Pokemon Thread

[PicardMan]

It is possible that Pokémon could do its own equivalent to Dimigon Adventure Tri and have a nostalgia focused series/movie for older audiences, but I'd hope it would be better executed than Tri.

 

[SpecialColorfull]

It is possible that Pokémon could do its own equivalent to Dimigon Adventure Tri and have a nostalgia focused series/movie for older audiences, but I'd hope it would be better executed than Tri.

Digimon Adventure Tri was a mistake to put it kindly.

 

[Light Lucario]

It is possible that Pokémon could do its own equivalent to Dimigon Adventure Tri and have a nostalgia focused series/movie for older audiences, but I'd hope it would be better executed than Tri.

Honestly, I enjoyed Adventure Tri. I thought it was engaging and the emotional beats generally worked, but the ending left me feeling a bit confused and that I might have had a better grasp on the series as a whole if I rewatched it completely. That being said, it might have flowed better through the original plan of a TV series instead of a series of movies, especially in regards to its pacing and story structure. I haven't watched the movies set after Tri, so I don't know if those help with the series as a whole either.

I don't know if I could see Pokemon going in that direction, mainly because the anime hasn't really been that interested in appealing to its older audience for the most part. Journeys is full of references to past series, but arguably it's still pretty self-contained since you don't need to watch DP or BW to understand Dawn or Iris's appearances for example. I would love to see more Pokemon movies since not having that yearly tradition for so long has been rather sad.

 

[Vuxovich]

I think that you're misremembering a lot about these episodes. She didn't lie or changed her mind for no reason. She decided to stay with her sisters in her debut because she realized that she wasn't ready to go on a journey. Sakura realized that she would have been a burden on Ash and his friends and wanted to learn more about raising her Eevee with her sisters.

It's been awhile since I've watched the Johto saga, but Sakura didn't lie about her sisters or forgot what happened in her first episode. She was able to leave on her own in her second episode because she had already proven that she was a more confident capable trainer with her Espeon. Her sisters realized what she was about to ask and gave her permission to go. She even decided to go on her own so that she could be more able to handle traveling on her own. Realistically, there was no way that Sakura would have become a traveling companion. Her role was to promote a then new Eevee evolution and be a mirror to Misty and her sisters. She wouldn't have actually joined the cast, especially not near the end of the original series.

I regret not watching both Sakura episodes dubbed in Serbian. That was because my parents forbade me from watching television. I was 14 years old at the time.

 

[CyberCubed]

It's still surreal to me after 26 years Ash really is finally gone from the anime. I remember people thinking Ash would leave as early as when Johto was airing for the first time (remember back then we still didn't expect the anime to go on forever). Then when Ash stayed for Hoenn and DP, it felt like he would just stick around indefinitely.

I definitely think the rise of social media, coupled with the backlash of Ash's handling in BW, then the Kalos league outcome, essentially was the one-two punch which led to the writers realization they couldn't just keep going with Ash. To a lesser extent the SM redesign which didn't go over well either. The whole 2010 decade of the anime felt like the writers were trying to justify keeping Ash through a series of changes, and then realized it was for the best for a clean slate. And the AU Ash movies as well for that matter.

I still wish Ash's ending was handled better, but I figure he'll be back for a movie or 30th anniversary special eventually anyway. They left TR open for the same reason, as we still need Giovanni resolved and TR disbanded with an ending.

 

[Light Lucario]

It's still surreal to me after 26 years Ash really is finally gone from the anime. I remember people thinking Ash would leave as early as when Johto was airing for the first time (remember back then we still didn't expect the anime to go on forever). Then when Ash stayed for Hoenn and DP, it felt like he would just stick around indefinitely.

I remember people speculating that he'd be at Mt. Silver pretty early on in Johto to match with Red's role in the games. Honestly, despite how frequently the topic of replacing Ash came up, I never really had an issue with him being the protagonist. It always felt like they missed their chance to make that change feel more natural decades ago and I'd argue that is still the case.

I definitely think the rise of social media, coupled with the backlash of Ash's handling in BW, then the Kalos league outcome, essentially was the one-two punch which led to the writers realization they couldn't just keep going with Ash. To a lesser extent the SM redesign which didn't go over well either. The whole 2010 decade of the anime felt like the writers were trying to justify keeping Ash through a series of changes, and then realized it was for the best for a clean slate. And the AU Ash movies as well for that matter.

