If a Sword and Shield anime actually took 100% place in Galar, who would have been Ash's companions?

[Soublades192]

The era of Ash is coming to an end and looking back right now, Journeys is the AniPoke show that divides so many opinions, especially when it comes to the treatment of Galar. By dropping the traditional 'travel throughout the region' for a World Tour series, which to much debate..was not executed well. But what if there was a proper Sword and Shield series. A series where Ash goes back to his usual travel throughout the region, challenges the gyms, etc. Of course one would wonder who would be Ash's companions in a proper Sword and Shield series

Here is what I would think of potential candidates

Female companion : An anime version of Gloria, Marnie, Sonia

Male companion : Hop, Milo, Allister

What does everyone think of potential companions for Ash had it been a proper Sword and Shield anime?

Just a very convincing clue of how it could have been, take a look at this fan art from Lukas Thadeu :

Pokemon anime Sword Shield: POSTER by LukasThadeuART on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Scottish Gloria, haha

Seriously, though, my ideal “Galarian Journeys” group would probably just be Ash, Goh, and Chloe again, except with the latter right along with them from day one. Same personalities and goals for all of them, except integrated with the main Galar plot from the games. As a twist from the usual badge-collecting plot, said plot would be abandoned and Ash’s goal would instead be to win the Masters Eight Tournament and defeat Leon just like in canon. I’d love to see Gloria appear as a rival for Ash, possibly one who’s just as experienced as he is and also wants to beat Leon. Meanwhile, previous characters can continue to appear like they did in canon — possibly as guest companions — except that everything happens in Galar; perhaps some of them are also competing in the Masters Eight? This all sounds like a lot, yeah, but then Pokémon has an episode count that most other anime would kill for and yet said anime have done more with less. So with the right pacing and construction, I think that it could be done. Someone, write a fic treatment for this, haha!

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Allister and a female AOC (anime original character) that could be used as the game protagonist thanks to new customization features.

 

[Yeoch]

100% Allister for male companion. Period.
For female, not too sure. Misty could be an option, but then again she's been with Ash two times and has a gym to run. I'd say May or a new female companion for the anime.

 

[Soublades192]

100% Allister for male companion. Period.
For female, not too sure. Misty could be an option, but then again she's been with Ash two times and has a gym to run. I'd say May or a new female companion for the anime.

Honestly I would prefer someone new. Usually I see many people want an anime version of Gloria and I would wonder what direction her story would’ve been if she was there, but a part of me would’ve wanted to see Marnie as a companion

 

[Yeoch]

Honestly I would prefer someone new. Usually I see many people want an anime version of Gloria and I would wonder what direction her story would’ve been if she was there, but a part of me would’ve wanted to see Marnie as a companion

Someone new works well too.

 

[Sakuraa]

I'd have been fine with it just being Gloria. Seriously, if there's one thing Journeys did right, it was making the main cast a duo. I really don't think more than 2 main protagonists is necessary. If there just had to be another person, either Victor or an original character would be fine. Just absolutely no gym leaders.

 

[SlyGecko]

As I keep saying, I would of loved to see Sonia and Allister as companions. Let me explain.
I really wanted Sonia because it would of been interesting to see a female companion take the "older sibling" role like the guys do. Her goal would simply be her actual game goal. To travel and study galar's history.

With Allister, well I simply wanted a gym leader who would be in the minor league be a companion and I simply prefer him over Goardie. His goal will simply be to build a strong team so he could become a major league gym leader.

 

[Soublades192]

As I keep saying, I would of loved to see Sonia and Allister as companions. Let me explain.
I really wanted Sonia because it would of been interesting to see a female companion take the "older sibling" role like the guys do. Her goal would simply be her actual game goal. To travel and study galar's history.

With Allister, well I simply wanted a gym leader who would be in the minor league be a companion and I simply prefer him over Goardie. His goal will simply be to build a strong team so he could become a major league gym leader.

Honestly, I think Sonia could have been the female version of Brock had she been a companion for Ash. To be like the 'older figure' in the group

 

[Nicolas721]

Which ones would I have chosen? Sonia and Allister definitely had potential to be refreshing with their stories and to have good chemistry with Ash. Milo would also be a fun addition.

Which ones would the produces have chosen? We'll never know the answer, but we can make some educated guesses based on patterns and marketability. I'll ignore older characters because that's sadly how it works.

