Oh joy, another, let’s rip on Dawn because she’s not had any team changes thread…..
Serena left to do contests, she’s come back and is doing contests….and one of her Pokemon evolved, she’s progressed so much!!
Dawn left and had a team change in Cyndaquil, just because that was over 10 years ago it still stands as a team change. Dawn got to the finals in her story arc, we saw her progression in Sinnoh, she left and is still doing contests, so there’s hardly going to be that much of a change.
I’d rather Dawn keep coming back and seeing how she interacts with the newer characters, and that’s exactly what she’s done, she had a 2 parter where she had fantastic interaction with Chloe, she got the opportunity to interact with just Goh as they got separated from the group together and in the Arceus special we got to see her interact with Ash and Brock like the old days, I’d rather that than some lame contest change goal, or some half thought of battle against a “champion”.
If they are going down the route of contests being more like the absolutely dire showcases, then I’d rather not see Dawn compete in a contest again and see her interact with the others like she has been, plus she’s contributed to saving a ton of legendaries so she’s pretty much a heroine for that.
And Dawn not getting new Pokémon is following on exactly from what they set up in her special, she wants to continue with her current team and continue making memories with them. Yeah Quilava could evolve, and I’d personally love that but you can’t deny she hasn’t had a team change at all since leaving Ash just because her last team change happened over 10 years ago.