What are your final thoughts on Dawn's character?

Cybersai

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Now that DP is finally over, what are your final thoughts on Dawn's character?

To be honest, I never understood what the Dawn hype was about. I enjoyed her development and funny moments, but Dawn never came off as a truly, "fresh," or "unique" character to me. So much of her character was based off things we had seen previously with both Ash and May. The parallel's with Ash were blatantly obvious, such as the Mamoswine/Charizard story, Piplup pulling a Pikachu, her having the same determination toward Contests as Ash for Gyms, etc. She was probably the most like Ash than any of the previous girls.

I honestly feel as if Dawn's personality didn't change much over the course of DP at all. While she improved in terms of contests and stopped crying, her overall personality isn't much different now than it was in the beginning of DP. You could watch an early ep of DP27 and then DP 181, and Dawn seems like the same character in both. Speaking of her personality, sometimes her dialogue seemed completely interchangeable with May's. If their voices sounded the same and you didn't look at the screen, sometimes you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Dawn and May. And when it wasn't that, she came off as being way too similar to Ash and practically his double.

Lastly, the thing that bothered me the most about her was the character interaction. Her interactions with both the main cast and her rivals left a lot to be desired. The DP trio felt like the most forced, artificial and fake group of the shows history, and the rivalries with Zoey/Kenny/Nando were nothing to write home about.

What I liked most about Dawn is how much she battled, I liked most of her pokemon, and she had some good individual or funny moments.

The fanservice was silly. Seeing Dawn prance around in a short skirt, wearing pretty dresses, and a cheerleading outfit was obviously done to attract people to her, and it was a pretty blatant and forced attempt to be honest.

Overall I feel like she was an OK character who while going through great development, was let down by lackluster character interaction, repeating too much of Ash and May's old personality traits, and not really bringing anything truly new to the anime.

Iris in particular really does seem like a breath of fresh air, so I think Dawn was mostly used as, "filler" to bridge the gap until the writers truly had new material to work with.
 
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Re: Now that Dawn is leaving, what did you think about her overall?

Transforming from a momma's kid and crybaby into a competent and individual coordinator as well as a trainer is a real character development to me now matter what anyone says or thinks about it.

Exactly what part of her personality did match to May's? The fact that she did coordinating? I don't think so. She was very girly unlike May who showed it off only a couple off times, she was a great designer with unique ideas for her appeals and dresses, great at making poffins (while May sucked in her pokeblocks), and has had a slightly less temper than both May and Misty to the point where she didn't even blame Ash for her ruined bike. Saying that she was a mix of two characters just because she had a new mascot, is a bit of too much, don't ya think?

Overall, she was a great character and I only hope Iris turns out as great as her. She really made DP together with her Piplup and I look forward to her return in Best Wishes. ;-)
 
I thought Dawn's character was fine. She developed fairly well, and grew..yada, yada. I did like how she battled outside of her field several times. She was a typical cutesy girly, girl..but hey that was her character.

Her rivals were the only problem I had with her. Nando felt more like Zoey and Ash's rival than her's. Zoey's personality was fairly boring after a while though I guess she served her purpose. Kenny's sole purpose was shipping, other than he was was bland. Ursula was very good compared to her other rivals, and ranked up there with Paul.
 
Oh, forgot to mention Piplup, since its hard to talk about Dawn without mentioning it.

Piplup was also a mixed bag, to be honest. I loved Piplup during the very beginning of DP, but over time I became more indifferent to it and started to dislike it when it was there for no particular reason.

Piplup was tolerable when it was actually being used well.
 
One short line.

Most developed and successful female character in whole show.

That's what I think.

I don't think I have anything to add to that except, for the first time, I actually cared about another character besides Ash. Quite frankly, the way the writers handled Dawn's arc and wrote her personality made me root for her. I wanted her to do well and wanted her to succeed. She has that je ne sais quoi that heroines (or heroes) have that, until then, no character but Ash had. It's also ironic that the girliest girl is ultimately the character who battled the most on the show outside of Ash, challenging an Elite 4 member, a gym leader and beating a legendary pokemon along the way...

