Thread: Ash's Dad

I watched Spell of the Unown last night with the commentary, and they did bring up Ash's dad.
The people doing the commentary said that they were wondering about Ash's dad and they contacted their Japanese counterparts. They said that there would be more of Ash's dad in season 5. of course that didn't happen...

.......At this point, he's not that important anymore; nor does the reason why Ash wanted to become the Best Pokémon Trainer there is. As of now, it degraded to a marketing ploy for ShoPro, Pokémon Co., and Banpresto/TakaraTomy to rake in as many money as possible. So I highly doubt that we ever going see his dad mentioned in the future.

He was never properly mentioned because he was never important for storyline or character developement.
Similar things happen also in literature or similar media, anytime something is not really important, it is not mentioned. That can keep some simplicity because usually we don´t need whole family tree and curriculum vitae of all characters, often not of the main character.
Therefore we know Ash´s mom, because there was needed some parental figure. Dad there isn´t, because he wouldn´t affect the scenario. Yes, they could make him master/gym leader/champion to make him Ash´s role model, but they probably prefered to keep his dream come from inner motivation and rivalry rather than pursuing father´s footsteps (as it made for Max or with Dawn and her mother).

That´s why some characters have mentioned both parents (as James, because they wanted to underline the rich classy conditions where he comes from or Brock, which has also many siblings to explain his abilities as cook and caretaking for others), some only one, some have only grandparents (as Gary or Cynthia, as they probably wanted to connect professor and Gary and realized that he would be too old for 10 years old son, so they made him his granddad, this applies also for Cynthia and this both work also in games this way) and some have only siblings (as Misty or Paul, to emphasise difference between them and some other motivations of their behaviour).

By other characters they find any relatives unimportant for storyline, so they do not mention them.

tl;dr: Ash´s dad is unimportant for storyline, thus he is ignored by writers. Probably he is some boring manager in Saffron city and prefers business to family.

Originally Posted by Benster404

Apologies if a thread like this already exists, i'm sure it probably does.

Anyway, Ash's Dad is only mentioned once in the anime, all the way back in the second episode. He was supposed to have also gone on an adventure. So it got me thinking, do you think he should make an anime début some point in the future? If so, what should his role be?

You forgot to add ''Aura Guardian'' and ''Pokemon Ranger'' in your Poll .
I mean , It is possible right.
May be that why he never show up !
Nobody ever said Ash father is a Pokemon Master .
Who know , May be he quit and decide to chose another Profession .
Or , He already become a Pokemon Master So now he does another job !

Who he is? what he does? noone can say. will he arive in the anime? only the writers know. and theyve said he may or may not depending on if its necisarry for ash's development, which is bs because ash forgot EVERYTHING HES EVER DONE when he went to unova. not much character developing :P
I would like to see him at the end of this gen, a final battle for Ash. Both having one pokemon from each reigon, + their starter (pikachu for ash, ofcorse. maybe venusaur for his father :P). this would draw paralells between their journeys, but also differences in their experiences and battle styles. Would be an amazing battle, a good wrap up for the series that touches on the whole journey.

Who is Dawn's father? Is she and Ash half brother and sister? Maybe Ash is really a Ditto that copied human DNA and transform into a human, and his mother found him as a baby and keep him.

Man, wrong vote (I voted Others but I actually wanted to vote for Champion of a future region).

In the anime, Cynthia never mention where she came from; in the games, she said she came from a place that even the region is a secret.

I think Ash's dad is training in that region and may have become the champion of that region. The activeness of Cynthia in Gen 4 and 5 of both Anime and Game gives me the feeling that she is going to have an important role in future regions too, in the anime she may introduce Ash to his father, but thats just my opinion.

I now think that Ash's dad is Ash himself.

We never see him because he's at work.

Maybe this question will never be answered or maybe he passed away long ago. Maybe it's painfull for the family to mention him or something. I totally would understand since the same thing happened to me.

An awesome Champion who owns Raichu. Why didn't this happen?

Originally Posted by Benster404

Apologies if a thread like this already exists, i'm sure it probably does.

Anyway, Ash's Dad is only mentioned once in the anime, all the way back in the second episode. He was supposed to have also gone on an adventure. So it got me thinking, do you think he should make an anime début some point in the future? If so, what should his role be?

Ash's Dad is Riley. The one who travels with Lucario in Diamond and Pearl, resembling Sir Aaron from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. That is why they share similar aura's.

Originally Posted by AdamDrop

Originally Posted by Benster404

Apologies if a thread like this already exists, i'm sure it probably does.

Anyway, Ash's Dad is only mentioned once in the anime, all the way back in the second episode. He was supposed to have also gone on an adventure. So it got me thinking, do you think he should make an anime début some point in the future? If so, what should his role be?

Ash's Dad is Riley. The one who travels with Lucario in Diamond and Pearl, resembling Sir Aaron from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. That is why they share similar aura's.

Why does this make so much sense? That is exactly what I thought when I first saw Riley. I hope Ash grows up to be a hot imitation of him because he was cool. However, I don't think he is his father. But I wished.:(

Honestly, I think Riley's too young to be Ash's dad. He looks like he's in his early twenties at best, and Ash's mother is 29.

Riley is Steven in disquise after he was angry that he was replaced with Lance in the Team Aqua/Magma finale.
(which doesn´t explain the aura, but it doesn´t matter now because this is not discusion about "Riley" and his aura.)

So no, Riley cannot be Ash´s dad.