>>3796019I am not so sure. I recall seeing a surprising amount of stuff with Max topping Ash. Honestly, Gou was the only male traveling companion that Ash has predominately been depicted as topping in fan works. I do think that it was roughly 50/50 with Clemont, though.
>>3795904I think that his brattiness got played a bit too strongly at times. The writers would often slide him into the annoying little brother role when they had nothing else really planned for him. It's just a larger issue of the series writing during that time. Anytime Ash's companions lack their own substantive subplot, the series usually just gives them a painful gag to fall back on. Given his long tenure, Brock is probably the most notable example of this. It's also a major factor on the general suckiness of Best Wishes, since Iris and Dent are fucking nothing as traveling companions (especially following Dawn's stint as a deuteragonist). While the gang in XY had there own issues, it largely felt like the writers had learned from some past mistakes. Clemont and Bonnie largely had nothing going on, but both were fairly enjoyable and had a better written sibling dynamic than May and Max had.
