To Rotate, or Not to Rotate?

[Light_Togetic]

Many pokemon trainers throughout the pokemon world make it a point to 'rotate' their pokemon. Gary made it a point of telling Ash the benefits of doing it. So why doesn't Ash? I know he cares about bonding with his pokemon, right? Well then why not bond with them all equally? I realize that Ash does use them in big tournaments like Leagues and such, but I'm talking about keeping them on his current team for a reasonable amount of time. Of course I know the writers/producers just make Ash give up the old pokemon to showcase the new ones, but it's nice to speculate/dream! Plus I like doing polls. ^-^ Personally, I'd love to see Bulbasaur, Muk, Bayleef, Totodile, and the others once in a while. And Phanpy never got much spotlight...

Anyway, the question is: do you think that Ash should switch off his pokemon? Or do you think he should just continue to get new ones, and store the old with Oak?

[Rei_Zero]

The idea is that Ash has already bonded extremely well with his old pokemon, so when he puts them for storage, they are already far closer than the traditional trainer pokemon. It's apparent Ash doesn't lose these bonds, so the idea is that now that he's bonded so much with his old pokemon he needs to get just as close with his new ones before rotating them. In his way, he does equally bond with all of them.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Of course he should rotate them. For example, Ash could try putting at least Bulbasaur and Bayleef into the same team when going to a Water type gym or other with such disadvantage for grass type.

Although he still wins anyway...

[Royal_Goddess_Tina]

I think he needs to rotate... I'm sure his other pokemon get pretty lonely for his attention...

[*Murkrow]

He should definitely rotate them. He made such a big deal out of saying that they were his friends, that they could do anything if they were together(well, words to that effect anyway), then he just goes and dumps them.
Ok, some(Chari, Squirtle) had good reasons why they left, but for the ones he just dumped back in Oaks lab, they're now stuck there, expected to patiently wait for him to decide that he needs them again.
Heh, I'd like it if he tried to use one of them and it refused to listen to him because it was angry at him for leaving for so long XD

[Rei_Zero]

It's not that Ash doesn't need them. It's just that Ash decided to start anew to grow as a trainer and relearn what he learned and find things that he missed. That's his way of growing as a trainer. To do so, he would need to restart everything. That's why he left his pokemon. That's why he shouldn't rotate unless he direly needs it. Because he would relearn nothing and find no new info if he were to get part of his old team back. That wouldn't be starting over. And that is definately not Ash's goal.

[AKA Pokemon Fan]

Up until Hoenn I would have agreed and said that Ash should frequently rotate his Pokemon. They never gave any good reasons for him to not more frequently use his cool in-storage Pokemon and it would have been so nice to wonder whenever he released a Pokemon for a certain job if it would be Totodile or Kingler, Heracross or Noctowl etc.

However, in Hoenn, with Ash's goal of starting over and trying not to rely on his past Pokemon's experience (except Pikachu's) I think the show has finally given a good reason for Ash not to use his in-storage Pokemon.

Even so, I really wish they had included a scene of Ash saying goodbye to his Pokemon and explaining all this to them. It may still have happened and just not been shown (ended up on the cutting room floor), but it would have added so much to Ash's new goals and just been nice to see. Ah, if only there hadn't been so many Johto fillers before the writer's improved. By that time there was so little time left to finish up Johto that they may have ended up not being able to include some things they would have wanted to.

[Light_Togetic]

I see what you all mean by the 'starting over' thing. And I agree with you wholeheartedly, AKA Pokemon Fan, I too would have liked to see Ash say goodbye to his pokemon. After all, these guys were with him for a whole three seasons, and we don't even get a farewell episode? That's like Misty and Brock leaving without seeing them go.

However, I'm not quite clear on how long this 'starting over' is supposed to last. Is Ash going to refuse using his old pokemon in the Hoenn League? Or does his 'starting over' end there? It's a little confusing...

[have a stammer]

The fact is if he constantly rotated some pokemon would be left out. I mean he has how many pokemon now? and we complain about him not using taillow enough. He would not be able to give all his pokemon a fair chance, a couple would be for gotten and still not get to battle enough. Then there would be the people who would complain he's not using the right pokemon. Example he uses Kingler in a couple of episodes A totdile fan screams "That's stupid Kingler sucks totodile is the better pokemon." And so and so forth, people will say he's not using heracross enough and then when he uses it people will say he's not using phanpy enough, it's an endless cycle of complaining. Also with the constant switching how are the pokes supposed to gain experience treecko can never evolve if bayleef is constantly used. As you can probably tell im against it. Although I miss the old pokes I really like Ash's new team more than any other. But yes it would have been nice to see Ash actually saying goodbye to his poke.

[Bacl]

The fact is that Ash need not rotate his entire team. The writers might be happy with Ash having...oh let's just say four Pokemon (Pikachu, Treeko, Taillow and maybe one other that I shant spoil). Okay, so he's got a nice set of four, maybe they want a fifth HOENN type in the not too distant future. Okay, great. Now let's have Ash rotate just one Pokemon, his often empty sixth, with the Lab Pokemon.

