What made May's Pokémon hatred even more stupid was the fact that she was the daughter of a Gym Leader. She should've logically grown up surrounded by Pokémon and Pokémon battling, so it made no sense for her to ever hate Pokémon.
Of course, it was never more than an excuse for her to go into contests and become a beauty queen instead of a battler, anyways. :rolleyes2:
Yeah, that and a cheap attempt at character development (Misty had that department down far better, anyways). Probably another reason I don't like May at all involves Manaphy, especially regarding Misty and Togepi. I get that egg gets a lot of bad rap for allegedly "not doing anything" or "ruining Misty" (I personally actually don't mind Misty getting Togepi or their relationship, but nonetheless...), but at least with Misty and Togepi, if Togepi ever found itself in danger, Misty's ALWAYS there to find it or save it. May, on the other hand, when she had that chance to be a similar good mother to Manaphy, she actually let Phantom outright abduct it and stand there like a coward, not making ANY attempt to save what was essentially her child. And then when Ash reveals he survived and essentially went Super Saiyan thanks to the Sea Crown, she STILL doesn't make any attempt to save her kid, just boarding the sub. Seriously... this was meant to be her movie, and because she chose to act like a coward and make zero attempt to save what is essentially her own son, Ash ended up saving the day again?! Granted, I wasn't happy that she got the starring role in that movie (quite frankly, it should have been Misty in that starring role, even if it meant only bringing her back temporarily, considering that's closer to Misty's forte compared to May's), but I could have forgiven that if May at LEAST tried to be a good mother, including actually trying her darned hardest, use everything at her disposal, to outright save Manaphy when he was abducted. The fact that she didn't even do THAT just... ugh.
Yeah, it's pretty obvious that Misty's goal wasn't to sit inside a gym all day and be a punching bag for rookies. If being a Gym Leader was all she wanted to be, then she would've never left Cerulean to travel in the first place. It's far more likely that E4 level was what she aspired to, especially considering her idolization of Lorelei.
Yeah, and it also doesn't help that thanks to AG, the gym leaders came across as being as big of weaklings as JJM were, which also proceeded to make Misty look bad as well. Say what you will about the Kanto gym leaders during the Indigo League, or even the Johto gym leaders during the Johto saga, at least those guys, Misty's sisters aside, came across as quite badass even IF they ultimately paled in comparison to the Elite 4. What's worse, even the last time we ever actually see her in the flesh had her implying she didn't even WANT to go back to the gym, but then Daisy pretty much threatened to hand out badges if she didn't comply. That's not even remotely a good end for her at all, and I get very irritated when people who are otherwise massive Misty fans imply that Misty got a good end when she became Gym Leader since she's at least "doing something." Is being a punching bag, and her not even liking the experience at all, even WORTH giving her at least some abilities beyond being Ash's support (ignoring of course she did PLENTY of stuff outside of simply being Ash's "girlfriend" anyway.).
What makes it even worse is that the show is pretty much the only place where female player characters get any attention, however poor. All of the other animated specials (like Origins, Generations, and the B2W2/ORAS trailers), as well as the various manga, primarily focus on the male PCs, so most of the time, it's either be a contest bimbo on Ash's show or get nothing at all (see Green, Hilda, and Moon). :(
There's Pokémon Special, but yeah. I'm not asking that they go the Rey route, I wouldn't want that either. But, for goodness sakes, since it's a franchise dedicated to trainers battling as a key component, couldn't they at LEAST have May, Dawn, and Serena actually TRY to be trainers first and foremost, and maybe do contests/performances as a side hobby? That would better reflect the games, anyways.
To be fair to Leaf, she only appeared in the remake, so it's not like they could bring her in anyways. But yeah, Hilda and Moon definitely got screwed over.
We might want to take it to my VM, though, just in case the mods get irritated by our conversation.