Do you find Georgia/Langley to be an interesting rival?

[Hellion]

This is the thread for more in-depth discussion about Langley's personality, relationship with Iris, storyline, etc.

I'm ambivalent on Langley myself. There's two Langleys: Langley when she's interacting with Iris and Langley when she's interacting with other characters. The latter works very well. I loved her rudeness when telling Dent to cook better or her interactions with Bel and Cabernet during the Don Battle tournament. It's something that allowed us to see some layers to her character, layers that are lacking when she is interacting with Iris where she becomes very one dimensional and very much unlikable for the sake of making the audience root for Iris. The best rivals (Shinji, Shigeru, Harley, Urara, Sho, Cabernet) were likable in their own way or had a reason to be unlikable that made them compelling and interesting as characters, but with Langley, there's very little backstory, and she just seems unlikable for the sake of making another character likable.

On her own or with other characters, she's interesting, but her rivalry with Iris leaves me cold.

 

[Bouffalant Herdier]

I love Georgia, but I'll admit I'm probably biased towards her, because I can't stand Iris either.

She isn't as amusing as Harley, and she doesn't garner any sympathy like Bianca or Burgundy do, but her passionate hatred of Iris is enough to make me forgive her flaws, despite being an even bigger jerk. I've always been able to tolerate flat out nasty characters than more passive ones, and her and Burgundy's snarky comments during the Don Battle Arc were easily the best parts of that horrible mess.

I'm interested to find out what happened at the Village of Dragons to make her hate Dragons so much, but I worry she won't make enough appearances throughout the series to provide much to her back-story. I would also love the irony if she began using Dragons herself to defeat others.

 

[Shinneth]

I like Georgia... but only when she isn't interacting with Iris. Her designated rival drags her down in every scene they share together, highlighted in the Don Battle arc where Georgia got to interact with several different characters and had a very interesting and entertaining chemistry with them.

This sort of reminds me of the Conway situation; a wonderful, interesting character with so much potential... but of all the rivals he could've had, he ended up with the one he never interacted with prior to the League. So there was nothing to go by. If he were Dawn's rival, he would've been much better utilized... yet despite that miscasting it didn't really reflect badly on Conway; it was just that we knew he could've done a lot more if he were given the proper role. And it helps that DP Ash, despite having no real quarrel with Conway, was a likable character and the concept of having a nerdy, methodical, by-the-books rival was actually a very fitting rivalry situation for Ash to have.

The problem in Georgia's scenario is that, unlike DP Ash, Iris brings nothing to the table on her end. Because it's not just Georgia she drags down; it's pretty much everybody in this series that suffers this. You can't make much of a rivalry when the supposed "good guy" is shown to be every bit as petty and bitchy as the adversary, even provoking the ego-stroking mockery shit for no reason, and then it's no wonder why Georgia is the way she is. These rivals have no chemistry; you never saw May or Dawn or Ash stoop to their own rivals' levels whenever they were being provoked, did you? They were shown to be above the kind of nature their rivals were for the most part, so it inspired us to make them want to win.

With Georgia and Iris? Honestly... I don't give a damn what happens in this rivalry. But since the writing in BW is horrifically bad and Iris gets benefits without having to work for them, I feel that whenever they meet next it'll only reflect poorly on Georgia and damage her credibility as an actual threat. So truthfully, I actually don't WANT to see them battle it out again if only for that reason.

So, is Georgia an interesting character? For sure; the Don Battle, horrible as it was, at least proved that. Is she an interesting rival? ...

As Iris' rival, no. But then again, I doubt anyone could make a good rival for Iris, so I don't fault Georgia herself on that. As Ash's rival, she'd probably have fared much better. She's simply in an unfortunate scenario where she's stuck with someone who only serves to drag her down and make a mockery of her role. It's really sad, honestly. I'd swap Trip for Georgia for a heartbeat for Ash's rival.

 

[Hurricane Kishore]

Georgia would have been interesting if -
1) She was younger. (around Ash's Age)
2) She was both Ash & Iris's rival.
3) She develop feeling for Ash & get's too clingy around him causing Iris to get jealous.

 

[AshK]

Georgia would have been interesting if -
1) She was younger. (around Ash's Age)
2) She was both Ash & Iris's rival.
3) She develop feeling for Ash & get's too clingy around him causing Iris to get jealous.

- wasn't the last thing done before numerous times one way or another the last 14 years?