I also like that she had great interactions not only with her rivals, but with Ash's rivals. There are some nice Paul/Dawn, Barry/Dawn and Dawn/Conway scenes out there.
 
I just saw Dawn as an alternate May, with May being more "aggressive" than Dawn. I don't think Dawn was anything special. She came off to me as someone who's into Pokemon for the "cutesy" aspect of them.
 
I never understood the Piplup hate. He's such an awesome character, that I find it hard to NOT like him. Seriously, he has the most personality.

On-topic:
Dawn. She was the most amazing character I've seen on the show. Ever.

Her personality was the most appealing and unique of all the characters to me. I just loved her optimistic, confident attitude and found her girly personality rather cute. I like how she went to an overconfident amateur to an experienced coordinator. Seriously, Dawn's character developement did her did her loads of good. She turned out to be one of the greatest characters on the show.

Edit: Also Dawn/Conway interactions were win.
 
I didn't dislike Piplup. I liked it at the start but its easy to see how people got tired of it.
 
I think Piplup is overrated. It's just a whiny bitchoma that tried to copy Pikachu's role. Piplup just makes it more obvious how Dawn was the writer's attempts to make an alternate, "cute" May. Guess it's just not my kinda thing. Ah well, I didn't care much for Dawn, she was just.. there, to me. I also hated Pokemon Contests, so....
 
Dawn was absolutely amazing!!! :DDD She's one of my favorite characters of all time, and I just loved the way she carried herself, and went about situations.

The way she developed in her contests was absolutely amazing. I love how the writers gave us a girl, who was full of imperfections, but said, that's ok. She made mistakes, but the fact that she learned from them is the most important part I think of Dawn, herself, and it was what made me love Dawn.

IMO, NO DAWN = NO DP!

I personally believe, if Dawn wasn't in DP, my interest in pokemon would of dwindled. I already was upset with Misty gone, and May's Journey coming to a close, but Dawn not only kept me watching, but inspired me. I know it may seem a little odd to be inspired by an anime character, but in all seriousness, you can learn something from Dawn. Never give up on your dream or in life! If it's first you don't succeed, get yourself up and try again! We fall down, but we get up!

Yeah, I'm using lyrics from musicians, but Dawn left that much of an impact on me. I also loved her Pokemon on her team, especially Buneary and Piplup. Dawn's team was really chill by the end of DP. I loved her Mamoswine's development, and I just love Dawn period.

I have to say I do care if she gets a BW appearance, because, IMO she deserves one. Why not? I want to see how a fav character of mine is doing! I wish Dawn nothing but the best, and there's no need to worry about the Pokemon series, because Dawn's shaped it into something even bigger than it was before!

Peace!
 
personaly i dont think she changed much. i can watch win,lose or drew, then look at the unbeatable lightness of seeing and think, wow is that realy drew/may but with dawn its like sure,whatever. and i hate the outfits. all of her outfits.

EDIT: but shes good for shipping
 
She was OK, but my least favorite traveling companion. I will not deny that she had great development though.
 
Dawn, Dawn, Dawn. What is there to say about you...

All right, let me put it this way. When I got back into Pokemon after a five year hiatus, Dawn was just entering the show (in the dub anyway). I watched her first few episodes, and I thought she was adorable. I really liked her. This was when I was also starting to get acquainted with May. For a little bit I liked Dawn better. Not really sure why, I just did. But then as DP progressed, and I started to watch more episodes with May, I realized how much better of a character May was, IMO. The way I see it, May still felt like a fresh character longer than Dawn did. I think Dawn's original appeal faded pretty quickly after she was introduced, and it didn't take long for me to stop caring about Dawn completely. To this day I still prefer Misty and May's characters greatly to Dawn's. Dawn never gave me what the other two girls did. I couldn't really get into Dawn the same way. She just couldn't hold my interest. I do agree that Dawn got better treatment from the writers, but now that DP is said and done I really can't find anything all that special or unique about Dawn. I think her personality is the blandest and most boring out of the three girls, and she just can't hold a candle to Misty and May IMO. I didn't even like her contest arc. So maybe she didn't have any DEM wins and her arc felt more realistic. I still didn't enjoy it all that much. I hated her rivals and everything...I just couldn't get into it.

