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Notice Iris Debate Thread

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I think Iris is awesome. I'm not gonna type a huge paragraph. But Iris' Kibago is cool, a friggin' Charizard looking Dragon Rage attack?! The writers went the extra mile to make it stand-out which shows me her Kibago will be a cut above the rest.
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Emonga is cute strong a cute charmer and female. It's cool to see Pokemon that act just like my female classmates in the show. Her Volt Change and Mero-Mero problem and her relationship with Tsutarja is just waiting to be expand. I wanna see more of this Pokemon. And her gluttony.


Doryuuzu's disobedience is fun too. I wanna see how Iris can control her Dragon Mole and how it will become better and some more of that awesome Drill Liner attack. I wanna see what more it can do because it looks like it could take down every Pokemon in the group easy.

Iris herself I love those crazy Jungle Skillz and her crazy hair and the fact she's Pokemon's first African-American(Isshuian?) character ever. It's nice not to have a girly-girl like Hikari for another 4 years. Don't get me wrong Hikari's cool, but Iris is willing to get her hands dirty. Dento has taken the pretty-boy role.
 
I like Iris I think she's a bit more interesting than the other girls sure she was a little bland at first but things are starting to get a little better. I just hope the writers do something with her Dragon Master goal unlike Brock saying his goal is to be top breeder and just well standing around.
 
I'm actually the one who kind of started the whole debate in the thread in the first place. Apologies.

On the subject of Iris, now as I said I'm mostly indifferent to her. When she first appeared, she didn't really annoy me. She hasn't done really anything to make me take a keen interest in her character. It's the same with Trip when I look back at it. While I do prefer Iris, over Trip so far neither of them have done much to stand out. Now, I'm glad Iris is starting to get more focus, which in turn could make me like her a whole lot more. With this Excadrill episode upcoming, I feel as though Excadrill should have cost her more. Like with Ash during his League, and Dawn during her contest. Just to have it obey her after just one episode seems very cheap to me. The upcoming episode needs to be the start of a process, not a conclusion.

As for the whole "You're such a kid" line. While it's quite unnecessary a few times due to Ash not know where the hell he is, it's suppose to be somewhat I guess. Honestly those that say "If Ash told her about he previous regions of experience, she would view him better." It's not like she necessarily views him bad now. She shown to have a subtle respect for him, unlike Dento who is very vocal about his admiration. Even if he did tell her about his experience, he would still do something stupid in her eye's the next episode that would allow Iris to fall back on her catchphrase unfortunately.

I have patience for Kibago evolving. While I don't particularly like it's character, I know it's going to take time to evolve, and by the time it does it will probably be her strongest Pokemon. I don't really like Emonga at all. Personalities like that are always more annoying than funny. It could due to the fact that they overplayed it's cuteness in it's two focus episodes so far, but it's definitely my least favorite of Iris current Pokemon.

As for her goal, I still don't quite understand why it was such a big secret. People playing the games were bound to know who she was, and her relation to dragons. I also, don't think she's totally this "mysterious/secretive" character that I've seen some people make her out to be. She wants to become a master of dragons, and that relatively it.

So the tl;dr verison, I'm indifferent to her as of right now. I want to see her develop more, and I'm willing to wait to see if she truly develops into a memorable character.
 
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I don't mind Iris, but so far I don't find her particularly interesting either. One thing that bothers me so far is that although she's had a few episodes focusing on her already, they don't seem to make a structured, coherent storyline so far. I think this may be in part because the writers want to play up the mystery surrounding her, and reveal her character and past slowly, but in my opinion it means that so far she doesn't have many definable characteristics.
Like Paperhorse, I'm not too keen on her goal. So far we haven't seen her being very active in battling, or in working towards the goal (of course, now Kibago has mastered dragon rage we should be seeing more of this), and the vagueness of her goal means that it's hard to know what steps she should be taking to achieve her goal and how far she's actually developped.

On the otherhand, I did welcome the additional information we got about her and Kibago in the Kibago episode, and hopefully we'll get more moments like these in the next few episodes. So far the aspect I find most interesting with her is her 'nature girl' side, which I feel could potentially develop and play a larger role in the plot.

So for the moment, I haven't found Iris that interesting, but I'm hoping it's just a case of the writers taking her development slowly, in which case we might see her participating in more battles and being more active soon.
 
Besides certain memebers, Iris is seen as fine through everyone else's eyes.

Iris is arguably one of the most popular characters this show has ever seen.

Best Wishes has hardly had any complaints, and when it does, they are forgotten about quickly.
 
Iris is arguably one of the most popular characters this show has ever seen.
I dunno...Didn't we have a character poll around here or something?

