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Ash and May have such little shipping material up to this point in Battle Frontier that you really have to squint to find it. I wonder how the fanbase reacted to the less-and-less subtle hints about Contestshipping being endgame (to the extent any ship in Pokemon would be fulfilled). I'd imagine there were plenty of people who couldn't see any girl with anyone other than Ash. But late ADV and Battle Frontier really seem to like doing romance subplots where it's clear that Ash is absolutely a retard when it comes to love. I know I'm saying all of this in hindsight, but it seems pretty obvious at this point that the Ashbowl isn't really a thing post-Misty. Maybe Serena fooled people because of how explicit her crush was, but Ash's endgame was always going to be Pikachu.
