The integrity of Ash's Comrades, diminished?

F

flygon222

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Back in the early days Ash didn't have too many travel companions. Now he's had a total of 9. That's 9 different people who have traveled with Ash for at least one saga.

9 travel companions is quite a lot. Do you feel it makes Ash's friends feel less special to Ash or the show itself now that there's been so many of them?

Now you can't say Ash has a closely knit group of friends anymore. Some of his friends were closer with him than others, and now most of his friends have never met each other and probably will never meet.

Do you think Ash having 9 different travel companions essentially makes them feel less internal to Ash and the show itself?

I am hoping may and max will return for a little when the remakes of ruby and sapphire are released.
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

If we were to read so deeply into it, I guess they're trying to encourage the use of disposable friends.

The whole thing about the anime as the generation moves on is that they'll probably stay back in said generation, simply because they can't keep following Ash all seasons long.
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

Seriously, the formula hasn't changed. OK, so he meets a few new people, who decide to tag alone. But Ash's rivals all met up and had a party at the Don Tourney, which I guess is kinda new. But there's a narrative imperative to make Ash a bunch of new buddies every time he moves to a new place. Because it would be kinda freaky if Richie or someone stalked him across 5 regions... Epic crazy stalker dude with similar Pokémon for the win...
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

I think the new-friends thing is a really bad part of the anime– Brock and Misty were great; I grew up watching Ash, Misty, and Brock travel across Kanto, and I wish it had stayed the same way. The idea that they're just gone is really sad, even for someone who doesn't watch the anime much at all.

That said, for younger viewers who are just being introduced to the anime, I guess it's nice to start anew– the idiosyncrasies of older characters would be hard to catch onto, and make the experience less fun for people who haven't seen shows where the characters are introduced.
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

For why you copied the exact same thread title and the exact same original post from a thread over at the Bulbagarden forums, except for one new line of your own, I'll never know.

To answer the question, no. People can have a lot of friends that they could always remember.
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

flygon222 said:
9 travel companions is quite a lot. Do you feel it makes Ash's friends feel less special to Ash or the show itself now that there's been so many of them?
Click to expand...

You could ask yourself how special your friends are to you once you hit over 9 friends on Facebook :D

Seriously though, the pokemon anime has never been much about character depth. Ash has been here all the while and I personally dont feel that he's special to the show itself, let alone the other side characters
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

yeah, I think that ash's friends are getting pretty old. same with team rocket. Because it's kind of stupid how Ash is SO surprised when team Rocket pops out, you think he'd learn by then...
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

I'll let this stay open.
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

nomekop55555 said:
yeah, I think that ash's friends are getting pretty old. same with team rocket. Because it's kind of stupid how Ash is SO surprised when team Rocket pops out, you think he'd learn by then...
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Maybe it's so expected that every time, he thinks they just won't show up to surprise him. They instead surprise him by actually showing up in almost every episode.

But the formula never changes... I feel kind of bad for having liked the show, really.
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

Zyflair said:
Maybe it's so expected that every time, he thinks they just won't show up to surprise him. They instead surprise him by actually showing up in almost every episode.

But the formula never changes... I feel kind of bad for having liked the show, really.
Click to expand...

Until now, where Ash, Iris, and Cilan don't even see Team Rocket for several episodes.
 
RE: Do you feel that Ash's friends become less special now that he has so many of them?

Yeah, this thread is going nowhere.
 
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