What happened to Ritchie?

[Deleted member 384931]

I think he died lol.

 

[Leonhart]

I still hope - we see him again. In some Special 25th anniversary episode in year 2022, ending of 8th generation.

If we didn't even see him in SM's Kanto nostalgia/20th anniversary episodes, I doubt he'd show up four years from now.

 

[raichu27]

I've been wondering about him, too. He was a cool guy. Ash's lost with him was very disappointing.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Tobias was nothing but bs. He basically had a team that was way too overpowered and there was literally no backstory about him. No one ever hinted at his existence until the League. You’d think a Gym Leader having to battle a Mythical Pokemon would be an unusual occurrence and worth mentioning to other challengers as a form of a heads up.

 

[Kutie Pie]

Being an Ash-clone aside, Ritchie's most likely irrelevant nowadays, especially since Ash ended up getting new rivals over time. It's probably for the same reason why Gary stopped traveling to challenge gyms and the League and therefore stopped being a rival to Ash: they just moved on. It's also possible that there just wasn't enough "room" to bring him back in even for one episode Hoenn-on or they did consider it, but chose not to. Chronicles was a cool edition to the Pokémon anime, but then they stopped producing them for whatever reason (and not just because they mainly focused around Kanto and Johto, they could've continued), so Ritchie's time came to an end then.

Or his appearances in Chronicles took place pre-Master Quest and he drowned during his exploration in the Whirl Islands. Or he's still there for off-screen research. Take your pick.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Chronicles seems to happen alongside the Hoenn region. Ritchie actually has a Taillow in one episode.

 

[Kutie Pie]

Chronicles seems to happen alongside the Hoenn region. Ritchie actually has a Taillow in one episode.

Well, how about this question: is Chronicles canon? I would assume so, but why does canon material have to be made into a spin-off? Didn't the fan-favorite "Training Daze" episode get retconned later down the road, or it retconned something from earlier or whatever? I feel like "Celebi & Joy" was the most awful Chronicles had to offer, but how canon is it? Someone jokingly said Pokémon 4Ever retconned Ritchie out of existence, but what if it happened there, hence why he ended up in the Sevii Islands which wasn't brought up before or since in the anime?

Actually, he wasn't even left behind on the Whirl Islands, he's off on the Sevii Islands that will never-ever-ever show up in the anime. He had to have been shoved off into "non-anime-canon" territory to never be seen again.

Ouch.

 

[Leonhart]

Most of the league rivals never show up again, Richie only got a few more appearances and that's it. It's like wondering when Tobias or Alan will show up again, they probably won't either.

He bonded very well with Satoshi though, so most fans probably think of him as being more important than most League rivals and therefore more likely to reappear.

 

[Daizy]

Y'know I wouldn't be too surprised if he was planned to come back in AG due to his Chronicle appearances but then maybe plans changed when the BF arc was planned.

 

[ash&charizardfan]

Rithie got bitchy so they had to replace him. In all seriusnes his time in the show eneded when they stopped making chronicles, many johto characters like casey, sakura also were seen last time in the series. After that he wasn't needed since continuity of the series started to decrease from there on.

I still hope - we see him again. In some Special 25th anniversary episode in year 2022, ending of 8th generation.

No doubt, 25th anniversary is the perfect time to bring all the ash's companions from the original trio to the 8th gen comapnions, it make more sense to bring them than in celebration of series completing quarter century which is some jubilee (bronze, silver or platinum). They did planned to bring them in movie 20 but they should bring them in movie 25 imagine the fanservice.