History TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter / PokemonTheSeries

** The way Ash's Heracross was handled during Johto will definitely leave some people scratching their heads in confusion. Ash swaps out Heracross for Tauros to take part in a Tauros vs. Tauros competition, but when it was time to send Tauros back to Oak's lab once said event was done with, Heracross ends up not returning. What you're left with is Heracross not actually doing much since it was stashed away before the 3rd Johto gym battle, and doesn't actually appear again under Ash's command all the way until the league match against Gary. It makes a little more sense looking at the bigger picture, since after the party-of-six limit became a problem catching Krabby the writers got around it by simply having Ash bench a Pokémon before catching a new one, in this case moving Heracross out of the way so Noctowl can be caught (and thus run into the regional birds issue described above). After that, there simply wasn't any Pokémon the writers were willing to take ''off'' Ash's team - which consisted at that point of Pikachu, four starter Pokémon and a regional bird, and by the time Bulbasaur was dropped it was simply replaced by a new team member, in this case Phanpy. Though considering Squirtle's departure occurs the epsiode after Heracross is dropped, and Noctowl's capture was just three episodes before Whitney a little reshuffling of events could've gone a long way.

** The way Ash's Heracross was handled during Johto will definitely leave some people scratching their heads in confusion. Ash swaps out Heracross for Tauros to take part in a Tauros vs. Tauros competition, but when it was time to send Tauros back to Oak's lab once said event was done with, Heracross ends up not returning. What you're left with is Heracross not actually doing much since it was stashed away before the 3rd Johto gym battle, and doesn't actually appear again under Ash's command all the way until the league match against Gary. It makes a little more sense looking at the bigger picture, since after the party-of-six limit became a problem catching Krabby the writers got around it by simply having Ash bench a Pokémon before catching a new one, in this case moving Heracross out of the way so Noctowl can be caught (and thus run into the regional birds issue described above). After that, there simply wasn't any Pokémon the writers were willing to take ''off'' Ash's team - which consisted at that point of Pikachu, four starter Pokémon and a regional bird, and by the time Bulbasaur was dropped it was simply replaced by a new team member, in this case Phanpy.

* The Kangaskhan from [=JN001=] who took care of Pikachu as a Pichu. Many fans spent the episodes afterwards wondering where this Kangaskhan, or even its own pouchling, might return to build on the details of the first episode's expansion of Pikachu's past. Over a hundred episodes later and the plot point remains untouched, leaving many fans feeling like the potential for a follow up to the first details of Pikachu's past ever given were wasted and forgotten.

*** Even though an attempt was made to have Ash rotate his team to compensate for catching over the party-of-six limit, in reality he was only rotating through two slots because Pikachu and the three starters never left his team, and once Charizard joined that number went down to one. As a result most of Ash's non-starter Pokémon don't do much better than Palpitoad's meager 8 appearances, with only 17 appearances from Leavanny, 18 appearances from Boldore, 26 appearances from Unfezant, 27 appearances from Krookodile, (4 of which coming before his capture), and 34 appearances from Scraggy.

* Pick a Pokémon from Ash's roster that is believed to have gotten the shaft and watch it get ugly. Kingler ([[DayInTheLimelight after the Indigo League]]), Totodile, Torkoal, Torterra ([[BadassDecay after evolving]]), and Palpitoad are some prime examples due to their extreme lack of characterization and screen-time. While in general this can be applied to most Pokémon that aren't starters (or the 'most important' starters in regions with more than one), some better explained examples amongst Ash's Pokémon include the following:

* Trip. While fans reception to his early appearances were ice cold, with many seeing him as a bland rehash of Paul, he actually showed a bit of promise when his backstory regarding Alder was revealed. Not only does it help distinguish him from Paul, but it bore resemblance to that of [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Cheren]], an AdaptedOut character from the games whose arc was well-liked. Unfortunately, this potential was ultimately squandered, as not only did he never truly make it out of Paul's shadow, the conclusion of his subplot with Alder was considered incohesive and messy. While he did receive much CharacterDevelopment from his [[DefeatMeansRespect loss to the Champion]], said development is criticized for having nothing to do with Ash, on top of being filled to the brim with poorly written battles. Trip also has a character trait of disliking the Kanto region, which was never given any exploration. By the time of the Unova League, the writers appeared to have completely given up on him, writing him off in a complete AntiClimax where he was eliminated in the very first round.

* Sandy, the Eevee that wound up on the Alolan Islands. Eevee had a lot of hype surrounding it at first due to how it had its own little six clip mini-series that showed off Eevee's arrival on the Alolan Islands. Many figured that Eevee was possibly going to be caught by Ash to take up an empty spot of his party, but it ended up going to Lana instead. At first, people were willing to let go of this to see how Eevee develops under Lana, but as it turned out, ''nothing'' was done with it. Apart from Lana giving it a nickname and haircut moments after capturing it, Sandy simply remained OutOfFocus for the rest of the series to the point that it didn't have a single notable battle under Lana's command besides the aforementioned mostly offscreen battle royal alongside Shaymin, which left people feeling that Sandy was completely wasted as a part of Lana's team instead of going to Ash. Many were even theorizing that Sandy was probably going to evolve into Vaporeon at some point given how Lana is a trainer that specializes in water-types, but the series didn't even do that.

