Who is a better trainer red or Ash?

Pokémon Trainers from the Pokémon franchise tend to get quite intriguing. The prototype for every Pokémon Trainer in the franchise was a character called Red, who is a legendary Pokémon Trainer from the video games, and who has also served as the inspiration for a lot of other known trainers. One of them is actually the protagonist of the Pokémon anime, Ash Ketchum, and because of that, we have decided to compare the two trainers to determine who the better one is and who would win in a direct fight.

Based on what we know about the two trainers, Red would definitely be able to defeat Ash. Red is a legendary character in the franchise and despite the fact that he only uses Generation I Pokémon (save for some specific games where he used Pokémon from that Generation, but that was a one-time thing), he has enormous experience and a very close bond with his Pokémon. Ash simply doesn’t have the experience to defeat him.

Unlike our other comparisons, we are going to approach this one differently. We are going to present the two Trainers and their Pokémon (the ones used in battle), and then draw a conclusion as to who might come out on top after the battle. This is going to be an analytical article, so we’re not giving you any spoilers here.

Ash and his Pokémon

Ash Ketchum is the main character of the Pokémon anime. He is also the main character of various manga based on anime. He is a Pokémon Trainer from Pallet Town whose goal is to become a Pokémon Master. His starter Pokémon was a Pikachu that he received from Professor Oak after arriving late at his laboratory. On his journeys around the Pokémon world, he’s been accompanied by a multitude of close friends. Ash has caught numerous Pokémon over the years but the ones he used in his battle against Leon are:

Pikachu

Pikachu is seen from the first episode, adopting an execrable character. Not taking a liking to his new Trainer, he constantly ignored him, and when Ash failed to capture a Pidgey, Pikachu laughed at him. However, by the end of the episode, he will end up trusting Ash, who has protected him from an attack by a horde of Spearow and treated him at the Pokémon Center. Since then, they have become inseparable. Pikachu refuses to enter its Poké Ball and evolve into Raichu as we saw in Episode 14 when he rejected Ash’s Lightning Stone.

Over the course of the episodes, he’ll beat a Rock/Ground-type Pokémon with an electric attack, oppose Mewtwo’s domination, and electrify two young members of Team Rocket too many times to count. He is also deeply selfless, extremely dedicated, and a good fighter. He seems undemanding for food but in some episodes, we see that Pikachu strongly appreciates ketchup. We can also see in several episodes that he is an excellent imitator.

Dragonite

Prior to its evolution, Dragonite was a curious Pokémon, having shown immediate interest even in strangers – Ash, Goh, and their Pokémon – stranded on his island. Quickly, Dragonite decided to take care of them, in particular by showing them around the place where it lives and showing them the different corners of the island. Overall, Dragonite was very affectionate and kind.

However, Dragonite was also a bit lonely and isolated from the rest of his fellows. The fact that she wasn’t able to fly in the sky with the other members of its group saddened it greatly. Despite his goodwill, his many attempts, and his relentless training with his comrade Dragonite, Dragonite was unable to obtain results. When Ash decides to train him, Dragonite tries the different techniques offered by the young Trainer but continues to fail, which demoralizes him even more. Despite this, it remains touching that Ash goes to such lengths to help it.

Gengar

Gengar is quite a mischievous Pokémon. He is usually willing to fight anyone who crosses his path. Initially, he wanted revenge for the abandonment of his trainer, and for this reason, Gengar did not trust humans until he was captured by Ash. From then on, he is still quite mischievous, although he is much more giggly and causes jokes for fun and not to do evil.

He has a particular taste for scaring Ren, Professor Cerise’s assistant. On the other hand, it is quite strong and agile in combat, it is also shown as an observant Pokémon and curious about its surroundings. When Ash shows his trust in him, he is shown to be very loyal to him. It has also been seen that he gets annoyed when people talk about him behind his back, especially when they suspect something he did not do.

