>>53926926Up to now, I've seen all of the OS (about 20 years ago when it first aired), XY, AG and about half of DP (since early February or so). Coming in fresh from the OS to XY, I definitely got that the show had changed pretty substantially, but going from XY to AG, I felt like I could've picked up from the OS with AG, even 20 years later, and not had any problems. I think if you had shown me the first few episodes of DP like two months ago before I was watching AG, though, I probably would've said it looked and felt more like XY than AG, because the discontinuity there is so great. Most of the stuff you hit on seems pretty accurate. I'll also add that it looks substantially different: Much more muted color palette, lots of blues and cool colors, and they end up doing filler in non-descript valleys and plateaus than forests. They also do seem to be building to some sort of finale, whether for Ash or otherwise.
Since I'm only halfway through DP, maybe I'll change my mind later and I'll eat shit by saying this now, but I really don't see Dawn as a romantic lead. When I watched XY and only had Misty to compare to, I felt Serena's romance subplot (which is most of what people remember her character for) was fairly inconsequential and more about making fun of Serena's crush than actual shipteasing. I just figured that the other Pokegirls had their own fair share of shipping moments and Serena's was just more explicit, if kind of trollbait. Having now seen May and half of Dawn's arcs, I realize that Serena was the best the Pokemon Company was capable of. I'm not bashing Pearlshippers by any means, because shipping is all about enjoying the dynamic of a pair, and Ash and Dawn have a fantastic and wholesome dynamic. I just don't see the intention of pairing them up in the series.
>>53927275Thank you for clarifying. There are so many knots to the fansub stuff that it's hard to keep track of the details.
