Satoshi without a starter, does it work?

[RafaSceptile]

It depends entirely on the writers: You can have 3 starters that works well (like Kanto), or 3 that didn't work well (Johto, Unova), you can have 1 outshining the other (Infernape vs Torterra) or have mid-well develop starters (Sceptile, Greninja, Rowlet-Incineroar).

The problem with Journeys is not the lack of a starter, it is the lack of screentime of any Pokémon on Ash's team (excluding Pikachu)

 

[ImBeVillain]

If the writers hadn't been focusing more time on Goh, we'd probably have gotten more screen time focused on Ash's entire team. The lack of starters for Ash's team is not a problem - I would like to point out that they planned to treat Riolu as a starter from the beginning.

Honestly, I don't care about any starters unless Empoleon join. I'm glad that Ash has powerful pokemons in his team and I don't mind it, I just want the writers to start focusing heavily on Ash's team because the World Cup final is coming soon.

I would also like to share my opinion - the initial starter DOES NOT FIT with a stronger team like Ash has. Too much uneven balance of power. If he had such a starter, he would have to fight trainers from Normal Class, not Ultra Class or Master. However, final evolution form starters would be welcome in Ash's team.

 

[Ignition]

The thing that surprises me most about the treatment of his Journeys team is that you’d expect this cast of fan favorite Pokémon to be in nearly every episode but they easily have the least amount of collective screentime for any team even if you look for the first ~90 episodes of others series since Journeys isn’t over yet.

Another thing that helped with his starters is that they were caught unevolved and the ones who were the “aces” like Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape, & Greninja had a lot of their development tied to each of their evolutionary stages. Out of his 5 Pokémon for this series, 2 were caught fully evolved and 1 can’t evolve. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Lucario & Sirfetch’d got the most relatively consistent development since they had time to work on something which is easier to show through their pre evolved forms. Even with his old teams, Pokémon that couldn’t/didn’t evolve like Noctowl, Corphish, Torkoal, Palpitoad, & Hawlucha got little to no development outside of their debut episodes. Some of them made up for it with their personalities and/or battle skill but a lot just kind of phased into the background. I’m not saying him catching a Dratini, Gastly, and any combination of the Galar starters would’ve suddenly given his team significantly more screentime but it definitely would’ve helped.

 

[tsunamimijumaru]

Definitely a lot of interesting points here.

Overall it depends on the writing. This is the first time we've had a team that didn't include a starter and yet this is probably the worst showing of a team we've had. He's caught fan favourites but yet they disappear for episodes on end which is ridiculous because there's a home base this series where there's been plenty of scenes where we see gohs pokemon just chilling and we just came off a series like SM that did a good job fleshing out the team in all sorts of ways even when one was released and another caught was late.

I like that Ash has caught fan favourites likehe Dragonite and Gengar this series but if they took the time to actually develop them then I don't think it would really matter if they were caught in their prevo states.

I personally don't have a problem with Ash getting a starter as long everything else he catches is fleshed out well enough. Also they're some of the most important pokemon in the franchise and it makes sense for him to have one to represent the newest region. At the end of the series the only galar rep he will have a is Dracovish and Sirfetch'd which is a pretty lackluster amount and Sirfetch'd just came from another Kanto mon.

He doesn't need all 3 starters. This was fine in Kanto as it was a good way to represent the first gen but everything else still got shafted. Johto and Unova this was unnecessary. One starter is OK I guess but they eventually get to a point where only the starter gets the most showing. So funny enough an in between of starters is when other team members get a good showing.

There's been way too much focus on goh and the way his starters have been treated has been poor. Cinderace is OK but they could have at least done more with sobble. Grookey however is literally just there. He's been around for 31 episodes now and hasn't even used a move

 

[SatoSereFan224888]

I think it works.

 

[Leonhart]

In retrospect it doesn't matter whether Satoshi gets a Starter Pokemon or not since the writers will always find a replacement Pokemon that serves the same function in any case, such as Lucario in this series.

