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Pokemon Contest Retcons

I can't figure out how getting to the semifinals of the entire country means she's doing something wrong. In her second "season" at it, no less! I know these things aren't supposed to hold up to logic, but that really does fail to make any sense - look back on it and what May did was nothing short of insane. I wasn't a fan of Incompetent!May...but this is some kind of monstrosity of an accomplishment, and it's brushed off like nothing. The only way it's "nothing" is if my old "Everyone involved in these things has no idea what they're doing" theory actually holds for everyone who is not Solidad.
 
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Still would have liked to see Roselia KO'd though. At least we got to see May take down his Flygon, as a sorta comeback from the Hoenn GF.

even though Flygon just stood around like a doofus? And god damn, now that you brought it up, Z.E.N.I. was the only one to take out one of Shuu's Pokemon. Fuck, that pisses me off to no end!
 
And god damn, now that you brought it up, Z.E.N.I. was the only one to take out one of Shuu's Pokemon. Fuck, that pisses me off to no end!
*eyetwitch* *pops pills*

I don't think anyone in-show meant to imply that May getting top 4 wasn't a big accomplishment, just that the reason she lost in the end was because she battles too much like Ash.

For a comparison, you can get pretty far in a musical instrument without learning the absolute best most professional techniques, but if you want to pursue further study in it, then at some point you'll have to. I got through all the Associated Board piano grades with the teacher who I'd been with ever since I was six, but once I wanted to do a diploma, I switched to a concert pianist and she did a couple of lessons just on breathing/muscles/hand relaxation techniques before I started to learn any new pieces.

That was a needlessly wanky example, but I think the situation with the contests is similar. Under Ash's tutelage, May's broken into the top end of the pack. To be the absolute best, though, she needs more specialist training. That's why she followed the other co-ordinators to Johto.
 
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The writers wanted us to see in the battle with Drew that May is doing really well. But she needs to be at Solidad's level if she wants to win the Ribbon Cup and that means advanced training.

I watched All Things Bright and Beautifly yesterday and they did mention the difference in contest battles. "Gust was too strong." The writers just seem to have decided to make it more complex than sparkles with Dawn.
 
Hm, might as well use this thread rather than start a new one.

I'm just curious, what were people here thinking when the Hoenn GF first aired in Japan? All three eps aired as a special over there, and the news broke out who beat who and so forth.

My questions are:

a) Did you expect May to lose?
b) Did you expect to see Robert again, and to see him beat Drew, essentially the same thing as the first Slateport Contest?
c) Did you think at the time that the Hoenn GF wrapped things up for May, and did you think she would leave the group after Hoenn ended?
d) Did you think you would see Contests become a staple of the anime in the following seasons?
e) Were you happy that Harley was brought back as a major rival in BF rather than disappearing?
 
Um...well, I remember being estatic Snorunt evolved, and seeing Swalot. :p
 
Here are my answers to Scott's questions.

A. Actually no, and it was mainly because of the structure of contests. With Ash's quest, gym battles were different from tournaments, since he only battles one person at a gym and could challenge them over and over if he lost. He had losses in the gyms, but they also had to give him a loss in his first big tournament. In May's case though, EVERY contest was it's own mini tournament, so I figured that May had already gotten her required tournament loss out of the way with her losses in the earlier contests.

B. No way. Anyone who did expect this would have had to be psychic, since there wasn't anything to suggest that Robert would return.

C. No, I didn't feel like things were wrapped up for her, but honestly I never expected that they would be. I always figured, even back when she first joined, that she'd eventually leave the show to continue her journey and growth off screen, without us getting to see her achieve her goal. Her side-quest was important, but Ash is the true main character of the series and the only person who the writes are likely to ever *wrap up* completey, one day ^^. I don't remember what I was thinking about her character's fate at that time, since we didn't know about the BF yet, but I wouldn't have been shocked or too dissapointed if she had left after the league.

D. Yeah. After the writers went through the trouble of turning Contests into the second badge quest, I would have been surprised if they hadn't continued to be part of the series.

E. Yeah, he's cool.
 
Please note: The thread is from 17 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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