Honestly, in that case, I'd blame either Ash himself or the actual writers for that, not Iris. Do I think her telling off Ash should be toned down to have him refute Iris, sure, but on the other hand, the fact that Ash was made a colossal idiot is more of an indictment on Ash himself.
Fully agreed there, and that even reflected with the gym leaders, where Ash actually won his battles fair and square, not to mention actually had to struggle with several of them. Not to mention, unlike future series save for maybe XY, the gym leaders were actually depicted as very formidable, and all WITHOUT decreasing Ash's competency, or Pikachu's for that matter.
Yeah, no kidding.
Hadn't watched much of Johto, though ironically enough the fillers had absolutely nothing to do with my being driven away from that series. Actually, it's because WB did some really lame ads that ultimately drove me away from them, such as the Sock Party ad (shudders... I already have bad views of singing from Return to the Sea, don't need THAT one where Ash randomly sang broadway style about Sock partys). It also doesn't help that I was eventually growing very paranoid of people denouncing me as a baby for watching Pokémon or even Disney films thanks in large part to how Arthur acted to D.W. regarding Mary Moo Cow. In fact, the closest I've ever gotten to watching Johto was that marathon leading up to DP back in 2008, and quite frankly, I really didn't see what the fuss was all about (granted, I didn't actually see ALL of Johto as it was, but it was the closest I've come to actually watching all of it. Who knows, maybe this Christmas, I'll get a chance to actually watch the entire saga, or at least most of it [don't think the Ice Cave or another of those banned episodes involving Jynx will be there, though]). Though I'll admit, if they're going to keep Ash's Johto Pokémon unevolved, they should at the very least make sure that they gave an in-universe reason for not doing so, like with Pikachu, Bulbasaur and, to a lesser extent, Squirtle. And the Whirl Cup was definitely good as well, and it's nice to see Misty actually being able to pursue her goal, especially when we had far more of an idea of what that entailed than Ash's goal.
Yeah, and the Whirl Cup was very good as well. And on the subject of gyms, I agree, though to be honest, even Kanto's gyms, I could take over the crap that were Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova's gyms. Say what you will about Kanto having pity badges for lack of a better term from half the gym leaders, at least most of the gym leaders there, Misty's sisters aside, were actually proven to be quite formidable and forces to be reckoned with. With Hoenn, however, with the exception of Brawley (and to a lesser extent Roxanne since she at least lost to Pikachu, an established veteran, even if he WAS the victim of level resets during that time), all of the Gym Leaders were pushovers, easily losing to rookie Pokémon on Ash's "fresh start" team. It's actually quite embarrassing to watch characters who, while not necessarily to the level of Elite 4 or Champions, were nonetheless considered to be Crème of the Crop trainers, lose as easily to Ash's rookie team as Jessie, James, and Meowth lost to that Caterpie back in Ash Catches a Pokémon (a Pokémon that was explicitly mentioned to be weak) seven-fold. I mean, it's like, I don't know, binge-watching the whole Imperial Unit on Endor, who were explicitly listed as being an entire legion of the Empire's best troops, basically being easily owned by what are essentially a bunch of animate teddy bears (you know what I'm referencing, right?). Unova's Gym Leaders were arguably worse due to Ash being an idiot there in addition to a rookie team. Even Sinnoh, while comparatively better in that at least they don't lose to rookies nearly as much, came at the cost of Ash and Pikachu themselves being depicted as incompetent, especially in light of their earlier victory over a Regice. In fact, of the regions after Kanto/Orange Islands/Johto, only Kalos came the closest to actually restoring Gym Leaders' honor and reputations as skilled trainers, without making Ash look incompetent I should add.
Yeah, no kidding, and it also doesn't help that even Ash got not one, but TWO eggs over Brock that saga (Larvitar and Phanpy, the latter he actually kept), and Ash wasn't even doing breeding as a goal. Phanpy should have gone to Brock, heck, even Larvitar should have gone to Brock.
Yeah, I know. Find it a bit ironic, even regarding them occurring in America after the fact, that Weatherford didn't complain about Staff Officer Black or Android 15 of Dragon Ball (Z) despite them being very explicitly based on black people, though. And I really don't understand why Japan would panic about Brock potentially being a "racist stereotype" against the Japanese despite the anime originating from Asia, yet have no qualms with admitting they only viewed the girls since May as sexual eyecandy despite their explicitly being 10 year olds. That if anything comes across as even worse than just having an unfortunate stereotype of an ethnicity.
Yeah, that's another problem posed by the writers decisions regarding their choices with Ash. They really screw them out. And too bad that DP made his Battle Frontier win seem like a joke, especially when they had Pikachu lose to an Ursaring that Paul caught within Sinnoh.
Yeah, I mean, even if they were to keep JJM, why do they have to keep them as Team Rocket? Why not just act as members of Team Magma/Aqua, Team Galactic, or Team Plasma? And quite frankly, they should make them more threatening, and I don't meant he BW manner, but more like the original series manner.