History TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter / PokemonTheSeries

** Galarian Ponyta and Chloe who, while given a lot of advertisement push, ultimately did not join Chloe long term (though unlike most of the ones listed here, did get mentioned again later).

** Haunter, Magnemite, Rapidash, Houndour, Dunsparce, 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.

** 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.

** Mightyena, Shroomish and ''especially'' Ralts for Max, the latter of which he made a promise to come back to get it once he starts his own journey. Many felt that Ralts could easily have been a {{Foil}} to Ash's Pikachu, especially as the main starter for Max seeing as how well they got along upon first meeting each other, contrasting with how Ash and Pikachu didn't get along upon their first meeting.

** 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, Hatenna, Beartic, and Latias for Ash.

* Like Hau from the previous series, Hop is severely DemotedToExtra compared to being one of the main [[TheRival rivals]] to the player in the ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' games. In the anime, Hop basically just shows up at the tail end of the ''Journeys'' series as one of the spectators watching the Masters 8 tournament.

* May and Max are the only companions who never got a reunion with Ash in this show, with their only appearances being in flashbacks and a voiceless cameo during Ash's battle against Leon. While this is likely a result of both of their [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Japanese voice actors being retired]], many fans still lament the decision, with international fans finding it unfair to not just recast the characters, instead the anime chooses to deprive the characters of proper reappearances worldwide.

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

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

** 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.

* 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 30 or more appearances (approximately one fifth of the series) were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the Unova Starters, Woobat (who appeared in '''exactly''' 30 episodes), Pansage, Scraggy, Excadrill, Crustle, and Emolga (who only barely eeked through on account of appearing in all three movies).

** Haunter, Magnemite, Houndour, Mantine, Larvitar, Hippopotas, Riolu, Scatterbug, Litleo, a shiny Phantump, Wimpod, Dreepy and Drakloak, Hatenna, Beartic, and Latias for Ash.

* 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 30 or more appearances (approximately one fifth of the series) were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the starters, Woobat (who appeared in '''exactly''' 30 episodes), Pansage, Scraggy, Excadrill, Crustle, and Emolga (the last one only just eking through by appearing in all three movies).

** Ash's Glalie was his last captured Pokémon during the Hoenn arc of the ''Advanced Generation'' and received such small screen time before he was sent to Oak's Lab for no given reason, not even participating in the Battle Frontier. Glalie also doesn't participate in the Lily of the Valley Conference like some of Ash's other Pokémon.

*** 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 apprences from Scraggy.

** There are some who feel that Ash's [[spoiler:Incineroar]] got the short end of the stick by the end of ''Sun and Moon''. [[spoiler:While many appreciated the [[RuleOfSymbolism symbolism]] of it evolving after beating Kukui's Incineroar to an extent, the fact that there were only a few episodes left gave it little time to show off in battle, especially since it faints immediately after the act. Ash leaving it with Kukui along with the rest of his team only added to this sentiment. Even with its reappearance in ''Journeys'', Incineroar is the only Pokemon Ash owns that has not had a battle in its current form.]]

** There are some who feel that Ash's [[spoiler:Incineroar]] got the short end of the stick by the end of ''Sun and Moon''. [[spoiler:While many appreciated the [[RuleOfSymbolism symbolism]] of it evolving after beating Kukui's Incineroar to an extent, the fact that there were only a few episodes left gave it little time to show off in battle, especially since it faints immediately after the act. Ash leaving it with Kukui along with the rest of his team only added to this sentiment.]]

* 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. Some better explained examples amongst Ash's Pokémon include the following:

** Ash's Quilava ended up as this in the ''Diamond & Pearl'' series due to how its "return" for the Sinnoh League was handled. A lot of hype was generated in the episode right before the start of the league due to Cyndaquil ''finally'' evolving after 507 episodes. Unfortunately, the one battle Quilava gets to participate in against Nando's Armaldo was [[FightUnscene almost entirely skipped over]] in favor of watching the Team Rocket trio work a job at the league. The SkewedPriorities of the writers thinking that the viewers would want to see Team Rocket doing their usual antics over watching a battle from a Pokémon that hasn't been seen for ages, and probably won't be seen again for a very long time, left ''a lot'' of people really unsatisfied with the final result.

* One could make a case for the vast majority of the Main Characters’ Pokémon were wasted throughout the show. Most'' of the main character’s Pokémon from Unova qualify on some level or another. The series lasted for 142 episodes and 3 movies, yet the only Pokémon to make 30 or more appearances (approximately one fifth of the series) were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the starters, Woobat (who appeared in '''exactly''' 30 episodes), Pansage, Scraggy, Excadrill, Crustle, and Emolga (the last one only just eking through by appearing in all three movies).

* One could make a case for the vast majority of the Main Characters’ Pokémon were wasted throughout the show. Most'' of the main character’s Pokémon from Unova qualify on some level or another. The series lasted for 142 episodes and 3 movies, yet the only Pokémon to make 30 or more appearances (approximately one fifth of the series) were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the starters, Woobat (who appeared in '''exactly''' 30 episodes), Pansage, Scraggy, Excadrill, Crustle, and Emolga (the last one only just eking through by appearing in all three movies). 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 apprences from Scraggy.