So overall, Dawn just didn't do it for me. I don't hate her or anything, but I just don't get what it is everyone seems to see in her.
 
Danish pretty much summed up how I feel. Bottom line is, while I can't deny that her story was thought out fairly well, in fact surprisingly so by pokemon standards, I didn't care for the character herself at all, and found her to be largely boring. Things seemed kind of promising at the begining (or rather, her second episode), but for me that initial optimism faded away relatively quickly. Her presence, her attitude, her speil...to me, it's always felt like the guys went 'Hey! We need a new character!' and then *PLONK*. There's Dawn, just being there. All the 'Daijoubu!' and 'encourage Ash and vice versa, these guys are pals!' stuff just never sat well with Grave-E. Maybe it was me, but it just felt kind of fake and awkward.

She had an angry Mamoswine though, and that's pretty cool.
 
I prefer it over other leading brands of dishwashing soap.

It's daijoubeautiful!
 
Dawn, Dawn, Dawn. What is there to say about you...

All right, let me put it this way. When I got back into Pokemon after a five year hiatus, Dawn was just entering the show (in the dub anyway). I watched her first few episodes, and I thought she was adorable. I really liked her. This was when I was also starting to get acquainted with May. For a little bit I liked Dawn better. Not really sure why, I just did. But then as DP progressed, and I started to watch more episodes with May, I realized how much better of a character May was, IMO. The way I see it, May still felt like a fresh character longer than Dawn did. I think Dawn's original appeal faded pretty quickly after she was introduced, and it didn't take long for me to stop caring about Dawn completely. To this day I still prefer Misty and May's characters greatly to Dawn's. Dawn never gave me what the other two girls did. I couldn't really get into Dawn the same way. She just couldn't hold my interest. I do agree that Dawn got better treatment from the writers, but now that DP is said and done I really can't find anything all that special or unique about Dawn. I think her personality is the blandest and most boring out of the three girls, and she just can't hold a candle to Misty and May IMO. I didn't even like her contest arc. So maybe she didn't have any DEM wins and her arc felt more realistic. I still didn't enjoy it all that much. I hated her rivals and everything...I just couldn't get into it.

So overall, Dawn just didn't do it for me. I don't hate her or anything, but I just don't get what it is everyone seems to see in her.




Danish pretty much summed up how I feel. Bottom line is, while I can't deny that her story was thought out fairly well, in fact surprisingly so by pokemon standards, I didn't care for the character herself at all, and found her to be largely boring. Things seemed kind of promising at the begining (or rather, her second episode), but for me that initial optimism faded away relatively quickly. Her presence, her attitude, her speil...to me, it's always felt like the guys went 'Hey! We need a new character!' and then *PLONK*. There's Dawn, just being there. All the 'Daijoubu!' and 'encourage Ash and vice versa, these guys are pals!' stuff just never sat well with Grave-E. Maybe it was me, but it just felt kind of fake and awkward.

She had an angry Mamoswine though, and that's pretty cool.

I think you both gave up to easily, TBH. How can you not love her, or at least like her. I don't see how she was boring. Kanto trio, now that's boring.
 
I don't think I have anything to add to that except, for the first time, I actually cared about another character besides Ash.

for me at least, Haruka already accomplished this, and that's something that really bugged me about the beginning of Diamond/Pearl: nothing Hikari was doing seemed like something Haruka couldn't already accomplish, which made her departure seem like a complete waste.

Dawn, Dawn, Dawn. What is there to say about you...

