How would you Fix all the problems with Journeys?

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

After JN: Give all of Ashs old Pokémon love and have him defend his title by having him battle E4 and champions he’s never battled, that’s how the PWC should have been.
I call it: Pokemon: Champions League

 

[ripplefieldz]

ok so there's two options here. realistically, i'd say just kind of throw it out, let ash go through galar and gou can be the protag for a hypothetical legends anime. however, in an also-hypothetical limbo where showcasing new gens doesn't fall on journeys, here's what i'd do:

• just straight up do not have it happen in any mainseries region. just make it some not-quite-in-any-of-them region, how does that work i'm not exactly sure but probably in like the middle of nowhere or smth
  
  
• let the gang visit regions from spinoffs!! for fucks sake you're not showing off "the whole pokemon world" if you're excluding places like orre or almia or hell, even lental. also i think holon which is particularly obscure could actually work really well with gou's goal of catching mew but that's a ramble for another time
• actually let them visit movie locations also. pleaseee tpc Come On
  
  
• have koharu integrate into the main cast quicker instead of waiting like 50 fuckin episodes
  
  
• anyway as for project mew. okay yeah i'm gonna admit i stopped watching journeys by the time it showed up but i'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and second the idea of it coming into play earlier

 

[Iris_clover]

This is simple…..

JUST MAKE IT IN GALAR PLEASE STOP GOING TO RANDOM PLACES I GET CONFUSED.

 

[Epic Spheal]

I think my number one thing would be to make it Galar focus. Have the Cerise Institute in Galar

Project Mew would've been introduced earlier and have the episodes where Goh loses (the Sea Mauville and Articuno episodes) spread further apart rather than having them at the end to try to make it look like a struggle.

I would honestly scrap the PWC as is and just have Ash go through one more gym challenge. The Galar gym leaders are supposed to be far stronger than leaders in other regions anyways so for me, Ash just doing the Galar gym challenge would be fine. The PWC would return as like Orange Island/Battle Frontier arc, an arc that shows how far Ash has come along but shorter so that instead of getting random COTD we get Elite 4, rivals he never beat, and other champions.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I don't think the general premise needs to be alteres since like other people have already said, it could have easily worked and certainly had a lot of potential. But I would make a few adjustments to try and polish it a little bit more:

1. First and foremost, I’d place the base of operations in Galar rather than Kanto. This way we’d see Gen 8 Pokemon more frequently even if only on background cameos. We’d also see Sonia and Professor Magnolia more often, and the Cerise family can be assistants there.
2. Because of the above, I’d make Yamper Sonia’s Pokemon like in the games. Not only would it remove the sting of Chloe never officially catching him, but it’d make his status as the “big brother” of the Lab Pokemon way more believable, since in this scenario he’d technically be a retired battler with certain wisdom and experience.
3. I’d distribute the Galar Starters between Ash, Goh, and Chloe. I’ve been extremely firm on the opinion of one starter per main character ever since Goh caught Grookey, and my feelings are no different now, so here I am repeating it. In my personal opinion, Ash should’ve gotten Grookey and Chloe should’ve gotten Sobble. I just think their respective personalities fit those two best, and I think Sobble could actually act as a neat complement to Chloe’s Eevee in that both would represent the two different aspects of her development: Sobble representing her growing confidence, which would be paralleled by its gradual evolution into Inteleon; and Eevee still representing the many different paths Chloe could take in her journey as a trainer. Grookey under Ash ensures that there’s at least one Galar starter doing the cool battling action that, let’s face it, is what attracts a very large portion of the audience, and its goofy personality could make it a neat foil to Riolu. Finally, Goh keeps Cinderace because it’s his first partner and the Galar starter that fared with him the best. He would need a replacement shouldermon I guess, and for that I’d nominate Turtwig for the sake BDSP/LA promotion. Why Turtwig? Because Dawn already has Piplup and Chimchar being another Fire-type would make it redundant with Cinderace.
4. Related to the above, Chloe would be officially promoted to main character as soon as she got her first Pokemon (regardless of if it’s Eevee or Sobble) and would accompany the boys in their travels. This would not only serve to fix or at the very least reduce the issue of female characters having their importance diminished, but it’d actually be really helpful for Chloe’s own growth, seeing how the entire point of her character is that she’s searching for her own path in life. Seeing her subtly developing onscreen even while she’s watching Goh and Ash do their thing would do wonders for her character. I don’t think I’d have her catch any more Pokemon besides Sobble and Eevee, though, since it’s unlikely there’d be enough time to develop more Pokemon, but that’s fine. She doesn’t need more than two.
5. Still related to the Galar Starters thing, I’d have Ash’s team revamped so that it contains more Pokemon from Galar than any other region. Lucario, Sirfetch’d and Dracovish all stay, as the former is the designated Mega Evolution user and it’s a capture that I’ve wanted Ash to have for years while the latter two are Galarian mons and honestly quite unique and fun. As I said above, I’d give Ash a Grookey that’d evolve all the way into Rillaboom and take Gengar’s place as the Gigantamax user of Ash’s team. Lastly, I’d give Ash a Hisuian Braviary to promote Legends Arceus, which would be caught in the eponymous specials, which would now be canon to the series and involve the heroes actually travelling back in time. Dawn would also evolve her Quilava into Hisuian Typhlosion during said specials.
6. I’d have both Hop and Bede appear as PWC challengers. Hop would be the last trainer Normal Class trainer Ash would face (Korrina is instead moved to being his first Super Class battle) while Bede would stick around a bit longer (maybe make him one of the trainers responsible for Ash dropping back to the Normal Class, motivating Ash to rematch him to get back up) and be involved in the Darkest Day plot. Bede would eventually drop out of the PWC altogether to focus on becoming Opal’s successor.
7. And speaking of the PWC, Ash would use reserve Pokemon more often and alternate between reserves (which he’d use against experienced opponents) and his new team (which he’d use against the random one-shots as well as new characters like Hop and Bede) until the latter are ready to properly take on the challenge on their own. I’d also make it so that once Ash leaves the Normal Class, all battles from then on are 3v3 at minimum.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Emelie]

