okay i need to be ranting about something.
the recent years/months i've been seeing a bit of talk about May and her role as a coordinator who are, literally most of the time, very negative and put her in a negative light? like, one specific tweet on twitter being like "May wasn't a good coordinator, she spammed assist and metronome", and also a critique from a more popular creator, Phaun, stating her team wasn't "pretty enough" which is just stupid.
1. i might be wrong, but isn't May's foolishness surrounding assist the entire point of her character growth and the lessons she learns? she earns a win with assist once, then over commits with it at the Hoenn Grand festival, and learns that she shouldn't rely on one move, and instead put faith into her pokemon; that's exactly what she does in the rest of the series. she doesn't spam nor overuse assist or metronome at all in the following season(s). and with metronome, which she mainly used with Munchlax past the Hoenn Grand Festival, like in the Arcanine and Spontaneous Combusken episodes for instance. Those are, from what I remember, the only times. she also might've used it once at the kanto gf in her battle with Harley but i'm not 100% sure about that.
In her case in on Cloud Arcanine she was taking a chance, and what's funniest is that Max was the one who suggested she'd try it. Second, in Spontaneous Combusken when she uses a metronome in her performance, it wasn't just relying on the move. She used Metronome, got a rest attack, and improvised from there. She had backup plans, that's why she had her purple/pink(?) surprise to wake Munchlax up. I don't know about you, but improvising at something completely random is a whole art on its own.
The Harley statement though, I can't deny, is very much true and a flaw on May's part. Hell, she fell for his bullshit thrice. THRICE! Listen, I know the third case in which Harley fooling her because he worked with Nurse Joy is something that could make you think he turned a new leaf...but at the same time, if he's telling you stuff, take it with a grain of salt. He's a lying, conniving assholes out there; that's true. I think It's stupid for the writers to let May fall into his trap three times.
Last but not least, comparing May with Dawn is INSANE. brutal. I've seen more people do this, with Serena for instance too. But there's a huge difference between May and Dawn, and May and Serena.
-> 1) May is the first coordinator that was written. I know it's a stupid argument, but I genuinely think it has a infleunce of how she was written and what she did. Coordinating was a new concept.
-> 2) May, unlike Dawn, had NO clue about what she wanted to do. Remember, the only reason she headed out in the first place was to travel and to see the world. Comparing Dawn, a girl who always dreamed about coordinating and has a mother who is a TOP COORDINATOR, to May, who never wanted to have things to do with Pokemon to begin with? And you could say "Well, Norman is a gym leader, she should know at least a bit", but if you watch the series you know it's not as simple as that. Max literally stated once they weren't allowed to watch the battles as it could distract the trainer battling with Norman. She despised Pokemon, and barely knew much of them until she started traveling with Ash. It's only natural she'd struggle and make silly mistakes like that.
-> 3) Like mentioned before, May is written as a silly, unpredictable, stupid girl, who manages to get through even in hard situations; with Harley sabotaging her multiple times, for instance. I don't know about you, but managing to win even when you're at a huge disadvantage? Also big points. I haven't seen Serena nor Dawn clutching moments like that (I'm not trying to sound negative or Dawn or Serena at all by the way. They're babies and extremely talented, hell, more than May naturally)
-> 4) This might be another silly argument, but Serena and Dawn had, well, good rivals. Miette, Mimi, Shauna and Jessie on Serena's part; they were rivals, but also friends, while Dawn had Kenny, Zoey, Nando, Jessie and Ursula. Consistent through the series, and lended her plenty of useful advice and positive adrenaline for contests (Ursula though is KIND of an exception, though? Miette really isn't to me; they were good rivals and although they exist purely to beef over Ash she wasn't a negative influence), meanwhile May having two major rivals, for who mostly during the entirety of the series were making it very hard on her (cough cough, Harley). The constant teasing, belittling, manipulating and the literal sabotaging of May's performances by Harley made it so hard to have rivals for her to rely and trust on. May had a LOT of rivals beside Harley and Drew, but they were never consistent. They appeared one episode, and that's that. All the comfort she got in her journey were that of the gang, and sometime Drew's positive commentary if he had it to give. Along with her natural selflessness and lack of knowledge about Pokemon makes this feel like such a HUGE reason as to why May struggled so much at first.
-> 5) Also there's something amazing called being naturally good at something. Dawn and Serena were practically made for the stage, meanwhile May had to fall and get up a lot of times to learn.
holy YAP
I tried to find the video Phaun made on tiktok, but can't find it, so here's the summary: May's pokemon don't look beautiful and thus her performances lack.
2. this, again, feels like an incredibly stupid argument. because WHAT DO YOU MEAN? an evolution stage of a pokemon or what design aspects it has in contests doesn't matter. it never did. the entire prospects of pokemon contests is perform with your pokemon, show off their beauty with moves and combinations. and something that was also pressed on a lot, especially in the advanced series, is what is also crucial is a good bond between the trainer and pokemon.
May had amazing bonds with pretty much all of her pokemon, and although she did have moments where she got carried away like with bulbasaur the one instance, she always was in sync with them and trusted them. They lay it on thick, so it's a pretty important element to coordinating.
If you're familiar with the games as well there's a lot of different categories. Cool, Beauty, Cute, Clever and Tough. Aka all the possible aspects a Pokemon can have. Every Pokemon has a category to them which makes a contest appealing, and that's what contests are about. Like i said, it's not JUST beauty and cute pokemon. It's clever, tough, cool, cute, and beautiful performances all alike, and May pulled off a LOT of those. it never really mattered if her pokemon have fully evolved or not, wether they're your average pretty milotic and sylveons you'd give to a coordinator. That's why I layed on pretty thick that May's performance with Munchlax wasn't bad, because she took something that was from Munchlax, improvised on it and made it appealing, even if it's not all sparks and fireworks. That's what's fun about contests. They're not showcases. Pokemon don't NEED to look pretty. if a pokemon has a good bond with their trainer and if they deliver an unique, special performance, then they're a good coordinator. I hate when people say she's not.
#CONCLUSION
the conclusion is;
1. may isn't a bad coordinator. she had a messy journey with ups and downs which make sense in her situation and her personality.
2. she shouldn't trust harley.
3. don't compare may with dawn or the other way around. they're completely different characters
4. contests aren't just about beauty. they're about a bond between trainer and pokemon and the performances they deliver, wether it be cool, tough, clever, cute or beautiful.
also PLEASE don't harass anyone or anything. i wanted to give my own view on this stuff, and if you've got input of your own please let me know! this wasn't mean in a derogatory way, instead as a lil post with all the facts and why i (personally) think it's not properly argumented. and if you don't agree w this that's good also. im only human after all...