Also I am not too big on Georgia. She has this weird fixation of beating dragon trainers, especially from that village that she lost at. Don't find that interesting... Although she is more tolerable to me when she is around the other people.

 

[Hurricane Kishore]

Georgia would have been interesting if -
1) She was younger. (around Ash's Age)
2) She was both Ash & Iris's rival.
3) She develop feeling for Ash & get's too clingy around him causing Iris to get jealous.

- wasn't the last thing done before numerous times one way or another the last 14 years?

Also I am not too big on Georgia. She has this weird fixation of beating dragon trainers, especially from that village that she lost at. Don't find that interesting... Although she is more tolerable to me when she is around the other people.

When ?
I just remember Macey who show up for only one episode !
Melody doesn't count since she's a movie character , Nether a rival or Referring character.
So, where do you find it Numerous ?
But your are right about Georgia isn't interesting enough with her current plot . Which is why I said that She would have been more interesting as a 10 year female rival/referring character with a Obsession with Ash while developing a rivalry with Iris

 

[Iteru]

Please do not turn this into a thread about Satoshi and his shippings. The topic is Langley, and what you think of her as a character and a rival.

 

[Caseydia]

She is an interesting rival but her rivalry with Iris is like Trip's and Ash's. Iris doesn't seem affected by her as a rival normally would. Even though she is a bit of a sneak. Her interactions with other characters are good but since she is supposed to be Iris's rival, I hoope there is more for her to get Iris hyped up about.

 

[Jaye]

Her rivalry with Iris actually has a lot of potential, because of Iris' fear of Ice-types. If Iris was shown to be more fearful or apprehensive about Langley, the rivalry, for me, would be a lot more interesting and would present an opportunity for Iris to not only show how well she's raised her Dragon-types, but also get over her fear of Ice-type Pokemon.

Unfortunately, the rivalry just seems to be a contest of who can spite the other the most and it has no effect on either character, which renders it pointless. The whole point of rivalries in the show is to lead to development for the better in the two characters involved, but at the moment I can't see how Iris or Langley can come out of this as better characters.

Langley as a stand-alone rival has potential because she just has that sort of personality that make people want to confront her, but her scope is a bit small. She wants to battle and defeat Dragon-type Pokemon, and that limits who she could face off against on the show. To get the best out of her, I feel she needs to be involved in a storyline with Axew.

So overall, I feel she has potential but isn't being utilised in the correct way.

 

[Sweet Veil]

I love Langley she's the most entertaining rival in BW for me. Never has there once in Pokemon been two characters who really really seem to hold so much outer animosity toward each other as Iris and Langley. It's refreshing for me because had Harley who probably is the second best rival in all of Pokemon, and his conniving and crazy ways really helped Haruka in her development. Urara came off to me as too much of a Harley clone, mainly because they both embarrassed their rivals in a contest, and both had that same "planning to fuck up your life, and I secretly hate you" demeanor. Langley doesn't have that, she came up to Iris and challenged her to an earnest battle and beat Kibago easily. She provided excellent comedy and development for Iris. Seeing Kibago recoil in fear from Tsunbear chilling breath, calling Iris a kid, and being a bit of a sadist in rejecting Iris's rematch, as well as being one of the few not to love Dento's cooking, her being a kid after defeating Bachuru and showing a playful side, are hilarious moment in her character.

Development wise, Langley really opened the door for Iris and Doryuzu. Iris using Doryuzu against Langley who easily got Doryuzu motivated to battle and subdued it easily, seeing Iris run up to Doryuzu concerned as it comes to and realizes it lost. Langley managed to beat Doryuzu and give him a kick in the pants. After this loss, Iris finally understands she really didn't understand Doryuzu's feelings and challenges Langley to a rematch. But, still she only manages a tie which was nice to see since it makes Langley look very threatening and shows that Iris and Doryuzu don't become this super dynamic duo after figuring out their problem and finally working together. It's realistic, very much.

