Of the main cast, who gotten the most and least development?

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MetroLSD

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Who received the most/least character development between Ash, Tracey, Brock, Misty, May, Max, Dawn, Iris and Cilan?
 
Ash, Tracey, Brock, Misty, May, Max, Dawn, Iris and Cilan?

Let's see, this is gonna be a hard question to answer, so I'll start off with the least. Tracey and Cilan have gotten no character development at all in the anime thus far, no character development is not taking a weak Pokemon and raising it into a strong Pokemon. Character development is just that, "characters developing" changing and molding into something a bit more different then they were before. Tracey didn't develop at a character at all during his time on the show, Cilan hasn't either. So, I think in order from least to greatest they're on equal footing in the least part.

When it comes to who has the most, I really want to say Ash or May. I would have to possibly say Ash, he went from an immature-acting guy who constantly spat insults and got into scraps with Misty and just was straight forward to a guy thinks before he acts and truly does act mature. Like for example, when Paul and Trip would constantly put down Ash he would never insult bad in the same way he did with Gary. When it came to Gary, at the Johto League it shows how far Gary and Ash have come as rivals and how they somewhat respect each other at that point. Gary isn't nearly as immature either.

May at a character changed and grew overtime, you get a sense of true maturity in her character since she started out as a trainer, again, character development isn't "taking your Pokemon and evolving them and making them stronger" it's change and growth. We saw that with May deeply, like her originally setting out to do gym battles but deciding Contest were her thing by seeing Janelle(iirc) in a Contest. There also was her forcing Bulbasaur into a contest battle she wasn't gonna win due to being a fairly new Pokemon, her being portrayed as arrogant, and then learning that she didn't quite understand her Pokemon's feelings and was in the wrong pretty much.

Max didn't really get any significant character development, though overtime you get a sense of him warming up to Ash and in the 5th gym where he took the badge away from Ash, he learned that losing isn't the end of the world. This inevitable development was foreshadowed with Max refusing to tell Ash what Pokemon his father uses and Max rooting for his dad the whole battle instead of Ash. This contrast so much with May and Brock who root for Ash the whole time, you can definitely tell her grew some from a bit of a bratty kid.

Er....Dawn. Dawn didn't really develop as a character, she's pretty much the same girl from before when she started her journey. Getting on to what I mean, Dawn's famed "Spirit Breaking Arc." where she loses her confidence after a string of loses. Well, Dawn never really changed. She lost, lost, lost, got her confidence back after a some interactions with Zoey and Maylene and went on to win the Wallace Cup. The thing is, despite this Dawn's character wasn't affected in the sense where she truly changed. I mean if you have a glass of water that's half full, drink some of it and fill it back up to half there's no real significant change in the sense of it getting fuller now is there? She was beaten down and got right back up to where she was. I mostly think her lack of development is due to those around her because all of Dawn's rivals, Kenny, Zoey, Nando, Ursula are unchanging characters themselves and can't inspire change in Dawn in the same way Drew did with May. Dawn did put what she learned to use when Pachirisu was sick in her situation with Mamoswine, but this isn't really character development because Dawn's character still didn't change nor did the medicine or Mamoswine situation really transform a fraction of her.

Next up, Iris, she so far has gotten some upper middle half development. In episode one she starts off as a trainer who doesn't exactly respect Ash, in his first gym she doesn't care if he loses too badly. In Gym eight she's full out cheering her head off for him to win and she's developed and grown respect for him in that regard. In Drill Buster episode, she learned to understand her Pokemon's feelings better and she learned Ice-type Pokemon aren't the devil's minions and couldn't believe she was being "saved by an Ice-type". She later on puts the learning to understand her Pokemon's feelings better to use with Dragonite. In similar regard to Gary and Ash, she's grown some respect for Georgia as has Georgia for her. The latter's was mostly portrayed in the Clubsplosion.

