Ash is also iconic because he was the main character of the anime when the franchise was at its most popular by far and stayed as the MC for another 20 years. Even if a new MC was the best written character ever, they'd still not be more iconic just because Ash was the MC back when people actually watched the anime. I said it in another thread but people really don't understand how big anipoke was in the early years. It was as big and possibly even bigger than the games themselves, and Pokemon Red/Blue/Green are still the best selling Pokemon games ever in Japan and WW so that says a lot
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