* Like Hau from the previous series, Hop and Marnie are severely DemotedToExtra compared to being [[TheRival rivals]] to the player in the ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' games. Neither show up until the tail end of the show Marnie is relegated to being a OneShotCharacter who only fights Ash a single time, while Hope appears in more episodes than Marnie, he never gets a chance to battle Ash, only appearing so he can cheer on Leon during the Masters 8 tournament.

* While the female protagonists are usually lucky enough to get plenty of focus, the male protagonists of their respective games tend to get screwed in that regard due to the show's strict focus on Ash. If they're lucky, they ''might'' get a cameo in a movie, but many viewers who view Ash as TheArtifact are dismayed with the anime's [[StrictlyFormula refusal to replace him]].

* Yamper was shown to have a backstory related to Chloe as to why she's not so keen into Pokémon and overcoming her initial jealousy over him getting attention is one of the stepping stones of her becoming a Trainer. Unfortunately, after Yamper helps her get Eevee (20 episodes after his first focus episode) he's regulated into the background and doesn't get a focus episode for another ''60 episodes''. It would've been interesting to have Chloe have both Eevee ''and'' Yamper in her party.

** Oddish, Jigglypuff (yes THE Jigglypuff), Dewgong, and Marill for Misty. The Johto arc also shows her repeatedly trying and failing to catch an additional water type including Totodile (which went to Ash), Remoraid and Chinchou.

* One could make a case for the vast majority of the Main Characters’ Pokémon were wasted throughout the show. The series lasted for 142 episodes and 3 movies, yet the only Pokémon to make more than 30 (approximately one-fifth of the series) were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the Unova Starters, Pansage, Scraggy, Excadrill, Crustle, and Emolga (who only barely eeked through on account of appearing in all three movies).
* Trip. While [[TheScrappy fans preemptively hated him]] for being a less interesting {{replacement|Scrappy}} of Paul, he actually showed a bit of promise when his backstory regarding Alder was revealed. Not only does it help distinguish him from Paul, but it bore resemblance to that of [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Cheren]], an AdaptedOut character from the games whose arc was well-liked. Unfortunately, this potential was ultimately squandered, as not only did he never truly make it out of Paul's shadow, the conclusion of his subplot with Alder was considered incohesive and messy. While he did receive much CharacterDevelopment from his [[DefeatMeansRespect loss to the Champion]], said development is criticized for having nothing to do with Ash, on top of being filled to the brim with poorly written battles. Trip also has a character trait of disliking the Kanto region, which was never given any exploration. By the time of the Unova League, the writers appeared to have completely given up on him, writing him off in a complete AntiClimax where he was eliminated in the very first round.

** Haunter, Magnemite, Rapidash, Houndour, Mantine, Larvitar, Sableye, Smoochum, Weavile, Hippopotas, Shieldon, Riolu, Snover, Venipede, Archeops, Meloetta, Scatterbug, Litleo, a shiny Phantump, Skrelp, Wimpod, Passimian, Dreepy and Drakloak, a shiny Volcarona, Hatenna, Beartic, and Latias for Ash.

** Haunter, Magnemite, Rapidash, Houndour, Mantine, Larvitar, Sableye, Smoochum, Hippopotas, Shieldon, Riolu, Snover, Venipede, Archeops, Meloetta, Scatterbug, Litleo, a shiny Phantump, Skrelp, Wimpod, Passimian, Dreepy and Drakloak, a shiny Volcarona, Hatenna, Beartic, and Latias for Ash.

** Deino for Iris, particularly because the owner of said Deino returned ''at the last possible minute''.

** Grimer for Dawn. Another honorable mention for Dawn is that some feel it was a missed opportunity to not have her go after that one-off highly memorable evil Togepi. That way, the writers could build it up to eventually becoming a Togekiss rather than just outright handing Dawn a Togekiss a couple episodes out from the Grand Festival.

** Stantler and Sharpedo for Brock. In Sharpedo's case, it would have meant Brock catching three Water Pokémon in a row.

** Haunter, Magnemite, Rapidash, Houndour, Mantine, Larvitar, Hippopotas, Smoochum, Shieldon, Riolu, Snover, Venipede, Archeops, Meloetta, Scatterbug, Litleo, a shiny Phantump, Skrelp, Wimpod, Passimian, Dreepy and Drakloak, a shiny Volcarona, Hatenna, Beartic, and Latias for Ash.