>>57609164>Ash gets memed on for being eternally 10 years old which implies his personality never went anywhere either, but I guess that's not really the case at least not for AG.Ash clearly goes through an evolution. In Kanto and Johto, he's clearly dealing with childhood insecurities having to do with Gary; then after the Johto League, they bury the hatchet. Ash in Hoenn is the first time he feels like he's not trying to live up to someone else's expectations or shadowbox with demons in his past, and so it makes sense that that correlates with him filling the mentor role for an inexperienced traveler in May. By DP, while a League title eludes him, his winning the Battle Frontier makes it clear that Ash is an accomplished trainer with credibility in the "those who know" sphere of professional Pokémon battling (i.e., Scott); unlike the occasional tension with May, Ash doesn't mind sharing the spotlight with Dawn and considering her contest quest as important as his Sinnoh League quest; and of course, Ash is objectively a strategic mastermind compared to either his Kanto/Johto or Hoenn selves. BW gets rightly clowned on for nerfing Ash, but credit to the writers at the end for having Ash admit he was disappointed in himself (outright acknowledging that it's the first time he did worse in a League than in previous Leagues). Then in XY, Ash has chilled out considerably, doesn't hesitate to put his companions first even over his own ambitions, and is explicitly shown to be an inspiration to them in a non-passive way; Ash is super confident by this point, but with actual justification unlike in his early days of false-confidence, but even takes his Kalos League loss in stride because he's learned there are more important things in life. SM, despite the extra cartoony elements, clearly has an even chiller Ash than XY who shows himself much more comfortable in his own skin than he was at the start of his journey, and able to deal with serious situations in a mature way.