Brock and Misty, they're tricky. You can tell Misty mellowed out as she got Togepi and learned to be a bit more motherly and less temperamental, however that change in her character is sort of thrown out the window when she screams at a baby Marill for taking too long to use its hearing to find its trainer. I think her development is mostly showcased after she left the show. In AG she wasn't screaming her head off and seemed to have matured since she left as well as in Chronicle's "The Blue Badge of Courage". She also somewhat learned to accept Psyduck or at least tolerate him compared to the times before where she screamed at him and would hit him often. She also never had a scrap with Ash in all of AG iirc.

Brock, he hasn't gotten huge boisterous development but Happiny and Bonsly showed how far he had come in raising baby Pokemon and at the end of his run where he finally becomes a Doctor is where I feel is his biggest moment of character development. He didn't have an answer toward helping Pichu and couldn't do a thing until Nurse Joy arrived, if Happiny hadn't evolved than Pichu might have perished. This experience seemed to shake him and make him realize he does have to really learn more medically and he turns his attention from being a Pokemon Breeder to being a Doctor.

In order, I would say it's:

1.Ash
2.May
3.Iris
4.Misty/Max
5.Brock
6.Dawn
7.Cilan/Tracey
 
Personally, I don't think any other character comes close to having the amount of character development that May got. She started out not even liking Pokemon, being more interested in travelling and shopping than battling. She didn't start out with any sort of preconceived goal like Dawn or Misty did, but found what captivated her interests along her journey. She built up her confidence slowly but surely, hit her stride, got overconfident and knocked down a few pegs. Great rivals also really helped give impetus for her to improve, even the one shot characters. Something else that is often overlooked is how her relationship with Max changed over the course of AG, in the beginning they squabbled a lot, and she saw him as an annoying know it all. But later on she learned how he envied her, and they grew a lot closer by the end of the series. She also developed a more nurturing side over the course of the series, which culminated in the Manaphy movie. Her development still seems the best to me, because of how multi-dimensional it was.

I'm reluctant to compare Tracey to the rest of the main characters since we was on the show for such a short time, so next to him, I'd have to say the character with the least development is Dent. As entertaining as he can be, Dent is a largely static character; his talents as a sommelier have never really been contested, if I remember right none of his tastings have been proven wrong since he joined the group. I think much of the problem stems from his rather shaky raison d'etre; he apparently wants to learn from Ash to become a better sommelier. But so far, it's mostly been a one way street in the opposite direction, which makes sense since he's supposed to be the knowledgeable one in the group (not that BW Ash has much knowledge to impart anyway). I think making him an A-Class sommelier from the outset and letting him triumph so easily in sommeliering over Cabernet and Pinot Noir were bad choices, I wish someone could trump him at tasting so he'd have a real motivation to improve. Like Brock he's mostly been sidelined as comic relief and Mr Exposition, it would be nice if we didn't have to wait until the end of his run to see him develop like his predecessor.
 
When talking about most developed characters decision comes down to either Ash, May, Misty or Dawn.

Let start with Ash. He was brash, impulsive and full of himself often rushing without thinking which got him in troubles more often than not. However with time he learned how to be more calm, collected and mature slowly exploring what kind of battling style suits him the most. He learned how to better understand his own pokemon realizing whats best for them. We can see that in several examples(like leaving Charizard at Charicific Valley knowing whats best for him, working with his pokemon like Treecko, Corphish or Gliscord teaching them how to overcome issues).

He began to learn from his mistakes, develop more strategic approach toward battles with Misty, Brock or May leaving lot of influence on him. Perhaps biggest emphasize on his maturity starting to grow up was exploited in Hoenn when for first time he didn't needed so much help from others becoming enough knowledgeable ad patient to start performing mentor role to May helping her about basics and how to adapt to contests.
This was further expanded in Sinnoh where he became even more levelheaded and smart starting to combine his own battle style with techniques he saw from others, with arrival of rival like Paul challenging his own methodology of training pokemon being treated like your friends and skills, putting to test everything he learned until that point. It brought doubts within Ash character starting to be more open minded toward different methods other trainers use, even if he may not agree with them which resulted in starting to respect Paul strategy. His battling abilities and skills got refined and more profound making name for himself in several regions he was in with culmination happening in Sinnoh league when he was 2 inches away from winning it.

