Are Ash’s Traveling Companions under Pressure?

[Paulisthebest]

Something that really caught my attention is how much the characters that travel around with Ash seem to feel pressure about something.

For May it was living up to the expectations of so many people that she’d be a great Pokemon Trainer like her dad Norman the pride and joy of Hoenn Gym Leaders.

Misty was living in the shadows of her fine older sisters and wanted to be the #1 Water Pokemon Master to prove herself.

Tracey…yeah he was just kinda there. The only “pressure” was getting to nerve to ask Oak if he could be his assistant.

Max just struggled with his own inability to be a trainer since he wasn’t 10…but that seemed to be fixed in DP when he Time Traveled a few years to become Conway xD

Cilan was pretty much free to do his own thing with 2 other brothers running the diner/gym. He just wants to learn from Ash is all and he just hates getting his dishes dirty or his food being ruined.

Iris’ bid to be a Dragon Master…um seems that she is “chosen” to be the next Gym Leader of the Dragon Gym in Unova but kinda seems to not let it worry her or enhance her training considering she still has A LOT to do. Her inability to make friends before her time with Ash kinda fueled that “pressure” of staying in the group. But really it is never an episode where the two don’t fight about something or she calls him names usually little kid. Training Axew to fully evolved seemed to just brush off her since she doesn’t really seem to train it anymore.

Dawn is the #1 on my personal list because he mom seemed like a major bitch. I really hate to say it like that but still. The girl was excited about going to her first contest, called up about making it to the Battle Round and after losing she is in tears and you scold her for calling you for support! Seems to me like once you reach 10 years old in the Pokemon World you are treated like an 18-year-old fresh out of high school; you better pick up and move out!

Brock HAD a lot of pressure with his mom “dying” and his dad a failed trainer on his own journey. He took care of all his little siblings ALONE!

Pokemon really doesn’t seem to have family values down as one of the themes of the series unless they are referring to Pokemon and Trainer or something like that.

Ash doesn't seem to be under pressure he is just an eternal 10-year-old out on the adventure of a lifetime!

Pikachu well for me the pressure is dealing with the unorthodox methods of his trainer not to mention suffering from "reboots" every series...oh and trying to be Poke-napped by 2 morons and their talking cat nearly every episode.

Who do you think has the most pressure?

 

[Hidden Mew]

This also seems more fitting as a Contest thread, so I'll move it to the Contest and Games section.

Anyway, I'd have to go with Dawn here since her desire to become a great Coordinator like her mother put a lot of pressure on herself. It also contributed to her moments of self-doubt and especially during her losing streak. Being basically told to talk to her Pokemon and two people she had just met instead of phoning her own mother for comfort and support after her first Contests didn't help either.

Most of the other characters either don't have much pressure or it doesn't affect them nearly as much. Brock's pressure was resolved after he met Ash since he just let his Dad take care of everything. Misty wanted to prove herself as being better than her sisters and becoming a Water Pokemon Master, but it didn't really affect her that much and she got over her issues with her sisters around Johto anyway. May never seemed to have much of a problem with living up to becoming a great trainer like her father, although that would have been interesting considering she was trying to be a Coordinator instead of a regular trainer. Max's problem had more to do with just being unable to become a trainer rather than being under pressure. Iris doesn't seem to be in any pressure to be the new Gym Leader or to have Axew evolve into a Haxorus. She has all the time she has to think about the offer. She doesn't even train Axew and the Village Elder clearly didn't have a problem with the fact that it is still unevolved despite how long she must have been gone. Ash, Tracey and Cilan pretty much have no pressure for any of their goals.

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

Definitely Dawn, Misty, and Ash.

Dawn in particular. I actually felt really sad for her as a coordinator when she lost her Super Contests. Coming from someone who didn't really enjoy the Sinnoh arc, that's some damn staying power. 100% agreed about her mom myself.

She had the most pressure to live up to her mother Johanna's high achievements.

In second, Misty. She was always treated fourth banana to her sisters and she was under pressure to be better than all three of them.

Ash at third himself. Mainly from us fans to actually win a league that's not the OI (or the BF) after 16+ years. XDDDD.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I still don't know if I'd consider Misty under that much pressure or if I'd even refer to it as pressure. It was mostly just anger/annoyance towards her sister than anything else and she was already confident in her skills as a Water Pokemon trainer, perhaps even too confident, so it didn't really affect her that much outside of really annoying her. I guess I can see why people would see that as pressure, especially compared to how most of the the characters, besides Dawn, don't really have much, if any pressure, but I don't quite think Misty had much pressure on herself either.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Depends on which traveling companion we are referring too.

