How should the anime makes its direction?

[henrymidfields]

We all know that the anime still has the popularity for childern. But, what about the more mature folks out there? Should we have to be tormented to see Ash lose at the final stages of the league tournaments all the time?

I think there could be a solution to this.

Does this involve retiring Ash Ketchum? At some stage, yes. Does this require the new arc to be a complete break from Ash's journey. Not at all, in fact.

----------
Hypothesis: So Ash finally won the Kalos league tournament. What has he got to show the audience for the Gen 7 arc?

Well, for starters, he needs to battle the Elite Four before he can take on the Champion. Unfortunately, Will/Lorelei is so flying badass, they literally wiped Ash and his Pikachu from the arena. Ash needs to do some even more training.

Do you remember Misty and Brock mentoring Ash? Well, Ash, in turn, should mentor the new trainer who will be travelling with him, upon a request from a regional professor, or a family friend. Naturally, in this case, the Gen 7 player character will be the one who will be collecting gym badges.

So Ash is mentoring and training fornthe E4. That's great and all, but what about his major competition within the region? Well, if we have a look at the recent two generations, they have post-game battle features for us to enjoy after finishing the main story. This includes the Battle Maison in XY, and the World Tournament in B2W2. Ash could participate in one of them applicable, as his goal for the Gen 7 arc.

World Tournament:

Spoiler

The actual World Tournament in B2W2 is something that I think was not explored. I'm not talking about the Junior Cup that only featured Ash's Unova rivals. I'm talking about Ash competing against Forrest (as Brock is already retired), Misty and the other Kanto Leaders. Then Ash gets to move on to the World matches, where he competes with the best trainers and gym leaders from other regions. This may require knowledge of past episodes, but that can be done in flashbacks. And there's the option to air a couple of the relevant past episodes as a TV special, or from the TV Tokyo/Cartoon Network etc websites.

The end of the Gen 7 arc will involve Ash battling the E4 and the Champion. And that is when we may retire Ash from the main protagonist role. The Gen 7 PC is to continue the story into the Gen 8 arc. Of course, Ash should still appear from time to time, to help out the Gen 7 PC, or even the Gen 8 PC, and to provide a sense of continuity.

It may not be the best solution. In fact, this will have plot-holes more numerous than swiss cheese. But it should provide an idea better than constantly resetting Ash and Pikachu's skills all the flying time. Let me know if you've got ideas too.

 

[Misty Calls Masquerain]

(NO XY GAME SPOILERS, SAFE TO READ.)

Kalos has no league (because, really, does every region need a league?). Instead, there is a PWT arc later on (After they get rid of Team Flare).

Stopping them is the main goal. At first, Ash and co. are working on their goals, but when said team does too much damage, stopping them becomes the main focus.

How it starts: Ash, Misty and Brock (This idea assumes the original trio never split) arrive at the Kalos region, and they meet Serena and her group of friends. After Ash beats them in a battle, they all journey to get stronger, but they lose their confidence when Gary crushes them. So three experienced trainers (really Team Rocket) take them under their wing so they can use them as proxies to take on Ash and co., though TR still does serious missions like in BW.

When Team Flare enacts their big plan, it's up to Ash, Misty, Brock, TR, Serena AND her group to save the world...again! (Kinda like in Movie 2.)

Ash's role: Trainer that's soon to be a Pokemon Master.
Misty's role: Water specialist that's soon to be a Pokemon Master.
Brock's role: Doctor/Breeder (since there's an overlap) that wants to be at the top.
Gary's role: Researcher/Trainer that wants to be the best.
Team Rocket's role: Villains that are assigned to investigate the secrets of Mega Evolution and get Team Flare out of the equation, along with other serious missions. On their off times, they train the Kalos kids so they have another weapon to use against Ash and his friends.
Kalos characters' roles: Same as games.

 

[sherylzack]

I didnt know he looses most of the tournaments. That sucks.

 

[DracoMan]

We all know that the anime still has the popularity for childern. But, what about the more mature folks out there? Should we have to be tormented to see Ash lose at the final stages of the league tournaments all the time?

I think there could be a solution to this.

Does this involve retiring Ash Ketchum? At some stage, yes. Does this require the new arc to be a complete break from Ash's journey. Not at all, in fact.

----------
Hypothesis: So Ash finally won the Kalos league tournament. What has he got to show the audience for the Gen 7 arc?

Well, for starters, he needs to battle the Elite Four before he can take on the Champion. Unfortunately, Will/Lorelei is so flying badass, they literally wiped Ash and his Pikachu from the arena. Ash needs to do some even more training.

Do you remember Misty and Brock mentoring Ash? Well, Ash, in turn, should mentor the new trainer who will be travelling with him, upon a request from a regional professor, or a family friend. Naturally, in this case, the Gen 7 player character will be the one who will be collecting gym badges.

So Ash is mentoring and training fornthe E4. That's great and all, but what about his major competition within the region? Well, if we have a look at the recent two generations, they have post-game battle features for us to enjoy after finishing the main story. This includes the Battle Maison in XY, and the World Tournament in B2W2. Ash could participate in one of them applicable, as his goal for the Gen 7 arc.

World Tournament:

Spoiler

The actual World Tournament in B2W2 is something that I think was not explored. I'm not talking about the Junior Cup that only featured Ash's Unova rivals. I'm talking about Ash competing against Forrest (as Brock is already retired), Misty and the other Kanto Leaders. Then Ash gets to move on to the World matches, where he competes with the best trainers and gym leaders from other regions. This may require knowledge of past episodes, but that can be done in flashbacks. And there's the option to air a couple of the relevant past episodes as a TV special, or from the TV Tokyo/Cartoon Network etc websites.

