Misty and Iris was far more better and interesting then May and Dawn who both had no true good reasons being on the show in the first, because their only purpose was to promote the 3rd and 4th Generations Pokemon contests, Iris was much better then May and Dawn because she actually had a goal to become a Dragon master, she is now traveling on her own right now to become a Pokemon Dragon Master, that is much better then those stupid pointless Pokemon contests that May and Dawn did.
Paul was a one note pointless rival who didn't add anything new to the show, he was nothing like Gary at all because the only reason why he became Ash's rival was to see how strong his Pokemon really is and also because his brother lost to one of the Frontier Brains, his character was really terrible and the only good thing about Paul was how strong his Pokemon was other then that, his rivary with Ash was pointless. Ash and Gary were the best rivals of the OS anime because their rivary made sense and was developed for both regions instead of one, Gary was a way more interesting character then Paul who was a one note unteresting rival for only Sinnoh, heck even Trip was more interesting then Paul.
Yeah, and quite frankly, I'd forgive them promoting contests had they actually been directly relevant to the game's story, and since the anime, especially starting with AG, became little more than an overglorified infomercial for the games (I won't say commercial, since those don't last as long), they might as well make sure they're as accurate to the games in their advertising as needed. In other words, don't focus on stuff that is little more than a sidequest that doesn't impact the story or ending. Maybe if May and Dawn did the route of the Gyms and had an actual mentor-student relationship, that actually might work.
As far as Paul, I'll be blunt, he didn't really come across as a good rival. And besides, the games NEVER had your rival question your methods (not even Silver did, and that guy came the closest to meeting Paul's characterization), so why the heck was it necessary to have Paul force Ash to question his methods? And I also wasn't happy at all that Paul basically beat Ash's Pikachu twice, and not even with his actual starter Pokémon Torterra, which would have been a bit more understandable, but with explicit rookies (well, okay, you might make the case that Elekid might have been a late capture from the prior region, but Ursaring was definitely not a seasoned pro, being explicitly caught within Sinnoh). That was the same Pokémon that solo'd Regice almost immediately prior, and to add insult to injury, immediately prior to their first rematch, Brandon basically handed Paul his butt.
OP is definitely bait for getting negative responses but everyone is entitled to their opinion on a really subjective matter. Some people hate AG/DP for the Contests and other aspects such as Poke Bloc/Poke Poffins that were completely optional in the games as a pivotal or important aspect of the Anime. Some people hate them for simply shaking up the old dynamic of Ash, Misty and Brock as a crew that travels around to challenge Gyms and catch new Pokémon.
As I've said in my Top Series thread(which you can find here:
Click me), I found both AG and DP to worth watching, although DP more so than AG. The reason for this is because AG was the guinea pig for changing the group dynamic. May replaced Misty as the new female lead and had a much bigger role. While the role was optional in the games, it still involved battling(something that Serena sadly never had to endure). Since May was the first one to be introduced and go through the Contest path, she was also the most flawed. Her introduction was botched as far as I'm concerned, although who's to say it wasn't deliberate. Either way you look at it, May did undergo loads of character development. The most disappointing area were the Gym Leaders. Roxanne lost to Ash's Ace and Brawly beat Ash the first time around but then quickly went downhill after that with Ash making a mockery of Wattson and the disgraceful culmination in Thunder Armor in the Tate&Liza match.
Compare that to DP and Dawn. Dawn was a far more polished character from the start and her development was a joy to watch at times. Paul was the first true rival since Gary whose philosophy in raising Pokémon was a pure 180 to how Ash did things. The fact Paul beat Ash at every turn made Ash question himself and his methods and the rivalry only got hotter when they revealed Paul's motivation in defeating Brandon(whom Ash had defeated in the series prior). Not to say DP was immune from flaws or criticism. Gym Leaders weren't much better than Hoenn and Ash losing to Roark seemed to be a slap in the face when Pikachu solo'd Regice in Battle Frontier roughly 17 Episodes prior.
Honestly, you'd think the writers would have learned after they tried that with Brock that such is NEVER a good idea to do. And as I mentioned earlier, Pokémon Contests are optional, and just because they involve battling doesn't mean they should be a main goal. What, should the Princess Festival be a full-fledged goal, or even the Pokémon League Exams? Those also involve battling, yet no one would say they'd make a full-fledged goal. And May just underwent cheap character development, about as cheap as Flounder's "development" from Ariel's Beginning to the first Little Mermaid, or heck, how Solid Snake was generally handled in Metal Gear where he had inconsistent characterization. Misty's development actually WAS a lot more natural. I definitely agree with you on Hoenn's Gym Leaders, they were terrible (basically Team Rocket style defeats), and to add insult to injury, Ash stayed the same rank in the league as in Johto, meaning their losses were for nothing, not even having Ash actually improve over Johto. And quite frankly, May and Dawn were NOT appropriate for children regarding their designs, being big-busted and having a skirt short enough that even a slight breeze would have people see all, and the fact that Hidaka specifically indicated that the girls were deliberately designed to be disposable eyecandy is even worse especially when they're 10 year olds. If they really wanted to do disposable fanservice girls, at least make them 16 or 18 so they AREN'T borderline child porn.
