Five seconds later, Ash gets hit by a flamethrower.
 
Ash: Same old Charizard.

@AkatsukiKaizoku  
What you just said. I think Best Wishes had some good points, like Team Rocket being serious and some of the rivals (mostly Burgundy, Georgia and Kenyan, Trip is too much of a Gary Stu and Bianca annoys me), but all in all DP was much better.

nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ç_ç
 
happy tears

@AkatsukiKaizoku
 
I meant in the show itself.
 
But yeah, that too.

@ETech  
I thought the bad point of Bianca is that /vp/’s fucking farting Bianca meme.
 
GOD! I hate that one.

@Prof.NightJack
 
Meanwhile, Bianca’s only real negative flaw was being rather selfish around the time of the Club Battle. But she got over that (which is, of course, more than can be said for Iris).
 
Season 2 would have been much, much better if Bianca and Iris’s roles were switched, I must say.

@ETech  
Well, every rival Ash had was wasted or bad, just look at Trip, look at him, LOOK AT TRIP.
 
I agree on Bianca, there was something so funny in her, and I shipped her hard with Kenyan, like A LOT. But yeah, everything got shafted in favor of Cameron.
 
 
@Prof.NightJack  
I see, still, it backfired though.

@ETech  
Also how Iris calls Ash a kid all the time, then does everything she call him that for HERSELF!  
Says he is such a kid for getting angry so easily - say anything about dragon types that isn’t good and she’s angry.

@AkatsukiKaizoku  
There is a reason, they where afraid they would be fired and changes, nothing about what they did to be more competent, just they didn’t want to be kicked out.

Really doesn’t help that Bianca is, in my opinion, a more likeable character than Iris. But who sticks around with Ash and who stops being relevant after the first season for no effing reason other than the writers apparently hate her?

@romantiCaveman  
You couuuuld say that, but they sacrificed what we loved about them, the goofiness is gone, I don’t mind them being competent, but there is not even a reason of why they became like that.
 
Did Giovanni brainwashed them? They just decided to be serious? No explanation, and that is bad.

I hear Team Rocket has become much more competent as villains, though.

Problem with the anime is simply consistency.
 
Ash in Diamond & Pearl is pretty much in his prime, the most balanced team, and was a pretty sharp strategist. You really had him in the battle with the Elite Four AT LEAST.
 
But Tobias came and, harhar, a Darkrai, and defeat the Darkrai, HAR HAR FUCKING LATIOS OUT OF NOWHERE! It was clear that time that the writers will never let Ash win. If they pulled a Diabolus Ex-Machina of that caliber, it means something.
 
By Best Wishes a lot of shit happened, between the Pikachu’s seasonal power reset, the earthquake, and the surprising fact that Black & White got SEQUELS instead of a “Grey” version, it really put Ash in his WORST condition. The Pokemon League was rushed for the sake of Episode N… Which… Is really, really bad.
 
And hey! May, was awesome, and I frickin’ love May.

Oh wait, I had that wrong, no mind altering thing, but the change to them is mostly gone now…

@Amber  
Only for the first part, some Rocket scientist did this mind altering thing to them, they where badass, but then it got undone and are back to the old way they acted…

@Prof.NightJack
 
From what I heard,they are being fantastic in the Black and White series.

I could be wrong but I think the only ones to get any character development that helps in any way is Team Rocket, and they are basically comic relief villains.

@Prof.NightJack
 
That’s pretty much what happened in my case.

@Takashi.0  
I almost did before her, but then the little bits with Ash giving May advice made me think the writers where letting him grow as a character, but then when Dawn came around they took away about half of what he had…

I gave up before May.

Also they both had a thing with outfits, May had swimsuits but grew out of it, and Dawn with all cloths but never got over it!

@ETech  
I gave up when we got Dawn, to me she was May-, both liked Pokemon contest but Dawn thought they where better then anything, May liked them but knew gym battles where also important(in part from who her dad is) and then with Ash, he argued with Dawn over what was better when he ALREADY TOOK PART IS A CONTEST BEFORE!

Again, I gave up on Pokemon after the Huimilau arc. Bianca is my favorite character and having her lose to some immature (and worse, inexperienced!) asshat left the worst possible taste in my mouth.
 
Seriously, I waited forever for them to remember she exists and this is what they do? Fuck that. Haven’t watched the show since.

Doubt, seem the one high powered pokemon they let Ash keep in the show is Pikachu(He has the nickname “God-chu” even).

@Takanuva
 
* reads article *
 
Uhhhh…maybe