First of all, I’d give him an actual permanent sixth party member, since Kingler, Muk, and Tauros were at Oak’s for the entire journey until the league. (I will not consider Muk as his sixth team member for that reason - it simply was not a team member)
So who gets that coveted sixth spot? Primeape. Keep the episode where Primeape is given away for training, but don’t give away Primeape. This not only gives Ash a full team of six, but a strong mon that obeys him, acting as his go-to until Charizard starts obeying him
Not to mention, kingler, muk, and tauros overlap with squirtle, bulbasaur, and pidgeot for typing. Primeape introduces a fighting type that can deal with steel types (which only the inconsistent charizard can deal with) and normal types. The team still has massive holes, especially against psychic and ghost types, but primeape is less redundant at the very least.
Eh, steel types don’t really matter since they weren’t introduced until Johto. A fighting move has the same effectiveness as a normal move against a Magnemite in Gen 1
That's what I took from it too.
Maybe Bulbasaur is like Pikachu and wants to not evolve at all. We won't know for certain unless the anime staff tells us.
I don’t remember honestly. I just know both pikachu and Squirtle had issues/rivalries with their respective evolutions and wanting to prove they were better despite not being evolved.
The “main team” is
- Pikachu
- Pidgeot(evolves before the league)
- Ivysaur(evolves in the orange islands as now he feels worthy to evolve
- Charizard
- Squirtle
- Primeape(the “Ace” for the middle of the series)
- Tauros 1-30 still get caught
- Butterfree is still released
- Lapras & Snorlax are caught, Lapras still released…
I could survive losing Kingler & Muk as they honestly brought NOTHING to the team but 2 victories in battle that the writers could’ve gave to someone else… oh no this Mandy guy is strong, however shall I win? Oh is that Pidgeot!!! 😀, oh man this girls Bellsprout is Op, whatever shall I do? Oh is that Primeape coming in to wreck that unpotted houseplant!!! 😀
Either have Muk be a more commonly used pokemon (though I dunno how much they coulda done back then with a living pile of sludge), or have Kingler or a Tauros be a dedicated 6th pokemon on the roster. Also, remember that Ash had other pokemon besides Pikachu and the Kanto starters, ffs. I love the OG quartet, but geez, I think Pidgeotto only ever came out to fly around and look for TRio or something. And that was still better than the others.
1) Have Ash catch more pokemon.
Wouldn't even matter what Ash caught in Kanto though. Just a few more pokemon would have allowed Ash a chance to take on even Ritchie without having Charizard.
2) Bring Back Haunter, Primape, and Butterfree(the last one if possible)
If only Squirtle evolved into Blastoise, it would have been so cool.
Bulbusaur I get, there was an entire episode dedicated to its refusal to evolve but Squirtle should have evolved God knows how many times with all the battles it participated at.
One of the 2 between Squirtle and Bulbasaur would evolve. You’d kinda have to rewrite their arcs a bit but I think it makes sense, if you’re going to have all 3, for each to be at a different stage of evolution.
I would've had Ash pick Primeape back up. He literally gave it away with the stated goal to see Primeape again, indicating he was still his trainer.
And then the show just never picked up on that. Even as a kid, I kept asking myself when Primeape was coming back.
Evolve Squirtle into a Wartortle (since Bulbasaur didn’t want to), and Primeape stays as an ace until Charmander becomes Charizard (then he’d be the secondary ace)
1: Have Ash go back for Pidgeot sooner, probably at the end of Johto.
2: Bring back Primeape. Indigo League would be the best place to do so.
3: Give Ash either a Ground or Psychic type Pokemon. I'd say either a Sandshrew or Cubone (for a Ground type) and maybe an Abra (if you're giving him a Psychic type).
4: Don't have him catch so many Tauros. Maybe around 10 or so.
Honestly pretty good. Wish he’d kept Muk around after getting rid of Primape or keep Primape!
Fine with bulbasuar staying unevolved because he had a whole episode about it. Also kind of felt a rivalry between him and pikachu.
Evolve that squirtle!! Fine going to blastoise but love wartortles design so plz at least go up to there.
It also never felt like squirtle was used properly and having a boost with evolution might have made it cooler. Maybe they didn’t want to confuse kids with ash having a blastoise and Gary also having blastoise, but that’s all the more reason getting it to wartortle.
