Why were Solidad and Ursula added so late?

[Cascada]

Solidad is very underatted as a rival, yeah, she was added late, but she is May's rival now, in Johto with her. The fact that she got a cameo says a lot.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Don't know, don't care. But, I feel they could've been added earlier.

 

[Ampharos King]

If you're willing to put it that way, then Harley was also added very late in the Hoenn contests. True be told, he does get a lot of screentime in the Kanto Battle Frontier arc, but Harley could have been added a lot earlier. It would have been better than if May were to fight COTD coordinators.
And why was Ursula added so late? Let's see- Dawn was too preoccupied with her contest rivals Zoey, Jessalina, Kenny, and Nando. Often times, Dawn's contests would take place every 15-20 episodes and would involve one or more of those four rivals. It is possible that Ursula was originally meant for a one-time role in the series, but was so popular that the writers allowed her to stay for longer.
Solidad, on the other hand, I don't see her as May's rival at all. I see her as a plot device to allow May to better understand her own rival, Drew, who has lost to Solidad during his first contest. May may have fought her, but it was a testament to her progress. While May was strong enough to have defeated Drew and Harley, she still had a long ways to go, and actually had to work around her weakness of direct confrontation (which was countered by Solidad's attacks).
Why were these two characters added so late into their respective series, you ask? Well, perhaps it is because the writers saw no need to introduce them earlier. The main coordinator girls first had to improve their contest skills and were only introduced to a small number of core rivals. If they were introduced to more than one "strong rival" right off the bat, it won't look good for their future records.

 

[Cybersai]

This. I think Zoey is a bad character by the way she was portrayed as a God mode sue(IMO).

I don't think she's that bad, but she wasn't all that good either. I've wanted to really like Zoey but she was mostly meh. I pretty much liked her for her lesbian tendencies.

 

[AuraSoul93]

Is there anyone who cares for Zoey?

I do! She's the best rival there is! What rival has ACTUALLY managed to win their respective competition?

 

[Lady MamMa]

Zoey is a lesbian.
that's all that matters.

and Solidad, I believe wouldn't have lasted long if she was introduced earlier. She didn't really have much, besides being a final rival on the show for May, so she could lose and go off battling herself, Drew and Harley in Johto.

Ursula on the other hand, wasn't introduced too late. So it's not bad.

 

[Cybersai]

Solidad was only in 3 episodes, so you can't say she wouldn't have been fleshed out more if we saw her again after that.

Granted Solidad almost did seem like an early version of Zoey, acting like an almost immediate mentor to May and Drew. Makes me wonder if that's where the idea of Zoey came from.

 

[Dexter]

Solidad seemed more like Nando to be honest. When he first entered the show I got the vibe that he would have won the Grand Festival because he's older and has more life experience. Solidad seems like a mentor like Zoey but she can get pretty stubborn while Solidad seemed to always be levelheaded.

 

[DarkDreams]

Because the writers needed something to make the show more interesting.

 

[Cascada]

Solidad was only in 3 episodes, so you can't say she wouldn't have been fleshed out more if we saw her again after that.

Granted Solidad almost did seem like an early version of Zoey, acting like an almost immediate mentor to May and Drew. Makes me wonder if that's where the idea of Zoey came from.

Ironic that both Zoey and Solidad are the only rivals to ever win a Grand Festival. Against Dawn and May respectively.

 

[Insanish Danish]

I dunno, but I wish they were both added earlier. Solidad and Ursula are such great characters, so that would have been cool.

It would have been awesome if Ursula could have been Dawn's main rival instead of Zoey. Bitches like Ursula make way better rivals than the boring friendly ones (excluding Solidad, who was awesome).

 

[Cybersai]

Zoey could have still been Dawn's main rival, but Ursula really should have had Kenny's role. Ursula could have been a childhood friend of Dawn's as well, considering the Pikari nickname could have been inspired by her Plusle/Minun.

Likewise if Ursula had debuted when Kenny did, I bet Ursula would have had a lot more appearances than Kenny as she would be well-received, and of course we would have likely seen Ursula beat Dawn at least once.

Another problem is Ursula debuted well after the initial "DP hype phase" wore off, so all the extra fanboyism of Ursula's character was lost since she debuted late into the show after DP's freshness had died down.

 

[V Faction]

Woah, I think that's a little harsh. I got sick of the character very quickly, because I found her personallity, interaction and plot-related issues to be extremely tedious. I have nothing against a rival being taken in a different direction to the norm (hell, I want another friendly one just so it can handled differently), but that's not all that constitutes to being a good character :/

Why do you hate Zoey so much, Gravy?

Is it the life preserver? It's the life preserver, isn't it? I'm sorry, but being envious over orange-and-overinflated life-saving apparel isn't going to fill the emptiness anymore than it does now.