Thread: Do you think the writers are doing enough with Iris?

Originally Posted by Gliscor'd

Axew has gotten more focus than Togepi but less than Piplup.

Seriously, I thought people hated the amount of screentime Piplup got. Axew is fine, although its odd that it hasn't evolved yet...

I don't think I've heard of a lot of complaints about Axew's screentime. I agree that it has more focus than Togepi, but less than Piplup, which is okay with me. After the amount of screentime Piplup got during DP, I'm fine with the next secondary-mascot Pokemon not being shoved down the audience's throat. Similar to Iris herself, I don't think that it's the amount of focus that Axew has that's the problem. It's that nothing has really happened to either Iris or Axew during the amount of focus that they've received that develops their characters or makes me think that they've made any progression towards their goal. Given how marketable it is, I could kind of understand why they wouldn't evolve Axew just yet if it was actually useful in battle, but it isn't. It's still shown as a weak toddler Pokemon, which at over seventy episodes into the series is a major problem, especially when evolving Axew is apparently Iris' goal and she's shown little to no desire to try working with Axew more often to make it stronger in order to reach said goal.

My guess is we all made the mistake in assuming the female character would always get more screentime than the male due to Brock.

Its obvious Cilan has the bigger role this saga and Iris has a more Brock-like role in terms of screentime. That's why Iris isn't being focused on as much besides those few episodes like Brock was.

Originally Posted by Gliscor'd

My guess is we all made the mistake in assuming the female character would always get more screentime than the male due to Brock.

Its obvious Cilan has the bigger role this saga and Iris has a more Brock-like role in terms of screentime. That's why Iris isn't being focused on as much besides those few episodes like Brock was.

Well, considering that each new female character had more screentime than the last until Iris, I'm not sure if I would say it was a mistake to assume that the female character would always get more screentime, especially when we didn't know for sure how either Iris or Cilan would be treated at the start of the series. While I agree that Iris's role in the series does feel more along the lines of what Brock had, I think she's had more focus than he did in at least Kanto. That isn't saying that much though. Like I've mentioned before, the amount of screentime she gets for a trainer not in a battle active goal is fine. The problem comes from what little has been done with her character and her overall goal within that amount of time. The fact that she still hasn't trained Axew to be even a decent battler is a huge problem as well, especially when this is a part of her goal and she is being completely inactive with it.

Originally Posted by Hidden Mew

Originally Posted by Gliscor'd

My guess is we all made the mistake in assuming the female character would always get more screentime than the male due to Brock.

Its obvious Cilan has the bigger role this saga and Iris has a more Brock-like role in terms of screentime. That's why Iris isn't being focused on as much besides those few episodes like Brock was.

The fact that she still hasn't trained Axew to be even a decent battler is a huge problem as well, especially when this is a part of her goal and she is being completely inactive with it.

I like how Georgia got mad at Iris for not using a Dragon Type again in the recent episode.

Really I hope they actually GO SOMEWHERE with Iris' neglection of using actual Dragon types. Have her release Excadrill or something, that might make her get her goal straight.

Not even close!
1. Her character is annoying! Overconfidence, without a specia reason!
2. She had maybe 5-6 eps focusing on her and her skills! Her issues!
3. Excadrill drama, to easy resolved! And it's a bit to powerfull!
4. To less focus on her goal to become a Dragon Master! Dawn and May had always training battles against Ash! Here there were just some lame Scraggy battles!
5. She worked great with Emmy's Dragon, don't now why cause really doesn't have expierience! And she doesn't do anything for Axew's Outrage!

Hopefully she gets some focus again! Would love for her to introduce a kind of Drayden's ass(an ace trainer girl cause the Opelucid gym is full of them!)! So she has somebody to compete with! And that ass has an Fraxure so she has to work harder cause her rivalry with Langely isn't funny at all and progresless!!!

Originally Posted by Zidane

I like how Georgia got mad at Iris for not using a Dragon Type again in the recent episode.

Being tsundere for Dragon-types and obsessed with them is Langley's problem, not Iris'...

Be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that the entire Iris/Georgia rivalry is founded on Iris being an aspiring Dragon Master and Georgia setting her goals on curbstomping dragons and defeating people who come from the Village of Dragons. So when Iris isn't using Axew and Georgia is around, their rivalry is going absolutely nowhere. And Iris' progression towards her goal also goes nowhere since she's once again relying on Excadrill.

