Lukewarm Hellos and Goodbyes?

[TPrower]

Call me a big softie, but I feel like the reunions and farewells between Ash and his travelling companions seem a little...lacking in emotion. I mean, sure, it's put into words, but what about their actions. I mean, look at when Misty left the group after the Silver Conference. Sure, there were a lot of tears and fond memories, but I half-expected her to actually throw her arms around Ash, even if he would have been confused by her actions.
And how about when Ash and Dawn were saying their goodbyes at the end of the Sinnoh saga. After all their adventures, scrapes, and moments, their goodbye is in the form of a high-five?

Maybe I'm thinking about it too deeply, but I'm that kind of guy. I love heartwarming family-type moments, and it seems strange to me when the moments in the anime are mostly restricted to between Trainers and their Pokemon, which is perfectly fine, but like I said, this is between Ash and his close Trainer friends.

 

[Musashi]

And how about when Ash and Dawn were saying their goodbyes at the end of the Sinnoh saga. After all their adventures, scrapes, and moments, their goodbye is in the form of a high-five?

I disagree with this one. You left out the part where Hikari was crying and Satoshi shouted out "Daijoubu!". I thought that was very sweet.

By and large I agree with you though. I mean, wtf was up with Haruka's? "Oh shoot I'm going to miss my boat, bye forever!" So glad Satoshi meant so much to you. :-/

 

[CrackFox]

I agree. Misty's goodbye was very touching and emotional for me as a fan but I felt like they'd really gone the extra mile to make it an emotional send off. I suppose the more it happens, the less of a big drama it is.
May and Max's send off, wasn't all that bad. Dawn's was OK too but not really emotional enough.
The cameo reactions are even worse, Ash didn't give a crap when May turned up in DP. Dawn was more pleased about seeing her.
They really should work on Ash's fluctuating friendship and affection.

 

[Froakie]

Brock's final goodbye was the worst thing I have ever seen.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Haruka and Masato gets worst "farewell" episode.

 

[Cybersai]

I disagree with this one. You left out the part where Hikari was crying and Satoshi shouted out "Daijoubu!". I thought that was very sweet.

By and large I agree with you though. I mean, wtf was up with Haruka's? "Oh shoot I'm going to miss my boat, bye forever!" So glad Satoshi meant so much to you. :-/

Isn't this because the guy who wrote the AG finale hadn't previously wrote for the show since Johto? I don't know why Tomioka didn't write AG's last episode.

Although to be fair they were probably counting AG190 as May's last hurrah.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Misty's goodbye after the Silver Conference was pretty much the only emotional one in the series. Though it would've been so much better if Misty went ahead and threw her arms around Ash at the end and Meeting and Parting was played during some heartfelt goodbye.

Brock's goodbye at the end of DP 191 was horrible, especially considering how he was leaving after like 600 episodes.

 

[Cybersai]

What did people expect Brock to do? Cry his eyes out? He wanted to leave and become a doctor.

And for the record, Misty was gone by the first commercial break. Her goodbye was 5 minutes.

 

[The Outrage]

but I half-expected her to actually throw her arms around Ash, even if he would have been confused by her actions.

I'm thinking...overemotional much?

Has it occurred to people that despite the fact we know they'll never be mentioned again, that their goodbyes are made that way in that the characters expect to see each other again in the future?

 

[Musashi]

Isn't this because the guy who wrote the AG finale hadn't previously wrote for the show since Johto?

Not quite.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Category:Episodes_written_by_Hideki_Sonoda

As you can see, he wrote AG029, AG038, and AG042 before AG192. That's still quite a break, and it's even more confusing considering the next episode after AG192 he wrote was BW003. I can only assume he was under contract for four episodes in AG.

I don't know why Tomioka didn't write AG's last episode.

Definitely agree with you there. I'm sure it would've been much better.

Has it occurred to people that despite the fact we know they'll never be mentioned again, that their goodbyes are made that way in that the characters expect to see each other again in the future?

That's no excuse for not making it more emotional for us. We have no idea when we'll see these characters again.

I also agree with how poor Takeshi's goodbye was. 13 years and that's it? Pft. He didn't even get his clips until the credits! And those only covered DP!

 

[Cybersai]

I don't get why May and Brock's goodbyes weren't given more fanfare. Even Max felt like he got a bigger goodbye than May.

It really was absurd, since at the time May was
only the second major character to leave the show, if you don't count Tracey.

 

[Pokefannn]

I completely agree. Misty, and to a lesser extent Dawn, were the only characters given a proper goodbye. May and Brocks goodbye was completely emotionless. I remember nearly laughing when May left because the scene was so casual. (Ash was like, goodbye, good luck, don't get eaten by a charizard. Seriously, why couldn't they have drummed the scene up more. I mean, it's not every episode that a main character leaves the show).

 

[Cybersai]

Its also possible the only reason they made a big deal out of Misty's is it was the first time a character was leaving permanently.