Lucario

Riolu, like his kind, demonstrates the ability to sense the aura of others. This is how he generated a connection with the aura of Ash and Pikachu when they were both protecting him from an angry Onix. He feels a great passion for fighting since shortly after being born, he goes out in search of confrontations with various Pokémon regardless of the differences in strength they have with him. He is quite proud. At first, he was continually trying to prove that he can stand on his own, such as when Ash offered to carry him after being exhausted from fighting so he can’t walk, or to help him off the stretcher at the Pokémon Center.

In both cases, Riolu shows that he can do it alone. He has also been known to attack Pikachu to show that he doesn’t want help from him. But as time went by, Riolu gradually began to be more affectionate and close to his trainer, as well as getting along better with Pikachu, even worrying about him. He has been shown to be enthusiastic and a bit childish when it comes to showing his interest in battles.

Sirfetch’d

Farfetch’d stands out for being a very competitive and passionate Pokémon for fighting, it can be somewhat brusque and careless when passionate about its training, forgetting its surroundings. He often challenges other Pokémon to fight him. He shows to be occasionally stubborn and hasty when it comes to attacking, when he is like this, he does not obey the orders of his trainer.

He is also very easily teased and forgets his surroundings when he goes into a rage. Farfetch’d doesn’t usually pay much attention to his trainer and is often seen avoiding him. The highest aspiration of this Pokémon is to be a Leek Master.

Dracovish

Dracovish is a very confused Pokémon for having woken up in a world that has gone through so many changes. It tends to get out of control very easily and can become a bit aggressive. Nonetheless, it proves to be a friendly and trustworthy Pokémon. He makes his affection known with his bites, he seems to really like Ash.

It proves to be a very agile Pokémon when running in the depths of the water, but when it comes to swimming, it is not the best because it is quite slow, which often causes its trainer to be confused with it. It also shows that he does not control his body parts perfectly nor is he very good at jumping. It is evident that Dracovish is attracted to everything that staggers and on several occasions, this has led him to abruptly launch himself against other Pokémon.

Red and his Pokémon

Red, formerly known as Satoshi before the second generation due to the lack of an official name, is the protagonist of the Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Fire Red and Leaf Green editions from the Pokémon video games corresponding to the first and third generations of the video games. His female counterpart is Green. He is a somewhat mysterious figure in the franchise, but nevertheless legendary. Over the years, he has used different Pokémon in battle (as an NPC), but these six have been featured most often and in most derivative material:

Pikachu

This Pokémon can store electricity in its cheek pouches. These charge up during sleep at night. It sometimes discharges its electrical charge when it has just woken up and is still sleepy. If there is a lack of sleep, it can only discharge weak currents. But it is generally in his nature to constantly accumulate electricity. If it cannot discharge these regularly, this causes stress.

When it is tense, it crackles free of electricity from its cheek pouches. If it is angry, it even discharges it spontaneously. Whenever Pikachu comes across something new, it puts an electric shock through it. A charred berry in the forest often indicates that this Pokémon misjudged its electrical charge. However, some specimens of this species also intentionally grill hard berries with electricity in order to eat them afterward.

Charizard

Charizard helps Red win the Indigo League in order to make his coach the champion of the region. He once again faces Blue and his powerful Blastoise. Blastoise manages to deal heavy damage to Charizard with his Hydro Pump, but Charizard recovers and lashes out at Blastoise with his blaze, instantly weakening him. Later Red calls Charizard as his last Pokémon to capture the Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo.

Mewtwo proves to be very powerful and sends Charizard flying with Red into the deep waters of the Celestial Cave. Red takes the stone given to him earlier by Mr. Fuji upon seeing that it glows, and to his surprise Charizard Mega Evolves into Mega Charizard X, giving it enough strength to weaken Mewtwo and allow Red to capture it. Once Red captures him, Charizard returns to his natural form and celebrates with his trainer for completing the Pokédex.

Venusaur

The flower bud on its back opens completely, revealing a huge pink flower, similar to Rafflesia arnoldii, and leaves similar to those of a cycad, which feeds on sunlight through photosynthesis. Through it, Venusaur performs one of its most powerful attacks: Solar Beam.

