Why do you think the writers made Ash's bird so powerful?

[Zoramon089]

I mean if you look at Ash's previous bird pokemon they all kinda...sucked. Pigeotto was pretty strong, with Pigeot being powerful (except he let it go...) and Noctowl was probably one of his weakest pokemon. Swellow on the other hand is easily one of his strongest Hoenn pokemon, and in Ash's top 5 pokemon.

So why did the writers all of sudden make it so powerful? After neglecting Ash's previous pokemon why did they make Swellow not only decent but really good?

 

[Heracross]

To make up for the previous two getting the shaft maybe?

 

[The Benmeister]

Swellow is probably the best common bird in the games and so, maybe, recreated it in the anime to fit that position.

Or, what Heracross said.

 

[ChaosMage]

Well, May is poweful because she's a talented, well-practised co-ordinator, and being Ash's bird makes any girl uber.

 

[intergalactic platypus]

ChaosMage, how in the name of all things unholy is May a bird? On topic, I think its cause the other two were screwed over so they wanted to give the flying type a fair shot

 

[Kakashi-Sharingan Warrior]

ChaosMage, how in the name of all things unholy is May a bird? On topic, I think its cause the other two were screwed over so they wanted to give the flying type a fair shot

it's advanceshipping.... referring to May as Ash's bird

anyway, I think Heracross taken the words out of my mouth, also maybe Swellow looks the most menacing out of all Ash's birds, (Pidgeot looked to friendly)

 

[Gravy]

'Bird' is also slang for a young woman IP
It's used over here quite a bit, but I don't know about other countries.

As for the topic at hand. Bah. Heracross pretty much said it all.

Though I have to disagree with the thread starter concerning Ash's other two bird pokémon being 'weak'.
Pidgeotto was certainly anything but weak, but was far too often used for menial tasks, thus it was unable to develop as well as the other 4 pokémon on the team. I thought taking down a Staryu and it's evolved form with ease was a pretty good indication of it's potential.
Noctowl was perhaps not as physically strong as the other two, but it had some incredibly impressive mental abilities at hand. Unfortunatly, these were pretty much abused, with crud like tackle and peck being the priority for some bizzare reason.
Though if I recall correctly, with the help of another Noctowl, it was able to haul an entire aeroplane safely to Olivine city. So that must say something about its physical prowess.

 

[raney]

*sighs* ash's bird pokemon are always foreseen as weakling's cause with a few exeptions there soul purpose in life was to pop tr's ballon

 

[ChaosMage]

Also, Taillow was evolved in the middle of a saga and has had plenty of development in both forms. Pidgeotto and Noctowl had evolved already, and had very little development. Pidgeotto finally evolved just when it left.

 

[Korobooshi Kojiro]

Noctowl was cool. Especially using drug like hallucinations on a Fearow!

 

[Torchic23]

As ChaosMage said, Ash has trained that Swellow from a tiny Tailow and he's carried it around for two regions so it's seriously got to be leveling up a lot! Plus, remember the pokedex said Tailow were tough fighters, I can't even imagine Swellow!

 

[Infinite Master Sceptile]

Probably because the writers like Swellow. The writers don't care about whether or not they have given Pokemon the shaft in the past. They apparently enjoy dictating the show according to whim.

 

[V Faction]

Soldier 1: Am I right?
King Arthur: I'm not interested!
Soldier 2: It could be carried by an African swallow.
King Arthur: Will you ask your master if he wants to join my court at Camelot?
Solider 1: Oh yeah, an African swallow, maybe, but not a European swallow. That's my point.
Solider 2: But then the African swallow's not migratory...

I wonder which Ash's is, African or European...

 

[Yamato-san]

Though if I recall correctly, with the help of another Noctowl, it was able to haul an entire aeroplane safely to Olivine city. So that must say something about its physical prowess.

That other Yorunozuku was old and feeble, too.

Also, Taillow was evolved in the middle of a saga and has had plenty of development in both forms. Pidgeotto and Noctowl had evolved already, and had very little development. Pidgeotto finally evolved just when it left.

