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Would You Have Preferred Pokemon: Sword and Shield The Series Over Journeys?

To be honest I wouldn't be too surprised if a lot of the long time writers are sick and tired of writing badge quests after doing so constantly for almost twenty years before Sun and Moon came out, though of course that's just conjecture. I wonder if maybe Daiki Tomiyasu isn't interested in doing one, seeing as he director both non-Gym series'?

For the topic thread I'd say that I at least find JN entertainingly hard to predict so speculation has been much more interesting than in the past; I was growing cynical about badge quests after AG and development since then has only strengthened that.

If they wanted to mix it up they could have made it so that trainers need to be a certain rank in the PWC or Galar equivalent before being able to challenge a specific gym. This keeps the PWC aspect and puts more importance on Ash making and maintaining progress up the ranks, and an intermediate goal to strive for between gyms.
 
I was for him catching Sobble but after it went to Go I'm kind of happy. He doesn't need Galar starters or many Galar Pokemon this time
I strongly disagree with this. The anime has long been a tool of promotion for the current generation of Pokemon and the fact that a Galar Pokemon isn't currently being represented on Ash's team feels wrong. We aren't getting to see many Galar Pokemon in action. Goh has Cinderace and the Sobble he never should have got. Cinderace has been more involved in battles lately, but Sobble doesn't do much at all. Ash will eventually have a Sirfetch'd, though that's it. The only other Galar Pokemon end up being unnecessary captures for Goh that he's never gonna use and just let rot away at Cerise's lab. One of the biggest ways to fix this would be adding more Galarian Pokemon to Ash's team so we can see them in action more, especially in the PWC.
 
Also the old formula was getting stale. SM was a good step in the right direction and I'm glad the new series is continuing that. Plus Ash finally got a Lucario which would have never happened in a standard Galar series.

It's hard for me to see the formula being stale when like I mentioned before, each series was still pretty distinct from each other. Going in a new direction isn't necessarily bad, but that doesn't necessarily make it better than the traditional formula either. Change for the shake of it can ring kind of hallow. There were plenty of complaints about the changes made in SM, especially when it first started, but I think most of those changes ultimately worked more in SM's favor than against it, such as staying in one location for a bulk of the series and the cast being so large. It is too early for me to say for sure how well the changes in Journeys will reflect on the entire series, but at this rate, I'm not too hopeful on some aspects like the world traveling or PWC being handled significantly better.

Although, Ash would never get a Lucario in a traditional Galar series, which would be a huge loss in my book given that I've wanted him to get a Lucario for over a decade. As much as I love Lucario, I also would have wanted to see more of Galar, its characters and its Pokemon. The ideal solution for me would have been for Gigantamax Lucario to exist so that Ash would still have a reason to get a Riolu egg in Galar.

Black&White said:
I was for him catching Sobble but after it went to Go I'm kind of happy. He doesn't need Galar starters or many Galar Pokemon this time

I don't really understand the logic that Ash doesn't need Galar Pokemon. There wouldn't be any harm giving him some new Pokemon instead of popular Pokemon that have been around for ages. It would help to make his team more unique since at the moment Ash only has two non-first generation Pokemon on his team. I'd count Galarian Farfetch'd as a Galar Pokemon since it is a regional form despite being based on a first generation Pokemon. Not to mention it would still help promote the games and that is still a priority in Journeys to some degree at least.

I wouldn't mind this idea too much if Goh had more Galar Pokemon, but I think he only has three and only two of them get any kind of attention. Ash getting more Galar Pokemon would potentially give new Pokemon some actual screentime in the anime, which would at least help with one of my main issues with Journeys. Plus, as cool and different as Ash's current team is, having more un-evolved Pokemon would help to give them something to work towards with those Pokemon and having more Pokemon from different generations available would fit nicely with the world traveling setup in the series.
 
I would like a Sword and Shield series. Then there can be more Galar characters appearing.

Also a longer Darkest Day arc.

And fleshing out Galar as a region with more touches reflecting the UK inspiration. Even just small things like the power plant going into overdrive during the ad break of a popular soap, like what happened a few times with Coronation Street or the World Cup.
 
All we needed was a Twilight Wings-esque anime and world peace could have been reached.
 
Yes.

I know people think that gym quests are tired, but they serve an important purpose in providing the story with structure. Even SM, which I rate very highly due to its excellent world building and character-led saga, felt weak in this aspect even with the vague island challenge goal. PM is a dead duck in this context.

There is potential to do some fun stuff but as you've all already expanded on, nothing of interest has happened with travelling the world or bringing back past characters. Actually, the latter is only really worthwhile if the characters have some impact. (In this series, even Satoshi's impact feels limited, let alone side characters. With the exception of Go, I can't (currently) see any of us crossing our fingers to see characters from this series in subsequent series!) Neither Corni nor that Johto gym leader guy actually asserted their sense of being in a legitimate way when they were featured, so why even bother?

