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Controversial opinions

The ultimate problem with Iris being a Champion is because they did it so they would match with her B2W2 game version.

The problem being that Game!Iris becoming Champion in the sequel actually makes sense as opposed to Anime!Iris becoming one. In the games, Iris is already presented to us as a strong trainer that is said to be very promising (as stated by Drayden and the woman who trained her), and hey, she's the last Gym Leader in Pokémon White and is pretty strong there. So, when 2 years later she becomes the newest Champion, it doesn't feels forced or strange, as this level jump feels believable considering where we first saw her.

But in the anime however, she's not presented as the strong trainer she is in the game canon. She's almost bizarre to watch, because the anime constantly keeps on "reminding us" about how "strong" she "is" while both not showing it and actually showing her as being weak and untrained. Honestly, I don't buy that the Iris we saw at the end suddendly evolved in 3 series completely off-screen (JN's very own specialty) and is now a Champion.

Really, it all boils down to BW's shitty writing decisions.
 
Iris had been off screen for 3 series, if other characters can improve off-screen, so could one who was essentially focused on battling. It probably helped now that she didn't get a cameo in XY because if she did she probably would not have been too different than she was in BW. But since they skipped over her, her long absence now makes it more acceptable she improved.
It's obviously not good writing if Iris's offscreen growth completely eclipses that of every other companion or rival in the anime's history. This was a decision clearly made for convenience, and not the desire to develop the character in a meaningful way. It feels less like Iris actually advanced to this position, and more like she was deleted and replaced with an AU version of herself. The throughline between BW Iris and JN Iris is fuzzy at best, and fans like yourself have to make all these justifications for how such a transformation can even be possible, when the writers clearly didn't give it any thought.

Winning a league is not a problem either, Ash could have easily won any previous league just with some slight variations to his team. The only question is Alder but given we only saw one pokemon of his in the anime and the only trainer he battled was Trip a literal rookie, there's not much to say.

Being focused on dragons also doesn't mean beating dragon Gym leaders and winning leagues doesn't help with that either it makes sense. We know all champions aren't as strong as each other either so we know Iris isn't on Steven, Cynthia, Leon's level so it's fitting.
I don't think winning a league has ever been implied to be as easy as you're making it out to be. Ash's other female companions still haven't been allowed to win a Grand Festival, despite them all being much closer to that goal by comparison. Even then, there's still a massive gulf between league winner and Champion. Given how the Elite Four were depicted in DP, and the fact that Caitlyn was able to go toe-to-toe with Cynthia in their exhibition, I don't think it's fair to sleep on the Unova E4, or Alder despite his personality.

But even if you really want to believe that Unova is the joke region, JN disproves that by including Iris in the Masters 8. She would have been obliterated in the Hyper Class if her Champion title really didn't mean anything.
 
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It doesn't personally bother me that Iris became the Unova Champion, mainly because it did happen in the games, but I do understand the complaint though because of the lack of build up to it in the anime. Its been 7 years or so since we last saw her since her return, though we never got an appearance from her in XY or SM to help fill in the gaps of what she's been up to and build it up more. I think it would have made more sense for her to return and reveal that she is now the Opelucid Gym Leader, considering it was set up at the end of BW. After her battle with Drayden in BW101, it was revealed that Drayden does want her to take over for him as his replacement when he retires as Gym Leader. It would have made more sense for her to reveal that she was the new Opelucid Gym Leader in JN065.
 
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It's obviously not good writing if Iris's offscreen growth completely eclipses that of every other companion or rival in the anime's history. This was a decision clearly made for convenience, and not the desire to develop the character in a meaningful way. It feels less like Iris actually advanced to this position, and more like she was deleted and replaced with an AU version of herself. The throughline between BW Iris and JN Iris is fuzzy at best, and fans like yourself have to make all these justifications for how such a transformation can even be possible, when the writers clearly didn't give it any thought.


I don't think winning a league has ever been implied to be as easy as you're making it out to be. Ash's other female companions still haven't been allowed to win a Grand Festival, despite them all being much closer to that goal by comparison. Even then, there's still a massive gulf between league winner and Champion. Given how the Elite Four were depicted in DP, and the fact that Caitlyn was able to go toe-to-toe with Cynthia in their exhibition, I don't think it's fair to sleep on the Unova E4, or Alder despite his personality.