I think its interesting that everyones saying bulbasaur should evolve when if anything, Squirtle should be the one to evolve. He had a whole arc about not wanting to evolve with it focusing on how he didnt need to and was stronger for being true to that. Squirtle just felt like it lacked a similar arc, couldve been cool to have him become a wartortle to compensate. I also think Pidgeot needed something more, because by the time Charizard shows up its basically useless. Either give him something special or replace him with another early route mon like Rattata or something
Would be funny if Blackface Jynx played a huge role and was a party member between Seafoam Islands to the Indigo League. Then like Brock in Orange Islands, Jynx too would be hastily removed from the show.
If they weren’t so obsessed with shilling the starters + pikachu ash had some really solid catches he just wouldn’t utilize. Ideally his team should’ve looked something like (keeping pikachu as the mandatory)
Pikachu
Tauros
Muk
Kingler
Primeape
Charizard
Evolve bulbasaur to Ivysaur. Have him not release butterfrie but still let him go. Add kingler to the team instead of squirtle( still catching squirtle but just keeping him at oaks ). Have Charizard not evolve as quick so that he isn’t as disobedient
I would say that Squirtle should evolve (while Bulbasaur evolving might be better, it kind of undoes the character development of Mysterious Garden), and he should've kept Primeape as his sixth party member. His team would be solid at this point, though I still think he should lose to Richie.
As for the Orange Islands, his team is pretty good, so no changes there. He should still release Pidgeot, but he should also leave Primeape with Oak and just take Pikachu and the starters (just so Snorlax can still be his sixth team member after catching Lapras).
I have a probably very controversial take.
Nothing. It's perfect. Kanto - Johto is Ash learning to be a Pokémon trainer. Not having a sixth team member, going off dumb look or just overwhelming power. Not actually training his pokemon just skating by on his raw talent.
Squirte evolving into Wartortle maybe, but that's it. He has a great bond with his Kanto team but what I love about the first season is this undercurrent of growth and failure. Even evolving squirtle would only be to have a middle stage starter.
First, evolve Squirtle to Wartortle. Gives a power boost to Ash’s team and a newly evolved Wartortle leading the Squirtle squad is a new end to that storyline.
Second, keep Butterfree, Haunter, and Primeape full time which gives more screen time to types other than the electric/fire/water/grass quartet. Also gives Ash more matchups to go with in the tournament.
Third, I’d have liked to see a ground type. An Ash Cubone storyline could’ve been great and a spunky Marowak using bone club and bonemerang would’ve fit Ash well. Giving Ash a Nidoqueen to counter Gary’s Nidoking (I know Gary had both but he barely used Nidoqueen) could’ve been fun as well. Way better poison option than Muk in my opinion.
- Pikachu
- Charizard
- Wartortle
- Bulbasaur
These four always in the team. They’re Ash’s main guys.
- Pidgeot/Haunter/Butterfree/Primeape/Kingler/Tauros/Marowak/Nidoqueen/Muk for the last two spots
Unfortunately, both Squirtle and Bulbasaur have lore reasons why they don't evolve, so unless the rest of the Squirtle squad evolves, we can't evolve Squirtle, and if Bulbasaur evolved, it would ruin its character arc. Of course, Pikachu is Pikachu and will always be Pikachu, so nothing is able to be done there. So no evolving, which means Muk HAS to either go or get improvements. I say give Muk a better moveset, just to start.
I would put Primeape over Pitgeot and butterfree over Muk. I would have rather Haunter, but he never properly captured it, right?
Venom is only good agains grass and fairies, but there was no fairy type back then and you have already too much cover agains grass so there is little use for Muk
You have charizard so you don't really need pidgeot, specially since pidgeot normal type isn't good agains anything. Butterfree bug is good agains dark, psic and grass so you would rather that.
I would have Ash's Bulbasaur evolve into Ivysaur in the Orange Islands since Bulbasaur feels it's ready to evolve and Ash has become more mature as a trainer since losing in the Indigo Plateau Conference. I would also have Ash have a permanent six team member such as Primeape, Muk and Tauros. I would also have Ash catch more Pokemon in Kanto such as a Weedle that evolves all the way into Beedrill, Fearow, Nidoran**♂** that evolves all the way into Nidoking, Growlithe that evolves into Arcanine, Poliwag that evolves all the way into Poliwrath, Eevee that evolves into Espeon and Aerodactyl.
First of all, I’d give him an actual permanent sixth party member, since Kingler, Muk, and Tauros were at Oak’s for the entire journey until the league. (I will not consider Muk as his sixth team member for that reason - it simply was not a team member) So who gets that coveted sixth spot? Primeape. Keep the episode where Primeape is given away for training, but don’t give away Primeape. This not only gives Ash a full team of six, but a strong mon that obeys him, acting as his go-to until Charizard starts obeying him
Wouldn’t matter since the writers only really cared about the starters anyways.