I don't know if the backlash to BW Ash impacted the writers' decision partly because I think that fans exaggerated how bad he was in that series. He definitely had some infamously bad moments. Losing to Trip with an untrained Snivy was the absolute worst first step in a new series that they could have made. But from what I remember from my previous rewatch of BW, I don't think Ash was that bad in spite of some infamously bad battles. I could buy that the backlash towards the Kalos League impacted their decision since people were really eager for Ash to win and having him lose did feel pretty forced.

His League defeats had become more infamous since DP, but I think the issue was more like they treated like winning a League would make it harder to keep Ash around when there were other options to take. He could still travel around to a new region with new teams even after becoming a League Champion. Winning a League was treated like a big deal, but it shouldn't have meant that Ash was unbeatable. That was arguably already disproven with the Orange Islands victory, even if that was also an untraditional League and something they rarely brought up. Even though the Alola League was not really a traditional League and I'd argue it was set on easy mode given the competitors and its structure, they still made Ash capable of defeating Elite 4 members and Champions in Journeys as a result. To be fair, years of hyping up the Elite 4 and Champions as untouchable trainers didn't help either, but it still made Ash look too strong in Journeys for me.

I don't think that the AU movies impacted their decision. That felt more like a way to make the movies more distinct and not connected to the currently airing series. The movies hadn't been performing well financially and I think that they had been pretty stale since BW. Going the AU route gave them more freedom to do whatever they wanted without having to make them set within a specific timeframe of the anime. Plus, with the larger cast of SM, it would have been more difficult to give any of them anything to do. A big complaint for the movies for years was how it was always about Ash and it was a struggle for most of his friends to get anything noteworthy to do. Making an AU Ash for the movies so that they could just have the movies about him and any new movie characters made more sense. Personally, I love I Choose You. It's tied with the Lucario movie as my favorite Pokemon movie. It was a fun, solid anniversary movie and it felt like it was honoring the heart of the anime, which is Ash and Pikachu's bond. Admittedly, that's also one reason why I didn't like the decision to replace Ash, even if there were probably multiple factors behind that choice.

I still wish Ash's ending was handled better, but I figure he'll be back for a movie or 30th anniversary special eventually anyway. They left TR open for the same reason, as we still need Giovanni resolved and TR disbanded with an ending.

He didn't really get an ending so much as getting a big victory and then continuing to travel off-screen. Granted, I think that makes sense not only so that it would be easier to have him appear again, but other characters' sendoffs basically lead them to continue working on their goals off-screen. Ash is far too iconic and marketable too, so going to a see you later kind of sendoff instead of something more conclusive makes sense.

I don't think that they need to have a Giovanni confrontation or disband Team Rocket. That was never something that I felt the anime needed to tackle and it never felt like something they were interested with either. Granted, I'm sure part of that is because they wanted to keep the Team Rocket trio around, but even now, I don't think it would make much sense to do. I'd rather just see Ash traveling in Paldea or at least reacting to some new Pokemon while making some new friends instead. It does amaze me that people weren't more upset over how the Team Rocket trio were handled in Journeys. While I have a lot of issues with the tournament and how it was handled, Ash at least had a storyline. Team Rocket were handled poorly and didn't get much of anything to send them off. I do think it makes sense that they'd continue to chase after Ash and Pikachu off-screen, but they should have had better moments in Journeys. Although, I highly doubt that Journeys was always meant to be Ash and Team Rocket's sendoff series.

 

[Vuxovich]

I think that you're misremembering a lot about these episodes. She didn't lie or changed her mind for no reason. She decided to stay with her sisters in her debut because she realized that she wasn't ready to go on a journey. Sakura realized that she would have been a burden on Ash and his friends and wanted to learn more about raising her Eevee with her sisters.

It's been awhile since I've watched the Johto saga, but Sakura didn't lie about her sisters or forgot what happened in her first episode. She was able to leave on her own in her second episode because she had already proven that she was a more confident capable trainer with her Espeon. Her sisters realized what she was about to ask and gave her permission to go. She even decided to go on her own so that she could be more able to handle traveling on her own. Realistically, there was no way that Sakura would have become a traveling companion. Her role was to promote a then new Eevee evolution and be a mirror to Misty and her sisters. She wouldn't have actually joined the cast, especially not near the end of the original series.

