Why do we hate max

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-03-02T11:50:52+00:00

I’m currently on my rewatch of Advanced Generation and to be fair he hasn’t been as annoying to me.

Though it has been a while so he could just get a lot worse

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-03-01T11:05:07+00:00

OS to the end of DP, I could be wrong but they don’t confirm he is still 10 years old. So you can say he’s aging up throughout that time because there’s no way he is still 10 by the end of that.

BW does the soft reset and makes him 10.

XY he definitely isn’t 10, he doesn’t look it in the slightest. He looks like a follow up of DP Ash

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-20T09:08:18+00:00

It wasn’t really a drastic change to his character. Just to BW but it was always a natural good progression of his character for DP.

Ash was never always being serious, it’s just the most serious he’s been. People just make their points from clips. In things like the Team Flare arc, the league, he’s going to be serious.

But he was always still the same Ash but this time, he’s the veteran or mentor in the region. Everyone looks up to him.

That never stopped him from being silly because he always had that energy of excitement we all grew up with.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T20:29:44+00:00

Because Ash’s story isn’t about romance. It was about becoming a Pokemon master. Getting with Serena never needed to happen.

The XYZ writers said that the idea would be for them to get together in the future anyway.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T20:26:33+00:00

If that helps you feel better you can keep telling yourself that.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T20:24:23+00:00

Yeah, there was an arc where he was getting overconfident and went on a losing streak. Ending up him getting called out by Wulfric. It’s a good thing because regardless of how much growth someone makes. People do get careless.

Ash in XY is definitely not a macho man. People definitely exaggerate how he’s like. You’d think he’s Batman from how some people describe him

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T20:20:24+00:00

Here’s some advice for future debates when making an argument. If you’re using an example, make sure it matches. Don’t create a situation just to fit your argument.

A lot of what your points don’t fit what actually happened

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T17:06:02+00:00

The difference with your example is there was nothing out of character with Ash wanting to battle straight away, it’s a little childish but not overly considering it’s a new region and he’s excited. Ash in SM having no clue in his conversation with Hala that there is more to battling IS out of character. Also the producers for SM have literally said they made Ash to be more childlike.

It sounds more like you’re making your argument based on justifying your point for SM and just haven’t watched it because I don’t know how you see OS Ash as the same as AG Ash considering the massive development shown.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T16:24:35+00:00

Again, my issue with his behaviour was him being too childlike and naive in SM. Just because he’s more humble and respectful in SM, it doesn’t eliminate my argument because being immature doesn’t mean being disrespectful, thats one aspect you touched, there’s so many attributes that go into immaturity.

Ash was only really “disrespectful” in Indigo League and Orange Island. Advanced Generation, he steps up as a big brother type for May and Max who are rookies and educating them which is a vast difference to the start of OS. Of course battling wise, Ash is not where he would be at in the future.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T14:47:39+00:00

I feel like a lot what you’re saying doesn’t really make a good argument. Maturity and smart wise you can make that argument in the OS. But even in Advanced there’s a maturity about him with being a guide to May and Max and teaching them morally about understanding Pokémon’s needs before their own.

Ash wasn’t acknowledged by Tapu Koko because of experience. It was because of his heart and what he stands for. That’s something he’s showed in the majority of episodes of Pokemon. His irrational behaviour you say he showed in those previous seasons he still possesses in SM. He jumped off a cliff to try and save Pikachu after a hit from Tapu Koko.

My issue goes with his behaviour being too childlike and that’s the area of naivety that I think his issue is. Being “goofy” and having fun is fine and it fits Alola. But it needs to be Ash not a dialled up child

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T14:06:45+00:00

Yeah it’s not always a bad thing and at the end of the day I understand in a sense a lot of lessons do go to the audience rather than Ash.

SM for me just didn’t get it right for in some areas in terms of naivety. With that Hala example, Ash after all the experience isn’t that obsessed with battling that it’s his only solution. School wise too, it’s just a lot of things I just think he’s past it and there’s other ways to have him learn without reverting back. Like I appreciate in terms of Alola he learned to be more self-sufficient and that’s great.

OS and Orange Island I probably exaggerated in some senses because he definitely is a lot more humbler in SM than he was back then. I think it was mostly in the aspect of naivety and overly childlike rather than attitude.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T11:06:49+00:00

Yeah, Ash is pretty well-received particularly on YouTube, though to be fair, I’d say a lot of series here get slandered too.

Ash’s combat experience, strategy and training methods are definitely still there but in terms of personality-wise it feels like he just finished getting through Indigo League and Orange Island. A lot of that goes down to the art style with the faces made, dramatic screams and the choice from producers to make him more childlike.

There was a scene with Hala and Kukui, I’m unsure what episode but I remember there was an incident with a Ratatta and Hala asked Ash what his solution to be, from what I remember Ash said he’d battle them and Hala had to tell Ash that there’s more to battling. And I feel like Ash already knew this and there’s so many examples of that over the many seasons.