But even if you really want to believe that Unova is the joke region, JN disproves that by including Iris in the Masters 8. She would have been obliterated in the Hyper Class if her Champion title really didn't mean anything.
Ash would have won every previous league (from an in-universe perspective, ignoring the writers screwing him over in real life) with some slight alterations. He barely lost to Tyson who won the whole thing. He could have had a better chance against Tobias if he used Charizard instead of Torkoal, etc. The Kalos League is obvious. And the Unova league loss to Cameron was just nonsensical in how it screwed Ash over.

Iris wouldn't have any of those problems depending on whoever she battled there. By the end of BW, and depending when Axew evolved, her team would be strong enough to conquer a league. Now whether she could beat Alder with her current team I can understand is a bit debatable, but there's no doubt otherwise.

Iris progression works due to how long she was off-screen, if she had appeared in XY and still had Axew and said she was still struggling to beat Drayden or Claire, then that would have been an issue.
 
The ultimate problem with Iris being a Champion is because they did it so they would match with her B2W2 game version.

The problem being that Game!Iris becoming Champion in the sequel actually makes sense as opposed to Anime!Iris becoming one. In the games, Iris is already presented to us as a strong trainer that is said to be very promising (as stated by Drayden and the woman who trained her), and hey, she's the last Gym Leader in Pokémon White and is pretty strong there. So, when 2 years later she becomes the newest Champion, it doesn't feels forced or strange, as this level jump feels believable considering where we first saw her.
It also helps that we had seen other Gym Leaders climb up the ranks in other generations too. Koga went from a Gym Leader to an Elite 4 member in G/S/C and Wallace was the Champion in Emerald. Seeing where video game Iris was in B/W helped to make her becoming the Champion feel believable too, but the fact that there was a history of Gym Leaders getting to Elite 4 or higher before also helped.

But in the anime however, she's not presented as the strong trainer she is in the game canon. She's almost bizarre to watch, because the anime constantly keeps on "reminding us" about how "strong" she "is" while both not showing it and actually showing her as being weak and untrained. Honestly, I don't buy that the Iris we saw at the end suddendly evolved in 3 series completely off-screen (JN's very own specialty) and is now a Champion.

Really, it all boils down to BW's shitty writing decisions.
That is a huge reason why her Champion title is so unbelievable to me. Throughout BW, Iris came off as a pretty weak trainer or average at best. She didn't even really learn much from her journey if how she handled Dragonite's disobedience was any indication. Her Axew definitely didn't want to try to battle or learn to have fun with battling considering how it was virtually useless most of the time. If Iris' strength as a trainer was more consistent and she actually was a Gym Leader by the end of BW, maybe becoming the Champion wouldn't bother me so much. It would still probably feel like a stretch regardless, but better writing for her in BW might have at least helped out.

I will say that despite my huge issues with Iris becoming a Champion, I don't think her battle against Ash was bad. It left me feeling more mixed than anything else. Dragonite vs. Dragonite was actually pretty cool and I kind of wish that it had gone on longer. Dracovish defeating Iris' Dragonite instead kind of annoyed me. It wasn't unbelievable since it did take a couple of super effective attacks directly and Iris' Dragonite always lost after it learned to obey her too. It might have rubbed me the wrong way when this was Dracovish's first battle, it has done little to nothing since this episode and it feels like the most expendable of Ash's Journeys team, or at least has the least amount of personality. It feels a bit too harsh to say it's a waste of a capture, but at the same time, it does feel like they could have done a lot more with Dracovish given when it was caught.

Dragonite vs. Haxorus was pretty good. It was kind of eye rolling to me that Axew would become Iris' most powerful Pokemon since it was useless in BW, but compared to the whole Champion title, I could at least kind of tolerate it. Dragonite learning Draco Meteor was at least cool. I remember some people complaining about how Ash won since it seemed like Iris probably would have if she didn't give that advice to Dragonite. I can understand that, but at the same time, I'd say that Iris was still at fault since she clearly lost her guard during that moment and was out of sync with Haxorus too. I do think that the match probably would have been better if it was three-on-three. I know that they wanted it to be Dragon type vs. Dragon type, but it would have made the match longer and given both sides a chance to shine. Plus, it was still weird for them to so casual about Ash defeating a Regional Champion, especially when his Alola League title was never brought up. As much as I hate Iris being the Unova Champion, she is still considered as such in the anime, so the show not making a bigger deal about it seemed weirder in retrospect, even if they probably saw it more as a battle between friends rather than Champions. It wasn't one of the best PWC matches I've seen, but it's not one of the worst either.

