Gash Ketchum was a young boy who was inspired by his cousin Ash Ketchum to become a Pokémon trainer.
Personality[]
He's friendly and adventurous and open to new ideas -- almost too much so. When an Umbrian (shadow-person) gym leader offered to transform him into a ghost so he could exist forever, ending his human life, he was eager to agree.
He tends to try to turn enemies into friends: he convinced his childhood rival, Mary, to travel with him despite her disdain for him, and when he's fighting a somewhat reasonable Pokemon, he usually tries to catch it by sending a Pokemon to convince it to join his team. In general, he uses his Pokemon in creative ways to solve puzzles or defeat other trainers.
History[]
When he was ten years old, he set out on his journey away from his hometown of Mallet Town. Professor Ginkgo also recruited him to help research the Pokémon of the region by capturing them and recording Pokédex entries for them.
His rival, Mary, challenged him upon leaving the town. After he defeated her, Gash convinced her to join him on his journeys.
He traveled across his region, defeating the gym leaders in the Shadow Path, the Mutant Path, and the Robot Path. ("Pokémon Stop")
Sometime thereafter, he entered a tent which lead to the Dream World. There, he participated in a dream tournament along with Ian, Steve, and many other trainers. He had to use MissingNo to modify his team to match the other trainers. He won two out of the three matches in the tournament, before it was interrupted. (Pokémon Tales Prose: "Crisis in the Dream World")
Behind the Screens[]
- The iniitial Gash drawing - the screen with Professor Gingko - is traced from Satoshi Tajiri's original sketches for "Capsule Monsters" - the game that would evolve into the original Pokemon.
- The kid depicted in those sketches would evolve into the unnamed trainer from the original Pokémon, who Ash is based on. So in a sense, Gash and Ash are versions of the same character.