All right, let me put it this way. When I got back into Pokemon after a five year hiatus, Dawn was just entering the show (in the dub anyway). I watched her first few episodes, and I thought she was adorable. I really liked her. This was when I was also starting to get acquainted with May. For a little bit I liked Dawn better. Not really sure why, I just did. But then as DP progressed, and I started to watch more episodes with May, I realized how much better of a character May was, IMO. The way I see it, May still felt like a fresh character longer than Dawn did. I think Dawn's original appeal faded pretty quickly after she was introduced, and it didn't take long for me to stop caring about Dawn completely. To this day I still prefer Misty and May's characters greatly to Dawn's. Dawn never gave me what the other two girls did. I couldn't really get into Dawn the same way. She just couldn't hold my interest. I do agree that Dawn got better treatment from the writers, but now that DP is said and done I really can't find anything all that special or unique about Dawn. I think her personality is the blandest and most boring out of the three girls, and she just can't hold a candle to Misty and May IMO. I didn't even like her contest arc. So maybe she didn't have any DEM wins and her arc felt more realistic. I still didn't enjoy it all that much. I hated her rivals and everything...I just couldn't get into it.

So overall, Dawn just didn't do it for me. I don't hate her or anything, but I just don't get what it is everyone seems to see in her.

I think that Hikari's main problem was that they tried to have her character fully established right from the get-go. Not unlike Satoshi, they just show that she always loved Pokemon and had a dream of becoming a Top Coordinator from the get-go, have her get her Pokemon, meet up with Satoshi (whom she traveled with for no particular reason other than "hey, your Gym and my Contest Hall are in the same direction, let's go together"), and that was it, we have our new female lead. Haruka was much more interesting because we actually watched her develop. She debuts stating that she's not really into Pokemon, which in itself is a rarity for practically ANY character in the Pokemon world... in fact, one of my bigger disappointments with Haruka was that they seemed to write her out of having this train of thought a bit too easily. Seriously, there's a lot of potential in something like that, but she just warmed up to watching Satoshi and Pikachu interact followed by an Achamo rub against her leg, and that's pretty much it. Thankfully, even in spite of that, she still didn't really know what the hell she was doing now that she had a Pokemon, so she got Satoshi to be her mentor (using the bike as an excuse).

It was only later on that she discovered contests, just narrowly avoiding becoming a second Gym-challenger in the process (though even if she was, you can't deny that it wouldn't have been interesting to some degree considering she's Satoshi's pupil... and since up to that point, Jouto was pretty much the only saga thus far to actually have Gym battles that weren't cop-outs, seeing two characters do them still would've been refreshing) but even then, she never actually participated until around the time Satoshi's ready to face his THIRD GYM, in the meantime raising up her star Pokemon in what was essentially a mini-arc (and that still wasn't enough to keep her from getting her ass whooped hard by what would become her first rival... Hikari, in contrast, put up quite a fight in her first match against Nozomi). There were also other interesting developments along the way, like her brother joining up (which would lead to some sibling moments here and there), and the show lampshading the fact that she was neglecting her starter Pokemon (as I've said a few times before, I really enjoyed the fact that her Achamo wasn't some uber ass-kicker like every other basic starter portrayed in the anime, instead being as weak as any unevolved Pokemon just starting out should have been... how ironic that the little thing would pull a deus ex evolution and, from there, grow to become the MVP it always wanted to be), not to mention HARLEY... just, fucking, Harley. XD

I did have some issues, of course. The aforementioned growing to love Pokemon too easily, not seeing more of Satoshi in a mentor role (this was mostly fucked as soon as Takeshi arrived on the scene, though we still got some nice moments between the two like when she lost against Tsukiko), Robert (was there a point to this guy other than keeping Shuu from heading to victory as if kicking Haruka's butt prior was an act of negative karma, twice, and suddenly being the sole solution to Yukiwarashi's problems despite being focused on for several episodes?), Grace's sudden disappearance, and of course, there were just problems with the contests in general. But I'd attribute that last one to the writers just starting out, and by the time we get to Hikari, several of those problems had been pretty well ironed out (like the fact that contests weren't being restricted to a single Pokemon, employing use of the time limit more often rather than end every contest battle on a KO as if they were no different from a regular battle, less deus ex wins, portraying Musashi as a worthy competitor, etc.). Well look at that. You ask for my opinions on Hikari, and I more or less just went into a rant on why Haruka was the superior Coordinator. But that's pretty much how it is, I guess. ^^'
 
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