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Ash’s biggest screw-ups in BW Season 1

Oh, I'd hardly say it's worse than the original Kanto, purely for the matter that Ash DID win most of the badges fairly. (note: most. The circumstances of Virbank Gym are enough for me to technically call that a pity badge, which IS just as bad as Kanto) It's debatable whether the matter of Ash being stupid ALONE is bad, since the primary reason I find for people liking the original saga, other than nostalgia, is that the style was different from any other saga. It was played for laughs mostly. If that is what they were going for here, I honestly don't know what to say since I no longer find this to be funny. The true crime here IS that they sacrificed years of character development to do this. I was talking to someone yesterday, and indeed Ash being stupid is still irksome, but it was downplayed in AG and DP, or at least it wasn't as prominent. Yeah, here, it was taken up to 11 with no valid reason as to why other than the marketing department deems it so.
 
This whole season is a screw-up for Ash. He was pathetic during all season and I can't even imagine how anything can be worse than that. It is a shame Paul lost to him even though as we see he didn't deserve to loose to such a looser.
 
This whole season is a screw-up for Ash. He was pathetic during all season and I can't even imagine how anything can be worse than that. It is a shame Paul lost to him even though as we see he didn't deserve to loose to such a looser.

To be honest, I think you're going a little bit too far. Ash hasn't at all been pathetic the whole season. There has been several times that he has made some dumb mistakes, which you'd think he wouldn't do after all the training and hardships he endured during the DP saga and the experience he has gained from all the previous sagas, yes. But, there has also been times where he has actually proved to be quite remarkable and impressive.

Pretty much every season has had a few moments where you'd think that Ash was just plain stupid, or maybe amazing, and even though DP was the saga where Ash truly shined and BW was kind of a let down for his character development there has still been both great and not so great moments for his development in both sagas, so saying that he's just all pathetic and a loser is kinda unfair, if you'd ask me. He has had his fair share of dumb mistakes, but he's definitely not a loser.
 
For the record, Ash did try to catch a Treecko without first battling it in AG only to be reminded by May that he should weaken a Pokemon first before attempting a capture - which was rather ironic given that it was Ash who taught May that earlier. I believe this is the only other instance where this occurs, however.

As for the topic, I might have to agree about his confidence to win the Nimbassa gym with Palpitoad alone. Got to admit that that was rather amusing, yet a little annoying at the same time.
 
The one that really grinds my gears is Betting Scraggy in that battle. He didn't know that those two badges were the only experience she had. Morrison was implied to have had a long history of battling before going on his journey and Ash himself has tons of experience besides his badges not to mention varying paths and such. And just because he was teased really you're betting your friend you could have made her a counter offer like lets have a practice round first. This totally went against his friendly nature. Also his Companions were right there he didn't think their opinions of him would go down if you did something so heartless. If I was his traveling companion I would never let him hear the end of it.
 
My “favorite” one was when he battled Darmanitan with Miju to help Bianca stay on her journey in a match against her dad. Originally, he wasn’t going to use him but it popped out of its ball. The thing that had me scratching my head was even though he had a type advantage, Ash should not have risked his journey as well as Bianca’s on a Pokemon with not that high of a winning streak at that point. Even though her dad had a change of heart, it was way too much to put on the line.
Well, he was willing to do whatever he could to help Bianca. It was either this or watch Bianca leave. Imo, it would be stupid (and out-of-character) for him not to battle.

As for Ash's dumbest moment, I'd say that it would be when he let Tepig and Oshawott fall to Trip's bird before sending in Pikachu. But I like to pretend that Ash was just sick of Pikachu's face and was trying to hold off on using it. That explanation makes my brain less numb.
 
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As someone mentioned above, thinking that Palpitoad could beat Elesa all by itself and not even getting any other 'mons to usem just in case it went-down. Other screwups are more the writer's faults than Ash's...
 
I hear what you are saying the biggest things are about him throwing Pokeballs at wild Pokemon without battling them or using only one Pokemon for his stratgey for his 4th badge. What made me mad about that battle was how much out of character he was during that episode. Not in any gym battle before had I seen Ash so (ok I'm a Paul fan so please don't say I'm spamming this word like BW is spamming Protect) PATHETIC...

I mean I thought Ash was more "mature" begging Charizard to battle against Ritchie than he was going way off the handle like that. Yelling, screaming, running out of the arena like than it was just too much. My guess is since TR isn't their pre-BW personas in terms of foolishness and whatnot the writers had to put it in random places in the show to make up for it and it looks like they poured 100 buckets of it all over Ash. Its a sad thing...

