Who do you guys think was the strongest companion?

[Spider-Phoenix]

I mean maybe in the case of some of the lower ranking coordinators but Drew, Solidad and the other strong ones had Pokemon that could battle well and not just in contests.

If I recall Drew's managed to beat Ash's Taillow with Roselia wasn't it?

So it's not like Drew is exactly a pushover battle-wise

 

[Flashyspark]

It's hard to judge how most Pokemon Co-ordinators stack up to normal trainers but at least Drew seemed like he could take on regular trainers without too many problems. Oh and so could Nando because he did both Contests and Gyms. But May was clearly one of the supreme Co-ordinators who could beat other Co-ordinators and normal trainers alike.

 

[Sham]

Do we have any reason to believe that Dawn is below the belt in terms of battling? She handled herself pretty well against Maylene and that was her first “Gym” match. It’s kinda sad BW retconned her strength to make Dragonite look good but alas

 

[Applecorp]

I do think Dawn is probably an above average battler, but if Iris is any indication, she still has trouble in regular normal battles.

Dawn vs Iris wasn't even fair any ways because it was clear that Iris was given the win just to make her look good. I mean she was using a disobedient Dragonite with a type disadvantage and she still won? That made no sense and Dawn should've won.

 

[Leonhart]

Dawn vs Iris wasn't even fair any ways because it was clear that Iris was given the win just to make her look good. I mean she was using a disobedient Dragonite with a type disadvantage and she still won? That made no sense and Dawn should've won.

Kairyu being disobedient made the battle feel a little lopsided I admit, but I never understood the criticism about Kairyu being at a type disadvantage since we'd seen dozens of scenarios in the past where type disadvantages didn't matter. So I never got why that was a valid complaint about Iris
and Kairyu's win.

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

As of right now? Probably May

By the time the current series is over? Probably Gou

 

[RafaSceptile]

Kairyu being disobedient made the battle feel a little lopsided I admit, but I never understood the criticism about Kairyu being at a type disadvantage since we'd seen dozens of scenarios in the past where type disadvantages didn't matter. So I never got why that was a valid complaint about Iris
and Kairyu's win.

Dozens of hundreds*

 

[Applecorp]

Kairyu being disobedient made the battle feel a little lopsided I admit, but I never understood the criticism about Kairyu being at a type disadvantage since we'd seen dozens of scenarios in the past where type disadvantages didn't matter. So I never got why that was a valid complaint about Iris
and Kairyu's win.

Okay but even sidestepping the type thing Dawn was a stronger and more consistent battler than Iris was. Iris had her offscreen win streak sure but that doesn't matter since some of her other battles weren't that great. Mamoswine was a beast and it sucks that he lost like that.

 

[janejane6178]

May or Dawn

 

[Lindseey]

my vote is gonna go to dawn. may a close second but I think especially in theoretically present time with a multiple region experienced dawn it would be dawn

 

[nickdt]

It's hard to judge how most Pokemon Co-ordinators stack up to normal trainers but at least Drew seemed like he could take on regular trainers without too many problems. Oh and so could Nando because he did both Contests and Gyms. But May was clearly one of the supreme Co-ordinators who could beat other Co-ordinators and normal trainers alike.

Its such a shame Dawn was never put against Nando. Only then we could judge her true strenght, especially since Nando gave Ash a run for his money in the league (Such a shame Nando was paired up in the first round against Ash, since he could have easily made top 4).

 

[Kuzehiko]

Kairyu being disobedient made the battle feel a little lopsided I admit, but I never understood the criticism about Kairyu being at a type disadvantage since we'd seen dozens of scenarios in the past where type disadvantages didn't matter. So I never got why that was a valid complaint about Iris
and Kairyu's win.

2x disadvantage type + disobedient Dragonite is enough to think her victory made no sense even when Dragonite took several direct hits from Mamoswine's ice-type attacks.

 

[XY Rules]

Females: May>Dawn>Iris>Misty>Lana>Serena=Mallow=Lillie

Males:

Brock>Kiawe>Clemont>Cilan>Tracey. Haven’t seen enough of Goh to judge him yet.

