>>49236076You're likely remembering Hoenn being much better than it actually was. There were a lot of ideas that sounded really cool on paper, but the way they were executed was awful.
>with legit rivals This is a good example. May's contest episodes (before the Battle Frontier) were all against random filler characters of the day. Drew was her only rival and he rarely actually did anything on-screen. It was Battle Frontier that decided to make Harley a recurring rival character and flesh out Drew some more, which is what people tend to remember when they think back to May's contest episodes. (but the Battle Frontier contest episodes themselves were pretty boring outside Harley's antics)
