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How would you have written Iris?

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Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
I personally would of allowed her to have Pokémon that actually evolved during the series. It was kind of lackluster that she was the only main female that had no evolutions while travelling with Ash. Another problem I had with her was her not using Emolga or Axew nearly as much. After the BW2 it just became the Dragonite (and sometime Excadrill show). Those are my main two gripes.
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Iris was written fine, but there were few things that should have been done with her, first is instead f getting fully evolved dragonite she should have caught a dino a unnova pokemon whowould have evolved into a hydreigon towards the end of BW, it makes no sense for iris to go full series without any evolution and second make her more appreciative of ash instead of saying "you are such a kid" all the times which became old very soon, she should be more supportive and give him advice from time to time (even though he was in his worst incarnation he still some good things). Those two things needed to be done with her, the rest of things were handled pretty well, for a girl with no active goal and arc she never really became a background character.
 

VoltTacklingPika

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't change that much about her. The only thing I'd do is not give her a Dragonite outright, and instead give her a first-stage Dragon-type that would evolve over the course of the series. I think there's more value in starting with a weak Pokemon and working with it until it's strong than in taming an already strong Pokemon. The former shows the progression of the character over a long period of time with tangible moments of growth, while the latter occurs in a more condensed period of time and comes off as too sudden. Alternatively, I would have extended the Dragonite thing over more episodes and made the process of bonding and overcoming the boundaries between them more painful. During all of that, I would have emphasised the key flaw in Iris' character that prevents her from raising a strong Dragon-type in the first place, and only once she's overcome that would she be rewarded with the final stage evolution.

Besides all that, I wouldn't change anything about how she interacts with other characters. The contrast she has with Cilan is very strong while any problems with her relationship with Ash aren't a fault of her character, but a fault of how Ash is written in BW. Specifically, the issue liedwith Ash's lack of reactions to Iris' teasing/taunting. This had the unfortunate side effect of making Iris seem annoying through sheer repetition. While Ash's behaviour would give Iris more ammo to use against him, Ash himself was never interested in engaging Iris in that way and that killed the dynamic.
 
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Kintaro

Banned
They could have written her more like Sapphire from the manga who was another jungle/wild child. Instead the writers tried too hard to write Iris like Misty 2.0 at times, they should have just never tried to do that.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
-Scrap the vague Dragon Master dream and make her want to be Drayden’s successor
-Let her actually have consistent development for her battling strength
-Her team should be: Axew, Snivy, Deino, Tynamo, and maybe Excadrill. Axew goes to Fraxure and evolves again at the end of the series. Same for Deino/Zweilous. Snivy could go anywhere but Serperior would be nice. Tynamo replaces Emolga. Maybe a Druddigon instead of her Gible
-Have Georgia actually challenge Iris constantly
-Get a better catchphrase than “You’re such a kid”
-Cynthia, Clair, & Drayden should be more influential mentors to her
-Tie her into the plot with the Dragon trio of Unova
 

Kintaro

Banned
What's also strange is Iris was the only female companion who wasn't a beginning trainer like all the other female companions, and yet when we met her all she had was Excadrill and a new baby Axew. Unlike May/Dawn/Serena and Lillie/Lana/Mallow, Iris clearly had some more experience at the start of her run and yet the writers still had her with barely any pokemon. Like...I don't get it?

Did she really only use Excadrill until she got Axew's egg?
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
What's also strange is Iris was the only female companion who wasn't a beginning trainer like all the other female companions, and yet when we met her all she had was Excadrill and a new baby Axew. Unlike May/Dawn/Serena and Lillie/Lana/Mallow, Iris clearly had some more experience at the start of her run and yet the writers still had her with barely any pokemon. Like...I don't get it?

Did she really only use Excadrill until she got Axew's egg?
According to the anime yes. She wasn’t old enough to go on a journey and just training Excadrill alone got her a 99 winning streak and recognized by one of the strongest Gym leaders in Unova.
 

Kintaro

Banned
According to the anime yes. She wasn’t old enough to go on a journey and just training Excadrill alone got her a 99 winning streak and recognized by one of the strongest Gym leaders in Unova.

