Basically with all the hindsight opinion threads about past series and characters, let's get more intricate. What key moments defined your opinion of one of the main characters for you? Ones that either made you love them and be truly invested in them, or made you loathe them or just realise they weren't going the direction you wanted.
I'll start with some examples:
* Kiawe: Kiawe was on an okay run in early SM, but Turtonator for a long while was the least shown Pokemon of the group and they had barely any spotlight episodes. It was the Akala arc where Kiawe caught Marowak and we saw some subtle character development as a trainer, that I realised he was going to subvert the usual 'male companion curse'. Plus Marowak completing the comic dynamic within his group.
* Mallow: The fact it took Mallow far longer than any other SM protagonist to get a spotlight episode, and when it came, it was a generic TR interrupted plot, was the foreboding sign they hadn't much for her to do. Indeed it was mostly downhill for a long while, with her episodes usually the dullest and her usually being the least likely to take part in the main antics, as well as Tsareena annoyingly fully evolving with pretty much zero agency from her. Weirdly, I think what started to make me change my mind a little wasn't the Tapu Fini episode like many, but Shaymin's limelight episode in the Maile City mini arc, since, despite being another TR plot, it was the first episode to give Shaymin a personality and focus a lot on Mallow's distinct bonds with a Pokemon and how they contrast others (I loved how while Sandy was a little hellion who drove Lana crazy, Shaymin was pretty much Mallow's shy little angel).
I'll start with some examples:
* Kiawe: Kiawe was on an okay run in early SM, but Turtonator for a long while was the least shown Pokemon of the group and they had barely any spotlight episodes. It was the Akala arc where Kiawe caught Marowak and we saw some subtle character development as a trainer, that I realised he was going to subvert the usual 'male companion curse'. Plus Marowak completing the comic dynamic within his group.
* Mallow: The fact it took Mallow far longer than any other SM protagonist to get a spotlight episode, and when it came, it was a generic TR interrupted plot, was the foreboding sign they hadn't much for her to do. Indeed it was mostly downhill for a long while, with her episodes usually the dullest and her usually being the least likely to take part in the main antics, as well as Tsareena annoyingly fully evolving with pretty much zero agency from her. Weirdly, I think what started to make me change my mind a little wasn't the Tapu Fini episode like many, but Shaymin's limelight episode in the Maile City mini arc, since, despite being another TR plot, it was the first episode to give Shaymin a personality and focus a lot on Mallow's distinct bonds with a Pokemon and how they contrast others (I loved how while Sandy was a little hellion who drove Lana crazy, Shaymin was pretty much Mallow's shy little angel).