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Why almost everybody here hates Iris?

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KingMinun

Dawn/Sinnoh Fan!
I’ll admit, I hated Iris when BW was airing, but this was at a time when I struggled to watch the anime because of the quality of the show, and her catchphrase annoyed the hell out of me.

However once we moved onto XY, I eventually did an anime run through from beginning to then present and watched all of BW, I found Iris’ character grew on me a bit. I no longer hated her and found her the most interesting out of the BW trio, she had the most story out of all 3, Ash included. However it felt at times things were just handed to her and didn’t feel earned. She had a disobedient Excadrill who just suddenly won a tournament, then she gets a disobedient Dragonite that doesn’t listen and ends up performing well in a competition. It got a bit repetitive and then all of a sudden she’s got this potential to become the next dragon gym leader which just felt like it came from nowhere. However as stated, she still felt the most developed and is no where near the worst character.

In fact, it surprises me to this day that Iris gets more hate than Cilan. That character irrated me more so than Iris ever did. How he was an expert at everything, everything he was a connoisseur of, that got annoying, very very quickly. And then his evaluating time was also annoying, he had next to no development in terms of character or towards his goal. He came in as an A class connoisseur and left as one, he always had one over on his rivals and they were no match for him. He goes down for me as one of the worst characters the show has produced personally.
 

Genaller

Silver Soul

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
In fact, it surprises me to this day that Iris gets more hate than Cilan. That character irrated me more so than Iris ever did. How he was an expert at everything, everything he was a connoisseur of, that got annoying, very very quickly. And then his evaluating time was also annoying, he had next to no development in terms of character or towards his goal. He came in as an A class connoisseur and left as one, he always had one over on his rivals and they were no match for him. He goes down for me as one of the worst characters the show has produced personally.

Agreed. And the most interesting aspect was his phobia of Purrloin yet it was never explained or mentioned again. Dawn’s fear of Plusle and Minun and why she hated being called DD was eventually explained. Misty was afraid of Bug types because she thought of them as “creepy” like a stereotypical girl her age. Iris hated Ice types because Dragon types are weak to them. But Cilian’s fear was never explained as to what happened to him and when he was going to explain it, the episode ends which was annoying. We never learned what it was. I think if he wasn’t the group’s cook, Iris and Ash would have left him behind. Here’s what I would have liked to have seen:
“I’m a connoisseur of belly button lint!”
“Okay. You’re out of the group now! Bye!”
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Agreed. And the most interesting aspect was his phobia of Purrloin yet it was never explained or mentioned again. Dawn’s fear of Plusle and Minun and why she hated being called DD was eventually explained. Misty was afraid of Bug types because she thought of them as “creepy” like a stereotypical girl her age. Iris hated Ice types because Dragon types are weak to them. But Cilian’s fear was never explained as to what happened to him and when he was going to explain it, the episode ends which was annoying. We never learned what it was. I think if he wasn’t the group’s cook, Iris and Ash would have left him behind. Here’s what I would have liked to have seen:
“I’m a connoisseur of belly button lint!”
“Okay. You’re out of the group now! Bye!”

Misty wasn't afraid of bug types, she just plain out hated bug types for no reason she even said that bugs are the most disgusting things ever which was stupid, the only pokemon she was afraid of was gyarados. And that is not stereotype of her age it was just her personality which was also never explained why she hated them ma, dawn, serena, lillie, lana and mallow are all of her age group but never hated any specific type. Iris hated ice types due to her being a budding dragon type trainer so it was justified but in misty's case it was just stupid to hate bug types.
 

Genaller

Silver Soul
Misty wasn't afraid of bug types, she just plain out hated bug types for no reason she even said that bugs are the most disgusting things ever which was stupid, the only pokemon she was afraid of was gyarados. And that is not stereotype of her age it was just her personality which was also never explained why she hated them ma, dawn, serena, lillie, lana and mallow are all of her age group but never hated any specific type. Iris hated ice types due to her being a budding dragon type trainer so it was justified but in misty's case it was just stupid to hate bug types.
Yeah Misty’s hate for bug types is on the real world observation that bugs are gross though it sort of hurts her case when Pokémon bugs turn out to be self-aware creatures unlike real life bugs.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
Yeah Misty’s hate for bug types is on the real world observation that bugs are gross though it sort of hurts her case when Pokémon bugs turn out to be self-aware creatures unlike real life bugs.
I don't think they knew what they were doing in episode THREE of the whole anime lol
 

keepitsimple

site of lies
Well yeah, but who said everyone had to like the joke in the first place :p.
Jokes are supposed to be funny
You don't have to like the joke, but it's still intended as a joke and not supposed to be taken seriously which was my point with that post lol. I don't like Iris either but I'm still going to point out when people make bad points against her
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
You don't have to like the joke, but it's still intended as a joke and not supposed to be taken seriously which was my point with that post lol. I don't like Iris either but I'm still going to point out when people make bad points against her
I'm aware but that changes nothing about my post's intention so cool lol
 

Genaller

Silver Soul
You don't have to like the joke, but it's still intended as a joke and not supposed to be taken seriously which was my point with that post lol. I don't like Iris either but I'm still going to point out when people make bad points against her
Hmm I see ^^... guess I’ll take that as a compliment since you had nothing to point out about my post; thanks :).
 

satopi

Life doesn’t end, …it changes.
They hate the fact that Iris barely got many developmental episodes despite being the most interesting of all. They spent too much time focusing on finding her lost Axew whose greatest achievement is getting DEM wins.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
They hate the fact that Iris barely got many developmental episodes despite being the most interesting of all. They spent too much time focusing on finding her lost Axew whose greatest achievement is getting DEM wins.
I think the basis of a Dragon Master was cool butthe execution left a lot to be desired
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
KingMinun said:
He came in as an A class connoisseur and left as one, he always had one over on his rivals and they were no match for him. He goes down for me as one of the worst characters the show has produced personally.

