What does the future hold for Dawn now that DP is winding down?

[Trainer Yusuf]

That being said, I wouldn't be opposed to a third minor quest on top of gyms and contests...

Didn't we already have one, you know, like "breeding", or with Kenji "Pokémon watching"?

 

[Izumoshep]

Could always just blackmail the writers into getting what you want.:-/

 

[Mr. Bicurious]

I know once Dawn leaves, this show may fall apart. Dawn is so awesome.

At least, when she leaves, Misty or May will return, didn't the writers say 3 girls was the limit.

 

[Cybersai]

It was better than I'll travel with you until you repay for my bike while putting my dream of being a water pokemon master on hold... Have you ever travelled alone ? I did, not as much fun as when travel in a group.

It still felt forced and random at the start. Pretty much everyone commented on it at the start of DP. I also found it ridiculous when Dawn said she was a coordinator, Ash/Brock didn't even flinch one bit. Does anyone else think it was ridiculous that Ash/Brock spent two regions cheering for a girl doing Contests, and then went straight on to cheering a different girl doing more or less the same contests in the next region? Remember how the writers made no mention or reference to May in all those early DP episodes? It was so random and ridiculous, as if the writers were trying to act like the whole previous Contest arc never happened until we got to the Wallace Cup eps. My only guess as to why they did that is it was a new generation and they didn't want to take attention away from Dawn by mentioning May that early on. May, at least for most of Hoenn, had much better reasons to be traveling with Ash. And when BF rolled along and she started being more influenced by Drew and the Contest world, it made perfect sense for her to then travel on her own. When Dawn leaves, I don't think it'll have the same impact because she was going to travel by herself at the start, whereas May was helpless and likely would have bombed as a trainer if she never met Ash. It made more sense the first time, the second time it felt forced and artificial.

Also, what's with the contest hate ? Wallace Cup, Akatsuki contest, Jubilife Contests, Chocovine contest, interesting rivals like Ursula and Lila... I really haven't been bored to tears by it... The writing for the contest arc has been getting drastically better and it's a different king of way to use pokemon and overall an interesting quest. I'd like to see them come back.

I like Contests, so its not that. Its just that after 8 years of Contests, I'm ready for something new. If Contests ever are retired, you can always go back and rewatch the older episodes. There have been around 30 contests eps if you combine all of May and Dawn's contests together.

I've thought for a long time that DP might be the last saga with Contests for a main character, I wonder if I am right.

 

[Hellion]

Personally I didn't think having a second girl in a row doing contests was any better. In any case, there's already a lot of repetition in Pokemon already, so I don't see how having a third coordinator crosses the line. (Not that I want that to happen.).

Yes, there's a lot of repetition in Pokemon... Ash is still doing gyms, he still takes pikachu with him, JJM are still trying to capture pikachu with mechas... I suppose we should also get rid of all of them if we follow your logic. What was so wrong with having a second girl in a row doing contests ? It's better than a main girl not having a storyline of her own... like a certain character...

I know, right? In my opinion having her join up with Ash and Brock was so forced. Certain people are fine with traveling alone while others aren't

It didn't feel forced to me (actually, it was probably the least forced out of all the main characters) because Dawn was introduced prior to meeting Ash, the writers had introduce her pokemon and Dawn saved Pikachu from TR and helped keep him safe until he was reunited with Ash. After that, Ash was going to Jubilife, Dawn was going to Jubilife and Pikachu liked her... so they should have done what exactly ? say "Well we're going to the same place, we'll both take the same road and even though you're nice and I like you, let's just not travel together and not talk to one another..." Plus, it's both in Ash and Dawn's character to make friends fast with people and it's been establish that they'd would both travel with others.

I feel a lot of people are nitpicking at Dawn because they prefer May or Misty and are using any excuse to criticize the character... If you're looking for non-repetitiveness how about all of the "firsts" that Dawn broke, how about the fact that she took part in more pokemon battles than previous main girls (even if you take out her contests battle), how about the different nature of her relationship with Ash, etc.

May, at least for most of Hoenn, had much better reasons to be traveling with Ash. And when BF rolled along and she started being more influenced by Drew and the Contest world, it made perfect sense for her to then travel on her own.

Do you remember the beginning of AG, May didn't want to be a trainer or a coordinator, she just wanted an excuse to travel alone... Now all of a sudden, she joins with Ash who is clearly on a pokemon quest and will do gyms, but wait... she mysteriously discovers contests after 20 episodes. That is the definition of forced, because May went out of character when she travelled with Ash and told him she was thinking of doing a pokemon quest (ie challenge gym herself) when she really didn't want to.

Also, Misty didn't put her Water Pokemon Master dream on hold when she joined up with Ash.

Oh I'm sorry, I meant that she put her dream on hold except for the 5-6 episodes that touched upon that out of her 270+ episodes.

