>>53236741>Plain and simple, the only people the writers care about are the Japanese fanbase. What that means in terms of shipping, I really can't sayBy your own words, Misty and Ash being endgame is appeasing to the Japanese fanbase.
>>53236760>"T-this is what the ashnime is about"To be fair, it is. It always has been. The overarching narrative, the plot thread that has carried the series since episode 5 has been the pokemon league. That was where all the eggs in the basket were put. Now that Ash became world champion, and therefore has climbed the tallest peak, what else did he do? Well simple, he encountered random people and pokemon as he just drifted around, and usually just helped resolve what problem that person/pokemon was having. SM took inspiration from the indigo training arc and also the orange islands arc, as Ash had a home he could return to while also competing in a tropical pokemon league instead of being a perpetual drifter.
