Another mistreatment is that May had no real iconic Pokémon to focus on. Her Pokémon were never used much and you didn’t have that iconic connection like Misty/Psyduck, Dawn/Pipup, Serena/Braixen or Lillie/Vulpix. So her Pokémon were just kinda there without any major connection. Her team does feel a bit too lackluster for Contests. They didn't even include Torchic in one of her Contests until it became a Combusken, most of her Pokemon aren't from Hoenn despite representing the third generation and I think making her team even smaller for the Battle Frontier arc was a poor choice. Leaving Beautifly and Skitty behind made sense considering she used them the most out of her team, but leaving her Bulbasaur behind at Professor Oak's was forced and she ended up with only four Pokemon on her team by the time she left the cast. I wish that Bulbasaur stayed around myself. I didn't think it got enough screentime considering she only used it more frequently near the end of her Hoenn Contest arc. Plus, it would have made the random Venusaur cameo during the Wallace Cup much more meaningful.
Most of her Pokemon had a good amount of moves to make her appeals and battles visually interesting at least, but they didn't stand out much personality wise and not having a strong recognizable connection with one of her Pokemon didn't help matters either. I also don’t think any of May’s Pokémon ever got a spotlight episode outside the eps she capture them. For Combusken her main starter even after it evolved I don’t recall May and it ever bonding at all outside a Contest. The rest of her Pokémon were treated similarly, I also wish beautifly stayed on her team the whole series. Even though May has 7 Pokémon her team feels generally forgettable to a lot of the other girls Pokémon. Serena only had 3 Pokémon but all 3 were well characterized for example.
Moreover, it takes May over 50 episodes into AG just to win her first ribbon. Since she loses to Drew in her first contest she doesn’t win one till the second Hoenn season. That means for the whole first year of Hoenn May’s arc barely got started. By comparison Dawn won her first ribbon around 26 eps into DP. We also then had extremely rushed Grand Festivals where May had entire matches skipped or the Solidad battle which was less than 15 seconds long. This is definitely a huge mistreatment for May's storyline. While she had some good moments prior to getting her first ribbon, it took far too long for her to get that first ribbon when she still needed five. That might have been too bad if they didn't try to squeeze in two Contest arcs in one series and it probably did contribute to the rush pacing of her Hoenn Contest arc.
