Thread: What could have been done to make Hikari's BW appearance actually *mean* something?

Dawn's cameo was full of wasted potential, which was quite unfortunate since it does feel like her cameo didn't have any significant impact and she did seem like an afterthought during most of the Junior Cup episodes. For starters, I would have have her show the ribbons she won in the Hoenn region thus far and then explain that she came to Nimbasa City to gain inspiration after losing the last couple of Contests. That would be similar to why May decided to compete in the Wallace Cup, but at least it would make more sense as to why she suddenly jumped from Hoenn to Unova and Dawn needing some unique form of inspiration would have been believable. Ash asking about how that modeling offer went would have been nice, but not as necessary as seeing how her Contests went. I also would have changed her team a bit more beyond just having Quilava. Even if they didn't end up doing much, like most of Dawn's team did anyway, it could have shown that she had been making more progress through her journey than basically have the same team for the most part. So either having Hoenn Pokemon, Bunery evolving, as I think that should have happened back in DP, or capturing a Unova Pokemon would have worked for me.

I also would have had her interact with Ash more since they didn't really feel as close as they did back in DP, especially after watching the finale where both she and Piplup were quite sad about leaving the group and going on their own. Maybe more training with them and not trying to make Dawn and Iris look like instant BFFs would have helped. I would have toned down Dawn's interactions with Iris since it did come off as a generic attempt at making them look like good friends right off the bat, rather than having them genuinely bond.

I also would have had Dawn defeat Iris in the Junior Cup. The Junior Cup would have been the first opportunity for Dawn to showcase what she had learned in Hoenn and Unova since she didn't want to just wait until she returned to Hoenn, or go for the Wallace Cup again, to put into practice what she learned. Dawn would have used her Contest skills in that battle, such as that Ice Armor bit and other ways of combining Mamoswine's attacks, to throw Dragonite off its game since it was clearly more familiar with head-to-head battling. It would have shown that Mamoswine and Dawn were in sync and that along with Dawn's Contest combinations would have given her an edge over Iris and Dragonite who weren't able to work together. Dawn could have explained to Iris that she and Mamoswine didn't get along at first either. Instead of just saying that to tell Iris that it will all be okay eventually, she would tell Iris the story in more detail and tell her how she got to be friends with Mamoswine. That would have Iris realize that she needs to work on her relationship with Dragonite off the battle field, even though that should have been obvious to her anyway, and would have been a better way to show the two of them being good friends than having them instantly click. Not to mention it actually would have a more significant impact on Iris's storyline than giving her another undeserved victory. This would mean that Dawn would lose to most likely Trip, which wouldn't be satisfying, but at least she would have already had more impact on the Junior Cup than she did already.

I would have been fine with Dawn still going for the next Wallace Cup if she mentioned how her journey through Hoenn was going when she first arrived. Dawn defeating Ash in their battle would have been nice too, or at least ending it in a tie since it was a cool looking match and just having Cynthia end it wasn't a good way to end it. It was so disappointing to see that her cameo had no significant impact compared to May and even Misty's returns. Even if it was a sudden change just for tradition and bringing back older Pokemon like Piplup to promote again, just a bit more effort put into it could have made this cameo actually mean something significant.

(continuing from last post)

I think that this should have happened to Dawn's cameo specially the way if was promoted.

Read:Forget Cynthia, forget Junipr Cup, forget part of her DP team. Dawn will be going to Unova because she has retired from coordinating after losing contests in Hoenn (mentioning Hoenn) and because Dawn was searching help from Ash. Dawn will be going to compete the Unova League like Ash (that I think that Ash shouldn't have yet the last 2 badges). Dawn will bring to the Unova region only Piplup and possibly (for BW2 promotion) Buneary. The rest of the pokemon will be new captures made in Unova (you easuily find out his captures: Minccino, Eevee, Riolu, Growlithe, Petilil, Lillipup, and in a strecht one of Ash's Pokmeon (in particular, Snivy))

Dawn will fight 2-3 Gym Leaders (possibly the ones that Ash aren't facing) and she will lose. When Dawn gets various loses, a Contest-related character will intend to bring back Dawn into coordinating. And then, she will leave the cast. And with a new dress in each one that she takes place.

If Tv Tokyo/TPC intend to think that Dawn is returning permanently into the cast, make the way that this could be a belieavable option (like was believable that TR would leave in the Project Tempest episodes). And in the cameo, there's really easy to detect before information of her last episode that she isn't only making a cameo.

And more impoertant, Dawn should meet the important characters

With the Contests gone it was obvious they had no real reason for Dawn to cameo. It of course was done however for little kids who watched her in DP and for Piplup merchandise.

And you can say Dawn now met all 4 girls Ash has traveled with. She met May and Iris and saw the lure of Misty. It was basically the writers way of introducing the two without said character actually showing up.

Originally Posted by Shinneth

Since I believe Buneary's Japanese VA died by the time these episodes rolled around and they didn't do much with her character besides that, I had a feeling Buneary herself would be shafted and that would've been a good time as any to give Dawn a new Pokemon so at least she would have accomplished SOMETHING in Unova.

That would contradict with her reasoning, in SS024, to keep her team unchanged.

Originally Posted by Shinneth

Since I believe Buneary's Japanese VA died by the time these episodes rolled around and they didn't do much with her character besides that, I had a feeling Buneary herself would be shafted and that would've been a good time as any to give Dawn a new Pokemon so at least she would have accomplished SOMETHING in Unova.

Kawakami Tomoko (Mimiroll's first VA) only voiced Mimiroll for the first half of DP before falling ill. Yukino Satsuki's was chosen as her replacement and has been voicing the character since 2008.

The shitty writing is to blame for the lack of any follow-up to Mimiroll's plot. Her VA wouldn't have had anything to do with it.