Also, as a Brit I was really excited to see my home featured in my favourite franchise. Since I don't own a Switch I was relying on a good showing in the anime, which has not come to pass.

So yeah, I'd have loved a SwSh anime. Oh well.
 
He doesn't need Galar starters or many Galar Pokemon this time
Ash doesn’t need Kanto Pokemon.
Ash doesn’t need Johto Pokemon.
Ash doesn’t need Hoenn Pokemon.
Ash doesn’t need Sinnoh Pokemon.
Ash doesn’t need Unova Pokemon.
Ash doesn’t need Kalos Pokemon.
Ash doesn’t need Alola Pokemon.

Ash doesn’t need Pokemon but it sure is a hole when he has drastically less Pokemon of the region to be marketed than the others. Ash never, ever, needed a marketing hog like Lucario. It had its time to shine already. This kind of argument is inherently unfair to fans who like Galar.
 
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I don't think that it would be necessarily better, but I definetly would like to see more about Galar region.
 
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It's hard for me to see the formula being stale when like I mentioned before, each series was still pretty distinct from each other. Going in a new direction isn't necessarily bad, but that doesn't necessarily make it better than the traditional formula either. Change for the shake of it can ring kind of hallow. There were plenty of complaints about the changes made in SM, especially when it first started, but I think most of those changes ultimately worked more in SM's favor than against it, such as staying in one location for a bulk of the series and the cast being so large. It is too early for me to say for sure how well the changes in Journeys will reflect on the entire series, but at this rate, I'm not too hopeful on some aspects like the world traveling or PWC being handled significantly better.

Although, Ash would never get a Lucario in a traditional Galar series, which would be a huge loss in my book given that I've wanted him to get a Lucario for over a decade. As much as I love Lucario, I also would have wanted to see more of Galar, its characters and its Pokemon. The ideal solution for me would have been for Gigantamax Lucario to exist so that Ash would still have a reason to get a Riolu egg in Galar.



I don't really understand the logic that Ash doesn't need Galar Pokemon. There wouldn't be any harm giving him some new Pokemon instead of popular Pokemon that have been around for ages. It would help to make his team more unique since at the moment Ash only has two non-first generation Pokemon on his team. I'd count Galarian Farfetch'd as a Galar Pokemon since it is a regional form despite being based on a first generation Pokemon. Not to mention it would still help promote the games and that is still a priority in Journeys to some degree at least.

I wouldn't mind this idea too much if Goh had more Galar Pokemon, but I think he only has three and only two of them get any kind of attention. Ash getting more Galar Pokemon would potentially give new Pokemon some actual screentime in the anime, which would at least help with one of my main issues with Journeys. Plus, as cool and different as Ash's current team is, having more un-evolved Pokemon would help to give them something to work towards with those Pokemon and having more Pokemon from different generations available would fit nicely with the world traveling setup in the series.
He never got a Lucario in XY when it got a Mega form. I doubt it would have been any different in Galar even if it got a Gigantamax form. He definitely would have been restricted to Galarian Pokemon once again.

Which is why I'm happy he has only gotten one Galar Pokemon so far. I'm still hoping he doesn't get Grookey and it goes to Koharu or Go. He doesn't need any more starters
 
After how they could barely fit in the entire plot of the games into one episode nestled among episodes that don't acknowledge it in the slightest, I'd have loved for a series that was completely focused on Galar that could take what never existed in the first place and done something interesting with it
 
He never got a Lucario in XY when it got a Mega form. I doubt it would have been any different in Galar even if it got a Gigantamax form. He definitely would have been restricted to Galarian Pokemon once again.

There was already Korrina to showcase Mega Lucario. Plus, they weren't interested in giving Ash a proper Mega Pokemon during XY, which is why Ash-Greninja happened. I was talking about how my ideal solution would be for Ash to still get a Lucario and make it marketing relevant in a more traditional Galar journey. It still might not have happened, but I figured that we're already talking about a series that doesn't exist so I could go a bit more out with it by having Ash get a Gigantamax Lucario too.

Black&White said:
Which is why I'm happy he has only gotten one Galar Pokemon so far. I'm still hoping he doesn't get Grookey and it goes to Koharu or Go. He doesn't need any more starters

I can understand liking the idea that Ash isn't just limited to Galar Pokemon, but I'm not sure how well that is working out for his current team. Dragonite and Gengar are popular fan favorite Pokemon, so they didn't really need to get more attention by being caught by Ash. Same with Lucario. I absolutely love that Ash finally has a Lucario after all these years, but did Lucario need more promotion by being basically the star of Ash's current team? Personally speaking, I don't mind all of the promotion that Lucario already gets, but I am completely biased given that Lucario is my favorite Pokemon. That being said, I can understand why people say that it is does get too much attention. Even within just the anime, Lucario has been featured by a prominent character in every series since DP.

