>>55858021Yes, because he was built as a true character starting from scratch with a lot of negative attitudes that would change as the series progressed, with his defeat in the league and his talk with Richie being his point of maturation, that's where the He had to finish his journey as a protagonist.
But the series was a success and TPC executives decided to keep him as a mascot, preventing the new writers from giving him a permanent change, so they began to give more emphasis to rivals or other characters because Ash would maintain a status quo of eternal child of 10 years traveling in an endless summer.
