>>31287430It's incorrect.
It may be true of the Pokemon games, sure. Most NPCs that aren't antagonists take losing in battle pretty well. Even real-life people you play against can lose graciously. But in the anime, it's deliberate complacency to keep Ash from growing beyond the capabilities of the target audience. Ash is not permitted to learn and grow, and in the end, that's an even more harmful message.
You can work really hard, put lots of blood, sweat and tears into the thing you're doing, and still not come out on top. That's normal. As long as you note your mistakes and missteps and work to grow from them, you're on the right track. But Ash starts off every series as dumb and as naive as he was in season 1 episode 2.
It's the exact same reason why he keeps releasing or boxing his most powerful Pokemon: to keep him complacent and have him weak at the start of the new series. Imagine if he had brought Charizard to the first Totem fight. Or Greninja. Or even his fucking Butterfree. Nope, they're gone or boxed, so he has to rely on Pikachu and the merch-friendly bag owl.
(Also, on a side note, he never catches enough to have a fleshed-out team like an actual player would. Did any of you seriously go into fighting the first Totem with just two fuckers in your party?)
Basically instead of the message "It's okay to lose sometimes, and you can learn and grow from your mistakes", Ash gives the message "If you lose, you drop all your shit, go to a foreign land, and start from scratch, because that's better than trying again". And I feel it's bullshit, because you CAN have a character grow and mature and still have him be relatable to the audience.
Hell, maybe they'll come up with some BS excuse for it at last. There are different Ashes from different universes and the others are growing up but we don't get to see it. Or something. 