She isn't even in Pokémon Journeys: The Series for some reason, but I hope she will be included in Pokémon Masters. What do you think?

 

[Light Lucario]

She isn't even in Pokémon Journeys: The Series for some reason, but I hope she will be included in Pokémon Masters. What do you think?

There wouldn't have been much of a reason to include Sakura in Pokemon Journeys since she was more connected to Misty than Ash. Not to mention promoting Espeon wouldn't have made much sense when they already introduced three other Eevee evolutions into the game between the original series and Journeys. I don't think that they'd include a minor character from the anime to appear in Pokemon Masters either. They have so many characters from the games to include and plenty of choices to make a Sync Pair with Espeon.

 

[PF9]

I highly doubt that they're going to age Ash into an adult, especially not as a war veteran with PTSD. The Pokemon anime has tackled dark concepts, but it's still family friendly. They aren't going to toss that aside to pull some edgy angst nonsense like throwing Ash in the aftermath of a war story.

I don't think that they'd turn Ash into an adult simply because they'd want him to be more recognizable by the general audience whenever he does appear again. Besides that, Ash being an adult or a teenager wouldn't be drastically different than he is as a ten year old, so it would be a hollow or meaningless change.

If they went that direction though, they could end the first film in the series with a scene where Ash and Gary are standing over Professor Oak's grave, mentioning that Oak died while Ash was off fighting in the war and finally acknowledging the death of his original VA after all these years.

 

[Light Lucario]

If they went that direction though, they could end the first film in the series with a scene where Ash and Gary are standing over Professor Oak's grave, mentioning that Oak died while Ash was off fighting in the war and finally acknowledging the death of his original VA after all these years.

They wouldn't go in that direction though. They aren't going to suddenly turn Ash and Gary into adults, changed by the horrors of war or have Professor Oak die off-screen in order to acknowledge the original voice actor's death. It isn't an interesting concept and more importantly, it doesn't fit with the Pokemon anime or the franchise for that matter. The franchise can tackle heavy topics and moments, but Ash being a war vet with PTSD and standing over Professor Oak's grave is not mature. It's edgy teenage fan fiction nonsense at best.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

There wouldn't have been much of a reason to include Sakura in Pokemon Journeys since she was more connected to Misty than Ash. Not to mention promoting Espeon wouldn't have made much sense when they already introduced three other Eevee evolutions into the game between the original series and Journeys. I don't think that they'd include a minor character from the anime to appear in Pokemon Masters either. They have so many characters from the games to include and plenty of choices to make a Sync Pair with Espeon.

They could’ve had Sakura interact with Khloe during Journeys episode 79, when she met Espeon and Umbreon in Johto, instead of having Khloe meet that identical twin. Though compared to things like Ash leaving Primeape behind to train and never going back. I don’t think Sakura returning was a huge loose end people wanted resolved. She’s probably about as well remembered as other minor recurring Johto characters like Casey. Maybe less so, since Casey is remembered for being loud and annoying baseball fan, while Sakura was basically a quiet character of the day that existed to show off Eeveelutions… but I do like that she at least got multiple appearances. It’s nice when characters like Duplica and Jessabelle get to return, since it adds more of a sense of continuity. 99% of characters of the week we never get to see again though, so I’m not surprised they went a different route rather than emphasizing such a forgotten character. It’s different than bringing back the iconic original trio who appeared in more episodes than other traveling companions, Misty and Brock in the final batch of episodes. Sakura is not as well-remembered or beloved as a character like Misty or even a full fledged later traveling companion like Dawn who got to return many times in Journeys. Even Serena who has an Eevee and a huge fanbase barely appeared in Journeys… if Sakura had shown up in Journeys, it probably would’ve been a one episode appearance like Serena’s that showcased her Eeveelution to Khloe then moved on. Unfortunately I don’t think that Eevee plot really resolved particularly satisfyingly as is. Maybe Sakura could’ve helped as Khloe is also kinda-sorta a companion of Ash but ultimately not.

As far as the whole Pokemon war thing, don’t expect that to ever happen in future anime projects. This isn’t the early Pokemon Adventures manga where Pokemon were getting cut in half. Lt. Surge’s war will never be fully explained, since it’s not appropriate for the kid friendly direction the franchise moved in.

