The Writing Was On The Wall Re: Journeys series

[OshyHikari]

I think looking in hindsight, this series had a lot of hints to being set up as Ash's farewell series coupled with it ending in the year of the anime's 25th anniversary. There was no way they were able to keep raising stakes higher and higher because Ash, as World Monarch, is no longer below any other trainer. There was literally nothing left for Ash to achieve, and his Journeys team was being treated as if it is indeed Ash's ultimate team, though I didn't like how they suffered from far less development compared to his previous teams, causing me to not look at them as a great Ash team.

Heck, even JPR speculated that Journeys would be the series where Ash would finally ride off into the sunset and join the many other now-retired iconic anime protagonists. Here's a throwback to this video he posted back in March on the topic, and it seems like he also brought up the theory of the Gen 9 anime taking place several years in the future with a child of Ash becoming the one his main hero torch gets passed to, a theory that's now being discussed regarding Ash's successor Riko. The reason we didn't believe him at the time was because we never thought TPCI would have the balls to retire Ash, let alone Pikachu from the series. Maybe Ash might still make guest appearances as an older, more mature "legacy trainer" that Riko and Roy were inspired by.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

lol Ash reunited with Serena for about a minute

When you think this is ALL they got considering Ash is leaving, it's insulting.

Still chance in Aim to be a Pokemon Master.
And yes you’re right it’s insulting.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Still chance in Aim to be a Pokemon Master.

My guess is the writers just want those two far away from each other because Serena's kiss of death would be too big to talk about past the one-minute mark.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

My guess is the writers just want those two far away from each other because Serena's kiss of death would be too big to talk about past the one-minute mark.

Yep.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

One minor thing I wish Journeys did differently was introduce Lyla & Sterling earlier in the series as Goh’s rivals. I loved their characters and I could’ve seen them as the new Harley/Ursula (or at the very least as Pokémon’s version of Krystella & Clay from Chaotic), but I felt they were criminally underutilized in the two Project Mew episodes they were in.

I could’ve easily seen them throughout the series stealing catches from Goh, defeating him in battles, performing all kinds of dirty tricks that go against what Ash & Goh stand for, or making Goh question his methods as a trainer. EX- In the Zapdos episode, Lyla could’ve knocked out & caught Zapdos after battling Goh and powering up the wild Electric types, or Sterling could’ve tried double crossing everyone else in the Golurk raid battle during the Desert Resort episode