Ash would have won every previous league (from an in-universe perspective, ignoring the writers screwing him over in real life) with some slight alterations. He barely lost to Tyson who won the whole thing. He could have had a better chance against Tobias if he used Charizard instead of Torkoal, etc. The Kalos League is obvious. And the Unova league loss to Cameron was just nonsensical in how it screwed Ash over.

Iris wouldn't have any of those problems depending on whoever she battled there. By the end of BW, and depending when Axew evolved, her team would be strong enough to conquer a league. Now whether she could beat Alder with her current team I can understand is a bit debatable, but there's no doubt otherwise.
Iris isn't Ash though. Just because Ash could have hypothetically won these other Leagues doesn't mean that it Iris could have won the Unova League believably or with great ease. That still seems rather irrelevant to issue at hand. Unlike Ash, Iris didn't even have a full team by the end of her special and so far, they have not confirmed if she got any new Pokemon for her team. I assume that she did in order to become Champion, but that's exactly why these justifications don't work. They're built primarily on assumptions without enough on-screen development to make them work. If you have to go through so many assumptions, writing off winning the Unova League or defeating the Unova Elite 4 as easy, then it just does not work.

Iris only had two Pokemon that could battle consistently or believably well with Excadrill and Dragonite by the end of BW. Axew was virtually useless, I don't think we ever got a good indication on how strong her Gible was during her special and I genuinely keep forgetting that Emolga exists. Her team was not particularly great, which probably doesn't help to make this development more believable. Even if we include her Haxorus, that's only three Pokemon as opposed to having a solid full team. That doesn't make me think she'd be able to win the Unova League and Elite 4 with ease.

Iris progression works due to how long she was off-screen, if she had appeared in XY and still had Axew and said she was still struggling to beat Drayden or Claire, then that would have been an issue.
It really doesn't because of how time doesn't make sense in the anime. She hadn't appeared in seven years, but that doesn't mean that it had been seven years in-universe too. Plus, other characters have been gone for a long amount of time without making unbelievably huge leaps like this. I already brought up Misty, but there's also Dawn. She had been gone off-screen for about as long as Iris was, but she has gotten virtually no development. She didn't get any new Pokemon, she didn't become Top Coordinator or really have any noteworthy off screen development. Taking part in more Contests and more Grand Festivals isn't really development. It shows that she's still working towards her goal, but when she's effectively at the same place she was at the end of DP, it really doesn't mean much. Dawn doesn't really have anything new to show for her off-screen efforts, while Iris is forced to become the Unova Champion to better match with her video game counterpart. It's just hard to use the amount of time Iris was off-screen to justify her becoming the Champion when other characters who had been off-screen for about as long, if not longer, than Iris was don't get any similar kind of huge off-screen development.
 
Dracovish defeating Iris' Dragonite instead kind of annoyed me. It wasn't unbelievable since it did take a couple of super effective attacks directly and Iris' Dragonite always lost after it learned to obey her too. It might have rubbed me the wrong way when this was Dracovish's first battle, it has done little to nothing since this episode and it feels like the most expendable of Ash's Journeys team, or at least has the least amount of personality. It feels a bit too harsh to say it's a waste of a capture, but at the same time, it does feel like they could have done a lot more with Dracovish given when it was caught.
This is why I just don't give no craps for Dracovish at all. Putting aside the fact that I think it just looks ugly, this thing has barely done anything worth caring about and the battles it has taken part in have been pretty poor.

Feels like they only gave it to Ash because they wanted him to have at least one Galar mon (that isn't a Galarian form). Could have chosen something better lads.
 
This is why I just don't give no craps for Dracovish at all. Putting aside the fact that I think it just looks ugly, this thing has barely done anything worth caring about and the battles it has taken part in have been pretty poor.

Feels like they only gave it to Ash because they wanted him to have at least one Galar mon (that isn't a Galarian form). Could have chosen something better lads.
I think it would have been better to give Ash either Sobble or Grookey in place of Dracovish. I'm okay with Goh catching Sobble, but if they wanted to rush through its evolutions to give him Grookey, which has also done little to nothing after being captured, I feel like they could have either given Grookey or Sobble to Ash. Grookey would have been preferable, but if they wanted it to be the cute unevolved marketable starter, it just begs the question why they didn't give it to Goh sooner in place of Sobble, especially when Ash getting an Inteleon probably would have made people happy. Even if they wanted to go with another Galar Pokemon, I think that there would be better options out there, even with knowing how popular Dracovish seems to be.
 