 

[Light Lucario]

They could’ve had Sakura interact with Khloe during Journeys episode 79, when she met Espeon and Umbreon in Johto, instead of having Khloe meet that identical twin. Though compared to things like Ash leaving Primeape behind to train and never going back. I don’t think Sakura returning was a huge loose end people wanted resolved. She’s probably about as well remembered as other minor recurring Johto characters like Casey. Maybe less so, since Casey is remembered for being loud and annoying baseball fan, while Sakura was basically a quiet character of the day that existed to show off Eeveelutions… but I do like that she at least got multiple appearances. It’s nice when characters like Duplica and Jessabelle get to return, since it adds more of a sense of continuity. 99% of characters of the week we never get to see again though, so I’m not surprised they went a different route rather than emphasizing such a forgotten character. It’s different than bringing back the iconic original trio who appeared in more episodes than other traveling companions, Misty and Brock in the final batch of episodes. Sakura is not as well-remembered or beloved as a character like Misty or even a full fledged later traveling companion like Dawn who got to return many times in Journeys. Even Serena who has an Eevee and a huge fanbase barely appeared in Journeys… if Sakura had shown up in Journeys, it probably would’ve been a one episode appearance like Serena’s that showcased her Eeveelution to Khloe then moved on. Unfortunately I don’t think that Eevee plot really resolved particularly satisfyingly as is. Maybe Sakura could’ve helped as Khloe is also kinda-sorta a companion of Ash but ultimately not.

I don't think using Sakura to help with Chloe would have made much sense, especially when they probably wanted to showcase both Espeon and Umbreon at the same time. They couldn't really use Sakura and her sisters since their whole gimmick was that they featured all Eevee evolutions, which was true at the time but not by the time Journeys started. So unless they had three more sisters somewhere, I don't think marketing wise they would have wanted to use them. Sakura is a pretty minor character who only appeared in one Chronicles special after the original series ended. I'm pretty sure Casey is better remembered simply because people were upset that she didn't get to the Johto League.

Serena appearing for just one episode makes sense in my opinion. Some fans think they did that so that the writers wouldn't have to address the kiss at the end of XY, but I think it was more like they didn't want to get fans online riled up. I remember people were making threats towards the staff after Ash and Serena didn't share a dance in the episode where her Eevee evolved. So they may have wanted to avoid potential backlash like that, especially when they didn't announce her appearance well in advance like they did with Dawn. Part of the reason why Dawn got so many appearances in Journeys was because of both BD/SP and Legends Arceus, even though they didn't really do much to promote the latter unfortunately.

As cool as it was to see Dawn and I do think she was more in character in Journeys than she was in BW, she also came off as really stagnant. Despite traveling through multiple different regions, she still had the same team. She didn't catch any other Pokemon and she was only able to get more ribbons off-screen. I know that her team doesn't have a lot of Pokemon that could have evolved, but they easily could have given her a Lopunny or a Typhlosion to give some sense that she had improved from her off-screen travels. Most returning traveling companions do return with some evolved Pokemon or something to show that they have been working more towards their goals, but Dawn didn't. It's a shame that they didn't use Journeys to showcase a proper Contest episode. They had an easy setup for it with her friendship with Chloe. I definitely would have preferred seeing a Contest episode for the first time in years as opposed to the filler episodes they had in Kanto or other regions.

As far as the whole Pokemon war thing, don’t expect that to ever happen in future anime projects. This isn’t the early Pokemon Adventures manga where Pokemon were getting cut in half. Lt. Surge’s war will never be fully explained, since it’s not appropriate for the kid friendly direction the franchise moved in.

Even as infamous as that part of the Adventures manga was, I think that they backtracked on that pretty quickly. I think in the Yellow arc or possibly somewhere in the G/S/C arc of the Adventures series, they confirmed that an Arbok could survive being cut in half like that. The Adventures series can get pretty intense at times, more so than the anime, but it's still a kid series too.

 

[CyberCubed]

In retrospect there's a lot of characters who should of appeared in Journey's but didn't, and would have made sense. Brandon from BF could have come back since Go's Project Mew goal was about capturing the Regi's at the end. Looker never returns oddly, enough. Ash revisits Ecurteak City and even Tin Tower and Morty is not even in the episode. Several other older Gym leaders should of returned as well when their towns were revisited.

