Does the Best Wishes trio truely have the best chemistry?

Ishida

Ishida

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So recently I've been thinking about this a lot and after watching a few episodes I concluded that the Best Wishes group has a better chemistry than any of the other groups. They actually all seem like friends especially after watching the last episode where Ash got his 8th gym badge.. back in Diamond and Pearl it was mainly about Ash and Dawn and those two were pretty much were the only one's that interacted while Dawn and Brock barely interacted. Hoenn was okay I suppose and I really don't want to get into Kanto or Johto.. but anyway I was wondering do you guys think this group has the best chemistry?
 
The Advanced Generation gang had the best chemistry in my opinion. With Haruka's cheerful energy and Masato's childish innocence the AG group seemed much more happy and supportive of one another than the other groups. The Best Wishes! is a very close second, but without Iris and Dent truly doing something with themselves the sense of togetherness is weak compared to Haruka, Masato, and Takeshi.

The Pocket Monsters and Diamond and Pearl gangs are average. The former had a rocky start with Kasumi's shrill misandric snarks toward Satoshi and Takeshi and Takeshi's irritating sexual desires but soon settled down when Kenji entered the picture and Takeshi stayed with Uchikido-hakase for a while. The Pocket Monsters trio became more reserved through Johto. The Diamond and Pearl trio was just vapid, from start to finish.
 
Only if chemistry consists of Iris calling Ash of child and Cilan of annoying, otherwise, no.
Iris has no reason to travel with Ash and Cilan, she apparently does not like to walk with them, since she gets bored easily with the behavior of both, and she gets anything going with them, she learns nothing from them, and she has proven that she knows how to fend for herself. I do not understand why she travels with them.
And Iris becoming a cheerleader when Ash or Cilan are battling could not be more generic, the transition between "You're such a kid!" and "Go, Ash, Go!" is anything but natural.
 
While i like BW trio and their interaction, they don't have synergy and same amount of entertainment value like some other groups had. Iris teasing toward Ash seems mostly on sided, and there lacks much of relationship between her and Cilan to warrant being put on top when it comes to interaction.

Ash,Misty and Brock are still group with most chemistry this show had imo.They had great dynamic bringing lot of humor and memorable moments as group with interaction being natural and unforced between them. You could really notice they felt like genuine group of friends pursuing different dreams while developing strong bond with each other feeling like family. I remember Misty even said that once having hard time to split up after Johto.From Ash's naivete and stupidity,to Misty's sarcastic remarks and funny moments of anger and caring side acting as push for Ash to be better when doubting in him to Brock's figure of being like older brother to them providing his knowledge and tips in needed situations.
Great personalities,interesting chemistry and feeling of being like close friends are characteristics which made first group so great in my opinion.Out of all females Brock also worked best with Misty around having several things in common sharing mutual conversations about romance showing great deal of care for their friends.
From Kanto to end of Johto i still prefer first group liking their gradual change and development bonding nicely as friends who went on adventure knowing each other well for a long time.
 
I like the BW trio's chemistry, although I do think Iris has the least attachment to Ash than any of the other girl characters.

You can really tell that Misty/May/Dawn did genuinely feel like friends with him, but Iris is only just now warming up to him.
 
I do not think that the BW trio has the best chemistry when only two out of three people actually feel like friends. Like Mikuri mentioned, Iris doesn't really have much positive interactions with either Ash or Cilan to make me believe that they're all good friends. It really doesn't help that she has no reason to be traveling around with them and she's clearly not learning anything from being on this journey with them. Ash and Cilan do bounce off of each others' personalities pretty well and they do seem like pretty good friends. It's mainly the problems with Iris that prevents me from seeing this as a trio with good chemistry, let alone the best. I do remember thinking that they had chemistry at the beginning of the series, but after a few episodes, I realized that it wasn't so much chemistry between them as it was just seeing something different with Brock not being in a traveling group. I also wouldn't really count Iris being the generic cheerleader for Ash during his battles as a genuine sign of friendship mainly due to how it doesn't really feel that genuine as a result of her interactions with Ash.

I don't know if this would be my least favorite traveling group, although I wouldn't be surprised if it does become that by the end of the series, but it really doesn't have anything outstanding going on as a whole for me at this point.
 
