Brock and Dawn's Friendship

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Luxio2k8

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I notice something when watching the current saga in Sinnoh lately. It's the interaction (or lack of, really) between Brock and Dawn.

When the show started Brock and Misty seem to be really close friends and remember it was Brock that pointed out that he consider Ash and Misty to be his best friends in, "Gotta Catch Ya Later!"

When Brock traveled with May they didn't interact as much, but they still seem to be good friends. May would go shopping with Brock (sometimes against his will) and Brock help explain to May what was going on with Ash's Gym and other Battles to her, since May wasn't that familiar with Pokémon and battle strategies.

With Dawn they hardly seem to speak to one another and since Dawn is more familiar with Pokémon battling than May, Brock doesn't need to explain as much (unless something happens that Dawn isn't sure of).

And with rare occasions like, "A Stand-Up Sit-Down!", where Dawn looks up to Brock because he was able to help with Zoey's injured knee, most of the time Dawn seems to look at Brock as Ash's "weird older friend", with him hitting on girls and able to recover from his Croagunk's Poison Jab, quickly. Is it just me or does Brock and Dawn seem more like acquaintances, rather than friends?
 
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I agree with this. My only problem with the DP trio is that Dawn and Brock have absolutely no chemistry together.

I like the way Ash and Dawn interact, but Brock feels so detached from Dawn and her contests.

It seems to me that Dawn and Brock have the least amount of chemistry together than the previous two girls. Misty and Brock felt like friends, and at least May and Brock used to go shopping together. There really are very few memorable scenes Dawn and Brock have shared together. A pity, really.
 
I hate to bring the age-factor into this, since it has nothing to do with their relationship--has no meaning. But I think it could be that Ash is as equal to Dawn, and that Brock doesn't need to stoop down to their level (not that he wasn't before). Could be a sign that it's time to do something about him? The writers may have something to do with this. Could they possibly be running out of steam with Brock?

Before I press this further I hate to see this thread turn into those "Brock's departure" threads.
 
Well, even if Brock and may don't seem to be the best friends ever, they still share some moments together, like in the summer school arc, when they take pedal-boat, and they even went shopping once (i don't remember why)
Maybe Brock just doesn't like contests
 
It doesn't really seem that Brock's that interested in Dawn's success for some reason. I dunno why, but it seemed like Brock was more concerned with May then he is with Dawn. But it is true, its probably because May didn't know what she was doing at the start which is why she had to rely on Ash/Brock for everything, whereas Dawn already had knowledge of Contests because of her mother.
 
Without a doubt, Brock and Dawn don't have that much of a relationship. With Ash/Misty/Brock, Ash/Misty/Tracey and Ash/May/Max/Brock, it felt like everyone on the team had a unique relationship. (Well, Misty's and Tracey's friendship only really came into play years later in Chronicles- presumably because they were the only two non-main cast twerps at the time- but it was still there.) But Brock and Dawn... just don't have any real spark. She and Ash seemed to have bonded pretty quickly and even have their own friendship signature with the high fives, but she only seems to interact with Brock whenever Ash is busy with whatever else.
 
Well, for Brocko, any girl below 16 doesn't seem to exist... except for misty and may, but misty was redhead, and May was... May (sorry, it's kinda late here, i'm starting to say b***sh*t)
 
Perhaps it's because Dawn had no siblings (that we know of). Misty had older sisters, and Brock and May at least shared the experience of being an older sibling, but Dawn hasn't had that.

Dawn may not know quite how to relate to Brock. Ash has become her male BFF, like a school mate (Pearlshippers, forgive me, but I'm just dealing with cannon here), but Brock is far enough from her own age that she doesn't have a "template" to work from in relating to him. Brock is so low-key that he takes his cue from her and doesn't try to interact more than Dawn seems to wish. But mark my words: if Dawn is someday in distress (physical or emotional) and Ash is unable to help her for some reason, Brock will go into Big Brother mode faster than Clark Kent dons his red and blue jammies.
 
