So, how Dawnâs contest arc would go if Ursula wasnât there?
Originally this post was going to about Zoey and Ursulaâs relationship, both in the show and metafictionally. But I figured it needed to be bigger. We previously discussed extensively how Sinnoh constests would go if Ursula wasnât there in relation to Dawnâs character growth, and general assumption was negative. But there is something to discuss how it would improve other characters.
*First of would be the character that inspired this post, Zoey. One of the weirder metanarrative non-sequiturs of DP was Zoeyâs parallels with Lila being switched out in favour of establishing more parallels between Johanna. There are two major reasons for this change. First reason is of course Ursula herself, who is explicitly designed to be direct parallel with Lila. Second reason is of course, Zoey shifted from a goal for Dawn to beat at the end of the series to a more aspirational goal.
Obviously, if Ursula doesnât exist, then Zoey would remain as Lilaâs successor, despite having no real direct relation to her. This would both mean:
**Zoey would have to adapt some of Lilaâs contesting elements, like performing alongside her PokĂŠmon, instead of deliberately choosing the sidelines.
**Remain more abrasive as she was in the earlier series. Especially develop her aversion towards League tourneys and why it would be actually good idea to Dawn to do both or not.
**And of course, eventually lose to Dawn, which would either require a Solidad-esque character to be introduced at the last time, or have Dawn actually win, while Ash loses the League. The latter option is not feasible thanks to Pearlshipping marketing, so hello Dawn contest rival no 6.5?
*Second change would be of course Kenny. With no Ursula around, the whole Diamond Dandruff stuff would have to revolve around him. We donât exactly need him to have a Plusle or Minun, as their backstory will switched for a different noodle incident. In fact, we donât even need to know what caused the Dee Dee nickname. It can remain as a secret like Irisâ biological parents.
However, we would still need to resolve their conflict. If we are going to keep his GF loss to parallel with Gary in Kanto and Barry in DP, then we would need a mid-game ending for Dawn and Kennyâs rivalry. This would also allow us to keep Kenny within GF after his loss to have more direct parallel with Barry, or write a better conclusion for him, since Dawn and Kenny would respect each other as coordinators as first and foremost.
*Third change would be Jessie: Despite making it to Sinnoh GF, Jessie contributes less to Dawnâs character arc than she did with May. To correct that, with no Ursula around, instead of focusing on the underdeveloped rivalry between Jessie and Ursula, we can further develop Dawnâs rivalry with Jessie. We can have one of Dawnâs victories or losses be against Jessie, which would then lead to a full episode battle in GF.
There isnât much else to say really. Of course, Jessie wonât adapt Ursulaâs strategy in Dawnâs second contest against Kenny with no Ursula, and she wonât get the cool âCandy Onee-samaâ nickname, but she would get one or two more episodes that focus on her instead of those, which would be potentially more important.
*Fourth change would be Princess Salvia and Togekiss: With no Ursula around, there would be no coordinator for Salviaâs contest style to reference to. She would keep her choker in casual outfit since that is an old movie reference, but without Ursula there isnât much of a point for Salvia to exist the way she exists now. Either her contest style and PokĂŠmon would something else (something closer to Jessie or maybe even Nando maybe), or she would exist under different circumstances.
*And who would be Dawnâs fourth/fifth rival would be?: General assumption back in the forums was that if Ursula didnât exist, Conway would have been the Barry analogue (as the late-game rival). While this would be extremely cool, there are few issues with this:
**Conway being Dawnâs rival pre-League would mean two of Ashâs League rivals are actually coordinators and League participants. Not only would this mean lots of recycling of characters, it would mean Zoeyâs ideology of âOnly one you must chooseâ is fundamentally wrong.
But we canât have Dawnâs primary rival and mentor to fundamentally wrong, so we would need to handicap Conway to save Zoey, or actually accept this fact.
**Conway wouldnât have much time to get all the ribbons both in-universe and out-universe. So he would somehow magically turn out to be legit good coordinator in the last half of the series, or we would have handicap him somehow.
First way to do so by not having him make it to the GF, but we need a rival for GF regardless. Which means we would reintroduce one of the older one-off coordinators to be a punching bag for Dawn, like Kyle, Rebecca or Mario.
Second way to would be by making him the Nando of the group. Since Jessie already covers for Conway himself (the dark horse that does surprisingly well), Conway could be niche entry opponent like Nando was. In this way, he would manage to get in GF and pass Appeals Round, but lose early on.
Of course, having Conway as the final new rival would require both an introduction (since under this structure it cannot happen during the camp mini-arc, as that precedes both Barry and Ursulaâs introductions) and definite, but probably crappy appeals style (Conway already has an established battling style, so we can keep it for the contests). However, this would have an inverse-Ursula situation, as Dawn would have to use the timer and points to defeat Conway, not physically beat him. Otherwise, he would not be a serious League rival for Ash.
*There isnât much of a way keep Nando as a rival for Dawn rather than Zoey, since Nando becoming Zoeyâs rival was established fairly early on. Undoing would be both difficult and unrelated to Ursulaâs existence or non-existence.
*Dawnâs victories pre-Ursula wonât be retroactively be undone with Ursulaâs non-existence. Only their contexts will change.
***Without Ursula, Dawnâs victory Kenny would remain their rivalryâs establishing moment, but it would remain mostly for Piplup proving its strength against evolution. Kenny would need a proper loss against Dawn either before or during GF to cap their rivalry.
***May would still lose to Dawn to hammer in Zoeyâs point. But since Ursula wouldnât exist in this scenario, Wallace Cup victory would be point for the idea that a Coordinator should not also do the League, with May being the more conventional trainer losing to Dawn, even if it is intentional on Mayâs part.
***Even without Ursula, Lila would both still exist and be important, albeit for Zoey as she was originally intended to be in this new scenario, as a narrative counterpart.
***Even without Ursula, we would need to fourth/fifth rival for Dawn to match Barry. If it isnât Conway, it would have to be another character.
***Even without Ursula, Dawn would require a Solidad analogue to lose to win against Zoey. So you would still need Dawn to either lose against Zoey (somehow), or have her lose against someone else, because Nando wonât be an option.
***I may or may not do a âif x rival didnât existâ for Dawnâs other rivals and other rivals in general. We already discussed about Kenny not existing, but we havenât talked much about a scenario where Zoey didnât exist. In the latter, most of us in Bulbagarden Forums thought Ursula or Conway would be the main rival, but there would be much more after effects if Zoey didnât exist that might require its own post.
