Sometimes the hardest thing to write in a long series is the farewell. That is why alot of the time they die or something comes up. I thought the Dawn farewell was the 2nd best farewell behind Misty's. I am still bummed out becasue I just knew that it wasn't a goodbye just a see you later after both farewells in Sinnoh and Unova but i guess I was off.....For now. I am still half expecting to see some cameos. Every companion has a poke that can mega evolve except Dawn (For now)
I agree that Dawn goodbyes wasn't that bad.
Aldo the motives that she left where not the best. Their "friendship" would need a better motive to be torn apart tbh.
Not to talk about the goodbye in BW, only best bros showed some affection.
I do hope it was only as "See you later"
Idk, I mean I didn't exactly hate it, but I didn't like it either. In terms of Dawn's exit, there were some great parts like Piplup and how Ash cheered her up at the end by saying her catchphrase. Not to mention the last picture of Dawn hugging Piplup.
But after all that great build-up of Ash and Dawn being close friends and how special their friendship was, I really expected more than just a two second reaction. Heck Piplup's first meeting with Pikachu was getting a thunderbolt to the face and he was the only one crying when Ash and crew left.
As for Brock though, there was a lot more they could do. For example show some flashbacks to when they first met, or all the hard times they went through, or their first battle. How about they exchange some sort of parting gift, like Ash giving Brock his hat or something. Instead they sort of just shook hands and left.
To give an example, look at when the original three first split up. The whole episode was dedicated to Misty leaving and her feelings at not being able to travel with her friends. Brock didn't get the same finale exit [because he was coming back in Advanced gen.] Hell Misty even got a song dedicated to her "American version pasted feelings" for Ash. While it was chock full of cringe worthy moments, it was still a worthy send-off.
This is just my opinion but I really don't think much of Pokemon's writers. But imo its not that hard to write a good farewell. If you build up a relationship, you have to match that build-up to emphasize how important that person was to the story, and also that character's role within the story. And I think the writers just got lazy.
