What element of each companion annoyed you the most from a battling perspective?

[Bendicion]

May was a bad battler, Ash's copycat and her victories during Contests were rushed and made for the plot.

May was a really bad battler. Almost all of May's wins were through blatant use of plot armor.

 

[Damerdal]

This May slander is too much.

Given how this anime has struggled with writing even up until its very finale, the fact that in AG the female lead got her own active goal similar to badges, a full roster of Pokemon, rivals, character development, etc was quite spectacular. I was a kid when AG aired, but I could tell how night and day May’s focus and development was compared to Misty’s (particularly in Johto).

 

[Bendicion]

This May slander is too much.

How is it even slander when its the truth?

I could tell how night and day May’s focus and development was compared to Misty’s (particularly in Johto).

Johto has some of Mistys BEST episodes so idk what you mean.

 

[Pokeshipper_]

May was influenced by Ash's battle style watching his matches, but came up with her own techniques during hers. As @Damerdal and many others can tell you, May still had the second most about battles and focus after Dawn in the series and a huge step up from Misty hardly battling in the OS or just failing with Psyduck. All of May's pokemon get a lot of showcasing and show off different moves and combinations in each Contest.

Oh no, Scott again...

 

[Bendicion]

All of May's pokemon get a lot of showcasing and show off different moves and combinations in each Contest.

TF? 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.

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

Dawn's Buneary being her first capture then remaining completely static for the rest of the series

It was caught then it got absolutely no development, jobbed through most of the battles it was in, didn't evolve despite having no real reason not to, and it's one niche (having Ice Beam) was completely overrided when Dawn caught Mamowsine and later on showing that Piplup had Ice Beam in BW

 

[Pokeshipper_]

Dawn's Buneary being her first capture then remaining completely static for the rest of the series

It was caught then it got absolutely no development, jobbed through most of the battles it was in, didn't evolve despite having no real reason not to, and it's one niche (having Ice Beam) was completely overrided when Dawn caught Mamowsine and later on showing that Piplup had Ice Beam in BW

You're kinda right, Buneary didn't learn any moves and Dawn used her only during the first round of the Contests after the first Contest against Zoey and then only at the Grand Festival with Cyndaquil. Pachirisu got more screentime and battled more during the Contests.

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

You're kinda right, Buneary didn't learn any moves and Dawn used her only during the first round of the Contests after the first Contest against Zoey and then only at the Grand Festival with Cyndaquil. Pachirisu got more screentime and battled more during the Contests.

I feels like the only reason they kept her around instead of getting rid of her like Aimbipom is because of Marketing

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Misty-her battles were mostly treated with comic relief until like mid-late Johto.
May-had plot armor for her contest battles. I liked her team though.
Dawn-no complaints here except for maybe the Amipom and Togekiss thing.
Iris-her jobbernite
Serena-didnt even finish 1 battle on her own, neglected badly for battles in general.
Lillie-needed more battles.
Lana-needed more battles.
Mallow-needed more battles.
Koharu-needed more battles.

Its weird that ever since Iris left and Serena became a main character that the female characters got significantly less battles and stuff compared to the others.

 

[Sham]

Its weird that ever since Iris left and Serena became a main character that the female characters got significantly less battles and stuff compared to the others.

Not only that but Mallow, Lana and Serena somehow fully evolved their aces yet managed to avoid battling most of their series.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Its weird that ever since Iris left and Serena became a main character that the female characters got significantly less battles and stuff compared to the others.

That was when Ash was pushed far more into the hero territory that everyone else had to under-perform so he could look more heroic, which stuck for the rest of the girls.

Though Serena was the worst offender of all the other girls because she never wanted to finish whatever battle she started: from battle practice to letting Ash take care of...freakin' Team Rocket by himself even with Clemont around (and that one last random battle with Ash that got offscreened).

 

[DatsRight]

It always felt like the girls got too much of a free pass in terms of battling. As in the boy companions got brevity in battles too, but they were often more fully fledged or their lack of battling would come back to haunt them more and they'd get their butts kicked. You felt they were TRYING whenever they got a turn. Even dubious cases like Goh would have plenty instances they put in the effort but still got thrashed.

The girls tended to only battle if they could WIN, often very easily, or at least be on the winning end for as long as the battle lasted. We've talked about May's plot armour contests, Misty having Psyduck interrupt so many matches, Serena's being called off, but notice how they're nearly always undercooked to their ADVANTAGE, so they can avoid being overpowered and spend most of their screentime getting in cheap shots with little intuition or need to improve in any way. It takes out a degree of fallibility to them, to the point all the XY-onwards girls only ever got KOed ONCE. That they'd rather make the whole match a farce and treat it like some accomplishment rather than just let the cute girls get roughed up a bit learning the ropes.

