okay so this is like a rant and questions and shit i have on my mind about pokemon advanced/contestshipping because i can
something that has always confused me is— where the HELL did solidad come from? during the entirety of the hoenn contest circuit we never saw her, neither in the entirety of the kanto circuit UNTIL the grand festival. and you can go and counter this with a “she only started participating in contests during the kanto circuit” which like, yes, is reasonable. there’s one thing that very much bothers me though. in the spontaneous combusken episode brianna (who looked up to drew) literally STATED may was the only female coordinator he had respect for. and she is OBSESSED with him, and watched all of his contests, by the way. and then, SOLIDAD COMES IN??? HUH??? atp i’m convinced solidad was like a last minute decision to say some shit about drew because obviously he ain’t the character so do so himself, and that feels so wrong to me. like her only reason of existence in the anime is just to spill stuff from drew’s past or whatever.. you could’ve introduced her sooner, and then later it could’ve been like “woah! she knows DREW?” but no she just came out of nowhere and that was it. ok so that’s point one
secondly, why did they only reveal the reason harley dislikes may so much is at the END of the kanto circuit? a whole ass season after they even met? like we get convinced in the beginning he just hates this girl because he called his pokemon scary and didn’t go all crazy over his cookies, and then like bam this girl that looked like her stole his cookies and that’s why he’s so angry. so what was the point of the first reason he hated her so much..??? and with this you could counter “well he didn’t recognize her yet” would be fair except they look exactly the fuckinf same, OR “he just kept it to himself” which i find not so fitting as harley, each time we get a shot of him just doing his own thing, he talks to himself and is just constantly rambling about. so if he DID recognize her, i feel like he would’ve said at least SOMETHING about that.
thirdly, why the hell was drew in only 2 contests along with may? ONLY FUCKING TWO leading up to both of the grand festivals. which like, all right, i do understand, they want their battles to be long awaited and heated, totally fair. but it feels so wrong to call him a main rival, if, out of quite a few contests she participated in, she only battled him face to face once, in her first contest. the rest of the things he really only did is just keep an eye on may and make a haughty comment here and there to piss her off, and stopping harley, a few times. it’s exciting, sure, but it would’ve been so much more rewarding if may won from him after more than just two losses (in actual competitions) but, again, that’s the way i look at it.
fourth, this is much rather more rambling than a straight up question i ask myself every so often, but… i’ve read a shit ton of contestshipping fics. and thing i noticed very frequently is that in the stories that are written drew always has a burning hatred against harley, which feels odd. because, during the entirety of the series, the only moment he really got mad was after the whole assist commotion. the rest of the times? he laughed him off, for instance after harley lost to may in the hoenn grand festival, and in mays last contest before the kanto grand festival. "arent you smart!” and the “you better not make me any angrier drew” “back at ya” like bro this mf does not feel threatened by him AT ALL. he even complimented that he raised his pokemon very well, which, i am sure he wouldn’t have said if he hated him as much as people make out as he does. and the brianna being really fuckinf bratty and evil thing… if anything she’d seem somewhat of a sensitive and shy girl, in worst case scenario she’d call into a depression if they got together or something.
fifth, and my last question, how the hell are there enough contests to give out ribbons? aren’t there like, more than 200 participants in one grand festival? and every coordinator needs at least 5 ribbons? that means 1000 ribbons to be given out, in one year, in one region. and you have like the wallace cup thing, but it’s held every year, and the ribbon from the wallace cup can be used in any region, so that’s barely filling anything in. so where the HELL do the 999 ribbons come from? wouldn’t they have to hold like a dozen of contests? because, obviously, there’s coordinators who have less than 5 ribbons, unable to enter in the grand festival, which means there’s only more ribbons to add up to the 1000 total. and yeah, more ribbons could be given out in smaller contests in smaller towns, but there was never much mention of that. it’s just really fucking vague
that was my rant. please tell me what you think………please
