mysticalglacia
Alola Shill
May was a character that was extremely new for Pokémon at the time, as was the AG series as a whole. A lot of the new ideas in the series were fine-tuned in DP, but that doesn’t make any of them bad, just a bit unpolished.
I loved May’s character. Her personality had range, her development flowed very naturally (if not always written the best, but they tried), and you could see how different of a person she was when BF ended. Her rivals were by far the best we’ve ever gotten for a Pokégirl, and I liked how she went through a ton of trial-and-error; made her seem fallible and human. But like with every girl, she had her own group of haters and fans. The complaining on how she wasn’t Misty faded away, but people thought she was too girly or too nice until eventually they thought the same with Dawn and started singing May’s praises. Rinse and repeat with every girl following.
I’d like to add that Dawn also had her interests outside of Pokémon and Contests explored and developed way more than any other girl. There were whole episodes dedicated to Pokémon Styling, something Dawn was portrayed as super talented at and interested in.
I loved May’s character. Her personality had range, her development flowed very naturally (if not always written the best, but they tried), and you could see how different of a person she was when BF ended. Her rivals were by far the best we’ve ever gotten for a Pokégirl, and I liked how she went through a ton of trial-and-error; made her seem fallible and human. But like with every girl, she had her own group of haters and fans. The complaining on how she wasn’t Misty faded away, but people thought she was too girly or too nice until eventually they thought the same with Dawn and started singing May’s praises. Rinse and repeat with every girl following.
.... because she was the second girl ever created. Dawn didn’t follow Ash because she had an opportunity in Sinnoh, Iris straight up ditched Ash in Kanto because she wanted to see Clair and Serena caught the next flight to Hoenn and got away from Ash. Dawn was considering staying with him but ultimately left. May is the only girl to part with Ash only to travel with him again. Almost all the girls have interests explicitly outside of Pokémon. Iris likes the outdoors, Serena liked making people smile, Lillie likes to research, Mallow loves cooking and Lana enjoys fishing (which includes Pokémon but not battling).
I’d like to add that Dawn also had her interests outside of Pokémon and Contests explored and developed way more than any other girl. There were whole episodes dedicated to Pokémon Styling, something Dawn was portrayed as super talented at and interested in.