But why not use this reason to give her a lot of strong/experienced pokemon? Every other main girl in the anime is a beginning trainer who is either just starting to get their first pokemon when we meet them, or starts off with just 1.

Iris is the only female trainer we had that wasn't a beginning trainer for years.....and yet she still only has 2 pokemon when we meet her, and only 4 by the time she leaves the series. Kind of a missed opportunity to show an experienced female lead on the cast?
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
Personally I think Adventures take on Iris is the best incarnation and I think the anime should've gone a similar route.

  • Have Iris as one of Ash's rivals. Iris is literally rival material. She would be the perfect start for an arrogant female rival of Ash who thinks highly of herself and enters the Pokemon League.
  • Have Iris evolve her Axew into a Haxorus.
  • None of this "Ice-types are scary" BS. Give Iris a Lapras, Kanto fans will love it more than a Dragonite.
  • Have Iris's Hydreigon from the games play Dragonite's role instead. As a little Deino and Zweilous, it will be this hard-to-train, hard-to-command clumsy but cherished dragon-type Pokemon that is not so different from Psyduck. BUT when it evolves into Hydreigon, it goes from clumsy Psyduck to berserker arrogant Charizard. I have no clue why the writers gave Iris a Dragonite over a Hydreigon. Hydreigon's not only a popular Pokemon that represents the 5th gen but the Pokedex entry literally describes it as a Pokemon that is extremely hard to control even for the most talented of Dragon Tamers and Iris's successful training of a Hydreigon would've served as a step closer to becoming Dragon Master.
  • Keep the Dragon Master goal of the anime.
  • Have Ash & Iris meet each other again in a fossil-themed episode. Ash gets Carracosta while Iris gets Archeops, building up her BW2 team.
  • Finally, Iris enters the Pokemon League and with her powerful dragon-themed Pokemon, like Haxorus or Hydreigon, she's the one who not only ultimately beats Ash but becomes Pokemon Champion of Unova just like in BW2 where Iris also becomes Pokemon Champion.
  • And with Champion Iris instead of still-in-training Dragon Master Iris, we can get an Iris in her BW2 outfit in future returning appearances.
 
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UltimateNinja

Praying for the holy relics
Only Iris participating in those Don George tournaments and make them a only one type for each trainer based tournament, meaning her team must consist of Pokemon of a specific type she choosed (secondary types are exceptions), in that case the Dragon type. This also would make rivals like Georgia more of a thread, when Iris must face her in a tournament where she only is allowed to use Dragon types and Georgia (most likely) only Ice types.

Two episodes for each tournament is fine. After 3-5 wins she can then enter some kind of ultimate Don George tournament to win the title of a "Dragon type master". That also mean that catching anything but Dragon type Pokemon wouldn't be a good idea, but since she's aiming to become a Dragon type master, then I think that's not a problem.

Outside of that, make her train for those tournaments, let her experience something regarding to the dragons etc.
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
-Scrap the vague Dragon Master dream and make her want to be Drayden’s successor
-Let her actually have consistent development for her battling strength
-Her team should be: Axew, Snivy, Deino, Tynamo, and maybe Excadrill. Axew goes to Fraxure and evolves again at the end of the series. Same for Deino/Zweilous. Snivy could go anywhere but Serperior would be nice. Tynamo replaces Emolga. Maybe a Druddigon instead of her Gible
-Have Georgia actually challenge Iris constantly
-Get a better catchphrase than “You’re such a kid”
-Cynthia, Clair, & Drayden should be more influential mentors to her
-Tie her into the plot with the Dragon trio of Unova
Only Iris participating in those Don George tournaments and make them a only one type for each trainer based tournament, meaning her team must consist of Pokemon of a specific type she choosed (secondary types are exceptions), in that case the Dragon type. This also would make rivals like Georgia more of a thread, when Iris must face her in a tournament where she only is allowed to use Dragon types and Georgia (most likely) only Ice types.

Two episodes for each tournament is fine. After 3-5 wins she can then enter some kind of ultimate Don George tournament to win the title of a "Dragon type master". That also mean that catching anything but Dragon type Pokemon wouldn't be a good idea, but since she's aiming to become a Dragon type master, then I think that's not a problem.

