Dawn's reason to travel with Ash/Brock...artificial?

[Cybersai]

Excluding real-life show reasons as to why she's here:

Does it feel to anyone else as if Dawn has no real reason to be traveling with Ash/Brock? A lot of the time when I'm watching DP, it feels as if Dawn should be traveling on her own doing her contests independently of Ash's journey.

The only reason she tagged along with them to start with is because they were heading to Sandgem town and she agreed. Otherwise, it feels as if Dawn's interactions with the main group (and with Brock especially), are artificial. Its almost as if the writers didn't bother to make good chemistry between Dawn and Brock, simply because they now know the main cast is temporary.

Its for the same reasons Tracey felt tacked on. The guy invited himself into the group simply because he wanted to meet Prof. Oak, not for any other reason. May and Max on the other hand, were very nicely integrated into the main cast and it made sense to see Ash take them under his wing, at least at the start.

Granted its more or less expected that Dawn will break away from the group at the end of this generation, but it feels that unlike May who needed to travel with an experienced trainer, Dawn has no real reason she couldn't have gone off alone. Does the DP trio feel artificial for this reason?

 

[TheArsenalRisen]

Yes.

 

[Piplup]

And if Dawn's relationship with Ash/Brock were similar to May, people would complain it's too similar
Ash and Dawn seem to me like brother/sister best friends
Brock... it's not like he really was anything special with May either... at least Dawn had one ep that proved how much she learned from Brock and thanks to him won Mamo's trust

 

[dman_dustin]

While Dawn might not have much chemistry with Brock, I think she more than makes up for it with Ash.

 

[Insanish Danish]

Artificial is the exact word I use to describe it, actually. I never understood why people think Ash and Dawn have such a close friendship--in my eyes it seems very forced. And Dawn and Brock barely have a friendship at all. Unlike Misty and May, who bonded extremely well with Ash and Brock and really seemed like they were all best friends, I really don't get that vibe from Dawn. She's just there.

 

[dman_dustin]

Artificial is the exact word I use to describe it, actually. I never understood why people think Ash and Dawn have such a close friendship--in my eyes it seems very forced. And Dawn and Brock barely have a friendship at all. Unlike Misty and May, who bonded extremely well with Ash and Brock and really seemed like they were all best friends, I really don't get that vibe from Dawn. She's just there.

I disagree and while I don't want to bring shipping into this, but I get the feeling Dawn cares more about Ash than Misty or May ever did. While Misty was in her own right different, there is on screen proof that Dawn cares about Ash.

Just a couple of examples:

In Maylene's Debut- Dawn admitted she wonders if her Contests are holding Ash back.

In DP133- When Ash is feeling upset when all his Pokémon are badly injured he runs off and Dawn tries to follow him, but is stopped by Brock. In order to cheer up Ash after his confidence goes down, Dawn puts on a show for him. Ash didn't know why Dawn was doing the show at first, but Nurse Joy whispered to him that she was doing it to make him and his Pokémon feel better.

Misty nor May was ever like this. Misty may have liked Ash but she seemed to only care about Ash only when he was hurt. May didn't seem that great with Ash also. And here Dawn is worrying about Ash in really odd places. When she loses a contest, she doesn't worry about herself but Ash. And when Ash loses the full battle she genuinely wants him to feel better.

Maybe Misty would do that, but May, not a chance.

 

[Ampharos King]

The circumstances that Dawn met Ash/Brock were artificial to me.

My guess is that Dawn would rather travel in a group than go alone considering that she was a beginner. She's more comfortable to travel with Ash and Brock than alone.

I'd say Dawn cares somewhat of Ash (somewhat more than May, but less than Misty).

 

[Chatsy]

Seriously?

I really think the group has a nice dynamic. Of course they weren't as close to begin with, for example Dawn always slept either in the tent away from Ash and Brock or generally not that close to them (I personally found that hilarious. Like Dawn's saying "I KNOW you guys'd do something dirty to me when I sleep!") That's a whole other story now, though. She pays close attention to Brock's tutoring and they generally seem to heave a realistic relationship especially considering their age gap. I disagree that they have a lack of chemistry.

EDIT: One can't forget their epic little moment here either:

XD

It was rather sudden that Dawn asked if she and the boys could travel together, but I don't think it's artificial. If she got along with Pikachu, thought Ash and Brock were pretty cool (I remember she was very intrigued with Brock's profession as a Pokémon Breeder) and saw the chance to go with them, I'd pretty much say it's realistic.
If anything, tagging along with someone because they broke your bike seems extremely artificial unless you're incredibly poor and have nothing better to do. :]

 

[Snake Bandage]

Well, I understand why Dawn joined Ash and Brock - she's not the kind of person who would like traveling alone. But her interaction with Ash and Brock definitely feels forced. Hell, I don't know if you can really call what she has with Brock "interaction".

Someone in the thread mentioned Tracey... it's true that he practically forced Ash and Misty to take him with them, but they both grew very comfortable with him very fast. Ash and Misty's interaction with Tracey and vice-versa felt much more natural than the interaction of Ash and Brock with Dawn and vice-versa.

