Max was alright. He gave the Hoenn group a different feel to the trios. Ash now had two new friends while also with an old one, both Ash and Brock could bond with a different new friend at different times. Max balanced out the group and was an alright character on his own.
Now if you want bad companion characters Sinnoh Brock and Johto Misty. These were the points these characters offered us nothing and were just boring. Say what you want about Max he had a role in Hoenn. Misty in Johto just dragged Brock away from girls, Brock in Sinnoh stood in the background of the Ash & Dawn show.
>>12846164Also this
>>12846207Oshawott at least is in its Pokéball. Plus it was fine at the start of the series, then it got popular as the new Piplup and stopped it from getting the character development it used to have potential for.
Piplup would hog attention EVERY GOD DAMB EPISODE. Oshawott is for the most part just another Pokémon that'll leave its Pokéball from time to time, Piplup just stopped returning to its Pokéball full stop even though it was fine with it before.
