>>31484546Old Pokemon was good for character, shit for battles.
I heard a lot of the "good" writers left after the Eevee episode and the rest were just writers trying to pick up the pieces. Johto got pretty stale because it got into power creep territory with Ash keeping his aces to the next region for the most part and later it just became a cavalcade of filler. Some good, some...not so much.
Hoenn tried to give the girl lead something to do than just hang around the lead, because let's face it Misty was handled like shit. She was okay up until Togepi and even after she got rid of it she just became Little Miss Mommy-in-Training with a Marill later. Every female character that followed her seemed like some kind of act of contrition. May at least had a goal of her own but had easier victories. Dawn had losses and struggles with FAR more weight so it's like her contests were like a glorified B-plot to Ash grabbing Badges. Iris was more or less Misty with a goal rather than an orbiter so it was a slight improvement. Serena was a little complex in that she vocally wanted Ash's dick with the audience knowing it but she also had some clash with her mother in terms of establishing a goal and later developed her own ambitions outside of Ash. She also set a record that's gonna be hard to top, unless they bullshit an onscreen kiss from Lillie somehow.
Sun and Moon feels different from the formula thus far, but I do think it has potential to match up to Kanto in terms of being character driven so the series made it a point that Lana, Kiawe and Mallow aren't some one-shot supporting characters to be shafted too easily like a guest Gym Leader or two. It shows that we have more to appreciate than Ash trying to be the best as there's others who need to grow as well. So maybe it's not the same as when Brock and Misty tagged along but it doesn't mean the series can't establish a new identify for itself. Change is a part of growth too.