At first I didn't like Iris, but her ineptness and failures made her endearing, made me side with her. The fact that all her Pokemon have/had something wrong with them has proven to be very amusing.

I find it neat how so many thought Scraggy would go to Iris, but even though it's not hers, itstill made her team stronger.
 
I meant it by, besides one or two users on here, Iris has not really caused too much controversy.

There are actually a good number who either defend her, or say she was hilarious or want more from her.

She's pretty likeable, not like Cilan, who is loved to a point where he is overrated, but that's just me.
 
I think the only reason Iris was initially well received is she wasn't another coordinator, people did not want to sit through a third coordinator girl yet again.
 
I could write a whole essay about my thoughts on Iris character but since long posts arent welcomed sometimes in here ill give short review.

As far as personality goes Iris comes out to me as energetic and interesting character liking her positive outlook on life and curious nature.She is kind of wild,likes to nitpick over some things and can be little pushy at times but that just adds to chemistry within BW group to me with Ash,Iris and Dento playing each other well.

Her backstory is on good part mysterious adding that quality to character of writers having several routes on their disposal in which way they will go with development.Her goals may seem simple but it takes lot of time and effort to properly raise baby dragon mastering its techniques and preparing him for evolution and current revelation of her character trying to become dragon pokemon master draws nice parallel to Ashs goal while still being different enough to avoid possible clashing with each other.
Similar case like Mistys dream of becoming water master with difference being to expect Iris dram being more expanded and better defined since writers got naturally better over the years on handling characters goals.

Lack of screen time currently doesnt annoy me too much because i understand how writers are trying to properly distribute focus between all characters with Iris character starting to get more and more screen time if current episodes are anything to go by.Most of her development i assume to happen in second half of Unova when she may play some part in regional villains arc,have something to do with 8th gym and raise her Axew and Excadrill resolving issues about her pokemon which serve purpose of being catalyst for her character development.

Also Iris is supporting character not a co-star not being to expect seeing her getting huge amount of focus like her ancestor did-And that doesnt matter because character dont need to receive a lot to have good development.
Iris is currently doing just fine contributing to groups dynamic, providing humor using her time when being given chance to shine well being memorable.

She isnt among my favorites but i can say she started growing on me.
 
Well, I think Iris is sort of interesting, I just think the writers are dragging their feet with developing reasons for these characters. It's the same for Trip, we don't know shit about him other than that he's an asshole, he's like Blue from the RBY games, he was just an asshole to the player character...just because. We didn't find out what drove him, why he was an ass, his backstory, etc. And again...that works for an outdated video game from 1996, not so much with an anime character in 2011.

And I guess on Iris not doing much, I have a feeling Iris actually feels this way. She talks and acts like there's no rush, she'll get there when she gets there. Honestly, before she met Ash, she would have just dicked around for a few years taking everything her own pace. That's how I think Iris likes to do things, really slow and really steady. But now the writers have this "invisible clock" on her head, like she has to get Excadrill to obey her, master Axew's Dragon Rage, fully evolve Axew, now get Emolga to battle with her, and whatever else within 3 years our time (which is probably a few months on her time).

I just wish they'd actually have this in the show, like Iris is this lazy slacker who'd rather sleep in a tree than train her Pokemon, instead of this girl who goes "such a kid" while she's incredibly lazy herself and no one calls her on it.
 
For me (at times) she reminds me a bit too much of Sapphire from PokeSpe...only has trouble controling her Pokemon along with many other little differences here and there.

I never really had a problem with her (despite so many quick succession of Iris episodes @_@) and she's my favorite female character that has been on the main cast (with May close behind)
 
I think most of criticism she gets come from disillusion/disappointment about her focus/screentime. Fans didn't expect a female side-kick like Kasumi after the exaples of Haruka and Hikari...
 
First of all, I'll start with Iris's goal. I'm good with the evolving Axew storyline since there are stepping stones that can show its and Iris's progress (learning new moves, winning battles, evolving). As for the Dragon Master goal - I'm somewhat okay with it, but like others have said, it may fall into the realm of too vague. I don't think it's necessary for her to capture multiple Dragon-types to master this goal; I think that if she can connect with Axew through its development, she herself will attain this dream of getting herself in-sync with dragons' hearts. I just don't know how the writers can show her progress throughout the show with this type of dream.

Next, Iris's problem with Excadrill. Although it may seem like Iris doesn't care that her Pokémon isn't listening to her, my theory is that it's more self-doubt than anything. Her low self-confidence, which she covers up through her catchphrase ("You're such a little kid!"), prevents her from seeking the help necessary to discipline Excadrill because she doesn't want to feel like a failure for accepting help from others (there are several people like this in real life). However, because she doesn't seek assistance from others, she herself doesn't know what to do to solve this problem, which in turn leads to nothing getting done (until this upcoming episode focusing on her and Excadrill).

