- Joined
- Sep 22, 2020
- Messages
- 3,153
- Reaction score
- 10,078
- Staff
- #801
Honestly, I think the problem with Journeys is less that Pokemon and humans aren't interacting a lot, and more that they aren't interacting enough with each other. In past sagas, bonds between Pokemon and their trainers were important, but Pokemon were often given their own agencies and were allowed to also form friendships with each other, sometimes completely independent of their trainers. Here, while there is some of that, most of the bonds between the Pokemon themselves tend to be quickly phased out: Riolu and Farfetch'd were initially advertised as being rivals and sparring partners, but the only thing to come out of that was Riolu using Farfetch'd as its personal punching back for a few seconds of training, and later this "rivalry" was abandoned to the point that we don't even know how these two Fighting-types reacted to each other's evolution; Lucario and Cinderace were presented as more or less a microcosm of Ash's friendship with Goh, emphasized by how both reached their final evolutions at the same time and fought Eternatus together, but it's been an eternity since those two have even been on the same frame, and the only time their "bash brothers" dynamic was ever utilized after the Darkest Day arc was in the episode with the fake Pikachu and the fight against Mewtwo; Yamper was the whole reason Eevee even got to bond with Chloe and become her Pokemon, but the two have not had a meaningful interaction since (in fact, Yamper has faded so far into the background I wouldn't blame anyone for forgetting he exists), actually, the fact that Eevee's entire schtick is that she mimics other Pokemon's actions because she's trying to fit in and find her place makes it especially sad that she hasn't interacted with any MC Pokemon more meaningfully, since there's a lot of potential here for interesting dynamics, like how would each Pokemon react to being imitated; Cinderace used to be a big brother figure to Sobble, but that got phased out after the latter's evolution. See the problem here? In the past, there was attention put into the Pokemon themselves playing roles in each others' arcs, such as Snivy acting as support for Tepig when the latter confronted his previous trainer, or Hawulucha being a big brother/mentor figure to Noivern, Piplup and Pikachu's friendship throughout the DP saga, Ash's Alola Team frequently playing and sparring with each other, and so on. Journeys barely has any of this stuff. And that's a huge shame.
Take Ash's current team, for example: despite being packed to the brim with unique captures with really fun and colorful personalities, the only interactions they seem to have involve split seconds of training despite the slew of opportunities for some really fun stuff that could have been the focus of episodes: I would have loved to see mother hen Dragonite fuss over stubbornly independent baby Riolu. Or perhaps Sirfetch'd butting heads with Gengar over the latter's mischievous and somewhat troublemaking nature. And we never saw how Ash's Pokemon reacted to Dracovish, who has a very unusual appearance and clearly isn't a creature that should exist. These are just a handful of examples that past sagas would have likely displayed in full, but here... they just aren't.
Take Ash's current team, for example: despite being packed to the brim with unique captures with really fun and colorful personalities, the only interactions they seem to have involve split seconds of training despite the slew of opportunities for some really fun stuff that could have been the focus of episodes: I would have loved to see mother hen Dragonite fuss over stubbornly independent baby Riolu. Or perhaps Sirfetch'd butting heads with Gengar over the latter's mischievous and somewhat troublemaking nature. And we never saw how Ash's Pokemon reacted to Dracovish, who has a very unusual appearance and clearly isn't a creature that should exist. These are just a handful of examples that past sagas would have likely displayed in full, but here... they just aren't.