Pokémon Evolution/Capture/Release Thread

[Beary]

It seems a bit odd to me to say that Ash shouldn't capture any more Pokemon because of his current team is being handled, but that he should also bring back his older Pokemon. It's true that his reserves are already developed and wouldn't necessarily need a lot of screentime, but they would overshadow his current team quite easily. I'm also not really sure if they would really feel the need to make Ash use his reserves for any upcoming matches. If his current team can carry him to the Hyper Class, including defeating the Unova Champion, then why would he think he needs to bring in his more experienced Pokemon? Even if he's struggling against certain trainers, wouldn't it make more sense to just train his current team instead? It would at least help to improve on how they're managing Ash's team by having him actually train and work with his Pokemon. I'd still like for Ash to capture some more Pokemon, if only because I still wish that he could have a couple more Galar Pokemon.



I'm pretty sure that there's a huge difference between Ash not using Gengar more frequently and his previous trainer happily abandoning it for years. Saying that there's no difference between them is just harsh and untrue. I'm not saying that this excuses the minimal screentime for Gengar or any of Ash's Pokemon, but painting Ash as this neglectful trainer because of what ultimately is the writers' decisions seems rather harsh. If the writers didn't have most of Ash's PWC matches off screen or have most of them be one-on-one battles, that probably could have gone a long way with showing Ash's team more frequently and giving more weight to these battles as opposed to making them so much more infrequent.

First off I want to say I agree with your two points. However, I feel that Ash pokemon are strong physically but there’s almost zero to nothing for development for them. The main point of Pokemon for the last 25 years was to develop one team, and then stick with it the entire season. But the writers are being lazy and keep doing these CotD episodes with Goh. With no development for his pokemon, the anime isn’t satisfying. Let’s imagine this, what if Ash just caught a dialga and then beat Paul in D/P? It’s not as satisfying because without infernape, the viewers won’t feel a connection to Ash. The same is happening here. I don’t feel any connection really to dragonite and dracovish and to me this seems like lazy development from the writers. We just need more episodes with Ash and his pokemon alone, no Goh or Chloe. We need to see training because that’s where we see the hardships that his pokemon face. Or else it seems like Ash just catches these great pokemon and they somehow manage to win every battle for him. The only good development in this series is sirfetch, and even then the training episode was stuffed with goh and comedy. I think writers need to lay off the comical moments for important battles and training episodes.

I messed up my message about Ash being a neglectful trainer. I should say the writers are just neglecting Ash instead...

 

[Hidden Mew]

First off I want to say I agree with your two points. However, I feel that Ash pokemon are strong physically but there’s almost zero to nothing for development for them. The main point of Pokemon for the last 25 years was to develop one team, and then stick with it the entire season. But the writers are being lazy and keep doing these CotD episodes with Goh. With no development for his pokemon, the anime isn’t satisfying. Let’s imagine this, what if Ash just caught a dialga and then beat Paul in D/P? It’s not as satisfying because without infernape, the viewers won’t feel a connection to Ash. The same is happening here. I don’t feel any connection really to dragonite and dracovish and to me this seems like lazy development from the writers. We just need more episodes with Ash and his pokemon alone, no Goh or Chloe. We need to see training because that’s where we see the hardships that his pokemon face. Or else it seems like Ash just catches these great pokemon and they somehow manage to win every battle for him. The only good development in this series is sirfetch, and even then the training episode was stuffed with goh and comedy. I think writers need to lay off the comical moments for important battles and training episodes.

To be fair, I'm not sure how well developed any of Ash's teams were in the original series, or really anyone's teams prior to AG, so saying that was the main point of the anime from the start might not be quite accurate. I agree that they should provide more screentime and training to Ash's current team so that there would be a stronger emotional connection with the audience. That's a big reason why I think it was a huge mistake to give him mostly fully evolved Pokemon. There's not much for them to do or to struggle with beyond learning some new moves. That's why I don't really think that bringing in his reserves would be much of a solution, at least as far as his current team is concerned. They'd still be missing out on screentime and if Ash can get to the Hyper Class with his current team, then I don't think that there's a good reason for him to need his reserves.

I don't think that we necessarily need Ash to spend episodes on his own with his Pokemon. It wouldn't hurt, but they could just have them train more on-screen and/or make the PWC matches longer. Two-on-two matches really isn't going to provide enough attention for most of Ash's team. I think that the problem is less on Goh or the comedy and more on the breakneck pace Journeys has in general, along with making Ash's team fully evolved way too fast.

