>>15963910>>15963834Adding on to that, Iris's Axew started the Unova series with a dream to evolve into a Haxorus.
The way that this subplot was subsequently forgotten and ignored is a fitting representation of the Unova series as a whole: missed opportunities, wasted potential, regression to the norm.
Towards the end, it became clear that the writers couldn't even be assed to develop any of the rivals like Gary, Paul, and even Barry were, so they just started tossing half a dozen "rivals" (who ended up being little more than glorified CODs) instead of writing one or two compelling characters for Ash/Iris/Cilan to compete with.
The worst part of the Unova league, though, has to be the way they handled Team Plasma and the rest of the Black and White in-game plotline: namely, a single filler arc at the very end. The moral ambiguity and complexity (by Pokemon standards, anyway) of N and Team Plasma's motivations are completely ignored, to the point where contrasting the games and the show is almost physically painful.
Granted, the Unovan nightmare wasn't a purely man-made disaster. The 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster happened just as the anime was scheduled to begin a major Team Plasma arc. When the tsunami hit, the arc was first delayed, then cancelled, although the rest of the anime seemed locked in a holding pattern without those plot-critical episodes.
Seriously, if not for an act of god, it's entirely possible that Unova would've been on par with the Sinnoh series. The Plasma arc would've let the plot proceed normally, the conflicts that made the games so good could've actually made an appearance, and we might've gotten more development from the human and Pokemon characters we gained along the way.