Also I don't know why they didn't let Max appear by himself or visit Petalburg Gym even if May couldn't appear. Like they could have stopped by Petalburg or something. It's really weird how May/Max were almost completely ignored besides the silent shots watching the Leon battle at the end, they could have shown scenes of May on TV or something performing.

 

[Light Lucario]

In retrospect there's a lot of characters who should of appeared in Journey's but didn't, and would have made sense. Brandon from BF could have come back since Go's Project Mew goal was about capturing the Regi's at the end. Looker never returns oddly, enough. Ash revisits Ecurteak City and even Tin Tower and Morty is not even in the episode. Several other older Gym leaders should of returned as well when their towns were revisited.

Seeing Brandon again would have been cool and could have tied into Goh's goal. Or maybe given Ash another strong trainer to battle against. I wouldn't have been against Looker appearing, but I don't know what role he would have played since he's mostly used in the games to deal with evil teams and I doubt that they would have adapted his storylines from X/Y or Sun/Moon by that point.

It is baffling that they didn't use more Gym Leaders in Journeys. Not just with the Ecurteak City episode, but just in general. It's one of my biggest complaints about the World Championships. They could have easily made use of so many Gym Leaders from across the franchise's history. It would have tied into the world tour aspect of Journeys, given a chance to see how Gym Leaders have become more powerful and have Ash battling against actually strong opponents instead of one off characters. It would have made the tournament feel like a world wide tournament. They do eventually do that, but only halfway through the tournament after Ash already had multiple off-screen battles, mostly against one off fodder characters, so the damage was already done in my book. That being said, Ash vs. Volkner is easily one of the best battles in Journeys and really what the World Championships should have been like from the start instead of halfway through its run.

Also I don't know why they didn't let Max appear by himself or visit Petalburg Gym even if May couldn't appear. Like they could have stopped by Petalburg or something. It's really weird how May/Max were almost completely ignored besides the silent shots watching the Leon battle at the end, they could have shown scenes of May on TV or something performing.

I can't really blame them for not having Max appear by himself. It would have been potentially easier to write around since they could have gone to the Petalburg Gym for a World Championship match or something. But I don't think that Max was particularly popular and since he still wouldn't have become a trainer proper without aging, there wasn't much they could do with him. Maybe he could have already been given his first Pokemon from his father or finally reunited with the Ralts he should have kept in that one AG episode, but I don't think there was much interest in Max's own storyline. Plus, he was always treated as a set with May. Part of the reason he was in the AG cast was for his sibling dynamics with May. It would kind of be like having Bonnie appear without Clemont. Granted, I think Bonnie is more interesting and popular than Max by comparison, but they're still treated like a set, even more so in this case since they stay in Lumiose City together at the end of XY.

I think more fans were much more interested in seeing May than Max. I feel like they could have allowed a recast if her original voice actress wasn't able to reprise her role. I don't think that is as common in Japan as it is in the west, but I think fans would have been able to understand the recast. But they may not have wanted to out of respect for her voice actress. Getting to see some scenes of May performing on TV would have been cool. They easily could have done it while promoting an upcoming Contest, leading into Dawn's Contesst too.

 

[Checkerboard]

I wouldnt mind seeing the main og trio cast, or at least Ash, as adults. He could be a gym leader/mentor figure or look after the pokémon championship instead of that old Santa man. Or have kids and train with them. We have Pokémon, Pokémon Horizons and this could be the third and last one... Pokémon Legacy.

 

[PF9]

As I mentioned earlier, I'd also like to see a spin-off series focusing on the Pichu Posse, perhaps aiming it in part at the preschool demographic since a lot of members of the Posse are unevolved or even Baby Pokemon.

Such a show could have the potential to be the next Bluey.

 

[CyberCubed]

After Horizons ends it's pretty obvious they're going to go the Yu-go-oh, Digimon, etc. route of new heroes every generation. Which is a good thing, Horizons is going to last 4 years and Liko/Roy/Dot stories will conclude, they don't need to keep protagonists for decades like Ash anymore. Plus their starters are tied to Paldea so of course they'll want new heroes, it's the same reason most of us knew Go wouldn't stick around despite not being tied to a game gen, simply because he had the Galar starters.