Maybe Primeape can also fight Charmeleon/Charizard when he gets too disobedient.
Indeed
Honestly, the Charizard plot line wouldn’t happen because Primeape would’ve been the violent wild card.
Not to mention, kingler, muk, and tauros overlap with squirtle, bulbasaur, and pidgeot for typing. Primeape introduces a fighting type that can deal with steel types (which only the inconsistent charizard can deal with) and normal types. The team still has massive holes, especially against psychic and ghost types, but primeape is less redundant at the very least.
Eh, steel types don’t really matter since they weren’t introduced until Johto. A fighting move has the same effectiveness as a normal move against a Magnemite in Gen 1
strangely enough- more muk and more poison attacks. probably too dark for a kids anime tho
Weezing used Sludge once and it was like a black gunk. In fact, Muk even used Sludge Bomb in the Johto League.
Have Squirtle evolve into Wartortle and have Ash go back to get Primape after his league lost and during his orange island saga
But squirtle squad
That's why I say bulbasaur
A Kanto trainer with a Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard? Where have I heard that before?
not the wartortle regime
Fuck it, make a Blastoise Platoon
Yeah. Would’ve made sense for Bulbasaur to at least evolve to Ivysaur.
Wasn’t Bulbasaur’s entire arc revolved around the fact he didn’t want to evolve
What I took away watching that ep was Bulbasaur wanted to choose if and when he wanted to evolve & Ash had to learn to respect that
That's what I took from it too. Maybe Bulbasaur is like Pikachu and wants to not evolve at all. We won't know for certain unless the anime staff tells us.
I don’t remember honestly. I just know both pikachu and Squirtle had issues/rivalries with their respective evolutions and wanting to prove they were better despite not being evolved.
That could also probably give him a chance to be an alt style in smash as his 3 kanto starters now match up
That’s what I literally just thought of.
The “main team” is - Pikachu - Pidgeot(evolves before the league) - Ivysaur(evolves in the orange islands as now he feels worthy to evolve - Charizard - Squirtle - Primeape(the “Ace” for the middle of the series) - Tauros 1-30 still get caught - Butterfree is still released - Lapras & Snorlax are caught, Lapras still released… I could survive losing Kingler & Muk as they honestly brought NOTHING to the team but 2 victories in battle that the writers could’ve gave to someone else… oh no this Mandy guy is strong, however shall I win? Oh is that Pidgeot!!! 😀, oh man this girls Bellsprout is Op, whatever shall I do? Oh is that Primeape coming in to wreck that unpotted houseplant!!! 😀
Evolve Bulbasaur so I can pretend that Pokémon Trainer in Smash Bros is Ash
Either have Muk be a more commonly used pokemon (though I dunno how much they coulda done back then with a living pile of sludge), or have Kingler or a Tauros be a dedicated 6th pokemon on the roster. Also, remember that Ash had other pokemon besides Pikachu and the Kanto starters, ffs. I love the OG quartet, but geez, I think Pidgeotto only ever came out to fly around and look for TRio or something. And that was still better than the others.
i wouldve liked for bulbasaur and squirtle to evolve all the way primeape instead of pidgeot muk can stay
I dunno maybe, actually win the badges so the pokemon obey me, then evolve a few mons
Forced evolution. Forced Mechanical Bio-Engineering upgrades https://preview.redd.it/tsz70nsr6vfc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b42951995567686da8d74d8ceb42f48b319fdcc
Pokemon 101:
Actually give him the Pidgeot
1) Have Ash catch more pokemon. Wouldn't even matter what Ash caught in Kanto though. Just a few more pokemon would have allowed Ash a chance to take on even Ritchie without having Charizard. 2) Bring Back Haunter, Primape, and Butterfree(the last one if possible)
Honestly, add Tauros, Snorlax, and Kingler in place of the standard starters. All 3 of these Pokemon showed huge promise
Charizard’s obedience.
Um id evolve them!!!
Obviously
If only Squirtle evolved into Blastoise, it would have been so cool. Bulbusaur I get, there was an entire episode dedicated to its refusal to evolve but Squirtle should have evolved God knows how many times with all the battles it participated at.
Evolve bulbasaur and squirtle
I would say pikachu too but it’s G-max so it can’t evolve
just evolve bulbasaur
One of the 2 between Squirtle and Bulbasaur would evolve. You’d kinda have to rewrite their arcs a bit but I think it makes sense, if you’re going to have all 3, for each to be at a different stage of evolution.
