>>47543219Reminder the writers low-key shipped Ash/Lana during SM, with them regularly pairing up, Lana blushing when people asked was Ash her bf or were they on a date an Ash being present for most of Lana's significant character growths - achieving her goal of helping Popplio blow the biggest balloon ever, helping her win her Z-Crystal, first time she successfully performed Hydro Vortex, saving Kyogre and calming it down when her Brionne evolved into Primarina. and to cap it off, Ash even avenged her defeat in the Alolan League (after a battle that heavily implied a rape scene on the hero's girlfriend).
But they were both treated as children, so it didn't get anywhere near as autistic as 12 yo boys self-inserting to pretend to have a girl whose not only interested in them, but worships the ground they walk on bblindly.