Langley also has shown to really really want to "bust" Dragon Types. Because she had her ass handed to her by a Dragon Villager. I'm really interested how crushing her defeat was to make her become so callous toward Dragons seeing just that in the future would be a treat. There seemed to be some type of foreshadowing for it given back during the Don Tournament when Kibago is using Outrage Langley knows the attack and is effects and breaks sweat out of nervousness at the very sight of Kibago. So, that makes me think it's definitely something deeper than a simple defeat. Why is Langley on this journey? Who defeated her? Why does she want to punish Dragon Types so much? So many interesting things about her character that I look forward to. Seeing her after the Don Battle Tournament get in Iris face an have a tad bit of bitchyness in her tone, and telling Iris not to let the win go to her head. While not attacking or insulting Iris was defiantly a step toward something interesting, Iris neither lashed back either simply acting embarrassed at it and she gave Iris some nice words before she left. So, the writers are doing a good job with giving her some development and Iris some even if there small things like that. Langley is just a treat. XD

 

[Hidden Mew]

I like Georgia. She's one of the more enjoyable new characters for me. I really liked her interactions with other characters in the Club Battle tournament, who weren't Iris at least, since it was an interesting contrast with her mean demeanor with all of the generally friendly characters. Though, I don't really feel much for her rivalry with Iris. I like that she's mean to Iris and calls her out for being a terrible trainer since Iris's flaws are generally downplayed and/or ignored by the other characters, but their rivalry hasn't had much of an impact on Iris's character. The main impact she has had was with defeating her Excadrill, but that didn't make Iris realize why Excadrill wouldn't listen to her. Cilan pretty much told her the reason and all she did was apologize, which suddenly got rid of the anger Excadrill had for years. Considering that their rivalry hasn't affected Axew in anyway, which is much more connected to Iris's goal than Excadrill, I don't think that their rivalry has had much of an effect on Iris, especially when she didn't really develop after getting Excadrill to listen to her.

The other major problem with this rivalry is that I question why I should root for Iris. Given their interactions in the Club Battle tournament and Iris being a main character, I got the impression that the writers wants the audience to support Iris, but due to Iris's own flaws and the terrible writing around her character, there's nothing about her that makes me want to see her win. If anything, this rivalry makes me want to root for Georgia to win since she actually has determination and works towards her goal of defeating Dragon Pokemon while in comparison, Iris has all of her accomplishments handed to her by the writers and she bragged about her skills through Zorua, despite only being able to tie with Georgia before and doing absolutely no on-screen training to justify her huge ego. If Iris' previous battles are any indication, then the writers will probably give her a victory over Georgia on a silver platter. I like her character and I think she's a really good trainer, but as Iris' rival, she doesn't interest me as much.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

I really like her and her rivalry with Iris. And I will root for her...

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

I feel sorry for Langley too much to really enjoy the rivalry. When I was watch the untranslated don battle arc I song the word "BITCH wars bitch wARS" repeatedly because I knew that was what it amounted to. I find this rivalry to be just a glorified flame war. Layers good characters have layers Langley needs layers.

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

Finally a thread relevent to my interests! Thank you Infernofeline.

Short joke/troll post:

Spoiler

I really don't think Langley was created to make Iris look good. I think she was created to make Iris look bad and underdeveloped, so we could desire more development, battles, and team changes for her, than for Langley. In other words, Langley is created to do the same thing Hikari did to fanbase's reaction towards Urara, but intentionally:

Serious, long post:

Spoiler

I adore Langley as a character. Unlike Urara before her, her backstory and her parallels towards her rival, are actually explored upon, as she is the only major competition her rival has. Though that is partially helped by the fact that she is the only rival who is a true foil to her rival in the entire Arceusdamn BW, unlike Urara, who also had to compete with Shinji(who not only had Satoshi and Reiji, but also Jun to some extent), and Nozomi[who not only had Hikari as her foil(to some extent), but also had Naoshi]. Much like Shinji, her backstory was nicely foreshadowed in her debut and Don Battle Tournament arc, whereas Shinji's backstory was foreshadowed in Tobari arc(Dramatic Frontier Symbols zoom ftw) and DP100.

Unlike Urara, Harley and Cabernet before her, she is not shown to be behind her rival, she is actually shown to be competent. Of course Urara was also shown to be around Hikari's level in terms of skill, as the entire point of their every battle ever was about how the two constantly kept each other on their toes, constantly trying to negate each others' moves so the one of them could get the upper hand, but failed, because they were basically same in many levels; she never got a major victory on screen. No cameo of her getting a ribbon(hell, we didn't even see her ribbon case, we actually saw Harley's case, despite how late it was), no victory against Hikari. We didn't even knew where was from, whereas only other contest rival who we don't know their hometown was Naoshi, whose one of main gimmicks was his mysterious nature. Cabby gets a free pass though, as her incompetence is a point in her rivalry with Dent, and her character, to the point all of her Pokémon are early route mons, like she was a Arceusdamn Lass or something(Oh dear god Youngster Cabby. "My tasting is the best s'il vous plait. It's like the top percent of tasting.")