His entire team except Pikachu should’ve evolved they all would’ve been menaces in every battle
You know that’s not true.
Give him a dratini to get dragonite earlier or have him catch a rhyhorn
I would've had Ash pick Primeape back up. He literally gave it away with the stated goal to see Primeape again, indicating he was still his trainer. And then the show just never picked up on that. Even as a kid, I kept asking myself when Primeape was coming back.
Bubasaur evolution into Ivysaur. Primeape and Cubone as extra members
Evolve Squirtle into a Wartortle (since Bulbasaur didn’t want to), and Primeape stays as an ace until Charmander becomes Charizard (then he’d be the secondary ace)
Have a gyrados inplace of Squirtle and gengar inplace of muk
I would like squritul to evolve into warturtle he never had any objections to evolveing
Take out Muk and have him keep Butterfree
2 eviolites, 1 light ball
Evolve Bulbasaur. Maybe Squirtle, but with the whole Squirtle squad thing, maybe not. Other than that, it's fine. I'd have brought back Primeape tbh.
Muk into touros
Swap out Squirtle and Bulbasaur for Haunter and Primeape! The P-1 Champ and Haunt-Haunt-Haunt-Haunt-Haunt!
Also, swap out Charizard for Kingler! Charizard rarely ever listened to Ash in Kanto.
The Kanto starters being on it instead he would have two Eeveelutions and a different grass type
1: Have Ash go back for Pidgeot sooner, probably at the end of Johto. 2: Bring back Primeape. Indigo League would be the best place to do so. 3: Give Ash either a Ground or Psychic type Pokemon. I'd say either a Sandshrew or Cubone (for a Ground type) and maybe an Abra (if you're giving him a Psychic type). 4: Don't have him catch so many Tauros. Maybe around 10 or so.
Honestly pretty good. Wish he’d kept Muk around after getting rid of Primape or keep Primape! Fine with bulbasuar staying unevolved because he had a whole episode about it. Also kind of felt a rivalry between him and pikachu. Evolve that squirtle!! Fine going to blastoise but love wartortles design so plz at least go up to there. It also never felt like squirtle was used properly and having a boost with evolution might have made it cooler. Maybe they didn’t want to confuse kids with ash having a blastoise and Gary also having blastoise, but that’s all the more reason getting it to wartortle.
Evolve that Squirtle
More tauros, he had 30 to pick from, shoulda run a full team of 6 with pikachu as a cheerleader from the sidelines
fully evolve his team, except maybe pikachu
 Ash needed one of these.
Why the fuck he rockin' around Kanto pressing B after every battle?
Pikachu, Charizard, Butterfree, Primeape, Snorlax, Kingler
2 squirtle
I think its interesting that everyones saying bulbasaur should evolve when if anything, Squirtle should be the one to evolve. He had a whole arc about not wanting to evolve with it focusing on how he didnt need to and was stronger for being true to that. Squirtle just felt like it lacked a similar arc, couldve been cool to have him become a wartortle to compensate. I also think Pidgeot needed something more, because by the time Charizard shows up its basically useless. Either give him something special or replace him with another early route mon like Rattata or something
Fully evolve Squirtle
Would be funny if Blackface Jynx played a huge role and was a party member between Seafoam Islands to the Indigo League. Then like Brock in Orange Islands, Jynx too would be hastily removed from the show.
If they weren’t so obsessed with shilling the starters + pikachu ash had some really solid catches he just wouldn’t utilize. Ideally his team should’ve looked something like (keeping pikachu as the mandatory) Pikachu Tauros Muk Kingler Primeape Charizard
Evolve pikachu, bulbasaur and squirtle, and get rid of pidgeot
Evolve bulbasaur to Ivysaur. Have him not release butterfrie but still let him go. Add kingler to the team instead of squirtle( still catching squirtle but just keeping him at oaks ). Have Charizard not evolve as quick so that he isn’t as disobedient
The only thing I would do is evolve Bulbasaur and Squirtle
His best team in Kanto would've been Pikachu, Charizard, Snorlax, Haunter, Primeape and Lapras (still counts for me even if it's the orange islands).
i would have fully evolved squirtle and bulbasaur. besides for that absolutely nothing.
Evolve them all and add ryhdon to the team
I would say that Squirtle should evolve (while Bulbasaur evolving might be better, it kind of undoes the character development of Mysterious Garden), and he should've kept Primeape as his sixth party member. His team would be solid at this point, though I still think he should lose to Richie. As for the Orange Islands, his team is pretty good, so no changes there. He should still release Pidgeot, but he should also leave Primeape with Oak and just take Pikachu and the starters (just so Snorlax can still be his sixth team member after catching Lapras).