I think it would have been better to give Ash either Sobble or Grookey in place of Dracovish. I'm okay with Goh catching Sobble, but if they wanted to rush through its evolutions to give him Grookey, which has also done little to nothing after being captured, I feel like they could have either given Grookey or Sobble to Ash. Grookey would have been preferable, but if they wanted it to be the cute unevolved marketable starter, it just begs the question why they didn't give it to Goh sooner in place of Sobble, especially when Ash getting an Inteleon probably would have made people happy. Even if they wanted to go with another Galar Pokemon, I think that there would be better options out there, even with knowing how popular Dracovish seems to be.
Grookey's done basically nothing at all except being the biggest shoulder warmer for Goh. I don't think it's even battled once yet. That's how bad it's been.

Somewhere in the distance the likes of Togepi and Axew and maybe even Lana's Eevee are all laughing away knowing they've done more things than Goh's Grookey had.
 
This is why I just don't give no craps for Dracovish at all. Putting aside the fact that I think it just looks ugly, this thing has barely done anything worth caring about and the battles it has taken part in have been pretty poor.

Feels like they only gave it to Ash because they wanted him to have at least one Galar mon (that isn't a Galarian form). Could have chosen something better lads.
They should have just given him Sobble instead of Dracovish...Like they led us to believe.
 
This is why I just don't give no craps for Dracovish at all. Putting aside the fact that I think it just looks ugly, this thing has barely done anything worth caring about and the battles it has taken part in have been pretty poor.

Feels like they only gave it to Ash because they wanted him to have at least one Galar mon (that isn't a Galarian form). Could have chosen something better lads.
While I personally don't mind that Ash caught a Dracovish, since it's a genuinely unique catch, it is pretty bothersome that it's very first battle had it defeating a Champion's Pokemon. Sure, the implication here is that Ash has given it training offscreen, but... that's been the biggest issue with the Journeys team. Most of their improvement is offscreen and all we get to see are the results. Only Lucario and to a lesser extent Sirfetch'd recieved the necessary onscreen development to make their wins feel at least a little bit believable, and Sirfetch'd is still the weakest Journeys team member anyway.

All of this aside, yeah, Ash should have gotten at least one Galar starter. They may be my least favorite starter trio overall, but it still feels incredibly wrong for all of them to be left out of the main action when they're the faces of Gen 8.
 
They should have just given him Sobble instead of Dracovish...Like they led us to believe.
I still low-key believe that was the initial plan until they decided to make Lucario Ash's Starter equivalent

Look at how little screentime Inteleon actually gets compared to Cinderace and Grookey. It appears about as often as Ash's Team does

Also the fact that it evolved so fast due to an overwhelming desire to get stronger, which would make more sense if this was an Ash Pokemon
 
I still low-key believe that was the initial plan until they decided to make Lucario Ash's Starter equivalent

Look at how little screentime Inteleon actually gets compared to Cinderace and Grookey. It appears about as often as Ash's Team does

Also the fact that it evolved so fast due to an overwhelming desire to get stronger, which would make more sense if this was an Ash Pokemon
Inteleon's story fits a lot better with Ash also than Goh.
 
I feel like the main reason Inteleon wasn't given to Ash is because it's color scheme is too similar to Lucario's and the writers wanted the Journeys mons to stand out from each other visually as much as possible. The fact that Inteleon is a Water-type starter also makes me feel like the writers also feared that it'd draw inevitable comparisons to Greninja, who on top of also having that same black-and-blue color scheme, it has a similar design and basis (both Greninja and Inteleon are anthropomorphic aquatic animals based on human professions), and that's without including the very similar "to be the strongest" character arc. So maybe they just decided that Inteleon would simply be dealing with too much of a tough act to follow. Seems like they did learn their lesson from the Infernape-Pignite transition.