Also I like how unlike Hikari who didn't give much of a damn for Urara beyond contests unless she started to actually insult her, Iris loves to toy with Langley just as Langley wants to toy with her. While Hikari obviously hated Urara's guts as much as she did, and constantly tried to subdue Urara's moves, just like Urara constantly tried to make Hikari play second fiddle to herself(kind of like Groudon and Kyogre's constant feud for dominance over Pokéarth when you think about it), they barely bickered with each other, it was mostly Urara talking(though to be fair, when they do bitched and counterbitched, their bickering with each other was well done); Langley and Iris are basically trolling each other for teh lulz, and because their feud is the only thing that makes them one being, like they were supposed to be(kinda like Reshiram and Zekrom, maybe blue eyes and weird choker was an intentional reference). The single fact that Iris is just as a big dick towards Langley as much as Langley towards her(actually, scratch that, Iris is the bigger dick here, she partially encouraged a female kabuki kitsune to basically continue doing identity theft of an eleven something girl) makes the whole thing worthwhile. Sadly though, even if they are threats to each others' egos like Shinji/Satoshi or Urara/Hikari, it is because their egos are so inflated they put Harley's Pukurin to shame.

Aside from that, another thing I like is how Langley is accepting of being a child, unlike Iris. Not only with her phrase catcher, but also with her mannerisms, her acceptence, and her honesty. She doesn't try to be something she isn't, unlike every character in DP ever, or Shooty(though that part of character is likely to be something to be developed upon). Speaking of her honesty;

I adore how Langley is brutally honest to everyone she encounters, including herself. She never hides her feelings towards anyone, and just acts and talks like how she feels. Even if she didn't openly admitted to Iris her grown respect towards her, she did admitted it to herself, unlike Urara, who never admitted that to herself or anyone, or Cabby, who took a long while to admit her grown respect towards Dent, she admitted her respect towards her the milisecond her respect grew, and after Don Battle Tournament. While Nozomi and Shinji were also honest, they weren't this honest, at least not when pride was an issue(though Shinji mostly just didn't talk in one way or other). That is actually, probably the best part of her character, at least for me. Well, at least it is certainly the most respectable part of character anyways.

Speaking of her acceptence, that is also certainly one of the best parts of her character. While all other rivals took very, very long time to accept certain things(or just characters in the entire series in general)(my favourite being Shuu's "This girl that gives me boner has actually became competent while my Absol eats shit Satoshi bro what do" dialogue in AG182), Langley, besides her hatred towards Dragons, was relatively acceptive towards Bel and Zorua, and I really hope the reason she didn't spaz out towards Imperial Wrath like Hikari did towards Plusle and Minun or didn't have a disgusted reaction towards the move like Dent did towards Chrononeko was this; especially considering after some seconds she loved the fact Iris has finally got a credible threat with the move.

Another thing to mention, I love how she gives off a street-wise biker chick vibe, further encouraged with her theft of the twerps' breakfast. It's nice contrast to Iris' shaman/forest girl character type. It helps that she has actually has some charisma too.

For her Pokémon, well, they need more appearance overall, but they are pretty solid. Tunbear is really nice, it has some personality, it has a good movepool for the early parts of series, especially since it actually seems to mirror Shinji's Ringuma's movepool in Eichi Lake battle. Just look at it:
-Shinji's Ringuma had Slash/Tear into Pieces. Langley's Tunbear has Slash.
-Shinji's Ringuma had Arm Hammer/Hammer Arm. Tunbear has Rock Smash.
-Shinji's Ringuma has Kiaidama/Focus Blast, which ultimately worked against it when Buoysel used Counter Shield. Tunbear got shafted by Focus Blast, and had it's own long range move, Ice Beam.
The only exception is Icicle Drog/Icicle Clash, but considering it is Tunbear's signature move, and Langley's debut was Tunbear's debut too, so, just like Shirona's Gablias and her Dragon Dive/Rush, it kinda had to showcase the line's signature move. Also, it is might also be an awful pun, because it's spelled Tsurara Otoshi, though actual Japanese speakers are welcome to comment on that. Also, Tunbear and it's ice beard might supposed to be complemented by Bel's Enbuoh and it's flame beard. Hmm, nice.

