Are you upset with the lack of team chemistry in Ash's Team?

[Jibanyan]

Apparently having everyone of Ash's Pokemon together frolicking is too much effort for the writers these days. You can't even write a filler in which they interact? What a joke.

This is what gets me, past seasons had fillers just focused on the group of Pokémon or some members of the group, idk why they don't make one of those

 

[DatsRight]

Agreed. XY and SM did masterfully in the inter-Poke relationships:
Noivern and Hawlucha (plus Talonflame at times)
Braixen and Pancham
Eevee/Sylveon and Bunnelby
Pancham and Chespin
Pikachu and Greninja
Pikachu and Dedenne
Dedenne and Goodra
Rowlet and Meltan/Melmetal
Litten/Torracat/Incineroar and Incineroar
Pikachu and Poipole/Naganadel
Pikachu and Togedemaru
Lycanroc and Lycanroc
Marowak and Turtonator
Tsareena and Shaymin

Journeys really needs to step it up in this regard.

I think it might be owed a little to SM spoiling us so much with cute chemistries and interaction moments, even between a lot of the big or evolved Pokemon who usually get sidelined. It is odd Journeys doesn't supply as well however. You'd think with a more compressed main cast, they'd want to flesh out the dynamics between them even more.

Not to mention a lot of the main Pokemon this series are 'old favourites', ones that are popular but we've seen showcased many times before. The factor that they are now part of Ash's team and interacting with him and Pikachu is something that could make them more distinct. Interactions were a crutch for Marowak and Sandy for example and helped give them fun personalities to prevent them being a rehash.

 

[Blue Saturday]

Unfortunately the writers have been failing pretty hard at Pokémon development this series. I do wonder if they are trying to “reset” lore and their writing style this series with a closer interpretation toward the games? I think that gives them a bit of a “limiting” factor on how they portray the Pokémon. Gengar’s lore with cursing it’s trainer but otherwise it acts like a regular Gengar, Kairyu acts like a Kairyu should, this works for many newer generation Pokémon built around a theme/humanoid characteristic (Rabbifoot is cool like its lore, Messon is a crybaby, Kamonegi is a swordsman) but otherwise they don’t want to deviate too much away from the “image” of who that Pokémon is for main cast Pokémon.

It’s strange since they’ve been giving Gou and his mains a fair amount of personality and character-based bonding and development. They even gave his Kailios some a personality. She’s not really a battler and has a crush on Heracross. Initially she seemed just rude but we know she’s just a bit cowardly and her being a girl was hinted prior to that episode. Another thing is since they’re rotating through a rapid amount of Pokémon per episode via COTD/POTD/Gou/Gacha they simply may not see it as a huge priority to give much episodic growth and bonding to Satoshi’s team.

Kind of bummer because it shows the writers really had no plans for Satoshi’s catches aside from Riolu’s shilling. That goes back to my complaint about giving fully evolved Pokémon to him, they peak right from their debut episodes. Hard to believe we’ll be ending the year and Gengar still hasn’t really done anything nor have any of them aside from Riolu gotten decent focus and bonding. Considering this is the Pokémon World Championship that’s definitely a mistep because I figured theyd be portraying Satoshi’s Team as something akin to sports teams, a brotherhood of love and struggle but they still feel kind of like strangers to me.

I do like G-Kamonegi a lot so I’m excited for action bastard duck hopefully, wonder if Riolu retains its spunk after this arc.

 

[Leonhart]

I think it might be owed a little to SM spoiling us so much with cute chemistries and interaction moments, even between a lot of the big or evolved Pokemon who usually get sidelined. It is odd Journeys doesn't supply as well however. You'd think with a more compressed main cast, they'd want to flesh out the dynamics between them even more.

Personally I'm not judging the Pokemon interactions in this series solely based on how SM handled Pokemon interactions. I was never all-that pleased with the Pokemon interaction scenes in SM since at the end of the day many of the Pokemon that were shown interacting still didn't get much development, so all they really did was waste screen-time [such as Mokuroh for instance]. I personally feel that OS saga [Jouto especially] had some of the most insipid Pokemon interactions, and this series is turning out to be almost as bad.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

Unfortunately the writers have been failing pretty hard at Pokémon development this series. I do wonder if they are trying to “reset” lore and their writing style this series with a closer interpretation toward the games? I think that gives them a bit of a “limiting” factor on how they portray the Pokémon. Gengar’s lore with cursing it’s trainer but otherwise it acts like a regular Gengar, Kairyu acts like a Kairyu should, this works for many newer generation Pokémon built around a theme/humanoid characteristic (Rabbifoot is cool like its lore, Messon is a crybaby, Kamonegi is a swordsman) but otherwise they don’t want to deviate too much away from the “image” of who that Pokémon is for main cast Pokémon.