Lastly, Iris's problem with Emolga. Does she even realize Emolga only joined her because of the apples she fed to it? I can't really discuss this too much since we've only seen the squirrel for two episodes and the writers haven't delved into this subplot, but it is a little jarring that the writers are having Snivy discipline Emolga rather than its own trainer but at least it's giving Snivy screen time!. I'm just hoping for a good plot resolution for this because right now, it seems like Snivy's going to be the one laying down the rules rather than Iris.

I think one of the main problems with Iris is that the writers waited too long to focus on her. So far, she's had BW009, BW027, BW028, and BW030 (with BW035 being focused on her, as well). Not only is there a huge gap between the first and second Iris episodes, but the majority of these are already somewhat far into the saga. I think if Iris was shown trying to deal with Excadrill earlier in the series, there would be less complaining because it would show that Iris was trying to be more proactive with the situation rather than waiting forever to deal with it. Another problem is that Iris didn't have a battle ready Pokémon at the beginning of the saga. Cilan had Pansage, a loyal and strong Pokémon, and soon caught Dwebble, who's equally loyal and strong. Iris had Axew, a baby with only two moves (one not even fully mastered) and Excadrill, who disobeys her for an unknown reason. Had Iris dealt with the Excadrill situation earlier, she could have used him to help with many of the episodes' resolutions.

All in all, I find Iris an interesting character with a great, but sometimes annoying personality. I just wish the writers would use her character more and not shrug around her issues for so long.
 
I don't think it's just that.

It's her personality and attitude that gets to people sometimes, some are actually annoyed because Iris does things on her own pace.
 
It's her personality and attitude that gets to people sometimes, some are actually annoyed because Iris does things on her own pace.

The problem there is that we the viewers don't know if Iris is actually doing things at her own pace. We can only make that inference since nowhere in the show does it specifically state that Iris takes things slowly on purpose. Yes, BW030 did say it takes patience to be a Dragon Master, but we don't know if that also applies to disciplining Excadrill.
 
Um... hooboy. So here's the history: When the basic details of Iris' character were revealed, I was pretty excited to see her in action. I was happy to not get a third coordinator and thought an anime rendition of Sapphire would be interesting to have in the anime. So foolishly, I had high expectations for her... this is very different from Dawn, whom I initially had a neutral initial perception of. With Iris, I was eager to see how her dynamic would work with the show.

And ultimately, that's why Iris bothers me greatly in the present day. My high expectations were dashed when Iris had a very weak introduction, an even weaker justification for traveling with Ash, and keeping her a goal a secret didn't really work... because her proclamation to be a dragon master seemed completely out of nowhere when there was little to no evidence, even subtle hints that connected Iris to this goal.

She's got the worst catchphrase of any character who had a consistent one; others had catchphrases that either had a point to eventual character development or at least aided in identifying their quirks. Iris' catchphrase only served to put down Ash, and Iris would often use this without any real justification. Regardless of her lack of maliciousness and the intent for this catchphrase to be a catalyst for the lulz, for me it failed to be funny and hence it just made Iris out to be a real jerk. She scolds Ash for not knowing every little details about Unova even though he has a perfectly good reason not to know anything about Unova, but despite that she'll still hassle Ash; another way that makes Iris out to be an insensitive bully.

I've said this before elsewhere, but if a protagonist's catchphrase is geared strictly towards belittling other people, including the main protagonist and it's not used justifiably, then that protagonist is more likely than not to be completely unconvincing in their role. And that's what Iris is to me: a very unconvincing protagonist, hard to relate to, and thus hard to care about or sympathize with once BW got around to developing her character.

The "going at her own pace" thing makes sense, but Iris was going about it like a total defeatist in BW009 in my opinion, and taking that into account plus her superiority complex over Ash (not to mention her deflection issues when she's the one who acts more childish than Ash most of the time)... you know what, I didn't feel sorry for her at all. It just gave me a reason to be even more irritated with her behavior.

It's all well and fine that she's toning down her catchphrase in later episodes, but then what's going to be her other defining character trait if she drops it completely? And if she doesn't, how will it apply to her character? For all the time they've squandered by having Iris bitch at Ash for stupid reasons, they could have given her other character quirks; something to make her more likable or easier to relate to. Even though I grew to be very apathetic towards Dawn, I could at least understand her issues and her character development made perfect sense. She was easy to relate to and acted like a real protagonist.

