weedle_mchairybug
Banned
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- Seen Aug 29, 2020
Honestly, Misty did a LOT of stuff, maybe not towards her goal (which I'll admit was indeed a flaw, but she at least did a LOT more than Brock did in his entire run for HIS goal. Heck, technically, she did more for her goal than Ash did in Johto, or even up to DP if you think about it [at least we knew the full endgame for her goal, as well as several key details about her goal beyond the Whirl Cup and similar competitions such as training with and interacting with Water Pok?mon and even researching them. Literally the only thing we knew for certain on Ash's goal was that he needed to get eight badges and at the very least compete in the regional leagues. We never got any confirmation whether he actually had to win a league to become a master or even fight the Elite 4 until DP, especially when they seemed to nix the idea that winning a league would have you become a Pok?mon Master in the Orange Islands where he continued to travel DESPITE winning the Orange League.), but a lot of stuff nonetheless (and let's not forget, Ash and anyone else would have been dead multiple times over, or at least not able to continue their journey if it weren't for her). And I'd argue she had FAR better genuine development than May ever did, character development at that (I'm sorry, but the "development" May got was cheap and truly weak development, not true development. Do you really expect me to believe that a girl who is the daughter of a Gym Leader and thus would naturally be exposed to Pok?mon Battles and by extension Pok?mon themselves constantly would HATE Pok?mon, and hating Pok?mon like she did in the beginning would actually have her being disrespectful to the entire profession of Pok?mon Trainer by even signing up. If you are going to be entering a Pok?mon Journey which will require you to be exposed to Pok?mon constantly, training them for various elements, you'd better like them. Otherwise, you really shouldn't have bothered signing up at all. And besides, it can't be due to problems in her family to drive her to hate Pok?mon. May if anything had better relations to her family than Misty and Brock did [both of whom were the victims of outright abandonment, with Misty being treated as the runt of the litter and barely got much respect even AFTER her sisters forced her into the gym against her will, and Brock having to essentially act as a foster parent to his siblings thanks to his parents deadbeat status], yet those two never hated Pok?mon in general, at worst only having a fear of bug types and a justifiable trauma towards Gyarados. Heck, she had way better family relationships than Jessie and James did with their families [Jessie, like Misty and Brock, was the victim of abandonment and constantly being transferred to multiple foster homes due to her mom working for Team Rocket and being on extensive leave, and James' parents tried to outright force him to marry a sadistic dominatrix who oddly resembled his partner in crime.], and even THEY don't hate Pok?mon at all, and they're ESPECIALLY notable since they were members of a group that had zero qualms with outright murdering Pok?mon. Misty's development came across as more natural.).
You mentioned Pok?mon Contests, but quite frankly, the overfocus the show had on them is actually one of the bigger problems behind it, especially for the no small fact that they're little more than a sidequest in the games that don't even impact the story, at most only being necessary to evolve a Feebas into a Milotic to get the latter's entry into the Pokedex. It keeps those trying to play the games out of the loop due to the blatant false advertising by giving overfocus to the goals (the point of the anime is to advertise the games, right? Well, how are newcomer players going to think when they realize that, unlike May in the anime, or even Dawn in DP, they literally don't have a choice but to challenge Gym Leaders). Misty's goal at least can be theoretically achieved in the games by raising up a pure water-type team from beginning all the way to the Elite 4 and Champion. Besides, I fail to see the appeal in Pok?mon Coordinating, which if it's anything like real life modeling is just going to have the characters wash out when they hit their 20s, not to mention enter drugs and possibly gain anorexia and bulimia, becoming extremely insecure about their appearances feeling they can only feel happy if they are the thinnest, prettiest, and all of that, and that's not even taking into account various other elements that are not to be mentioned on here.
Regarding Dawn, I really don't have much else to comment, but I will mention that ALL the characters, both before and after Dawn, were co-stars, not just Dawn (yes, I'm even going to count the likes of Brock, Tracey, and Max as co-stars), as they had various endings and openings dedicated to them (Misty had that Lapras ending in Kanto, or was it Orange Islands. It was Japan-only, I'll tell you that much), and besides which I can remember quite a few episodes dating back as early as the Indigo League where the narrator specifically refers to Ash and his friends collectively as "Our Heroes", which means they are co-stars ("heroes" aside from it being synonymous with the good guys, literally means the main protagonists. Had they wanted to establish that Ash was the only actual hero, they would have said "our hero and his sidekicks." Words have meaning.). And I still don't really think she had much development beyond the basics. A bit more than May, I'll give you that, but definitely not much compared to Misty. And BTW, I wasn't fond of her vanity towards her hair (I don't like it when characters obsess over their looks, was taught that was vain and was bad). And I did try to like her, but just couldn't. And honestly, May and Dawn both reminded me too much of the girls from Princess vs. Princess and Love Hina, and I DON'T mean that in a good way. I guess I could agree with you that compared to Serena, Dawn definitely could do her journey by herself, so that's one positive to her (in fact, to be honest, I'm actually not sure why she didn't even do the journey herself and insisted on joining Ash?).
Regarding Serena, I'm not fond of her for a variety of reasons (namely, she had little reason to be on a Pok?mon journey, or especially with Ash. I mean, granted, she at least had a bit more reason to go than May, but not by much; the overhyped shipping between Ash and Serena simply doesn't work for a variety of reasons, and she took longer to actually GET a goal than May did). Probably the closest I've got to a positive for her is that she at least didn't hate Pok?mon before entering her journey, unlike May, so I can sort of forgive her for only becoming a trainer because of Ash.
And just as an FYI, I was NOT fond of how May and Dawn were subject to sexual fanservice (and based on what Masamitsu Hidaka said, it was deliberate. I'm surprised he wasn't fired for that remark back in 2010). They're 10 years old and thus it paints the show in a very distasteful light. Heck, technically, May shouldn't even be a 10 year old with the chest she's got. Misty and Iris at least look, and more importantly, actually ACT like 10 year olds, and are not basically used like Bulma was for most of Dragon Ball.
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