This plant secretes a very sweet sap that attracts many Bug-type Pokémon. Venusaur has the ability to release a sweet scent that can put other Pokémon at ease. Venusaur are very long-lived and when they reach a great age, the aroma that comes out of their flower is so powerful that it can make forests bloom and dry trees sprout.

Blastoise

Blastoise is based on a turtle with two cannons. They can fire water bullets with enough accuracy to hit cans from 50 meters away. Despite this, they are unable to target targets that are too close. Its strength and power are greater than that of a fire hose, which is why many fire teams have Blastoise as members because with the enormous amounts of water that can shoot any fire can be easily extinguished. If the power of its cannons were not enough to avoid any danger, it can still hide in its shell to hide or crush its opponent with its huge weight.

Snorlax

Red captures it once he wakes it up with the Poké Flute. He later uses it in the gym match against Giovanni in where he engages his Rhyhorn but is defeated by his Horn Drill. Snorlax eats many kilos of food a day, all he will do is go to sleep until he wakes up again from hunger. When this Pokémon sleeps, if you wake it up for any reason, it will get very angry and attack you viciously, though after chasing you it will go back to sleep. Also if he wakes up he may mistake the first thing he sees for food. Apparently, Snorlax has the ability to make trees grow faster after destroying them and eating their fruit.

Lapras

After rescuing him from Team Rocket at Silph Co., an employee there thanks him by giving him this Lapras. Red uses it to travel on water routes. He is part of the team with which he won the League. Lapras is a Pokémon that lives in the seas. He loves to sail the seas with people and Pokémon on his back, which is very comfortable. In fact, in the Alola region it has ended up becoming a very popular means of transportation. It has a calm and peaceful nature, which has brought this species to the brink of extinction due to illegal hunting.

However, since it is protected, the population of Lapras has been increasing, although this has caused a decrease in the fish Pokémon in the areas where it lives. He has such a high IQ that he can understand human language and is capable of mind reading. It is adapted to swim in icy waters, and given its resistance, it can withstand this climate, even its smooth skin is slightly cold to the touch.

Red vs. Ash: Who would win?

This analysis is a very specific one because Ash and Red are basically the same characters, with Ash being the anime version of Red, whereas Red is the original video game version of himself. This is why this comparison was specific, as we have compared the same character; even their original Pokémon teams were quite similar (although Ash’s has changed over the years): both use Pikachu as their main partner, they both have all three Generation I starters (except that Red evolved all of them fully, whereas Ash never did), they both have Snorlax, and they both had Lapras at one point (for Ash, it was only temporarily, though).

So, with so many similarities, who would win? Okay, Ash’s team has changed and he has a very diverse team now, but Red is a legendary figure and quite possibly the best trainer in the whole franchise; his level of experience is unfathomable and he seems to have such a close bond to his Pokémon that he is basically invincible. But let us check the combinations individually.

Red has both Lapras and Blastoise, two Pokémon that could relatively easily defeat Ash’s two Dragon-type Pokémon, Dragonite, and Dracovish, who, on the other hand, couldn’t really have an advantage against any of Red’s Pokémon specifically; Dracovish might harm Charizard, but Red’s Charizard is much stronger than Ash’s Dracovish. As far as Sirfetch’d is concerned, he would have an advantage against Snorlax and, partially, against Lapras, but Red could easily counter it with Charizard, who knows Flying-type moves. The same goes for Lucario, who would be at an increased risk because he is weak in both Flying- and Fire-type moves.

Pikachu and Pikachu would cancel each other out, but we’re quite sure that Red’s Pikachu is more experienced than Ash’s at this moment. The only Pokémon Ash has that Red doesn’t have a direct answer to is Gengar, but knowing the power of Red’s Pokémon, he would probably find a way to deal with Gengar as well. Taking all of this into account, Red is the clear winner here. His team has an answer to anything that Ash has to offer and he would ultimately be able to come up with a tactical approach that would see him victorious in a battle against Ash.