Ash Ketchum (Pokémon the Series: Black & White)

Ash Ketchum (サトシ Satoshi) is the main protagonist of the Pokémon anime and has traveled to every region so far, with his loyal companion Pikachu by his side.

While Ash Ketchum himself is overall a great and well-written character, his character became poorly-written in the Black & White seasons. He is voiced by Rica Matsumoto in the Japanese dub and Sarah Natochenny in the English dub.

Bad Qualities
Note: This only applies to his character as depicted in the Black & White seasons (seasons 14-16).
 * 1) To write down the first problem, he has been flanderized beyond recognition in this era, going from a strong and caring trainer who gradually matures and learns from his mistakes over time into a poorly-written, stuck-up, whiny brat who comes off as stupid and immature.
 * 2) * Here he just acted like he had just started his Pokémon journey in Kanto, completely ignoring all his character growth from his previous Pokémon journeys in Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. It just shows how the writers of Black & White knew nothing about Pokémon and the Ash Ketchum character in general.
 * 3) He is a very bad trainer, unlike in the series that came before and after Black & White.
 * 4) *To add salt to the wound, each time Ash wins a Pokemon battle feels rather unsatisfying and undeserved unlike the series that came before and after Black & White for this reason above, since in Black & White he wins either by dumb luck, or in the case of the episode "Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym", breaking the rules, all because of the Black & White seasons' rule of "Ash gets the badge no matter what", which is similar to some of his old Kanto Gym Battles, but way worse'.
 * 5) He constantly makes rookie-level mistakes in said seasons to the point that it gets incredibly frustrating to watch over time. The most notorious example being when he and Pikachu lost to Trip and his level 5 Snivy in a humiliating fashion. It doesn't help that this came after Ash's battle with Tobias in the Sinnoh League, where Pikachu managed to tie with Latios.
 * 6) *Even though Zekrom had shut down Pikachu's electric attacks by unleashing a powerful amount of electricity prior to his battle against Trip's Snivy, he still had Iron Tail and Quick Attack, which Ash should've used first.
 * 7) * He also only brought one Pokémon to his gym battle with Elesa, confident that he was going to win, unaware that he really should have six Pokémon on him at all times. He even left the battle after Palpitoad fainted to get more Pokemon, which should've been an automatic disqualification.
 * 8) *Ash may have done a lot of stupid things and made a lot of bad mistakes in the past, especially in the Indigo League era, but not to this extent.
 * 9) He can also be a rude jerk towards his traveling companions at times, though this could be excused by the fact that Iris treats him poorly and constantly calls him a "stupid kid".
 * 10) The problem with Ash's team in Black & White is that he caught way too many Pokémon, and not many of them evolved fully, not even any of his starters. Some of them are infamous for losing almost every battle they took part in, such as Unfezant and Palpitoad, the former of whom lost to a Riolu.
 * 11) He's also become a punching bag who gets routinely abused by others for little to no reasons, such as Iris calling him a "stupid kid" over the smallest things, him getting curb-stomped by Cameron and is treated like garbage by Trip, to the point that it gets mean-spirited, depressing and unfunny.
 * 12) * Granted, that even if Ash was an idiot in Unova, even he doesn't deserve this torture he goes through.
 * 13) Sarah Natochenny does a rather lackluster job voicing him in the English dub, lacking the genuine charm that Veronica Taylor brings to the character, which is a shame since Sarah Natochenny did a decent job voicing him in the English dub before and after these Pokémon the Series: Black & White seasons.
 * 14) * The worst offender of this is in the episode "Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym" where it has been cranked up to 11 with Sarah Natochenny making Ash sound like nails on a chalkboard, especially his screaming and yelling.
 * 15) He would then get flanderized again, but only worse in Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!.

Good Qualities

 * 1) He was a much better character prior to Pokémon the Series: Black & White, and reverted back to his original personality starting from the Pokémon the Series: XY seasons (though he got flanderized again only in the movie Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!).
 * 2) *Speaking of which, he slightly improved in season 16 (Adventures in Unova and Beyond).
 * 3) He still cares deeply about his Pokémon.
 * 4) He still thinks out of the box sometimes. For example, he finally beats Trip and his Serperior by having Pikachu do an Electro Ball/Iron Tail combo.
 * 5) Some of the Pokemon he owned during then were actually great, such as Leavanny, Scraggy, Snivy, Oshawott (depending on your view), Boldore (his first rock type) and especially Krookodile.
 * 6) He still has his funny moments, such as this scene when he says "Nothing ticks off more than stealing my food!".
 * 7) He still has his recognizable appearance and his outfit is nice to look at.
 * 8) Despite Sarah Natochenny doing a rather lackluster job voicing him in the English dub, Rica Matsumoto still does a fantastic job voicing him in the original Japanese version, as always.
 * 9) *Speaking of which, Sarah Natochenny massively improved her acting in the English dub after Pokémon the Series: Black & White in Pokémon the Series: XY and does a decent job voicing him now, as mentioned above in WH'sNGCTA' (BQ)#7.