Grass Type Gardenia
Eterna City Gym Leader
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2018
- Messages
- 4,173
- Reaction score
- 2,498
Does Litten on the poster count?I don't see any black cats around here, so I don't think so.
You're right there. Ash has to confront and beat the League Conference before confronting one of the Elite Four and the Champion at the Champion's League. Ash has already gotten all the Gym Badges from all 6 Regions that have them, the only exception that he needs to collect from is Galar.I agree that Masters will probably be represented to some degree. You kind of have to think of it the other way around. Development for the new series started before Masters, so Masters was probably shaped partially by how they were expecting the anime to turn out. You can see the parallel of having both Masters and the new series seemingly celebrate the entire franchise; Masters with older characters and PM with older regions (and probably characters). Masters might even advertise the anime as much as the anime advertises it.
Honestly, I like what I've been seeing. If this is an AU, I think it will still be great based on the art and characters they've shown. I'm definitely still leaning on a continuation due to the amount of evidence, but I'm not as terrified of a potential reboot as I was before. That said, I'll respond to your six points:
Also am I remembering wrong, or did Cynthia state that you needed to beat a league in your "home region" before you can challenge the Elite Four of another. I always thought that was weird, but it's likely just a mistranslation. This could potentially tie into the theory of Ash returning to Kanto to challenge the Indigo League though.
- Exactly, that's why taking his battles to an international scale using his full team of Pokemon is the logical next step. It's not like we're pulling this out of thin air, the new series promises the globe trotting. You just have to put 2 and 2 together. A better question is why would a rebooted Ash travel to regions at such a fast pace? Is he getting badges that fast? The whole point of a reboot would be to nerf Ash, so I don't think he would be so skilled in that case.
- His full team of reserves has been shown as recently as 2013, and his Kanto reserves appeared in SM. In contrast, Pokemon he used at the end of Jhoto (2002) were featured after 8 years in the Sinnoh League (2010). Even with rotation though, I'm sure some of them would get the short end of the stick.
- It's still entirely possible if not likely that old companions will return in their respective regions. Even Misty returned in BF for a while. I think Battle Frontier's biggest failing is not showing off the Kanto Region enough, but from what I've seen this new series won't have that problem.
- No one wants to see Ash battle all the Gyms again. If they were going to do a badge quest, they might as well have just situated the series in Galar. And if he's facing the Elite Four, it would make sense for it to be current Ash, someone who as already proven their strength and beaten a league. Current Ash could travel to each region and fight the Elite Four right off the bat, giving us something different than just gym battles.
- I had that thought too, but I think it would be too confusing to a younger audience to have two simultaneous running timelines of the same character. And if they were going that route, why switch them? I thought M20/M21 were great.
- I don't really know if they have been advertised to be on equal footing. If this is a continuation, then I'm sure his title will have a heavy impact on the story, unlike BF which was swept under the rug. Even so, Ash doesn't have a big ego so it's in his character if he doesn't bring it up every ten seconds.
However, if this is an AU, then it's more than likely that Ash's title of Champion of Alola would be brushed under the rug, just like what happened with his title of being Champion of the Orange Islands and winning the Battle Frontier. As @Daren stated, they're no longer promoting the main games anymore, but instead the entire franchise itself. They clearly don't want to do the Badge Collecting trope again, and instead want to do something fresh and new like SM did, which is why they likely want to stay in that new comfort zone with something similar to that, Ash going to a School like structure, doing slice of life and having a villainous team not as threatening and as serious as before. Regardless to ratings, it did do better than XY, which isn't saying much. It's the equivalent to saying a bruised toe is better than a cut toe. It still hurts. I just feel like SwSh is going to be sidelined over by nostalgia for Kanto and the other popular Regions for the sake of merchandising like crazy far more than before. Once Go came out, and TPCi had gotten a tonne more money in 2 years than it did in it's entire existence, then you know the jig is up. It no longer has the heart it once had since OS (Gen 1-2) When Satoshi Tajiri was at the helm. Instead, all I see of the franchise is nothing more than a glorified shadow of it's former self.
I just hope in this new series they'd give Galar the love it deserves, otherwise they should've just had Gou with an Eevee, the girl character with a Growlithe, and just have all 7 Regions. What a waste of potential for what could've been.