 

[Zoruagible]

I have to say no. Nobody should get all three starters and even if there was a third character, that doesn't necessarily work as Marshtomp, Chespin and Primarina were all boring and mostly background Pokemon. Besides you really want third wheel to have a starter as possibly 1/2 or 1/3 of their team? Yeah no thanks

Scorbunny and Sobble may have evolved the whole way but they were rushed(not to mention unearned) and then hastily pushed aside once they evolved either the whole way or once in Sobble's case. It's just the same old problem of one character having three only handled differently. Two should be the maximum that a trainer has, three has never been handled right and I don't see it ever working out. Besides it's not like Charizard, Infernape, Sceptile and the rest return right away(if at all). They aren't going to have Greninja come in and steal the show from Water starter 9 or Charizard from Fire starter 9 ten episodes in! Every starter is different and not the same, Ash can have more Fire starters without clashing with what he has and Arceus knows he needs more developed Water ones, Squirtle and Greninja are the only ones!

I still wanna see a Pokegirl with the Grass starter as her main, hasn't been done yet! Nor does Ash own non-starter Grass types part from Leavanny so I'd very much like to see him with the Fire or Water starter next saga. Maybe Fire since it's currently not present within his Journeys team

 

[Deleted member 384931]

Chemistry is indeed an important aspect. Something JOURNEYS DOESN'T HAVE! I mean we got like three scenes where they pokemon are all together: the Aloloan one, the Iris one in the park and JN085

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

I still wanna see a Pokegirl with the Grass starter as her main, hasn't been done yet!

Same I still maintain that Iris should've had Snivy and Dawn should've gotten Chikorita instead of Cyndaquil

While May did have Venusaur it wasn't native to her own Generation.

I personally think that the reason why they don't give the girls Grass Starters is because most of the Female characters we've had are very cutesy and girly and none of the Grass Starters fall into the girly category with the exceptions of Chikorita and Snivy

Ironically the Generations where Chikorita and Snivy appeared are the 2 Generations where we had the most Tomboy-ish Female Companions (Misty and Iris)

Nor does Ash own non-starter Grass types part from Leavanny so I'd very much like to see him with the Fire or Water starter next saga. Maybe Fire since it's currently not present within his Journeys team

Let him get the Gen 9 Water Starter. He hasn't had one since Greninja.

 

[Deleted member 384931]

Same I still maintain that Iris should've had Snivy and Dawn should've gotten Chikorita instead of Cyndaquil

While May did have Venusaur it wasn't native to her own Generation.

I personally think that the reason why they don't give the girls Grass Starters is because most of the Female characters we've had are very cutesy and girly and none of the Grass Starters fall into the girly category with the exceptions of Chikorita and Snivy

Ironically the Generations where Chikorita and Snivy appeared are the 2 Generations where we had the most Tomboy-ish Female Companions (Misty and Iris)

Let him get the Gen 9 Water Starter. He hasn't had one since Greninja.

True! I mean it is a shame a female companion never got a Grass starter (ROWLET AND MALLOW, IS LIKE 1+1=2). Satoshi has 4 Water starters, 3 are unevolved, one fully. I hope they would treat it better than Oshawott or Totedile.

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

True! I mean it is a shame a female companion never got a Grass starter (ROWLET AND MALLOW, IS LIKE 1+1=2).

Rowlet even had a crush on Tsareena too like?

But then again, I'd rather have Ash with Rowlet than Toucannon as his Regional Bird....

Satoshi has 4 Water starters, 3 are unevolved, one fully. I hope they would treat it better than Oshawott or Totedile.

Ash has 5 Fire Starters and 6 Grass ones. Him getting another Water Starter isn't gonna hurt anyone

Plus his Water Starters are always treated the worst out of any other Starters.

Squirtle got the least amount of development compared to Bulbasaur and Charizard.

