In retrospect, did May seem more like a battler than a coordinator?

[Cybersai]

Since everyone brought up the changes in the DP contests compared to the original ones, what did you think about May's battle style itself?

May generally rarely used contest techniques in her battles, and would almost always go straight for the KO in all her matches. You could arguably say she had the most aggressive battle style of the girls, simply because she's always try to overwhelm her opponent by sheer power rather than technique. The fact that 7 out of 10 of May's Contests victories ended in KO rather than points says a lot in itself.

Even in the series, Brock and Scott of the BF comment on how May's battle style was influenced by watching Ash, and that she really didn't focus on the contest oriented techniques that caused her to lose to Solidad.

Since it makes sense given May had no coordinator background like Dawn did with her mother, May came across as a regular trainer battling in Contests because she knew nothing about contest techniques at the start. Her finale even ended with her trying to figure out a style of coordination that was hers alone.

Do you think May seemed more like a battler than a coordinator?

 

[Masurao]

I thought this was rather obvious.

 

[pokemon_master2]

Maybe because her first goal was to be a trainer like Ash, and only then she changed her mind.
But it's obvious she's not good in regular battles.

 

[BugMite]

I don't know. When she started contests, the appeals were the only thing that she practiced at first. And when she advanced to the second round in Slateport, she got thrashed by Drew and then realized how important the battles were. She was never interested in battles at all at first. Which was why she was hesitant to challenge a gym and got into contests when she realized there was more to Pokemon than battles. Dawn, on the other hand, lost more contests in the appeal round than in battles. So I would actually argue that Dawn was more of the battle-type then May.

Maybe because her first goal was to be a trainer like Ash, and only then she changed her mind.

Not really; she just used Pokemon as an excuse to travel at first.

 

[Stranger]

I think what happened is that it just took the writers a really long time to figure out where they wanted to go with contests. If you look back, it wasn't just May who treated contests more as battles, every AG coordinator was like that.

Even if you would occasionally get a coordinator with a gimmick (like the rock n' roll guy), the core of every contest was battle, not beauty.

Though I just like to consider her gung-ho approach to contests comes from her copying Ash's "attack first, think of a strategy later" battle style. Which neatly ties into her character development, towards the end of the show.

 

[Ranger Jack Walker]

I think what happened is that it just took the writers a really long time to figure out where they wanted to go with contests. If you look back, it wasn't just May who treated contests more as battles, every AG coordinator was like that.

Even if you would occasionally get a coordinator with a gimmick (like the rock n' roll guy), the core of every contest was battle, not beauty.

Though I just like to consider her gung-ho approach to contests comes from her copying Ash's "attack first, think of a strategy later" battle style. Which neatly ties into her character development, towards the end of the show.

Gotta agree with everything you just said.

May may seem more like a battler now but thats because the contest have gotten much better and and only truly became different from battles now.

In AG, only the Appeal Round(Which seemed a lot like both rounds of the RSE contests rolled into one) separted contest from battles. The time limit and points system didn't really separte contests from battles.

 

[Suicide by cop]

Misty=Battler
Dawn=Coordinator
May=In-between

 

[Shinneth]

She never seemed that way to me. Only way I imagine one would get that impression is because of how Contests were portrayed back in AG. But no, May never struck me as someone who excelled in battling alone.

If anything, I think Dawn is the one who seems to be in the gray area. She did an awful lot of battling (even battling a Gym Leader) in D/P that had nothing to do with Contests. That sort of seemed to be one of the more subtle plot points of the early part of the series - Dawn sucking at the Appeal round, but doing just fine in the battles. Iunno, I just don't remember May doing much battling that wasn't Contest-related or just the generic GTFO-Team-Rocket shtick. To me, that was Dawn.

 

[Froakie]

Ever seen 'The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing'? Yeah.

 

[AuraSoul93]

We've gotta remember that she was the 1st ever coordinator as part of the main cast. And in the time that Contests were introduced, it was, atleast in my eyes, experimental. Maybe the writers felt that it would turn fans away by being to different from battling, so they held off on the complicated & diverse moves that we saw in DP & sticked as close as they could to battling with that added hint of flare for Contests. Then, once they were sure the fanbase accepted Contests well enough, they went on adding as much as they could to further show it's differences with battling. May was, IMO, a mix of both a battler & coordinator.

 

[#Daisuke#]

Eh, it seems like May was more in between the two. The fact that the contests in AG weren't really true contests, more like enhanced battles probably took its toll on May. But the more justified fact is that Ash mentored her, of course she was going to use Ash's battle techniques for he contests, even if they were meant for battles. So yeah.

