What does Paul represent?

[Crankyman]

Paul's/Shinji's Weavile apparently parallels Silver's Sneasel. 'Cause that's the only Pokémon he sort of has in common with him. He also has Murkrow and Ursaring. All of his G/S Pokés make me think that Paul actually represents the expected Gen IV Gold and Silver remakes. What do you think?

 

[XD375]

Nah, Johto is just cool.

XD

I honestly can't tell you why he has them. If it's about Johto remakes, would the anime writers even know yet?

 

[Crankyman]

Maybe.....

 

[Cybersai]

Paul represents your username, he is an angerman.

 

[Dogasu]

If it's about Johto remakes, would the anime writers even know yet?

The average amount of time it takes to make one 22-minute American cartoon, start to finish, is about nine months. I don't know if that figure is the same for Japanese cartoons, but I doubt the process is significantly longer or shorter than it is in the West.

The time it takes to make an RPG like Pokemon is several years.

So if the video game producers want the anime to showcase their newest game, they'd have to let the anime staff know about a year before the episode would actually air.

 

[Cybersai]

FR/LG came out in the middle of Hoenn, so even if the writers knew about G/S remakes, the show wouldn't be able to do *anything* about them until a few more years.

Aside from giving Dawn a Johto starter, there's really no way else they would probably advertise them.

 

[Dogasu]

DP's been full of surprises so far. Who's to say that one of the Jouto trainers couldn't join our heroes mid-season, returning the group to a four-member team?

 

[Cybersai]

Probably because Marina is a Top coordinator, and having two coordinators on the group creates an imbalance?

Or having Kenta on the group brings aboard the problem of two characters going for Gyms, which would never ever happen since it'll get too repetitive?

I really don't think we'd ever have a four person group for a long saga again anyway, look at how many people complained about Max.

 

[A Concerned Solomon]

Paul represents that small child in all of us who blows days on end calculating IV values. (He's a nerdy child.)

 

[Crankyman]

Probably because Marina is a Top coordinator, and having two coordinators on the group creates an imbalance?

Or having Kenta on the group brings aboard the problem of two characters going for Gyms, which would never ever happen since it'll get too repetitive?

I really don't think we'd ever have a four person group for a long saga again anyway, look at how many people complained about Max.

Ash and Dawn entered the same contest in Jubilife, right? So that means Ash techincally is a trainer and a coordinator, at least for the episode he competes in the contest.

 

[Cybersai]

That was only a one-time thing though, he said in that ep he has no desire to enter another one.

Its no different than Brock entering that one Contest he did, he never entered another one after that.

 

[A Concerned Solomon]

Wasn't Ash in two of them? One very early on that gets ignored a lot - it was around when Pikachu was learnign Iron Tail.

 

[Hyatt]

Wasn't Ash in two of them? One very early on that gets ignored a lot - it was around when Pikachu was learnign Iron Tail.

Actually Ash and May were only just helping, it was Janet who was participating in said contest.
I also believe that was right before May decided to become a coordinator, but I haven't watched AG in a long time so I could be wrong.

 

[Habunake]

He represents SUPER!

And a poke at the annoying competive players.

NO CHARACTERS! NO ITEMS! USE FOX! FINAL DESTINATION!

 

[Cybersai]

Wasn't Ash in two of them? One very early on that gets ignored a lot - it was around when Pikachu was learnign Iron Tail.

No, only May and Max helped Janet. Ash was just training Pikachu to use Iron Tail.

 

[Crankyman]

Yeah, Paul is unique, seeing how he pretty much is the only apathetic main character since.... ever. And he never does anything comical except piss off Ash. Which isn't so comical after a while.

 

[Cybersai]

I'm just glad to see Ash with a rival again too. Considering Gary isn't collecting badges anymore he's not so much Ash's rival anymore, so its nice to have Paul to fill that void.

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

I'm just glad to see Ash with a rival again too. Considering Gary isn't collecting badges anymore he's not so much Ash's rival anymore, so its nice to have Paul to fill that void.

And God knows what Richie's doing - he didn't even make it into the Johto league, yet there he was in Johto.

 

[barryc100588]

Paul looks to me like the initial Gary perspective: Bratty, considers strong pokemon to be the ones of choice, neglects Pokemon on hand. Ash is even easily angered by him, just like with Gary at the start. I think Paul will eventually make a 180, like Gary and Rival*. Rival acts like the initial Gary as well. Even though Gary didn't steal, he too made a 180, like the Rival did. Gary and Rival both started making a 180 after losing to someone of the Pokemon League. Rival lost to Lance, Gary lost at Round 4 of Indigo League. It looks like Paul needs to lose to a Pokemon League challenger to realize that he is treating his Pokemon the wrong way. That seems to be a standing point in the series.

* Not sure what the actual name of the G/S rival is.

 

[Crankyman]

Cynthia kicked four of his Pokemon to the curb with her Garchomp in DP40. Cynthia also tells him to take care of his Pokemon better and to be kinder to them. Isn't that what you're looking for?