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CBCAnime — when u wake up at 3 am and are bored af

Published: 2018-10-27 10:42:26 +0000 UTC; Views: 2947; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 0
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Description Britt: Original meme: www.deviantart.com/miraculousq…
I actually wanted to compare May and Dawn for awhile now, but I just never made time for myself to actually do so. But since I woke up super early and had the description already laid out, I decided to post dis thing. Been awhile since I've done these meme things, huh? I'm gonna try and convince my other members to start posting more things on here....it won't be easy, but I'l keep at it. Anyway, here's ma description:

Let me start off by saying that I do NOT hate May, nor do I even dislike her. She's my second favorite female Pokemon
character, I have a figurine of her game counterpart from ORAS, and I probably relate to her the most. However, I wanted
to compare her to someone who people have been calling her "clone" for years now. And that is Dawn from Sinnoh. Now neither
Dawn nor May are flawless perfections and they both have issues, but I still think Dawn was a better written character than
May. And that's not to say May was poorly written, cause she's actually one of the better written characters of the series.
But I mean specifically May's contests compared to Dawn's, which were very lackluster and most of the time the writers
didn't seem to even know what they were doing when it came to May's contests and I think they got much better with them in
the Diamond/Pearl series. Now I'm grateful to May's character for discovering them, but I did not enjoy watching them. Most
of May's wins weren't earned and they were handed to her on a silver platter. Like when she spammed Skitty's assist move
hoping it'd work out for her, and it did. Or when her baby Squirtle learned a brand new move while performing and it worked
out for her, or when her Torchic/Combusken had covered itself in flames to where you can't even see it anymore, but when
Dawn did the same thing with Aipom/Ambipom's swift she lost the round because they couldn't see it (OK, this reason might
be chalked up to the Hoenn contests having different rules to the Sinnoh ones, but I'm sure you get my point.) OR when
we're never actually shown May training for her contests, she just goes in and wins. But May went into contests completely
blind and she did pretty well for such a noob. Dawn's contests were much more realistic and fun to watch because she lost
multiple times and was actually shown training to get better. And as I said before, May had no prior knowledge to contests
but she was still pretty good at them. Dawn's mother was a top coordinator who taught her some things, but that stuff she
learned from her mom didn't really help her. She still lost 3 contests in a row. And sure, maybe May was more experienced
and should have beaten Dawn during their contest battle, but I don't think so. May was challenging Dawn with a newly evolved
Glaceon, while Dawn was using her starter whom she's had and trained for awhile. I'd say that was pretty realistic, too. But
if you don't wanna think about it that way, just consider the fact that Iris' Dragonite also beat Dawn's experienced
Mamoswine in a battle. I think the new girl just got to beat the old girl cause reasons. I'm sure if May and Misty fought,
May probably would've won.

Also, this pisses me off to no end. When people say Dawn is nothing but a May clone, because that isn't true at all. The
only similarities between the 2 is that they're both girls who do contests. And I guess they both have blue eyes too, but
if you're gonna hate on Dawn for having blue eyes like May then you should hate on Serena and Lana, too. That's a pretty
trivial reason to call one character a clone of another character. But Dawn is not a May clone. At all. Dawn was a girly
girl who tried to bring an entire suitcase on her journey, while May is a bit of a mixture between tomboy and girly and she
just brought a freaking fanny pack and didn't even want to leave her house. May loves to shop, despite being the least girly
of the 2. Dawn was just obsessed with her hair for awhile. Dawn's great at baking and cooking while May sucks at it. May is
obsessed with food and eating while Dawn is not. Dawn only has her mother, who is a top coordinator. May has both her
parents, her little brother, and her dad is a gym leader. May had no prior knowledge to contests, while Dawn's mom taught
her about them. Dawn keeps her starter outside of it's Poke ball, while May doesn't. May's starter fully evolved, while
Dawn's hasn't evolved at all. Dawn's contests are more realistic than May's (seriously if you don't believe me, go back and
watch both of their contests. All of them. Back to back if you need to.) May's rivals were pretty cool, and Dawn's kinda
suck (sorry. Kenny was lame, I didn't like Zoey's attitude nor did I like how she always beat Dawn, and Ursula and Nando
were just meh.)


Aaaaand that's pretty much it. I didn't wanna go on a super long rant, I just thought I'd share my thoughts briefly. Please remember though, that I love both of these girls. I just think Dawn was better written, but they're both great characters.

I dunno if I'm gonna make another one of these. We'll see I guess. 
Related content
Comments: 40

Darkness2479 [2024-05-30 11:45:03 +0000 UTC]

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LittleAl16 [2022-11-11 15:08:38 +0000 UTC]

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zviewer21 [2018-11-13 15:47:27 +0000 UTC]

To me it is a dead even split.


