>>33075411The thing is, they never explicitly say what becoming a pokemon master is. I feel winning one region's league wouldn't cut it, not only because of previous regions' losses, but because they usually allude to another region in some way. Ash kept travelling after Battle Frontier and Orange League and they weren't much different from the pokemon league besides the fact that they weren't a tournament bracket.
They could've done this in Johto and kept the "Pokemon Master" goal going.
>Ash beats Harrison.>Gets trophy, celebration, etc.>Misty: So what are you going to do now, Ash?> Ash: Well, I may have won the league, but... I had trouble figuring out that Kecleon Harrison used, and his Blaziken gave me a lot of trouble, too. I have to learn to adapt to pokemon like that better or else I can't call myself a pokemon master, and the best way to do that is to go to the Hoenn region they're found in and learn more about its pokemon myself!Similarly, they could just either say the same thing whenever an episode featuring a next gen pokemon rolls around or say that he's going home to reflect on what he's done, and lead to him wanting to improve and win previous leagues, hence going to new regions to learn new things and give him an edge whenever he returns for another try.