Totodile again was left in the dust compared to Cyndaquil and Bayleef

Oshawott was the butt of jokes compared to the more mature Snivy and the repeated sad backstory Pignite

The sole exception there is Greninja who lucked out since Ash had no other Starter it could compete with in that Gen
(Well that and Gamefreak was pushing the Frog really hard)

 

[Deleted member 384931]

Rowlet even had a crush on Tsareena too like?

But then again, I'd rather have Ash with Rowlet than Toucannon as his Regional Bird....


Ash has 5 Fire Starters and 6 Grass ones. Him getting another Water Starter isn't gonna hurt anyone

Plus his Water Starters are always treated the worst out of any other Starters.

Squirtle got the least amount of development compared to Bulbasaur and Charizard.

Totodile again was left in the dust compared to Cyndaquil and Bayleef

Oshawott was the butt of jokes compared to the more mature Snivy and the repeated sad backstory Pignite

The sole exception there is Greninja who lucked out since Ash had no other Starter it could compete with in that Gen
(Well that and Gamefreak was pushing the Frog really hard)

I know right lol! Toucannon was ugly as hell and kinda weak, tho maybe Trumbeak would have worked? Tho Rowlet and Mallow would fit greatly!

Fair! I mean his Grass starters are also a mixed bag (Torterra and Sceptile fully evolved while Bulbasaur, Snivy and Rowlet stayed in their basic forms) . Only all of his Fire starters fully evolved.

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

I know right lol! Toucannon was ugly as hell and kinda weak, tho maybe Trumbeak would have worked? Tho Rowlet and Mallow would fit greatly!

Fair! I mean his Grass starters are also a mixed bag (Torterra and Sceptile fully evolved while Bulbasaur, Snivy and Rowlet stayed in their basic forms) . Only all of his Fire starters fully evolved.

True but Bulbasaur and Rowlet were still fairly well handled

Out of all his Grass Starters only really Snivy and Torterra were handled poorly

 

[Deleted member 384931]

True but Bulbasaur and Rowlet were still fairly well handled

Out of all his Grass Starters only really Snivy and Torterra were handled poorly

True Snivy never learnt a new move in 138 episodes. And Torterra we know how that went.

 

[kamineko23]

It's interesting that three starters of Pokemon Legends: Arceus (Rowlet, Cyndaquil/Quilava, and Oshawott) are some starters that Ash currently has but haven't fully evolved yet.

I just hope that the writers would bring back either of them (or all of them) to Ash's team again to connect the story on the anime and PLA. Although I don't know how will they do that.

 

[Litleonid]

No...It feels so wrong and under Goh, they've been handled horrendously, rarely ever being showcased in interesting ways like Ash would and having very rushed development.

 

[Almighty Zard]

While I will agree that Sobble should've been handled better since it's evolutions weren't exactly handled well.

I'm fine with Ash not getting a starter, heck I'm glad he didn't since i'm tired of it looking like a starter was always a lock for Ash, and more so fire and grass which get way too much attention.

If he had gotten Sobble i wouldn't have cared as much, but overall i'm glad he didn't get one this time.

 

[ShinyCharyZard]

Does it work? Yes, because a starter is just another Pokemon and this gives a chance to those which wouldn't usually make it onto the team..

Would I have preferred it if Ash received Grookey? Also Yes, because it would actually be doing something right now, rather than sitting on Goh doing nothing all the time. Plus it is the best of the starters this time around, so it would've been better as part of a good team regardless. Goh didn't need to get all three starters, let's face it. He could've fully evolved Scorbunny and kept Sobble as his little mascot, or the other way around, whatever..

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

People can disagree all they want but I prefer it when each Starter is split between 3 main characters like AG or XY.


Yeah yeah I know that usually results in at least 1 of them getting shafted but I would rather take 1 over all 3 of them getting the shaft.

 

[MartínK]

Yes but the way starters have been handled under Goh (Scorbunny evolved by itself just like the Sobble line and Raboot evolution was plot evolution, Grookey no comments), i think the writers did a mistake not giving Ash one of the three.

But let's be honest, if Goh was a trainer instead of a collector the starter trio would have been handled SO much better and nobody would be asking this question.