Iris' lack of screentime compared to past traveling girls doesn't bother me as much; it's how they manage the time they give her - poorly, in my opinion - and how they still fail thirty episodes in to help me see how exactly Iris is someone I should be rooting for and how she's a true protagonist. Not to mention I still wonder why the hell she hangs around with Ash anyway; they really don't feel like friends to me even if they canonly are and Iris isn't meaning to come off as malicious. The fact that Iris has no (or poor) justification for a lot of her actions or behavior is something that sticks out. It fails to convince me that this is a true, functioning trio. It feels like there's no balance.

Bear in mind I like jerkass characters when they have an actual reason to be like that. And I'm sure with Iris the intention of the writers is to very slowly develop her character so by the end all will become clear. But the problem is that if they don't give me a reason to care for or like the character in the beginning, how am I supposed to care about how she develops?

I'm sure something must be wrong with me if the majority here likes her just fine... and naturally I have no problem with anyone who likes her; only people who judge me for disliking her. Tolerance goes both ways, after all.

Anyway, yeah. I don't like Iris. She's been a huge disappointment for me so far. I'm just not sure at which point I should completely give up on her, given that I was at first excited to see what she was all about.
 
I think the biggest problem here is that people just aren't used to the main girl getting a backseat which is a huge step backwards from Dawn, who shared a co-star status along with Ash and Piplup. While I find Iris's personality more entertaining (no, her catchphrase doesn't annoy me, Ash really does act like a child often so it's justified), she's definitely not doing as much stuff as May or Dawn did.

I really like Iris and thus, I get excited for every bit of info we get on her in any time. Her development is going slowly, but the more I learn of her the more I like her as a character. She's no Dawn, she's an agile, wildish girl who has the "sixth sense" which sometimes actually does wonders. In BW031 she successfully located Crimgan and Kibago without any help from the others.

Speaking of Iris's goal, I think the title of a Dragon Master is actually achievable. I think that once she completely gets the idea of understanding the hearts of dragons, her goal will be complete. That goal is indirectly tied to the dream of Kibago's evolution. As Kibago develops, Iris develops and thus their bond evolves to something greater. If she manages to understand Kibago's heart (heart of a dragon), that will undoubtedly allow her to understand every other dragon Pokémon. Not to mention the fact that she comes out of the village where only dragon types are trained.
 
Speaking of Iris's goal, I think the title of a Dragon Master is actually achievable. I think that once she completely gets the idea of understanding the hearts of dragons, her goal will be complete. That goal is indirectly tied to the dream of Kibago's evolution. As Kibago develops, Iris develops and thus their bond evolves to something greater. If she manages to understand Kibago's heart (heart of a dragon), that will undoubtedly allow her to understand every other dragon Pokémon. Not to mention the fact that she comes out of the village where only dragon types are trained.

Now that you brought it up learning how to raise and evolve Axew might be main focus of whole dream and as we get to see Iris goal of becoming dragon master so far isnt exactly same as Mistys dream of becoming water master she strived for was.In former case character aim was focused mostly on becoming best one type trainer in world and participating in water competitions to fulfill needed tasks(as Whirl arc showed).

With Iris whole desire of becoming master of dragon types seem more simple,especially if its only about understanding dragon pokemon learning how to properly raise them.
Than again some E4 like Lance are labeled as dragon masters bringing up question if Iris would need to reach such level to be considered master.I guess time will show.

Speaking of Iris not getting same amount of focus like May or Dawn got,i think people just become how to say this spoiled being used to follow female characters being treated as co-stars.
Personally like i said i dont see any problem with Iris status of supporting character who while wont receive as much attention like former examples did could still receive enough focus to develop nicely as character and trainer with time her story and goals being expanded more on.
Many people liked Misty or Brock who were supporting characters too having notable achievements getting some great development,and Iris will be liked too.Infact this already happens.

After all it doesnt matter how much spotlight someone gets,but how well this focus will be utilized and Iris could get some great development.
 
I like Iris so far and I realize she's just a sidekick character. That's why I am not really expecting much more than seeing her grow stronger with Axew. As long as she has amusing moments that's enough for me.

That's exactly how I feel and to be honest, I'd prefer a sidekick over another co-star. I just think it makes for a more humorous dynamic.

I think Iris will start to get more involved. If the writers were planning on her always being on the sidelines then she wouldn't have been giving a feisty Emonga recently. That's the kind of Pokemon that will receive a lot of attention and not just one that makes up the numbers and enjoys just being babied.
I think we'll definitely see some good battles with it.

Also, there's Kibago's growth and she still has to win over Doryuzu (and when she inevitable does so, it'll be somewhat of a powerhouse so she's bound to use it in battles)

My point is, I wouldn't say her presence was unnecessary. There's lots of ground to cover there.
 
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