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I mean, if you put it all together, Dawn's competence makes sense. She had a clear goal of what she wanted to do, so she did a lot of training and learning before her 10th birthday. May didn't care about Pokemon, she just wanted to travel. Serena didn't have any direction aside from Rhyhorn racing, and while she was competent, she also hated doing that. Lillie couldn't touch Pokemon, but was in school to learn at least. The only one that doesn't make sense really is Ash, who wanted to be a Pokemon master but couldn't figure out the basics of typing. For an explanation of that...uh...here's Dawn in a cheerleading outfit. It works for her. Wouldn't have worked for May or Misty. Maybe Serena, but she has a sense of shame that Dawn doesn't seem to.
More numbers: DP is technically the latest Ash has his first Gym badge. Brock was 5 episodes in, Falkner 15, Roxanne, 16, Cilan 5, Alexa 5 and Hala 10. Still, DP has a good balance of other things happening with Dawn and Paul that it hasn't felt like as long a gap as Roxanne's was.