P.S.-One thing that just grinds my gears (Peter Griffin voice) how nearly 95% of everything that comes out of Ash's mouth is said in a confused voice or in the form of a question. I'm sure you've all noticed this as well. If someone introduces themselves and states who they are, what they do, or who their Pokemon are.

Ash is always the first to go, "Wait, you're a this..." "Wait, that's a *insert Pokemon*" "What was that?!"-when someone ticks him off

I'd say the dumbest thing was from his 3rd battle with Trip; "Wait is he nice?!"...* face palm* that's all I could do. Ash, Trip told you about the Champ of the Unova region and then you ask Trip if he met him and he said yes.

The first question that popped into your mind was; "Wait, is he nice?!" I mean you don't ask what kind of Pokemon he uses, how strong he is nope. He asks if he is nice. Ash is way to mentally developed (or underdeveloped) as a child that thinks like a kid instead of one with the experience he should have gained from previous adventures, if anything Bianca isn't the one that needs to go home to grow up a little more...
 
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The first one that came to mind for me was Satoshi forgetting that his Tsutarja was female during the battle against Kamitsure....oops
 
i really don't understand where this idea that ash has made a ton of mistakes this season comes from. ash has always had stupidity jokes (ash acting stupid to make a joke) they're nothing new and this season has been no worse or better then any of the seasons before it. in fact i still think the stupidiest ash has acted is in dp when he couldn't count to three with out dawns help.

he understood and gained tepigs trust with with an ease i have never seen before he show'd intelligence and maturity there.

he also with out trying impressed a rather intelligent pokemon that had shown it's self to be resistant to being captured.

if anything i think hes never been as mature and close to his pokemon as he has been this season. have you all forgotten how easily he reacted to the slightest taunt from paul? both trip and iris have been taunting him and been pretty maturally dealt with by ash atleast compared to his dp self.
 
i really don't understand where this idea that ash has made a ton of mistakes this season comes from. ash has always had stupidity jokes (ash acting stupid to make a joke) they're nothing new and this season has been no worse or better then any of the seasons before it. in fact i still think the stupidiest ash has acted is in dp when he couldn't count to three with out dawns help.

he understood and gained tepigs trust with with an ease i have never seen before he show'd intelligence and maturity there.

he also with out trying impressed a rather intelligent pokemon that had shown it's self to be resistant to being captured.

if anything i think hes never been as mature and close to his pokemon as he has been this season. have you all forgotten how easily he reacted to the slightest taunt from paul? both trip and iris have been taunting him and been pretty maturally dealt with by ash atleast compared to his dp self.

yeah but that's not a screw up nor does it relate to the thread. And is stupider to me in DP to use a example and get back on topic at the same time. Take the fourth gym dispite constantly saying types don't matter that much he expected to sweep a gym leader who sweeped his friend. So he insulted one friend in front of his other in addition to being a cocky asshole.
 
Wow, that battle in Nimbasa City is tearing up this thread. If I made a poll that would probably be the one with the most votes. I mean not only did he pick Snivy by leaving the battle like that, but forgetting that Emolga is part flying...its a fail in itself. I'd cut "some" slack if Iris didn't have one because various Pokemon in the show are able to fly but aren't flying-types. However, it was just plain embarrassing to leave the match like that and then the Pokemon you went to get is out of the battle in a flash.

When it comes to his maturity with taunts, well that's a heads and tails sort of situation. I mean in DP yeah the main reason he was pissed at Paul was because their ideals clashed and because of that Ash wanted to be sure to show Paul that his way was better than his and gain his "respect." Over and over again its been seen (and a lot of this in BW) if the rival, CoTD or someone else does not agree with what a main character's point of view they are seen as "wrong" and won't be left alone until they change their way of thinking. What a lesson to teach children viewers you know?

Anyway, that whole "such a kid" doesn't seem to bother him I mean Ash has had to put up with a lot of mouthy b**ches on his journey so one more wouldn't bother him. If you ask me that "such a kid" works more on Trip than Ash. All Iris has to do is say that line and then *poof* he'll battle with Ash after refusing to. I mean really another screw-up is Ash challenging Trip like a whiny b**ch. Reminds me of Youngster Joey from the games calling about his stupid Rattata, it gets old after the first couple of times. Trip butchered Ash during their first couple matches so its only natural that he'd have little expectations of Ash's development as a trainer. Based on what we've seen from him this season you can't blame him.

With Trip I've noticed something, Ash seems to be pushing to be his friend rather than rival anyone else feel the same about that?

