>>50821219>Seething this hard I can only laugh at you
That being said, even if you don't like Ash, his presence in the games feels like a matter of when at this point, rather than if.
The anime has debuted a number of Mon and formes, not to mention full on creating them in such instances of Lugia and Ash-Greninja or Pikachu's slimmer look which was created to make it easier to animate and emote.
The spin-offs have had a number of anime references over the years and there have even been some that directly reference/adapt it (Yellow, Puzzle League, Alan referenced in ORAS, the photo of Ash in SM).
Ash himself probably exists in the main series, albeit not in the same way that he would in the anime. And speaking purely from a marketability standpoint, Ash is more recognizable (for better and for worse) than Red to the vast majority of both fans and enjoyers of the series.
Ash being in Masters shouldn't even be that surprising since Jessie and James are already in and have their anime VAs to boot (in a game where all the VAs are industry pros rather than reusing the 4kids/TCPi cast).
You should save the seethe for Pokemon Hot Red and Lime Green in 2026 which will be Kanto reboots for the Super Switch and feature Ash as the champion of the modern Kanto region
