Why do you think Dawn got so much spotlight compared to the other females?

[Cybersai]

It's easy to forget that when her contest episodes resembled Kanto gym battles and her friend/mentor would rather be outside training than watch her participate in these matches.

Does it really matter? His training never took much screentime out of whatever Contest was going on anyway. Also during the Battle Frontier ones he hardly did anything during the Contests.

Also its not as bad as Ash starring in the first Contest of the DP saga, and even getting a Contest battle before Dawn. The very first DP contest, and we see Ash take the spotlight before Dawn?

The writers even completely skipped Dawn's very first contest win, which was shown in a still screen of Buneary beating something, I forgot what it was. Dawn's very first Contest win ever gets a still screen?

But considering Dawn's last on-screen contest victory is no more than a 1 minute battle against Jessie, I guess it goes both ways.

Basically, the writers completely devalued her screen time despite giving her a lot of it.

A good chunk of Dawn's screentime outside of Contests was really nothing more than spamming Piplup in filler episodes, or Piplup fillers themselves that hardly involved Dawn. The others were just eps where she practiced a Contest appeal for the entire episode.

She did get some nice eps battling Lucian, Maylene, and a short role in the tag battle arc, but this stuff all stopped as DP progressed.

Seriously, after the Wallace Cup ended, Dawn's screentime was reduced tremendously. The second half of DP is just a few Mamoswine training eps, Contest appeal training eps...and Piplup fillers.

 

[Caseydia]

When you look at it. Even though Dawn seemed like she and her pokemon was done well, no one but Misty had more time on the show if you really look back.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Probably because writers wanted to try out formula of having two co-stars in show.May was an attempt but in reality writers failed to make her equal to Ash being more something between sidekick and co-star leaning more toward later as time went on.

That being said Dawn received almost as much screentime like Ash did(it was still less but not by a large difference)being more closer as being equal receiving more development and overall atention.However negative side of this resulted in too many training based episodes and episodes focusing on rivals which could have ben used for something more constructive giving other characters more time to shine lik Brock for example with repartition of focus between trio not being properly done.
Though to be fair,with cutting down on fillers or arcs this problem of not giving more to others would have been solved too with blame being on writers.

Speaking of Iris unlike some people(i wont mention any)i dont mind her getting less of focus as long she gets proper development and some sidequest could have been done about her.

When you look at it. Even though Dawn seemed like she and her pokemon was done well, no one but Misty had more time on the show if you really look back.

Misty has been in more episodes but she received less screentime than Dawn did being developed alot less.

Shame because she has potentiality and writers could have done much more with her doing instead mistake of replacing her.

 

[Green Zubat]

The way I see it, there are three reasons:

*They realised the mistakes they made with May and were rectifying them

*They wanted to get more girls into pokémon, or at least the anime.

*By focusing more on Dawn & Ash (the duo) they could pave the way for Brock's departure.

They could've de-aged her...

BUT they didn't NEED to deage her, Brock was 15 when he first joined the group, thats only one year shy of White. And it woul be nice to have the eldest member of the group as a female for a change, IMO.

Still, not complaining about Iris, who's great. Just sayin'.

 

[pokemon_master2]

I think May got more, 2 grand festivals and 190 episodes, just the thought that Dawn was closer to Ash is absulutely wrong, May was better than her in this aspect.

 

[Cybersai]

Dawn really only got a lot of screentime in the first half of DP.

Dawn only had 7 Pokemon in her entire run, and 1 was released, with the other being extremely late (Togekiss). May also had 7 Pokemon, with a more even screentime.

Dawn had 11 on-screen Contests, May had 15 or 16. (16 if you count the Wallace Cup). May also had two Grand Festivals, whereas Dawn only had 1. And even though Dawn's was 1 ep longer, that extra ep was given to Nando Vs. Zoey, not Dawn herself.

May got Movie 9, whereas Dawn didn't really get any central movie like that.

Dawn may have had more rivals, but when Kenny/Nando barely appear, Ursula only had 5 episodes, etc. it doesn't matter.

 

[Hellion]

The focus was less about how their contests were handled but what they were doing outside of contests. May rarely got focus in her none contests episode whereas Dawn got a bit more in that departement, cause in the end, what made Ash the star was that Ash was the one to solve the problem and fight off the threats in regular episodes, not just his gym battles. The same goes for Dawn who took a much bigger place in non-contest episodes than previous main cast members.

Same for the movies where in Movie 10 and 11 she had a major role.

 

[Cybersai]

In the first half of DP, I'd agree, but not so much in the second half.

Most of those eps in the second half are, "Piplup fillers" in which Dawn herself plays a minimal role.

The eps she did get what those eps where she practiced a Contest appeal for the entire episode, and those got dull rather quickly.