Would May have struggled more if contests in AG were like contests in DP?

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Do you think May would have had a tougher time in the appeal rounds if they were handled the way they were in DP with the judges focusing more on the execution of the performance?

I feel that ever since she started, especially in her first contests, that she got to the second round way too easily especially since she had just found out about contests and decided to pursue them as her goal. I would have liked to see her lose at least once in the appeal round in one of her early contests so that she could get some character development from it.

I also think that she got way too many cheap wins because of plot armor in the battle rounds. I would have liked to see her get less wins by knocking out her opponent and instead win more by out performing her opponents during the battle rounds.

What are your thoughts?

 

[DatsRight]

Do you think May would have had a tougher time in the appeal rounds if they were handled the way they were in DP with the judges focusing more on the execution of the performance?

I feel that ever since she started, especially in her first contests, that she got to the second round way too easily especially since she had just found out about contests and decided to pursue them as her goal. I would have liked to see her lose at least once in the appeal round in one of her early contests so that she could get some character development from it.

I also think that she got way too many cheap wins because of plot armor in the battle rounds. I would have liked to see her get less wins by knocking out her opponent and instead win more by out performing her opponents during the battle rounds.

What are your thoughts?

Two of her most prominent opponents were also incompetent cheats. This wasn't the case in DP (while a rival of Drew's calibre is debatable, there was no Harley-alike and Jessie had become far more competent). DP focused more on rivals, while AG had only a couple due to also having 'villains'.

Dawn had something I feel the other performing Pokegirls lacked, a clear disadvantage. She was actually struggling a lot more and had to reinvent herself a few times over just to get past the appeal rounds. Maybe they thought May looked too invincible in hindsight (she even beat Zoey in DP, something Dawn could never do). Still at least May could be genuinely outperformed, so she was slightly more fallible than Serena.

 

[Frozocrone]

I don't think Dawn (at least from the top of my head) was ever gifted a win.

I know she was gifted a Togekiss, but in the end it didn't matter too much since she didn't win the Grand Festival.

I imagine May would have struggled more if AG contests were like DP contests (on the flipside, May's rivals are far superior to Dawn's rivals).

 

[DatsRight]

I don't think Dawn (at least from the top of my head) was ever gifted a win.

I think the difference was that, as mentioned before, AG had 'villain' opponents like Harley and Jessie, and it's always funny to go Road Runner on such characters and show their plans to cheat and destroy the opponent fail in some cosmic way, even if it undermines the heroes' own talents. It can never go right for them.

DP didn't have 'villains', Jessie wasn't as focused on cheating, realising that she had become good on her own. The closest example of her doing so was having James take her role, and even then he had to win on skill.

 

[SkittleBox]

I would think that May would fare pretty much the same with Hoenn contest and Sinnoh contest. When we're talking about the plot, it really came down to the number of contests written in each region, and they had to show five wins. It really did seem like she flew past the appeals and battle rounds bacuse plot armor because we have to let May into the Grand Festival (for reference, there were seven Hoenn contests May participated in and six Kanto ones, excluding the Terracotta Contest). And she had some good appeals, so she wouldn't have to worry there.

But as for the question of her ability to succeed in Sinnoh Contest, she was in one with the Wallace Cup. She was the runner-up, which means that she would probably survive IF her jerkish rivals didn't follow her. If they did, she could face a few roadblocks, but she's been shown time and time again to swerve around those obstacles and get a win. So Sinnoh contests wouldn't really be a problem to her.

 

[snorlax512]

If the judges were harsher I don't see how the outcome would be any different because it wasn't like May was lacking in the execution department compared to the other contestants.

Dawn cleared her first appeal round too, it was more that she went on a bad streak than May getting to the second round too easily, but yea I agree it would have been nice to see her lose once or twice in the appeal rounds.

 

[Daniel31]

I feel that ever since she started, especially in her first contests, that she got to the second round way too easily especially since she had just found out about contests and decided to pursue them as her goal. I would have liked to see her lose at least once in the appeal round in one of her early contests so that she could get some character development from it.

Me too, but May never lost in the appeals rounds during the Hoenn Contests, she should have though. I mean in the 1st Contest she slips and falls down, the 3rd one Skitty's Blizzard fails, and in the 5th one May loses control of Combusken's Firespin which the judges had pointed out. Also, in the 2nd Contest we barely even saw the appeals round but somehow she automatically advances. I mean if May is going to have these problems in the appeals round, but still advances, then why even take the time to judge them. In the end, there may have be a bit of development, but they're just honestly making her look bad imo.

