>>49428597It was a different time. Pokemon was just starting out, and the writers had more freedom to explore the characters than they have today. Modern Ash fits into a very specific mold, and since they intend to milk the series for as long as they possibly can things need to stay mostly static. His team can change around, and so can his traveling partners, but Ash at the start of a new season is near identical to every other season.
The original run of the show had no idea what it was going to turn into, so they just wrote it with the assumption of plot progression. Ash and Misty were clearly meant to fall into the classic dense protagonist boy and tsundere girl trope, whether or not they ever meant to follow through on it. They were just kids, after all. If the series really did end after two seasons, there probably would have been a short epilogue scene of the pair of them older and heavily implied to be together, or even something as simple as Misty grabbing Ash's hand in the last few moments and both of them blushing but holding on.
So, in the OG series? Yes, there were hints, but they likely wouldn't have done anything with it unless it ended for good. Nowadays, the official stance is "No" for everyone.