That being said, Rillaboom doesn't have any of Inteleon's issues. In fact, of the Galar starters, Rillaboom is the one that differentiates itself from Lucario the most: Cinderace has a similar silohuette on top of being a conventionally cute/cool mammal like Lucario, which is probably why it was decided that making it into Goh's Lucario equivalent was the way to go, something that I feel was honestly the best decision even if they really should've done more with that dynamic; while Inteleon has a similar color scheme like I said previously. Rillaboom on the other hand has both a different color scheme and a different silohuette (both of which are also not shared with any of the other members of the Journeys team), and it's also not a Water-type like Greninja, so it doesn't have to worry about having a tough act to follow. The last Grass-type ace Ash had was Sceptile, which is also different enough in design from Rillaboom to avoid any comparisons between the two, and even if it wasn't, Sceptile is a much, much, much less recent ace than Greninja, so Rillaboom would still be pretty refreshing regardless.

TL;DR, it shoulda been Rillaboom, guys. The fact that Grookey has been the single most useless shouldermon ever just makes the fact that Ash didn't get it even sadder. Even Sandy doesn't sting as hard because at least Chloe's Eevee is doing some amount of damage control, plus Sandy was already a fairly late capture anyways, so it's not like it had as much time to do stuff compared to Grookey. Also, it wasnt anywhere near as annoying personality-wise.
 
I feel like the main reason Inteleon wasn't given to Ash is because it's color scheme is too similar to Lucario's and the writers wanted the Journeys mons to stand out from each other visually as much as possible. The fact that Inteleon is a Water-type starter also makes me feel like the writers also feared that it'd draw inevitable comparisons to Greninja, who on top of also having that same black-and-blue color scheme, it has a similar design and basis (both Greninja and Inteleon are anthropomorphic aquatic animals based on human professions), and that's without including the very similar "to be the strongest" character arc. So maybe they just decided that Inteleon would simply be too much of a tough act to follow. Seems like they did learn their lesson from the Infernape-Pignite transition.

That being said, Rillaboom doesn't have any of Inteleon's issues. In fact, of the Galar starters, Rillaboom is the one that differentiates itself from Lucario the most: Cinderace has a similar silohuette on top of being a conventionally cute/cool mammal like Lucario, which is probably why it was decided that making it into Goh's Lucario equivalent was the way to go, something that I feel was honestly the best decision even if they really should've done more with that dynamic; while Inteleon has a similar color scheme like I said previously. Rillaboom on the other hand has both a different color scheme and a different silohuette (both of which are also not shared with any of the other members of the Journeys team), and it's also not a Water-type like Greninja, so it doesn't have to worry about being a tough act to follow. The last Grass-type ace Ash had was Sceptile, which is also different enough in design from Rillaboom to avoid any comparisons between the two, and even if it wasn't, Sceptile is a much, much, much less recent ace than Greninja, so Rillaboom would still be pretty refreshing regardless.

TL;DR, it shoulda been Rillaboom, guys. The fact that Grookey has been the single most useless shouldermon ever just makes the fact that Ash didn't get it even sadder. Even Sandy doesn't sting as hard because at least Chloe's Eevee is doing some amount of damage control, plus Sandy was already a fairly late capture anyways, so it's not like it had as much time to do stuff compared to Grookey. Also, it at least wasnt anywhere near as annoying personality-wise.
I would've been fine with either tbh
This is the only Gen where I feel all 3 Starters could've been an Ash Pokemon and it could've worked no matter who he chose

And Yeah the Grookey line deserved a lot better
 
I would've been fine with either tbh
This is the only Gen where I feel all 3 Starters could've been an Ash Pokemon and it could've worked no matter who he chose
Yeah, I do agree that all the Galar Starters would've fit Ash, but tbh I don't think that givng Ash more than one would've been a good idea due to how every single time that's happened (aside from Kanto/OI) there's always at least one Starter that gets shafted hard, and I don't think I want to deal with a Torterra 2.0, so I just went with the Starter that I felt clashed the least with the rest of Ash's Journeys team.
 
It really doesn't because of how time doesn't make sense in the anime. She hadn't appeared in seven years, but that doesn't mean that it had been seven years in-universe too. Plus, other characters have been gone for a long amount of time without making unbelievably huge leaps like this. I already brought up Misty, but there's also Dawn. She had been gone off-screen for about as long as Iris was, but she has gotten virtually no development. She didn't get any new Pokemon, she didn't become Top Coordinator or really have any noteworthy off screen development. Taking part in more Contests and more Grand Festivals isn't really development. It shows that she's still working towards her goal, but when she's effectively at the same place she was at the end of DP, it really doesn't mean much. Dawn doesn't really have anything new to show for her off-screen efforts, while Iris is forced to become the Unova Champion to better match with her video game counterpart. It's just hard to use the amount of time Iris was off-screen to justify her becoming the Champion when other characters who had been off-screen for about as long, if not longer, than Iris was don't get any similar kind of huge off-screen development.