I also think that she got way too many cheap wins because of plot armor in the battle rounds. I would have liked to see her get less wins by knocking out her opponent and instead win more by out performing her opponents during the battle rounds.

What are your thoughts?

Well when you have Ash around to intervene from the stands at conveniant times to help keep her focused and spamming Skitty's Assist attack which she gets lucky with (even Drew says so), they would seem cheap I guess.

My thoughts are that May most likely would've struggled if it was like DP. Tbh, it's actually amazing that she made it as far as she did in Hoenn considering how extremely naive she was. She definitely needed the amount of the help and luck that was given to her and that's all I'm going to say. It was truly a slow learning process for her, but we did see growth and development along the way, and in the end...that's what counts the most.

 

[Wednesdayz]

Dawn cleared her first appeal round too, it was more that she went on a bad streak than May getting to the second round too easily, but yea I agree it would have been nice to see her lose once or twice in the appeal rounds.

May flopping in the Appeals round would've been hilarious, and it would've been a good chance to see some more angst from her, too. Shame she was safe from that kind of embarrassment.

 

[satopi]

She'd struggle as much as Dawn. I didn't see much difference between contests in Hoenn and Sinnoh.

 

[Cat's Eye Draco]

She'd struggle as much as Dawn. I didn't see much difference between contests in Hoenn and Sinnoh.

I agree. About the only major difference I could see was that Sinnoh Contests were kind of formal in nature while Hoenn/Kanto (and presumably Johto) Contests were more casual. And when it comes down to it, Contests are first and foremost about the performance of the Pokemon, not the trainer, so May's moments of clumsiness, while embarrassing, probably wouldn't count against her like they would in, say, a Showcase. (And even then she might get votes for comedy.)

I do think she should have lost in the appeals round at least once, though. Would have made for some interesting development.

 

[ZilverLox]

May flopping in the Appeals round would've been hilarious, and it would've been a good chance to see some more angst from her, too. Shame she was safe from that kind of embarrassment.

I recall May losing a few Contests, so it's not as if she was perfect at them.

And she didn't need to mess up her appeal rounds completely just to make Dawn seem better by comparison.

 

[KingMinun]

If May had gone to Sinnoh after Hoenn with Ash and Brock would she do well? Is that what you're asking? If so, then no, she wouldn't have struggled because she's already got experience. This was evident in the Wallace Cup.

But if it was a case of meeting May in Sinnoh, then who knows, I do agree, a lot of her wins were due to plot armour. And she messed up many times in the appeals but still got through. Plus the amount of times she relied on Skitty and messed up (that is partly a reason why I hate the Hoenn contests, they weren't fun, or interesting, it was either Skitty spams assist and its works perfectly, Skitty spams assist and it doesn't work, causing problems, but then eventually works, or Jessie/Harley trying to mess up May's contest).

 

[Platinum fan.]

Contest were still in their training wheels during the AG era. I know that's kinda a lame excuse but it's the truth. They didn't know how to make them separate from the Gyms hence why I call the AG/BF Contest Gym Battles with a timer. Because concerning May that is what they were.

I feel like Contest should have had a point system that took off points for just randomly battling in a contest instead of actually performing attacks against the opponent. Like if you purposely KO the opponent you should be disqualified for not being a coordinator. Now this would have drastically changed May's battle style because by that law she'd never get to the GF but by DP they should have enforced that rule because anyone could have entered the Wallace Cup and win ala Ash entering.

Anyway onto answering the question, again kinda a trick question because May is not a real character so the writers can tweak her to fit any setting and since May always passed the appeal rounds in Hoenn I don't see why she'd fail in Sinnoh. It's not just that the contest were harder in DP, the styles were different and the characters were different. May was naturally good at contest compared to Dawn who struggled and hit rock bottom at one point. But I don't think the contest themselves were truly that more difficult when you really watch these appeal rounds.

 

[Wednesdayz]

If May had gone to Sinnoh after Hoenn with Ash and Brock would she do well? Is that what you're asking? If so, then no, she wouldn't have struggled because she's already got experience. This was evident in the Wallace Cup.

Well she lost to someone who had just 1 ribbon. So that doesn't exactly make May look good.~

 

[snorlax512]

Well she lost to someone who had just 1 ribbon. So that doesn't exactly make May look good.~

That was complete plot armour bs.

 

[DatsRight]

That was complete plot armour bs.

Maybe that was more the problem. Wins felt plot armoured, and not specifically down to it always being May, just whoever they wanted to win, which sometimes made it more glaring. The anime already has a tendency for this, not developing rivals' strategies and situations enough that it looks like the right guy won.

Basically May struggled...when the plot felt like making her struggle.