>>54015097Other recapanon here. Also just finished AG and DP and I like the question so I wanted to throw in with the other recapanon. I'd say this is accurate for the first few Contests, but then I'd change it up at after her fourth Contest (which she loses because she uses her Bulbasaur without training it and learns her lesson after lashing out at Ash). After that, probably especially once Harley debuts, it's less that she has a problem to resolve and more that her opponents are at such a level that she struggles by virtue of the competition, and then generally overcomes.
I think your next paragraph is incredibly insightful though, especially about how the two of them interact with the stakes of the Contests. I think it's also worth pointing out that most of May's Contests don't involve Harley or Drew as opponents, while Dawn frequently has Kenny, Urara, Zoey, or May and Jessie especially to overcome. Instead, May fights one-off characters that need an episode of introduction to set the stakes and then get featured in the Contest episode itself, setting up a character vs. character aspect alongside it. Conversely, Dawn does have an arc where she loses two appeal rounds in a row and struggles inwardly, showing some internal as well as external conflict. There are strong elements of each in both arcs, but I think you've nailed what the general difference is.
>do you prefer AG's contests or DP's?I like AG's more, but I think DP's are consistently written better. That's generally my opinion on most things May vs Dawn.
