Why were Solidad and Ursula added so late?

[Cascada]

Solidad:

Beat May in the Top 4 than won the GF, went to Johto, and became May's rival. She also knew Drew, beat him in his first contest where he cried actually, and Harley as well as Brock. She was fucking awesome to me. <3

Ursula:

Lost to Dawn 3 times, added late, expanded the whole Pikari storyline. Is arguably Dawn's most popular rival. She's fucking awesome to me as well!

My whole thing is, both girls were great, so why added so late? I mean, if added earlier, I'm sure the intensity of contests and rivalry of both May and Dawn's storylines would have been better.

I love how they are both pink haired female rivals that were added so late to the show, but were very good, and I'd love to see them again. Solidad is in Johto with May, and Ursula was just in the Sinnoh Grand Festival with Dawn.

IDK, both girls were awesome, but why were they added so late?

 

[Del Rio]

Solidad's that one character who was introduced solely to win the entire tournament. It doesn't seem like she was intended to be a major re-occuring rival at all.

As for Ursula, I go with the explanation another member posted in another thread. Dawn's early journey made her struggles come from herself, and after getting over that, Ursula was introduced to give her another obstacle that wasn't self-esteem issues. I do wish she was also around earlier however. I just wanted to see one win for my favorite rival.

 

[Cascada]

Solidad's that one character who was introduced solely to win the entire tournament. It doesn't seem like she was intended to be a major re-occuring rival at all.

I kinda disagree, only because she was brought to Johto and was actually seen several times in a cameo watching May in the Wallace Cup, and she had history with Drew, Harley, and Brock. Wonder if she knows Misty?

As for Ursula, I go with the explanation another member posted in another thread. Dawn's early journey made her struggles come from herself, and after getting over that, Ursula was introduced to give her another obstacle that wasn't self-esteem issues. I do wish she was also around earlier however. I just wanted to see one win for my favorite rival.

I agree. Ursula was great, and you gave a great reason

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

Solidad was introduced so May could lose against her and realise her style has a lot of flaws. Also to give some more similiarity between May and Drew(as Drew cried when he lost against Solidad in his first contest as you mentioned.)

As for Ursula, what Gible said and Momohime repeated.

 

[Cascada]

I hope we see them again, they were both really good.

Solidad owning 3 pokemon Ash released <3

 

[ratmon19]

Girls, girls, girls, anyone but me think theirs enough girl main/rival characters? I bet there has been more than 70% girls main/rival/special/guess appearance then male characters. BTW I don't care for neither, the best female rival has been Jessie LOL. But I think that Ursula would have been better than Zoey. Is there anyone who cares for Zoey?

Unless your a fan of the whole Appealshipping. jk

 

[Dexter]

Actually if you compare May's and Dawn's timeline in relation to there first Grand Festivals both Ursula and Harley were introduced at both characters fourth ribbon so if Ursula is considered a late rival then Harley should be too.

As for Solidad, I agree that she was introduced solely for the purpose of winning the Festival but they gave her the kind of backstory that they decided to keep her as a permanent rival for May and besides May has too few rivals as it is. I hope she met some new ones in Johto.

 

[Cybersai]

The only reason it seems Ursula was added late was because...she was. She was only in 5 episodes.

Harley may have debuted around the same time in Hoenn, but the difference is he stayed around for a whole second Contest arc after that where he got many more appearances.

In all seriousness all of Dawn's rivals except for Zoey only have a handful of appearances each. Kenny, Nando and Ursula didn't appear much at all.

 

[Muku.Bird]

Solidad was added late because the writers didn't want any of the AG coordinators that were kids winning the thing. It's a case of 'there's always someone better' - for May, Drew was that 'someone better'. Then she beat him and got beaten by the lady who beat him - Solidad's presence was solely there to show May that even though she beat her rival, she still had a long way to go(and of course, to show her the flaws in her battle style).

As for Ursula...already been covered pretty well. Other than that, she was just a rival to be the typical mean one trying to tear down the main character - the writers probably thought that we had enough of the whole 'rivals who try to tear the main character down' with May and Harley and Ash and Paul, so the helpful Zoey became Dawn's main rival instead.

 

[Piplup]

Solidad never was a recurring rival, she was just a character of the GF... which got a little more backstory and a few cameos later

Ursula - only a blind person won't realize the reason for this
Dawn's story was about being depressed and needing support from her friends, not being further crushed by mean rivals
That's why Dawn got the friendly rivals Zoey/Kenny/Nando and then after she got over her confident problems she finally got the mean Ursula
It made sense to do it this way and I can't see anything wrong with it

 

[Cybersai]

So? Ursula could have still been introduced at the start, Dawn beat her three times in a row anyway. Its not like Ursula ever made Dawn depressed or anything really.