I have a lot of theories as to why BW seems to have the closest bond to a lot of people, one of them being its juxtaposition to the DP group, which is arguably the least compatible group (though, that's up for interpretation as well) and the general likability of the characters.

As to reasons why the BW group DOESN'T seem to have good chemistry are the following:
----All three of them have very different goals
----The social support is not consistent — it only arises in the most "generic" events like tournaments, battles etc
----Iris is too rude to both Cilan and Ash
----Each character seems to stand REALLY strongly on their own...there's really no mentor/student relationships as they were in the past (Misty and Brock to Ash, Ash to May and Max, Ash and Dawn to each other, equally).

With those stated, I want to remind you guys that friendships come in all different shapes and sizes and to judge them from on outward perspective is a bit limiting (but necessary, considering...well, they're fictional characters...) Let me shed some light on this with my own personal relationships.

There is a person in my immediate group of friends who always seems to be putting people down. You can say that she's the "snark" of the group, always critical of people's actions and face-palming left and right at all of our crazy antics.

Does this mean that she's not welcome in our group? Does it mean that we don't have good "chemistry" with each other? On the contrary, she's one of my closest friends and we know that no matter how harsh her demeanor might be at times, she's well-intentioned and really cares about the cohesiveness of the group.

Another one of my friends, also in the same group, is basically a muted version of Cilan. He's fabulous, compassionate and a bit annoying at times. Yes, this guy and the snarky girl DO get into arguments and they DO have clashing personalities, but when it comes down to it, they're extremely close because of all the hardships and experiences they had together.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think we tend to focus too much on whether or not the group is amicable towards each other, on how "friendly" they seem, but in real life, friendships are not all butterfree and sunflora...there can be conflict, turbulence and disagreements, but what it all boils down to are the moments you spent in each other's company and how they made you bond with each other in spite of the hardships.

I think that the BW group, especially in lieu of the latest episode, is definitely on its way to becoming a supportive and engaging group. Each character bounces well off of another (the key is that a reaction is spurred, even if it's not lasting) and they are brimming with personality. I remember at the beginning of the series I likened them to a nuclear family, where Iris and Cilan were the parents and Ash was the child that they both had to look after XD Each connection gets more or less equal attention in the fanbase, which really says something about the dynamics presented within the group (how many discussions did you see about Dawn/Brock or Ash/Max?).

tl;dr: I love my BW bbs, even if the story gets a bit muddied at times, I cannot ignore the strong backbone the writers gave for their personalities, and in theory (if not already in canon), they are an excellent and entertaining group <3
 
I again Have to agree with the notion that the group has poor chemistry because Iris doesn't feel comfortable. She is always putting others down and the "duality" between Iris and Cilan rarely comes up and is rather unentertaining and generic. Iris doesn't feel like she belongs from a goal standpoint either much like Misty allow me to explain. Okay here's the line up: Ash is just your average shonen trainer but with skill he got big dreams and nack for league competition, Then there's Cilan who is Sommelier he's studies the relationship between Trainer and Pokemon he travels with Ash to study him, then Iris who is training to become a dragon master... cept she only goes where Ash goes so traveling doesn't really help her... uuuuuuh . See how that doesn't work? I mean it was okay with Dawn and May cause they were contest scattered like they are gyms scattered. But all the stops need to make are complete unknown where could Iris go we don't know cause Iris isn't going there. Why was she even in Nuvema town couldn't she find a mentor or something okay maybe she gets mentored after she evolved Axew(I forgot that was implied or stated right?) but then why leave the village? Because she needed help with Excadrill!? Except she didn't seek out that help. Maybe it was for contests like the don battles and fun like musical? Again she wasn't directly seeking out things like that she stumbled on to them. The problem is unlike Ash or Dawn or debately Cilan. Iris doesn't have defined short term goals or any freaking direction on what to become a dragon master. So not only the dynamic fail because it doesn't make sense for her to be traveling with Ash it barely makes sense for her to be traveling in the first place. Again in DP it worked because Dawn had a reason for traveling with Ash her mom wanted her safe. Misty had a reason she wanted her bike back but then got wraped up in Ash's journey. May was still scared of Pokemon. These reason allow the relationships to evolve but it does feel right with Iris because there was no begining she's just there. It would be interesting if Iris had some reason that forced traveling with Ash yet didn't want to. That would actually would have prevented my Iris hate because Iris is Ash's friend but rude yet in the condition I outlined you wouldn't be expected to like her she would be an antangonist to certain extent that would be chemistry.
 