Branding.

Simple as that. The goal is probably make a "unified" vision of what a certain Pokémon is supposed to be and how he is supposed to act/be portrayed. Since the show feels more a "Pokémon Go" adaptation it does makes sense.

 

[DatsRight]

Personally I'm not judging the Pokemon interactions in this series solely based on how SM handled Pokemon interactions. I was never all-that pleased with the Pokemon interaction scenes in SM since at the end of the day many of the Pokemon that were shown interacting still didn't get much development, so all they really did was waste screen-time [such as Mokuroh for instance]. I personally feel that OS saga [Jouto especially] had some of the most insipid Pokemon interactions, and this series is turning out to be almost as bad.

I dunno, while I admit SM wasn't the best for individual Pokemon arcs besides the odd few like Incineroar, I think chemistries were often used as a means to flesh out personalities and involvement in that series. I think they grasped more to do with Rowlet after Decidueye and Meltan appeared for example and we saw different shades of its personality. Even the Pokemon that weren't all that dynamic would sometimes at least have a chemistry to fall back on (eg. Tsareena's big sister bond with Shaymin, or Togedemaru's little sister one with Pikachu and Vikavolt). I feel this is something that could be used here, since Journeys isn't exactly using the whole teams fully right now and at least some fun interactions and personality moments would at least keep them memorable in the meantime.

 

[game3524]

Considering this is the Pokémon World Championship that’s definitely a mistep because I figured theyd be portraying Satoshi’s Team as something akin to sports teams, a brotherhood of love and struggle but they still feel kind of like strangers to me.

Part of the issue IMO is that PWC is really set up to be a sequel and the writers are caught between treating it like the next step for Ash and a back to square one "gym" quest. Writing wise IMO, it would have made sense if Ash entered PM with his SM team on hand (sort of like how he entered Johto with his Kanto team and the BF with the majority of his Hoenn team). The "band of brothers" theme they may want to portray would have felt a lot more authentic.

But that isn't an option since this is a merchandise driven show and Ash has to have new Pokemon to showcase.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Ash personally emancipated every non-Alolan brother from his team.

The sisters did it themselves, though.

 

[Leonhart]

Part of the issue IMO is that PWC is really set up to be a sequel and the writers are caught between treating it like the next step for Ash and a back to square one "gym" quest. Writing wise IMO, it would have made sense if Ash entered PM with his SM team on hand (sort of like how he entered Johto with his Kanto team and the BF with the majority of his Hoenn team). The "band of brothers" theme they may want to portray would have felt a lot more authentic.

But that isn't an option since this is a merchandise driven show and Ash has to have new Pokemon to showcase.

Considering that Satoshi had to start from the bottom when he decided that he wanted to compete in the World Championships, I doubt that the writers would've brought his SM team along with him when he left Alola at the end of SM even if the marketing of new Pokemon wasn't a factor, because him using an ultra strong team in the lower World Championship tiers would've been overkill.

 

[Blue Saturday]

I guess I’m kind of at a point with Satoshi captures where I honestly would prefer a stronger showing in screen and development versus him just catching them for clout. Gengar, Kamonegi and Kairyu are great Pokémon on a surface level but they haven’t really done much of anything in terms of showing a good storyline, relationship or any character arc. With Gengar it’s especially glaring given its early setup, popularity and capture to see we’ll soon be hitting the 50-episode mark and it hasn’t had any real big moment or relationships with anyone despite its abandonment.

Adding Mewtwo, could be really interesting and exciting in new in terms of bettering that area of his PM2019 team but I would be a bit disappointed if it was caught and sort of just was..there. It felt groundbreaking to see Satoshi/Gou get these fully-evolved and strong Pokémon but it makes the actual fanfare feel hollow when they don’t use them often anyway or give them any of the shine or moments that made the species beloved in the anime before. There’s a reason why the original Mewtwo was so popular and beloved.