Skip Koharu and use the female protagonist of the games again. I don't care about an original character who barely shows up. Give her a battle oriented goal.

Iris should have either been a main character again or a rival. Her inclusion in the Masters 8 feels so sudden after she has been gone for so long and she didn't even get cameos in XY and SM.

Don't retcon Amourshipping and Ash-Greninja. Serena and Ash should have received their own episode and given us some closure if he didn't accept her feelings. Serena needs more than three Pokémon! And contests with battles.

Skip Go or write him differently. Have him plan which Pokemon to catch and center an episode around that instead. Like which ball he should use, which location the Pokémon is found in etc. Have him only catch Pokemon that will help him defeat and catch Mew instead of just catching any random Pokemon he sees. Have Mew show up occasionally to test his skills.

What is the point of Paul returning if he is not in Masters 8? Why wasn't he in the Infernape episode?

Skip the Amazon specials and have an arc in the actual Hisui instead.

Have Bede appear as a rival. I think the Galarian Ponyta episode would have been more interesting if we swapped Koharu with Bede since it would give him character development and make him kinder.

Not the biggest Hop fan but it's weird to exclude him when they promote Leon so much.

Cynthia is the final opponent instead of Leon. Give us some closure for Tobias as well.

If we keep Koharu skip the Eevee stuff and have her meets more companions instead. Misty is in Kanto why not use her? Missed opportunity to showcase old companions more. Koharu also needs a goal and more than one Pokémon. Have Eevee evolve into a new evolution from SV otherwise instead of promoting old games like Let's Go.

Let Ash fight all of the champions without the weird tournament thing? Maybe he could have won M8 and then sought out the champions to prove himself. Then he could have battled Tobias, Paul and Alain and the champions after that.

 

[Kizzer55555]

Title is simple to understand. Everyone has something that they complain about in Journeys.

I wanna hear what changes you guys would make it this series

Here's some examples of what I would do.

- Let the Pokemon on the Main cast interact with each other outside battling

- Let Chloe catch Yamper

- Introduce Project Mew earlier

- Keep Cinderace out of his ball

- Give Drizzile more screentime

- Debut more Galarian characters

Well, just to get the obvious out of the way, I wish the show happened in Galar and had the XYZ art style.

Now, personally, I like Goh. I like his dynamic with Ash and I feel like he could have been a really cool character if they just changed 2 things.