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It's good that the BW trio is reportedly gelling well in these recent episodes, but on those merits alone I wouldn't call it the group with the best chemistry. Reasons why were already covered; mostly that Iris wrecks a lot of the potential for a true group harmony due to her overwhelmingly negative attitude, lack of interest in getting involved in her companions' ordeals, and extremely weak reason for even being in the group while offering no real function as a member of the group. The group had its good moments in the Nimbasa City arc, too, but that didn't really carry over afterwards, so a good moment popping up again is something I'll accept with caution for now. But really, it shouldn't take over 80 episodes for a group to finally mesh well together anyway.

The AG group blows BW's out of the water in every possible way besides the Cilan factor. That's the group that truly came off as a close family where the bickerings were amusing and cleverly-done rather than forced, generic, and a chore to sit through. And they truly felt like friends, with dynamics that slowly changed as the series progressed. When BW's dynamics change, it seems to be rather abrupt and coming out of left field, which makes me ask myself "Is this real?" before I actually enjoy it. I shouldn't need to be asking myself questions like that when the group actually functions like a true group of friends like they were supposed to from day one.

So no, I find it's not the best. Even if these good changes stick, odds are I won't ever feel that it's the best group.
 
I think its peoples own bias against Iris that taints their opinion on the BW trio. I strongly believe that had Iris, "What a kid," catchphrase never existed, people wouldn't be complaining about her as much.

Honestly the catch phrase was a bad idea and was the original start of some peoples negative opinions on Iris. I think they're toning it down finally so people can get over it.
 
Gliscor'd said:
I think its peoples own bias against Iris that taints their opinion on the BW trio. I strongly believe that had Iris, "What a kid," catchphrase never existed, people wouldn't be complaining about her as much.

Honestly the catch phrase was a bad idea and was the original start of some peoples negative opinions on Iris. I think they're toning it down finally so people can get over it.
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It's more to do with a lack of "back, and forth". Rarely do Ash, or Cilan respond to Iris. Whereas in OS, for example, it had the back, and forth..whether it be Ash/Misty, Misty/Brock, or even Ash/Brock on ocassion.
 
The BW trio is probably my least favourite group to date. BW Ash is a shadow of his former self, he lacks the hilarious and immature moments from the Kanto series that caused many heated arguments with the other characters or the maturity and experience of AG/DP Ash that made his interactions with May, Max and Dawn interesting. Despite that, he's still a likable character and works well enough with Cilan, but the group dynamics are almost ruined by Iris. Even this far in BW, I'm still wondering why anyone would want to be her friend, and although she doesn't complain about the other two quite as much as she used to, her attitude hasn't really changed at all, making her rare moments of kindness feel completely forced. The occasional scenes with Ash & Iris happily eating food together certainly aren't going to make me forget the times she insulted him or Cilan for no reason. I would honestly enjoy BW more if the main group were just Ash & Cilan; I was able to really get into the episode where they caught Palpitoad & Stunfisk without her around..

My favourite group has to be the AG group. Firstly, there was no miserable and unpleasant character like Misty or Iris around to bring the mood down, which is instantly a huge plus. All of the characters felt like friends and had fun interactions with each other: after many years of watching Ash as the rookie trainer, it was fantastic to finally see him become such a great trainer, and seeing him teach the beginning trainer May and the book-smart-but-inexperienced Max about the world of Pokemon cemented this. Brock was starting to seem a bit left out by this point, and I can't remember anything between him and May, but his partnership with fellow brain-box Max was cute and gave the exposition during battles more spice. Max could also be very critical of Ash and May when they messed up, but it usually felt justified, and even when it didn't, I could forgive him for being a brat because he was indeed very young. Sure, there were sad times, there were times when they argued, but you knew they would stick together through thick and thin, no matter what stood in their way. It's embarrassing that BW can't achieve the same with three characters what AG could with four.
 
I think the DP trio might have been interesting if Cilan were there with Dawn. Dawn and Cilan are actually similar characters in some ways, I'm really looking forward to them interacting in BW.
 