 

[Cascada]

Eh, it seems like May was more in between the two. The fact that the contests in AG weren't really true contests, more like enhanced battles probably took its toll on May. But the more justified fact is that Ash mentored her, of course she was going to use Ash's battle techniques for he contests, even if they were meant for battles. So yeah.

This!!! So much!!!

May was influenced heavily by Ash, and she came before Dawn, so of course Dawn will seem more like a coordinator when the writers have grown up more. Before Dawn, the writers experimented, and took ideas for contests from all the knew, which were regular battles.

 

[Ampharos King]

Yes, because any sole person who does not use an elaborate strategy at the right time and instead attacks recklessly is obviously not a "coordinator..."

Unlike Dawn, May lacked experience in contests, and even with training pokemon for that matter. May was hardly exposed to anything involving the use of pokemon. Dawn came up with several contest appeals with each of the starters before even selecting one. May was halfheartedly entering gym battles, on the premise that she wanted to travel.

May only entered the contests in the first place because she thought that a certain coordinator's pokemon was elegant on stage.

May's battle style was certainly aggressive and reckless, to say the least. If she wasn't ordering her pokemon to attack, May would be looking confused. Ash did play a huge role in shaping May's battle style, and this later cost her the win against Solidad in the Grand Festival.

May rarely uses combinations in battle, her intention is to attack straight-on and to KO her opponent's pokemon before the time limit.

It can't be helped that anime contests were very similar to battles during the better half of Advanced Generation. Outside the appeals and the point system, there was hardly much else that divided the two. There was less emphasis on making a certain attack or combination of attacks looking beautiful back then.

 

[severus6]

It was definitely half and half. She had a couple of good combinations, but I guess having Ash as a mentor really left its mark on her.

 

[Insanish Danish]

Eh, kind of. She does seem like a battler moreso than Dawn especially. But I always thought May was a great coordinator regardless, even if she does use battle techniques a lot.

She WAS the first coordinator to ever be introduced to the show, so you kinda gotta give her some slack for that.

 

[The Puppetmaster]

I think she's in-between.

She barely used combinations, the only ones that I remember were when Beautifly was battling Grace's Medicham and used Gust + Silver Wind + Tackle and when Combusken and Squirtle used Flamethrower + Bubblebeam which was originally Tucker's.

So I'm leaning more towards battler, but she did want to be a coordinator so it's a good thing she left Ash so she could find her own style.

 

[Adamant]

Nowadays, yes, but that's only as a result of the writers changing their vision of what Pokemon Contests should be, then introduced Saori as a character to tell her that, despite all she's accomplished so far, she's being doing everything wrong... never mind the fact that everyone else were apparantly doing it wrong, too.

So in-universe, the answer would rather be that Houen coordinators all really suck at contests and the judges just played along instead of telling everyone in the entire region they didn't have the slightest idea what they were doing.

 

[Cascada]

Eh, kind of. She does seem like a battler moreso than Dawn especially. But I always thought May was a great coordinator regardless, even if she does use battle techniques a lot.

She WAS the first coordinator to ever be introduced to the show, so you kinda gotta give her some slack for that.

This, pretty much!!!

Although I prefered Dawn's plot over May's mostly, simply because with Dawn I was so deeply into her battles, appeals, and even her depression into triumph period, while I only got excited during several moments during May's, ultimately May vs Drew in the Kanto GF. I give May so much credit for introducing contests to the show, and really shaping the show in her own way. She is one of my favorite characters for that, then again so are Misty and Dawn, moreso them tho.

 

[PDL]

So in-universe, the answer would rather be that Houen coordinators all really suck at contests and the judges just played along instead of telling everyone in the entire region they didn't have the slightest idea what they were doing.

That doesn't really make sense in-universe though. It's like saying that everyone in England really sucks at driving because they all drive on the left side of the road rather then the "proper" right side.

It could be argued that that is how contests are done in Hoenn compared to how they are done in Sinnoh... In addition to dressing in fancy clothing and using ball capsules.

But I prefer the out-of-universe explaination better: The writers didn't know how to really differenicate contest battling from regular battling. Adding an appeal round that was pretty meaningless since you needed to purposely screw up big time in order to fail that section. Adding a time limit was a step in the right direction though.

 

[Zwampert]

I think she is both. She did originally want to be a battler, but then used some of those skills in battle.