Which is your favourite Ash in terms of personality?

[AgedVeteranofShow]

BW,SM and JN were better off keeping the personalities from the DP/XY series because the ones that were actually being presented did not fit at all. OS-DP had a natural progression with his character, he gradually became more mature and a better trainer but with the three series I mentioned earlier those iterations of Ash felt like ones from alternate universes. BW Ash getting nerfed as a trainer and SM/JN Ash going back to being goofy which felt forced.

Agree, Ash at least felt like the same person from OS-DP and was animated the same way (well, not in the English dub, through late AG he does- once Natochenny hits, you have to switch to Matsumoto in Japanese for it to still feel like the same person to the end of DP because in the dub he changes completely at "Fear Factor Phony" both in terms of his voice & his dialogue...for the worse, IMO).

"In the Shadow of Zekrom!" is when even in Japanese, Satoshi begins to change in BW, you've put it nicely exactly where the issues came afterward. Ash's reset in BW, and then in SM/JN, he's not acting like a progression of XY as a trainer-- but a degradation in that regard.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

BW Ash did use his classic unorthodoxed strategies in battles with Cilan and Clay but he didn't use it enough. In terms of competence yeah I agree he's between OS Ash and AG Ash. Not sure about the SM and JN iterations but they always came off as inferior versions to DP/XY, some claim they're just as skilled.

 

[Okido]

OS, with AG as a close second.

While it's been said a million times, I always appreciated the rash, snarky, headstrong attitude they gave to him early on — and while that was still definitely present going into AG (and even DP to an extent), you could tell that with more experience as a Trainer, he was also learning to be a tad more responsible and to look before he leapt much more often. When Ash's character comes to mind for me it's always this version of him that I think of.

The other series all have various small changes or certain elements that set them below those two for me; though I will say I actually liked BW Ash quite a bit.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Character
1.OS Ash
2.AG Ash (Veronica Taylor Era)
3.AG Ash (Sarah Natochenny Era)
4.XY Ash
5.DP Ash
6.JN Ash (Interchangeable)
7.SM Ash (Interchangeable)
8.BW Ash (Interchangeable)


Trainer
1.DP Ash/XY Ash
2.XY Ash/DP Ash
3.AG Ash (Battle Frontier)
4.JN Ash (Interchangeable)
5.SM Ash (Interchangeable)
6.AG Ash (Hoenn)
7.BW Ash
8.OS Ash (Johto)
9.OS Ash (Orange Islands)
10.OS Ash (Kanto)