In Unova eh its sort of miss and hit. Sometimes he has moments of maturity acting like same Ash we used to watch in AG and DP, while at times hes just plain idiot acting childish resembling his younger self from earlier days. Its mixed bag at this point.

Next its tie between Misty and May in personality/character sense. That being said, since she grew a lot in goal sense, and changed slightly more than Misty i have to put her in second place.

May started out as girl which didn't cared much for pokemon or battling in general just wanting to travel the world, She didn't knew what she really wants from life and she didn't wanted to follow father foot steps either not seeing herself in that field, with time starting to become interested in contests and growing to like pokemon being willing to get over many wrong prejudices she formed about them in beginning. Her development as coordinator had its ups and downs having to work hard experiencing several harsh loses adding realism to her quest. You could tell Ash influenced her training style quite alot serving as her mentor with time Mays character beginning to realize how she is too reliant on his help deciding how its time to move on and establish her own style as coordinator which was best showed in Wallace Cup.

Next is Misty.
She didn't developed much in goal sense, but reason i decided to include her in list of most developed characters is because she grew a lot as person. She had to grow up without parents in sisters shadow, having to prove herself to everyone and work hard for everything she accomplished.
When Ash met her, she was short tempered girl exploding over everything, trying to cover up her own lack of confidence with temper not having much thrust toward anyone and giving out impression how she can take care of things on her own eve when that wasn't true. With time after she got know Ash and Brock better she started to soften up and open as person sharing with them her backstory and problems, gradually growing in more mature and level headed character which learned how to be more patient and take care of issues by her own not relying so much on her friends anymore which came to expression the most during Johto series and onwards in AG. With more layers being added to character showing various sides to her as series progressed, making her multidimensional.

Which led to some notable character development gaining sisters respect getting over complex of feeling less worthy, getting over long time Gyarados fear, growing as water trainer coming in light of more confident and independent person(top 8 in Whirl Cup, winning Seaking championship, Alto mare race etc kinda confirming that she improved). While keeping her quirky and tomboyish aspect with writers eventually finding right balance between tough and softer side.

Dawn is tricky question to answer. In goal sense admittedly she got most development and i liked way in which Dawn story was foiled out, having to deal with pressure imposed on her by mother and others, having to prove herself to everyone. She started out as overconfident character with several loses making her realize how good name and confidence isn't enough to succeed becoming more humble and down to earth person . Learned to accept advices from others with rivals and friends like Zoey leaving huge influence on her future growth as coordinator starting to take training and practicing much more seriously absorbing every knowledge she gained. She observed what she made wrong learning from mistakes and defeats which resulted in advancing goal step by step ending as runner up at DP Grand Festival.

But as person she didn't really changed much. She was by end of Sinnoh that same eager, optimistic and cheerful character we met when she met Ash for first time. I guess you could say she became more humble not being overconfident so much but in comparison with others that change wasn't especially big. At least imo.

Now for least developed:
There's not much to think over, because its clearly Tracey.
Tracey gets title of most shafted character in history of pokemon series existing for just one measly season never having chance to be developed and make actual story around his character. We never learned anything about his past, he almost never battled, got just one pokemon capture, got no change as person and his career was generic and relatively simple ending up as prof. Oak assistant eventually. Heck he never even changed outfit lol, remaining without update ever since he left cast

Shame because i feel character had potential, but since he was created for wrong reasons, being there only because of potential racial issues writers thought Brock appearance my have cause among western audience caused that writers don't even try . Hence explaining why they never invested into character ditching him very fast. Shortest run out of all companions in series didn't helped either.

Hard to top that really.

