rest are secondary.
 
Actually nearly all of the Profesors have had the same share of screen time Prof Oak has a lot of screen time because he appears in every generation
 
Oak also came with Ash to watch his league tournaments at Indigo and Johto, and Ash also went to Oak's ranch after he got his 8 badges in Kanto before the Indigo league began.

Elm, Birch and Rowan didn't get anything. Why didn't Prof. Birch go to the Hoenn league and/or Grand Festival? Rowan and Dawn also have little to no interaction together, as seen in the summer academy episodes.

We did see Birch come to Ash's house in Kanto, but that was about it.

I guess its the writers way of favoring things from the first gen over the others, even though they do the exact opposite with other parts of the series.
 
Well its not like he's treated any differently than in the games.
Scott85 said:
Oak also came with Ash to watch his league tournaments at Indigo and Johto, and Ash also went to Oak's ranch after he got his 8 badges in Kanto before the Indigo league began.
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Because he's Ash's daddy :O
 
Frost said:
Maybe if May were on the show she would still be interacting with Birch, but she isn't, so there isn't much reason for Ash to be calling Birch up out of the blue.
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Nevermind the fact that May's family owns a gym and she could leave her Pokémon there instead.

Nobody's mentioned that leaving Pokémon with some of the other professors not only isn't needed, but it may not be a good idea in the first place:

Elm seems to absent-minded to be the kind that takes care of other trainer's Pokémon. Heck, in his debut epiosde, he was so absorbed in his own work that our Team Rocket managed to steal one of his Pokémon from him without any problems.

Birch wouldn't be a good choice either since he's out and about in the field all the time instead of back at his lab.

It might be possible that Rowan may take care of Dawn's extra Pokémon, but I don't find it too likely either.

The main reason why Oak takes care of other trainer's Pokémon is because his research speciality is the relationship between Pokémon and their trainers. He has an excellent source of specimens to study that is steadly growing each day, and other professors can draw on his research to help their own research along.
 
Oak has also been in almost every single episode because of his lectures. I guess having the other professors getting abused by pokemon every week just wouldn't be as funny.

It's funny the show is just now referencing this. You'd think they would've done that years ago.
 
Because they're not Professor Oak, is why. Professor Oak is very important in Ash's story, he's the one who gave him Pikachu and takes care of all the Pokemon he owns but doesn't train at the moment. He's also the first Pokemon Professor to be introduced, and all the other Pokemon Professors hold him in high regard, even in the games. Birch and Rowen have something going for them since they gave May and Dawn their first Pokemon, but they're just regional professors, they're not the all-knowing Professor Oak. Poor dorky Elm doesn't even have that.
 
Its still kind of insulting to the other shows professors that they're treated as minor recurring characters just cause they're not the original.

Its almost like how Brendan and Lucas are doomed to 3 second cameos at the beginning of the movies because the writers want to bring the girls into the show instead.
 
Well I don't see why Prof. Elm would need to be, no new girl character was around when he first appeared and none of the trio (Ash, Misty, & Brock) had any real connection to him so his presence isn't exactly important to the main characters.

Prof. Birch was May's professor, and since she's gone now, there isn't a reason to make him important either. Sure it would be nice, but does it really affect anything if he's not around? D:

And Prof. Rowan. He is Dawn's professor/mentor, and he does make some occasional appearances. He seems to be somewhat involved in the Team Galactic storyline, as he appeared in DP111. But since it's figured that Dawn may be leaving eventually, there's no reason to make him anymore important than he already is because there just wouldn't be any point to that.

Prof. Oak is Ash's mentor, and Ash won't be leaving anytime soon. He'll probably be here til the end of the anime. So that's why Prof. Oak appears more often because he's the main character's professor. The other professors don't have anything in particular to do with Ash since they didn't give him a starter Pokemon or anything like that. So when they leave that region, that's probably the last time they'll ever make any physical contact with each other.
 
If you think about it. Prof. Oak isn't just special in the anime, but in the game's as well. In the game's he considered the creator of the Pokédex and has made cameo appearances in every region except Hoenn.
 
Yeah, Oak has become so important, he's almost like the "grandfather figure" of the entire series. Granted he is Gary's grandpa, but he gives that kind of image to the whole series.
 
Scott85 said:
Why is it that only Prof. Oak became a major character in the series, so much so that we see him in every region with Ash making phone calls? Obviously Ash leaves his Pokemon with him and he's related to Gary, (although we barely see Gary), but why did the writers make such a big deal out of Oak?

With Prof. Elm, Birch and Rowan, we see them make a few appearances throughout their regions but they're not major characters at all. After Johto ended we never saw Elm in a speaking role again, and likewise since the end of Hoenn we never saw Prof. Birch again. Its also likely after Sinnoh we'll never see Rowan again.

So what made Prof. Oak so special that he continues to appear in every series, even in the videogames he makes a cameo in DP, and the other Professors are treated like crap?
Click to expand...
'Cause Elm was a spazz, Birch was mundane, and Rowan is a big stoic, facial-haired guy. What could they do with any of these?

Prof. Oak was at least semi entertaining in his antics.

But Rowan at least got to monitor the camp so it's likely he'll show up at other Sinnoh important events.
 
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