Pokemon went downhill once Johto began. The series went from focusing on winning Pokemon battles (in the Indigo League) to helping out other trainers with their Pokemon. Look at the difference from the Indigo League how quickly Ash got his 8 badges and completed in the Pokemon league tournament in one season. In Johto it took Ash three seasons to collect all his badges and compete. Starting in Johto, each Pokemon episode was designed to introduce an individual Pokemon to viewers and the regional league was stretched out from one to three seasons. It also seems that during Johto, the show became more childish. In the Indigo and Orange Island episodes, the battles were intense and well played out, but from Johto forward, the battles seemed to become watered down. Even though the Johto episodes went downhill, I still stuck with the series until the Hoenn league began. That is when I had to stop watching. Starting from Hoenn, the show went downhill into a repetitive cycle that has continued onto today - Ash goes to a new region and leaves all his Pokemon behind except Pikachu, he meets a new female companion, collects badges, competes in a Pokemon League tournament and never wins, then the same cycle repeats itself over and over again in every new region.
If the plan for Pokemon to just go from new region to region, they should have had a new character take Ash's place. Granted, Johto was recent enough to the original Pokemon fad where Ash deserved to remain in the series, not to mention Misty was still at his side along with the nagging from his long time rival Gary. But when Hoenn began Misty and Gary got written off the show (at least as background characters with occasional appearances), that is when they should have written Ash off the show as well. Maybe when Hoenn began, have Brendan as the main character alongside May (as in the Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire Games), then when the Diamond & Pearl episodes began have the main characters just Lucas and Dawn, and so on with each new region.
That is what Power Rangers did, which has been on tv longer than Pokemon. Could you imagine if they had Jason, Billy or Tommy as the main Power Ranger after 26 seasons. That is how Pokemon should have run the series with a new main male character each season, instead of keeping Ash as the ageless 10 year old boy who always loses and never gets better.
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Re: Random: As The Pokémon Anime Hits 1000 Episodes, One Thing Is Clear: Ash Sucks At Pokémon
Pokemon went downhill once Johto began. The series went from focusing on winning Pokemon battles (in the Indigo League) to helping out other trainers with their Pokemon. Look at the difference from the Indigo League how quickly Ash got his 8 badges and completed in the Pokemon league tournament in one season. In Johto it took Ash three seasons to collect all his badges and compete. Starting in Johto, each Pokemon episode was designed to introduce an individual Pokemon to viewers and the regional league was stretched out from one to three seasons. It also seems that during Johto, the show became more childish. In the Indigo and Orange Island episodes, the battles were intense and well played out, but from Johto forward, the battles seemed to become watered down. Even though the Johto episodes went downhill, I still stuck with the series until the Hoenn league began. That is when I had to stop watching. Starting from Hoenn, the show went downhill into a repetitive cycle that has continued onto today - Ash goes to a new region and leaves all his Pokemon behind except Pikachu, he meets a new female companion, collects badges, competes in a Pokemon League tournament and never wins, then the same cycle repeats itself over and over again in every new region.
If the plan for Pokemon to just go from new region to region, they should have had a new character take Ash's place. Granted, Johto was recent enough to the original Pokemon fad where Ash deserved to remain in the series, not to mention Misty was still at his side along with the nagging from his long time rival Gary. But when Hoenn began Misty and Gary got written off the show (at least as background characters with occasional appearances), that is when they should have written Ash off the show as well.
Maybe when Hoenn began, have Brendan as the main character alongside May (as in the Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire Games), then when the Diamond & Pearl episodes began have the main characters just Lucas and Dawn, and so on with each new region.
That is what Power Rangers did, which has been on tv longer than Pokemon. Could you imagine if they had Jason, Billy or Tommy as the main Power Ranger after 26 seasons. That is how Pokemon should have run the series with a new main male character each season, instead of keeping Ash as the ageless 10 year old boy who always loses and never gets better.