On one end, May developed more into a trainer that can go toe to toe with Ash by the end of her run while keeping that simple yet effective charm.


On the other. Dawn had a bit more depth to her back story and flaws. I agree that Dawn's Contests > May's Contests! (Dawn actually lost... several times, she even lost to Jessie of all people!)


There is a reason why in my top anime Pokegirl list... these two are at the top, with Lillie being behind them.

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Hiksami [2018-11-07 22:38:24 +0000 UTC]

I love both characters in the end But I agree with most on what you said.


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Cybersai [2018-11-05 04:26:43 +0000 UTC]

While I mostly agree with you, and you make great points, I'd like to talk about some of May's victories since you bring them up specifically.


She did have a few really cheap victories, Skitty/Dusclops, Squirtle Vs. Harley's Ariados, and of course Eevee Vs. Brock's Marshtompt were the worst 3, but I think the rest of her battles not only ranged from either average to great, but they were the norm for Contests at the time.


- Beautifly Vs. Medicham is one of my favorite battles of the series, with some excellent silver wind strategy immobilizing Medicham's arms.

- Combusken Vs. Grumpig was also very good, not only did May turn around the Fire Spin, but they were evenly matched and Combusken saved Grumpig at the end.

- Bulbasaur Vs. Harley's Cacturne was pretty good, loved the razor leaf/petal dance combination

- Skitty Vs. Jynx was actually a well done strategy even if she kept using Assist. She knew Assist would eventually get Combusken's Fire spin (which is super effective against Jynx being an ice type), and the good thing is she didn't get the move she wanted right away, it messed up and gave her silver wind and vine whip first, but by using it over and over she got what she needed and engulfed it in flames. That's what the move Assist does in the games, takes a move from a pokemon in your party so it's not completely random.


The two Hoenn Grand Festival battles were pretty good. The only really undeserved win she had in Hoenn was Skitty/Dusclops which was just too unbelieveable.


In Battle Frontier:


- Squirtle/Ariados was of course rather cheap due to the ice beam, the actual battle itself wasn't too bad, but I can understand the complaints here

- Combusken Vs. Venusaur was fine, even if Combusken didn't get to attack toward the end. She KO'd it with Focus Punch anyway

- Munchlax Vs. Octillery was great and Harley won

- Combusken Vs. Vibrava was alright, while Combusken did learn Mega Kick in the middle of battle, it had been in plenty of fights at that  point and was leveling up similar to the games

- Eevee/marshtompt was of course awfully done

- Lastly Squirtle Vs. Jessie (where she used Harley's Banette), was pretty well done, as long as you ignore rabid spin working on a ghost pokemon. Squirtle kept up and knocked Banette's points.


Then in the Kanto GF, May Vs. Harley and May Vs. Drew were considered well done battles, probably her best two...then of course she loses to Solidad, etc.



And lastly, I do agree the Contests in AG were very different in DP, in AG they felt more like regular battles with a time limit. They didn't emphasized combination techniques or appeals like the DP ones did, so you can't hold that against May, because none of the other AG coordinators did that either. There were some, but Drew/Harley and all those one-shot rivals May had, they didn't do that too much.


Since Dawn only won 5 Contests there's not much to compare, they were mostly good. And yes Dawn beating May in the Wallace Cup was fine too, Dawn only won by a sliver of a point. I did think Dawn's first win against Ursula was a bit cheap, time ran out but Ursula still had more points on the board, so I'd say that for her.


Overall though you did  a nice comparison here, and it was nice to see Dawn struggled with Contests and practice appeals more to win. But I dunno I just enjoyed May's more, not just because they were mostly battles, but the May/Drew/Harley dynamic and the one-shot Hoenn rivals were just a lot more entertaining than seeing Dawn go up against Zoey/kenny all the time. But to each their own, glad to read this.


I think the Contests were the best goal for a female lead in the series in general, as of course Misty faded into the background in Johto, Iris was a bit mishandled, and then of course Serena's showcases and how the SM girls are handled is another story, but that's for another post.

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Cybersai In reply to Cybersai [2018-11-06 00:03:47 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, stuff like the appeals/contest techniques, etc. obviously improved in DP, but as said, it was for every coordinator. Also in DP they started using CG on the contest appeals too, so it made them look more visually impressive for that reason as well.


We did see quite a few eps in Hoenn with May practicing, several eps in the Dewford Island arc had May training Beautifly to use Silver Wind, there were two filler-ish eps where Skitty learned Blizzed from a girl with a Delcatty, and a Numel filler where the girl in that ep taught Skitty Assist. In the beginning of the fossil ep we saw her Bulbasaur learned Petal dance. Combusken just got strong naturally after competing in so many battles one after the other after Torchic evolved.

