I really liked that they brought Dawn back for a little adventure with the new gang. Continuing on in Unova, I missed Diamond and Pearl more than I'd expected to. Though that little adventure was brought down a bit by Meloetta... the Mary-Sue Pokémon. I know Japan has a thing for idols, but she just... annoyed me. This powerful, important, damsel-in-distress legendary that everyone just can't help but fall in love with? Gag me. But the conflict with Meloetta did finally reveal Team Rocket's big plan, which was also... interesting. I mentioned that I liked what they were doing with Team Rocket in the past season-- portraying them as a formidable villain for once, and I was glad to see that come together. But it does feel a little strange that, of all places, in this season that hasn't even been particularly good... this is where Ash finally meets and confronts Giovanni. Who's on a quest to summon the dumbest-looking legendaries this world has ever seen. The episodes were handled quite well, but... I don't know. It just didn't feel right. And I'm wondering where this defeat leaves Team Rocket now. They all went back to Kanto together. Will the writers try to play it off as if their brief success was totally inconsequential and revert Jessie, James, and Meowth back to their usual pathetic selves? (Is it too much to hope that they'll just disappear for good, never to be seen again?)
Anyway, as this season reached its midway point, I was fairly pleased. There were a lot of things these 24 episodes did well. I surprised myself by really liking the episodes dedicated to developing Iris. I think she now has the most depth of any Unova character, and my opinion of her might just be softening a bit. And then we moved on to the Unova league and, as with the first conflict of this season, I'm about half and half when it comes to enjoyment.
There have been a few things the writers tried to do differently in Unova, and I've approved of most of them. (Especially because lack of originality was one of their biggest shortcomings starting out.) And while I appreciate switching things up a bit... I mean, do I even have to say it? There's a reason you don't write the match against the important rival as the very first qualifying battle of the tournament. I really like how much Trip seems to have grown since their last encounter, but I wish we'd seen a lot more of it. The final battle against the big rival of this season as just a one-on-one match? Not satisfying at all, in my opinion. I just didn't really care about any of Ash's other rivals, so after beating Trip and getting to move on, it was sort of inevitable that whoever he did end up losing to was going to be disappointing. Especially because the writers ended up going with Cameron, who's just stupidly strong. As well as being just stupid, period. Like, his strength does not make sense to me. But I digress...
The next season is even shorter, but I think I'm okay with that. Best Wishes redeemed itself a little... But I don't anticipate missing Unova like I missed Sinnoh. The time to move on to X and Y, which I've heard is really good, cannot come soon enough.
