It’s been two years since our 20-year-long journey with Ask Ketchum, a kid from the small and quiet Pallet Town, has ended. Despite suffering many losses in each region’s league, he didn’t let them deter him as he defied the odds and became World Champion and Pokémon Master. However, as satisfying and amazing as this finale was, there are still a few things that don’t sit right with fans even to this day. Therefore, we’re going to look back and reflect on the biggest examples of where this conclusion fell short.
1. Where Were Ash’s Friends?
Ash is fighting the most important battle of his life in the final season of “Pokémon: Master Journeys.” He’s not just competing in any run-of-the-mill Pokémon League; he’s competing in the World Coronation Series, where only the strongest trainers and champions (like Cynthia or Leon) gather and compete for the number one spot! Therefore, with such high stakes in an all-or-nothing tournament, you’d think your closest friends and family would be there to support you, right? Wrong! In this case, literally none of Ash’s friends (except Dawn) showed up, and not even his own mother was there! Instead, we see her, Professor Oak, and Tracey watching the matches back in Kanto with Ash’s other Pokémon. Since Oak has to manage a massive Pokémon preserve on top of countless other responsibilities, and Ash’s mom has a restaurant to run on top of managing her house, it makes sense that they didn’t fly all the way to Galar to watch. Even so, not having the two most special adults in your life, who started your journey and supported you since day one, present for something so important? That just feels like a slap in the face, but luckily, it didn’t seem to throw Ash off for the battles. In addition, we also see groups of characters watching the whole event on TV, such as Misty with her Pokémon, Serena alongside May and Max, Brock with Cilan, Clemont and his sister Bonnie, and all of Ash’s Alolan friends. While I understand that they all have their own lives and are probably very busy with their soaring careers, it still doesn’t feel right that none of them made the effort to be there in person. What, could none of them take time off from work or reschedule events they’re participating in? Even Iris, who competed in the tournament as the champion of Unova, could’ve stayed after losing to Cynthia. Instead, she decides to go back to Unova rather than stay to support her friend. If that wasn’t bad enough, even Goh (the annoying, one-man Pokémon catching machine) couldn’t make it because of Project Mew. A task like that is understandable (it is Mew, after all), but given how the show set Goh up as Ash’s newest friend, and also how much time they’ve spent together, it still feels frustrating that he didn’t show up either.
2. That Whole Thing With Latias
At this point, Ash has become World Champion, and he’s now on his own journey. At some point along the way, he encounters an injured Latias and tries to help her. Given how this final season would focus so much on this Legendary Pokémon, I was expecting a callback to “Pokémon Heroes: The Movie,” where basically a Latias got very attached to Ash. If it wasn’t going to be the same Latias, I was hoping it would at least be her offspring, since we saw Latias flying alongside another smaller Latias and two smaller Latios. Instead, we get a very hostile and distrustful Latias, who does not indicate that it has any relation to that movie’s Latias. By the time he finally gains her trust, she leads Ash and his newly reunited gang to a vicious Pokémon Hunter who captured her Latios friend, requesting their help in rescuing him. Once again, there is no connection whatsoever to the aforementioned movie, as this Latios also doesn’t give any indication that it’s the child of the movie’s Latias, or even if it’s the sister of those little Latios. Usually, in any show, introducing new characters or bringing back familiar ones is a pretty big deal. Such a course of action indicates something important is about to happen, or it reconnects the audience to previous important moments to pave the way for something bigger to occur. In this case, longtime Pokémon fans will instantly think of that movie—and especially Ash’s connection with Latias—if they’re gonna watch a season that emphasizes Ash being with a Latias. So to sit through that whole season waiting for that connection to be acknowledged, only to find out there isn’t any connection, is not only disappointing but also pointless. I mean, why include a Legendary that Ash bonded with, especially in such a special final season, if you weren’t gonna do anything with it? Even though it may be a different Latias, bonding with and helping a random Legendary feels more like a typical Pokémon season than something to signify the end of this character’s on-screen journey, making the encounter feel kinda empty and random.