 It's really only her Squirtle and to a lesser extent Eevee that got powered up moves either for no reason or off-screen.


May also won most Contests by KOing her opponent too, which tied into the plotline of how May was copying Ash's battle style instead of battling like a coordinator and why she split with him to Johto, but it makes sense given May had no idea what contests were. But as said the only really bad wins she had was Skitty/Dusclops, the Squirtle Vs. Harley's Ariados, and the poor Eevee Vs. Brock's Marshtompt battle. The rest of them were either the norm for the time or May would by a KO anyway, so her opponent was knocked out

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CBCAnime In reply to Cybersai [2018-11-05 21:10:34 +0000 UTC]

I just feel the writers weren't sure how to write contests in the anime yet, which is why I (personally) feel contests were much better in Sinnoh than they were in Hoenn. 
I would've liked to see May actually practicing, and maybe if she didn't rely on luck most of the time. 

But I did mention I preferred May's rivals to Dawn's. I thought Harley and Drew were much better than Zoey and Kenny. 
Dawn beating Ursula didn't bother me at first, but I can see how it would bother others now. It reminds me of the fact that Dawn never beat Zoey, or how awful Serena's "rivals" were in Kalos. 

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TheRisenChaos [2018-10-27 16:32:07 +0000 UTC]

Disagree. It's the reverse for me - Dawn was a weaker written follow-up of May, which isn't to say she was BADLY written, only that I took more issues with how Dawn's character, story arc, and personal growth was written and handled compared to May.  The only real argument you and others have had against May when compared to Dawn is that her wins feel forced and unbelievable, to which I say she's just that naturally talented and gets shit done.

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CBCAnime In reply to TheRisenChaos [2018-10-28 05:50:04 +0000 UTC]

That's fine if you feel that way, I respect your opinion.

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TheRisenChaos In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-28 14:59:53 +0000 UTC]

Thank you.

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Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-27 14:03:31 +0000 UTC]

Yeah I never understood why the person who had no idea what they were doing never failed the appeal round yet the girl who's mother is a top coordinator would fail twice

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-28 05:51:25 +0000 UTC]

I think since it was the writers first time implementing contests into the anime they weren't sure what to do with them or with May for that matter. Kinda like how Ash was terrible at gym battles and had his badges handed to him in the first series.

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-28 14:21:05 +0000 UTC]

I guess thats a good point but by that logic wouldnt you have to give a pass to Serena's ease with Pokemon performances

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-28 15:50:44 +0000 UTC]

No, not really. Not even taking into account my feelings towards Serena and showcases as a whole, I don't like when characters receive wins with little to no struggle or earn. Ash getting pity badges was pretty sad. He thought he was amazing at gyms simply because people were just giving badges away. And as I said in this post, May's contest wins weren't earned and we're never shown her actually training to be this good. RisenChaos' excuse for this is that May was naturally talented. And I'm perfectly fine with him believing that was the case, but I personally think the writers were either being lazy or just didn't know how to properly write the contests into May's story at the time. 

I wasn't giving Ash and May free passes. I was bothered by their "wins", and I was definitely bothered by Serena's as well.

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-28 19:27:38 +0000 UTC]

I see i misunderstood you. Part of me really wants to marathon the series so I can get a better judgement off of the characters rather than just juudging off of whats on wikipedia. But its 1000 episodes and even if i skip filler thats probably 600-700

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-28 20:29:08 +0000 UTC]

I marathoned the entire series about a year ago for a discussion topic. It wasn't really fun for me to do. And I didn't skip any fillers.
But if you do do it, best of luck to you

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-29 00:43:19 +0000 UTC]

But I thought you said you never finished XYZ

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-29 02:49:42 +0000 UTC]

I never finished XYZ because I had the episodes saved on my old laptop which is broken, so I had forgotten which episode I left off on and just never bothered trying to watch it again.
However, I watched the majority of it and already knew from other sources how it ended so I didn't see a need to finish it. So other than XYZ (and of course Sun/Moon) I've watched all the series over again.

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-29 17:17:03 +0000 UTC]

Any specific hopes for the Gen 8 anime?

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-29 17:54:45 +0000 UTC]

Eh, well considering I kinda gave up on Sun/Moon, I'm not really looking forward to a Gen 8 anime at all. 
I could be hopeful and expect them to age Ash up or change protagonists, but I know that'd never happen.

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-29 19:20:08 +0000 UTC]

I seem to be the only person to perfer the slice of life style over the quest style. I just feel they need a smaller main cast

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-29 19:49:46 +0000 UTC]

I was fine with the slice of life at first, but then the series started to get boring. And it's back to Ash's friends hardly getting any focus. 