Lil Brother said:
Without a doubt, Brock and Dawn don't have that much of a relationship. With Ash/Misty/Brock, Ash/Misty/Tracey and Ash/May/Max/Brock, it felt like everyone on the team had a unique relationship. (Well, Misty's and Tracey's friendship only really came into play years later in Chronicles- presumably because they were the only two non-main cast twerps at the time- but it was still there.) But Brock and Dawn... just don't have any real spark. She and Ash seemed to have bonded pretty quickly and even have their own friendship signature with the high fives, but she only seems to interact with Brock whenever Ash is busy with whatever else.
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Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. I know most people agree that the original trio had the closest friendship of any of the groups, but I also thought the AG group kind of felt like a family. Not just because May/Max were siblings, but also because Ash looked after them and then Brock looked after Ash. Each character looked after the one who was younger, which is what I liked about that group.

That said I do enjoy Ash and Dawn's interactions, its just a shame Brock seems so detached from Dawn and even Ash nowadays.
 
I agree wholly with the AG relationship. It did have good chemistry, including the annoying little twerp.

Ash and Dawn's is different, because we didn't have something like this before. Again, the word "equality" is throwing through here. But because this is so centered, Brock is slowly but steadily being shoved to the side.
 
I don't know about off-screen, but I do agree that Hikari and Takeshi have very small interactions since they met.

(*=marking these because of spoilers)

*I said off-screen because Hikari cooked those pancakes in that sick Pachirisu episode where she learned that from Takeshi*

Yes, there's the Summer School arc and the shopping as mentioned, but they weren't major or anything. They didn't even converse, outside of what they see. Seems Hikari isn't much interested in him than she is with Satoshi, which has a unique spark from their interactions many times during the DP series.

Satoshi is growing up so I would feel he no longer needs Takeshi outside of food and perhaps navigation. Even then, I would like to see more independence for Satoshi.
 
JB88 said:
Oh, he's not bad at them.
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Have you forgotten that he got through an appeal with a crying flowerpot?

I agree that Brock and Down don't bond much onscreen, but Brock udoubtably considers them a family.
 
Wow, I never really thought about it...now it's going to be bugging me. XD I guess they're phasing Brock out. Which I wouldn't really like, but yeah, that's not the topic...hum...
 
I think this really all ties into the whole "Pokemon centered" direction of the new series. In the old series, it was about the relationships between people and Pokemon, which is why everybody seemed like friends. I liked it much better myself.
 
Mooites said:
I think this really all ties into the whole "Pokemon centered" direction of the new series. In the old series, it was about the relationships between people and Pokemon, which is why everybody seemed like friends. I liked it much better myself.
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You sure about this? I'm pretty sure they only focused on the relationships between the human characters. Pokémon only received characterization if they happened to be a popular species, like Pikachu or the starters. If you were just a sidekick's Pokémon that weren't these, then you don't get much screentime.
 
I know. Im meant that in the older series, the humans had a larger focus on the show. The poster pokemon had their time, but most of it was Ash and co. growing up and learning about the world. Then being a master of course.

Now, its about training. and contests. and? not much else that I see. Its not really about the main characters personally anymore, so that why I think theres less of a focus on thier friendship.
 
Mooites said:
I know. Im meant that in the older series, the humans had a larger focus on the show. The poster pokemon had their time, but most of it was Ash and co. growing up and learning about the world. Then being a master of course.

Now, its about training. and contests. and? not much else that I see. Its not really about the main characters personally anymore, so that why I think theres less of a focus on thier friendship.
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It could be argued that the earlier seasons was all about "catching them all". Besides, the focus on the human characters in the early seasons was to introduce and develop said human characters. Later seasons can't exactly reproduce this because well... the characters have already been introduced. Not a whole lot more can be done to develop them. We already know about Ash as a character. Thus, the focus has been shifted towards the main girl. Brock's also been developed to the point where we know all about him and how he works.

Besides, most kids watch the anime because it of the Pokémon. Not nessacarily because of the human characters. The writers are really only writing to them.
 
Mooites said:
I think this really all ties into the whole "Pokemon centered" direction of the new series. In the old series, it was about the relationships between people and Pokemon, which is why everybody seemed like friends. I liked it much better myself.
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Well in DP you feel like Ash and Dawn are the only characters that care about one another, and there's this "other guy" who is there too.

Its very bothersome that Dawn and Brock don't seem to connect at all.
 
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