Which female protagonists win over Ash felt more justified to you?

[Bouffalant Herdier]

So only nice people end up in the finals?

She was asking for a Break The Haughty moment because of the way she belittled others and especially Ash throughout the previous 40 or so episodes, despite the problems she had with her Pokemon. Every other time a main character got too cocky, something would happen to teach them a lesson and bring them back to Earth, but Iris is apparently immune to any sort of character development.

 

[Caseydia]

The writers love gym leader girls. That's all there is to it. Why couldn't they make it were they could have a normal battles to determine strength instead of ridiculous outcomes? It makes us show that if Misty had another Pokemon or if Iris didn't use Excadrill, that the outcome would have been different and it makes us see that they are weaker than if they had normal circumstances like most trainers Ash had battled.

 

[투 애니원]

I don't really care about Iris,...ending up into the finals or not gaining character development at all but her win against Ash was pretty reasonable and justified.

 

[pokemike]

The writers love gym leader girls. That's all there is to it. Why couldn't they make it were they could have a normal battles to determine strength instead of ridiculous outcomes? It makes us show that if Misty had another Pokemon or if Iris didn't use Excadrill, that the outcome would have been different and it makes us see that they are weaker than if they had normal circumstances like most trainers Ash had battled.

What do you mean "normal circumstances", Iris used a pokemon with a type advantage that was also her most powerful. Obviously none of her other pokemon would stand a chance against pikachu so she went with her best option. We all get pissed whenever Ash does not take advantage of an obvious type advantage, yet when another character takes advantage of this and is able to beat him then its cheap and unfair. Ash sent out pikachu first, Iris would have to have been the biggest fool on the planet to use anyone other than exadrill. She has had exadrill since she was a little girl and raised it up from a drilbur, exadrill was the only option that made any actuall sense.

 

[Caseydia]

Ash didn't have a choice in this tournament unlike other ones. He had to only use what he was aloud. He would have recalled and chosen another Pokemon.

 

[Araragi-hakase]

What do you mean "normal circumstances", Iris used a pokemon with a type advantage that was also her most powerful. Obviously none of her other pokemon would stand a chance against pikachu so she went with her best option. We all get pissed whenever Ash does not take advantage of an obvious type advantage, yet when another character takes advantage of this and is able to beat him then its cheap and unfair. Ash sent out pikachu first, Iris would have to have been the biggest fool on the planet to use anyone other than exadrill. She has had exadrill since she was a little girl and raised it up from a drilbur, exadrill was the only option that made any actuall sense.

If I remember right, the Pokemon used in the tournament were predetermined. Iris had chosen to use Doryuzu for that battle not knowing that Satoshi had chosen Pikachu.

 

[Almonds]

For me, it's just Ash being stupid. So they're both not justified.

 

[Caseydia]

For me, it's just Ash being stupid. So they're both not justified.

So Ash only thinks outside of battling the girls he travels with?