Outside of that, make her train for those tournaments, let her experience something regarding to the dragons etc.
I feel like there's a problem here with Georgia that some of you aren't realizing. Personally I don't think she's a very good rival because why does she want to beat all the Dragon trainers she meets? Unless I missed something, feel free to answer why but as far as I know, the lack of an explanation for this makes Georgia feel like a bigger plot device rival than some of the more divisive rivals such as Trip. When we meet another random last-minute rival who wants to become Pokemon Champion, we know that person probably wants along the lines to be the very best without the anime having to explain it. It's a goal that's very familiarized in the anime but Georgia's goal to beat only just Dragon trainers is a bit more specific that the audience may ask, "Why does she want to beat all the Dragon trainers?" and never does the anime explain why that it comes off as a rival, a character who doesn't really go anywhere. Due to this I feel like Georgia's rivalry with Iris that didn't go anywhere only contributed to Iris being seen as even more of a divisive character.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
I feel like there's a problem here with Georgia that some of you aren't realizing. Personally I don't think she's a very good rival because why does she want to beat all the Dragon trainers she meets? Unless I missed something, feel free to answer why but as far as I know, the lack of an explanation for this makes Georgia feel like a bigger plot device rival than some of the more divisive rivals such as Trip. When we meet another random last-minute rival who wants to become Pokemon Champion, we know that person probably wants along the lines to be the very best without the anime having to explain it. It's a goal that's very familiarized in the anime but Georgia's goal to beat only just Dragon trainers is a bit more specific that the audience may ask, "Why does she want to beat all the Dragon trainers?" and never does the anime explain why that it comes off as a rival, a character who doesn't really go anywhere. Due to this I feel like Georgia's rivalry with Iris that didn't go anywhere only contributed to Iris being seen as even more of a divisive character.
She lost to a Dragon type Trainer at the Village of Dragons so she wants revenge
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
I feel like there's more to this story than just losing to a Dragon type Trainer.
Well that’s her reasoning in her debut episode. With the alterations I made, I had the mindset that everything else would’ve been changed to better fit the changes to Iris. She fits the weird trend of BE rivals having petty reasons to have rivalries like Trip (calls Kanto “the boonies” with no explanation as to the cause of the prejudice) and Burgundy (she makes Cilan’s evaluation of her after her loss at his Gym seem malicious)
 

keepitsimple

site of lies
I feel like there's more to this story than just losing to a Dragon type Trainer.
there isnt. she's a very bad character

she should be a buster of every type by now by her logic unless she only ever lost to dragon types lmao
 

Illusio

No words, only rage
Keeping her as a companion and not changing Ash or Cilan too much.:
  • Have her 'such a kid' line get cut entirely or grown out of. Part of the reason Iris is disliked is because people felt she was arrogant with that line always being used against her. Removing it or having her develop out of it would at least remove that complaint.
  • Stealing a previous idea: ditch Dragonite for Hydreigon. She already had a bond with a Deino in an early episode, use it, make it another Charmander arc. It growing into a strong, obedient fighter would've fit her story perfectly, especially if they didn't want to do anything with Axew.
  • Speaking of Axew, either evolve it or give it an episode focusing on why it didn't evolve. Also, keep the 'I'm lost/captured!' episodes to a minimum, it's hard to feel like it's growing up when it got lost in the league over halfway through the series.
  • Use Emolga and Excadrill more often, and give Excadrill more focus episodes since he was a previous ace for her. Hell, have him help train Axew and Deino since it could be a good mentor to them.
  • Use Georgia more, her rivalry started off good, but it fell off a cliff towards the end. Her pushing Iris would be the best way to get the most out of her Pokemon since she did push Iris to be better in her debut, more of that would help her.
  • Have her catch a fifth Pokemon to round out everything. If they keep the ice fear then Lapras would be the best choice since they could use it to help her grow out of that fear, but Druddigon wouldn't be bad either.
  • More Don George tournaments! They were great ways to show off the secondary characters and Iris is no different, have her enter at least one more to show how her team is coming along.
 
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