He was definitely too good at what he did which was a sharp contrast to Iris, which adds to my confusion of why Iris's imperfections were more disliked compared to Dent's unrealistic mastery of every subject.
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
I think the basis of a Dragon Master was cool butthe execution left a lot to be desired

Well that have to do with BW being a 3 year series, but still her opelucid gym arc was pretty well done and she battled a lot so it was better, BW is the series with lots of wasted potential so its not a surprise.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
ash&charizardfan said:
Well that have to do with BW being a 3 year series, but still her opelucid gym arc was pretty well done

I feel like she was originally planned to conclude her character arc as the Gym Leader there in place of Shaga, but that the powers that be changed their plans once B2/W2 was announced.
 

Kintaro

Banned
I think Iris personality wise should have been completely different. She should have been a fun loving jungle girl who liked adventure, exploring, doing stuff with nature, etc.

Instead they gave her a lot of weaker traits of Misty and dialed them up to 11.
 

pokemon fan 132

Well-Known Member
I personally never hated Iris. She wasn't my favorite cup of tea, feeling lot of things regarding her character were poorly handled and wasted. But i surely didn't disliked her either.

In fact there existed lot of intriguing things about her with way how things started. Such as growing up as orphan isolated from people and civilization. Spending most of her childhood in wild surrounded by pokemon with dragon village and people from there being her primary contact with people. Or how she had hard time adapting to life in town and attending school being like outcast and treated as such from her peers. Than there are her nature and spiritual oriented views on world and species living in it which provided fairly interesting interactions with certain characters like Cilan was and his affinity toward science.

Most people i noticed hated Iris catchphrase "your such a kid"viewing it as open "hate" toward Ash and disrespect rather than just teasing. But Iris bond with Ash as far as im concerned was ok. It wasn't especially strong, given how Ash barely responded to her snark and uplifting actions. But they both still constructed functioning relationship, with Iris gradually starting to value Ash with even her teasing eventually deconstructing itself in something harmless and playful being more so sign of her way of liking Ash, and not something malice at all. It never was in reality. But overall their friendship and bond was i have to say more so bland to me than anything else , and in large pat to that contributed fact of Ash unlike in Misty case of teasing remaining indifferent not having two way alley where their relationship could bloom in something more substantial. Writers tried to replicate Iris bond with Ash like he has with Misty, but it lacked that spontaneity, wide diapason of emotions and colorful display of interchangeable interactions Ash and Misty had/have.

Not to mention its un fortunate how lot of starting plots surrounding Iris character never went anywhere being either underdeveloped or received superficial boost to provide picture of Iris making major character progress in her dreams(such as catching Dragonite and rather in fast way resolving any issues surrounding it). When it was just quick fix to underlying problems which her journey dragged by itself from lack of prior to that developed or caught dragons, mystery about her dream of becoming dragon master being cleared up explaining what obstacles she has to overcome etc.

Because looking back could have her evolve actually Axew serving as parameter of making big leap in her dream of mastering dragon pokemon. They could expanded on what kind of trials and tests someone need to pass to become recognized by elders of dragon village as suitable and worthy to carry title of dragon master. Giving background on how Drayden became one. Etc.

Same goes for her pokemon. Iris pokemon had promising start and lot of potential. But most ended up underused and wasted sadly. Such as Axew who went nowhere, Emolga, Excadrill who started to stagnate once Dragonite took over main spotlight etc. But to b e faur in defense of her receiving Dragonize which was additional trigger in causing among viewers apathy and lack of interest did added much needed muscle to her team despite how poorly whole prelude and act of catching and earning this pokemon trust partially was written.

In shot Iris as character had her moments, she has likable and fun traits in her persona at least to me. Her dream of becoming dragon master still is in theory plausible and interesting because it offers different way of developing character having unique directions in which her character could be taken(same goes for water pokemon master career Misty has respectively although it is different from what Iris tried to obtain and reach though). And her tough past did made me feel certain level of sympathy toward her character. But she ended up being victim of bad planning and writing.
Deserving better imo.

Yeah Misty’s hate for bug types is on the real world observation that bugs are gross though it sort of hurts her case when Pokémon bugs turn out to be self-aware creatures unlike real life bugs.

I wouldn't say she hated them, that's too strong of a word. Afterall there were several bugs Misty found even cute and cared about such as Ledyba, Ledian, Schukle, Pineco, Butterfree or Metapod. And those she couldn't stand were mostly ones you could consider crawly or belonged to arachnoid groups. Inciting in her panic and fear, moreso discomfort than heated hate to be honest.

Sure sometimes she would label bugs as disgusting, but if she truly disliked whole specie she wouldn't tolerate any of them or even try to protect them(as it was case with Ash, Brock or Tracey bug types when they were in danger) . In her defense we have to take in account how just like it was case with Gyarados, there could have happened something in past, some traumatic experience connected to certain bugs that caused her to be afraid from most of them. Its no secret how Misty wasn't developed as much as she could have been with lot of things about her past, pokemon, dreams being left unresolved and unanswered.

Giving ground to make strong argument how this character has enough untapped potential to receive major role in pokemon anime again, given she never received proper closure with many things being left unfinished.
With bugphobia being one of them, making me wander how would exposure to something like Surskit or Dewpider leave impact on her? Since both are bug and water types, this could likely cause within Misty struggle, fight inside her between her fear, dislike for bugs and love for water pokemon giving fertile soil for good character development.
 
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