PokeAni Missed Opportunities

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The point was to create suspense.

I am glad they didn't evolve Psyduck. He was a gag pokemon that was fairly entertaining. You need characters like that on a show like pokemon or things would get dull real quick. Togepi was the one that needed to evolve earlier. He was more tied to Misty's character development then Psyduck.

Psyduck could have been a gag without Misty constantly being annoyed by it but still wanting to keep it with herself for some reason. Suede has made me see that such a relationship is very toxic. Fortunately, Sun & Moon fixed that up.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

And OS had no shortage of gags even if Psyduck evolved.

 

[Daenerys]

I am glad they didn't evolve Psyduck. He was a gag pokemon that was fairly entertaining. You need characters like that on a show like pokemon or things would get dull real quick.

Yeah I mean it's not like we had Team Rocket around back then for comedy purposes.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

And OS had no shortage of gags even if Psyduck evolved.

Yeah. Although, some of them, like Psyduck and Jigglypuff, were less well executed than others.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I always assumed that Psyduck's tail was glowing as a result of Tentacruel's poison or something like that. While Psyduck was primarily a gag Pokemon, I think having it evolve would have been better for Misty in the long run. Psyduck is more connected to Misty's goal than Togepi ever was, if only because it is a Water type, and she really needed a powerful Pokemon during the original series. It also would have made some of her victories less cheap by not relying on Psyduck's deus ex machina Psychic attacks. I'm glad that Misty was much kinder to Psyduck during her SM appearances, but the fact that she still hasn't trained Psyduck to use its Psychic attacks without getting a massive headache first is still a bit bothersome.

I wouldn't have minded if Togepi evolved sooner too. That would have been better than it doing hardly anything during Johto, but I can see why they waited until AG to do so. Togekiss wasn't created yet, so having Togepi leave after reaching to its then final form made sense.

 

[game3524]

Psyduck was never connected to Misty's character development, that was Togepi. He was the main reason why she mellowed out as the series went on. I think some are confusing her goal with actually character development.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

I don't care about Psyduck not evolving but I do think that Misty's team back in early OS was too big and Horsea and Goldeen suffered as a result. Her having a team consisting of just Staryu, Psyduck and Togepi in the Orange Islands would've been ideal because those were her go-to Pokemon for the most part anyways. And I don't think she should have caught Poliwag until mid-Johto.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I don't care about Psyduck not evolving but I do think that Misty's team back in early OS was too big and Horsea and Goldeen suffered as a result. Her having a team consisting of just Staryu, Psyduck and Togepi in the Orange Islands would've been ideal because those were her go-to Pokemon for the most part anyways. And I don't think she should have caught Poliwag until mid-Johto.

I think Starmie could've also used more screentime.

 

[Daenerys]

I don't care about Psyduck not evolving but I do think that Misty's team back in early OS was too big and Horsea and Goldeen suffered as a result. Her having a team consisting of just Staryu, Psyduck and Togepi in the Orange Islands would've been ideal because those were her go-to Pokemon for the most part anyways. And I don't think she should have caught Poliwag until mid-Johto.

I would've had Poliwag/Poliwhirl do more before it evolved into Politoed at least, but I do agree that Misty's team was an overcrowded mess at the beginning and I wish she never had Goldeen in particular.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Psyduck was never connected to Misty's character development, that was Togepi. He was the main reason why she mellowed out as the series went on. I think some are confusing her goal with actually character development.

I'm not sure if that was character development exactly. She just became more motherly after getting Togepi, but I don't think it was presented as character development. I never really got that impression at least. Psyduck is more connected to Misty's goal than Togepi. Misty training Psyduck, learning to work with it as opposed to being angry at it all the time and then getting it to evolve into Golduck would have felt like a more natural progression for her character and it would have helped with her goal of becoming a Water Pokemon Master, if only because training strong Water Pokemon is at least an aspect to that goal. Togepi didn't really do much aside from being cute Johto promotion.

I don't care about Psyduck not evolving but I do think that Misty's team back in early OS was too big and Horsea and Goldeen suffered as a result. Her having a team consisting of just Staryu, Psyduck and Togepi in the Orange Islands would've been ideal because those were her go-to Pokemon for the most part anyways. And I don't think she should have caught Poliwag until mid-Johto.

I didn't mind that Misty caught Poilwag during the Orange Islands, but it probably could have done a bit more before evolving into a Poliwhirl. I definitely agree that her team during the Kanto arc was way too big. Goldeen was virtually useless, Starmie was wasted despite how it should have been stronger than her Staryu and Horsea was unfortunately wasted despite having such a good debut episode. I still wish that she had kept Horsea so that it could have become a Kingdra. That would have been pretty cool, but they probably didn't want to give any main characters a part Dragon type Pokemon during the original series. Plus, they also tend to not do too much with Water Pokemon that can't move around on land.

