Will Ash Use Reserves In The Alola League? Poll Tally!

[Genaller]

Fairly straightforward question. Just to be clear “reserves” mean the Pokémon Ash has caught in precious regions whom Ash can still call on if needed. Note that the options “will” and “won’t” refer to whether you think it’s likely or not for Ash to use reserves this saga given the information we know while the options “should” and “shouldn’t” refer to whether you think Ash ought to use reserves a.k.a do you want to see reserves at the Alola League.

For me the answer is “he won’t and he shouldn’t”. Based on the trend set by Unova and Kalos Ash doesn’t use reserves in conferences anymore. Certain people have claimed that Ash will use Kantonian reserves due to Kanto continuity + LGPE promotion. For the first point they’re fallaciously conflating general continuity to Kanto with continuity to Ash’s Kantonian Pokémon. By this I mean continuity to other aspects of Kanto like Ash’s mom or Brock and Misty are completely irrelevant to Ash’s Pokémon appearing in the league. As far as continuity to Ash’s Kantonian Pokémon is concerned that is primarily in SM 42 which was a fanservice episode dedicated to celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Pokémon anime with absolutely zero hints of any of the Pokémon in that episode returning as league reserves. Barring this would be some rare off-hand comment like Ash referencing Tauros though that’s been done in previous series like AG (a lot more frequently and yes I’m only talking pre-BF) yet didn’t use reserves at the Hoenn League.

As for LGPE promotion Ash is using 1 of the mascots and Ilima (an all but confirmed participant) is using the other, so the 2 most important Pokémon are already covered. Ash’s rivals can just use various Kanto Pokémon similar to how Sawyer used Hoenn Pokémon in order to promote ORAS. The reason why Ash shouldn’t use reserves at the Alola League is because as most of you know Battles are already less prevalent in SM compared to previous series meaning that on average Ash’s SM Pokémon have considerably fewer battle feats than Ash’s other Pokémon meaning that they need all the league battle time they can get and sharing this time with reserves would be really unfair to them especially since the Alola League is most likely going to be on the smaller end of leagues if not the smallest league in the show’s history since it’ll be new (unlike other conferences which are treated as long standing traditions in their respective regions) and Alola in general seems to be less populated than other regions (for evidence look no further than the class size of Ash’s “school”).

 

[Red and Blue]

Hard to say. He didn't use reserves for Unova and Kalos. It might happen but I'd be fine if he just used his Alolan team.

 

[andrewscott48209]

Shouldn't this be in the Anime polls?

 

[Genaller]

Shouldn't this be in the Anime polls?

I wasn’t sure since discussion of this topic could lead into spoiler territory for non-Jap version audiences (e.g. the new poster hinting towards more Kanto continuity which some people would cite as evidence for Ash using reserves). If the mods choose to move this to polls, then that’s fine by me.

 

[keepitsimple]

I'll say he won't, and usually I prefer it that way but this time I would prefer if he does because his Alolan team is horrendous and likely not league ready given how little they've battled

 

[Red and Blue]

Despite SM's lack of battles we have seen Ash train his Alolan Pokemon at the start of episodes. There should be enough time between now and the league for them to get enough experiance.

 

[AznKei]

I voted he won't and he shouldn't. I know some his past regional Pokemons could have been handled/treated better, but I rather see of his Alolan Pokemons, and Pikachu because he's the mascot, to get the spotlights on their own. Also, I don't really trust the producers/writers that they would suddenly redeem some of his past Pokemons if they do come back for the Alolan league.

 

[pokedigijedi]

I doubt it, but honestly I think he should because even though we've seen more on screen training his Alola team sucks in my opinion, bringing in the reserves would give the Alola team a much needed boost

 

[MidnightMelody]

Until we know the rules we can't say. It might be like a normal like it might not be.

Despite SM's lack of battles we have seen Ash train his Alolan Pokemon at the start of episodes. There should be enough time between now and the league for them to get enough experiance.

To be honest training and real experience are two different things. Add the fact he only has 4 pokemon with a little less than a year and I am a bit worried. With that said I forgot the league was a thing. It has been so down played in terms of other series. As long as it is not rushed and done well I am ok.

 

[Red and Blue]

Until we know the rules we can't say. It might be like a normal like it might not be.



To be honest training and real experience are two different things. Add the fact he only has 4 pokemon with a little less than a year and I am a bit worried. With that said I forgot the league was a thing. It has been so down played in terms of other series. As long as it is not rushed and done well I am ok.

Well he could be stronger than the average Alolan trainer. He did sweep two of the Kahunas on the first try.

 

[MidnightMelody]

Well he could be stronger than the average Alolan trainer. He did sweep two of the Kahunas on the first try.

This actually makes sense since it seems full on battling is new to Alola. Head canon wise I like to think the 3rd Kahuna actually went on journeys and knows a lot.

 

[Almighty Zard]

starting to think if we do get a league there ain't gonna be any full battles this go round.

 

[ShadowForce720]

starting to think if we do get a league there ain't gonna be any full battles this go round.

