Who do you think is the better coordinator out of Ash's female companions?

[Cybersai]

The difference is between the way appeals and contest moves were handled in the two series. It wasn't just May's appeals that didn't seem as impressive as the DP ones, it was virtually every coordinator in AG. Its obviously because the contests were just starting in the series at the time and the appeal round was given minimal focus and just consisted of something simple. The appeals started improving during Battle Frontier.

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

Personally, I like May more since she had a more fun personality and her rivals were generally more interesting, but Dawn would be a better Coordinator. She had solid development throughout her journey that showed how she was progressed as her Coordinator skills and she was more innovative with her combinations. I wouldn't take Dawn getting to the finals as an example of being a better Coordinator since we only saw one full match she had before getting to the finals. Dawn getting to the finals isn't unrealistic since she had the skills to get there, but we didn't really see a lot of it prior to the finals, especially when her victory against Ursula was unsatisfying and her battle against Jessie was a bunch of clips. Still, I think the journey she went through showed that she does have better skills as a Coordinator. Though, I think that Dawn really benefits from the writers' experiences with Contests through May since by the time DP started, they had a better idea of how they worked. May is still a really good Coordinator and it showed during her return for the Wallace Cup, but I think that I'll have to go with Dawn on this one.

I have to admit this is true.

May = More enjoyable, fun character (IMO, of course).
Dawn = Better coordinator (I mean, she did get Top 2 in the Grand Festival).

 

[Hidden Mew]

The difference is between the way appeals and contest moves were handled in the two series. It wasn't just May's appeals that didn't seem as impressive as the DP ones, it was virtually every coordinator in AG. Its obviously because the contests were just starting in the series at the time and the appeal round was given minimal focus and just consisted of something simple. The appeals started improving during Battle Frontier.

That's true. I think that there were a couple of Contests in AG where they skipped through the appeal round and wanted to focus primarily on the battles, which kind of made it harder to separate it from a Gym battle in a sense. I actually kind of liked using props for the appeals, but the appeals got better once there was more of a focus on the attacks and making combinations.

I have to admit this is true.

May = More enjoyable, fun character (IMO, of course).
Dawn = Better coordinator (I mean, she did get Top 2 in the Grand Festival).

Dawn is a better Coordinator, but not because she got into the finals of the Sinnoh Grand Festivals. It was because of the development of her skills throughout DP and because of how innovative she was with her appeals. Getting into the finals actually didn't impress me much when we only saw one full battle she had and honestly, I thought that Ursula looked more skilled in that match, despite losing, and Dawn's victory was kind of cheap. Skipping the other matches and giving her match against Jessie nothing but a few clips didn't help either. She had the skills to make getting to the finals believable and all, but I just wouldn't really use it as an example in this case because of how little we saw of her skills during the Grand Festival and by the time she got to the finals, Zoey's combinations were putting most of Dawn's combinations to shame.

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

Dawn is a better Coordinator, but not because she got into the finals of the Sinnoh Grand Festivals. It was because of the development of her skills throughout DP and because of how innovative she was with her appeals. Getting into the finals actually didn't impress me much when we only saw one full battle she had and honestly, I thought that Ursula looked more skilled in that match, despite losing, and Dawn's victory was kind of cheap. Skipping the other matches and giving her match against Jessie nothing but a few clips didn't help either. She had the skills to make getting to the finals believable and all, but I just wouldn't really use it as an example in this case because of how little we saw of her skills during the Grand Festival and by the time she got to the finals, Zoey's combinations were putting most of Dawn's combinations to shame.

Yeah, I do agree that's not the main reason. I mean, Dawn was very inventive with her strategies. Like the fire-and-ice combination she pulled off and several other appeals. I give DP a hard time for a lot of things, but if there's one thing I loved from it, it would be the Super Contests. They were excellent and well-pulled off.

 

[CrackFox]

I'd have to go with Dawn. I writers gave May more of a struggle because they were trying to get the audience used to contests and not just her character, by the time Dawn was introduced they just went for it and she had a more together approach to them. I do think May's contests were infinitely more entertaining on the whole, though..but that's not the point. Dawn wins this round.

 

[death trapper]

Definitely Dawn on this one. Dawn's victory over May proof this one(Her glaceon is fully evolve and is 2nd powerhouse in May's team).

Throughout the DP series, Dawn is showing more devoted, promising, and more determined to her goal than may(even her two losses in the appealing round didn't stop her from giving up and that's kinda embarassing to lose at appealing around tho). She is really creative, inventive in coming up various combination moves like counter shield, ice aqua jet, flame ice(I prefer to call frozen-flame), improvise/manipulate moves like make piplup's beak grow longer, spin dodge, form a large bubble by using bubble beam to knock out all three onix at a time, eating ice shard-->ice armor, etc. She battle more like ash in coming up bizarre strategy to counter foe's attack(e.g. like ursula's encore, counter delicatty's shock wave with countershield). However, her appealing is not that much better than may's except more flashy, probably because the idea of contest in Hoenn is less develop than Sinnoh.

May got a bit of lucky with assist and metronome and she somehow able to pass the appealing around(sometimes final round in against Timmy's dusclop) with that. Her victory just way to smooth and lack of emotional struggle compare to dawn. May might fail the appealing round in her 1st grand fest if she got unlucky(she just way to rely on luck).

About Dawn's grand fest, I was kinda piss that she didn't have the chance to fight Nando(instead of Jessie, well she's a joke) to proof she's really the top 2. She almost beat zoey and only lost like half of a point compare to nando who lost like 1-3 point to Zoey. But even with that claim, still doesn't proof very much to which is actually better. If the writer wants dawn to fight zoey(that's their destiny and make dawn lose at the final), she will probably beat nando too just like ash beat nando(nando's not the main rival, zoey is).

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

Character I Like More = May
Better Coordinator = Dawn

 

[megaevolvedmushroom]

Dawn (early DP and BW2 cameo)

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

Dawn (early DP and BW2 cameo)

Funny enough, those were both the parts of the anime when I enjoyed the character's personality. XD.