They do not have the best Chemistry.
Ash is called a kid because of his attitude, but it IS his attitude that we have been watching for years. Iris will have to accept that.
Iris traveling with Ash is for no reason, he have nothing to do with her goal to become a Dragon Master. Or she have such sixth sense that told her that she will meet a Dragonite in the future or meet Cynthia's Garchomp?
Dent just ain't that funny, his "It's _____ Time!" is getting overused. He commented about the taste of Ash's battle everytime his battle ends, but I rather him congratulate him or encourage him for the next battle.
Yes, they have some good chemistry moments, but overall, their goals are too far away and they really did not help each other in their goal. Although DP has the worst chemistry as Ash, Dawn and Brock are remembered more as an individual than a team, but Dawn's ideas of developing Contest-Styled or improvised moves helped Ash a lot, so did Dawn learned that Eating Energy Ball trick with Mamoswine's Ice Shard. They really need to help out each other by giving ideas or something.
 
I don't think the BW trio has the best chemistry, but I feel like it's slightly better than the DP group. Ash and Dawn were like best buddies, Ash and Brock were like best buddies, but I didn't feel that way with Dawn and Brock. They seemed more like acquaintances to me, honestly. At times, I felt like Brock was the awkward third wheel and just not necessary for that group, whereas Iris and Cilan do interact some of the time (even if it's because Iris is being negative towards him).

The AG group had the best chemistry, IMO. No one felt like they were just awkwardly following along. I think the group of four worked pretty well, since no one was off by themselves if they were ever split up.
 
Another aspect of the BW trio is since Ash is the primary star of the show again, both Iris and Cilan feel like equal sidekicks. Its similar to the original trio where Ash's quest is the only real active storyline.

So they're both mostly interacting with each other over Ash, similar to the way Misty/Brock felt like close friends back in the day.
 
I think Cilan and Ash are great together, but Iris seems kind of like a third wheel in the trio to me. Honestly, I think that Ash/Misty/Tracey had the best chemistry, because they just came across as the most natural-sounding together. And that's followed by Ash/May/Max/Brock.
 
FinalArcadia said:
I think Cilan and Ash are great together, but Iris seems kind of like a third wheel in the trio to me. Honestly, I think that Ash/Misty/Tracey had the best chemistry, because they just came across as the most natural-sounding together. And that's followed by Ash/May/Max/Brock.
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I think its funny the way people often forget or never bring up the Ash/Misty/Tracey group.

Although Misty and Tracey seemed closer in the specials than when they were on the group. Half the Misty specials have Tracey in them mopping the floor of Cerulean Gym for some reason.
 
Yeah, that group seems to get pushed aside, I guess because it was only a one season group. Tracey seems to get ignored a lot anyway. Unfortunately...

I do have to agree that they seemed closer in the specials. But even outside of those, they seemed to have organic interactions with each other, which I personally found the best chemistry-wise.
 
Personally, I like the BW group. I feel that they have decent chemistry and very friendly towards one another, despite Iris's (comedic, imo) snark and Dento's flamboyance. They all seem to interact with each other compared to the DP group, which, imo had very bad chemistry. Hikari and Takeshi didn't seem to interact with one another at all. It came across as its being mostly Hikari and Satoshi. To me, the current BW group has kind of a Kanto feel to it. Yes, I wish the BW group would bicker or something (like the early Kanto group), but I think it's okay.

Unfortunately, I can't give an opinion on the AG group, but I would assume that with the addition of Haruka and Masato, that it would've worked out. Nice and even since Takeshi was a mentor to Masato and Satoshi was a mentor, in a way, to Haruka. I have seen a maybe an ep of AG and Haruka seemed to interact with everyone. It didn't have a DP feel, but it's difficult to determine that from just like one or two raw eps years ago.

As for the OI group, I really really liked (and still favor) Kenji's character. He was a breath of fresh air, but since he wasn't around for very long, I don't think he had much of an opportunity for his chemistry to be determined or strengthened. I don't feel that group had a lot of good chemistry together. Back then, though, my ideal group was Takeshi and Kenji and Satoshi and Kasumi. I feel that group would've had some nice chemistry.
 
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