People forget that Brock is actually a savage when he wants to be. He just doesn’t like battling. Don’t forget who Ash’s mentor was.

Apples and Oranges. By the time May was facing Dawn she had three regions worth of Contests under her belt and Dawn had one (halfway). Using Glaceon was only fair given the EXTERNAL situation and to make it look less one sided to the viewers. Piplup is Dawn’s partner so obviously he’s going to be stronger than most of Dawn’s other Pokémon.

Apples and oranges are both part of the fruit category. They’re not that different, so it makes sense to compare them. The previous user made valid points.

 

[Sham]

Apples and oranges are both part of the fruit category. They’re not that different, so it makes sense to compare them. The previous user made valid points.

If you want to compare people on different experience levels and somehow prove that one is better due to a battle that happened when the other was a novice go ahead. I'm sure your average person knows not to compare a college athlete to an Olympic champion.

 

[XY Rules]

If you want to compare people on different experience levels and somehow prove that one is better due to a battle that happened when the other was a novice go ahead. I'm sure your average person knows not to compare a college athlete to an Olympic champion.

These are two entirely different things. The gap between a beginner and an intermediate isn’t the same as the gap between a beginner and a champion...May never won a Grand Festival so she’s not the equivalent to an Olympic champion.

There are several different tournament based activities where the only way to advance through the ranks is to beat someone at a higher skill level than you. For example in several taekwondo tournaments, it’s common for yellow belts to end up fighting orange belts. That’s because there’s not a huge difference in skill between the two. Not like if a white belt fought a ten degree black belt which is what your comment is relating this to.

I’m also not trying to prove that Dawn is stronger than May. If you look at my rankings, I don’t even agree with that. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to blatantly disregard someone who made an argument that has merit either.

 

[Codebox]

Honestly I would say Dawn is the strongest. Namely because outside of maybe her battle with May at the Wallace Cup I don't feel any of her victories used any excessive plot armor or traded away competency for comedy. (Maybe her getting wins with the timers falling in favor of her?) With Misty she was hit or miss, she had some wins and I do feel under the right circumstance (i.e smarter writing) she could shine when she needs to I mean after all Johto, Chronicles and Sun & Moon do show she's capable of an actual battle (in fact I'd say her battles got better in Johto over Kanto/Orange Islands) and outside of Psyduck vs Kingler, I found her Johto wins fine. But she could also fall under having too many instance of Psyduck ex machina or messy performances. Also there's Goldeen.

With May she had the most progressive development with her battle style even by the end even adding some of Ash's style into her own. However out of all the companions May suffered the most from heavy dose of plot armor. As a lot of her contest wins were won through convenience or the episode just outright giving it to her when she clearly had the disadvantage. The worst offenders being Skitty vs Phantom's Dusclops and Eevee vs Brock's Marshtomp. With Skitty vs Dusclops her strategy was just to spam assist, and afterwards only then could it use Blizzard properly at just the moment of convenience when it was about Skitty not mastering Blizzard well. And with Eevee vs Marshtomp the latter clearly had the upper hand the entire fight, even to the point of countering all her options, but was able to win because it somehow got in a few tackles?

And with Iris she basically is better than Misty in the fact she has more battles and less moments where her battles were traded for comedy (my memory serves I don't think she had any) and outside of Dragonite vs Mammoswine I can't think of any moment where she isn't bad at battling. (Memory is a bit hazy)

Serena is the weakest because she barely battled (even less than Misty) and when she did was often when she was part of a group attack and most of her actual battles ended before any conclusion could be resolved. Dawn I don't feel had any of those problems as any of the female companions mentioned above. Outside of debatably her battle against May in the Wallace Cup I don't recall Dawn's wins falling under any of them.

 

[Ragnarok4]

Skitty vs Phantom's Dusclops and Eevee vs Brock's Marshtomp.

Squirtle vs Ariados

 

[Kuzehiko]

Changing my mind.
Iris' the strongest now that she's returning.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

You all forgot Brock and his crazy *** strong Happiny.

 

[janejane6178]

Iris is the strongest.
If by “companions” u also include useless classmates - then the sm cast r the weakest, except the half naked red boy, which is above them