Pokemon relationships with other trainers and their Pokemon

[owenpeterson]

During the Battle of the Badge episode, one scene in particular really interested me. There was a scene in which Ash is frustrated about being behind Gary for so long. Misty and Brock are discussing how they should deal with Ash's low self esteem moment. Meanwhile, Togepi feels sorry for Ash and walks up to him and pats him on the back. Ash (thinking it's Pikachu) turns around and hugs Togepi, before realizing that it's Togepi and not Pikachu and in a moment of surprise reacts by launching Togepi up in the air and "sending it on a little adventure" so to speak.

Even though it was played mainly for laughs, It made me think about the relationships between Pokemon and other trainers. Considering that Pikachu and Togepi are constantly out of their pokeballs, they get to interact with their trainers as well as their friends and their friends' Pokemon more often than not. One can also think about Ash's relationships with the rest of Misty's, Brock's, Tracey's, May's, Dawn's, Iris', Cilan's, Serena's, and Clemont's Pokemon, their (Ash's Friends) relationships with Ash's Pokemon, and their Pokemon's relationship with Ash's Pokemon.

One could say that Ash, his Pokemon, his friends, and his friends' Pokemon are all part of one big family once you think about it.

What do you think?

 

[sc190191]

I think that because Ash has traveled with his friends so long that the entire Pokemon group develops a level of trust, where all the Pokemon get along with each other (with some notable exceptions) and as we have seen multiple times they will obey the other trainers in the group and get along well with them. Especially in the original series the group lent each other their Pokemon (and of course they listened to the other trainer). I always thought it was interesting that Misty tried to get Ash to use her Pokemon for gym battles and the Pokemon League, as if that was allowed, although that is a different thing entirely. I feel like they don't show the interaction between Pokemon and the other trainers as much as they used to, but it is certainly something that is pretty neat and I would like to see more of it moving forward.

 

[Solar Beam]

I do think this is adorable. I always found Misty and Pikachu's relationship to be adorable since he adored her so much.

I do remember some instances, like Dawn's relationship with Pikachu (although they didn't interact much in later episodes) which stemmed from her protecting him and caring for him. I thought it was adorable with how Dawn shows off her dress to Ash and Brock by twirling with Pikachu and how Pikachu was on Dawn's shoulder during the Hippopotas episode. Also, there's Dawn commanding Chimchar in one episode to help Ash train. There was also one episode where Piplup jumps to Ash's arms after Dawn gets shocked by Ursula's Plusle and Minun.

I also do like how in AG, May or Max would often hold Pikachu when he wasn't participating.

Though, I do think XY had the most interaction between Ash and co and all the Pokemon since all of them have a distinct personality.

For example, there is Bonnie and Pikachu's relationship which I find the cutest. Pikachu and Bonnie play in XY003. Pikachu in XY004, gets his face cleaned by Bonnie who adores Pikachu. Then in XY004, she touches his tail, which he enjoys. After that, she touches Dedenne's tail, and then Pikachu walks up to her and tells her to do the same to him. Then, in the summer camp episode, Bonnie gets separated and Pikachu was the only one who noticed and went back to look for her. There's also the episode where Puni-chan gets lost and Pikachu sleeps with Bonnie in order to make her feel better.

there's also the episode where the gang and Pokemon separated due to Pangoro. Seeing Luxray excited to see Ash was so cute, and there was also Clemont with Pikachu and Braxien where they acted just like their trainers when Clemont showed off an invention.

I could name more instances, but these are the ones I strongly remember. I do think that the relationship with the trainers and all of the Pokemon are cute.

 

[SonansuMan]

There's a moment in XY043 where IIRC, Kojiro waits for Maiika to catch up with him, Musashi, Nyarth, and Sonansu.

Also occasional fear hugs.

 

[Gengarzilla]

The relationship that sticks out most to me would be Clemont's Bunnelby and Serena's Eevee/Sylveon. Especially that time when Bunnelby was called out to watch over Eevee during a Showcase, seeing their bond acknowledged like that by the trainers is really sweet.