What if Ash had two permanent companions?

[Greninjaman]

I wouldn't really consider five years to be a short amount of time. It's shorter compared to how long the anime has been going on, but Misty still technically had the longest run in the main cast out of all of the female leads and the only one to last through two generations. Granted, the latter is primarily because Johto was part of the original series instead of being its own series and there wasn't a female characters from G/S that could have joined the cast either, but I still think it counts for something. Neither May, Iris or Cilan traveled through as many regions as Misty did and I'm pretty sure hardly anyone considers the later part of BW as a separate series.



I don't know how Brock could have seemed more likely to be permanent compared to Misty. He did last a lot longer in the anime than she did by comparison, but they already replaced Brock once before. Even with how long he stuck around, he didn't have the same kind of permanency compared to Ash and Team Rocket. Misty didn't last as long, but since she was there from the beginning and hadn't been replaced prior like Brock, I could see why people thought back in the day that she would be a permanent character in the cast.



No, Brock left after DP. He changed his goal to become a Pokemon Doctor, which was pretty fitting for him. He was always taking care of Pokemon and becoming a Pokemon Doctor gave him a more solid goal than the vagueness of becoming the world's greatest Pokemon Breeder.

Sorry, I mistyped it before. I meant why DIDN’T they keep Brock around after Sinnoh.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Sorry, I mistyped it before. I meant why DIDN’T they keep Brock around after Sinnoh.

Ah that makes more sense. As much as I like Brock, I don't think keeping him after DP would have been the best choice. He could have traveled around Ash as a Pokemon Doctor in training, but there would be other places where he could go to better suit his new goal than traveling with Ash. Plus, most fans were already tired of Brock by DP and I don't think that having a more interesting goal would have helped with that. It was for the best that Brock was replaced since that allowed for them to replace the whole cast with every series now.

 

[yab]

Moving away from the misty/brock discussion, the writers had several other times a companion could have lasted longer, or at least more than one generation like May continuing in DP to do Contests, or Dawn being a permanent co-star, or even Cilan pulling a Brock and continuing on while the female lead left, or just recently Serena's crush on Ash being a reason for her to stick around...but of course they all left within a single generation to. It does seem like no matter how popular a character is, the writers have no problem dropping them after their gen ends. It's a stark contrast to the early days where it seemed Misty and Brock lasted until most fans either got sick of them and found them stale or they had a reason to leave to freshen up the series.

Also no matter how much promotion they give to a character like Dawn and Piplup's role in DP, or Serena's heavily focused on crush with Ash, they were still left behind rather easily when the next gen starts. So the writers clearly don't care about keeping characters around, and honestly I can't see it changing ever in the future.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Moving away from the misty/brock discussion, the writers had several other times a companion could have lasted longer, or at least more than one generation like May continuing in DP to do Contests, or Dawn being a permanent co-star, or even Cilan pulling a Brock and continuing on while the female lead left, or just recently Serena's crush on Ash being a reason for her to stick around...but of course they all left within a single generation to. It does seem like no matter how popular a character is, the writers have no problem dropping them after their gen ends. It's a stark contrast to the early days where it seemed Misty and Brock lasted until most fans either got sick of them and found them stale or they had a reason to leave to freshen up the series.

Also no matter how much promotion they give to a character like Dawn and Piplup's role in DP, or Serena's heavily focused on crush with Ash, they were still left behind rather easily when the next gen starts. So the writers clearly don't care about keeping characters around, and honestly I can't see it changing ever in the future.

I don't think it's a case of the writers not caring about keeping characters around. It's more likely that they have to include new characters to tie in with the current games. If G/S did feature a female trainer, it's possible that they could have replaced Misty sooner. I still think a big reason why Brock stayed as long as he did was because there wasn't a character from the third or fourth generation games that could cover his role in the group. Plus, one series with over one hundred episodes is more than enough time to give these characters development/focus and most of the traveling companions have gotten good sendoffs over the years, so it's not like these characters get the short end of the stick in most cases.

As much as I like May, I don't think DP would have been better with her continuing on instead of being replaced by Dawn. Dawn being a permanent co-star sounded cool on paper, but I don't know how well that would have worked even if Contests were still a main feature in the games. Not to mention it was a huge long shot anyway. I remember people thinking that Cilan could stick around after BW, especially when his voice actor is quite popular, but the chances of that were always pretty slim at best. Serena's crush on Ash would have been a terrible reason to keep her around. It would have gone against everything about her storyline and her desire to become a Pokemon Performer if she still chose to follow Ash around like a love sick puppy. It's really for the best that characters last for only one series/generation. It allows for the writers to mix things up with a different cast every few years and they have plenty of time to give them development/flesh out their personalities before a new series begins.

 

[PokeAmour]

I don't think it's a case of the writers not caring about keeping characters around. It's more likely that they have to include new characters to tie in with the current games. If G/S did feature a female trainer, it's possible that they could have replaced Misty sooner. I still think a big reason why Brock stayed as long as he did was because there wasn't a character from the third or fourth generation games that could cover his role in the group. Plus, one series with over one hundred episodes is more than enough time to give these characters development/focus and most of the traveling companions have gotten good sendoffs over the years, so it's not like these characters get the short end of the stick in most cases.

As much as I like May, I don't think DP would have been better with her continuing on instead of being replaced by Dawn. Dawn being a permanent co-star sounded cool on paper, but I don't know how well that would have worked even if Contests were still a main feature in the games. Not to mention it was a huge long shot anyway. I remember people thinking that Cilan could stick around after BW, especially when his voice actor is quite popular, but the chances of that were always pretty slim at best. Serena's crush on Ash would have been a terrible reason to keep her around. It would have gone against everything about her storyline and her desire to become a Pokemon Performer if she still chose to follow Ash around like a love sick puppy. It's really for the best that characters last for only one series/generation. It allows for the writers to mix things up with a different cast every few years and they have plenty of time to give them development/flesh out their personalities before a new series begins.

I strongly agree with you. As much as I loved May, Dawn, and Serena, I doubt any of these characters will return as permanent companions. If Serena stayed with Ash just because of her crush on Ash, she would get the exact same treatment as Ash did for the Best Wishes series. Even if Serena did come back to be Ash's travelling companion again, she would eventually start to get stale just like Brock did during Advanced Generation and Diamond & Pearl.

When the Sun & Moon series first started, I have to admit I didn't like it at first that Serena wasn't there, but it doesn't mean it's not going to be the same. In fact, Sun and Moon was also a really good series. Each series is unique and different in their own ways. It's always nice for Ash to have new friends to accompany him during his adventures, which will help Ash grow as a better and stronger character. As fans, we may not necessarily like the new characters each series begins, but over time, we'll get used to the new characters and might grow to like them more than others. At the end of each series, once those characters are gone, we will always remember the ways they've developed over the series they were in.

Basically, sometimes it's good to have new characters to work with, as different characters always bring something different to the table.

 

[yab]

I think it also helps a lot of characters generally get stale by their last years on the show and getting rid of them before they get super-stale is a good thing. Johto Misty and DP-era Brock are considered the low points of their characters, May was starting to lose a lot of her enthusiasm and personality in the Battle Frontier episodes, and Dawn was also starting to turn too much into a female Ash by the time we got to the latter half of DP. I also don't think Iris/Cilan or Bonnie/Clemont or Serena could have lasted hundreds of more eps.