A theory on Ash's 'never aging'

T

The Pig King

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One could think about it this way: Does a week pass between each episode? Each episode would take place the next day, some covering more than one day, sometimes multiple in the same day. With this theory, Ash would have aged a little over a year since the series began, so he wouldn't have changed that much. There are obvious flaws in this theory(five regions in less than two years?), but it works.
 
That's pretty much how I've always thought of it, though I always thought that the gap between most episodes was a bit shorter than a week long, and the gap between each series was quite large.
 
The other problem is they have mentioned a year has passed a few times in the series.

Other examples are that the "kids" never age. Brock's siblings and Max haven't aged a day since we met them. I bet next time we see Max he still won't be old enough to be a trainer.

I think the writers themselves realize it doesn't matter much anymore, which is why they try to limit revealing how much time has passed.
 
Yeah, but it would still be a few years at the maximum. Ash wouldn't have aired ten years, anyway, as many people have complained he hasn't.
 
Nah....

I still like my own theory, that the characters DO age. They just age slowly, and not in real-time.


So this theory would be like, every season equals one year. That sort of thing. But of course, there are a few exceptions with this theory. Because it really depends on the actual length of each season.

So taking this into account, here's an example: Season one would probably take a year and a half, and Orange Islands would only last 6 months because it was so short.
 
Yeah, but it'd be more like season one and Orange Islands took about a year together, Johto took a year, Hoenn and Battle Frontier took about a year together, and Sinnoh has taken a few months so far(although I remember one filler episode took about a week), making Ash about 13 and a half.
 
Floating timelines always beget these questions. Considering how "years" have been thrown around even in early Hoenn, I think that whether Ash aged at all has lost some meaning (after all, Ash has taken stupid losses and Pikachu still has difficulty against more mundane oppoenents).

Relative to Ash first leaving Pallet Town, "months" passed in getting 5 Kanto badges, "years" passed until Pikachu and Pichu, and yet it seems that Dawn is the same age as Ash even though Ash has been a trainer for longer than Dawn's entire lifespan.

Maybe they just sweep this under the rug, and retcon Ash's (and everyone else's) age to make it fit...
 
BlazikenEX said:
Yeah, but it'd be more like season one and Orange Islands took about a year together, Johto took a year, Hoenn and Battle Frontier took about a year together, and Sinnoh has taken a few months so far(although I remember one filler episode took about a week), making Ash about 13 and a half.
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Yes, that theory does make sense.


However, my theory takes into account episodes like "Battle of the Badge" and the Pichu and Pikachu short, where it's been mentioned that a year has passed.

Also, you still have to take into account, every time Ash is ready to compete in a particular region's league, there is always 3 months left for him to train. So you would have to add an additional 3 months onto every league (except for Orange Islands, since that was an unofficial league). If you think of it that way, this would probably make him about 14 or 15 years old.
 
I have always assumed that each season took 4 months
which explains why he has not changed much as he is only 13...
 
My .02 and a few nickels

When I was doing the Pikachu diaries (a series retelling the anime through Pika's eyes), I assumed each episode counted as one day, unless multiple days seemed to pass in the episode)

Knowing that (and factoring episodes where a time is mentioned into the equation), Ash is about 13-14ish, with 15 as a stretch
 
Surely I'm not the only one who's being driven mad by everyone asking this. Quit with the theories already. It's been 10+ years. There's nothing new in theories. These questions have been asked with no answers and nothing to back up peoples' opinions for years. Everything about it is what a fan wants. Justification to ship or crush on characters without looking creepy, trying to find logic in the show, believing that there IS some logic in it but limited, etc.

Why the hell won't people let this thing die already. I would LOVE to see A WHOLLY ORIGINAL, BRAND NEW, GROUNDBREAKING THEORY. Just for the sake of having some reason for this god damn topic to be brought up over and over.
 
Every season is merely a dream of Ash's, and thus no real time passes.

In fact, he is still in bed back in Pallet Town.
 
I've given up trying to figure out why he hasn't aged. He's always going to be 10 years old each region, I'm down with that.
 
I always thought each region equaled one year.

Ash being 14 makes perfect sense now. (Also, isn't there some mention of "one year later" at the beginning of Battle For The Badge?)
 
Pretty sure the only "canon" mention of one year was in the Pichu Short, which I think was in both dub an original.
 
Nah, the narrator mentioned in Battle For The Badge how it'd been one year since Ash's journey began.

But that might have been dub only.

(Either way, I'm sticking to 14. My Diamondshipping fanfiction works have too many references to "four more years" for me to go back on that view.)
 
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