When Brock left in Orange, they probably always originally intended him to return. And Tracey was short-lived.

Misty, on the other hand, was the first major character to leave the show permanently. As we can see, nearly 10 years and 500+ episodes later, Misty never did return to the show, so it was done in a permanent manner.

 

[Piplup]

How can anyone say Dawn's farewell wasn't emotional? The high five (which is THE symbol of the Ash/Dawn relationship, even having a whole song about it) was awesome and then when Dawn gets sad and Ash screams to her "daijoubu!" and the whole Piplup stuff before that and the cute Dawn/Pip hug and the Pika/Pip hug... god, that ep was so emotional and awesome, I can't see how anyone can even try to complain!
And I thought Brock's ending was good too: he get the second-to-last ep as an ep that focused on him and introduced a new goal for him, then in the final ep he had that nice scene with Ash where they call themselves Master and Doctor and then how their hands slowly left each other, as if it's really so hard for them to say goodbye...
Misty's farewell was also very emotional - it's impossible to deny it... the song added there in English sure helped
Max's farewell was nice... May's farewell was the worst: "oh guys I have to go to hell I mean Johto kthxbye!!!!!11"
Tracey's farewell was... "who cares?" (though it was cute how Ash talked to Pika at night about being happy that Brock is back, but sad that Tracey leaves)

So yeah... other than May's (which I guess was supposed to emphasize how much she matured and isn't depended on others anymore, so maybe we should just learn to accept it, especially after all that time...) the farewell of characters is usually well done (same goes for Pokémon farewell, it's usually done awesomely! I only didn't really like Primeape and Squirtle's, but Charizard, Pikachu's almost-leaving, Lapras, Butterfree, Dustox, Arbok/Seviper, Cacnea, etc... all got awesome and emotional eps)

 

[Jukain]

I never really realized May got shafted in the farewell department, but yeah, she was. What was up with that? I don't feel too bad about Brock, though. It's as if the writers were aware that he had gone stale and didn't need any big production over leaving. If you want a real tribute, though, I'm sure there's one on Youtube somewhere. Believe it or not, DP's ending was the one time I remember feeling at least a little bit sad. (Sorry, I don't remember when I saw the ending of Johto, but I'm pretty sure I did)

 

[CommanderPigg]

So yeah... other than May's (which I guess was supposed to emphasize how much she matured and isn't depended on others anymore, so maybe we should just learn to accept it, especially after all that time...) the farewell of characters is usually well done (same goes for Pokémon farewell, it's usually done awesomely! I only didn't really like Primeape and Squirtle's, but Charizard, Pikachu's almost-leaving, Lapras, Butterfree, Dustox, Arbok/Seviper, Cacnea, etc... all got awesome and emotional eps)

Yeah, I agree with this. I mean...even though Brock's final farewell may have been a bit anticlimatic, it really wasn't that bad...and I actually teared up during it XD I think that the reason why it was downplayed a bit was because this wasn't really his first time saying goodbye to Ash. His farewell during Johto was extremely emotional, in my opinion...especially when I first saw it, since I thought he was gonna be gone for good ;_;

Am I allowed to mention secondary characters as well? Because I really wished that the Sinnoh rivals got some heartwarming goodbyes as well, since they seemed to be the most developed (and dare I even say, likable? ) Super satisfied with Paul's farewell scene; it's my favorite in the entire series.

Drew's/Harley's goodbyes were also very entertaining...gave the shippers one last cookie :3

 

[Piplup]

Yeah, the rivals all got good farewells too... Gary, Drew, Harley, Paul and Barry - all had good farewells that fit their character
Even Kenny got a nice farewell, resolving the recurring "wants to battle Ash" thing and confirming his crush on Dawn
Zoey's farewell was nice too, she won the GF, had a talk with Dawn, invited her to come with her.... it's really only Ursula out of the DP rivals that didn't get a proper farewell, but I guess that also kind of fitting for her character (and Nando/Conway could get a better farewell, but they appeared so rarely that I don't really count it)

 

[Karamazov]

May's, yeah. Sure, it was a two-parter, but May and Max barely had the story - their goodbye in the final episode lasted about 6 minutes.

 

[Cybersai]

The reason May's goodbye was so short is the writers had to give us an Ash Vs. Gary battle in the last AG episode.

So the end of AG was based on Gary, who didn't appear in AG at all, and which hyped him up for DP, which again he barely appeared in at all aside from 3 episodes. Yeah...wtf?

 

[Piplup]

The reason May's goodbye was so short is the writers had to give us an Ash Vs. Gary battle in the last AG episode.

Not really... they probably just didn't find another way to do May's farewell... they wanted to show she's mature and not depended on others anymore, so they wanted her not to have an emotional farewell like Misty's, which is why Max got the emotional part... so instead of doing emotional stuff, flashbacks, or whatever - they used the second to last ep for a big Ash VS May battle as May's "final"