I messed up my message about Ash being a neglectful trainer. I should say the writers are just neglecting Ash instead...

I wouldn't go that far either. Despite all of the complaints about Ash in Journeys, I still don't think he's being pushed to the side or anything like that. The screentime complaint always feels more of an exaggeration than anything else to me and Ash still has moments to shine. Regardless of how I feel about Iris becoming a Champion off-screen, Ash being allowed to defeat a Champion level trainer doesn't really give the impression that the writers are neglecting him.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

It seems a bit odd to me to say that Ash shouldn't capture any more Pokemon because of his current team is being handled, but that he should also bring back his older Pokemon. It's true that his reserves are already developed and wouldn't necessarily need a lot of screentime, but they would overshadow his current team quite easily.

I think that’s happening because people have simply accepted that the writers aren’t willing to develop the JN team any more than they currently have. They suddenly won’t start appearing every episode or every other episode, or get well defined arcs, so people are looking for the nostalgia they need in the form of older Pokémon, and they don’t need development so they cannot be messed up a lot, compar3nto a potential new Pokémon.

To be fair, I'm not sure how well developed any of Ash's teams were in the original series,

Vastly more than JN. They appeared enough for that, at least.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I think that’s happening because people have simply accepted that the writers aren’t willing to develop the JN team any more than they currently have. They suddenly won’t start appearing every episode or every other episode, or get well defined arcs, so people are looking for the nostalgia they need in the form of older Pokémon, and they don’t need development so they cannot be messed up a lot, compar3nto a potential new Pokémon.

I can understand that rationale, but I think using nostalgia like that would just be a crutch. It wouldn't really resolve the issue or make the problems with Ash's current team less noticeable just because he's using Infernape or one of his other popular Pokemon again. Not to mention people unfamiliar with those series wouldn't be able to emotionally connect with Ash's reserves either. I just think it would be better to actually work on what they already have and/or give Ash some more new Pokemon to work with instead of relying on reserves. It probably helps that I'm not as negative on the possibility of them improving Ash's current team though.

Plus, I can't really think of a good reason in-universe for Ash to rely more on his reserves. As much as I don't like that Iris became the Unova Champion off-screen, Ash still defeated her, so I don't really see how he'd be struggling against another trainer to where he'd need to bring in his more experienced team. The fact that it seems unlikely we're going to get anything more than two-on-two battles for these PWC matches also makes me less certain that he'd need his reserves.

Vastly more than JN. They appeared enough for that, at least.

I disagree that they were vastly more developed. Ash's Kanto team appeared more frequently, but aside from Pikachu, Charizard and maybe Bulbasaur, they didn't really have any personalities. Squirtle barely did anything, Pidegotto was just there to destroy Team Rocket's balloon and he never had a proper sixth team member. His Johto Pokemon had more personality by comparison, but with the except of Bayleef and Cyndaquil, they were pretty underdeveloped. Totodile never won a Gym battle, Noctowl's Confusion move was barely used after its first Gym battle and Phanpy was introduced way too late. I'm not saying that his Journeys team is perfect or anything like that, but saying that Ash's original series teams were vastly more developed just doesn't seem quite accurate to me. They were used more consistently, but the fact that Ash's Gym quests were the main focus of the original series instead of being put on the side like the PWC is a pretty huge difference.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I can understand that rationale, but I think using nostalgia like that would just be a crutch. It wouldn't really resolve the issue or make the problems with Ash's current team less noticeable just because he's using Infernape or one of his other popular Pokemon again. Not to mention people unfamiliar with those series wouldn't be able to emotionally connect with Ash's reserves either. I just think it would be better to actually work on what they already have and/or give Ash some more new Pokemon to work with instead of relying on reserves. It probably helps that I'm not as negative on the possibility of them improving Ash's current team though.

I do think I’d prefer them developing the JN team, but honestly, to me, at least, it seems like the writing is unlikely to do a 180. And a lot of people do understand that and have accepted it, switching to other alternatives.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Vastly more than JN. They appeared enough for that, at least.