The end of the Gen 7 arc will involve Ash battling the E4 and the Champion. And that is when we may retire Ash from the main protagonist role. The Gen 7 PC is to continue the story into the Gen 8 arc. Of course, Ash should still appear from time to time, to help out the Gen 7 PC, or even the Gen 8 PC, and to provide a sense of continuity.

It may not be the best solution. In fact, this will have plot-holes more numerous than swiss cheese. But it should provide an idea better than constantly resetting Ash and Pikachu's skills all the flying time. Let me know if you've got ideas too.

This is similar to the idea I've repeatedly brought up, with Ash winning a tournament and becoming a mentor to a rookie trainer in the next region. Although my idea involved letting Ash fight his way up to the champion, at which point a loss would be more tolerable, so long as it's done well. I honestly think TPTB may have had something like this in mind for Sinnoh, given all the talk of the tournament winner facing the E4 and Cynthia.

 

[Piplup]

I never understood the people who complain about him losing the leagues. Why would he win? out of all these trainers we know nothing about who's participating as well? just because he's the main character? if anything, THAT would be boring...
I also can't see the ridiculous "reset" thing people keep throwing around because up until BW it never happened... maybe a little to Pikachu itself (and even that is arguable) but Ash gradually improved both as a peron and as a trainer since the very first ep up until the final DP ep... it's only the BW series that ruined his development and thankfully XY seems to fix that and bring him closer to his AG/DP-self
Heck, he won the Orange League, beat the Battle Frontier and literally obtained the title of a Frontier Brain (even if he refused it) and managed to get Top 4 in the Sinnoh League +being the only one in that league to beat Tobias' Darkrai
Ash is fucking awesome, and hopefully with XY he can resume his gradual improving that BW stopped... if anything, I'd want to see Ash get to the final battle in the Kalos League, but lose it. Then, in gen 7 let him win the League but lose to the Elite Four... gen 8 maybe he can at least reach the Champion but probably lose there
I also don't see any possibility to Ash ever leaving the show, or how it'd improve anything since we'd literally watch a new beginner going through everything Ash went through so it goes against the whole "no reset" thing - THAT would be the biggest reset they could possibly do...
Pokémon is meant to be enjoyed for the journey more than the goal - the goal is just there to give the characters a motive and drive the story, it's not really something expected for the viewers to actually see happening and wether we like it or not, I think it's about time we accept it

 

[Lugia trainer]

I think they should have team rocket leave Ash alone which would result in him being able to focus more on his training. Does that mean removing them completely? Not necessarily. It could simply mean having them give up on catching Ash's Pikachu because they have finally realized that they are fighting a losing battle and although they have stopped following Ash he and friend still run into them out of pure coincidence which would result in our heroes ruining their plans. And even though they still run into it would be about as often as in the majority of the best wishes series. I'm not complaining I just think it would work out better in the long run. Who agrees with me?

 

[DracoMan]

I never understood the people who complain about him losing the leagues. Why would he win? out of all these trainers we know nothing about who's participating as well? just because he's the main character? if anything, THAT would be boring...
I also can't see the ridiculous "reset" thing people keep throwing around because up until BW it never happened... maybe a little to Pikachu itself (and even that is arguable) but Ash gradually improved both as a peron and as a trainer since the very first ep up until the final DP ep... it's only the BW series that ruined his development and thankfully XY seems to fix that and bring him closer to his AG/DP-self
Heck, he won the Orange League, beat the Battle Frontier and literally obtained the title of a Frontier Brain (even if he refused it) and managed to get Top 4 in the Sinnoh League +being the only one in that league to beat Tobias' Darkrai
Ash is fucking awesome, and hopefully with XY he can resume his gradual improving that BW stopped... if anything, I'd want to see Ash get to the final battle in the Kalos League, but lose it. Then, in gen 7 let him win the League but lose to the Elite Four... gen 8 maybe he can at least reach the Champion but probably lose there
I also don't see any possibility to Ash ever leaving the show, or how it'd improve anything since we'd literally watch a new beginner going through everything Ash went through so it goes against the whole "no reset" thing - THAT would be the biggest reset they could possibly do...
Pokémon is meant to be enjoyed for the journey more than the goal - the goal is just there to give the characters a motive and drive the story, it's not really something expected for the viewers to actually see happening and wether we like it or not, I think it's about time we accept it

I think the problem is that each journey becomes a repeat of the others--Ash starts with just Pikachu, catches new Pokémon, wins new badges, enters the league, loses, goes home, leaves behind all his Pokémon except Pikachu, goes to the next region. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's too repetitive. The status quo could use some shaking, and what better way to do that than by having Ash win a league? That way, TPTB can show that they're going in a new direction.

 

[PiccoloX]

Ash shouldn't win in the end. The shows about the journey, not the destination. Which seems all too apparent since at the start of each season Ash is right back to square 1, still 10 years old and totally forgets all he's learned.

 

[Yankees4life]

I just hope that Ash wins something this year....

 

[Karamazov]

This thread is pretty much about complaining about Ash not winning a League, as a lot of these posts confirm. I don't think it's suitable enough for a thread topic, but you can make a blog entry about your ideas and discuss them there.