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-29 22:56:28 +0000 UTC]

I still think this new fomula deserves a second chance. I cant get invested in the Pokemon Leauge quest anymore

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-30 02:40:38 +0000 UTC]

I actually lost interest in the anime during X n Y, but gave Sun/Moon a chance cause it was different. I understand being tired of the league plotline, but seeing Ash sitting around doing mundane things or taking the spotlight from the other characters isn't really fun for me, either...
In fact, it's gotten to the point where I just play the episodes for background noise. Don't even watch them.

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-30 16:58:34 +0000 UTC]

I wouldnt say Ash is hogging the spotlight (at least not as much as in kalos) Id say if youre gonna accuse anyone that would be Lillie. Plus I'd rather see ash and co put on a play or play baseball or help a random character of the day repeatdly

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CBCAnime In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-30 19:48:52 +0000 UTC]

I'm sure you could say Lillie was hogging all the spotlight during the Ultra Beast thing, but where I'm currently at in the show it feels like Ash is back to getting all the attention while his friends are sidelined. I know he's the main character, but it gets annoying sometimes (at least in my opinion) when Ash is the only one being focused on. I think like, he's doing Island Challenges now? And Kukui said there'd be a first ever Pokemon League in Alola? And Ash had to go and do these challenges all by himself because...reasons I guess? He also has the most Pokemon out of all his friends. Kiawe and Sophocles only have 2 (I'm of course not including the Pokemon on Kiawe's farm as his) while the girls each only have 1. And I was really hoping Lana would catch that water spider thing, but she didn't. Ash has (not including Pikachu) 3, and legendary/mythical Pokemon just flock to him cause main character syndrome. Wasn't Lillie supposed to have Cosmog/Nebby? But of course Ash got it and not her.

I'm perfectly fine with how you feel about how the show is going, but me personally I'm losing interest more and more.

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-30 23:20:43 +0000 UTC]

technically neither of them owned Nebby and took care of it together but I can see your points. I just want the slice of life style to contine because Ive always liked the characters (well most of them i despise Unova Ash, Cilan, Bonnie, Kalos Ash, Kanto Misty, and Sophocles) but hate the structure

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TheRisenChaos In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-27 16:24:27 +0000 UTC]

Wouldn't that make Dawn the worse written one, though?

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Mecha-Togekiss In reply to TheRisenChaos [2018-10-27 20:47:17 +0000 UTC]

Well more the idea may got things too easily

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TheRisenChaos In reply to Mecha-Togekiss [2018-10-27 21:02:16 +0000 UTC]

I never really minded that or even saw it like that. I chalked it up to May just being awesome like that.

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daybreaknightfall [2018-10-27 13:42:27 +0000 UTC]

Almost everything from DP is "I'm you, but better writing" tbh.

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CBCAnime In reply to daybreaknightfall [2018-10-28 05:49:30 +0000 UTC]

I agree

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TheRisenChaos In reply to daybreaknightfall [2018-10-27 16:32:33 +0000 UTC]

Hahahahahahahaha....no. At least not in my view.

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daybreaknightfall In reply to TheRisenChaos [2018-10-28 02:20:31 +0000 UTC]

How so?

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TheRisenChaos In reply to daybreaknightfall [2018-10-28 02:27:31 +0000 UTC]

The writing, or at least the quality of what was being written, was not very good in the DP series.

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AznKei [2018-10-27 13:29:06 +0000 UTC]

Hmm, they did get along in DP, and tbh I don't care if a character is a clone of the other, it's hard to find original ideas about the characters for a long running show like Pokemon anime anyways.

I see that you're missing them. Me too. But I would like to see them more in a fan project than from the producers/writers. Nowadays, I don't trust them, they'll most likely going to screw May & Dawn.

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SapphireZX [2018-10-27 11:55:43 +0000 UTC]

well, the other girls who could cook besides Dawn were Serena (only Pokepuffs if that counts) and Mallow!

and speaking of eating, it's kinda like Ash too especially in Sun and Moon (people saying Ash and Dawn are completely alike is bs imo)

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CBCAnime In reply to SapphireZX [2018-10-28 05:49:17 +0000 UTC]

I normally count baking and cooking as two different things. Serena was never shown cooking, only baking. Clemont was the one who cooked. Mallow can cook too, though. Her family owns a restaurant after all

Ash and Dawn have some similarities (which was intentional), and I believe May was a bit like him too.

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SapphireZX In reply to CBCAnime [2018-10-28 08:05:43 +0000 UTC]

oh ok, but I wonder who's Mallow's mother could be?

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CBCAnime In reply to SapphireZX [2018-10-28 13:57:47 +0000 UTC]

I'm not sure

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