I disagree that they were vastly more developed. Ash's Kanto team appeared more frequently, but aside from Pikachu, Charizard and maybe Bulbasaur, they didn't really have any personalities. Squirtle barely did anything, Pidegotto was just there to destroy Team Rocket's balloon and he never had a proper sixth team member. His Johto Pokemon had more personality by comparison, but with the except of Bayleef and Cyndaquil, they were pretty underdeveloped. Totodile never won a Gym battle, Noctowl's Confusion move was barely used after its first Gym battle and Phanpy was introduced way too late. I'm not saying that his Journeys team is perfect or anything like that, but saying that Ash's original series teams were vastly more developed just doesn't seem quite accurate to me. They were used more consistently, but the fact that Ash's Gym quests were the main focus of the original series instead of being put on the side like the PWC is a pretty huge difference.

While it's true that the Kanto/OI had its major issues, they could be somewhat excused by the fact that the show was new back then and the writers were still getting the hang of the series' feel, not to mention that by the end everyone did manage to get a big moment. The Unova team is pretty similar in that regard: the overall handling of the rotation was atrocious and overwhelmingly favored the starters plus Scraggy, but at least by the end everybody had gotten at least one impressive showing under their belt. Even the Unholy Trinity of Blandmons that is Unfezant/Boldore/Palpitoad.

I'm still holding onto hope that the Journeys team will turn things around by the later half of the series, because there's still a long way to go. But the fact still stands that so far they're probably the most mishandled team of Ash's to date. Which is a huge shame because this is also the most unique team and the one with the biggest number of fandom wishlist captures in it.

 

[Sobblelelle]

Ash's current team is fully evolved, he is in the Hyper Class with old characters teased to have rematches, and the reserves are set to reappear with at least some use. Goh also has the upcoming Project Mew arc to look forward to, which seems like it may be similar to the ultra guardians plotline but with legendaries and rival characters.

Contrast that to the Normal and Super classes which were almost devoid of returning characters, with even Surge absent, Ash jumping ranks, and Goh predominantly catching first stage pokemon at his own pace, and it feels like the story is now moving out of what could be viewed as the 'intro' segment.

I wonder if we will see some change in Koharu to mirror the raised stakes in the boys goals?

And with Gary, Volkner and Infernape reappearing, I wonder if we are going into a period of increased Sinnoh promotion?

It's odd that Goh's only Sinnoh pokemon is Mantyke, who evolves into a Johto pokemon, with Mismagius being his only other one if his Misdreavus evolves. The only other regions where he has fewer than 6 pokemon are Galar with 5 and Alola with 3, but given that Alola was last gen and Sinnoh is on the horizon, I wonder what the writers are planning?

I also wonder what will happen with legendary and mythical pokemon? While Goh will likely not catch anything stronger than a sub-legendary, I imagine that he will capture more than the writers can reuse the 'it's here in spirit' conclusion that Suicune got. Many also lack the type of mission that keeps Suicune roaming.

The Rose and Eternatus plotlines have also not been concluded.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Ash's current team is fully evolved,

That isn’t really a huge accomplishment since only two members of his team could evolve once. (Excluding Pikachu for obvious reasons).

I imagine that he will capture more than the writers can reuse the 'it's here in spirit' conclusion that Suicune got.

I’ll probably audibly groan if we had a repeat of that a third time. The rescue capture thing. Legendaries should only go to him if he doesn’t have a regular access to them, so I guess we're in agreement there.

I wonder if we will see some change in Koharu to mirror the raised stakes in the boys goals?

I do hope so, but Project Mew giving something to do to bo5 Ash and Go, but nothing to Koharu is weird and discouraging if that’s the direction they want to take.

And with Gary, Volkner and Infernape reappearing, I wonder if we are going into a period of increased Sinnoh promotion?

It's odd that Goh's only Sinnoh pokemon is Mantyke, who evolves into a Johto pokemon, with Mismagius being his only other one if his Misdreavus evolves. The only other regions where he has fewer than 6 pokemon are Galar with 5 and Alola with 3, but given that Alola was last gen and Sinnoh is on the horizon, I wonder what the writers are planning?

I anticipate a bunch of episodes in SInnoh. Go could get his obligatory captures while they hopefully find something to do with Ash, the rematches seem promising. I hoped they used Torterra this time, since it evolved right before the battle with Volkner but Ash used... Infernape.

I hope your interpretation of moving past the "intro" is true.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Well with Mega Lucario, Inteleon, and Alolan Ninetales on the horizon, I wonder what other Pokémon captures are on the way?

Falinks was in the OP and we still don't know when it'll show up. (Unless one of Gou's Rivals has it already?)

