Anybody else notice how the female companion keeps getting less and less "empowered"?

[KJC]

Misty: strong-willed person who is a gym leader.

May: acts silly and is into contests not gym battles

Dawn: not only is she into contests but she wears traditional dresses

Iris: has a strong will but is terrible at battles and is just handed a Dragonite

Serena: is into baking and extremely feminine showcases and has a huge crush on Ash who she idolizes

I mean, I don't even support feminism but this really grates on me.

 

[Lunala]

It's almost like people can have different personalities and interests from each other. Obviously not all of the companions are going to develop in the same way. There has to be some differences between the characters. I also disagree with your statement that Iris is terrible at battles.

I mean, I don't even support feminism but this really grates on me.

Really? To be frank, this seems like something only a feminist would be triggered by.

 

[Cometstarlight]

There's nothing wrong with girls being strong-willed or tomboyish, just like there is nothing wrong with a girl liking to bake or wear 'traditional' dresses. Not every girl has a bold/stand off-ish personality like Misty. They all stand their ground and are fierce battlers (with the exception of Iris, but that's just my opinion) that will fight for their friends and stand up for what they believe in.

 

[Lunala]

There's nothing wrong with girls being strong-willed or tomboyish, just like there is nothing wrong with a girl liking to bake or wear 'traditional' dresses. Not every girl has a bold/stand off-ish personality like Misty. They all stand their ground and are fierce battlers (with the exception of Iris, but that's just my opinion) that will fight for their friends and stand up for what they believe in.

I don't see Iris as a weaker battler than the other companions. Sure, there is definitely a massive power imbalance between the Pokemon in her party, but she raised Excadrill well and she has shown that she can hold her own even when using a weaker Pokemon like Emolga.

 

[Xenon Blue]

The main reason Misty seemed to have so much power was because Ash was treated like a rookie so he didn't really have the authority to act like the leader. In AG and DP, Ash was shown to be more competent, so May and Dawn, who were both beginners, had a more senpai-kohai relation with Ash. Iris was a bit of an odd ball in that she seems to have a bit of prior experience before meeting with Ash. She seems to be the wannabe-leader and tries to push Ash forward when in reality Ash doesn't need that much support from Iris. By the time Serena came along Ash seemed to be good enough to take the role as the leader, mainly because Brock or Cilan wasn't there and someone had to be the leader, so Serena naturally felt inferior to Ash. So it's not really the female becoming less empowered because they are presumably becoming not as strong-willed, but rather it's just Ash is becoming more and more leader-like. SM should change this up, as there are no traveling groups so no one person would feel empowered over another person that easily.

 

[Lord Trollbias]

Iris: has a strong will but is terrible at battles and is just handed a Dragonite

???????????

 

[sandtreamftw]

Misty: strong-willed person who is a gym leader.

May: acts silly and is into contests not gym battles

Dawn: not only is she into contests but she wears traditional dresses

Iris: has a strong will but is terrible at battles and is just handed a Dragonite

Serena: is into baking and extremely feminine showcases and has a huge crush on Ash who she idolizes

I mean, I don't even support feminism but this really grates on me.

Misty was in no way the most empowered of the female companions. She was basically the girl of the group, and was relegated for most of her time as a protagonist as Togepi's mommy. May and to a much greater extent Dawn could serve as protagonist separate from Ash in their own right. Iris may be annoying(mostly around Ash), but she is the only one of Ash's female companions to legitimately get a win off him.

Edit: Completely forgot Dawn and Misty beat Ash as well.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Dawn is the most strong willed female companion along with Iris lol

 

[Mrs. Oreo]

Misty: strong-willed person who is a gym leader.

I admired her strong will, but I think that over time the writing staff moved away from that kind of personality when it came to developing other female companions cuz perhaps the strong-willed female thing might be viewed as being too tomboyish. It might explain why May, Dawn and Serena were written to act more girly than tough. ^^

 

[HoundoomFan]

"Misty: strong-willed person who is a gym leader."
What? Sitting around while ash mostly battles isn't really her being a good battler. True she is strong-willed, but you whine about the others cuz 'they don't battle a lot.'

"May: acts silly and is into contests not gym battles
Dawn: not only is she into contests but she wears traditional dresses"
One part you seem to neglect is that contest have their own Pokemon battles. And at one point, it cost may a loss battling too much like ash, and dawn's the reason ash got so far in the Pokemon leauge due to dawn's ideas.

"Iris: has a strong will but is terrible at battles and is just handed a Dragonite"
Her battling troubles where more due to terrible writing (the dragonite for example), not that she sucked at battles. And if you haven't noticed, battles in BW in general was c**p. Not fair to say she 'sucks at battles' for a time when the majority of the battles sucked.

"Serena: is into baking and extremely feminine showcases and has a huge crush on Ash who she idolizes"
I don't like Serena that much, but I don't see the problem.