Komatana, is also pretty good. I love how she takes certain cues from everywhere:
-Obviously it was chosen due to Komatana's design similarities to Gabite and Noctus, most noticably her blade hands(to reference Gabite's claw hands and Noctus' needle arms), her spherical head and her eye design, which is nice, because Cabby didn't follow the pattern, besides the fact Futachimaru can learn Swords Dance and Mooland can have sandstorm related abilities, though;
-I love how the way she battles is inspired by Shinji's Manyula and Nozomi's Erlade, flips and everything. Especially nice since it has Metal Claw, like Manyula. Though;
-It is also nice to see Scissors Guillotine/Guillotine back, I miss Shinji's Glion. Poor guy, he had so much potential...
-I have to wonder why they decided to make her female though. It is most likely to joke about Langley's own boyish looks and a reference to Gabite, though it might be a joke more close to Nozomi's Erlade, who is, you know...

Speaking of lesbians, I love how Langley's design, specifically her hairdo and colored eyes, are similiar to Utena, especially disturbing considering Anthy's design similiarities to Iris:

SUBTLETY!1!!11!!!1!!1!!1! Though that makes one wonder why she was named Langley if she is not inspired by Asuka Langley Soryu*, but I guess I I'll get my Asuka references when we see the person defeated her. Though they might not do any important Asuka refences since Kasumi and Urara provided already enough. But if they do, Hallelujah chorus and mind rape sequence plz.

*Just googled Soryu's meaning. It means Blue Dragon or Green Dragon. Langley wears green, actually, her color scheme is relatively similiar to Kyurem, and she uses Ice-types and Steel-types, two types you can find commonly in Giant Chasm(Giant Hole). Oh. OOOOH. That's rather clever.

Note: I just remembered I was supposed to talk about similiarities between Komatana-line and Nigoki/Unit 02, specifically Rebuild version:

I know some people are gonna say one these, so I better say every possible Evangelion joke before this ends. Beware, Spoilers:

Spoiler

-"Mama is with me!"
-"It expanded!"
-"Thermal expension!"
-"Please don't look into my mind!"
-"Baumkuchen"
-"I think Purin's song is the highest achivement of Lilim culture, don't you, Shinji?"
-Langley will have an eyepatch.
-Hikari will become one with Emrit and will hug eveyone and eveyone will turn into Tang Shinji drank in DP100(or was it some other episode? Too lazy to check.")
-"Modo hanten. Uro kodo. ZA BEASTO."
-Pokapoka.
-Kojiro's Gendo Pose in evil Togepi episode.
-Nerv is Battle Pyramid! Jindai is Gendo, the Uberpimp! Sotaro is Fuyutsuki! NOOOOO!
-Shinji will choke Langley after Instrumentality. Kimochi warui.
-Mass Produced Palkia will eat Langley.
-"We been lonely most of our lives. Aim to impact into paradise!"
-N died for your sins.
-Metal Claw is the new Progressive Knife.
-Elekible has Shinji's mother's soul.
-Reiji is Kaji.
-Urara stole her pink drill and his Plusle and Minun's Charge Beam from Ramiel.
-Uraramiel(I actually have some doodles of that but naah, it is 01:32 am.)
-Kenhallow is useless as Jet Alone.
etc. etc.

Random notes and stuff:

Spoiler

-When I first saw her profile pic on Serebii's main page, I thought she was a really effeminate boy that was supposed to rehash Harley.
-The actual full name of the pic is irisisthenewuraraandemolgaisthenewminunbecausepluslesucks.jpg but Imageshack.us has a higher level of sense of humour than me.
-I was planning joke post to be longer, but decided against it.
-It took me a whole day to write this. No seriously, while writing this, I ate my lunch, took an exam of my university exam preparing course, came back and ate my dinner. I haven't drink my after meal tea yet though. Edit: Just finished that too.
-I was planning to respond some comments, but it's not worth it, besides I need to get up early anyways. However;

I'd swap Trip for Georgia for a heartbeat for Ash's rival.

I was originally going to post a longer post about this, but it's too late, I need to sleep.
I have to agree this, after rewatching Komatana vs. Tsutarja briefly, definately this. Not the same reasons as Shinneth though. I would like to see Shooty as Iris' rival as he could have been an actual foil to Iris, as like her, he also constantly tries to act like an adult even though it is clear that he is not, something Shinneth mentioned already in Shooty's thread. Not to mention, he already is a stuck up city boy, which would contrast well with Iris' character. Actually, scratch that, it does. For Myuu's sake those two have much better interaction with each other than the one between Satoshi and Shuuti anyways. The only problem however would be Langley becoming the next regional tomboy that has a crush on Satoshi, though that actually could have kinda worked if developed well and not sappily, considering those two have some similiarities anyways(and people already ship the two a lot already anyways). Most noticably their hat and glove fetish(Seriously wtf). And of course having Langley as the main could stop the constant desire for Satoshi having a main girl rival, Satoshi having a competent girl rival and Satoshi having a Harley-esque rival all in one time.