Besides that, his team gets a lot of hype right now just because it's different, but I don't think that necessarily makes it better than if he worked with brand new Pokemon. It would be new for him, the audience and give some much needed attention to the newest Pokemon. If you don't like most or any of the Galar Pokemon, I can understand not caring about it, but for people who do want to see more of the new Pokemon, it's rather disappointing. If there was a bit more of a balance between the older and most recent Pokemon within Journeys, then I wouldn't mind Ash's current team.

The idea that Ash doesn't need any more starters is ridiculous too. He's been getting starter Pokemon for decades, usually at least one or two per series. I don't think he's suddenly too good to showcase the most marketable Pokemon of a generation.
 
There was already Korrina to showcase Mega Lucario. Plus, they weren't interested in giving Ash a proper Mega Pokemon during XY, which is why Ash-Greninja happened. I was talking about how my ideal solution would be for Ash to still get a Lucario and make it marketing relevant in a more traditional Galar journey. It still might not have happened, but I figured that we're already talking about a series that doesn't exist so I could go a bit more out with it by having Ash get a Gigantamax Lucario too.



I can understand liking the idea that Ash isn't just limited to Galar Pokemon, but I'm not sure how well that is working out for his current team. Dragonite and Gengar are popular fan favorite Pokemon, so they didn't really need to get more attention by being caught by Ash. Same with Lucario. I absolutely love that Ash finally has a Lucario after all these years, but did Lucario need more promotion by being basically the star of Ash's current team? Personally speaking, I don't mind all of the promotion that Lucario already gets, but I am completely biased given that Lucario is my favorite Pokemon. That being said, I can understand why people say that it is does get too much attention. Even within just the anime, Lucario has been featured by a prominent character in every series since DP.

Besides that, his team gets a lot of hype right now just because it's different, but I don't think that necessarily makes it better than if he worked with brand new Pokemon. It would be new for him, the audience and give some much needed attention to the newest Pokemon. If you don't like most or any of the Galar Pokemon, I can understand not caring about it, but for people who do want to see more of the new Pokemon, it's rather disappointing. If there was a bit more of a balance between the older and most recent Pokemon within Journeys, then I wouldn't mind Ash's current team.

The idea that Ash doesn't need any more starters is ridiculous too. He's been getting starter Pokemon for decades, usually at least one or two per series. I don't think he's suddenly too good to showcase the most marketable Pokemon of a generation.
The writers might have considered him too good for starters since it's been nearly a year and he still doesn't have one. Go got two of them and there's no sign of Grookey in the foreseeable future. The tradition of Ash getting the current starters might of ended in Alola
 
Journeys would be ten times better with a single change- the home base should be at Magnolia’s lab and not Kanto.

Tbh, he should have a home base, but still travel around a region and only visit the base every 10 to 15 episodes or so.

On the subject of which Pokemon Ash needs.
He doesn't need Flying types (He has 12 flying types). But he still got Dragonite (A secondary typing he doesn't need) anyways, which makes 13.
He doesn't need fighting (He has 6 Fighting types). He still got Lucario and Galarfetch'd anyways, which makes 8.
He doesn't need Water type (He has 9).
He doesn't need Fire (He has 7 of them).
He doesn't need Grass (He has 7 of them)
He doesn't need Ground (He has six of them).

However, the types he does need
Ice (Has gotten only 2, 1 of which is currently released)
Steel (Has only gotten 1, before Lucario was a thing, who adds 2)
Rock (Only has 2 rock types, with Boldore and Lycanroc)
Ghost (Which he now has)
Fairy and Psychic (Which he has in a retcon)
Poison (Only has 3, with 1 being released and Gengar adding number four)
Bug (He has 4, with one being released and one being given away)
Pure Normal (Of which he has 4, 2 of which are traded away).

Its kinda funny that from the types he doesn't need, he still got three (Dragonite with Flying, Lucario and Galarfetch'd with Fighting) in Journeys.
 
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The writers might have considered him too good for starters since it's been nearly a year and he still doesn't have one. Go got two of them and there's no sign of Grookey in the foreseeable future. The tradition of Ash getting the current starters might of ended in Alola

I don't see why the writers would consider Ash too good for starters. They're obviously handling the starters differently in Journeys than they have with other series. The notion of Goh already having a Cinderace less than a year into the series' run would have been unthinkable when they first announced it. That's why going by how previous series have handled starters doesn't really fit here.

