X-tremespeeds rant - Ash is Red-er

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So I was pondering about the Ash entry for my Top 5 Underrated Avatar-type Characters List, and then something hit me about how fans of Pokémon often place Red over Ash in many aspects. To quote that same list I made, "...it's not like I don't admit he [Ash] has flaws, he's packed with them: He's gary-stu-like, too naive and even sometimes too stupid for his own good. But are we just going to ignore all the GOOD moments he ever had?". Going back a bit to that, I decided to think my own point thorough, and I decided to, above all, analyze the two by merits and personality.

 

First and foremost, I want to state something: I don't care about the different continuities and their Lutece-applying differences and similarities. Merit is merit, and as far as it reaches, it can be measured.
 

Starting with Red, what is Red like? Silent, possibly because of him being the previous player character. Inside joke? I dunno. What I do know, and mind you I'm no analyst, is how he begins his battle: he stares down at you. Maybe because he's confident, or expecting a good battle, but in my eyes, who's not to say he's acting a bit patronizing? I mean, Red appears after you beat the Elite Four, at the top of Mount Silver. As if you didn't already have to brave your way up a mountain full of trainers to meet with this guy, he flat out challenges you without ceremony and without a word. No lines of dialogue where some could be included. And yeah, again, maybe it's just to play the fact that Red was the player character and the character is silent when it is so in Pokémon. Fine, that does topple my argument, but let's go over his merit. Red beat the Elite Four and his jerk rival Champion of Kanto, good. Also, he caught Mewtwo, and as far as Black 2/White 2 shows, the Legendary Birds and POSSIBLY Mew. Alright, those are veritable merits, excluding the different continuities, but does it warrant the large portion of the fanbase displaying Red as an unbeatable badass and using him against Ash in comparisons?

In short? At least, not to me, and here is my two cents on the matter:

When you look at Ash in terms of personality, it's a matter of having SOME personality, as opposed to Red's subtle LACK of personality. I mean, yeah, his glance at Mt. Silver suggests he's possibly slightly arrogant or cocky, but it's not much if we can't have more mannerisms to show something else about him (personality isn't restricted to speech, of course). But now about Ash, I stated before in the Top 5 that I DO agree when people say Ash is too naive and sometimes acts out on sheer impulse, leading to some rather nasty consequences. But if the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, Ash Ketchum made his own with his, and it's a two-way street, going and returning, because this kid oozes with good intentions.

Basically, it falls under something I nicknamed the "Thorndyke Effect". Taken from Chris Thorndyke jumping onto a flying Egg Mobile to rescue a Chaos Emerald in Sonic X: a very stupid decision, seeing how it could have killed him, but he did it because he blindly dedicated himself to help a friend in need (Sonic), despite not choosing a safer course of action. Ash does it ALL the time, constantly putting himself in harm's way because it's the quickest solution he can think of to stop something bad from getting even worse.

But let's talk merit again. Ash Ketchup is a dummy, sure, and he's way too quick to act before thinking, but in my point of view stated back up there, he does it often to save or help someone, but let's look back to what he did of heroic. I'm going to focus on what he did that the anime itself regards as most memorable, and yes I WILL be including the movies in this, since the movies are canon within the anime as shown in quite a lot of episodes:

  • Nearly freezing to death in a cave with his Pokémon to keep them all safe and warm (Bulbasaur being a Grass type is weaker on ice, Squirtle is more resistant to it but still has his limits, and Charmander's tail fire must stay lit if it doesn't want to DIE, all of that excluding Pikachu, who was also there).
  • Preventing an all-out war between a lab-created Pokémon (Mewtwo) and humanity by sacrificing himself, standing in the crossfire of its battle with Mew.
  • Saving the world from TWO weather-related disasters (Orange Islands and the Weather Duo).
  • Venturing into a young girl's damaged psyche to save her.
  • Venturing into a young Larvitar's damaged psyche to save him (this one was kind of an accident, also both of these mind things are related to Unown).
  • Preventing an ecological time-warping catastrophe at the hands of an Iron-Masked lunatic.
  • Saving a marine-based city from a great flood caused by a psycho Rocket grunt.
  • Aiding a Pokémon with immense powers (again Mewtwo) with evading Team Rocket despite knowing little to nothing about it due to amnesia caused by that same Pokémon.
  • Destroying a Lovecraftian nightmare clone of Groudon who absorbed humans and Pokémon alike.
  • Saving both Rayquaza and Deoxys from dying at a technological breakdown of a city (using the simple "turn off and on again tactic, but still).
  • BEING ABLE TO USE AURA. AURA, PEOPLE. And also had a hand in saving the Tree of Beginning from its doom, more than willing to sacrifice himself for it.
  • Defeating a pirate and his attempts to catch Manaphy.
  • Stopping the COLLAPSE OF TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM.
  • AND THE ANTI-VERSE.
  • Did I mention saving GOD HIMSELF (Arceus)?
  • Saving a Zoroark from Pokémon abuse and reuniting her with her son.
And I'll stop here because I'd be going on for a while.

If you still think Red>Ash, I respect your opinion, I swear I do. But please be thoughtful of other characters too. It isn't because a character is often regarded as idiotic that he's without any sort of merit. And it isn't because another character ISN'T idiotic by comparison that he's a major unbeatable hero. Be wise in your judgement, people. Ash Ketchup may be stubborn.

But with a list like that? He's no fool.

Disagree? Anything you'd like to add? Please share your opinion below.

© 2014 - 2024 extremespeeds
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LucarioShirona's avatar
I agree with ya! I personally like Ash better than Red.
Say! Did you see ProtoMario's video on this similar topic? He likely will agree :)