As stated in the iconic opening title sequence, the main goal for Ash and every trainer-in-training within the Pokémon universe is to ‘catch ‘em all’ (‘’em’ being Pokémon), but because of his greatest initial weakness, Ash failed that particular mission… twice.
While Ash may be considered the greatest Pokémon trainer in the current continuity, he certainly didn’t start out that way. Ash was late meeting with Professor Oak and getting his first Pokémon/trainer gear, he didn’t know how to properly battle wild Pokémon, and he didn’t even use his Pikachu in his first Pokémon battle–instead opting for his shirt (no, seriously). When he first started out, Ash’s greatest weakness was easily his lack of skill in catching wild Pokémon, and it would be some time before Ash got the hang of things–but within that period of time, he missed two distinct opportunities to grow his personal Pokémon inventory.
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Ash Could Have Caught a Beedrill & a Zubat Without Even Trying
In Pokémon: Indigo League episode 6 (written by Atsuhiro Tomioka and directed by Masamitsu Hidaka), Ash and Misty have just included Brock as their traveling companion on their mission to help make Ash the greatest Pokémon trainer in the world–at which point, he’d be able to get Misty a new bike to make up for the one he stole and then destroyed. In this episode, the team come across a mysterious cave, which legend says contains the Moon Stone–an artifact that is said to increase a Pokémon’s power exponentially. Before going into the cave, however, the team comes across a horde of Zubats which are effectively defeated by Pikachu who zaps them all with a single blast. While a bunch of the Zubats fly away, a few of them are rendered unconscious–but Ash doesn’t think to catch one even though Brock used the opportunity to get a Zubat himself.
This scenario with the Zubat isn’t the first time Ash has neglected to catch a Pokémon that has been rendered unconscious by Pikachu. Back in episode 4, Pikachu zapped an entire horde of Beedrills with a single blast, which knocked out all of them in an instant. Just like Brock did with the Zubat, Ash could have captured a Beedrill–which actually would have been an upgraded version of the Pokémon he was trying to catch earlier that very episode. Before the Beedrills attacked, Ash tried (and failed) to catch a wild Weedle, which would have evolved into a Beedrill. Basically, Ash could have caught a fully-evolved version of the Pokémon he was trying to catch without even having to battle it, since Pikachu already did the work for him.
By failing to recognize when he could have easily added two Pokémon to his roster (one fully evolved Pokémon, at that), Ash decidedly failed to ‘catch ‘em all’, which translates to him failing the main objective for trainers everywhere… twice.