First is catching. I don’t hate that Goh wants to catch every Pokémon. Ash was like that too. But it just seems too easy. Like, it genuinely doesn’t make sense. I hyperfixate on things so my brain can’t enjoy the show because it hyperfixates on wondering how that’s possible. And it has a such an easy fix too. Just use different pokeballs. It’s pretty common in all games for trainers to use things like great balls, luxury balls, or master balls and they significantly increase the chance of catching a Pokémon. If Goh just used those instead of ordinary pokeballs then it would make sense why he doesn’t need to battle them. As for how he got the pokeballs, there could be two ways. One is that I think his parents might be wealthy enough to afford them, and second is that as a Pokémon researcher, maybe Goh was given those pokeballs to field test them. While they are common in every game, they aren’t really explored in the anime. This could be like a field test to see how effective they are in catching and what kind of Pokémon they are more likely to capture. Simple fix, and my brain is happy.

Second change, Suicune. I don’t dislike that Goh caught a legendary so much as the TYPE of legendary he caught. To me, Suicune is the embodiment of freedom. His Pokédex entry literally says that he races across the land fast as the wind. So that’s why I just can’t see him satisfied living the rest of his life on a Pokémon ranch. Even if he befriends the Pokémon there and respects Goh, it’s like asking Giratina to leave the reverse world forever, or Latias to stop flying unless she’s only hovering 3 feet off the ground. That’s why no legendaries have ever gone with Ash even though they forge even deeper bonds than Goh did with Suicune. It’s because they each couldn’t give up something that would be lost after being caught. Whether responsibility, dreams, or freedom. Suicune can’t run and by giving that up, I feel like it goes against a core part of that Pokémon. I just can’t see how Suicune would be happy in the long run. It would have personally made more sense if Goh actually released Suicune and then the Pokémon stopped by the ranch every once and a while because they were friends but didn’t stay there perminantly. So I have 3 alternatives that could have made this better. First, one of the Regis would have made more sense. They are Pokémon who often stay in one place and can even stay frozen for years. They wouldn’t mind spending their time in a peaceful place surrounded by friendly Pokémon. They could have even gained a purpose by guarding that place if people like team rocket tried to attack. (Which could have been an awesome episode by the way). 2nd option. Goh doesn’t catch Suicune and his first ever legendary caught would be Mew. He makes it such a big deal to catch Mew and after giving up Mew being his first ever Pokémon, the creature being his first ever legendary would have been just as good. I feel like catching a legendary before Mew kind of takes away what makes catching Mew so speacial. Or at least makes it less special than it could be. 3rd option. Everything happens the exact same as the anime except Goh caught Zamazenta. It’s a dog like Pokémon and could have been a Squishy situation where they wonder what kind of Pokémon he is. This could also be why Zamazenta became interested in Goh and would tie into the Galar plot. I don’t think it was ever explained why the legendaries approached Ash and Goh. Unlike other Pokémon legendary I never got a good grasp on their personalities/motives. So this could explore that. It could also be mirrored by Zacian becoming interested in Ash in some way and Ash catches him so this could be the season Ash finally got a legendary of his own. Then they could try to unravel the mystery of the ruins and who these Pokémon are. It would give more depth to the show and actually do something with the legendary he caught.

Final thoughts. Less filler episodes unless they somehow incorperate bonding with their Pokémon in some way rather than focusing more on random side characters we never see again. More evenly distributed episodes between Ash and Goh and focus on bonding with all Pokémon instead of a select few.

Possibly Goh mimicking team rocket with battling by constantly switching up his roster. That gives us more time to see the other Pokémon he caught and it would always be interesting because we would never know which Pokémon he had for that particular episode (besides his normal 3 Galar starters) until he releases them. Then Goh could go the route of always trying to gain type advantage or a Pokémon to help specific research journeys. Like a rideable Pokémon when they have to travel a long distance or a Pokémon with vine whip for cliff climbing. Even if he doesn’t battle, using his Pokémon to help his research expeditions would be more interesting than them just staying at the ranch all the time. They need enrichment.

Finally. I need Ash’s Pokémon hoard and Goh’s Pokémon hoard to interact, I just REALLY want to see the outcome.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I'd have Ash use his reserves or better yet his aces from the different regions he traveled to especially in the battle against Leon, it was a shame seeing them watching from Professor Oak's on a flat screen instead of actually being on the battlefield, bringing them back after the M8 Tournament wasn't enough to make up for it.

I'd obviously put Paul in the M8 Tournament, when I found out that he was returning to the anime I expected to either find out if he defeated the Pyramid King Brandon or that he was competing in the WCS. Didn't get either one of those scenarios, it was kinda underwhelming that the only new update we got for Paul was that he was chosen to be a gym leader.