I think it's why it felt a bit cathartic that the SM girls got a 'warranty' of sorts, that since they kinda siddled around needing to battle to get their boosts, they WEREN'T going to get an easy ride in the league and got thrashed in all their matches. Granted even then I think it still would have been more compelling if they had just....let them get better at battling in the first place.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

I both agree a lot of the evolutions in SM and esp JN were much quicker and ig "easier" than past series had built up as, but I also feel that IS the way evolutions should work in the anime, esp for starters. I mean in a more refined manner ofc
Stuff like Ash having Chimchar till Gym 7 is too much, we can balance stuff out more. Evolutions shouldnt be this intense always need to battle 1000x times thingie, it also being metaphors for growing up or happening through other training methods fits the worldbuilding of Pokemon much better than limiting them to trainers who battle only. It makes the world less built around battling as a concept only and builds the lifestyle of Pokemon so much better

 

[Almighty Zard]

I feels like the only reason they kept her around instead of getting rid of her like Aimbipom is because of Marketing

Ambipom leaving abruptly to go play ping pong is one of the weirdest writing decisions ever, Dawn got the short end of the stick so to speak of the trade because of that, and it's "replacement" in the form of Togekiss didn't exactly help Dawn out either due to only be used 1 time, and losing.

Buneary ain't in a much better spot though, with Piplup having learned Ice Beam, Buneary's only redeeming trait at this point is it's crush on Pikachu, which didn't come up at all during JN's despite Dawn coming back several times.

 

[DatsRight]

I both agree a lot of the evolutions in SM and esp JN were much quicker and ig "easier" than past series had built up as, but I also feel that IS the way evolutions should work in the anime, esp for starters. I mean in a more refined manner ofc
Stuff like Ash having Chimchar till Gym 7 is too much, we can balance stuff out more. Evolutions shouldnt be this intense always need to battle 1000x times thingie, it also being metaphors for growing up or happening through other training methods fits the worldbuilding of Pokemon much better than limiting them to trainers who battle only. It makes the world less built around battling as a concept only and builds the lifestyle of Pokemon so much better

I feel like the better evolutions are ones that have actual story narrative, like Rockruff and Popplio's first evolution, they built up via training and then at the end of the episode it comes to them. They are actual rewards for their growth. Even some brisker more circumstantial ones like Meltan I kinda liked since it played on the species' biology.

I've never been big on the DEM evolutions and boosts, the ones that are often just a cheap way to effortlessly null out the episode's dilemma and heck, even sometimes the Pokemon's long term training in the first place, they rarely feel like they had agency from the trainer. Mallow's Tsareena was probably the worst offender since getting two convinient evolutions were probably the most significant things she actually done, even counting non-battle stuff. It just felt like she got them for free because they had zero idea what else to do with Mallow.

 

[Sham]

Yea tbh it was just jarring how to anime made evolution seem like this thing you have to train for wether it be training with moves or against other Pokemon and then in that series it's like "BAM YOU GET EVOLUTION!", "YOU GET AN EVOLUTION" etc

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

They changed evolution from strictly being related to battling and more to lifestyle in general, representating change, growing up and even biology at times
It is jarring sure but definitely how it should be, evolutions arent stretched so much anywhere else in the franchise, high time the anime followed suit

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

In other words, all evolutions were treated like Bug-type evolutions for the sake of marketing.

 

[Bendicion]

May-had plot armor for her contest battles. I liked her team though.

I didn't like her team in the slightest bit. May's pokemon tended not to get much screentime outside of their specific contest battles or the eps leading up to them almost similar to the way Journies handled Ash's Pokémon. Beautifly barely appeared in mid/late Hoenn for example. Skitty was used for a bit then got overshadowed by her Bulbasaur, and then all 3 of her Hoenn pokemon were dropped after Hoenn ended. Munchlax didn't do much till the middle of BF despite being captured before the Hoenn Grand Festival and Eevee hardly did anything of note outside the one contest it had against Brock. And of course Torchic was barely used for the first 80 episodes of Hoenn till it evolved.

 

[Gingertail24]

I feel like the better evolutions are ones that have actual story narrative, like Rockruff and Popplio's first evolution, they built up via training and then at the end of the episode it comes to them. They are actual rewards for their growth. Even some brisker more circumstantial ones like Meltan I kinda liked since it played on the species' biology.

I've never been big on the DEM evolutions and boosts, the ones that are often just a cheap way to effortlessly null out the episode's dilemma and heck, even sometimes the Pokemon's long term training in the first place, they rarely feel like they had agency from the trainer. Mallow's Tsareena was probably the worst offender since getting two convinient evolutions were probably the most significant things she actually done, even counting non-battle stuff. It just felt like she got them for free because they had zero idea what else to do with Mallow.

Yeah I would say mallow lack of direction and half hearted development is what annoyed me