What is your opinion on Ash releasing Pokemon?

[V Faction]

Also, don't forget fellas, there's more than just being Oak'd!

Like Forrest'd/Jiro'd. Or Petalburg'd. Or Mysticalkingdom'd.

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Obviously the focus of the thread was for Ash (and Gliscor). But sometimes well done or arbitrary releases get done for the other characters.

Vulpix? Brock takes care of it for a sizeable number of episodes and then the trainer randomly shows up to take it back. It's like the reverse effect of what happens to Ash!

Togepi? Gets a nice little arc for its own kind, evolves, and says toodle-loo to its long time Master, thereby doing something significant to make up for its long cradling.

Can't really think of a release for May (unless someone would kindly refresh my dusty memory) but Max had lots of emotional good-byes. You could use that if you want to as an example.

 

[Cybersai]

^ May never released a Pokemon. She's the only main character, aside from Tracey, that never let go of any of her Pokemon.

Which is why it was a shame to see Dawn release something. Is it so bad to let the coordinator girl have a full team of 6?

 

[V Faction]

Well you see, Mamoswine is actually big enough to count as 2 Pokemon.

One of these days I'd love to read a synopsis of why some Pokemon get shelved and why some Pokemon get shafted from the creative ThinkTank at the studio. Y'know, something like a big list detailing how or why decisions get made.

Gliscor, at a glance it feels like his time is up in order to make way for Gible. Alright. Then I'd like to know how Gible came to be. Was he the result of some top mangement enforcement? Did the spinning needle happen to land on his Bonus square? Draw from a hat? Lotto?

It's intriguing to me because those geniuses behind the Anime could give a Legendary to their characters if they really wanted. Go on, let it steal Ash's hat. Let it stay in a Poke Ball. It'll be Fantastic-O!

 

[Gato]

I really don't care too much. I may sound really coldhearted, but his Pokemon come and go and it really doesn't affect me too much. I mean, he's not like Paul or anything... he releases them for a good enough reason..

 

[PDL]

^ May never released a Pokemon. She's the only main character, aside from Tracey, that never let go of any of her Pokemon.

There was that Swablu. She almost kept it, but they found it's family at the very end.

Ugh... You people are way way to whiny about "releases". You really should accept that Pokémon is a largely merchandise-driven show and alot of the decisions are made based on marketing.

And from what I've heard in this case, it's basically specialized training in a field that they want to excel in, but cannot if they were to say with Ash and friends. I wouldn't call it a release since they aren't going back into the wild.

 

[Cybersai]

There's something called Oak's lab, I don't think anyone would be complaining if Gliscor was sent there instead of what happened.

Now if Gliscor returns, then we'll likely retcon our opinions. Its just that, at this point, we have no clue if it'll be seen again.

 

[V Faction]

Ugh... You people are way way to whiny about "releases". You really should accept that Pokémon is a largely merchandise-driven show and alot of the decisions are made based on marketing.

Well yeah. What exactly makes something 'In' and something 'Out' is what's on my mind. Cause really, I think this franchise derives a good chunk of success due to the anime, to the point where they can turn an unknown Pokemon into a insanely popular one.

 

[Cybersai]

Yeah, I never really thought of Aipom/Ambipom as being a marketable Pokemon until it was on the show.

 

[Daxdiv]

Personally, I don't care. It's not like he releases Pokemon just for laughs or that they're weak, most of the time it's because said Pokemon wanted to leave for a personal reason, and Ash being the understanding trainer he is, allows them to do so.

After all, it's not like Gliscor leaving is going to set off a chain of events that makes Ash release every Pokemon on his team currently. Besides, I actually kind of missed how Ash released some of his Pokemon from the old sagas, that it was refreshing to see Ash do it again recently.

 

[MasterTrainer]

Ash is simply an idiot for releasing good Pokemon.

 

[J J M]

I think Ash is getting more similar to Paul

Yep, he is. Before you know it he's going to be beating up his Pokemon and become a total jerk.[/obvious sarcasm]

One (arguable) release, people! (or 3 or 4, whatever) And that too never because of selfish reasons. *shakes head*

 

[SSJ_Jup81]

Ash is simply an idiot for releasing good Pokemon.

So...you'd prefer he keep them as opposed to putting the Pokemon's ambitions, goals, or happiness first? So, you prefer him to be a selfish jerk as opposed to being a nice, understanding guy?

 

[Cybersai]

So...you'd prefer he keep them as opposed to putting the Pokemon's ambitions, goals, or happiness first? So, you prefer him to be a selfish jerk as opposed to being a nice, understanding guy?

To be honest, almost every release has been a cop-out in some form.

The only ones that weren't were Butterfree and Lapras, which were the only two releases that made sense.