I mean he has the brains and skills for it despite his age but I was disappointed that he didn't compete in the Championships. The excuse didn't add up considering he had no problem entering in a Tag Battle Competition and a Pokeringer.

Seeing how well he did against Ash in that training battle despite not going in with his usual planned out strategies and using pokemon that were the same species as the champions' aces with similar movesets I think he'd place pretty high in the rankings if he actually competed.

If it were up to me I'd have him replace Iris and face Cynthia in the M8. You also gotta remember at the end of DP Cynthia said both him and Ash would compete in the champion league. Iris has a powerful ace in Haxorus but so does Paul, I don't believe there's an enormous gap between the two and neither of them have a gimmick from my knowledge.

Paul has a wider array of powerhouses and more variety to choose from that can easily take advantage of Iris's favoritism towards Dragon-Types. Paul has one of the highest battle IQs in the entire series and arguably the best planner, can't say the same for Iris.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Do what Aim to be a Pokemon Master did and make it about the pokemon, not the people, that Ash meets and helps throughout the regions, with help from people he's met along the way

 

[AndreskX]

1. Make Journeys into a three-season long version of the Battle Frontier arc, where Ash constantly rotates his team and uses his reserves regularly. For example: Ash uses Buizel in that one swimming contest episode in Sinnoh early on, he uses Snorlax for the food-eating contest episode instead of Dragonite, he uses Gliscor for that raid battle against Zapdos, and so on and so forth.
2. Project Mew is introduced earlier and shows up more frequently, and has more clearly defined rules about how it works.
3. Give the main characters actual character arcs. Like that subplot in the first season between Goh and Scorbunny and they don't get along after Scorbunny evolves? Include subplots like that on a regular basis, especially for Goh and he learns new lessons and stumbles his way into understanding how the Pokemon world works. Also, give more of Goh's Pokemon character arcs as they learn about the world and Goh and stuff.
4. Don't have every single guest character always act extremely friendly to the main characters. The world of Pokemon felt a lot more uninviting back in the original series, and while we don't need to go completely in that direction, it is kinda boring if everyone always treats Ash and Goh with complete warmth and courtesy. It robs the show of the type of interpersonal conflict that it used to have on a regular basis. Ash and Misty never got along and bickered with each other often; Ash and Paul hated each other's guts and had a difference in their philosophical approach to treating Pokemon which made for interesting character drama. Just have something even mildly close to any of that. Maybe keep Chloe as the detached and mildly annoyed version of herself from the early part of the series, if nothing else because it actually provides more interesting avenues for character conflict.
5. Include more references to Ash's status as a Pokemon champion. For basically the entire first half of the series, Professor Cerise has no idea that the research assistant he hired is literally a Pokemon champion. I get that Ash isn't one to brag, but I don't see Delia not telling literally everyone that her son won a Championship, or the entire lab not freaking out about it after Goh found out in that one Alola episode. I just don't buy that Ash could go through so much of the WCS without Goh ever realizing that he was a Champion, or Leon not knowing about it for so long, and I could go on and on but you probably get the point by now.

 

[Karakuri18]

5. Include more references to Ash's status as a Pokemon champion. For basically the entire first half of the series, Professor Cerise has no idea that the research assistant he hired is literally a Pokemon champion. I get that Ash isn't one to brag, but I don't see Delia not telling literally everyone that her son won a Championship, or the entire lab not freaking out about it after Goh found out in that one Alola episode. I just don't buy that Ash could go through so much of the WCS without Goh ever realizing that he was a Champion, or Leon not knowing about it for so long, and I could go on and on but your probably get the point by now.

I don't like the term "Pokémon Champion" (it's a bit misleading for me, because it's too closely associated with the title "Pokémon Master", but Satoshi wasn't one).
I think it would be more fitting to just call him "Champion" or "League Champion".

 

[Pasio]

A follow up to this Controversial opinions

As far as I know, Journeys was all about Ash being given one big send-off by reuniting with his old companions from across the globe through several whole regions then competing for the World Championships.

...I believe giving Ash a unique team full of Pokémon he had never used before was a significant misstep. This is supposed to be the culmination of Ash's entire journey. He should have all of his closest older Pokémon in a well-balanced team in order to reflect on this. Greninia couldn't temporarily return to his team? It would've even helped show Ash how he grew into a Pokémon Master by being able to partner back up with just any Pokémon from the wild for something major going on. Infernape, Sceptile, and Lycanroc are other examples of very significant Pokémon to Ash on his adventure that he could have used. Maybe a Pokémon for each region, but with Kanto + Johto as one? If they still wanted all 3 mechanics his team could have been like

Pikachu (Z-Move), Greninja (Ash), Sceptile (Mega), Infernape (Blaze ), Krookodile (Shades ), Melmetal (GMax)

I just don't get why they decided to give him a brand a new team for Journeys considering it was meant to be one big send-off to represent everything he's gone through.