Based on what exactly? There really isn't any reason to think that there won't be any full battles in the league, so I don't know where this notions is coming from and before you try to say that oh well Kiawe can't catch enough pokemon to have a full team worse to worse he can just borrow pokemon from his farm if he needs to although Kiawe probably won't get to the full battles and will probably be knocked out before then, while Ilima could wind up being in a full battle if I had to guess they might just make his battle with Ash a 3vs3 and then have Ash face Hau and Gladion in a full battle however if Ash winds up having more then 2 full battles then there is a chance the battle with Ilima might wind up being a full battle.

Oh and before you try to make the argument that "oh well there won't be any full battles because Sun and Moon hasn't been very battle heavy", in all honestly that really doesn't effect the league. Basically unless the anime states otherwise there is no reason why we shouldn't expect to see full battles at the league.

 

[345ash-greninja]

I personally think that he likely will and also think he should. SM anime had time and again shown relations to Kanto (Gen 1) and every time Kanto (Gen 1) has been referenced so far in SM, past characters (human and Pokemon) have reappeared. Like during that field trip to Kanto, Misty and Brock came back in the anime and appeared for a while, plus when Ash's Pokemon at Oak's lab were shown, it's the Kanto mons like Bulbasaur and Muk who got more screentime, indicating SM relations to Kanto furthermore.

Now with LGPE promotion starting and Misty and Brock coming back again, the Kanto references can only be expected to increase and increase. During that field trip in Alola, when Ash's reserves were shown at Oak's lab, the Kanto mons got more screentime compared to the others. Each time SM made a Kanto reference, it was mostly through past Kanto characters reappearing, and with LGPE promotion coming in, and Misty/Brock making another reappearance it's certainly not unreasonable to say that the past characters from Kanto would start appearing more.

Each and every Kanto mon promotes LGPE, and there can't be a better promotion than Ash (the protagonist) using them. And I at this point find it a bit hard to see Ash catching 2 more Alola mons to complete a full team now at this point so Kanto reserves coming back to fill the slots is a plausible and a convenient way.

So for the aforementioned reasons I do think that Ash likely will use reserves in the Alola League, and I do also think that he should.

 

[ShadowForce720]

If Ash does wind up using some reserves at the league then I do think it will have a focus on his Kanto reserves in that most of the reserves we see him use in battle will probably be Kanto.

However I also do think that were going to see some of his reserves that didn't really get a chance to participate in battles at the Sinnoh league, for instance we might actually see him use Totodile or Corphish and we could see some members from the Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos teams be used although between those 3 teams I think Unova would get a bit bigger focus, just because some of the Unova pokemon didn't really get as much of a chance to show off at the Unova league like they should have.

Now I'm not saying that some of the reserves that participated in the Sinnoh league couldn't be used but I don't expect most of the reserves to be ones that have participated in a battle in the Sinnoh league.

 

[Ilikepiex7]

The good part of using reserves with a bit of a kanto focus is that Muk and Kingler could get used who both haven't been used in any official battles since Jhoto. Muk officially only knows 2 moves body slam and Sludge Bomb so this would give it a chance to finally get a full moveset.

 

[Rock Captain 99]

He should. But i can't say whether he will or not! Actually I would like to see a DP like league, in which there is a full battle with just the current mons, with the main rival. And reserves can be used for rest of the battles with focus on less used Pokemon.

 

[mehmeh1]

Well he could be stronger than the average Alolan trainer. He did sweep two of the Kahunas on the first try.

and he swept the third in his second try, so yeah, gladion, kukui, and maybe ilima have been the only trainers in alola we've seen so far that could reasonably take on ash (lusamine has a full team, but all of them got wrecked by the classmates with a bit of help of ash's pokemon)

 

[shoz999]

What are the chances of Ash getting that Eevee seen in the ending credits? Also I just have a strange hunch but with all that hair hanging down, I feel like in one episode they are going to give Eevee a haircut to market the Let's Go hair-styling feature. I just feel like if Ash does get that Eevee, they are not going to keep that hairstyle that way considering future anime seasons. Also who knows? Maybe if the Let's Go hype dies down, that Eevee will evolve into Espeon like in the games.

 

[Henry's Journey]

...if I had to guess they might just make his battle with Ash a 3vs3 and then have Ash face Hau and Gladion in a full battle however if Ash winds up having more then 2 full battles then there is a chance the battle with Ilima might wind up being a full battle.

Ok, this is WAY too much wishful thinking, 3 FULL battles at the starting Alola League of all leagues!?

We got 2 full battles in Johto, 3 full in Hoenn (the ONLY time ever), 2 in Sinnoh, 1 in Unova and 2 in Kalos... yeah not happening.

starting to think if we do get a league there ain't gonna be any full battles this go round.

Yes, this is what I'm thinking too! These Alola League battles might end up being 1 vs 1 and 3 vs 3 matches so he doesn't really need to use reserves and with 4 pokemon Ash currently have is enough.

I voted IDK.