Ash's Pokemon quantity

[Srebak]

At this point, it's no secret that Ash has quite a few pokemon under his (for lack of a better word) ownership, and because of that, i feel the need to say the following;

1. It's a little ironic when you think about it; in the beginning, certain people had their doubts if Ash could even catch a pokemon and that his first few six were a stroke of luck. But when you really think about, this is actually something in Ash's favor. While other Trainers have to track down and have intense battles with the pokemon they want, all Ash had to do for most of his pokemon was show them the kind of person that he was at his core and they willingly came to him. What's more, they even work really hard under his training, due to A.) Their shared desire with him to become more stronger and show what they can really do, and B.) Their desire to show Ash that they will never let him down when he needs them. Plus, if Ash's character traits are what make a pokemon want to be with him, isn't that saying something for Ash?

2. It's also a little bit ironic, considering that people weren't sure if Ash could catch more than the standard 6 pokemon, if he could even get that many. And yet, by the time he left for Hoenn, he practically had a small army of Pokemon under his ownership, with his Pikachu as its General. Now, his 'army' has only gotten even larger and even more powerful with the additions of Sceptile, Donphan, Starraptor, Torterra, Infernape, Unfezant, Krookodile, Pignite, Charizard's return, Greninja, Talonflame, Noivern and even Goodra's return

Just saying; something to think about.

 

[Blob]

Oak stopped nagging Ash to get more Pokémon when he caught those 30 Tauros.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

I think catching just five pokemon is best for Ash. Catching too many in one region causes lack of development for his team. What disgust me was when they started releasing a number of Ash's strong pokemon in the original series instead of keeping them at the lab. In my opinion, Ash should keep his pokemon and send them to the lab when he goes to next region.

 

[Hidden Mew]

5 new Pokémon in a region (3 to 4 years) is pretty low number if you ask me. We have near 200 episodes for each region and I'm pretty sure there's enough time for more than 5 Pokémon to steal the thunder with less filler episodes.

The problem with capturing much more than five Pokemon per region is that it makes it harder for them to stand out, flesh them out and give them memorable moments/battles. That's why Ash getting so many Pokemon in BW wasn't a good idea. Aside from a handful of Pokemon, mainly the Unova starters and Krookodile, it seemed like most of his Unova Pokemon barely stood out and some of them were show so infrequently that one wonders why they even bothered to give them to Ash. The writers have a hard enough time balancing out screentime between a full team for any character, so giving them more Pokemon, which is basically more characters, to work with probably wouldn't work out well, even with so many episodes per series.

 

[Yuri3221]

I like the first point made though, about Ash's ability to catch Pokemon without huge fights, but rather befriending them. I've always really liked that and it makes Ash such a unique trainer and person. It is such a huge part of his character.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

The problem with Ash catching like 5+ Pokemon in a Region and having to rotate them out is that some Pokemon become underdeveloped. BW had a bad case of this, with Pokemon like Palpitoad and Boldore.