Well what they do with other characters is a different issue. Dawn could have gotten a new pokemon but I don't mind she didn't win a Grand festival. Misty of course has never really been one to enter leagues or anything like that, she just wanted to improve the Gym from her sisters which she did. If Iris just wanted to focus on battling, training her dragons, etc. then it fits for her to have more progress. She beat Claire and Drayden somewhere along the way, Axew evolved, and then went on to win the Unova league.

This is why I just don't give no craps for Dracovish at all. Putting aside the fact that I think it just looks ugly, this thing has barely done anything worth caring about and the battles it has taken part in have been pretty poor.

Feels like they only gave it to Ash because they wanted him to have at least one Galar mon (that isn't a Galarian form). Could have chosen something better lads.

Dracovish in general is one of the most popular Galar pokemon/fossils from the games. That thing is a very useful in the games. Also I gather they wanted to give Ash a pokemon that has no evolutions to give him a capture they wouldn't have to spend much time on.
 
Yeah, I do agree that all the Galar Starters would've fit Ash, but tbh I don't think that givng Ash more than one would've been a good idea due to how every single time that's happened (aside from Kanto/OI) there's always at least one Starter that gets shafted hard, and I don't think I want to deal with a Torterra 2.0, so I just went with the Starter that I felt clashed the least with the rest of Ash's Journeys team.
I don't know if we can say that for the Kanto starters, but when it comes to Johto, Totodile certainly got the short end. Torterra certainly got it bad after first evolving, then Snivy and Oshawott were handled poorly through Unova. Then you have Popplio's weak development in Alola. I still think it was a huge mistake to give Goh all 3 starters and that they should have been split between Ash, Goh, and Chloe.
 
I don't know if we can say that for the Kanto starters, but when it comes to Johto, Totodile certainly got the short end. Torterra certainly got it bad after first evolving, then Snivy and Oshawott were handled poorly through Unova. Then you have Popplio's weak development in Alola. I still think it was a huge mistake to give Goh all 3 starters and that they should have been split between Ash, Goh, and Chloe.
Yeah, that's why I listed the Kanto starters as the sole exception to the rule. Popplio's development might have been weak, but considering the fact that it was a companion's Pokemon, it got it pretty darn good. Certainly worlds better than Brock's Marshtomp and even Clemont's Chespin.
 
Well what they do with other characters is a different issue. Dawn could have gotten a new pokemon but I don't mind she didn't win a Grand festival. Misty of course has never really been one to enter leagues or anything like that, she just wanted to improve the Gym from her sisters which she did. If Iris just wanted to focus on battling, training her dragons, etc. then it fits for her to have more progress. She beat Claire and Drayden somewhere along the way, Axew evolved, and then went on to win the Unova league.
It really doesn't fits Iris to have more progress when she was never shown to be as good as BW tried to make her out to be. Iris clearly wasn't even into the idea of becoming a Gym Leader, despite that Drayden wanted her to be one. Going from that to Iris being the Unova Champion, a role that would require more responsibility and strength than being a Gym Leader would involve, doesn't work. Like I've said before, it requires fans to make a lot of assumptions just to find justification for this sudden development when the only real reason it happened was because video game Iris being the Unova Champion. If anyone else was the Champion in B2/W2, Iris would have most likely become a Gym Leader instead, which I'd argue would have been more believable. Even though she didn't want to become Gym Leader, the idea that she could have changed her mind through more off-screen training with Drayden would have bee more believable, at least compared to her winning the Unova League, the Elite 4 and Alder.

Misty's progress was perfectly fine and believable. She was shown to be an improved battler, but not an insane leap like becoming an Elite 4 member or anything like that. Much like Iris, Misty never showed interest in getting into the Pokemon League or climbing the ranks. She just wanted to become a better Gym Leader, which she did and was shown through her off screen development. Dawn's problem isn't just that she didn't get a new Pokemon. She really had nothing to show for her amount of off-screen adventures. If she had the same team, but still won a Grand Festival or had something more noteworthy than a bunch of new ribbons, then people would have been fine with it.