It's because of things like this that we got the bullshit of Axew learning the most powerful physical Dragon-type move clear out of the blue even though it's a baby who's had minimal on-screen training. We were shown early on that Axew WANTS to evolve, so there's no justification to keep its own development stagnant this long (opposed to Piplup, who clearly wanted to never evolve). If Iris had been shown to be consistent with training Axew, by this point I think it would've been a Fraxure and we'd be seeing signs of Iris progressing towards her goal. Instead, Iris has been mostly stagnant as a trainer and character this whole time and seems to be relying on Excadrill more and more for just about everything. It's contradictory to her role; not that I'm saying she should be nothing but all Dragon-types all the time, but how exactly is Axew supposed to reach its final form if it's rarely used for anything that can further its abilities? Using it often and taking a while to evolve would've been fine by me since Dragon-types (ESPECIALLY the Gen V kinds) take a long time to evolve even with consistent training.

So by not staying steady on her task to make Axew stronger, in that way she's pretty much giving the middle finger to Georgia and their rivalry. So I wouldn't blame Georgia for being annoyed about Iris not using Axew again. After this much time, it really looks like Iris is using Excadrill as a crutch to get her by further in competitions than she deserves to be. I'd like it if that gets seriously addressed at some point... though if past examples of how her character and Pokemon are handled are any indication, I've got my doubts that anything will come of this and the next time Axew levels up/learns a new move/whatever, it'll be just as convoluted and DEMlicious as the previous times.

[QUOTE=Zidane;3853898]

Originally Posted by Hidden Mew;38538

I like how Georgia got mad at Iris for not using a Dragon Type [I

again[/I] in the recent episode.

Well I was curious on why she didn't use it either. She hasn't been really using Axew to it's fullest as much as Excadrill has been used. And the thing is that Iris had been with Excadrill for longer than her other Pokemon. I just feel that Georgia can push Iris alittle to make her train Axew more like she said she was going to do.

Honestly, I haven't kept too up-to-date with the anime since the switchover from 4kids though I did watch some of the Gen IV era. And I really don't like how they've been doing things with Best Wishes/Black and White. To me, Cilan should have stayed at the gym, and Iris could have been a sort of apprentice to Drayden in Opelucid City, which, in my opinion, should be depicted as a mix between both Black and White version's incarnations- technology integrating with nature. Iris could also appear multiple times throughout the series, like she had in the games. On some other semi-related notes, I think Brock should have randomly showed up as he has previously and joined Ash on his adventure, and that the female counterpart should have been Touko, but with a better name than Hilda. Whitlea was a fine name for her. Nintendo Y U NO KEEP BETA NAMES?

And my biggest gripe- Ash is STILL 10?! How?! It's been previously mentioned in Pikachu and Pichu that Ash has known Pikachu for a year, how can a year pass without him having turned 11? And surely it takes more than a year to travel throughout each respective region.

Anyway that's my stance on Iris and the direction they took with Best Wishes in General.

I probably should put this on Pokémon Capture/Release thread, but anyways, I think this deserves to be here:

I originally disagreed with Iteru about Kibago not evolving during the series, but he seems to have a right point. All main girls had short term goals in addition to their long terms goals(except Kasumi, unfortunately), for them to have something to brag about while they lost inevitably:

For Haruka, it was proving her worth to Shuu(through defeating him), while her long term goal was to become a Top Coordinator(as in not GF winner type, but as in well-respected coordinator type)

For Hikari, it was defeating Nozomi [DP012, she even says so! (in the dub version at least, but I don't have any confirmation of whether she doesn't say in JP dub or not)], which was shat over on it's dead corpse, mutilated by a Tauros swarm, fried by a Booburn and was given as a birthday cake for 100 hungry Jiheaddo, and was ultimately replaced by their promise of meeting with Nozomi in the finals in DP155(dafuq), while her long term goal was to surpass her mother.