But Subame was ignored worse than Satoshi's other birds at first. It was only until he evolved into Oosubame that the writers seemed to start taking more heed of it. And I don't think evolution has much to do with its development and longevity. I mean, look at Heigani, or even Pikachu. The problem with Pigeon, as I've said a lot, is that he got shafted in favor of the Kantou starters, which just had to take the limelight every possible second (if anyone's still gonna deny Kantou had advertising, I suggest looking for a comment I made in yet another Kasumi/Haruka thread, forget which one, which involves internet touch-simulators becoming widespread in the possible future and bi***-slapping). Before they appeared, though, he was used quite prominently and was likely Satoshi's strongest Pokemon.

It was probably the same with Yorunozuku, they wanted to show off Satoshi's Jouto starters (and it doesn't help matters that he got it AFTER he got all the starters). In Houen, Satoshi only got one starter. The writers probably had enough to realize sense that they couldn't go on just showcasing and properly developing just one of Satoshi's Pokemon (two if we include Pikachu), so they felt the need to put it on Satoshi's other Pokemon this time around, including his regional bird. 'Course, this isn't to say there wasn't still someone getting the shaft (poor, poor Cotoise), and ironically, his starter seems to have ended up being overshadowed by Oosubame and Heigani as Houen drew to a close and Battle Frontier began. Fortunately, they seem to have gotten much better with evening out the showcasing of Satoshi's team in Battle Frontier.... now if only they'd do the same with Haruka's team (you'd think having only three members, which turned to four very recently, and all contests now having Grand Festival rules would mean something, but they choose to overemphasize on the crap) -_-.

 

[~Fire&Ice~]

Yamato-san took the words right out of my mouth. Just think of it. What horror would have happened to Ash if his team was made up of Pokemon like the Johto Pokemon? Not saying that they were all bad though... You can say that writers deprived the Hoenn Pokemon of their "childhood" and made them grow up strong, really fast! They only had one regions worth of time to do it with so they would all have to be strong, including the often neglected bird Pokemon who was only called upon to fly someone somewhere or blow away Team Rockets Haze/Smokescreen/Smog or whatever...

 

[pikachu146]

Ash's flying types are all strong.Ash always lets them blow away the smoke or pop Team rocket's balloon.Pideotto was one of the most powerful pokemon of Ash in Kanto when he hasn't got Bulbasaur Charmandar Squirtle.Ash used it to catch caterpie,and it battled TR a lot.
Notowl did well when he was battling Morty's Ghosts.Its foresight helped a lot.
Swellow seemed to be the most powerful one,it beated a Venomoth,Scizor,Hariyama and Donphan in the Hoenn League.

 

[ChaosMage]

Pideotto was one of the most powerful pokemon of Ash in Kanto when he hasn't got Bulbasaur Charmandar Squirtle.Ash used it to catch caterpie,and it battled TR a lot.

10 points to anyone who spots this mistake.

Swellow, being its sexy and amzing self, never goes down without leaving a trail of corpses behind it. It's Ash's strongest and most bad-arse bird, and one of the best pokemon Ash has ever owned. I can only imagine how strong his D/P flyer turns out to be!

 

[Cerberus]

It was his first hoenn Pokemon no?

 

[jolteonjak]

Yes Cerebus.

I think it became strong because the writers needed it to be. Ash talked all the time about not using his reserves. He'd only use his Hoenn Pokemon. The writers can get away (sadly) with having 5 strong team members and 1 not-so-strong...which they seemed to immediately dishonor Torkoal with. They couldn't do the same to Swellow since maybe it would be less believable to have 2 not-so-strong team members (though IMO Pikachu had a horrible League this time around...which is just fine by me).

 

[.Bambi.]

Yup, Heracross pretty much said it all...in such few words too.

I guess the reasons why the writers made Swellow so powerful is because they haven't exactly had much success with the previous Region Birds. Pidgeotto was shafted as hell, and Noctowl was weak AND shafted as hell. There was only room to go up from that point.

Look at Taillow, it was shafted and weak as well. So the writers, not wanting it to receive the same fate as Pidgeot and Noctowl, evolved the thing, gave it lots of screen time, and lots of battles which it did amazingly well it. Not to mention it has that resistance to Electric attacks going for it.


I personally think it's about damn time.