Why did it take AG and XY so long to introduce rivals for Ash?

[Rath]

In every other series, Ash's rivals (Gary, Paul, Trip, and Gladion) are introduced early on.

But in AG, Morrison isn't introduced after Ash already had all eight badges, and Ash and Sawyer didn't meet until XY074.

 

[sc190191]

I feel like AG they hadn't decided what they wanted to do yet. Gary was Ash's rival for two leagues, and once he decided to follow a new path, they didn't necessarily find a replacement. Morrison winds up being introduced in a very similar fashion to Richie (actually a slight amount earlier in relation to the league). It is interesting, because they had given May some important rivals, but in AG Ash never really got a super important rival that stuck with him for the entire series. I think there was an underlying idea that Gary was still Ash's main rival and driving force, which is why he is still battled at the end of BF and "leads" Ash to Sinnoh similarly to how he led Ash to Johto.

As far as XY, Alain was actually introduced very early in the series, just indirectly. This was a very different approach, but it wound up being interesting. Also, Trevor and Tierno (not exactly exciting rivals) were introduced fairly early. The Sawyer thing is still a bit frustrating to me, because his ability to get so good so fast was difficult to believe. I wish he would have been introduced earlier on, but since Ash's new Kalos Pokemon wouldn't have wiped the floor with Sawyer the same way in the early parts of the series, the same dynamic between them would have seemed a bit more forced. So for them to create the dynamic they wanted between Ash and Sawyer, they had to wait to introduce him until later. I will say, I like that they tried something different with both Sawyer and Alain, because Trip was way too much of an attempt to recapture Paul.

 

[EscLucy]

With AG, I think that Ash's rivals were late because they were trying out Pokemon Contests and trying to make them fit in the anime. Therefore, they were more invested in Contests which meant that May got a ton of rivals. They did Contests really well and May had really good character development as a result. However, they probably realised that Ash did need a rival eventually when it came to the League and like Richie, they decided to put Morrison in. Remember, Ash is not meant to win the league, guys!!

I agree with @sc190191 about XY. I cannot really explain that myself haha, I don't have many ideas as to why they were introduced later. Character development wasn't great in XY and I felt like most of the development went to Serena with all her edgy hair cutting at the start. For some reason, in XY, Ash was just strong at the start lol.

 

[CaptainBuggles]

I feel like Sawyer is actually at least semi-believable in the sense that newbie Ash was honestly kind of a noob who just wanted to have fun and explore, while Sawyer is actually willing to learn and adapt at all times, not just when he absolutely has to. Like, they even show that he takes notes and makes plans.

Meanwhile, newbie Kanto Ash never really was the typical prodigy protag, he was just some mediocre kid with heaps of flaws, and his only real advantages were friendship, courage, and luck, probably to make him a better audience surrogate and more of an "underdog". Not to mention the repeated feeling you got that he was actually rather unprepared for his journey.

Not to mention that Sawyer doesn't get hassled by Team Rocket and probably doesn't stop anywhere near as much to help people or tag along with his friends' activities.

So I feel like it's less that Sawyer is unbelievable and more that we're just used to a mediocre newbie with a few exceptional redeeming traits, rather than an all-around hard-working newbie with common sense and fewer distractions.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

As said before, they actually introduced Alain and other XY rivals early, it's only Sawyer who introduced lately and it's same as how they introduced Barry later. AG's lack of rivals at the beginning is not something noticeable either, considering how little Gary appeared in OS.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I think that they were more interested in Ash just starting over again with a new team in a new region more so than giving him a rival in AG. Even Harrison is more along the lines of a League rival rather than a traditional rival primarily so that Ash would have to battle against a friend in the Hoenn League. Since they already replaced Misty with May, maybe they didn't want to replace Gary with another rival, especially when R/S didn't have a lot of rivals for them to choose from. They could have done something with Wally, but I never had a huge problem with Ash not having a main rival for AG.

They did introduce Alain early in XY, although it was through the Mega Evolution specials. I do wonder if they had planned for Alain to become Ash's rival though. They were using Alain and the specials to slowly introduce Team Flare into the series proper, but considering that he wasn't interested in the Kalos League until after he battled Ash a couple of times and he got those badges ridiculously fast, it really felt like his inclusion in the Kalos League was a last minute change. It would have been nice if they did meet in the series proper a bit sooner, but I can see why that didn't happen since the main reason Alain became interested in Ash was due to Ash-Greninja.

I definitely think that Sawyer would have benefited from being introduced much sooner in the series. By the time he showed up, Ash had five badges while he only had one. It felt pretty late in the series to give Ash a rookie rival and that did make Sawyer's quickly becoming so much stronger really sudden. Granted, the latter might have been the point, especially when Ash losing to Sawyer shook him up so much, but I think it would have helped if Sawyer was introduced when Ash had three or at most four badges. That would have given him a bit more time to where his increase in strength would have felt less sudden. He was always looking into improving himself unlike other rookie trainers we've seen and traveling alone might have given him more time to work with his Pokemon compared to Ash, but I think that explanation can only go so far considering that Ash was still defeating his Pokemon with ease until just before his first Snowbelle City Gym match.

That being said, I think that the main reason why Sawyer didn't show up earlier was because he exists as a bit of OR/AS promotion. While he would have worked better introduced earlier in the series, I'm sure that they wouldn't have been able to do so until after OR/AS were released. Even with my issues with Sawyer in mind, I do think he's a much better take on a rookie rival than Trip was.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Interestingly, Sawyer/Shota actually first appeared, relatively early, in XY055 as part of the opening, yet they wait till XY073 to properly introduce him. Rivalry between Satoshi and Alan, too, first appeared in the opening, early, in XY071. Which means both of these rivalries planned in the early stages of XY.

 

[IncineROAR]

I actually appreciate AG for not bringing in rivals so soon, I don't particularly care for them. Gen 4 is my favorite series, but the thing that bugs me is just how many rivals Ash was given. BW, I'm not even going to talk about that one.

I kind of wish Hau was either Ash's traveling companion or friendly rival in SM, Hau is the first rival in the core games that didn't outright annoy me. I don't see Wally as a full fledged rival, but more of a friend with a competitive spirit. That said, I wish Wally was included in the anime.

 

[Johtohfiller]

Interestingly, Sawyer/Shota actually first appeared, relatively early, in XY055 as part of the opening, yet they wait till XY073 to properly introduce him. Rivalry between Satoshi and Alan, too, first appeared in the opening, early, in XY071. Which means both of these rivalries planned in the early stages of XY.

I wish they had introduced Shota earlier. XY could have used another year and/or the first year being faster paced.

 

[KrspaceT]

Presumably juggling issues.