• Milo-Very likely. He seems easy to draw and has a fun personality. Would also make a god pair with Grookey and its evolutions, and his farmer background can be molded to almost any goal the writers would imagine.
• Nessa-Likely. She gives good big sister vibes, could be paired with Sobble and add some racial diversity. Also, her focus on the water's beauty could help her being more unique from Misty or Lana.
• Allister-Unlikely. Yes, he has lost of potential as the small kid who learns how to be more sociable, hence why I included him, but the problem is...the version exclusivity. Maybe they could pair him with Bea or negociate with Game Freak so that exclusivity is moved to another character, but with the conditions we have that would be my veridict.
• Bea-Likely. Her potential lies on the fact that she could be the first Fighting-type specialist companion and her harsh personality would contrast with Ash. But what makes her more likely than Allister if she's version exclusive too? Simply, initial interest. She was used early in the anime and had focus as soon as the second Twilight Wings ep. was produced so it's clear someone in the high ranks liked her.
• Sonia-Likely. Big brother characters and know-it-all characters are a classic, she's pretty and also uses the moderately popular Yamper. Though they would have to age her down a bit (and changing slightly her story with Leon) in the process as well as giving her more adventure-ready clothes.
• Hop-Unlikely. Too tied to Leon, and they couldn't use his postgame professor goal either as that would mean spoiling the game.
• Marnie-Likely. She's too tied to the league plot too, but owns Morpeko and was also designed to be popular, so they could change her goal if they wanted.
• Bede-Unlikely. He's villanious and too tied to the league too.
• Victor-Nope. Male protags have been ignored for a reason, I don't see them changing.
• Gloria-Very Likely. As a blank state they can shape her into anything they want.

So I guess it would be Ash + Gloria + Milo + a female wildcard of the ones I listed as "Likely" or Ash + Gloria + Allister + Bea.

 

[Poke Trey]

Hop and Marnie. Bede would be the recurring rival, just like JN they'd make Bea more of a big deal than expected, Piers calls Marnie every now and then on her progress, Team yell sort of shows up occasionally to stop our heroes, and the endgame tournament would consist of anime original trainers prior to Leon and Ash would win, just like in Alola.

 

[Palamon]

Maybe Allister and Gloria. Although, to be honest? None of the Gym Leaders feel like they'd work as Ash's travel companion had a real Galar anime actually happened. But, that's just my opinion.

 

[ShedJr_]

I can imagine him traveling with Hop, and either Gloria or Marnie. The main question I'd have is: Would've it been more comedy based (like Sun & Moon or Journeys), or would it have been more serious (like Best Wishes or XY). Either way, had it been 100% set in Galar, I would've watched it when it came out, I only started watching Journeys a few weeks back after deciding not to when it came out due to it being set in all different regions.

What Journeys could've been. ^

 

[Emelie]

I think it should have been Gloria. I'm sad that we haven't seen a female protagonist animated since Serena. I wish every season featured the female protagonist from the games.

Not sure who the third character would be. Since they were so focused on promoting Kanto and Gen 1 maybe they could have used Leaf/Green (who has an Eevee in Pokémon Masters) instead of Chloe? She could be like a combination of Go and Chloe since Pokémon Evolutions implied that she has a catching goal and wants to capture legendary Pokémon.

Or maybe something completely wild like Bede and Opal. I can imagine some fun slapstick with those two.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

I'm surprised how many people expected rivals like Marnie and Hop as companions.

 

[Emmy]

I'm surprised how many people expected rivals like Marnie and Hop as companions.

To be fair, for a "Rival" Marnie isn't nearly as competitive with the Player as Hop is and her schtick of Team Yell causing trouble in trying to help her could easily be tweaked to still work as a companion - heck it might even cause humorous moments where Teams Rocket and Yell could either work together or fight each other depending on what their objectives of the day are.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm surprised how many people expected rivals like Marnie and Hop as companions.

Hop is basically the secondary protagonist of the games. While he is the main rival, I don't think it would have been a stretch to include him in the main cast with his role in the storyline in mind. It might have been more plausible for them to make Hop a reappearing character given how they normally handle rivals, but I think that they could have made him work in the cast. Marnie is less of a typical rival compared to Hop and Bede, to the point where it felt like she was kind of tacked on in the games, so the anime might have had more wiggle room to expand on her character.

 

[Soublades192]

I am surprised not many wanted Sonia to be a companion. I feel Ash always was in a due date for a female companion that would act like a big sister figure for him. I thought Alexa was gonna be with being used as Kalos teaser during the end of BW, but that did come to full

 

[c la fet]

I am surprised not many wanted Sonia to be a companion. I feel Ash always was in a due date for a female companion that would act like a big sister figure for him. I thought Alexa was gonna be with being used as Kalos teaser during the end of BW, but that did come to full

Me too, I've always wanted to see an older anime Serena, like a sort of female Brock lol

I could see Peonia as Ash's female companion but she first appeared in the dlc so that doesn't really work

 

[Turbo]

Before the knowledge of DLC:
Alister and Gloria a group of 3

• Gloria fills that standard girl companion and no one from the gym leaders and other characters fits it that well this gen so they can do anything with Gloria
• Where Alister fills that similar age gym leader role they Clemont, Kiawe and etc have done and his story can be a more longer version of the story they did in the anime

Plus I do think that they would pick Bea over Alister as the gym leader for Ash to battle so making use of Alister like this makes sense to me

After DLC :
Avery/Klara and Peonia and Hyde as a group of 4

• Hyde is that more smart tech character and his cram-o-matic can be a good focus for his goals and etc
• Peonia can fit the May/Serena/Chloe part of not knowing exactly what to do and kinda just wants to travel and that gets answer at some point
• Either Avery or Klara give that older character presence like Brock and Cilan but also have a more trackable goal as they want to be a gym leader

Bonus picks: the other gym challengers as they do canonically have names and quirks and such and maybe one of the ones that lose early pivots in a different direction for example

I do like other choices of Milo Nessa Gordie Sonia as well