As far as Dawn, she barely really developed, largely remaining the same as before. And besides, I still think her going for contests was unnecessary. Even if they did want to make more of a role, it's not like they can't have May and Dawn be disciples to Ash and go the Gym Battle routes (would even make good contrasts regarding battling styles), even have a sort-of final test in the leagues where Ash and May/Dawn fight each other. That would have been infinitely more interesting to see, and even allow for actual development on Ash's end as well.
And as far as Paul, like I said, I fail to see how Paul forcing Ash to question his methods made him a good rival (for goodness sakes, the rivals in the games don't have the player have their training methods questioned, not even Silver did that. In fact, if anything, the point was to show the rivals' training methods are flawed.). And quite frankly, Paul's Ursaring beating the much more experienced Pikachu as easily as it did, despite LOSING to Brandon literally an episode prior, was a complete embarrassment. If they REALLY had to have Pikachu lose to Paul, they should have had him lose to Paul's starter Pokémon Torterra, not an explicit rookie, and let's face it, despite Ash's Chimchar/Monferno connection to Paul, it was Pikachu and Torterra who were starters and thus really should have fought each other. It was just as much of a punch to the face as Roark beating Pikachu earlier (which even you cited was bad). Same goes for Pikachu's loss against Elekid in their first battle. I'll acknowledge that Paul was slightly better than Trip, though only because Paul at least was around Ash's experience level, while Trip defeated Ash despite the latter being way more experienced than him. Heck, Gary even BEATING Ash to get him to go to Sinnoh in the first place was also a punch in the face as well, especially when Gary, thanks to retiring to follow Professor Oak's footsteps, should not be doing training anyways (at least with a similar situation during the Orange Islands, we can assume he trained heavily to compensate for his embarrassing defeat in the Indigo League).
How was Iris like Misty? Iris was such an annoyance. What was her purpose? They needed a female character, and they created Iris. Absolutely nothing about her stands out, other than her irritating squeaky voice, horrendous hair and her repetitive remarks. "yOu'Re sUcH a kId." Misty at least was a gym leader and wasn't constantly nagging Ash. She was likeable, she was sweet and compassionate. Dawn and May in my opinion are much better than Iris. (Now, of course, this is simply my own opinion. You are entitled to yours as I am entitled to mine.) They were fully dimensional and real. They had insecurities and doubted themselves at times. Growing up, as a young girl, I really appreciate the humanity that those two had. I felt like they were easy to connect with and relate to. (Although, May was borderline a bit too emotional. She appeared to be constantly tormented by her own self-deprecating thoughts and feelings.)
As for Sun and Moon, I haven't watched a whole lot of it but from what I have seen, it isn't all that awful. Personally, the only real issue I have with it is the animation. Of course, as I previously stated, I have only seem partial clips and certain episodes of the series.
I'll be blunt, at least Iris and Misty didn't seem like they were the same type of characterization as those jerks from Love Hina or even the Fiorello Fangirls from Princess vs. Princess, while May and Dawn unfortunately came far too close to that for comfort from what I observed. That's what I meant by that. And May... look, if she doesn't like Pokémon, fine, but don't bother going on a Pokémon journey when you hate Pokémon, it insults the entire point, and besides, why the heck would she hate them when she came from a gym leader family. Misty and Brock didn't hate Pokémon at all, heck, not even Jessie and James hated Pokémon, and they were members of an organization that tries to outright murder Pokémon. And don't get me started on her more cowardly actions toward Manaphy, a Pokémon that was effectively her son, when Phantom abducted it in the climax of her movie, resulting in Ash having to save the day YET again. Sheesh, people complained about Misty's interactions with Togepi, yet at least with those two, Misty can be counted on to immediately try to save her child when it was in danger, or at least search for it. And it's a shame, because that movie came close to redeeming May in my eyes to an extent. Heck, at least Iris wasn't designed to be sexual eyecandy, which actually was somewhat refreshing especially after Hidaka's more infamous remark back in 2008 in a certain interview with Pokebeach.
As far as Sun and Moon, it's bad because Ash, similar to Misty in GCYL, was pretty much forced to put his goal of becoming a Pokémon master on the sideburner to effectively go to school, something which he NEVER demonstrated any need to do since Kanto with Pokémon Tech and that League exam. If he didn't need school for 20 years, why the heck would he need to go there NOW? Didn't help either that, until SM043 pretty much confirmed there would in fact be a Pokémon League in Alola starting up, Ash was basically not even going to pursue his goal (and CoroCoro if anything implied he changed his goal to "graduate like never before"). If anything, as much as I dislike the art style, that was the LEAST of its problems. It's even worse than Best Wishes. At least Best Wishes still let Ash actually pursue his goal. And the only reason this occurred is because those stupid writers completely lacked any foresight when planning the Kalos league, opted to have Ash lose as runner up despite giving repeated hints that he'd actually WIN this time around, not to mention the details for the then-upcoming Gen VII games pointing to there at the very least not being any gyms, possibly no Pokémon league as well.
