Least Favorite of Ash's Traveling Companions

[CarrotSceptile]

Which of Ash's traveling companions is your favorite (not counting temporary ones)? Me personally, my least favorite is hard to choose.

 

[Itsjustmudkipz]

For me it’s probs either Iris or cilan just because I haven’t watched much of the Unova anime seasons and Unova is my least favorite region no hate towards them

 

[CarrotSceptile]

For me it’s probs either Iris or cilan just because I haven’t watched much of the Unova anime seasons and Unova is my least favorite region no hate towards them

I haven't really watched it either

 

[skynerel]

The sun/moon kids

 

[CarrotSceptile]

Which of Ash's traveling companions is your favorite (not counting temporary ones)? Me personally, my least favorite is hard to choose.

Edit: I increased the max number of votes to 5 per person.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

For me, it's Max, Dawn, Iris, Lana, and Goh. Especially Max and Goh. Never have I hated two of Ash's traveling companions more than them.

 

[CynthiaLover]

For me, it's Misty (overrated as hell), Max (bratty little know-nothing know-it-all), Iris (hate her with a passion as she made the BW anime unwatchable), Goh (damn walking GO advertisement), and Chloe (most useless female to date). Especially Max and Iris, as the former was totally useless and acted more like a plot-device for May at times (and that's being generous) while the latter was Misty 2.0 but with all the flaws ratcheted up and none of the good qualities (and that's being especially generous) along with having too many ass pulls and cheap wins that were undeserved at best. In terms of ranking them from worst to best, it would go like this: Iris, Max, Goh, Misty, and Chloe, in that order.

 

[CarrotSceptile]

For me, it's Misty (overrated as hell), Max (bratty little know-nothing know-it-all), Iris (hate her with a passion as she made the BW anime unwatchable), Goh (damn walking GO advertisement), and Chloe (most useless female to date). Especially Max and Iris, as the former was totally useless and acted more like a plot-device for May at times (and that's being generous) while the latter was Misty 2.0 but with all the flaws ratcheted up and none of the good qualities (and that's being especially generous) along with having too many ass pulls and cheap wins that were undeserved at best. In terms of ranking them from worst to best, it would go like this: Iris, Max, Goh, Misty, and Chloe, in that order.

Goh is a walking GO advertisement lol
The GO gym in Vermillion City was probably spawned in by Goh

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Misty and Brock I'm fine with at least up until the Johto series and then they really start to just stagnate by that point. Brock at least gets a little better by the end of his run.

I like May a lot but can never really get on with Max especially since he couldn't have a Pokémon of his own... that and his ear pulling gag with Brock is just annoying as all hell.

Dawn was just absolutely perfect, no problems with her companion wise.

Iris and Cilan are pretty mediocre at best... I've kinda warmed up to them a little bit (with their more recent appearances) but they're still not my biggest faves.

Serena was great, Clemont's decent and Bonnie is essentially Max done right.

Love the Sun and Moon gang but I think Mallow is probably the weakest link of the bunch.

I don't really care for Goh or Chloe. I don't depise them unlike many others but they're just so bland, boring and run of the mill. Very disappointing for Ash's last two companions.

So out of that entire list it'd be Max followed closely behind by Goh and Chloe with Iris sat in the middle.

 

[BorealRookidee]

Alright who voted Misty?

 

[SatoSerefan5229]

I have three; Iris, Goh, Lillie. Iris is my least favorite because she was nothing but a bully to Ash.

 

[BorealRookidee]

For me, it's the entire Alola gang and Chloe.

 

[CarrotSceptile]

my least favorite alola classmate is either mallow or sophocles, their both alright I guess.

 

[Emelie]

I'm not a fan of Lana because her goal is a little too childish even for the SM anime. Not a fan of her Eevee not evolving or the comedy of SM. The contrast between her and Mallow and Lillie was big because the other two had some surprisingly dark and mature moments focusing on trauma and parental death which makes Lana's childish characterization stand out like a sore thumb.

I also dislike Go and Chloe. Chloe had no existence outside of Eevee marketing and has less relevance to the plot than Tracy. Her contest episode with Serena felt like a waste of a cameo for a beloved character. Go's goal was also kind boring, but if it had been written differently it could have had potential (for example if catching Pokemon required careful planning and skill).

 

[BigDocFan]

Looking at the poll, it is nice to see that Tracey hasn't received any votes as I write this message, I feel he had so much potential but got wasted, quickly dropped in favour of Brock returning

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Pretty much everyone not named Misty and Brock, none of the the other travel companions have as good of chemistry with Ash or are as entertaining, it's laughable and not even close.

Especially Max and Iris, as the former was totally useless and acted more like a plot-device for May at times (and that's being generous) while the latter was Misty 2.0 but with all the flaws ratcheted up and none of the good qualities (and that's being especially generous) along with having too many ass pulls and cheap wins that were undeserved at best.