Gotpika said:
Brock and Misty, they're tricky. You can tell Misty mellowed out as she got Togepi and learned to be a bit more motherly and less temperamental, however that change in her character is sort of thrown out the window when she screams at a baby Marill for taking too long to use its hearing to find its trainer.
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Eh even when character develops, base aspect of his personality remains untouched. While she had outbursts when she couldn't take it anymore, she generally seemed to me less impulsive and more competent at start of Johto than she used to be in beginning.

Even after leaving cast and maturing she still showed to have temper being able to explode if someone provokes her yelling at Daisy in chronicles, as well colonel Hanson. She was mix of tomboyish and more playful and outgoing girl there.
 
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(I'm not really gonna count Ash since he's the main character and it's obvious that he's went through development since he first started out.

I think that May got the most development. The girl didn't even like pokemon or knew a single thing about them when she first started out, and I thought that was pretty unique to see a trainer start off like that. Around the time she found out about Contests she began to see how amazing Pokemon could be.

Least developed is definitely Cilan. He's basically there to be the pretty bishonen character. Even his pokemon are underdeveloped compared to Ash and Iris' teams. Pansage is pretty much the only one that has a personality that stands out, and that's because it's the pokemon version of its trainer. I honestly hope they do more with him before BW ends.
 
Dawn has got the most while I believe Max got less. I don't agree about Tracey since he had Pokemon. But Max carried nothing. He was smart yes but there was just nothing to build up with him.
 
I wouldn't say Tracey. Sure he didn't do a whole lot on his journey but in the end he realised his dream of meeting professor Oak and now he works for him in a dream come true situation. So yeah, i'd say he's come full circle. I'd have to say the least developement goes to Max. He didn't do a whole lot on the show and obviously because of his age we didn't see him realise any of his ambitions.
 
most develop: ash/may, i can't choose
least develop: tracey for obvious reasons
 
Most developed is Ash simply due to quantity. We've seen him struggle more and achieve more than any other protagonist. He can't cease to stop developing because his role requires him to always face a new obstacle.

It's a tie between Iris and Tracey for least developed. Tracey has a lesser amount of appearances than anyone else but at least he became good friends with Ash and Misty, learned to care for hundreds of Pokemon by staying at Oak's ranch/lab and was shown to regularly work on his sketches. Iris remains to be stagnant to this day. She isn't much of a good friend to anyone and she barely trains her Pokemon. She hasn’t learned about hard work, dedication, or humility. She's just as shiftless and arrogant as she was at day one.
 
Shigeru. LOL JK, He's still a douche, he's just a bit kinder about it. In my personal oppinion, I'd say Satoshi had the most development, until Best Wishes. In Best Wishes, Satoshi just went full retard.
 
It basically goes in order of screentime:

- Ash (not counting his resets)
- Coordinator girls
- Misty
- Brock
- Cilan
- Iris
- Max
- Tracey

As much as I like Cilan, its obvious he hasn't gone through any real development. He's just entertaining.
 
Tracy...he had a dream, but it was a short-lived one when he went to Oak and stayed there to help out...
 
U-missed-a-spot said:
pokemonsquared said:
And yet he is above iris.
Click to expand...

I can live with that. :)


Well it is true.
Click to expand...

Well not anymore with BW2, Iris might as well be the main charatcer in this season until the league begins. No one else got this much development in so little time(especially with the shortcut to dragon mastery AKA dragonite) nearly 80 eps after their debut.
 
It's hard for me to truly count the sidekickiest of sidekicks in this matter because for certain cases (i.e. Brock and Cilan), their purpose is to be helping the bigger stars of the show along the way on their journey. They're older than the rest of the main cast, hence most rudimentary character development that the others experience in the show have clearly already happened for these cases, and they wouldn't be very effective mentor figures if they're portrayed as being as incompetent as the people who look up to them. That doesn't mean they can't develop/change/learn something new at all, of course, but in their cases I think their lack of development shouldn't be treated the same as the ones who do take center stage. And hey, Brock DID go through a subtle change or two in his time, which imo was pretty well-handled compared to how the series normally treats him, so I do feel compelled to grade certain characters on a curve. :p And for me, while I would like to see some active change in Cilan, I honestly don't think he needs it to excel as a character. Again, quoting Linkara's Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue review on Carter Grayson: "He didn't undergo any changes, but he didn't really need to; he was just awesome." Some characters are designed to need development more than others; that's not bias talking, that's just how it can be for any series. And hey, on certain episodes we DO see some wildly different sides to Cilan's character, like when he looked like he wanted to murder Skyla on the spot, and the subject of Purrloin. So we do know Cilan has certain triggers that will make him lose his shit. If that leads up to anything, that'd be great, but even if it doesn't, it's great to see other sides of Cilan that we don't normally see.