"I mean, I don't even support feminism but this really grates on me."
I'd like equally for both genders, but I don't see any problem here...

 

[satopi]

Iris can battle and hold her own with Pokemon by herself (as in getting close and personal). She didn't need a Pokemon to take down a Pokemon. She also battled a lot younger as a kid and was competent. And how are all the girls after Misty lack empowerment? They were all strong and had that inner fire in them shown in different ways.

I don't see the point of this lie of a thread.

 

[Lunala]

Aside from the fact that OP's statements have all been easily debunked, OP is really just complaining about the companions' goals and character traits. It's just his personal opinion that Misty is better than the other girls, and making their differences out to be some sexist thing is dishonest.

 

[KungFuMaster]

Looks like we have a genwunner here. I can't agree with any statement you've made sorry dude

 

[DatsRight]

The irony is that Serena is the one female companion that's NEVER lost a battle or even had one of her Pokemon faint despite arguably having the most inferior battling skills. In a way she is ironically the most empowered by the plot. Her very feminine goal also ties with Dawn as the most successful of the lot since she made it into the finals. The story gives her a crush on Ash and likes depicting her get protected by him a lot, but it's not as if shipping stories are unpopular anyway.

Misty and Iris seemed more ironic 'empowered' females, they looked down on Ash and thought they were experts but, while they had SOME competence, they were depicted mostly as braggarts with average experience and even more training issues than Ash. Their headstrong attitude seemed more to hide their insecurities over their shortcomings.

Dawn and May were arguably the most straight played 'empowered' females, though May's was downplayed slightly due to her 'little sister' chemistry with Ash and getting a lot of damsel in distress moments to play on it. Keep in mind Dawn still had a fairly feminine and occasionally insecure personality, if not a particularly demure and recessive one, but still often battled on equal footing with Ash and had the most prevalent 'co star' status with him out of the five.

 

[Janovy]

Lol

"Iris is a terrible battler".

Please do not talk about Best Wishes as if you've seen the series. Okay, thanks, bye.

 

[DatsRight]

From what I've seen Iris was about the same level as Misty; as in she had some level of skill, but was prone to as many stupid mistakes and teething problems as Ash. Nearly all of her Pokemon had obedience issues and as she once got called out for, having an unruly Pokemon just happen to indirectly do what you want isn't the same as being a competent trainer. And there's also stuff like commanding Dig attack on the deck of a ship...

 

[Genaller]

Misty was in no way the most empowered of the female companions. She was basically the girl of the group, and was relegated for most of her time as a protagonist as Togepi's mommy. May and to a much greater extent Dawn could serve as protagonist separate from Ash in their own right. Iris may be annoying(mostly around Ash), but she is the only one of Ash's female companions to legitimately get a win off him.

I agree with you mostly. Just had to mention that Dawn also got a legitimate win over Ash (Chimchar vs Piplup).

 

[Janovy]

From what I've seen Iris was about the same level as Misty; as in she had some level of skill, but was prone to as many stupid mistakes and teething problems as Ash.

Care to name an example?

Nearly all of her Pokemon had obedience issues and as she once got called out for, having an unruly Pokemon just happen to indirectly do what you want isn't the same as being a competent trainer.

Except Iris managed to work with her disobedient Pokemon and develop a strong relationship with them. That defines a competent trainer, someone who grows and learns and becomes stronger.

And there's also stuff like commanding Dig attack on the deck of a ship...

Lol what?

 

[DatsRight]

Care to name an example?

Except Iris managed to work with her disobedient Pokemon and develop a strong relationship with them. That defines a competent trainer, someone who grows and learns and becomes stronger.

I'm not saying she was useless, but she had WAY more problems and similarities to Ash than she would like to admit, similar to Misty. And in fairness, people tend to forget that BW Ash developed and became far less of idiot as the series progressed as well.

Dragonite speaks for himself, Emolga had clashes with Iris even near the very end and Axew infamously never evolved and remained a fairly dependent character. Not to mention on her own she commonly got into buffoonish situations or made silly mistakes (eg. getting captured and mummified by Cofagrigus, her insistence that Charizard was a dragon type despite Ash correcting her). She got better as the show went on, but she remained a rather flawed character, much more than she saw herself as. Not the best or the worst of the lot.

Lol what?

Watch the 'Farewell Unova' episode. The twerps start a battle with TR on a ship (despite Cilan warning against it) and Iris commands Excadrill to Dig to evade Amoongus. She then whines at Excadrill when the ship inevitably starts sinking.

I agree with you mostly. Just had to mention that Dawn also got a legitimate win over Ash (Chimchar vs Piplup).

Well in fairness clear type advantage comes into play there.

 

[yuoke]

You realize dawn wesring a skirt is due to her game design? And your point for iris makes no sense.

Serena was the only borribly written character.