For Iris, her short term goal is Kibago's evolution. Given the previous short term goals were never realised until the very end for characters to have a point, I am very frightened that Kibago won't even enter second stage just for that. Unless of course:

a)They want to have an Onondo. Wakasyamo could have probably never evolved if it wasn't more, or just as popular as it's pre-evolution or evolution.
b) They consider the whole way to Ononokus stage the short term goal.
c)They want to make Imperial Wrath/Outrage a plot point, like Goukazaru's Blaze. This makes sense be cause:

i)Kibago has a measly 87 base attack, whereas Onondo has a whooping 117 attack, higher than some fully evolved Pokémon that are physical sweepers. Therefore, if it were to go berserk, it would go REALLY berserk, a hug from a ten year old that seems to be clueless to confusion side-effect wouldn't mean anything when Onondo can shatter rocks with blades, bones and flesh wouldn't be much of a problem.
ii)If Langley is present, it would be more than enough show off why she is rather bitter of her loss.
iii)Berserk moves in shonen animés and mangas are used either as finishers, last choice moves or in shonen animés and mangas characters learn to use them without going berserk.

Note: I was going to disagree with the Dragon-types take too much time thing because Ononokus evolves at level 48, much lover than say Kairyu, Bohmender etc. but equal to Gabite to Gablias and only slighlty higher than Vibrava-> Flygon; buuut Kibago to Onondo does take a larger amount of time than other dragons' mid-stage evolution levels. Others reach to second stage, even if they are two staged evolutions OR gained Dragon-typing in the next gen, at around 30 to 35(Fukamaru evolves in 24), whereas Onondo stage is acquired at level 38, which is higher than most previous gen Pokémon's level which they reach the final stage. So... yeah.

Note 2: They can change her short-term goal mid-series, but I have no idea what it might be. Only thing I know is if that happens, it will be after Shaga battle, because I can't see Iris end up wanting to surpass Langley, due to nature of their relationship(yes, we know Langley wants that to happen, but we are talking about Iris here).

Originally Posted by Fullbring

If I recall correctly Iris didn't have a problem with ice type moves but ice type Pokemon themselves.

1- It was stated that Iris fears Ice types because Ice type attacks are super powerful against dragons.
2- Iris also fears the cold, as stated in Langley's intro and shown in BW057.

I feel letting her compete in the Don battles was a good move and giving her Langley was one too. But I think they should have her use her Pokemon more. I just felt after watching Piplup and Pikachu, Axew should be used more and so should Emonga. I know they really are trying but I wish she was more active with all of her Pokemon like Cilan is doing.

One thing's for certain in regards to Iris/Langley - the rivalry can't go ANYWHERE with just Langley bringing in the tension. Especially in this new tournament, it's pathetic to just watch Langley blindly be like "OH MY RIVAL THIS MY RIVAL THAT" when Iris really has no motivation to defeat or do anything with her except to be extremely catty and to constantly put her down even when Langley praises Iris' strength.

Though I liked that Langley called Iris on her BS last episode when Iris used Doryuuzu, Langley was raging and saying that she hadn't made any progress and hadn't improved. It's like the writers are lampshading through Langley that they are mishandling Iris' character, keeping her so static and stale and making her story go nowhere as usual. It made me smile. :D

Originally Posted by Hellion

Though I liked that Langley called Iris on her BS last episode when Iris used Doryuuzu, Langley was raging and saying that she hadn't made any progress and hadn't improved. It's like the writers are lampshading through Langley that they are mishandling Iris' character, keeping her so static and stale and making her story go nowhere as usual. It made me smile. :D

The rivalry has fallen into an unfortunate pattern. Langley calls out Iris for not using Dragons, but is not really continuing to pursue that desire for Iris even after Iris wins.

"Why aren't you using Dragons?"---->"Ah, you won..great, even though you didn't use Dragons." ----->"Why aren't you using Dragons?"

It almost seems like a gag. I like to see Langley tell Iris she'd be nothing without Excadrill, and tell her to focus on OTHER Pokemon. She can still respect her, but continue to emphasize that she's not growing towards her goal. But right now, only Langley is doing her part given that she's actually beating a Dragon. Iris, a supposed "Dragon Master in training" is just like "derp, imma just spam Excadrill."

What was the point in even giving Iris Excadrill as her "main" Pokemon anyway? 70+ episodes into the series, Kibago has been largely ignored. I really question the writers logic here. Like, yous said....it's like they know they're mishandling Iris, but as it stands right now it doesn't seem like they really care.