Tracey didn't change much either, but as it was pointed out, he DID get to achieve his dream as becoming Professor Oak's love slave assistant, which is more progress in terms of goal-achieving than pretty much everybody else in this. Max didn't have an opportunity to develop as a trainer for obvious reasons, but as a character he did make some notable shifts. He was originally a haughty, booksmart shut-in who used his booksmarts to make Ash and May look foolish, only for that to turn around on Max completely once he started traveling and got a healthy dose of the real world, which ultimately taught him that he can't find all the answers in a book. Sometimes the Ash method was the only way of resolving a problem, which gradually changed Max's belittling of Ash to admiration, and even though we'll never get to see it because this show is phobic to the concept of aging, Max getting to battle Ash once he becomes a trainer is a great prospect to leave his character with. Max also got the most compelling Pokemon bonding moments out of any other character. I dare anyone tell me there was a better Pokemon bonding moment than Max and Ralts. :p (well, besides maybe a few of the Ash bondings) So yeah, Max was still a brat through and through, but what else would you expect from a seven year-old? Given the limitations surrounding Max's character, I think he developed more than all the lower-tier sidekicks combined.

Moving higher up the food chain, so to speak, there's a lot of hit-and-miss going on. Ash especially, who would undeniably be in the leagues of the most developed if it weren't for Best Wishes derailing his character something terrible. With BW as a factor, Ash just seems all over the place, so he's somewhere in the middle. If we cut that out and just counted him from OS through DP, then he'd be around the top. Moral of the story: fuck Best Wishes.

And that leaves the girls. I personally think May had the most development not only out of the girls, but out of every main character period. She's one of the few main characters who you can say was a completely different person from her debut compared to how she was like at the very end. Extra exposition could have made it even better, but for this show, May's blossoming from a selfish, squeamish girl who cared nothing for Pokemon and only for traveling (with no clue as to what she wanted to do with herself) to a sweet, considerate girl who learned to love Pokemon and realized she was meant to be a Coordinator was a major change for a main character... and best of all, May was still herself despite her many changes. She faced a lot of adversity while trying to realize her destiny as a Coordinator, but managed to endure it all without sinking to the level of her antagonists. But she still made honest mistakes, big and small! So she was still flawed, and continues to be. Her development is a great example of drastic changes that manage not to change her too much. Just enough.

For me, Misty is an example of a character who DID go through some changes, but not very many, and the changes she did experience were too extreme. Once she was on indefinite Togepi-carrying duty, I felt she lost most of her traits that made her entertaining. It wasn't until her appearances in Chronicles that her changes proved to be positive to her character... otherwise, Johto just changed her to sentient wallpaper 90% of the time. Togepi was the main catalyst to the development Misty did experience... the only other notable development that did any good was her capture of Gyarados during Chronicles. That much I did enjoy, but after the slog that was Johto, it really felt too small to make up for that "development" flub.