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* One could make a case for the vast majority of the Main Characters’ Pokémon were wasted throughout the show. Most'' of the main character’s Pokémon from Unova qualify on some level or another. The series lasted for 142 episodes and 3 movies, yet the only Pokémon to make 30 or more appearances (approximately one fifth of the series) were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the starters, Woobat (who appeared in '''exactly''' 30 episodes), Pansage, Scraggy, Excadrill, Crustle, and Emolga (the last one only just eking through by appearing in all three movies). 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 the rest of Ash's Pokémon don’t do much better than Palpitoad’s meager 8 appearances, with only 17 appearances for Leavanny, 18 appearances for Boldore, 26 appearances for Unfezant, and 27 appearances for Krookodile, (4 of which coming before his capture).

*** ''Most'' of the main character’s Pokémon from Unova qualify on some level or another. The series lasted for 142 episodes and 3 movies, yet the only Pokémon to make 30 or more appearances (approximately one fifth of the series) were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the starters, Woobat, Pansage, Scraggy, Excadrill, Crustle, and Emolga (the last one just eking through by appearing in all three movies). 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 the rest of Ash's team that aren't starters barely do better than Palpitoad, with 15 appearances apiece for Leavanny, Boldore and Krookodile, 22 appearances for Unfezant and 28 for Scraggy.

*** ''Most'' of the main team Pokémon from Unova qualify on some level or another. With the series lasting for 142 episodes and 3 movies, the only Pokémon to make more than 30 appearances were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the starters, Woobat, Pansage and Excadrill (the last but only just, with 33). 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 the rest of Ash's team that aren't starters barely do better than Palpitoad, with 15 appearances apiece for Leavanny, Boldore and Krookodile, 22 appearances for Unfezant and 28 for Scraggy.

*** ''Most'' of the main team Pokémon from Unova qualify on some level or another. With the series lasting for 142 episodes and 3 movies, the only Pokémon to make more than 30 appearances were Pikachu, Axew, Meowth, the starters, Pansage and Excadrill (the last but only just, with 33). 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 the rest of Ash's team that aren't starters barely do better than Palpitoad, with 15 appearances apiece for Leavanny, Boldore and Krookodile, 22 appearances for Unfezant and 28 for Scraggy.

** Ash's Palpitoad deserves special mention, as he has the dubious honor of having the least appearances of any Pokémon that Ash still owns. Palpitoad was Ash's first evolved Water-Type since Kingler and had an impressive showing in his debut episode, yet despite Ash having access to him for over 100 episodes he only appeared '''eight times''' throughout ''Black & White'', with none of these episodes containing any out of battle interactions. While Palpitoad would receive a few cameoes throughout ''Journeys'', none of Palpitoad's interactions with Ash, Goh, or the other Pokémon were substantial enough to extrapolate much personality out of him.

** Ash's Palpitoad deserves special mention, as he has the dubious honor of having the least appearances of any Pokémon that Ash still owns. Palpitoad was Ash's first evolved Water-Type since Kingler and had an impressive showing in his debut episode, yet despite Ash having access to him for over 100 episodes he only appeared '''eight times'' throughout ''Black & White'', with none of these episodes containing any out of battle interactions. While Palpitoad would receive a few cameoes throughout ''Journeys'', none of Palpitoad's interactions with Ash, Goh, or the other Pokémon were substantial enough to extrapolate much personality out of him.

** Ash's Charizard, of all characters, became this during ''Black & White''. He's added to Ash's Unova team (sending away Unfezant in the process) and rarely, if ever, has any interaction with any of the Unova Pokémon outside of Iris' Dragonite, whose rivalry with him ends as soon it is introduced, and Ash's Pignite, who N states they already have a good friendship but otherwise show the same concern for each other as they would with other Pokémon. They may has well have had Ash send Charizard back to regain Unfezant.
** Ash's Palpitoad deserves special mention. It was Ash's first evolved water type since Kingler and had an impressive showing in its debut episode, but despite Ash having access to it for over 100 episodes it only appeared EIGHT TIMES and never once interacted with Ash outside of battle. This gave Palpitoad the dubious honor of having the least appearances out of all the Pokémon Ash still owns.

* Many fans were understandably upset with the underutilization of most of Dawn's team save Piplup. Despite her having multiple cameos, the overwhelming majority of her team only made a brief appearance in her first scene of her second cameo. This was especially disappointing to Pikachu and Buneary shippers, who had been waiting for nearly a decade for a reunion between the two, only for the latter to be nearly non-existent throughout the series.

* Compared to how much mileage the anime has gotten out of Darkrai over the years, Cresselia received the short end of the stick. She only gets one episode, and even then, she doesn't get to appear until the second half due to the first half being dominated by Team Rocket. And then Team Rocket comes back to hijack the plot again, and she spends the majority of her screentime as a DistressedDamsel who doesn't even aid in her own escape. The only thing she actually gets to do is confront Darkrai at the end of the episode, and the sequence takes fewer than thirty seconds. This would be weak representation for any Pokémon in the series, but this treatment was given to a legendary, and especially one that ''never got a movie'', not even appearing in '''the one starring Darkrai'''. This was only rectified when a two-episode plot in ''Master Journeys'' devoted more time to the duo and their relationship... more than twelve years later.

* Tobias. The whole idea of a trainer who uses OlympusMons is actually quite an interesting one. However, Tobias is introduced so late in the series that [[FlatCharacter nothing]] about the character is actually delved into due to him suddenly just popping up at the league. Thus, making it extremely obvious that the character was created just to be a last second DiabolusExMachina who keeps Ash from winning the Sinnoh League.

** Ash's Palpitoad deserves special mention. It was Ash's first evolved water type since Kingler and had an impressive showing in its debut episode, but despite Ash having access to it for over 100 episodes it only appeared EIGHT TIMES and never once interacted with Ash outside of battle. This give Palpitoad the dubious honor of having the least appearances out of all the Pokémon Ash still owns.