I'm not saying that Ash is guaranteed to get Grookey. It's still pretty much up in the air at this point. I just think that the idea that he doesn't need any more starters or that he's too good for them makes absolutely no sense. I'd be disappointed if he doesn't get Grookey, but I don't think that would necessarily mean that they'll never give Ash a starter Pokemon again either.
 
The writers might have considered him too good for starters since it's been nearly a year and he still doesn't have one. Go got two of them and there's no sign of Grookey in the foreseeable future. The tradition of Ash getting the current starters might of ended in Alola
The fact that Ash is basically the face of the anime and constantly has the mascot of the series, it’s doubtful that they’d ever consider him as “too good for the starters”. The fact of Grookey not appearing yet is more so a consequence of the world travel aspect of the series especially with just how spaced out the debut of Sobble was compared to Scorbunny.
 
The fact that Ash is basically the face of the anime and constantly has the mascot of the series, it’s doubtful that they’d ever consider him as “too good for the starters”. The fact of Grookey not appearing yet is more so a consequence of the world travel aspect of the series especially with just how spaced out the debut of Sobble was compared to Scorbunny.
And when Grookey does show up I hope it goes to either Go or Koharu. If he is going to be taking on Leon and Raihan he doesn't have time to raise and fully evolve a starter. Grookey has no place with Ash
 
And when Grookey does show up I hope it goes to either Go or Koharu. If he is going to be taking on Leon and Raihan he doesn't have time to raise and fully evolve a starter. Grookey has no place with Ash

Why doesn't he have the time to actually raise a Pokemon? Assuming that he does end up getting to the Master Class rank, that most likely is going to be near the end of the series, so there would be enough time to raise a Grookey into a Rillaboom. It isn't like they're avoiding inexperience Pokemon in Journeys since Ash got Riolu as a baby Pokemon. Not to mention Farfetch'd is unevolved too. It's such a strange notion when Ash loves raising and training his Pokemon, so he wouldn't see raising a Grookey, or really any Pokemon, as something he doesn't have time to do in his quest to battle Leon.

Besides that, it isn't like the writers haven't gone through evolutions really fast, including Ash's own Pokemon. They could easily make Grookey go through its stages pretty fast just like with Scorbunny or evolve it with little buildup like what happened with Noivern. That might not be ideal, even though I didn't really have a problem with Scorbunny evolving into Raboot as fast as it did, but I don't think that there wouldn't be enough time to make Grookey become Rillaboom. There isn't really a lot on the show's plate beyond Ash and Goh's goals, so I don't think that they would be too busy managing other plot threads or characters to make Grookey's evolvutions believable.

That being said, I wouldn't mind Chloe getting Grookey if it meant that she actually becomes a main character. Journeys desperately needs a prominent girl in the main cast. If she's still going to be on the sidelines with a bit of focus once every blue moon, then giving her Grookey would be a bad move. It would be on the same level as Brock getting Mudkip. I like Goh, but I don't know if I could see him with a Grookey, if only because of the dynamic between Raboot and Sobble that I've seen/heard about makes it harder for me to see Grookey within that group dynamic. It still wouldn't be a stretch for Goh to get it, but I still think Grookey could go to either Ash or Goh at this point.
 
And when Grookey does show up I hope it goes to either Go or Koharu. If he is going to be taking on Leon and Raihan he doesn't have time to raise and fully evolve a starter. Grookey has no place with Ash
And why exactly does Ash not have time to raise a Grookey? You treat it as though just because a Pokémon is in its base stage that it’s weak. Have you forgotten about the likes of Bulbasaur, Squirtle or Snivy? Being at base stage isn’t any kind of indication of a Pokémon’s strength or experience. Hell, when it comes to evolving, it happens as the plot demands. Look at Cinderace. It went from a Scorbunny to Cinderace in less than a year. If they wanted to get Ash a Rillaboom from a Grookey, they’ll do it.
 
And why exactly does Ash not have time to raise a Grookey? You treat it as though just because a Pokémon is in its base stage that it’s weak. Have you forgotten about the likes of Bulbasaur, Squirtle or Snivy? Being at base stage isn’t any kind of indication of a Pokémon’s strength or experience. Hell, when it comes to evolving, it happens as the plot demands. Look at Cinderace. It went from a Scorbunny to Cinderace in less than a year. If they wanted to get Ash a Rillaboom from a Grookey, they’ll do it.
Sure they could fully evolve Grookey under Ash. However I think a Rillaboom would fit Go more. Heck fully evolve all the new starters under Go.

If Ash needs starters he can just use his older ones instead of some Monkey
 
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