Now that DP is rerunning on Boomerang and seeing how Dawn behaved in these early episodes, I can see Dawn had developed more than I gave her credit for. She was headstrong and overconfident with perhaps the wrong choice for a primary drive to be a Coordinator (following her mom's footsteps, that is - I wish that could have been explored more), but Dawn had to learn the ropes the hard way and lost a lot of her fire once she was on her losing streak. She was deeply depressed, losing faith in her abilities, and even doubting that she was pursuing the right path to begin with. To a smaller degree Dawn also experienced some major ego deflation when she was trying to catch Buneary. She also had a brief stint of the superiority complex with Ash, thinking the path of the Coordinator should always be chosen over the route of the average Trainer (this was during Nando's debut), but through both Ash and Zoey (and Nando I guess) learned that no path was better than the other, and as a bonus drew a lot of her inspiration from Ash's battling style (and vice-versa) in order to create unique Contest combinations, which I see as Dawn having total respect for an alignment she initially didn't think much of. The Wallace Cup was a great arc that got Dawn back on track for the long haul without A) overglorifying her abilities and B) underselling her talents that would make her comeback less believable. Admittedly after that, the interesting part of Dawn's character arc had come and gone, and it didn't help that her rivals were generally underwhelming and didn't spark much development within Dawn due to their lackluster personalities. Ursula was the only exception, but she was screwed over by being denied a decisive win over Dawn at any point and was introduced too late in the series to make an effective demonstration, but I always thought Ursula's appeals trumped Dawn's, so potential was there. Just not... very utilized. If nothing else, Dawn was a consistent, dedicated worker in the series, which made her distinct from how she was early in the series where she seemed more concerned about her personal appearance and comfort (seeing as she slept in a tent for the early eps). I think if they paced out Dawn's more notable development a little further in the series, it would have worked out better, but despite the flaws, I find Dawn on the higher-end of the development list. Pity that her BW cameo did nothing but make her a brown-noser, though.

And... uh. Iris. Yeah, she's getting two episodes to herself soon that will likely explain shit about her or whatever, but it shouldn't take 100 episodes to develop a main character - especially one who isn't in a mentor role and otherwise serves little purpose in the group to begin with. Admittedly there ARE sparse points in the series where Iris is different from her usual self, but it's always abrupt and doesn't last for very long, so there's no logical progression going on. Iris is the first main character in the series who doesn't really come off as human to me; she does have flaws, but at most on the rare times her flaws are addressed, it's for comedy purposes rather than anything that prompts Iris' character to develop. Even with what we know what will be going on in these two episodes, it honestly doesn't seem very consistent. There was ONE time Iris seemed apprehensive about Drayden; otherwise the foreshadowing has been nonexistent. Even in the flashback, where Drayden kills little Iris' winning streak and traumatizes her Excadrill, Iris is shown to be bouncing back all too easily. Iris' Pokemon problems generally don't last long enough to matter by the time they're resolved, during the rare times Iris faces something like a loss, it often comes off as an afterthought. The Dragon Master subplot practically hasn't existed for the whole series up to this point, and instead serves as a way for Iris to be glorified whenever episodes centering on her come up. And it's always the same scenario and outcome: someone's too inept to take care of their dragon, so Iris comes down from the heavens to solve all their problems with nary a flaw nor fuck-up on her part. Iris certainly has much POTENTIAL to change, but I have a feeling the upcoming episodes will do more glorifying than anything else. And should they have Iris make a mistake, it will obviously only be for setting up how she'll eventually leave the series, which is just all sorts of "too little, too late" for Iris' character. She's gotten so many lucky breaks; far more than any other main character in the show. I just... don't feel any real change in her character, and I feel no inclination to want Iris to succeed in her goal. I believe that's a sign that Iris is developmentally challenged, way more so than the others. She always seems consistently annoyed/bored/needlessly critical in most episodes regardless of the differing scenarios, so I find her stale in that respect too.

So if I had to rank this on a list...

1. May
2. Ash (BW notwithstanding)
3. Dawn
4. Max
5. Misty
6. Cilan
7. Brock
8. Tracey
9. Iris

And that's all I have to say about that.
 
I'm afraid what I was going to say was stolen by Shinneth, so I'll say:

1. May
2. Ash
3. Dawn
4. Max
5. Misty
6. Brock
7. Cilan
8. Iris
9. Tracey
 
I'd say may is the most developed and tracey is the least developed considering how much of him pre-orange island is a mystery.
 
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