Looking over the series, you think the writers should balance rivalries?

[Masurao]

When you look at alot of rivalries in this show it seems to be fairly popular to make them one-sided. Ash/Paul, Ash/Shooti Dawn/Ursula, Dawn/Zoey, and May/Drew. I don't see any harm in changing it up.

Do you think evening the losses, and victories out would be a good move? Going back, and forth in victories between two people also resembles a rivalry moreso.

 

[Cybersai]

Well Gary only ever battled Ash ONCE before the Johto league, so it wasn't so much one-sided. Gary even lost the Indigo league before Ash did.

With Paul, he at least took out his Weavile and Ursaring a few times, beat him at Pokeringer, and did some damage to his other Pokemon. Even if he lost.

The only Pokemon of Paul's Ash never beat was his Torterra and Magmortar, not counting Paul's less important Pokemon.

 

[Masurao]

True, but it think it would add more intensity to a rivalry if it was a bit more even. Especially in Paul, and Ash's case.

It was really too bad that Ursula never got to beat Dawn. I don't see why the writers didn't allow Ursula to beat Dawn at least once.

 

[The Puppetmaster]

I want the Ash vs. Trip rivalry to be balanced to differentiate it from Ash vs. Paul. Unfortunately, thus far, this hasn't been the case. I think it would've been interesting if the writers had Ash lose to his main rival in the league this saga after each rival took turns winning and losing. It would definitely beat having a CotD.

The least they could do is have Ash vs. Bianca be a balanced rivalry. In the Ash vs. Barry rivalry, it was too one-sided for Ash. I'm hoping Bianca earns a few more victories in future appearances.

Dawn vs. Zoey made sense to me, so I won't touch that one. However, Dawn vs. Ursula was extremely unfair for Ursula. The writers just couldn't find the time to make her shine before the end of DP I guess.

May vs. Drew also made sense since he was clearly more experienced from the get-go.

 

[Charbok]

If Ursula was introduced earlier then she could have gotten at least one win against Dawn. Harley got that one win from May during a Kanto Contest so it would have been nice to see Ursula win one.

May vs. Harley was one sided for May because Harley was only able to beat her once. But then again I guess Harley deserved it xP

I hope that Ash and Shooti's rivalry gets some balance. If Cheren gets introduced, Bel makes another appearance, or Cabernet possibly becomes a rival fro Ash then I hope those don't end up one sided for Ash.

 

[Karamazov]

Actually, the Barry/Ash rivalry wasn't so bad. The score is 1-1. Of course, can you really call it a rivalry if they only battled twice?

 

[Masurao]

Actually, the Barry/Ash rivalry wasn't so bad. The score is 1-1. Of course, can you really call it a rivalry if they only battled twice?

The score is actually 2-1. Ash beat Barry in Barry's first episode, and beat him again in the tournament with Palmer.

 

[Cybersai]

Ash also beat Nando twice. In DP4, Ash beats Nando and Roselia with Pikachu, then again in the league.

He also technically beats Conway twice if you count the tag match when he was with Dawn.

He beats Barry twice.



SO all the other DP rivals were cake-walks for Ash.

 

[Pikachufanboy]

I just think that if one of the two is going to win every time (until the last?), it should be a progression. Like, why did the curbstomp of Ash in Sinnoh happen so close to the league? Should I really believe Ash caught up that quickly, and Paul basically sat on it? From what I heard, Trip destroys Ash in their second battle as well, and Ash decides to train more seriously. This early on, this creates a good time for development for Ash's Pokemon, and I can reasonably see Ash closing the gap as the series goes on.

 

[Cybersai]

Well Ash's team did improve dramatically since the first Paul 6 on 6:

- Chimchar evolved two more times and got more powerful. It had just evolved to Monferno mid-battle

- Buizel learned Ice Punch

- Gliscor came back from training with the Air battle master

- Grotle evolved, even though it didn't do much

- Pikachu and Staraptor faired about the same

 

[The Puppetmaster]

Like, why did the curbstomp of Ash in Sinnoh happen so close to the league? Should I really believe Ash caught up that quickly, and Paul basically sat on it?

To be fair, Ash was completely unprepared for that battle while Paul carefully picked which Pokémon would be the best to counter the six Ash had under his possession.

I kind of don't see Ash vs. Nando as a rivalry. To me, it's more of the writers saying, "Hey, let's introduce this character early in the show so we don't have to use a CotD in the league that will just lose to Ash anyways." The first battle showed that Ash has more experience compared to Dawn since she lost to Nando while Ash beat him.

 

[Cybersai]

LOL, Nando was like a COTD transformed into a rival. He and Dawn didn't have any real rivalry at all.

 

[Masurao]

Jessie was also handled pretty terribly in the end. I mean honestly, they could have made it more of a battle in the semi of the GF. The battle between her and Dawn just seemed like another day of blasting off TR, with little to no problems.

 

[Cybersai]

I don't really understand why they did that either. Not only did they screw over Jessie, but Dawn and her Buneary/Cyndaquil hardly got any screentime in the GF because of it.

Come to think of it, Dawn only has 2 full battles (Ursula and Zoey), and a minute battle against Jessie...and this was apparently the last Contest of the series.

 

[garrison-san]

He also technically beats Conway twice if you count the tag match when he was with Dawn.

In fairness, it was thanks to Paul's Elekid evolving that the tag battle got turned around. Otherwise I think those soothe bells would definitely have gone to Dawn and Conway.

To Ursula's credit, she still managed to come across as a pretty killer co-ordinator, despite never getting a single win against Dawn. Her eeveelution appeal in the Grand Festival was probably the best in the entire saga (after Meowth's noodle-slicing appeal, of course).

 

[Masurao]

- Buizel learned Ice Punch

Still didn't really matter much considering it got destroyed by Empoleon, one-shotted by Drapion, and only managed to KO Gastrodon because Paul let it happen. It only managed to defeat Mr. Mine because of rain. Poor Buizel.

To Ursula's credit, she still managed to come across as a pretty killer co-ordinator, despite never getting a single win against Dawn. Her eeveelution appeal in the Grand Festival was probably the best in the entire saga (after Meowth's noodle-slicing appeal, of course).

Yeah, she was a decent Coordinator, but the writers balancing their rivalry, with them going back and forth would have been more fun IMO. Honestly, her battles with Dawn were more enjoyable than the GF final.

I also kinda wish Dawn battled Nando once more as well. He was more a rival to Zoey, and Ash than Dawn herself.