>>50222218The writing is on the wall. Whether Ash defeats Leon or not doesn't matter, his adventure may continue but his story ran its course. An anthology series that revisits every previous region along with the big game characters, meeting his previous companions, taking on a higher challenge than the 8 gyms or whatever equivalent, there's only 3 paths after this for Ash and they're all bad:
1) Escalation: Ash seeks out Tobias-level trainers, the series loses its mundanity and becomes unrelatable.
2) Stagnation: The Journeys-style globetrotting goes on for another 3-4 years, but there's no plot to look up to cause we already saw Ash rise through the ranks. Enter a new season of Johto filler rot.
3) Regression: Ash starts over with only Pikachu in a new region with minimal if any reference to his accomplishments, gets treated like a noob and has to go back to fighting low level opponents.
This is his chance to go out with a bang, everything is in place, why ruin such a perfect moment for renovation? Even if his successor is just a rebooted version of Ash, the one we've been following since the start of the anime with all his history and baggage can finally step aside and be the hall of famer he deserves.
