[Spoilers] Do you think the writers are giving Iris too much glory?

[ZeroX5]

It's something that seems to be brought up on other forums.

When the series began, Iris avoided battles. She didn't seem to be competent at all, and just sat on the sidelines doing little to no training. However, it was later revealed that, somewhat jarringly that she trained a Drilburr as a little girl, and was able to get 99 straight wins.

Soon after that, there was a tournament...the Don Battle tournament. Iris advanced to the finals alongside Ash, and managed to defeat him using her Excadrill thus winning the entire tournament. Which makes people question, what the point was of giving her "Pokemon with issues" in the first place. Unlike Ash, and Cilan( less so)the writers seem against the idea of her losing to anyone yet, whereas Ash is usually always the victim if there is someone that needs to be defeated.

So do you like the fact that the way the writers are treating a sidekick character as they are in Iris, or do you think that they are giving her far too much glory in comparison to all the companions Ash has had so far...thus not allowing her to be a compelling character. Share your thoughts.

 

[Kenshin5]

I think whomever came up with this topic on the other forum was over thinking this.

Did Iris avoid battles or did Ash just hog all the battles? I think it's more of the writers not writing her into battles rather then her avoiding them. Expect for maybe Ash vs. Trip Third Battle! when she persuaded Trip to battle Ash instead of her. How did she not seem competent? If anyone seemed incompetent it would be Ash which is why she always said "what a kid". Also I wouldn't call training Axew to master Dragon Rage as no training. Or helping Emmy with her Druddigon, showing herself to be an aspiring Dragon Master.

Who knows why they gave Excadrill with confidence issues? Maybe cause they didn't want to showcase a super strong pokemon during the early portions of the Saga. Or they want to draw back to what they did with Charizard and Mamoswine. I can see why they gave Excadrill the lose to Haxorus to work for gaining strength in hopes of defeating Drayden Haxorus. And for Iris winning so that Ash may settle the score with her at the 8th Gym(pending how that works out).

Cilan has had what two loses? One against Luke and the other against the Subway Boss Twins along with Ash. So really by himself he only has one loss in that tournament which he could have also won, and he has a victory against Trip unlike Ash(albeit that match was 1 on 1, so I wouldn't take much stock into that).

If anything I wish they would give her more focus like they are with the Deino episode. And I don't care if Iris has more glory then prior companions it really doesn't matter. May and Dawn have their good deal of glory in Contests. And Misty has proved to be quite the Water training(although they could have done more with that angle).

 

[Charicific]

I also felt like it, though I can't confirm it is true.

I think the more they advance, the better they get with portraying characters, plots, etc. I am not saying it is that way but it is the way I feel for it.

One thing I adore about Iris is her being a Dragon Type Trainer ;)
I found her Pokemons and her character advanced. She looks much more capable than any other girl companion I've seen. I think she is my second best companion I have seen so far after Dawn.

 

[Mew~]

Trying not to sound so rude, but It's just character development. Honestly, I don't at all agree with this glory nonsense. If you take a look at how much development and character shes been given, as apposed to Cilan, well you know what I mean.

When the series began, Iris avoided battles. She didn't seem to be competent at all, and just sat on the sidelines doing little to no training. However, it was later revealed that, somewhat jarringly that she trained a Drilburr as a little girl, and was able to get 99 straight wins.

Well, I'd have to disagee with that first statement. Expanding from what Kenshin5 said, she never really avoided battles, it was just Ash hogging all the battles. She was certainly seen enough times training her Axew, battling with Cilan. But then, even if she was avoiding battles, we were given the explanation from seeing her story with Excadrill.

She certainly isn't exactly a mary sue, that loss against Drayden goes against that, and it was certainly a massive step in development for her character.

I quite like the small focus she has been given in these many few episodes. I mean, compare that with whatever Misty recived. As well as Kenshin, I'm looking forward to the Deino episode.

 

[sherreamethyst]

I don't know about that. I mean, I was so relieved that she had an excadrill that was really powerful. I thought she was just a loser with a weak axew. I'm glad they gave her a little glory with that, but I was also glad to see she lost against Drayden. If she had won, then she would've became really cocky. And I don't think she ever really avoided battles either. Like what some people are saying, I think Ash might have just been a little greedy with them.

 

[ZeroX5]

Trying not to sound so rude, but It's just character development. Honestly, I don't at all agree with this glory nonsense. If you take a look at how much development and character shes been given, as apposed to Cilan, well you know what I mean.

Lol, you're not being rude. I was just curious as to what some people think about her treatment, compared to the past few characters in this show. When compared to them, she seems to be getting a large amount of "hype" given her back story, and the tournament results. Some people think they are making her a little too skilled for a travel companion, or that it doesn't make sense for her to have an edge over Ash (the same can apply to Trip as well), other's feel she works just fine.

 

[Kenshin5]

I try not to buy into "hype" that goes on. Look at all the "hype" we got during the Sandile episode and that was a no capture, and the Don George Tournament was supposed to be the biggest thing ever! And look how that turned out. She may have skill but if they don't showcase it that much then that really isn't that big of a deal. As from what I can remember her only fights are sparing matches with Axew, a match with Bianca, two matches with Langley in the same episode, and the Don Battles that a bit of battle screen time, but it's not like she dominated her matches. Even though she had the typing advantage against Beartic she still tied during the second battle. I know Pikachu is godlike at times, but Pikachu vs. Excadrill using Electric attacks come on this ain't Rhydon v2. Pikachu and Ash had no answer against Excadrill Quick Attack is not very effective, Iron Tail is not very effective, Thunderbolt has no effect(as clearly demonstrated), and Electro Ball was just used as a defense. So that was clearly not the best match up, I think they wanted to give Ash a lose to her for some reason so they can revisit it in the future maybe.

 

[Jorah]

I have a bad memory, in the episode that Drayden was in, did they mention he was a gym leader? Because, you know, could be because she a gym leader in the games. Perhaps the writers are intentionally making us think that Iris isn't that great by first making her seem like she's all talk, only to reveal later she is pretty good. And then go on from there with the "surprise" of her being a gym leader. Or perhaps Drayden appoints her as gym leader at the end of the series so she has her reason to leave Ash :>

 

[ZeroX5]

I have a bad memory, in the episode that Drayden was in, did they mention he was a gym leader? Because, you know, could be because she a gym leader in the games. Perhaps the writers are intentionally making us think that Iris isn't that great by first making her seem like she's all talk, only to reveal later she is pretty good. And then go on from there with the "surprise" of her being a gym leader. Or perhaps Drayden appoints her as gym leader at the end of the series so she has her reason to leave Ash :>

Nope, IIRC they just said he was a "Dragon Master". Iris didn't know about him at all. She just trained in the woods with Drilburr, and eventually built up a 99 win streak with it before losing to Drayden. So people don't think she's the actual gym leader.

This all really could be due to the fact that she has limited screen-time, and the writers want to make it plausible that she'll have the necessary skill to become the last gym leader of Unova.