Thread:Godzillafan93/@comment-6052796-20140727020716/@comment-397235-20140727032709

He's not allowed to develop as a character, and neither is anyone else so long as they're traveling with him. Let's review:

Tracy: Fulfills his lifelong goal of becoming Professor Oak's assistant the first time he meets him. That was quick.

Misty: After she stops traveling with Ash at the end of the Johto arc, she starts doing her actual job rather than leaving it to her incompetent sisters like she had been.

May: Actually forms a meaningful relationship with someone not her brother, stops relying on said brother to make up for her own stupidity, and apparently becomes a halfway competent coordinator by the time she heads off on her own.

Dawn: Goes off on her own rather than traveling with the two people who have very obvious crushes on her (one of whom in Japan is blatantly a lesbian; this doesn't fly well in America). When she shows up in Unnova later on she's also competent and several of her Pokemon have evolved.

Brock: Gives up on his lifelong dream of becoming a Pokemon Breeder to pursue a career in medicine instead, ensuring he won't travel with Ash anymore as one of the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

The series writers said Ash isn't allowed to win a League Championship because that's the whole point of the show. This becomes increasingly BS by the 4th Generation, wherein Ash defeats his current rival, who makes the original Gary look like a paradigm of human decency, only to lose in the final round to some dickhead with two legendary Pokemon (because there's no kill quite like overkill, is there?). This is the point I threw my hands up in frustration and gave up on the series (aside from the movies, mainly because they're distributed by Toho and therefore use Godzilla sound effects, which can be rather jarring, such as Giratina having Mothra's battle cry, but also awesome, such as Kyrem sounding like Godzilla).

That one ran a little long there.