But this isn't a thread about May or Misty... this is a thread about if and how Dawn would be leaving...

 

[Mr. Bicurious]

It still felt forced and random at the start. Pretty much everyone commented on it at the start of DP. I also found it ridiculous when Dawn said she was a coordinator, Ash/Brock didn't even flinch one bit. Does anyone else think it was ridiculous that Ash/Brock spent two regions cheering for a girl doing Contests, and then went straight on to cheering a different girl doing more or less the same contests in the next region? Remember how the writers made no mention or reference to May in all those early DP episodes? It was so random and ridiculous, as if the writers were trying to act like the whole previous Contest arc never happened until we got to the Wallace Cup eps. My only guess as to why they did that is it was a new generation and they didn't want to take attention away from Dawn by mentioning May that early on. May, at least for most of Hoenn, had much better reasons to be traveling with Ash. And when BF rolled along and she started being more influenced by Drew and the Contest world, it made perfect sense for her to then travel on her own. When Dawn leaves, I don't think it'll have the same impact because she was going to travel by herself at the start, whereas May was helpless and likely would have bombed as a trainer if she never met Ash. It made more sense the first time, the second time it felt forced and artificial.



I like Contests, so its not that. Its just that after 8 years of Contests, I'm ready for something new. If Contests ever are retired, you can always go back and rewatch the older episodes. There have been around 30 contests eps if you combine all of May and Dawn's contests together.

I've thought for a long time that DP might be the last saga with Contests for a main character, I wonder if I am right.

Then why do you always hate on Misty?

 

[Cybersai]

Do you remember the beginning of AG, May didn't want to be a trainer or a coordinator, she just wanted an excuse to travel alone... Now all of a sudden, she joins with Ash who is clearly on a pokemon quest and will do gyms, but wait... she mysteriously discovers contests after 20 episodes. That is the definition of forced, because May went out of character when she travelled with Ash and told him she was thinking of doing a pokemon quest (ie challenge gym herself) when she really didn't want to.

Not really. She had no idea what she wanted to do until she found an interest in something. Likewise she *couldn't* travel by herself with Pokemon. I think its safe to say May could have completely bombed as a trainer if she never wound up traveling with Ash. That's why in her departure ep, it felt like a big deal that she was going to travel alone and be self-sufficient, even not allowing Max to come with her. I suppose you could say when Battle Frontier rolled along she didn't have as much a reason to travel with him anymore, but since it was a short saga and she got more involved in the Contest world that saga, it still mostly fit.

If/when Dawn leaves someday, how are they going to pull off an ending for her? Follow her rivals to some different region? That would be too similar, and likewise Dawn would have been very capable to travel by herself from the start, so that wouldn't be a big deal either. I am really curious as to how the writers are going to pull off Dawn's departure ep, (assuming it happens), without retreading on old ground.

I also think Jessie winning ribbons is more important than we think, because now we would expect Jessie to get into the GF in *every* saga after this. Perhaps Jessie entering the GF is because this is intended to be the last hurrah for Contests? We know Jessie will lose early on in the GF anyway.

 

[Mr. Bicurious]

We know Jessie will lose early on in the GF anyway.

UM, correction. YOU THINK THIS WILL HAPPEN.

YOU ARE NOT A WRITER, THEREFORE, YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING.

 

[Cybersai]

So you think Jessie is going to win the GF?

I can see her beating Ursula, but the GF is about Dawn, not Jessie.

 

[Mr. Bicurious]

So you think Jessie is going to win the GF?

I can see her beating Ursula, but the GF is about Dawn, not Jessie.

Why put Jessie in the GF, if she wasn't going to win it.

Same with Paul, why bring him to the League to lose to Ash.

Same with Gliscor, why have it come back when we have Gible.

 

[Cybersai]

Jessie in GF: Shows how shes improved as a coordinator. The GF is about Dawn still, not Jessie.

 

[Piplup]

Not really. She had no idea what she wanted to do until she found an interest in something.

That still doesn't mean she ahd a "good reason" to travel with Ash... she didn't join him in order to learn about Pokémon or to find her goal... she just did it because it sounded fun to her to travel with someone rather than being alone
...which is pretty much Dawn's reason -_-
And just like you talk about the importance of Ash being a mentor to her, I can talk about the importance of Ash/Dawn being best friends as if they're brother and sister and how much they care and influence and support each other (remember Dawn making a whole performance just to cheer the depressed Ash after he lost the full battle? that's just one example)

Likewise she *couldn't* travel by herself with Pokemon.

As Gible said, that wasn't her intention at all... so she could end up with completely different goals if she wouldn't meet Ash (I doubt she'd even try Gyms/Contests/anything, she'd just travel randomly as she wanted)
Just like how Dawn would be completely different now if she wouldn't meet Ash - she wouldn't have a best friend who has such good relationship with her, she wouldn't have this good trainer to get hints from to her Contests (like the eat your attack thing) she wouldn't have someone to support her after he failures (see the episode after the Hearthome Contest - Dawn is totally depressed and then Ash cheer her by telling her that he registered her to the tag battles tournament and she felt better thanks to that... what would happen if she was alone?...)