Doesn’t everyone remember the personable and fun Ghost from Kanto? It’s moment at the gym battle, it’s way of joining Satoshi, Satoshi’s out-of-body experience? The writers are kind of missing the mark on that because Gengar doesn’t feel like a quirky and unique character it just feels like a regular ol’ Ghost-type PokémonTM. It’s just “there.” Which is strange given how the first episode portrayed it as a real menace, damaged and poltergeist that they wouldn’t bother to touch on its relationships with its trainer.

 

[LucasMV]

I was pleasantly surprised that Gengar showed up in the most recent episode. I think he did great.
But at the same time I felt bad for poor Farfetch'd. He was literally the only pokemon Ash didn't use.

It'd be nice if Ash vs Rose involves more of his team than just Pikachu.

 

[lolipiece]

Unless Farfetch'd gets an actual Fighting move, any battling it'll do will most likely end in defeat.

 

[Deleted member 384931]

Unless Farfetch'd gets an actual Fighting move, any battling it'll do will most likely end in defeat.

I am conflicted: I like a pokemon with cool dark moves for once, but a fighting type without fighting type moves is weird

 

[game3524]

Considering that Satoshi had to start from the bottom when he decided that he wanted to compete in the World Championships, I doubt that the writers would've brought his SM team along with him when he left Alola at the end of SM even if the marketing of new Pokemon wasn't a factor, because him using an ultra strong team in the lower World Championship tiers would've been overkill.

Not really.

In his first matched, he used Pikachu (who hasn't been reseted) and Gengar (a fully evolved) Pokemon in his first official match for the PWC. Later, He used Dragonite to fight a Mega Lucario to move out of the Normal tier. So I don't buy the notion that his SM team was too "powerful" to carry over into the PWC.

 

[Leonhart]

Not really.

In his first matched, he used Pikachu (who hasn't been reseted) and Gengar (a fully evolved) Pokemon in his first official match for the PWC. Later, He used Dragonite to fight a Mega Lucario to move out of the Normal tier. So I don't buy the notion that his SM team was too "powerful" to carry over into the PWC.

Pikachu's power is inconsistent regardless of him being reset or not which is why he tends to lose every other battle he's in despite being so seasoned and experienced, so Satoshi using him against opponents early in the World Championship circuit is sort of a moot point since those battles could've gone either way.

Also from my perspective, Gangar isn't a good example considering that it lost to a substitute Gym Leader's Marumine of all things [and then Corni's Lucario without landing any hits not long after]. It being fully-evolved didn't change the fact that Satoshi hadn't put in any training with it, so Gangar wasn't automatically as strong as Satoshi's SM Pokemon.

 

[CMButch]

I would like episode similar to that Johto episode where Ash's starters got lost in cave just in this case it is about Ash's PJ team.I would like to see comedy,action ,interraction and drama between them.

 

[Ignition]

I would like episode similar to that Johto episode where Ash's starters got lost in cave just in this case it is about Ash's PJ team.I would like to see comedy,action ,interraction and drama between them.

This is why I was surprised they evolved Scorbunny before the other 2 starters debuted. It’s been a tradition in nearly every saga for at least the starters to get separated from Ash’s group. Those are some of my favorite episodes too so it’s unfortunate we won’t get that

 

[Red and Blue]

I feel like if Ash had gotten Sobble instead of G. Farfetch'd his team may of had more of an interesting dynamic. The rest of his Pokemon could have acted as Big brothers to help it stop crying and become more confident. Would have given Gengar more to do.

Granted we did get a scene with Dragonite hugging Sobble but still

 

[ShadowForce720]

I feel like if Ash had gotten Sobble instead of G. Farfetch'd his team may of had more of an interesting dynamic. The rest of his Pokemon could have acted as Big brothers to help it stop crying and become more confident. Would have given Gengar more to do.

Granted we did get a scene with Dragonite hugging Sobble but still

In all honesty I don’t think anything would have really changed that much if Ash had gotten Sobble instead of G.Farfetch’d.

If anything that change it would probably be that some people would be complaining about how Sobble is being shafted in favor of Riolu.

 

[Red and Blue]

In all honesty I don’t think anything would have really changed that much if Ash had gotten Sobble instead of G.Farfetch’d.

If anything that change it would probably be that some people would be complaining about how Sobble is being shafted in favor of Riolu.

Well Sobble is a starter so they might of motivated the writers to give it more screentime compared to Farfetch'd. We already see that with Go since it's his second most prominent Pokemon behind Raboot.