 

[Galactic_V]

About Koduck not evolving, I remember the day I watched for the first time that episode where he's thought to have evolved but is revealed to just be napping inside his Monster Ball. It was infuriating to not say the least. I never cared for Kasumi that much, however thinking that powerhouse Golduck was hers was just too awesome.

Now if it should've evolved or not, yeah it should, but it's been proved the writers are mostly unwilling to get rid of a few running gags involving certain Pokemon so I believe it was expected.

And since you guys are talking about Kasumi's Kanto team (Hitodeman, Starmie, Tosakinto, Koduck, Togepi and Tattsu), the main issue here is that, other than Togepi and Koduck (and Tattsu a little bit), none of the others ever showed any hint of personality whatsoever. Kanto had this problem in which most Pokemon owned by Kasumi or Takeshi'd be presented as bland. Think of Takeshi's Kanto team, only Rokon had personality as far as I remember.

 

[Shadao]

And since you guys are talking about Kasumi's Kanto team (Hitodeman, Starmie, Tosakinto, Koduck, Togepi and Tattsu), the main issue here is that, other than Togepi and Koduck (and Tattsu a little bit), none of the others ever showed any hint of personality whatsoever. Kanto had this problem in which most Pokemon owned by Kasumi or Takeshi'd be presented as bland. Think of Takeshi's Kanto team, only Rokon had personality as far as I remember.

To be fair, I do recall Takeshi's Iwark being expressive enough to show a fear of water. Especially when it saw Sihorn sank like a stone.

 

[Daenerys]

To be fair, I do recall Takeshi's Iwark being expressive enough to show a fear of water. Especially when it saw Sihorn sank like a stone.

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I sense that we're really scraping at the bottom of the barrel for examples of Onix showcasing a bit of personality. 'Cause that's just one short scene out of the entirety of the Original Series, so I feel like GalacticRonpa's point still stands.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

I think there could have been more 4 vs 4 gym battles. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Ash vs Candice was the only 4 vs 4 gym battle Ash ever had. I can understand it being 3 vs 3 through out the first few gyms, but by at least the seventh one it should be 4 vs 4 imo.

 

[El Squibbonator]

I know this has probably been brought up before, but. . . Primeape. They gave Ash a powerful Pokemon with a lot of personality, and he dumps it in its second appearance? What gives? If it had stuck around, I have a feeling it could have been one of the "classics" of his Kanto lineup.

On that train of thought, Haunter and Larvitar too. He should have caught them--they were staring him right in the face!

 

[Hidden Mew]

I know this has probably been brought up before, but. . . Primeape. They gave Ash a powerful Pokemon with a lot of personality, and he dumps it in its second appearance? What gives? If it had stuck around, I have a feeling it could have been one of the "classics" of his Kanto lineup.

On that train of thought, Haunter and Larvitar too. He should have caught them--they were staring him right in the face!

The whole point of the Larvitar arc was return it to its mother. It was also far too late in Johto to give Ash a new Pokemon. Even Phanpy didn't really get much of a chance to shine until the Battle Frontier arc. If they had introduced Larvitar sooner and didn't want to get it back to its mother, then it might have been an interesting choice for Ash's team.

I never really thought about Ash keeping Haunter, mainly because of how he spent most of the time just begging Haunter to listen to him, but I definitely agree that Primeape should have stuck around. I'm not sure if it could have been considered one of his classics of his Kanto team, but it could have gotten more attention. It was a chance to give Ash a strong Pokemon, but without making it too powerful to where he'd rely on it all the time.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

I keep wondering how different things would have gone if Ash kept Haunter, would certain battles have gone different? At the very least it would've been nice to have a Pokemon with plenty more personality at least when compared to some of the main cast pokemon in the Indigo League arc/Season 1...like Pidgeotto.

It also helped it was super friendly if you get past the whole trying to scare them thing earlier.

Spoiler

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I can understand why Magnitude and Earthquake were banned from the anime, but I can't help but think what kind of movesets, say, Ash's Donphan and Torterra, for example, could have had if they were allowed to learn those moves. Too bad Bulldoze wasn't introduced until Generation V...

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I can understand why Magnitude and Earthquake were banned from the anime, but I can't help but think what kind of movesets, say, Ash's Donphan and Torterra, for example, could have had if they were allowed to learn those moves. Too bad Bulldoze wasn't introduced until Generation V...

Torterra was kinda robbed of a ground move, since there was no problem about using Earth Power, apparently.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Primeape. They gave Ash a powerful Pokemon with a lot of personality, and he dumps it in its second appearance?

Lot of personality? It was angry all the time.