The main reason I brought up Dawn and Misty isn't necessarily because I had problems with their developments. I do have issues with how they handled Dawn, but that's besides the point at the moment. My point is you can't really use the amount of time Iris was off-screen to justify her huge leaps of off-screen progress when that doesn't apply to other characters who have been gone for about as long as Iris was, if not longer.

Dracovish in general is one of the most popular Galar pokemon/fossils from the games. That thing is a very useful in the games. Also I gather they wanted to give Ash a pokemon that has no evolutions to give him a capture they wouldn't have to spend much time on.
Unfortunately, I can totally believe that they wanted to give Ash a Pokemon with no evolution to avoid spending much time on it. Unless a Pokemon is being captured or evolving, they don't tend to get much focus in this series. That isn't exclusive to Ash or Goh's Pokemon, but an issue with the writing in general. Even though Ash got Dracovish fairly early on in the series' run, I'm sure giving him a single stage Pokemon meant that they'd have less to worry about as far as screentime goes. Which is exactly why it feels like a waste of a capture. It's popular and it does get credit for being a rare and distinct kind of Pokemon, but when it has little to no personality, has such little presence and its battles aren't well done from the sound of things, it just makes me wish that they would have given Ash a different Pokemon.

So far, I haven't found Grookey to be annoying. It is weird that they waited so long for it to appear in the series only for it to do virtually nothing, but I still think it's rather cute so far. That being said, I would have greatly preferred for Ash to get it instead. It would have given Ash a Galar starter, it would have battled at least a decent amount, would have gotten maybe a decent amount of screentime to explain its evolutions and it would have explained why they didn't have Grookey appear sooner. That was a big reason why people were upset when Goh captured it too. I still like its capture episode, but I would also say that Grookey has the weakest capture episode out of the Galar starters, mainly due to how I think Scorbunny and Sobble's episodes were more effective. It also would have given Ash some much needed Galar representation, which I think Rillaboom would have stood out more in that regard than Dracovish.

Plus, Goh would have kept Sobble, which I would have been fine with. Despite the misleading marketing for its initial capture and how little screentime Drizzile had, I really liked the Sobble capture episode and I still adore Drizzile's evolution episode. That rooftop scene still hits me hard every time, so if we could have kept that while handling Sobble's evolutions more effectively and giving Ash Grookey instead, I probably would have been happy about it.
 
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It really doesn't fits Iris to have more progress when she was never shown to be as good as BW tried to make her out to be. Iris clearly wasn't even into the idea of becoming a Gym Leader, despite that Drayden wanted her to be one. Going from that to Iris being the Unova Champion, a role that would require more responsibility and strength than being a Gym Leader would involve, doesn't work. Like I've said before, it requires fans to make a lot of assumptions just to find justification for this sudden development when the only real reason it happened was because video game Iris being the Unova Champion. If anyone else was the Champion in B2/W2, Iris would have most likely become a Gym Leader instead, which I'd argue would have been more believable. Even though she didn't want to become Gym Leader, the idea that she could have changed her mind through more off-screen training with Drayden would have bee more believable, at least compared to her winning the Unova League, the Elite 4 and Alder.


Excadrill was always strong, she beat multiple other characters in the Don battle tournaments and some outside. Axew was a weak baby but every female lead has some sort of pokemon that's borderline useless at first (Togepi, Torchic, Vulpix, etc). If you even compare Iris to OS-era Misty, Iris definitely seemed a lot stronger than Misty did in Kanto or most of Johto. Even with fewer Pokemon.

We only see champions as unbeatable because that's how the older seasons portrayed them. Now they're not anymore. Alder made short work of Trip, but c'mon, it's Trip a literal rookie. While I would have liked some sort of flashback to Alder or something like that, it's not too out of the question to me. As an aside, it also makes Iris' development feel complete. BW just left her unfinished with an untrained Dragonite, she lost to Claire and Drayden, and then BW ended with the pointless Declora Island arc where she got no further development. Now everything people wanted to see back in BW, Axew finally evolve and Iris prove her worth finally happened (along with Ash finally beating her in a proper battle). While most of it was off-screen, it's better than where we left her off at the end of BW where it felt like the writers just gave up on her.
 
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