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This is what I like about Horizons so far. Riko and Roy aren't ignorant to battling, they live in a world of it after all, but neither are they practical experts. By the time Riko faces Roy she still doesn't have too much experience, and what little experience she does have can be summed up as "spam leafage". This worked for her before so it's what she falls back on in a panic, resulting in her and Roy looking like clowns wildly spamming ranged attacks. Still, they're taking logical steps to improve. I really like how we're not suddenly spiked directly into champion level like Ash was in SM/JN, but neither are we stuck in the pits of ignorance like Ash was in OS-XY. It's actual, observable growth, something we've never had before in the anime. I hope it lasts.
I skimmed through the early DP episodes to see if Dawn followed a similar trend. She's no expert, but she's no complete novice either. I think Dawn's the best representation of how a newbie would operate in the pokemon world. She knows enough about moves and battling to order Piplup around, but she's still thrown off her game by a sudden dodge. A common hangup for novices, even ones who know a lot of theory, as in the heat of battle novices aren't mentally prepared for their plans to fail. But with plenty of theory and second hand experience to fall back on, it doesn't last long.
May, like Ash, just had no idea what was going on, even after a couple battles. How catching works, what moves she has, she was just completely clueless like Ash was. But May had the excuse of not giving a fuck about Pokemon. I guess this indirectly makes canon the fact Ash was dropped on the head as a baby while his mom was a heavy drinker during pregnancy.