 

[Musashi]

Where's the option "No, they're just as close as any of the other groups"? Because that's what it feels like to me. Hikari's reason for tagging along was lame, but I don't see how they're any less close than the others. I think the Takeshi/Hikari interaction is fine as well.

 

[Crimson-Ninetales]

The best trio of friends for me will always remain Ash, Misty & Brock. The worst thing the writers of the show ever did was write Misty out of the travelling group. That being said, I love Dawn a hell of a lot more than I EVER cared for May.

 

[Cybersai]

I honestly think Dawn has better interactions with Barry than anyone else, and this is including her regular rivals.

 

[Musashi]

Everyone has great interaction with Jun, so that's not really a fair comment. Jun makes everyone better.

 

[Mijzelffan]

yeah. It's probably that we all got used to having a fourth character (Max) and then it suddenly went back to three.

 

[Aestivate]

Artificial is the exact word I use to describe it, actually. I never understood why people think Ash and Dawn have such a close friendship--in my eyes it seems very forced. And Dawn and Brock barely have a friendship at all. Unlike Misty and May, who bonded extremely well with Ash and Brock and really seemed like they were all best friends, I really don't get that vibe from Dawn. She's just there.

This.
Although I will agree it seems like Sato and Hika have a good friendship, it's too amiable. That's why it seems so forced, because there's not really much reality in the relationship.
They don't fight, they don't disagree, and they're always doing their own thing while Takeshi is left making love to Kojiro.
The friendship feels really strange and -almost- fake.


And yes I do agree to the statement that JUN MAKES EVERYTHING/EVERYONE BETTER

 

[Nidogod]

I have to say that Ash's friendship with Dawn seems unrealistic at times. To the point where sometimes I wonder if Ash might be partially faking it a little (probably not).

 

[Sushi]

From a viewer's perspective, it might be a bit disappointing that the writers haven't included some profound link between the characters which basically forced their union, but seriously, I find it much more realistic that Dawn just tagged along because she wanted to.

Ash and Brock were the ones present during the first peril she got herself into as a beginning Trainer, and I think that alone creates some special connection between the three of them. Just like Misty only bothered to change her opinion about that bike-stealing brat Ash because she knew the kind of trouble he went through then.

As for the group dynamic, I really don't see anything wrong with it. The very first trio might have had the best chemistry, but I think they just had an advantage with the fact that the characters themselves were all new and the writers were playing around with them to present them as likeable people.

For instance, I think the AG group (especially in Battle Frontier) was the most "botched", if you can even call it that. It started out great, much better than the original group, but in BF, everyone seemed to be doing his own thing.

May seemed incredibly detached from the others by the end of AG, Brock...well, I guess he might do the same thing now if he was asked again, but something that struck me was how in that Contest he entered, he instantly agreed to go with Yuma without hesitation, without thinking about his friends even once. He might be a love dork, but that shocked me nevertheless. Ash was the same as always, and Max really seemed to be the only one who really wished to keep them all together.

Ash/Dawn/Brock don't even come close to showing that sort of indifference toward each other.

 

[PDL]

I suppose the reason why there isn't much development between the human characters is because the show seems to be far more focused on the relationships between trainers and their Pokémon. At this point, We already have a general idea on what kind of characters Ash, Brock, Jessie, James and Meowth are.

Develop them any more and you'll probably end up with a personality that may be undesirable from a writing perspective. You'll then either be forced to write for a character you might not like or you'll have to backpedal. It's kinda like what happened to Misty during Jotho.

Plus with Dawn being the relative newbie, it's hard to incorparate a character like that with characters that have been around for more then 10 years (4-7 in May's case).

At least the relationship between Dawn and May manages to be relavent since they're both coordinators and all.

It's generally hard to write for a Cousin Oliver when the rest of the cast has so much history with eachother.

 

[Cybersai]

I think Lil Brother said it best in another thread, most of the shows current cast have been around for 12 years, whereas Dawn feels incredibly shoe-horned into the Ash/Brock circle. Its almost as if the writers said, "She's the token new girl for the 4th generation, she doesn't need any major reason to travel with Ash/Brock, she's just there, OK!"

On top of that, she's perfectly capable of traveling by herself. May and Max, at least at the start, couldn't and it made perfect sense to also use them as a parallel to Ash's new maturity and growth as an experienced trainer.

With Dawn, I don't feel that at all. It honestly doesn't feel like Ash is this mature or older character anymore, Dawn treats him like an equal rather than being someone to learn from like May and Max did. Its true May started to drift from Ash/Brock toward the end as she got more involved in Contests and with Drew/Harley, but that was for the natural progression of the character and fit very nicely with her character development.

If we had a 4th character in DP like Barry on the group, I think this group would feel much better.

 

[podin]

But doesn't Barry have the same goal like Ash = battling gym leaders and later entering the sinnoh league? Guess that's why Barry isnt't supposed to travel with trio. Unless u meant that we could have a character who would be similar to Barry as regards behaviour, then yes, it would be some kind of variety.