Ever since the first airing of the Pokémon anime in 1997, Pokémon fans have disputed who the best trainer of all time must be. While Ash Ketchum, the star of the franchise, has seen his share of criꦜticism over the decades, nowadays, there's little doubt that he's an incredible Pokémon trainer—but is he o20n 🦹the level of the original Pokémon Master, Red?
Red was the player character in the original Pokémon games, the protagonist of the manga series, and has appeared in media such as the 'Pokemon Origins' anime. There's no doubt that he's about as good as it gets when it comes to training Pokémon. So, with that in mind, here are five reasons why Ash is the best 🎀trainer (&❀ five reasons why Red is better).
10 Ash Doesn't Give Up On🐓 His Pokémon
Ash Ketchum from the town of Pallet is no quitter. In fact, he's shown that he can train even the most stubborn of Pokémon several times over. Right from the beginning of his adventur꧅e, he makes his Pikachu trust him after protecting the Pokémon from a swarm of angry Spearows.
Another notorious case of Ash proving his devotion t🌌o his team is through the training of his Charizard. No matter how many times the Pokémon ignores his instructions or gives him a face full of fire, Ash never ceases to believe in his friend instead of abandoning him like Charizard's previous trainer. Because of this, he has the most loyal team any trainer could hope for.
9 ෴ Ash Truly Cares For His Team 🥃
If there's one thing that can be said for Ash above all others, it's that he is shown to honestly care about each one of his Pokémon. His Pokémon companions don't follow him because they have to, they travel with Ash because they genuinely want to, and he's always 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:willing to release them from his team when the time comes.
Saying goodbye to familiar faces💜 is one of the themes of the show because it allows room to meet new friends. If only Ash would actually hang on to some of the stronger Pokémon in his team𒉰, perhaps he'd see even more success in competitive battling.
8 Ash Has Beaten The Pokémon League (And Placed Highly In Othꦚers) ꦡ
In 2019, Ash did the unthinkable and finally beat the Alolan Pokémon League. However, although this accomplishment has been a long time coming, he has consistently ranked highly in other tournaments around the globe. The talented trainer was already the Champion of the Orange League and has placed in the Top Eight of every Pokémon League besides his first where he ꧅came in the Top 16.
Most recently, prior to the Manalo Conference where he took home the League trophy, Ash was runner-up in the Lumiose Conference where his Greninja was barely defeated by Alain's Mega Charizard X. He also has 52 gym badges at this point, meaning that there are a lot of gym leaders out there who met their match against Asܫh.
7 Ash Has Encou๊ntဣered Nearly Every Legendary Pokémon
Despite still being canonically only 10 years old, Ash has encountered nearly every legendary Pokémon in his travels around the world. The plot of nearly every Pokémon movie revolves around the boy's latest encounter with a powerful legendary creature, and he's sh🍌own to be able to bond with even the more hostile of Pokémon.
A♑lthough encounters with these creatures seem to occur for Ash on a regular basis, he still hasn't captured one for himself, instead often focussing on protecting them 𒀰from villains who would do them harm.
6 🦂 Ash-Greninja Is A Unique Form
Ash has shown to be so in-sync with his Pokémon that he is even able to push them to new heights, as shown off by Greninja's new f꧒orm: Ash-Greninja. The trainer aওnd Pokémon together are able to pull off a unique transformation that is akin to Mega-Evolution but sees Ash and Greninja bonded together.
In Ash-Greninja form, not only does Greninja get a boost to speed and strength, Ash is able to see from his perspective and f꧂eel the Pokémon's pain. The two even share a heartbeat when perfectly in sync. This powerful transformation is only possible due to the intense bond Ash can form with his Pokémon and t💧ruly proves his worth as the ultimate Pokémon trainer.
5 Red Beat The Kanto Pokémon League (Something Ash Couldn't Do) ♛
The true test of every up-and-coming trainer, besides being able to "catch-em all," is to see♋ if they will be one day capable of defeating the Pokémon League and taking their place as the Champion. Both Ash and Red 🅰were able to defeat all eight gyms in the Kanto region, getting themselves entry to the final test of strength, but only Red was able to beat the League and become the Champion.
While Ash placed in the Top 16, Red defeated his rival, Blue, who was the reigning Champion before continuing on his adventure to be the very best. To date, he i🥃s still the 𒁃only trainer referred to as a Champion outside of his generation by in-game characters.
4 Red Dis🌜covered Mega-Evolution By Himself
In the Pokémon Origins anime series, Red becomes one of the first trainers to make use of a never-seen-before evolution, now known as Mega-Evolution. The first use of this powerful form came from Red's fight with Mewtwo, where his bond with Charizard allowed his long-term partner to Mega-Evolve and become Mega Charizard X🅰.
This new form allowed the duo to defeat Mewtwo in batt🃏le despite t🌄he legendary clone Pokémon having defeated Red's whole team with ease, moments prior. Later, Mega-Evolution would become a staple of the franchise, but Red was one of the first trainers to produce a result with the technique.
3 🦹 Red Caught Legendary Pokémon
൲True, Ash has befriended and rescued a great deal of legendary Pokémon, but the game's tagline isn't "Gotta Befriend 'Em All!" Red is the only one of the two trainers to actually catch his share of the powerful creatures, obtaining Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, as well as capturing the region's most powerful Pokémon: Mewtwo.
In fact, in Pokémon Stadium 2, Red's second team actually contains Entei, Raikou, and Suicune, suggesting that the trainer continued his ꩵcatching-streak in other regions, too. Despite this one outlier, the ⛄trainer prefers to fight with his older pokémon, showing his preference for dedicated training over raw power.
2 Red Is The Stron♎g And Silent Type
Although Red has been known to speak from time to time, such as in the Pokémon Origins series or more recently in the , the trainer is notoriously a man of few words. When the player first encounters Red in Pokémon Gold and Silver, the NPC does not talk to them before🧸 or after the battle, regardless of the result.
When compared to Ash, whose 10-year-old innocence has him constantly asking questions and shouting up a storm, it's hard not to prefer a cool, silent protagonist. Next time someone asks you for your thoughts on the Ash vs Red debate, take a page♎ from the latter's book and simply reply: "..."
1 🌳 Red Is The Ultimate Boss Battle
At the end of the Pokémon Gold and Silver games, Red was the ultimate final boss that players had to battle in order to consider themselves true masters. Aꦛfter defeating the Elite Four and becoming the region's Ch🅷ampion, journeying to Mt. Silver allowed for an encounter with Red, the most powerful NPC trainer in the region.
To this day, Red's upgraded team in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver is still the highest level team wielded by an in-game trainer. With a team headed by a Lvl 88 Pikachu, memories of the Mt. Silver fight still haunts the dreams of modern-day Pokémon fans.