@Lady imagine a pokemon anime where ash is good at battling and doesn't get badges handed to him because team rocket showed their ass again today

@monorail i think they are doing a lot better about that in pokémon journeys; Goh is the one who doesn’t know anything about training and Ash is legitimately pretty on top of things and cool

but i still wouldn’t call him *smart*, just, experienced

@monorail but anyway i am also annoyed by ash getting badges handed to him, i just think that the central theme of his arc is “passion + hard work > innate skill” and a core part of his character is that he isn’t smart but he never gives up

if he could just do things right the first time you’d have a very different anime