Instead the spent time on the more dull rivalries (and these characters go large gaps without appearing themselves) and overused Zoey to the point where people got sick of her at the time, and the most interesting rival gets 5 measly eps. And we don't even get to see her beat Dawn once.

 

[Piplup]

So? Ursula could have still been introduced at the start, Dawn beat her three times in a row anyway. Its not like Ursula ever made Dawn depressed or anything really.

You really don't realize what's Dawn's character is all about... she was seriously depressed and NEEDED the support that her rivals gave her
She'd just get even worse if she'd have Ursula back then
It made sense to bring Ursula after Dawn got over her problems

Instead the spent time on the more dull rivalries (and these characters go large gaps without appearing themselves)

I can't see anything "dull" with Dawn's rivals... as if Ursula is so interesting... she's just mean to the main character so she's automatically the best rival =\ as if we didn't see that already with Gary, Drew, Harley, Paul and Barry (all on different levels of "annoying the main character" or "hating the main character")
If anything, doing even more of this kind of rivals is dull...

and overused Zoey to the point where people got sick of her at the time,

Anyone who "got sick of Zoey" is just ridiculous... she was different than all previous recurring rivals we had and I'm happy with how they handled her

and the most interesting rival gets 5 measly eps. And we don't even get to see her beat Dawn once.

I'd like to see her beat Dawn (and hope it might still somehow happen) but even if that doesn't happen, Ursula fitted her role of giving Dawn a rival that "hate" her after she got over her problems and gave us some good Contest Battles
So I can't see any problem here

 

[Grave-E]

Solidad was obviously added for the purpose of being plot fodder, so that's why she came in so late. Give Drew a bit of back-story, give May some last minute opponent to get whipped by.

Ursula could be anyone's guess. Maybe the writers didn't think they could take the other two that much further? Maybe they didn't want too many one-off coordinators and couldn't have her fighting Kenny and Zoey over and over? Maybe someone likes writing mean characters? Who can say.

Anyone who "got sick of Zoey" is just ridiculous... she was different than all previous recurring rivals we had and I'm happy with how they handled her

Woah, I think that's a little harsh. I got sick of the character very quickly, because I found her personallity, interaction and plot-related issues to be extremely tedious. I have nothing against a rival being taken in a different direction to the norm (hell, I want another friendly one just so it can handled differently), but that's not all that constitutes to being a good character :/

 

[Hellion]

Woah, I think that's a little harsh. I got sick of the character very quickly, because I found her personallity, interaction and plot-related issues to be extremely tedious.

I don't disagree with that. While I don't think that Zoey was a bad character, she could have used a bit more excitement in the personality departement. I certainly would like to continue with another friendly rival, but make him/her feel more well-rounded and more... exciting.

 

[Yoshi-san]

Woah, I think that's a little harsh. I got sick of the character very quickly, because I found her personallity, interaction and plot-related issues to be extremely tedious. I have nothing against a rival being taken in a different direction to the norm (hell, I want another friendly one just so it can handled differently), but that's not all that constitutes to being a good character :/

This. I think Zoey is a bad character by the way she was portrayed as a God mode sue(IMO).

 

[Pidgeot]

How was Ursula added to late!? Ursula was introduced in the 4TH CONTEST!! Solidad was introduced in the GRAND FESTIVAL!!

 

[Piplup]

Woah, I think that's a little harsh. I got sick of the character very quickly, because I found her personallity, interaction and plot-related issues to be extremely tedious. I have nothing against a rival being taken in a different direction to the norm (hell, I want another friendly one just so it can handled differently), but that's not all that constitutes to being a good character :/

Well, maybe I exaggerated a little... but I really think Zoey gets a lot of undeserved hate... some people exaggerate with it
She was cool in her debut eps, I liked how she was a mentor to Dawn, I also really liked her when she came all the way to explain Dawn what she did wrong in Solaceon, she got a nice backstory in Snowpoint...
I don't know... I don't think she was THAT bad as some people say...

This. I think Zoey is a bad character by the way she was portrayed as a God mode sue(IMO).

God? Nando beat her in Hearthome and she admitted she was wrong... then May beat her in Wallace Cup... Buizel killed her Glameow before it was caught... Fantina beat her... during her debut she said she already participated at 3 Contests but only had 1 ribbon...
So no, she wasn't shown as a "god" at all
See? THIS is the kind of exaggeration I'm talking about...

 

[Zoro]

Soledad was bland just like Nando is so no need for it, Ursula was a fun rival though but they cant introduce 300 characters in the same contests so she got to be the last introduced.

 

[Iteru]

I'm not sure why we couldn't have seen Urara in the background of the early contests actually. We could have just seen her with a sad face or just say to Hikari "Oh well maybe next time we will make it through."
They could have easily made her an acquaintance prior to the Mikuri Cup. Then the bitterness afterwards would follow.

 

[Ino-Chan]

I don't know, but I wish Ursula was here earlier.