i would love to know what post ur talking about with the bad ash interpretation 👀
Alright, okay. I'll be messy!
Frankly, most of the post was fine, and I was extrapolating one or two lines to a broader fandom problem that pisses me off, so I'll ignore the OG and focus on what bothers me specifically in a broader sense.
I saw a post that describes Ash as "a goofy guy" in passing.
It's that word. "Goofy." In the past couple of years, during the Gen 7/8 era, I noticed a big shift in how Ash is perceived by the fandom at large; not just hardcore fans, but in general. A lot of character changes + flanderization that he received over the years gets excused with "he's just a goofy kid/ten year old." I'll put aside the age thing because that's an entire topic of its own and it's not really what I'm bitching about.
I see him described as "goofy," specifically, so often these days and it bugs the shit out of me. It tells me that the broader perception of Ash is a clownish character; a weird, quirky jester. It evokes the image of Ash during Sun/Moon, overreacting to every goddamned thing with a reaction image worthy face and screeching at the top of his lungs. Or, him slinking around on the ground twerking to train his Pokemon.
It reminds me of how the late anime tends to have his friends describe him as particularly eccentric or weird; of Dawn calling him a "Pokémon Freak/Pokémaniac." (First of all, Dawn is the last person who should be treating enthusiasm over Pokémon-oriented careers as odd.)
I just... don't like that. At all. I don't think it reflects the character Ash was, and it misunderstoods a lot of his traits and the humor his character used to revolve around.
For one, Ash being fixated on Pokémon shouldn't be considered oddball behavior in this universe. At all. Their whole world revolves around Pokémon. Every other person on the street is a trainer, or has been at some point. They have sports leagues based around them in most major regions. Talk to random NPCs in basically any game. They love to yap, yap, and yap about Pokémon!!! They're a near-universal special interest! Pokémon make the world go 'round!
So, Ash loving them shouldn't really be unique. I don't want him to be a super special lil blorbo for simply liking them. It kinda grinds down what makes Ash interesting and compelling to me to poke fun at him.
It's kind of the same way a lot of people love to say "Ash should have met Nemona! They both LOVE battling!"
Everyone loves battling in Pokémon! They're not unique for that!
But, back to the "goofy" thing.
The dynamic of humor in the old days of the anime, regarding Ash, was usually playing Ash as the "straight man." He was a fairly normal kid, if a bit too confident for his own good. He was a decently well-rounded individual who paid attention to his surroundings, made commentary on social situations, and hadn't been sanded down to the stock boy hero trope yet. Ash was a somewhat normal kid with an extra dose of courage surrounded by absolute weirdos. Brock had his loverboy schtick, Team Rocket was Team Rocket, and every other character of the day was verifiably off their shit. Ash often reacted to other people's oddities and made dry commentary on them! He was navigating a region full of Gym Leaders who risked boiling you in lava! He was the audience insert!
I'm fairly certain I recall Takeshi Shudo himself saying that Ash was a flat character used to bounce off of characters he found more interesting. While I may not agree with that, the dynamic still exists.
Ash was a straightforward character on a hero's journey in a zany, fantastical world full of magical monsters and eccentric humans who wore capes and made people answer riddles to enter their Gyms.
I feel like the idea of Ash being quirky and weird and goofy subverts that dynamic and creates a different character with a different relationship with the world. I could probably dive into how he became flanderized over time, lost his social awareness, and whathaveyou, but you probably get what I'm saying by now. His character archetype changed, and because that's been the case for a while, people's perceptions of Ash Ketchum changed, into something I barely recognize and very much personally dislike.
I just don't particularly see being zany or silly as primary character traits. He has his moments of endearing childishness, but it took up a smaller fraction of his personality, rather than being center-stage.
It irks me and makes me roll my eyes when I see him described or discussed in that way. But, this is what you get when a show goes on for way too long without changing its main character. They gain multiple audiences expecting entirely different things.