 

[Sobblelelle]

Well with Mega Lucario, Inteleon, and Alolan Ninetales on the horizon, I wonder what other Pokémon captures are on the way?

Falinks was in the OP and we still don't know when it'll show up. (Unless one of Gou's Rivals has it already?)

Or Bea.

Falinks, A-Ninetales (prob Lillie), the Regi's/ bird trios, and maybe Rookidee (prob a ways off). There isn't much to go off of as far as captures outside of those. None of the coming episodes (with titles) look like they will have captures in them.

That isn’t really a huge accomplishment since only two members of his team could evolve once. (Excluding Pikachu for obvious reasons).

I meant it more in a 'they're already evolved so they can concentrate on rank climbing' kind of way, though I could see Ash capturing a couple more Pokémon.

I’ll probably audibly groan if we had a repeat of that a third time. The rescue capture thing. Legendaries should only go to him if he doesn’t have a regular access to them, so I guess we're in agreement there.

I could see them pulling another rescue capture depending on what kind of characters the PM members are, Rose is still on the loose, and if the writers use the Swordward and Shielbert plotline, I could imagine a Zamazenta rescue (though Zamazenta isn't the kind of legendary I see Goh keeping). But yes, I hope the rescue capture plot isn't overused.

Goh will more likely than not eventually have a legendary/ mythical that remains in the lab/ joins his core team.

-I could see him getting RS Urshifu if Asahi doesn't have it

-If they do the UB's in Galar/ back in Alola, I could see him getting a Type: Null

-I imagine he will capture at least 1 Galar bird given he failed with Zapdos and will likely not catch Moltress. The birds are migratory though so perhaps they keep roaming post capture

-I also doubt he will catch any Hoenn Regi's. If the new ones are still confined in the split decision ruins then I don't see what would keep Goh from taking them to the lab, it seems like an easy raid plotline to write

-Calyrex only needs one mount, though a steed capture feels less likely to me than the other Galar legends, and Calyrex even less likely

-Both Lati's have shown up with trainers

-Tobias had Darkrai

-Mallow at least temporarily cared Shaymin, and Lillie is still with Magearna


In part it depends on if the PM members are catching mythicals/ legendaries and keeping them on hand. Will we eventually see raids against box covers?

The Galar legends at least will need to be covered, and I don't think the writers can continue to give Goh legendaries without really giving him legendaries.

Golurk also shows that Goh won't necessarily have his strongest Pokémon on hand.

 

[CyberMonsterTrainer]

I don't see why Ash can't catch himself an Absol or a Flygon. Goh's goal is catching EVERY Pokemon, so of course he's gonna have some dittos with Ash.

I thought it was an unspoken rule where Ash can't catch pokemon Goh already has, cause of the uniqueness factor

 

[swiftgallade46]

I thought it was an unspoken rule where Ash can't catch pokemon Goh already has, cause of the uniqueness factor

The opposite hasn’t held true, but I doubt they’d do it in the same series.

 

[RileyXY1]

Spoiler: JN066

Go's White Flower Flabebe evolved. And, he actually released it, marking his very first release.

 

[Tom1291]

So if Goh release his Trapinch, it will go with Ash.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Spoiler: JN066

Go's White Flower Flabebe evolved. And, he actually released it, marking his very first release.

All of his Flabébé evolved.

So if Goh release his Trapinch, it will go with Ash.

I doubt either of those will happen.

 

[CyberMonsterTrainer]

All of his Flabébé evolved.

So they all evolved without having to do anything?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

@CyberMonsterTrainer
Yes. But his White Flower Flabébé didn't evolve with the rest, only doing so after its damaged flower was replaced. And then, Goh released it in a genuinely heartfelt sendoff.

 

[Tom1291]

So I reckon the Pokéball that frozen might be Ash or Goh catches a Regice. Do you think?

 

[Sobblelelle]

So I reckon the Pokéball that frozen might be Ash or Goh catches a Regice. Do you think?

I think that it is likely Regice, though I think this may be a similar break out situation to Zapdos. It seems like too much focus if it was a regular deflected ball. Or Regice is stuck in someone's frozen pokeball, and they need to get it and battle them later. But a Zapdos breakout seems most likely.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

So I reckon the Pokéball that frozen might be Ash or Goh catches a Regice. Do you think?

Or it's Tsurugi. Who knows?