3. Serena and Misty Left Behind
When you travel with people as long as Ash did, you’re bound to make all kinds of connections. The ones he made with Misty and Serena, though? Those go far deeper than simply finding good friends, as they both developed crushes on Ash. In the earliest seasons of this show, all the way back in Kanto and Johto, it’s been heavily hinted that Misty developed some feelings for Ash. Whether it’s blushing at seeing him safe, getting crazy jealous when a girl likes him, or simple slips of the tongue, it was very clear how she felt. Heck, she even mentally thanked Ash at the end of their Johto journey and confirmed to herself how she felt. Unfortunately, though, the creators did absolutely nothing with it for decades after that. Not even in this final season, where Misty reunited with Ash and Brock for one final journey, did this romantic tension ever get resolved. It not only hurts to see so much emphasis and hope on this potential relationship lead up to absolutely nothing, but it especially hurts that Ash’s first travel companion—the girl who’s been by his side for many seasons—never gets her feelings reciprocated. But if you wanna talk about true pain, let’s talk about Serena. In the XY series, Serena is revealed to have met Ash when they were kids at Professor Oak’s summer camp, and developed a crush on him when he helped her after she hurt her leg. Reuniting with him all those years later, she traveled with him, Bonnie, and Clemont as Ash worked his way up to the Kalos League. And if you thought the hints about Misty’s feelings were heavy, Serena’s hints threaten to take the crown as we see many more moments where she constantly blushes and gushes about the guy (and I have no idea how he can be so incredibly dense to that), but what truly tops it all is how she literally kisses him before she leaves at the finale of this particular season! But once again, frustratingly, that NEVER went anywhere! When Serena finally reunited with Ash in the Journeys series, they had a nice little conversation as Ash sails away on a boat, but that’s literally all we get, as she never bumps into him again. Worse, during the exchange, neither of them acts like they remember the kiss, as if it never happened. They have a heartfelt exchange about pursuing dreams and getting stronger, but you can’t feel any awkwardness or any kind of sign that they feel anything about it. Misty’s unreciprocated feelings hurt badly enough, but Serena’s bravery being swept under the rug feels like a huge slap in the face for many fans.
4. Ash’s Dad
For the past 20-or-so years, one particular question has been on the minds of fans everywhere: who and where is Ash’s dad? The only family we’ve seen from Ash is his mother, always doting on her son and supporting his journey, even in moments where it hurt to see him go. But all this time, aside from the mom and her Mr. Mime, the Ketchum house has always been empty, with little to no mention of Ash’s dad or even his whereabouts. Seriously, I could count on one hand how many times that guy has been brought up. So imagine the collective excitement of fans when Ash’s mom calls her son to meet up with her, as his dad is FINALLY coming to see them! However, while Ash travels to the place where his mom told him to go, he meets a mysterious boy, and the pair go on this little adventure. By the end, it’s revealed that the kid was a ghost, and his parents are still grieving at the loss. When Ash reaches the place after a while, it’s revealed that his dad ALREADY LEFT, and Ash is left to cry (either with dad leaving or the death of the boy he met, I’m not sure) while eating his food. If Serena’s forgotten kiss was a slap in the face, then this moment was a devastating punch to the gut. Years of waiting, years of dealing with people theorizing about the secret relationship between the mom and Professor Oak, only to ONCE AGAIN have the rug pulled from under us. Worse: that was the very last episode where we see Ash, meaning that we’ll literally never get to see Ash’s dad or find out who he is. We’ll never get to find out what he does for a living, why he’s never home, or the depth of his relationship with his own son or wife. It was bad enough that I spent most of my life thinking Delia was a single mom, completely forgetting Ash even had a dad, but finding out he actually had one and never got to see him just makes me so angry. We never even get a confirmed, much less good, reason as to why the creators never showed who this man is. All we know is that Ash does indeed have a dad, who apparently travels a lot for some reason (either work or a journey of his own), and that’s all she wrote.
5. Absolutely Nothing with Ho-Oh
To be honest, I never even thought about this point until halfway through thinking about how to write this article. At that point, I remembered how Ash’s journey began: Ash was just starting his journey with Pikachu, barely surviving a vicious attack from a Spearow flock, and lying on the ground beaten and battered. But then a Ho-Oh, illuminated in a golden light, flew across the sky and ignited the fire within Ash ever since. However, Ash only saw it three separate times after that, but none of them were in the final season. This issue particularly bothers me because Ho-Oh was essentially what kick-started his journey; it also inspired his journeys in Hoenn and with Goh, and it even appeared after Ash was freed from the possession of an evil spirit. Ho-Oh is clearly an important part of Ash’s life, so it’s very weird and borderline frustrating that it wasn’t present in the last few episodes. If anything, Ho-Oh should’ve been the Pokémon Ash took care of instead of Latias, and maybe they could’ve gone on an adventure to rescue Lugia or the legendary beasts or something along those lines. What makes this idea so compelling is how they technically showed the potential of such a story in a spinoff movie, which retells the origin story of Ash and Pikachu. In it, we see Ash journey with two new companions as they search for Ho-Oh so Ash can battle it, which also leads to an encounter with Marshadow. By the end, Ash finally gets to battle the majestic bird, but we don’t get to see who won. In any case, I love that Ash got to reunite with the very thing that started his journey, even if the movie technically isn’t canon. I feel like it would be so fitting if the whole show ended the way it began, making Ash’s whole journey come full circle with Ho-Oh and giving a heartfelt goodbye to Ash and all the fans. Disappointingly, though, the only way we’ll see anything close to that is through a movie that isn’t even part of the main timeline.
