Pokémon Journeys has been a cameo festival that puts the Marvel Cinematic Universe to shame. Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Champions, former travel companions, former rivals -- if Ash Ketchum has met them in the past 25 years, odds are they reappeared during Journeys. While some fan favorites took longer to return than others, the Ash vs. Leon finale checked off the last few holdouts who had yet to make a cameo during what may well be Ash and Pikachu’s final journey.
“Travel Companions” is a fan term used to refer to people with whom Ash traveled for the entirety of one of his adventures into a new region. Brock, Misty, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Bonnie, Clemont, Serena, Lillie, Mallow, Lana, Kiawe, Sophocles, and Goh are the characters referred to by this term. Chloe is a gray area because she’s been around for all of Journeys but doesn’t always join Ash and Goh on their excursions. As Ash and Leon battled on with Chloe and Dawn in attendance, Journeys waited until the fourth and final episode of the showdown to reveal that every one of Ash’s travel companions were watching.
Pokémon Journeys' Cameos Made the Masters Eight Tournament Feel More Important
As Ash Ketchum competed in Pokémon League after Pokémon League, the tournaments began to feel less intense and special. Heck, even his own mom stopped coming to them after the Johto League and didn’t come to watch again until the Alola League. The Unova League doesn’t deserve attention beyond this sentence, but the Hoenn, Sinnoh and Kalos Leagues were dramatic and intense as Ash continued to creep closer to his goal. And yet, even these tournaments felt more like just a thing Ash was doing that day rather than the culmination of anything important.
The Masters Eight has had dozens of characters make cameos showing they were watching the tournament, which helped this event feel more like a global event than previous tournaments. Dawn traveled all the way to Galar to support Ash while the rest of his former travel companions watched the broadcast. Such a thing has almost never happened before, and it was vital to helping the Masters Eight feel as compelling as possible when it was otherwise predictable.
Where All of Ash's Companions Were Watching, and Why Certain Ones Watched Together
Goh is Ash’s only travel companion who did not watch the Finals, having been called away for Project Mew. Ash didn’t go without support, though, as Dawn and Chloe quickly arrived to support him in the Finals, having become friends after meeting multiple times throughout Journeys. No explanation was given regarding why no one else felt compelled to journey to Galar to watch in person, but it was probably to avoid an overload of characters to cut to for reactions during the battle.
Misty watched from her Gym in Cerulean City alongside her Psyduck and Gyarados, while Tracey watched from Pallet Town with Professor Oak, Delia Ketchum and Ash’s Pokémon. Iris watched from her perch in a tree, having returned to Unova after the first round of the Masters Eight. Clemont and Bonnie watched from their Gym in Lumiose City, having relatively recently met with Ash to prepare for his Ultra Class battle against Drasna of the Kalos Elite Four. The entire Alola gang watched from the Pokémon School, with Gladion, Kukui, Burnett, and their baby also in attendance.
There were two surprises among Ash’s travel companion cameos, as Brock and Cilan were watching together, and Serena watched alongside May and Max. Brock and Cilan met in Johto shortly after Ash left Unova, unaware that they had each traveled with Ash. The two became fast friends despite never learning each other’s names, but it appears they kept in contact. Serena left Kalos to perform in Contests in Hoenn, the home region of May and Max. It’s not hard to believe they’d cross paths on the Contest circuit, though their meeting and realization that they both knew Ash occurred offscreen.