Honestly they could have done this as far back as BW's start, assuming the end of DP was re-written to move Ash/Paul to the finals and then have Ash battle Cynthia back then. Or even the end of XY, the same as having Ash beat Alan and then beat champions back then. SM without Ash/TR returning could have featured all the same Alola characters and been its own thing rather than changing Ash's design/personality to suit it.

Even keeping Ash to the end of DP was 13 years (1997-2010), which was already an insanely long run for one character. But then we had to go through a series of semi-reboots for another 13 years with the writers trying to justify keeping Ash for 4 more gens. In retrospect the whole thing was so disjointed post-DP. As much as I like XY, SM to an extent and the better parts of JN, it would have been better for Ash to conclude early.

But that being said I do still want to see Ash again for movies/specials, or a 30th anniversary thing. I still want to see the conclusion of Giovanni/TR, and see Ash rotating in his older pokemon like he was in MPM to see his old Pokemon again. Greninja, Charizard, Infernape, Sceptile, etc. all teaming up with other old Pokemon would be epic.

 

[PF9]

They should make HorizonsShipping (Roy/Liko) canon at the end of Horizons.

 

[Light Lucario]

As I mentioned earlier, I'd also like to see a spin-off series focusing on the Pichu Posse, perhaps aiming it in part at the preschool demographic since a lot of members of the Posse are unevolved or even Baby Pokemon.

Such a show could have the potential to be the next Bluey.

Admittedly, that would be more in line with the franchise's family friendly image than the war nonsense. I don't know if it would have that much potential to be a hit or if they would even be interested in a preschool series. They could easily justify having more spin-off anime series given how huge the franchise is, but they seemingly aren't interested in doing so, or at least not interested in spending the money it takes to animate two series at the same time.

After Horizons ends it's pretty obvious they're going to go the Yu-go-oh, Digimon, etc. route of new heroes every generation. Which is a good thing, Horizons is going to last 4 years and Liko/Roy/Dot stories will conclude, they don't need to keep protagonists for decades like Ash anymore. Plus their starters are tied to Paldea so of course they'll want new heroes, it's the same reason most of us knew Go wouldn't stick around despite not being tied to a game gen, simply because he had the Galar starters.

I do remember people speculating that Goh would stay. Even though he is more associated with the Galar starters than any of his other Pokemon, the writers already showed that they were willing to sideline his partner Pokemon in order to showcase a new starter Pokemon. After Raboot evolved into Cinderace, Sobble got to be his main partner and the same thing happened when it evolved into Drizzile. People thought that they would just put Grookey on the sidelines in favor of the Paldea starters to keep him around for another series. Granted, I didn't really believe in that theory since Project Mew was clearly building up to a conclusion for his storyline and I always thought that fans were overselling how much attention Goh got in the series anyway, but I definitely remember people making those kind of theories before Horizons was announced.

Even before the Paldea starters evolved, they're featured so heavily in the marketing for Horizons that they couldn't just replace them with the generation ten starters.

Honestly they could have done this as far back as BW's start, assuming the end of DP was re-written to move Ash/Paul to the finals and then have Ash battle Cynthia back then. Or even the end of XY, the same as having Ash beat Alan and then beat champions back then. SM without Ash/TR returning could have featured all the same Alola characters and been its own thing rather than changing Ash's design/personality to suit it.

Even keeping Ash to the end of DP was 13 years (1997-2010), which was already an insanely long run for one character. But then we had to go through a series of semi-reboots for another 13 years with the writers trying to justify keeping Ash for 4 more gens. In retrospect the whole thing was so disjointed post-DP. As much as I like XY, SM to an extent and the better parts of JN, it would have been better for Ash to conclude early.

I don't know if they originally planned for Ash to battle Cynthia in DP. While his skills were arguably at their best in DP, he was still shown struggling against Elite 4 members. With all of the focus and importance his rivalry with Paul had, I could totally believe that they were planning for Ash vs. Paul to be the final round of the Sinnoh League. I just don't believe that they were going to have a Champion League despite introducing the concept in DP in large part because by the time we got to the Sinnoh League, there wouldn't have been enough time to do something like that before the fifth generation started. Same thing with the Kalos League. Ash losing to Alain does feel more of a last minute change by comparison, but with the Team Flare arc happening right afterwards, which I imagine would have been the same regardless of the outcome of the match, and then wrapping up the series in its remaining episodes, there wouldn't have been enough time for Ash to battle against the Kalos Elite 4 and Diantha.

