- Cries don't really play much role to me in the quality of any Saga. I don't pay much attention to cries in general for that matter.
- Iris is is worse how? Each character has their good qualities and flaws. So what if Iris says Ash is such a kid, she is just telling it like it is. If he wasn't making rookie mistakes then she wouldn't be berating him. She argues when ticked off... Isn't that kind of human nature to be confrontational when you are angry?
- There are 600+, so you kind of forget after awhile. Oh wait he's still 10 which means he hasn't seen them before cause their "new" to him. He make pull the dex out to see the basic attributes of a pokemon that he hasn't encountered in awhile. If your trying to apply logic in terms of time it will make less sense, cause apparently they don't use that in the anime. They also said in Spell of the Unknown that it's been a year since they started traveling, and new trainers start at 10, which would imply but that time he is 11. Yet the narrator at the beginning of Unova Saga said he was 10 still. This is either a plot hole, the writers want to maintain Ash and other characters at the same age and less then progress little by little then take it away, or they could not want Ash to age and progress cause that would mean they may need to find a new main character and mascot, which they may not be up to the challenge of making a dynamic character. Either that or if they did establish a new character they would probably or assuming they would do more of the same as they did with Ash. And I am sure you already know, but encase you don't level system is not really in place in the Anime, although it is mentioned in episodes it's more abstract then concrete(as with the games).
Team Rocket wins more often? They would have to actually show up every now and then to win. And last time I checked they haven't appeared since the Battle Subway incident so I wouldn't exactly say they are doing anything in terms of on-screen.
Some episodes tend to be the same? Can't that be said about every Saga? And the episodes you are alluding to are character development episodes. Which are definitely needed if you want any development or back story to your cast and their pokemon.