Out of all companions Ash traveled through in this show this two without any doubt in my mind were out under most pressure thorough of their journey:
Misty: Because of sisters downplaying her being viewed as "useless runt" this caused revolt in character wanting to prove that she is better than them which set up ground for leaving gym and later deciding to become water master in first place. Because of them she toughen up ,often hiding her insecurity and self doubts with rough attitude when compared to "sensational trio". It wasn't until Misty traveled with Ash and Brock that she started to open toward them revealing more about past and softening up.

This can be noticed when sharing with her friends why winning doll set in Princess festival was so important to her and how she always got ruptured toys and worn out clothes wanting to prove to her sisters how she isn't worthless and can succeed on her own.
When competing in Whirl Cup with burning desire of wanting to become water master claiming how after she succeeds she will show to Daisy and others how she is better than them.

Or when battling unofficial gym leader Dorian being bothered alot when he talked how sisters are "better than her" wanting to win battle at any cost.
She felt need to prove how she is just as good as her sisters are wanting to defend her reputation as water trainer going through self doubts repeating i must win to herself.
Along through bonding with other people which had same issues with older siblings like Mikey from Eevee brothers or Sakura being able to relate herself to them and how she had/has same trouble with her family.

But many other trainers they met on travels as well being under pressure and wanting to prove how she is competent and skilled trainer which has poential to achieve her ultimate dream of mastering water type viewing any kind of such battle as being at high stakes. Such as when battling Andreas, Marina, Dorian, Harrison and several others.

Whenever Misty skills were put in question by other trainers, whenever sisters were brought up and portrayed as "superior" this caused turmoils in character acting abruptly and feeling need to prove herself to others and receive confirmation to her trainer skills putting pressure under her which gradually diminished over time.

Dawn: this goes without saying. She came from family whose mother was famous top coordinator which managed to win DP Grand Festival being put under magnifier by others expecting lot from her ever since she started journey. She was constantly overshadowed by Johanna fame and popular status with mother, her rivals and basically everyone expecting lot from her. Which put enormous amount of pressure under character breaking down when she lost several contests not even passing appeal round in one of them with character going through self questioning of whether she is cut out for coordinator career in first place thinking at some point of abandoning it. Which led to starting to reconsider her flaws and learning how to cope with problems and obstacles, depression she went through considering to give up from being coordinator and problems she had with rivals or pokemon like Mamoswine serving as test to her strength and ability to find way out of hard situations she was put in with desire of living up to her mother name and proving her talent to everyone keeping her from continuing to go on..

So way i see it Misty and Dawn out of all companions are the only ones for which i could say how they were put under some sort of pressure, whether that stress was caused by family or society. Especially in Dawn case.

 

[Master Cyrus]

Pikachu. I'm sure he was under a lot of pressure to not kill his knuckleheaded trainer loads of times.

 

[Fujioka]

I would say May since everyone expected her to be a trainer and be like her dad when that's not what she wanted to do. If I were May though I probably would have told my parents that I wasn't interested in collecting badges but I think she probably didn't want to disappoint them. I would probably say Dawn next since her mom was kind of bitchy with telling her she didn't need to call her all the time and stuff.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I would say May since everyone expected her to be a trainer and be like her dad when that's not what she wanted to do. If I were May though I probably would have told my parents that I wasn't interested in collecting badges but I think she probably didn't want to disappoint them. I would probably say Dawn next since her mom was kind of bitchy with telling her she didn't need to call her all the time and stuff.

I don't think that there was any indication that May's parents wanted her to go out collecting badges or that a lot of people expected her to be a great trainer like her father. They seemed like pretty laid back parents. Norman never had a problem with how May's battle skills with her Torchic after she got it were pretty bad and neither one of them had any problem with how she went into going into Contests instead of collecting badges. In fact, I think that only Professor Birch said that if she worked hard, she could be better than her father, but that was the only time that came up and that was more encouragement than pressure. There was also that town crazy obsessed with Norman, but they were more just praising her skills because she was his daughter, as opposed to telling her that she should be just like her father.

She said that she was using her Pokemon journey just as an excuse to travel, which she actually enjoyed more than Pokemon, but nothing about how she didn't want to disappoint her parents. Wanting to get out of her potential first Gym battle had a lot more to do with being uninterested in it and not having the skills or strong enough Pokemon to pull it off more than not wanting to disappoint her parents. I don't really see any pressure from May. There was a lot of potential there for conflict if they had made her parents, or at least Norman, more strict about becoming a trainer to follow in his footsteps, May dealing with the conflict of her dreams and her family's expectations and then the aftermath of her decision to become a Coordinator instead, but there was absolutely nothing like that for May. Dawn is still the only character so far that seemed to have dealt with pressure from her own expectations and goal of following in her mother's footsteps, along with the whole not wanting Dawn to call her all the time, even though that's more tough love, or just plain being a jerk, than putting pressure on Dawn.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Dawn, May and Iris.