Seriously, what the Johto are you trying to prove? both Dawn and May are good characters and you should stop reading too much into things like a reason to travel with friends... that's ridiculous - Pokémon is all about friends and it'd actually be strange if they wouldn't try to travel alone...

If/when Dawn leaves someday, how are they going to pull off an ending for her? Follow her rivals to some different region?

The "follow rivals" (or at least Zoey, if the different rivals don't go to the same place) seems inevitable
BUT - that doesn't mean her departure will be a copy of May's
I already said this and I'll say this again
Either if Dawn stay or leave - I want this to happen:
Ash decide he'll travel to gen 5 region and Dawn's rivals (or just Zoey) decide to go to Johto (or whatever old region they want)
Dawn will be sad and don't know what she'd like to do: go after her rivals that she worked so hard to beat and consider as good friends (well, most of them) and good opponents that she can learn from, or go after her almost "brother" Ash who taught her a lot of things himself, who supported her in the hard times and who she gave support to in his hard times, who she constantly cheered for him (even dressing as a cheerleader...) and who constantly cheered for her too, etc...
Dawn will be crushed and won't be able to choose and will cry and run away
Ash and rivals/Zoey will go after her and have a nice talk and tell her that it's ok for her to chose either way and that she won't hurt the other side because they all want her to be happy so they'd like her to follow the way she feels she really wants
Then she'll decide whatever the writers want her to do... it works for both possibilities
Dawn's story and development was all about emotion, so this is the least they should do for either Dawn's end or the current rivals' end...

I also think Jessie winning ribbons is more important than we think,

No, it's called character development and it was there in BF too (other than when Harley made her do it, she didn't cheat at all in BF so you could see the difference from Hoenn - it only made sense to continue this developement in Sinnoh)

 

[Cybersai]

Well, they should have Dawn's Pokemon say goodbye to Ash's.

Piplup and Pikachu were friends, and Buneary/Pikachu. lol.

 

[Mr. Bicurious]

SCOTT, PIPLUP, IMO, UR LOIC IS FLAWED.

JESSIE HAD IT THE HARDEST THIS SAGA, AND WON ALL HER RIBBONS FAIR AND SQUARE.

WHY NOT MAKE THE GF ABOUT HER WHEN SHE HAS BEEN ON THE SHOW FOR MORE THAN 600 EPISODES.

 

[Cybersai]

Jessie is not the main coordinator character, what is so hard about this? She's a rival character at most.

 

[Izumoshep]

SCOTT, PIPLUP, IMO, UR LOIC IS FLAWED.

JESSIE HAD IT THE HARDEST THIS SAGA, AND WON ALL HER RIBBONS FAIR AND SQUARE.

WHY NOT MAKE THE GF ABOUT HER WHEN SHE HAS BEEN ON THE SHOW FOR MORE THAN 600 EPISODES.

Actually James won one of the ribbons for her, which means she didn't win all her ribbons and not fairly.

 

[Mr. Bicurious]

Actually James won one of the ribbons for her, which means she didn't win all her ribbons and not fairly.

I beg to differ. Jesselina won that ribbon.

Therefore, it was fair.

 

[Izumoshep]

I beg to differ. Jesselina won that ribbon.

Therefore, it was fair.

You didn't say Jesselina won that ribbon before, you said Jessie won all her ribbons fair and square. James won one ribbon indicating that Jessie could not win all her ribbons and therefore since she did not win that ribbon herself is not fair.

 

[Duckgon Z]

Stop feeding the troll guys.

 

[Piplup]

Well, they should have Dawn's Pokemon say goodbye to Ash's.

Piplup and Pikachu were friends, and Buneary/Pikachu. lol.

If Dawn will leave, I totally expect a cute scene with Pika/Bunny! If Meowth is around for providing "translation" (or if Dawn magically knows what the bunny says like she knew in the Phione ep) I'd like it if Bunny tell Pika to promise that it'll never fall in love with any other Poké and to promise that if Pika will be interested in such thing in the future, it'll wait for Bunny to return to him
Something like that... it'd be cute and kind of a wrap up to this "plot"
With Pika/Pip there's not much to do other than probably Pip crying like crazy and Pika being all "it's ok, we'll meet again..."
Actually, while I don't want Dawn to leave... it is interesting to see how Pip and Bunny will react to leaving Pika and the whole group XD

I think that I'm simply going to enjoy whatever the writers choose to do, because unlike others I don't read too much into stuff and just watch and enjoy
You all should really think again why are you even watching this show
Just enjoy it, it's much more fun this way...