It would have been nice to see her catch a pokemon in Isshu. We don't know at the moment what's the status of GenV pokemon outside of Isshu, so her catching one and bringing it back to where they aren't found would have been nice. Something to dazzle some judges.

I actually would've enjoyed it if Ash and Dawn created a new "style" like counter shield, to make her somewhat usefull.

They should've focussed on Dawn in the tournament instead of cramming Trip's and Dragonite's "plots" in it too.

I also found that odd as well, outside the first episode, Ash and Dawn barely interacted together.

I also found it odd they actually shoved in the debut of Kotetsu into Dawn's last ep. Considering Dawn probably won't appear in the anime again at this point, why did they shove in a new rival at the end of the Junior Cup and take away even more screentime from Dawn?

You know looking back, I can't help but feel like the writers gave her the worst cameo treatment of any past character ever.

This isn't a thread to complain about the cameo; it's a thread to offer ways it could have been fixed.

Most of us here agree that Hikari's cameo was terrible. There's no need to repeat that over and over.

Well I think Dawn beating Dragonite should have happened. Before the ep aired many of us were hoping Mamoswine would beat Dragonite. Not only is Mamoswine a powerhouse, but it would allow us to see Dawn take down a truly powerful opponent. Dawn then could have lost to Ash's Krok instead.

That way Dawn would at least have one major win in her return. I also feel as if Mamoswine never really got a huge battle back in DP, it was always paired in double battles during Contests and hardly did anything but sit around shooting ice shard.

Kind of a shame when you realize that Mamoswine was never really used to its full potential.

How Dawn could have had a more meaningful role in BW Season 2:
- The writers could have had Dawn catch a pokemon from Unova. Even though May only arrived to Sinnoh for the Wallace Cup in DP, one of her pokemon (Eevee) still evolved into a pokemon from the newest generation at the time. May didn't catch any Gen II or IV pokemon as far as we are informed, but it was still enough to make her purpose for competing in a Sinnoh contest worthwhile. Dawn's team hardly progressed since the end of DP, which definitely made her Junior Cup appearance forced.
- Instead of the numerous filler episodes, the writers could have had a few episodes in which Dawn's other pokemon were used.
- The writers could have had one of currrent Dawn's pokemon evolve during this story arc. Dawn's Buneary evolving to Loppuny would have been great to see considering that the Buneary line was actually in the Unova dex in B2W2. On the contrast, Misty's Togepi evolved during Misty's guest appearance in AG, and three of May's pokemon evolved.
- The writers could have made the Junior Cup into a large scale tournament in which Dawn was actually seen battling more than twice.
- The writers could have explained exactly what made Dawn decide to drop her journey to Hoenn to compete in the Junior Cup.
- The writers could have informed the viewers exactly how much progress Dawn had made since the end of DP, aside from her Cyndaquil's evolution and Mamoswine learning a new move.
- Cilan was very interested in the ball capsules that coordinators used as well as the types of moves that pokemon would use in contest appeals. Maybe Dawn could have taught him a few things about contests.
- The writers could have made Dawn stay longer, and/or make her return in the near future. Misty showed up in two series of cameo appearances in AG. Her first cameo appearance was focused on her Togepi and the types of pokemon Misty obtained since she became a Gym Leader. The second focused on Misty's interactions with other members of the main cast, including Tracey and Max. The writers got the character interactions between Dawn and the BW main characters down, but in terms of the battling aspects we didn't get that much.

They could have had her stay till the N arc was over given are an actual part of it liked the promos and poster looked like it was going to =/

I would have loved an outfit update, all the girls in the past got one in there cameos, why not Dawn too? They made it seem like she wasn't important enough to get one.

Pipulp got over used again, they could have given her other Pokemon plots instead of that thing, it already got its time to shine in the entire D/P series.

Did not like the way Dawn joined Iris in teasing Ash, I hated that and wanted more interactions between Ash and Dawn as I loved the friendship but they forced this Iris/Dawn friendship on us instead.

Meh, to me it was just to make Iris look good in Best Wishes 2 just cuz shes champion in the games, so sure why not have the last generations girl character loose to her? Oh yah, she didn't even talk about any thing she was doing either did she? Dang, horrible.

That Haruka's rivals go with her doesn't mean that Hikari's rivals do. Mentioning Haruka's rivals will be bad writing because Haruka isn't supposed to travel with his rivals on-screen. And I like Shu. And Shu got many appareances through DP, in the level of Shu in Hoenn and I think that Nozomi was the best Coordinator rivals tied to Shu. About evolutions, I prefer that Hikari doesn't have the same evolutions that Haruka had because the "older fans" don't overstimate Hikari's teamlike you do with Haruka. Imagine Haruka with Fushigidane, Zenigame, Eeivui and Wakasyamo instead of Fushigibana, Kameil, Glacia and Bursyamo like in the Mikuri Cup. Although I agree that Hikari came in a bad moment because they're promoting Iris' status as a champion with Shirona and Kairyu (specially the latter) and Shootie's relationship with Adeku. For the Junior Cup, I prefer that Bel took part instead of her. Because Bel is a recurring character and she's more logical to suffer in the sidelines like is happening in the League.

Edit: Where is @The Fighting Misty post. It suddenly dissappear.

-She could have caught a Pokémon from Unova, like Minccino. I thought that would make sense.
-Her Buneary could've evolved. And it would mean something.
-Her Mamoswine could have won against Iris's Dragonite, then lose to Ash's Krookodile.
-Her battle with Ash could be finished. And Dawn would win.

Meh, that's all I got. May's appreance during Sinnoh was much better.

Quilava Could Have evolved.
She could have used Togekiss in the TR plot to help.
BUneary could have done something
New Capture

Booted Iris off the main cast