>>50783722>it continued on after that onto his arc when he decided to split from the group in order to train in order to give Ash a proper challenge he deservesIt wasn't, what I pointed out was that Clemonts reason for traveling with Ash after eating him was so that he could become braver so that he could retake his gym, which he did in episode 9 and after which said to his father that he improved so much after just the short amount of time he traveled with Ash. He did make a promise to Ash that he would get stronger but failed to even attempt to do so seriously until the very last moment when he contradicted his statement of going with Ash to become stronger and realized that he can only do this alone. Them having a battle after episode 9 doesn't mean that his character arc was ongoing until then, the battle doesn't do anything for his arc, becoming braver, that he hasn't already accomplished before it and only depicts him as neglectful of trying to become stronger until he had no time left to fulfill his promise.
>It had nothing to do with Ash loving his pokemonThis is blatantly false as seen in the Olympia and Wulfric pre-battle episodes. Ash was only out of sync because he got overly focused on winning and being shown as strong in front of Sawyer, and forgetting to show love to his frog.
I know it sounds stupid, and it is, but that is the actual rationale given by the show, and I got most of it from one of the biggest XYcocksuckers(Epicocity)'s reviews of the show where he actually praises this shit writing. 