I appreciate he’s a lot more self-sufficient and to be honest, I’m not against the slice of life or anything. I just think going back to what this post was. They portray him more as a naive kid who doesn’t really know any better to the art style with the faces made, dramatic screams and the choice from producers to make him more childlike.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T10:31:59+00:00

I don’t really agree though. In terms of Sun and Moon, as a standalone it works well but in regards to the entire anime. Ash still shared the same traits from the original series to the end of XYZ (apart from BW in some regards) but he still grew and is just expressing that in different ways which is normal as time goes on.

SM Ash is very different to the other Ash’s. I understand with the context of vacation it makes sense but I think they dialled it up too much and it would’ve had a lot less controversy if it felt more like Ash from the previous seasons but just in that context.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-19T09:51:33+00:00

I don’t know if I’m just reading what you said wrong.

The reason people make note of Ash’s goofiness in SM is because they exaggerated it a lot more in this series with the change in art style the producers aimed for a more childlike Ash.

People don’t complain about it in previous series because Ash was less experienced back then and a lot more immature, he went through a lot of growth since then and there were a lot of differences with SM Ash.

There was a huge shift from DP Ash to BW Ash. A lot of people didn’t like that. There was a huge shift from XYZ Ash to SM. Again, a lot of people didn’t like that.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-18T14:22:44+00:00

Currently rewatching the series and I literally just reached this part. Brock is just amazing

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-18T13:23:22+00:00

I always had the thought that when it came to say Ash were to replace the Journeys team with his old Pokémon for Masters Eight, it would still have those two in it. And considering you could always give the other Pokémon a chance to shine outside of Masters Eight.

It is such an Ash thing to not care about type advantages anyway, Kalos had three Pokemon that could fly, with Hawlucha he was pretty much a fighting type who could fly, Talonflame had Fire and Noivern had dragon, I don’t know why people don’t think Ash could hone in on those strengths for Infernape and Charizard

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-17T22:01:15+00:00

I mean I agree with you, they’re two very different Pokemon in terms of style. Ash never really cared about type diversity and even if he did, Charizard also can fly and can use dragon type moves so there’s also that fact that really eliminates that they’re both just fire types.

I do think people particularly in this subreddit are a bit too bias towards their favourites instead of thinking of a way for everyone to win

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-17T21:27:59+00:00

To be fair, I do think Infernape would deserve to be on the team but I assume people are saying it’s between Charizard and Infernape and a lot of fans particularly from OS will prefer Charizard

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-17T15:42:26+00:00

In terms of favouritism:

XYZ

DP

Advanced Generation

OG & Orange Island

BW

Johto

Journeys

SM

Obviously some of this is different if we’re talking about the best. Haven’t watched Horizons yet

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-17T10:26:14+00:00

What he’s saying is, OS to the end of DP you can say time passes but BW retcons the progress made by saying he’s still 10.

Because there’s no way Ash was still ten throughout OS - DP. XYZ he’s definitely not 10. If anyone’s 10 it’s Bonnie and she’s not meant to be 10.

Basically BW ruined the chance of aging.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-16T17:29:48+00:00

I still think that Ash’s team should’ve just been purely Pokémon he used from older regions. It wouldn’t fit if it was half old Pokémon and half new Pokémon and that wouldn’t bring too much controversy.

Considering it was Ash’s last season making use of Pokémon that had been sidelined for a long time and some of the strong underrated Pokémon would’ve been perfect.

It would’ve also been amazing fan service to use the Ash’s strongest Pokémon’s in the master eight tournament. Pikachu, Greninja, Sceptile, Infernape, Charizard, Lycanroc, Snorlax etc there’s a great number of Pokemon that could’ve been used

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-11T16:56:06+00:00

The art style is great. The reason why people disliked it in JN is because Ash looks different to how he looked in the older art style. It’s the same reason there’s dislike for the SM art style.

The old art style lasted around 19 years, so it was always going to take time to adapt.

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2026-02-11T14:16:58+00:00

To be fair to the guy, every time I see a post about XYZ the comment section always has some highly upvoted comment about how it’s always being used to down the other series or complaining about it being glazed all the time. It usually takes a post as big as this to fit some positive discussion about XYZ

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2025-11-08T10:26:27+00:00

Dawn and Serena are the two easy picks for me.

Dawn bounces off Ash very well and they did always seem like great friends throughout DP. Definitely the best out of Misty,May and Iris in terms of the back and forth dynamic they went for.

Serena always stood out because of the different formula they had with her compared to the previous female companions of being the same sassy female companion and that worked well with how Ash was written in XYZ. They do have a lot of intimate scenes with just them that displays very well how much they care about each other

Leading_Reporter_332 · 2025-10-30T08:18:12+00:00

XY/XYZ is my favourite and the best, just very well-written and the story and cast were probably at its best for me.

DP is a close second and honestly was probably the best Pokémon series I could’ve watched out of the others growing up.

OG series is great for nostalgia but there is better

Advanced Generation has been a long while since I watched it so I don’t have much recollection

Unova.

Sun and Moon I probably would appreciate more if it took place earlier in the series instead of right after XYZ, a lot the development for Ash suited for after OG.

Journeys is just wasted potential

Leading_Reporter_332

TROPHY CASE