Pokémon: 5 Mistakes Ash Made In The Anime That Still Haunt Him (& 5 Things He’s Achieved Since)
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Ash has grown significantly as a trainer and learned from his mistakes, but doesn’t mean he isn’t making the same errors.
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Like anyone who starts a new hobby, Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon anime has made many mistakes over the years that many fans have found particularly infuriating. From constantly forgetting type match-ups to relying too heavily on certain team members, it’s easy to see how fans can become frustrated at the main character and forget that, particularly in the first few seasons, he is entirely new at this.
Over time, with the exception of the Black & White seasons, Ash has grown significantly as a trainer and learned from his mistakes. This doesn’t mean he isn’t making the same mistakes, though it usually does mean he can make the same choices work in his favor now that he has more experience as a trainer.
10 Mistake: Used Charizard Against Richie
Arguably one of Ash’s greatest losses in the entire show was against his newfound rival, Richie, who seemed to be Ash 2.0 in nearly every way. Having many of the same Pokémon on his team as Ash, including a Pikachu, it seemed like a good way for the show to give him a true test of his skills and see just how far he has come. Unfortunately for Ash, he hadn’t come nearly as far as he would have liked, once again hoping to rely on the brute strength of his less than enthusiastic Charizard to win the battle, only to lose when he refused to fight.
9 Achievement: Earned Charizard’s Respect
In the filler arc set in the Orange Islands, Ash would somewhat redeem himself by becoming the champion of the Orange League, but not before hitting a few notable milestones. He managed to catch the incredibly powerful Snorlax, teach his Squirtle Hydro Pump, and, most notably, finally earned the respect of his Charizard. After a disastrous battle against a Poliwrath, Charizard is frozen by an Ice Beam, causing Ash to stay up all night keeping his Pokémon warm and from freezing to death. This new appreciation for how much Ash cares for Charizard would allow them to not only defeat the Poliwrath in a rematch, but fundamentally changed their relationship for the foreseeable future.
8 Mistake: Released Many Good Pokemon
On the surface, Ash releasing his Pokémon so they can live the life they most desire isn’t at all a bad thing. Releasing his Butterfree so he could be with the pink Butterfree, or his Goodra so he could protect his friends, are both excellent ways to remove their characters from the show. Then again, he has also done it with Pokémon that didn’t necessarily need releasing.
While returning Naganadel to Ultra Space and leaving Greninja to protect the Kalos region aren’t necessarily bad choices, they do remove not only excellent characters from the show but great Pokémon partners. That’s not even mentioning Ash’s Pidgeot, who he promised to come back for but has seemingly forgotten about, despite the fact he now lives semi-permanently in the Kanto region.
7 Achievement: Caught Many More Powerful Pokemon
For every strong Pokémon Ash has released, he has caught just as many powerful Pokémon to replace their positions on his team. This was the case in the Johto region, where he didn’t start from scratch like he would in the following seasons, but also in the most recent season of the anime, Journeys. Unlike every other season of Pokémon, Ash’s captures in Journeys have been far less predictable, with him not catching a single Galar starter, not to mention the Dragonite and Gengar he caught shortly after starting his new adventure.
6 Mistake: Putting All His Trust In Palpitoad
The Black & White anime, as well as the video games, were supposed to be something of a fresh start for the series as a whole. Unfortunately, it failed to do justice to Ash by resetting both Ash and Pikachu to level 5, with Ash making the same stupid mistakes that he did in Kanto. The biggest mistake by far was in his gym battle against Elesa, where he not only put all his faith in his Palpitoad, but only brought one Pokémon to the gym, even though the battle was supposed to be three vs three.
5 Achievement: Coming Second In The Kalos League
Black & White was possibly the lowest point Ash has ever been in the series, losing in the Unova League to someone so naive that they only brought five Pokémon to a full six vs six battle. Ash would redeem himself in spades in the following region, as both his team and his skills were unmatched up until that point, with the possible exception of his performance in Sinnoh. It was easily the closest he had come to winning a Pokémon League, with many fans expecting Ash to finally become the champion, though they would have to wait until Alola for that to happen.
4 Mistake: Waking Up Late
One of Ash’s biggest mistakes was on his very first morning as a new trainer, waking up late and missing his chance to take one of the three standard Kanto starter Pokémon. This cost Ash not only the chance to start with a Charmander, his first choice, but also Bulbasaur and Squirtle, leaving him with a defiant Pokémon.
Had Ash not woken up late, he may not have had Brock and Misty accompany him on his journey, but he would also not have Team Rocket follow him and Pikachu the ends of the earth to steal this one mouse in particular.
3 Achievement: Every Milestone He & Pikachu Have Had
Despite Ash bungling his very first day as a Pokémon trainer, he and Pikachu have been able to handle more than their share of tough battles and have become one of the strongest teams in the series. While many of Pikachu’s victories have come down to other trainers underestimating the little mouse, Ash and Pikachu have also overcome the likes of Tobia’s Latias, a Pokémon that no one in the Sinnoh League even knew existed until Ash beat his Darkrai, which had gone undefeated until that point.
2 Mistake: Not Using Past Pokemon More Often
As of Ash’s capture of Galarian Far’fetched, Ash has over 40 different Pokémon at his disposal, not counting the entire herd of Tauros he has caught. Considering the sheer number of Pokémon he has, with many of them being particularly powerful, it would be expected that he would use them more often than he does, but that’s not how Ash is as a Pokémon trainer. With the exception of the Sinnoh League, Ash refuses to use his older partners in his more serious battles, which could be why he took so long to win a Pokémon League in the first place.
1 Achievement: Won The Alolan League
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