>>53650823You know it's odd because, BW allegedly had the best story and- to me at least, it seem like the logical next step for Ash. Pokemon seem to have worked best in DP because there was a clash of ideals between Paul's obsessive stat training and Ash's belief in nurturing and friendship. Something they, allegedly, tried to replicate with Alain v Ash though I still don't know just how Alain's battle autism over socialising made him receptive to manipulation. From backstory he just seems like an easily rused idiot.
In BW there was another conflict- maybe we should stop fighting with Pokemon and free them. Now stopping Pokefights in the Pokeworld where we know Pokemon are sentient and disobey their humans if they hate them enough, but bear with me. If he were a functioning human who didn't get his mind wiped everytime he lands in a new region he would have remembered Paul, Damian and then seen Tepig's owner, a string of abuse that might have made him receptive to N's ideals. Maybe not everyone should own Pokemon.
So the rest of the series could have been an inner conflict with Ash as he struggles to think of the right way to proceed. Has he truly asked his Mons if they wanted to battle (probably yes)? Can every human exist with Pokemon after everything he has seen? Whatever Ash's decision it might have made BW a good place to end it as he questions his entire lifepath.
Now I don't know what they eventually did in the anime cause I know they had an Episode N, and I've only seen summaries of BW. Though it seems all they needed to do was avoid to the copout of 'well you know your leader is actually a hypocrite so everything you fought for was baaaaad!'
