They shoulda made Ash win the Sinnoh League! Ash was at his peak, his rivalry with Paul was such a huge part of that series and they had a 3-episode climactic battle and everything. They literally had to bring out a troll character with multiple legendaries out of nowhere just to stop him! They coulda made Ash win and retired him as the protagonist, and started anew for the Unova series (which woulda worked perfectly because the fifth gen was the reboot gen anyways). Do you agree?
Sinnoh is actually the series that I’ve seen the least of, so I don’t know if I can comment on the appropriateness of that moment specifically. In general, though… I don’t know, people always bring up getting rid of Ash as something that would be great for the anime and revitalise it, but I don’t think I’m convinced. For one thing, Ash is pretty iconic by this point and I think the fanbase would inevitably be deeply split on any possible replacement. For another, Ash’s ingrained cluelessness is actually a useful character trait for the lead in a story about exploration and discovery, because the audience can learn with him, so any replacement would need to resemble him in some important ways anyway. I don’t think Ash is played out; I think the whole premise of the Pokémon anime and its “Pokémon journey” format is played out – so arguably the better solution is to do exactly what Alola is doing and try to abandon that premise.
Pokémaniacal 