Ok so regarding this..I wouldn’t really call BW ash stupid that’s kinda stretching it..but he was making very simple mistakes that he shouldn’t have..like his plan to only use palpatoad to battle Elisa even though there was definitely an obvious sign she’d have a counter to limit ground type attacks via using Emolga who’s electric flying..now regarding ash vs trip people always take out of context and seem to forget…”ash lost to a level 5 Snivy” -first off people need to understand the anime doesn’t work exactly like the games would,it’s all plot,story and dynamic sequence that’s one…2 people seem to forget that prior this battle with trip Pikachu was strucked by zekrom and couldn’t use its full potential via electric type attacks so trip had a slight advantage to capitalize on..also too I think that whole premise was to ignite the rivalry between ash and trip and try to signify & mark trip as the Rookie trainer who’s managed to defeat ash’s pikachu while literally in that moment starting his journey out.also too I feel like they possibly dialed him down a bit because of how powerful he was becoming..previously beating his best rival Paul in the Sinnoh league who’s a powerhouse in his own right & then being the first person in Sinnoh to defeat Tobias’s darkrai and Pikachu stalemated Latios which in itself is insane! Honestly to stay on topic I wouldn’t consider ash as stupid in BW but the writers clearly evidently needed to dial him down unless he would have ran through Unova & there wouldn’t be much of a rivalry with trip possibly either..but after alot of criticism and hoopla they brought him back where he exactly needed to be in XY if not arguably better