Once more with Paul is was about training methods (as Reggie said many times they are opposite sides of the same coin) and getting him to see his point of view. With Trip it seems to be like Ash wants nothing more than friendship, not to be one of those "shipper pushers", but if there is something between them it seems like Ash is the one that is really dropping the hints. From the moment that they met he was like that annoying little kid that follows you around even if your mean to them. When will that "little kid" ever learn???
 
Okay, there is quite a bit like ash going to get Snivy, wing so excited cause of Pidove, that battle with iris, and much more.
 
Here's one;

Trusting Meowth near the end of Black and White, it almost resulted in the capture of all of the gang's Pokemon and the ones in the Pokemon Center. I have to say that was one of if not the best plans TR came up with. I really thought it was dumb that it failed being that Pikachu and the others seemed to randomly know which Pokeballs were Iris, Cilan's and Ash's. I know when a similar situation happened when Ash first met Richie in the Indigo league;

Richie had stars on his Pokeballs and Pikachu sniffed them to know which ones were Ash's. Not to get off subject but this just explains how Ash's naive form of trust almost got his team taken away. Then in his almost "Goku-like" speech at the end explaining how they had fun with Meowth was kind of dumb. I mean for me it was considering all those "years" and he still lets his guard down, Pikachu was the only one that knew better. I'm guessing because its had more one-on-one moments with it like when it gets captured by TR in some episodes.

What happened to trusting your Pokemon Ash (not to mention that Pikachu is your best friend) not just your own naive instincts?
 
Since Ash suddenly seemed aware of Type-Effectiveness, why didn't he use Roggenrola against Elesa's Emolga? It's Rock-Type attacks would have done a lot of good against Emolga. And, it could resist Emolga's flying attacks. Even if Roggenrola would fall to Attract to lead into to Ash using Pikachu, it would still be a nice display of strategy on his part. Alternatively, the writers could've revealed Boldore/Roggenrola as female [since I believe its gender is currently unknown] to resist Attract and have it possibly defeat Emolga.

It's really odd how Ash had a smart moment picking Palpitoad, then had sort of a derp moment not preparing a backup, and then had a double derp moment picking Snivy, weak to Flying attacks and forgetting that it's female, all in one episode.
 
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Since Ash suddenly seemed aware of Type-Effectiveness, why didn't he use Roggenrola against Elesa's Emolga? It's Rock-Type attacks would have done a lot of good against Emolga. And, it could resist Emolga's flying attacks. Even if Roggenrola would fall to Attract to lead into to Ash using Pikachu, it would still be a nice display on his part. Alternatively, the writers could've revealed Boldore/Roggenrola as female [since if I'm not mistake n its gender is currently unknown] and have possibly defeat Emolga.

It's really odd how Ash had a smart moment picking Palpitoad, then had sort of a derp moment not preparing a backup, and then had a double derp moment picking Snivy, weak to Flying attacks and forgetting that it's female, all in one episode.

You make a real good point on all accounts. If I remember didn't he forget that Emolga was a Flying-type? Or was it that he picked Snivy and forgot that it was weak to Flying moves?

That match in a sense reminded me of his first match with Brawly being completely out of character in that he was too overly confident and the writing for that was so bad that it was painfully obvious to the audience. In this match he was too confident in his faith in Palpitoad, but really I wouldn't call it faith just abuse in a sense. I mean he could clearly see that it was tired after taking out Zebstrika but kept it in anyway not to mention depending on it to take out 3 Pokemon on its own.

True, if Roggenrola did take Snivy's place we'd see its gender and it take out Emolga with Stone Edge or something. Then even with Strudy it would be knocked out by the numerous Tackles from her final Pokemon. Tynamo could have been the one that made it evolve.

However, as the anime proves; the louder and more desperate you scream your Pokemon's name when its in a tight spot, the more powerful move it learns or it evolves.
 
i'd say it's the not weakening it thing

personally, i would have loved to see them bring in a new main character but keep ash on as a brock like character
 
i'd say it's the not weakening it thing

personally, i would have loved to see them bring in a new main character but keep ash on as a brock like character

Let me see if I understand you because it does sound like a good idea, so please correct me if I interpret your words wrongs;

Now, we keep Ash in the "group" bring in a new character potentially a new/rookie trainer and have Ash serve as a mentor to the new trainer. Like Brock was a breeder but with skills of a Gym Leader he knew how to give Ash sound advice on taking care of Pokemon AND battling with them.

Though with Ash taking the place of mentor not only does he maintain his "maturity", skill, knowledge of a trainer from the experience of many competitions and whatnot he can help the new main trainer on his bid as a rising Pokemon trainer.

Is that what you mean?
 
Episode 1 where Ash and his Pikachu lost to Trip with a fresh Snivy. I mean seriously, even without eletric attacks, Snivy should've been toast.
 
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