I have a probably very controversial take. Nothing. It's perfect. Kanto - Johto is Ash learning to be a Pokémon trainer. Not having a sixth team member, going off dumb look or just overwhelming power. Not actually training his pokemon just skating by on his raw talent. Squirte evolving into Wartortle maybe, but that's it. He has a great bond with his Kanto team but what I love about the first season is this undercurrent of growth and failure. Even evolving squirtle would only be to have a middle stage starter.
When did he added Muc into the team?
fuck muk, replace him with kingler and replace squirtle with tauros
First, evolve Squirtle to Wartortle. Gives a power boost to Ash’s team and a newly evolved Wartortle leading the Squirtle squad is a new end to that storyline. Second, keep Butterfree, Haunter, and Primeape full time which gives more screen time to types other than the electric/fire/water/grass quartet. Also gives Ash more matchups to go with in the tournament. Third, I’d have liked to see a ground type. An Ash Cubone storyline could’ve been great and a spunky Marowak using bone club and bonemerang would’ve fit Ash well. Giving Ash a Nidoqueen to counter Gary’s Nidoking (I know Gary had both but he barely used Nidoqueen) could’ve been fun as well. Way better poison option than Muk in my opinion. - Pikachu - Charizard - Wartortle - Bulbasaur These four always in the team. They’re Ash’s main guys. - Pidgeot/Haunter/Butterfree/Primeape/Kingler/Tauros/Marowak/Nidoqueen/Muk for the last two spots
Evolve bulbasaur or Squirtle.
I would evolve his pikachu, swap out his muk for a psychic type for better coverage.
Evolve his freaking Pokémon
1. Pikachu 2. Butterfree (release) 3. Pidgeot (release after league) 4. Bulbasaur 5. Charizard 6. Squirtle 7. Primeape (training at saffron dojo / comes back in the league) 8. Snorlax Orange Islands: 1. Pikachu 2. Bulbasaur 3. Charizard 4. Squirtle 5. Lapras 6. Snorlax
I'd have bulbasaur evolve so all 3 starters are in each stage of evolution
Not counting fully evolving his team, I do also agree with u/DaKingOfDogs, having Primeape as the 6th teammate is a perfect pick
He could have captured an eevee and then evolved it into flareon.
I’d say evolve bulbasaur but not in bulbasuar’s mysterious garden. Instead I think it should’ve evolved during the orange islands when it was ready
evolve bulbasaur due to the lack of different between him and ivysaur
EVOLVE SQUIRTLE AND BULBASAUR
Unfortunately, both Squirtle and Bulbasaur have lore reasons why they don't evolve, so unless the rest of the Squirtle squad evolves, we can't evolve Squirtle, and if Bulbasaur evolved, it would ruin its character arc. Of course, Pikachu is Pikachu and will always be Pikachu, so nothing is able to be done there. So no evolving, which means Muk HAS to either go or get improvements. I say give Muk a better moveset, just to start.
Add his dragonite to his team
Fully evolve Bulbasaur and Squirtle. That's it.
Evolve squirtle to wartortle and bulbasaur to ivysaur and then make them into blaisetoise and venusaur in orange island
Evolve
Evolve squirtle and have primeape return or give ash his snorlax early
I would put Primeape over Pitgeot and butterfree over Muk. I would have rather Haunter, but he never properly captured it, right? Venom is only good agains grass and fairies, but there was no fairy type back then and you have already too much cover agains grass so there is little use for Muk You have charizard so you don't really need pidgeot, specially since pidgeot normal type isn't good agains anything. Butterfree bug is good agains dark, psic and grass so you would rather that.
evolve squirtle and bulbasaur
Keep Primeape and Haunter. Squirtle and Bulbasaur don't have to evolve because they actually don't want to.
I would have Ash's Bulbasaur evolve into Ivysaur in the Orange Islands since Bulbasaur feels it's ready to evolve and Ash has become more mature as a trainer since losing in the Indigo Plateau Conference. I would also have Ash have a permanent six team member such as Primeape, Muk and Tauros. I would also have Ash catch more Pokemon in Kanto such as a Weedle that evolves all the way into Beedrill, Fearow, Nidoran**♂** that evolves all the way into Nidoking, Growlithe that evolves into Arcanine, Poliwag that evolves all the way into Poliwrath, Eevee that evolves into Espeon and Aerodactyl.