>>57947340>>57947342>>57947343>>57947345Oh WOW. Thank you so much for all your thoughts! I'm really glad you've been enjoying the series so far, and have been enjoying all the twists and turns and development I've put into it! It really makes me happy to hear it feels like a real piece of canon content, that was exactly my intent!!
To address your point about Ash and his development, I have to handily disagree. You'll notice from the moment Ash finds what's missing, he pivots hard on his strategizing and training, to give everyone the focus they need. He helps Fletchinder and Hawlucha unlock their abilities (Flame Body and Unburden), the former of which is an essential part of his strategy against Paul, he begins reusing techniques from his Sinnoh days like Counter Shield far more effectively, and he's playing around with aggressive switching and maneuvering around entry hazards. In the course of his rematch, he immediately begins playing around his hazard manipulation techniques, and calls out strategies Paul was going to use before he used them (Using Blizzard to weaponize Toxic Spikes). Ash has objectively returned to the kind of battling he used to do back in Sinnoh.
You do make a good point that Paul is probably above most of the challenges Ash has ahead of him in Kalos. This was intentional! From here on out, beyond a few important spikes in difficulty (Alain, Wulfric, the league, and a new character), Ash's main challenges going forward will be the new enemies he faces along the way (Team Flare) and his own personal rivalry with Serena, as he moves from being her mentor to being fierce rivals. Add to that his dive into mastering Mega Evolution and Bond Phenomenon, and Ash will have more to think about arc-to-arc than who's ever up next in the gym leader docket. For him, the gyms will be more like checkpoints, places to compare his performance to Serena's, and places where Ash can cut his teeth on the various strategies the region has to offer.