There's no reason most of these releases had to happen. Honestly, what is Oak's lab for then? He has 20 Pokemon sitting there and he uses them again after every major saga.

 

[Yamato-san]

agreed. Okorizaru's treatment was utter shit, and I've mentioned several times before how Pigeon was actually more or less Satoshi's ace before the starters came along. They were just waiting out about 70 episodes to get rid of the poor thing when they could've just gone the Crab route with it the moment Pokemon storage was introduced to the audience (I sometimes get the feeling that the writers are just plain lazy about making team switches until it's too late).

Well yeah. What exactly makes something 'In' and something 'Out' is what's on my mind. Cause really, I think this franchise derives a good chunk of success due to the anime, to the point where they can turn an unknown Pokemon into a insanely popular one.

Heihei!

But yeah, it forms a rather odd paradox when you think about it. The anime is the sole reason several Pokemon are so well-known... but how do these Pokemon get decent spotlight in the anime to begin with? Usually, they have to be popular (i.e. a starter, or slightly less likely a Pokemon that could be deemed "cute" like Purin). The anime never really took more risks with oddball choices (or they just kinda dumped them on the side characters before attempting to jam them down our throats, ala Koduck) until AG, where we've since gotten our fair share of Cotoises and Gligars and MukuBIRDs and whatnot.

I don't really know how the process works myself, but we do have to consider that Pokemon does have a game, as well as several other media, from which particular Pokemon's popularity could be judged before they give it a huge part on the show and start rolling out the merchandise. I hear the director of Digimon Tamers did this when he designated Guardromon, Marine Angemon, and Cyberdramon to those two guys (and Ryou)... though he was arguably doing those poor Marine Angemon fans a huge disservice in the process.

 

[MistyBrockAsh]

it is a better fait for a pokemon than just getting oaked. I like it when he releases a poke. if you think about it really. That pokemon gets its own episode when it is released giving that poke more spotlight. when a poke is just oaked it doesnt get any special "good bye episode" its just gone..

 

[MistyBrockAsh]

and if this is about gliscor then good riddens. I liked gliscor for the time he was around. but it was hard for me to really get into that pokemon. I dont know i just like the fact that ash has five poke now.. it is a possibility that he will catch a new pokemon or bring back an old poke

 

[J J M]

Not really bothered by it. You can't seriously be expecting that your Pokemon HAS to stay with you forever. They would eventually have to leave at some point. Ash would just be a jerk if he forced all of them to stay either with him or at Oak's when they could be doing something else. As someone else said Pokemon come and go. It's nothing to get worked up about. There haven't been that many releases anyway which doesn't make it that much of a problem.

 

[luf100]

For some reason I don't really like it. xD In the games I never release my Pokemon so that probably, for some reason, makes me dislike it when Ash does it, since he's a trainer. I'm not against cast changes, because Ash can always send his Pokemon to Prof. Oak (or wherever they go now, I'm not up on the new episodes) and get new ones, but he doesn't have to release them.

I can see the other side of it though where people think Ash would be a bad/cruel trainer if he didn't release them when they wanted to go. But I thought the whole point of Pokemon was to "catch 'em all", and then train them. (Unless I'm totally taking that the wrong way and catch 'em all just means to have each Pokemon at least some time as a trainer, not all the time.)

 

[Weedle Mchairybug]

Not really bothered by it. You can't seriously be expecting that your Pokemon HAS to stay with you forever. They would eventually have to leave at some point. Ash would just be a jerk if he forced all of them to stay either with him or at Oak's when they could be doing something else. As someone else said Pokemon come and go. It's nothing to get worked up about. There haven't been that many releases anyway which doesn't make it that much of a problem.

I can understand why some people would hate Ash releasing his pokemon. They may not see it as being any different than what Paul or Damian has done countless times, regardless of the intentions. Personally, I fear leaving things behind, because I fear that if and when I do, I'll forget about the thing I had. People have cited that Ash "forgot" about his Charizard when doing the whole Pokedex thing on it in the episode where Ash had to fight Team Rocket with the three evolved Kanto Starters in Johto, and that's not even getting into that issue about Ash and company "forgetting" the fact that Ash won the P1 Grand Prix and gave Anthony his Primeape for him to train. In a way, that's also why I am deathly afraid of giving away or throwing away even worthless things, since even worthless things count as something to be remembered in my book. Well, I've stated why I think people hate it when Ash releases pokemon.

 

[SSJ_Jup81]

But I thought the whole point of Pokemon was to "catch 'em all", and then train them. (Unless I'm totally taking that the wrong way and catch 'em all just means to have each Pokemon at least some time as a trainer, not all the time.)

I thought that was more emphasized in the dub as opposed to the original.