I still don't understand why you keep thinking that SM would be the same without Ash and Team Rocket. Ash wasn't so drastically different personality wise to the point where he could have been a completely different character. His design was different, but the art style in general changed and I always felt like fans overreacted to it. Ash still played key roles in major storylines like with the Solgaleo and the Ultra Beasts, so I don't see how he could be easily replaced with a new protagonist in that series. It's also a strange claim to make about Team Rocket when a lot of fans consider SM to be one of their best series. It's certainly way better than Journeys was for them.

I wouldn't say that wrapping up Ash's story thirteen years into the anime would have been early. It arguably would have felt more natural than what happened in Journeys, but I'd also argue that even at that point it would have been too late to make replacing Ash feel natural. Neither Yu-Gi-Oh! or Digimon waited over a decade to replace their lead characters, let alone over two decades. I still can't judge Horizons yet since I haven't started watching it, but I still say that the anime's heart has been Ash and Pikachu's bond, or at least that has been a key element to the show, and losing that does feel like something important has been lost. Granted, I never really had a problem with Ash sticking around in the first place. That always felt like an element of the anime, not a bug that needed to be fixed. And it isn't like the writers were interested in giving Ash's story closure. Otherwise, they wouldn't have kept him for decades and arguably his story doesn't really have closure so much as giving him a big victory before letting him travel off-screen. It's less of a definitive ending and more like a see you later kind of moment if that makes sense. It often felt like fans were treating Ash as the scapgoat for the anime's problems and that new lead characters would be drastically better. There are clear advanatages writing wise to having a complete clean slate, but it can also lead to some bad writing choices.

But that being said I do still want to see Ash again for movies/specials, or a 30th anniversary thing. I still want to see the conclusion of Giovanni/TR, and see Ash rotating in his older pokemon like he was in MPM to see his old Pokemon again. Greninja, Charizard, Infernape, Sceptile, etc. all teaming up with other old Pokemon would be epic.

I still don't thinl that they need to have a conclusion for Team Rocket and Giovanni. Fans treated that as a big deal, especially when Ash didn't properly interact with Giovanni until BW, but I just don't see it as something that needs to happen. I wouldn't be necessarily against Ash battling against Giovanni, but since Team Rocket is the most iconic evil team, I think that they'd want to keep them around in the anime regardless of the Team Rocket trio.

As cool as it would be to see Ash use his older Pokemon, Journeys was a more fitting place for him to do that than in a special or movie. In some ways, using his reserves instead of having a new team would have been better. It might have made defeating strong opponents like Elite 4 and Champions more believable. While I like some of his Journeys team and was happy when he finally got a Lucario, they also had extremely little screentime when they weren't being caught, evolving or getting some kind of upgrade. I still remember how baffling it felt like they kept talking about how much of a bond he had with his Lucario when looking for its Mega Stone because Ash forming a strong bond with his Pokemon should be pretty easy to pull off. But because of the minimal screentime, it was harder to make it feel natural. To be fair, that was an issue with Journeys as whole in my book, not just Ash's team. Production wise, it might have been too difficult to pull off rotating his older Pokemon even over the course of a whole series, but his using more of his older Pokemon throughout all of Journeys instead of the tail end of the series would have given them more screentime.

They should make HorizonsShipping (Roy/Liko) canon at the end of Horizons.

I can't comment on Liko and Roy's relationship, but canon relationships are pretty rare in the franchise as a whole. There are few canon pairings as a whole that I can think of. Most come from the games or the Adventures manga series, so I doubt that they'll go that route for Liko and Roy.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

More likely than Liko and Roy being a couple, I think, would be the older characters. For example Orla and Friede. Or even Molly and WyYes. After all, Kukui and Burnett got married in Sun and Moon.

The younger characters don’t seem that interested in romance… like Dot seems to love Iono in a sense but more as an inspiration for Nidothing rather than any sort of full canon shipping. Roy in particular is mainly interested in singing and battling. Liko is so compassionate that it’s hard to tell if she likes anyone in particular.