Additional note: Is it me or outfit wise, Langley is somewhat similiar to Kanata from Houen? The gloves, the choker, the jacket, the short miniskirt....

Not sure if this is awesome or disturbing or both.

Speculative final note:

Spoiler

I would like to see Dragon Busting to become an actual thing, and not just Langley's hobby, just to see how would she react towards that.

Also I want to see Langley interact with more with the guy rivals and Satoshi. Not for shipping reasons, just because it would be cool.

One final comparison/mindf*ck:

Spoiler

LOL. They are not even trying.

 

[Caseydia]

I like Georgia because she was able to get Iris to actually bond with Excadrill. Being around Ash and Cilan has caused her to be on the downlow with her battling and Pokemon but with Langley, she somehow drags it out. I think it was smart giving her a rival to give her a little push. Can you imagine if she didn't have a rival and that only Ash and Cilan had one?

 

[Sweet Veil]

I really thought the Donamite was very successful in giving Langley some much needed layers and development, given she's the only rival who I felt who's developed and matured in BW, I was glad to see that. Not only that but, she had very humorous moments as well. I thought it was pretty cute how she was so happy to see Iris win and interested in her battle smiling and showing a concerned faced, and how she said Iris had grown up a bit as a person and matured. I really liked how she's all "iris will totally win!" and how she wants to see Iris become stronger and become a "befitting Dragon Master". Really cute, and I liked how she left on good terms and Iris herself being embarrassed of herself and saying she definitely wants to become a befitting D-Master herself.

 

[Caseydia]

Yes! Langley is a very interesting rival. She brings life and gives Iris a reason to work hard. If she had dragon Pokemon of her won, she would really drive ratings!

 

[WildGamer]

here's the thing I have with Langley (and Cabernet by extension). Aside from their introductory episodes, they've only reappeared in tournaments. We've only seen their personalities and progression in a certain environment, namely the battling/competitive one. I feel like they're just glorified tournament rivals and aren't really significant until we see them outside of that. The Don battle episodes have to split focus on all of the competitors and I'd like to see another ep focusing mainly on Langley/Iris and Cabernet/Dent.

Also, love the mutual bitchiness between Iris and Langley. Yeah it doesn't make Iris seem like the good guy, the one to be cheered, but I don't want that. I've never really understood why the protagonist always has to take the high road and respond to their rival's jeers with happiness, forgiveness and acceptance. Screw that! An inhospitable personality usually begets an inhospitable response, so kudos to Iris bring her brand of bitch to someone who actually deserves it this time. Not to say Langley is one dimensional, but she acts that way around Iris because she doesn't like her. Not to mention Iris has always played the sarcastic, rude and belittling girl - to act all nice and heroic in front of the Langley would just make her seem hypocritical and fake in my eyes. At least the writers are consistent in that department.

 

[Caseydia]

here's the thing I have with Langley (and Cabernet by extension). Aside from their introductory episodes, they've only reappeared in tournaments. We've only seen their personalities and progression in a certain environment, namely the battling/competitive one. I feel like they're just glorified tournament rivals and aren't really significant until we see them outside of that. The Don battle episodes have to split focus on all of the competitors and I'd like to see another ep focusing mainly on Langley/Iris and Cabernet/Dent.

You've got a point. Since Iris and Cilan's rivals are in Ash's Don tournaments now, it seems like all that energy and focus is going to other people instead of each other. This is why I think they could have made other mini tournaments for them instead. It is cool to ha ve them involved but I feel that with some much characters going on in one place, it feels like there is no room to breathe. I also agree that they need to have more battles and events outside of the Don battle seperate from the Don battle to give Iris and Cilan their needed attention.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

I think her character is interesting, but I find her rivalry with Iris somewhat stagnant by this point, since right now it just involves her reminding Iris to use Dragons and Iris just ignoring her and battling with whom she wants. I am hoping that gets somewhere, though; because if it does, then I'll find her even more interestng, knowing that she will be the key to pushing Iris toward her goal (even if it is just for Georgia's own reasons) and actually puts more effort into Axew's growth.

But, again, I do still like her personality, and as an individual character, and she's probably my second favorite rival of BW. She just lacks advancement toward her rivalry with Iris.