Axew doing better against Cynthia's Garchomp than Paul's Torterra, Murkrow, Chimchar and Weavile was absolutely disgusting when all it did was sit in Iris's hair. Didn't earn the right to keep that Dragonite. Somehow magically becomes Unova Champion in a short window of time despite how low of a level she was at during BW. Cynthia Mega Evolving her Garchomp against Iris was her being generous.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Axew doing better against Cynthia's Garchomp than Paul's Torterra, Murkrow, Chimchar and Weavile was absolutely disgusting when all it did was sit in Iris's hair. Didn't earn the right to keep that Dragonite. Somehow magically becomes Unova Champion in a short window of time despite how low of a level she was at during BW. Cynthia Mega Evolving her Garchomp against Iris was her being generous.

You said it. And the fact that Axew would pull a bunch of uber moves out of its arse like Outrage and Giga Impact like it was nothing yet struggled to learn Dragon Sneeze... er... Dragon Rage for a sizable chunk of the early adventures made it all the worse. I can believe game!Iris becoming champion of Unova in B2W2 since she had the skill and wisdom to do it, but not anime!Iris, who was the pits in terms of skill and brains. Makes me seriously question the standards of anime!Unova. At least on the bright side Iris lost every battle she was in since becoming champ, and Dragonite lost every battle it was in since learning to listen to her, which further proves how incompetent she is. Times like that I both admire and pity Georgia: I admire her because she called out Iris numerous times (especially about Dragonite), and was often proven right, and pity her because she had to have Iris as a rival when there could've been far worthier opponents for her. But yeah, the fact that Axew did better against Cynthia's Garchomp than 4/6ths of Paul's team, especially Torterra, is absolute slag and shows just how bad BW anime writing was.

 

[SatoSerefan5229]

For me, it's the entire Alola gang and Chloe.

I hated Lillie and Sophocles but Mallow & Lana were fine. Also I think Chloe should have never traveled with Ash & Goh. She should have stayed behind and help her dad. But I felt Ash should have ditched Goh after he lost to Bea. Then he would travel by himself and rank up quicker.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I hated Lillie and Sophocles but Mallow & Lana were fine. Also I think Chloe should have never traveled with Ash & Goh. She should have stayed behind and help her dad. But I felt Ash should have ditched Goh after he lost to Bea. Then he would travel by himself and rank up quicker.

I don't really see how not traveling with Goh would have helped Ash rank up quicker, especially when he climbed the ranks extremely fast as it was. They were already halfway through the PWC before the end of Journeys' first year. Chloe also rarely actually traveled with Ash and Goh. That was one of the common complaints about her since she was just left behind while the boys got to go on cool adventures together.

Anyway, Iris is still by far my least favorite companion. She was annoying, borderline unlikable throughout BW for me and her storyline was badly written from start to finish. All of her accomplishments, even Axew finally mastering Dragon Rage, never felt earned or believable to me. Journeys making her a Champion definitely didn't help with that either. I actually did like her being able to connect with Ash's Dragonite since I think that did a better job of actually showing how she had progressed off-screen and that did feel pretty believable. But Iris becoming the Unova Champion off-screen and her Axew becoming a Haxorus when they couldn't really decide if they wanted it to be a cute useless baby Pokemon or a power house secondary mascot in BW was not. I can't blame the writers too much for that since they obviously weren't setting up Journeys during BW and given how the Master Class turned out, I suspect that they had to use all of the current Champions from the games, which would have included Iris, but it just felt so sloppy to me. It's a lot to believe that she could achieve so much off-screen, even if I didn't already dislike her and didn't care for her storyline.

I'll admit that in my BW rewatch a few years ago, there were some moments where I thought that I'd like Iris more if the writing was better, like when she apologized to Excadrill, and there were some brief moments of good chemistry she had with Ash, so I can understand why some fans would like her more than I do. I just think she was really unlikable and had a poorly written storyline.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised with the votes for Goh since he was pretty divisive during Journeys. Personally, I thought he was too likable and had too good chemistry with Ash for him to be considered anywhere near my least favorite traveling companion. There are some complaints about how his writing went that I could understand, if not agree with, but unlike characters like Iris and Max, I actually liked Goh throughout the entire series, so that gives him a boost in my book.

 

[SatoSerefan5229]

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised with the votes for Goh since he was pretty divisive during Journeys. Personally, I thought he was too likable and had too good chemistry with Ash for him to be considered anywhere near my least favorite traveling companion.

I found Goh annoying and unlikeable. Also I think he was the major reason why Ash didn’t get more time to interact with Serena in JN105. I feel the writers want to make Ash & Goh a couple over any one of Ash’s female companions.

I just think she was really unlikable and had a poorly written storyline.

Iris treated Ash like crap. Ash should have told her to buzz off but he’s too nice to tell anybody to go away and leave him alone. That’s a major flow of Ash’s character, he is just too nice.