Quoted By:
Can someone explain Iris? I remember watching the first 20 or so episodes of BW in Japanese back in 2010/2011, and I remember that her Axew had the goal of evolving to Haxorus. But I also remember that after the 2011 earthquake, the entire series changed course, and not all of it was smooth.
I remember that the transition to Ash going for his eighth badge was handled really awkwardly. There was the implication of Iris having Gym Leader status and not wanting to go back, that stuff about her being a skilled Trainer, and Ash's badge case was even drawn with the original eighth badge outline. But it's like they danced around it in a weird way and gave an unsatisfying conclusion. Even the whole Axew thing never went anywhere, it was stuck with being a status quo mascot like Piplup which was contrary to what it was supposed to do. And I just never got this feeling of character progression around her, even if her Excadrill started listening to her.
Then she comes back for the Masters Eight and she's Unova's Champion for some reason and achieved all her goals offscreen and her personality is closer to her game counterpart rather than her discount Misty anime personality. Like it's just so weird when I think about her.