There have been plenty of times when Ash was wandering around with only five Pokemon on him, and other times when the "sixth" Pokemon was one whose days on the team were soon comming to an end ::cough:quritle::cough::CHARIZARD:::

So wouldn't it be neat if just the sixth Pokemon was rotated? It allows cool double duals (Ash usually likes only one of each type on his main team, so a rotating sixth could allow for two water types to battle side by side in a two on two, or opposite types who might look neat fighting side by side).

If the writers are good, then they could easily allow each lab Pokemon two to three episodes per season. That means not only will the old classics like Bulbasaur get a little Hoenn training in, but the "perma-lab-pokes", i.e. Kingler, Muk, etc. will get a much needed chance to share the spotlight a little more.

Better still, it allows an excuse for Professor Oak to be shown, and at this point he's practically been written out of the show.

BROCK: "Ash, maybe you should ask Professor Oak for your Heracross!"
ASH: "Professor WHO?"
BROCK: "Oak."
ASH: "What-a-cross?"
BROCK: "HERACROSS!"
---Actual lines from upcomming episode "Super Marill Bros. 2: The Legend of Misty's Gold."

[AKA Pokemon Fan]

Originally posted by have a stammer
The fact is if he constantly rotated some pokemon would be left out. I mean he has how many pokemon now? and we complain about him not using taillow enough. He would not be able to give all his pokemon a fair chance, a couple would be for gotten and still not get to battle enough. Then there would be the people who would complain he's not using the right pokemon. Example he uses Kingler in a couple of episodes A totdile fan screams "That's stupid Kingler sucks totodile is the better pokemon." And so and so forth, people will say he's not using heracross enough and then when he uses it people will say he's not using phanpy enough, it's an endless cycle of complaining. Also with the constant switching how are the pokes supposed to gain experience treecko can never evolve if bayleef is constantly used. As you can probably tell im against it. Although I miss the old pokes I really like Ash's new team more than any other. But yes it would have been nice to see Ash actually saying goodbye to his poke.

Many trainers rotate their Pokemon. How would it effect how often they are seen? It wouldn't be hard for the writers to not neglect some of the Pokemon. If they were regularly rotated (say, every time Ash goes to a Pokemon center) all of them would get enough screen time. It would certainly be better than the almost zero his in-storage Pokemon have gotten throughout the show's history. But I stand by that Ash should keep using only new ones in Hoenn.

As for the league tournament I think Ash will call for his in-storage Pokemon as all trainers do when they compete in the Tournaments. He'll be facing a lot of other trainers who are doing the same so it would make sense.

[bme]

Originally posted by Light_Togetic
Many pokemon trainers throughout the pokemon world make it a point to 'rotate' their pokemon. Gary made it a point of telling Ash the benefits of doing it. So why doesn't Ash?

Well, I think BenRG said it best:

Having a large number of Pokémon just reduces the amount of time that you can spend training any given Pokémon. Ash is concentrating on having a small number of very strong Pokémon rather than a large number of mediocre Pokémon. The latter was Gary's strategy for the Kanto League, which is why he was washed out so quickly.

[AKA Pokemon Fan]

Originally posted by bme
[B]Well, I think BenRG said it best:

quote:
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Having a large number of Pokémon just reduces the amount of time that you can spend training any given Pokémon. Ash is concentrating on having a small number of very strong Pokémon rather than a large number of mediocre Pokémon. The latter was Gary's strategy for the Kanto League, which is why he was washed out so quickly.

I don't know about that. Professor Oak himself said that Ash and Gary's trainiing strategies were equally effective and equally valid.

[bme]

Originally posted by AKA Pokemon Fan
I don't know about that. Professor Oak himself said that Ash and Gary's trainiing strategies were equally effective and equally valid.

Gary's way isn't invalid, and rotating did get him a lot of strong Pokémon. But because Ash stuck with almost the same group, they were generally tougher. If you take into account that most of Ash's Pokémon are not fully evolved, and that most of them proved a match against fully evolved forms and ones that had a type advantage, you can imagine how Gary and Ash would compare if Ash's evolved.

I think there are some Ash has a good idea about using new ones in Hoenn, but getting Totodile would be alright. Totodile didn't battle much, and it could use more training.

[Bacl]

Originally posted by bme
Gary's way isn't invalid, and rotating did get him a lot of strong Pokémon. But because Ash stuck with almost the same group, they were generally tougher. If you take into account that most of Ash's Pokémon are not fully evolved, and that most of them proved a match against fully evolved forms and ones that had a type advantage, you can imagine how Gary and Ash would compare if Ash's evolved.

Well, actually Ash and Gary did compare during the silver conference, and Ash chose to use only one of his regular six, and that Pokemon (Bayleef) is an evolved form (although not a final evolvution).

So I guess Ash doesn't put as much faith in his unevolved Poke's as he might proclaim to.

Do you think Cyndaquil VS. Blastoise would last anywhere near as long as Charizard VS. Blastoise?

[bme]

Originally posted by Bacl
Do you think Cyndaquil VS. Blastoise would last anywhere near as long as Charizard VS. Blastoise?

No, because Charizard has way more experience and mobility.

Besides, I didn't say all his unevolved species could take on everything. Cyndaquil vs. Blastoise would be a bad match up, because it learns too many moves that would overpower Cyndaquil. The only thing that would work is if it somehow got on its back, but Blastoise has too many options to beat that, like Rapid Spin.