Pokemon Why Has Ash Never Mega-Evolved Any of His Pokémon?

Thomas Wiencek

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I've remember Ash's six officially owned Pokémon: Pidgeot, Charizard, Heracross, Beedrill (now Casey's), Sceptile and Glalie, the ones that had never actually Mega Evolved for the first time despite their capability of Mega Evolutions.

Ash had caught Pidgeotto in the Kanto region, much to Misty warning him in her anger that it would consume his Caterpie. However, once Ash's Caterpie had evolved into Metapod, this prevented his Pidgeotto from consuming it. Right after his loss to the quarterfinals to Ritchie at the Indigo Conference, Ash's Pidgeotto later had fully-evolved into Pidgeot that he had released back into the wild, so that it could protect a flock of Spearow from the danger of Fearow, the one that Ash encounter as originally Spearow during the start of his journey in the Kanto region, although Ash had never Mega Evolved it into Mega Pidgeot for the first time.

Ash also had caught Charmander in the Kanto region, the one that its former Pokémon Trainer Damien had abandoned. Ash's Charmander had middle-evolved into Charmeleon that had become disobedient, and it later fully-evolved into Charizard that had remained disobedient until Ash had convinced it to become obedient to which it agreed. Ash had left Charizard at the Charific Valley, until it later rejoined Ash's Unovan party, and Ash left it at Professor Oak's Laboratory, although he had never Mega Evolved it into Mega Charizard X or Y in the XY anime series.

Ash had caught Heracross in the Johto region, and Ash left it at Professor Oak's Laboratory, although he had never Mega Evolved it into Mega Heracross for the first time.

Ash also had caught Beedrill at the Bug-Catching Contest in the Johto region. He had given it away to its new Trainer Casey instead in order to keep it in the party with her, although Ash and Casey had never Mega Evolved it into Mega Beedrill for the first time.

Ash had caught Treecko in the Hoenn region. Ash's Treecko had later middle-evolved into Grovyle. Later in the Kanto region, Ash's Grovyle fully-evolved into Sceptile. Ash had left it at Professor Oak's Laboratory, although he had never Mega Evolved it into Mega Sceptile for the first time.

Ash also had caught Snorunt in the Hoenn region. Ash's Snorunt fully-evolved into Glalie. Ash had left Glalie at Professor Oak's Laboratory, although he had never Mega Evolved it into Mega Glalie for the first time.

So, unless they have later changed their mind, why do you think that the Pokémon main anime staff writers have decided to not let Ash Mega Evolve any of his Pokémon, whether Charizard, Heracross, Sceptile and/or Glalie, for the first time at all? Do you think that they'll bring any of them out from Professor Oak's Laboratory to Mega Evolve them in the Alola Conference or later in the Sword and Shield anime series, or never, since Brock and Misty are the only two former main character to Mega Evolve Steelix and Gyarados into Mega Steelix and Gyarados, respectively? Please let me know, thanks. ;)
 
It’s always interesting when people think about what could’ve been if Ash were to actually put to use common skills that we all use in the Pokémon games, such as Mega Evolution in XY. In reality, the writers will probably never let Ash pass the boundary from good to great in order to keep the series running for Pokémon generations to come. But Mega Evolution is an interesting concept, and one that they capitalized on in their own way, but not through Mega Evolution itself.

Something to keep in mind is that just like the humans in the show, the Pokémon on Ash’s team are characters that are subject to growth and development, and these Pokémon all have their own storylines throughout the time that they were on the show before Mega Evolution existed. Pidgeot got the ending to its character development when Ash left it behind to watch over all the Pokémon in its home, so as a developed character that already had the necessary bond with Ash to Mega Evolve, there wasn’t much of a story to be told by Pidgeot gaining access to this, and the writers would have to go out of their way to bring it back to the show at all.

Charizard would’ve been a prime candidate for Mega Evolution had its character development not come before that time. After evolution, the character development that Charizard received came from learning to trust and listen to Ash, and later on training to become stronger in the Charicific Valley. By the time we see Charizard in both Hoenn and Unova, he’s a fully developed character that could learn to use Mega Evolution without any trouble, and in that regard he falls into the same boat as Pidgeot.

Beedrill doesn’t need much of an explanation, as it never existed as an actual character the way many other Pokémon do. Bringing back Casey just so we could see the Beedrill Mega Evolve wouldn’t tell us a story and it would be poor writing. Heracross has always served as comic relief when it’s been in the show, as well as a strong Pokémon that could help Ash when he needed it in tough matches, kind of like Snorlax. There’s no reason for it to need to Mega Evolve.

Sceptile never learned it for the same reasons as Charizard. Sceptile lost all access to its attacks after evolving, and its character development came from overcoming its grief and gaining the determination to rise back up as a battler. We see this development come to fruition in Ash’s match against Spencer, making it another Pokémon that would just Mega Evolve without any additional character growth behind it.

While they could have theoretically used Pidgeot, Charizard, or Sceptile to show off the mechanic, they opted to go with the most similar thing that existed, and that was Ash’s Greninja learning to transform. We saw each of them go through struggles in learning and mastering the transformation and the bond that was necessary, seeing as Greninja still had that aspect of its character that wasn’t completely patched up yet. Yes, Mega Evolving is different from Ash-Greninja, but these two transformations fundamentally required the same things in terms of trust and the ability to control it, and we saw the same thing with Korrina’s Lucario. Greninja was a relevant character in XY, and those other Pokémon weren’t. That’s why the writers chose to focus on it, and not on Sceptile or Charizard.
 
In the game I can understand why we play all the way to becoming champion, but in the show I'm sure they take the liberty of having Ash get just to the cusp of winning before being defeated and moving on to the next challenge. It's some sort of lesson on perseverance and never letting a bunch of girls and stupid bullies with a talking cat stop you from trying to reaching your potential.

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Okay, now wait, what kind of a Mega Evolution you think that Ash's Charizard would've been prime candidate for, Mega Charizard X or Mega Charizard Y?
 
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