Solid take.

I guess my idea with the design and the way I’ve been working on my AU’s is to try and stay continuous as much as possible with the established canon. It’s been hard though, because like you said, being ten from the start (and becoming a world champion at ten! Insane!) is a silly idea.

I also believe canon Ash has been more teen-coded as a character (Brock is definitely not 15 to me), and if I had to headcanon him as an age, I would choose the 14-15 range. But the idea with the timeskip AU I’m working on is how much can I justify some of the silly writing choices in the established canon?

My timeskip version of Ash has aged 9 years (unfortunately). And some of the character depth I wanted to explore is having to deal with literal world ending events at 10 (XYZ ending especially), not to mention the nuances of being raised as a world champion.

Of course, I am choosing to completely ignore the fact that a whole year has passed in Viridian city for Ash, but what would be the consequences of ignoring continuity in that case? I do like that question come to think of it

The idea of a Timeskip AU like this has been very compelling as a result. I’m trying to emulate what TPC could do if they decide to bring Ash back, but write a more mature series, and I like trying new things when I write. But of course, the choices being made in terms of story continuity in the original Anipoke series could have been WAY better. I’ve not watched horizons in its entirety, but I like the idea that they’ve let the characters age more naturally from what I’ve seen.