 

[Hidden Mew]

A follow up to this Controversial opinions

As far as I know, Journeys was all about Ash being given one big send-off by reuniting with his old companions from across the globe through several whole regions then competing for the World Championships.

...I believe giving Ash a unique team full of Pokémon he had never used before was a significant misstep. This is supposed to be the culmination of Ash's entire journey. He should have all of his closest older Pokémon in a well-balanced team in order to reflect on this. Greninia couldn't temporarily return to his team? It would've even helped show Ash how he grew into a Pokémon Master by being able to partner back up with just any Pokémon from the wild for something major going on. Infernape, Sceptile, and Lycanroc are other examples of very significant Pokémon to Ash on his adventure that he could have used. Maybe a Pokémon for each region, but with Kanto + Johto as one? If they still wanted all 3 mechanics his team could have been like

Pikachu (Z-Move), Greninja (Ash), Sceptile (Mega), Infernape (Blaze ), Krookodile (Shades ), Melmetal (GMax)

I just don't get why they decided to give him a brand a new team for Journeys considering it was meant to be one big send-off to represent everything he's gone through.

I don't think that Journeys was always meant to be Ash's sendoff series though. Given how the PWC was handled and the lack of direction during the series' first year in particular, it always felt like it was decided halfway through the series instead of being planned ahead of time. Why would they rush through the first half of the PWC with both on and off screen one-on-one battles against random nobodies if it was always meant to be this big send-off for Ash? Not to mention his Pokemon didn't really get a lot of focus or development either. Even Aim To Be A Pokemon Master was more about having some more adventures with Ash, Misty and Brock instead of being this grand conclusion to Ash's story.

As cool as it would have been to see Ash use his older Pokemon, I think that the writers still wanted to give him some fan favorite Pokemon instead. It was a way for them to still promote Sword/Shield, at least with half of his team given Gengar's Gigantamax form, and give him a distinct team. If his brand new Pokemon couldn't really get much development or screentime, I don't think relying on his older Pokemon would have been that much of an improvement in that regard. It could have potentially been a way to make Ash's victories later on in the series more believable, but I don't think that they were worried about that when they were pretty much expecting Ash's nearly fully evolved team to be considered powerful.

 

[AndreskX]

A follow up to this Controversial opinions

As far as I know, Journeys was all about Ash being given one big send-off by reuniting with his old companions from across the globe through several whole regions then competing for the World Championships.

...I believe giving Ash a unique team full of Pokémon he had never used before was a significant misstep. This is supposed to be the culmination of Ash's entire journey. He should have all of his closest older Pokémon in a well-balanced team in order to reflect on this. Greninia couldn't temporarily return to his team? It would've even helped show Ash how he grew into a Pokémon Master by being able to partner back up with just any Pokémon from the wild for something major going on. Infernape, Sceptile, and Lycanroc are other examples of very significant Pokémon to Ash on his adventure that he could have used. Maybe a Pokémon for each region, but with Kanto + Johto as one? If they still wanted all 3 mechanics his team could have been like

Pikachu (Z-Move), Greninja (Ash), Sceptile (Mega), Infernape (Blaze ), Krookodile (Shades ), Melmetal (GMax)

I just don't get why they decided to give him a brand a new team for Journeys considering it was meant to be one big send-off to represent everything he's gone through.

Seeing Ash use a Mega Sceptile would've pretty cool.

 

[LightningTopaz]

--For me, I would've just deleted Goh and Chloe entirely, and welcomed Misty and Brock back for one last trip. (although in my anime remix series of stories, Ash isn't going anywhere)
--Cut the PWC, and have the reunited Trio face all the Galar gyms as a team. This leads to a slightly different Leon battle--Ash Misty and Brock started the journey together, they should meet that big victory together (at least to me)
--Let us see the Trio stop Chairman Rose
--In my version, Ash gets Cinderace (Ruby), Misty gets Sobble (Namida) and Brock gets Grookey (Shelia)

I would go on, but then I'd have a novel of a post.