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Ash with a Houndour/Houndoom

owenpeterson

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If anyone recalls back in Johto, Ash and his friends encountered a Houndour and it grew to respect Ash. One wonders how great of an addition it would have made to Ash's team if it had decided to join him. I can also imagine Houndour being somewhat of a guard dog so to speak for Ash and the others. Just imagine the bites it would give to Jessie, James, and Meowth. Sometime down the road it would have probably evolved into Houndoom.

Do you think Houndour/Houndoom would have been a good addition to Ash's team in Johto?
 
I think the question is very well answered in RtbaPM - Johto arc, Chapter 18 onward.

By chance, did you make this thread because of the aforementioned story?
I don't think I've ever read it. I was referring to in the anime.
 
I think Houndour would have been a good choice. The "protective guard dog" angle could have been fun, and it would make sense for him to have a Dark type when they were first introduced.
 
It wouldn't have been a good team addition unless Cyndaquil had been given the boot. Ash's Johto team was already messy because of there being two Grass types on it for half the region and Heracross being sent away a short while after he was caught which made no sense to me. Having a second Fire type on top of the other disasters on that team would've been a bad decision.
 
I think it would have a been a cool and interesting choice for Ash's Johto team. I definitely remember thinking that they were building up to Ash catching a Houndour when I first watched that episode. Although, I agree that having two Fire types on top of two Grass types would have made his Johto team even more unbalanced. I definitely don't think that they would have skipped Ash getting Cyndaquil. Having Bulbasaur leave much earlier in Johto might have made two Fire types work though, especially when it didn't really do much of anything prior to being set to Professor Oak's lab anyway. It would sometimes be used during filler episodes, but that was about it.
 
thats why they made him battle one with Harrison... if Hondour gets and new regional evolution diffrent then Houndoom why not? a fire/ghost would be cool.
 
I wish the Kanto team in general were given the boot earlier so that the Johto Pokemon could shine. I was very disappointed when Ash didn’t capture that Houndour. Johto suffers from these team problems which could largely be avoided if not for the Kanto team. They even get a lot of focus in the Johto league.

but in gen 4 anim we got Cyndaquils evolution to Quilava and learning Eruption, we got Donphan and Sceptile upgrade in Battle frontier and Sceptile battled Darkrai... Noctowl got a little move upgrade... Maybe in future Bayleef gets Grassy Glide in future?
Yes I know gen 2 team was low key but other Pokemon shined after gen 1 low key league and Orange Island redemption for Ash full 6 vs 6 battle.

It's not about the Kanto team but the amount and lenght of battles they plan for a generation and how much time they chose for doing nothing...
 
but in gen 4 anim we got Cyndaquils evolution to Quilava and learning Eruption,
And the battle after its evolution was off screen.

Sceptile upgrade in Battle frontier and Sceptile battled Darkrai...
Sceptile is a Hoenn Pokemon. I’m talking about Johto.

Noctowl got a little move upgrade... Maybe in future Bayleef gets Grassy Glide in future?
Last time we saw them (not counting the Unova photo) is more than 10 years ago.

Yes I know gen 2 team was low key but other Pokemon shined after gen 1 low key league and Orange Island redemption for Ash full 6 vs 6 battle.
That further helps my point. Gen 1 Pokemon got to battle in:
1. Kanto league.
2. Orange Island
3. Travelled to Johto so Johto Pokemon got less development.
4. Important battles in Johto league.

Whereas Johto Pokemon couldn’t even shine well in their own league and got some focus in Sinnoh, and even Sinnoh gave a better deal to the Hoenn Pokemon than the Johto ones.

It's not about the Kanto team but the amount and lenght of battles they plan for a generation and how much time they chose for doing nothing...
What do you mean here?
 
Regardless of how it might have 'fit' it would have been a good way of breaking up the great filler wasteland that was early-mid Johto: even if the mons were mostly sent to Oak a la Muk and Krabby.

Could easily have been used to turn the back to back 2-2 Cynda-Pika gyms into possibly three on three.
 
thats why they made him battle one with Harrison... if Hondour gets and new regional evolution diffrent then Houndoom why not? a fire/ghost would be cool.

I think the OP was specifically asking for our opinions on whether or not Houndour should have been caught in Johto not if that should happen now. Because Ash can get pretty much any Pokemon now so there's really no point in us debating about Houndour's odds of joining Ash's new team when there are 100's of other Pokemon vying for a spot on the team.
 
I wish the Kanto team in general were given the boot earlier so that the Johto Pokemon could shine. I was very disappointed when Ash didn’t capture that Houndour. Johto suffers from these team problems which could largely be avoided if not for the Kanto team. They even get a lot of focus in the Johto league.

Yeah, it took Ash a long time just to get the Johto starters in large part because he still had his Kanto team. Totodile never won a Gym battle and Cyndaquil definitely should have evolved much earlier. I still remember thinking that it was going to evolve after defeating Steelix. In retrospect, I can see why they didn't just give Ash a clean slate from the start. I don't think it would have made sense for him to drop off his Pokemon at Professor Oak's Lab, especially Charizard when it had just started to listen to him. Plus, they probably wanted to give bigger sendoffs to the Kanto starters than that, despite how they eventually did that with Bulbasaur.

I think some fans get annoyed or frustrated with how Ash's Pokemon aside from Pikachu only get one series to shine and while I can understand that to a point, that format is ultimately better in that he can get new team members sooner rather than later. The Johto team definitely could have been a bit more fleshed out if he was able to catch them sooner.
 
That further helps my point. Gen 1 Pokemon got to battle in:
1. Kanto league.
2. Orange Island
3. Travelled to Johto so Johto Pokemon got less development.
4. Important battles in Johto league.
Not to mention the Kanto team was brought back for the win over Brandon.
The capstone of the AG series involved none of the AG Pokémon.

I think some fans get annoyed or frustrated with how Ash's Pokemon aside from Pikachu only get one series to shine and while I can understand that to a point, that format is ultimately better in that he can get new team members sooner rather than later. The Johto team definitely could have been a bit more fleshed out if he was able to catch them sooner.
I think the AG/DP era did a pretty good job of making it clear his reserves weren't completely forgotten while giving most of the focus to the new ones, though AG, as mentioned above, tripped at the finish line by giving Ash's second major win to the Kanto team.

It's interesting to note how the older Pokémon steadily got less relevant over time:
*The Kanto team carried directly over into Johto
*The last year of AG had reserves appearing for major battles
*Some of the reserves were used during the Sinnoh league
*They got to appear in BW at the ranch, Charizard came back for a bit
*Not even a cameo in XY
*SuMo backtracked slightly with a few appearances

I do wonder if after BW they stopped doing the "everyone appears at Oak's ranch" episodes due to concerns of him having too many Pokémon after a while for it to be practical.
 
I do wonder if after BW they stopped doing the "everyone appears at Oak's ranch" episodes due to concerns of him having too many Pokémon after a while for it to be practical.

Seems likely, though I think the Oak episode from SM went too far in the other direction with only a few of Ash's Pokemon appearing.
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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