Meh. Piplup's emotional antics left a bad taste in my mouth after the end of DP. The pokemon was, for a lack of better terminology, "whored out" throughout the second half of the series. Dawn's Piplup had a lot of episodes where the focus was primarily on itself, and to add insult to injury, some of these had similar if not the exact same plotlines that provided development to Ash's Pikachu back in Kanto. The most notable aspect of Piplup's role as mascot character was that it had been the series's primary source of comic relief once the other main pokemon began to evolve and mature in personality. Perhaps this was the reason why the writers felt that it was appropriate to shove Piplup into anything and everything that they could possibly think of.

Consequently, the writers's decision to turn Piplup into the "mascot" had lessened the focus on those pokemon that had a lot of character development in the first half of the series. Once Piplup began to take the reigns with the direction of the series, Pachirisu was reduced to learning a new attack in the first five minutes of an episode and Ash's Grotle/Torterra's Energy Ball powerup was never brought up again after it was first used. There were similar cases with the other pokemon, but generally the writers began to cut corners with their screentime and development once the writers had decided to explicitly focus on Piplup.

Piplup's mascot role was so overused by the writers that they began to associate the success of the series with how they could make the pokemon relevant to a situation or plotline that it should not be involved with. For example, before the start of Ash's last battle against Paul in the Sinnoh League Conference, the writers spent a few minutes with Dawn giving Piplup a cheering costume to wear during the battle. Although it may appear to be a nod to Pikachu's Edo period clothing that the pokemon usually wore during important events in pre-BW, Piplup was never seen wearing the costume in any of the previous battles during the Sinnoh League. It simply felt like something that the writers had to do to stretch the battle out to three episodes, and the writers were unable to provide this filler in any other way than to focus on Piplup as the de facto mascot character.

That is not to say I didn't like some aspects of Piplup's characterization in DP.

For one, I did like how Piplup was truly established as Dawn's partner and main pokemon right from the beginning. Even in the first half of the series, when the pokemon was not kept constantly outside of his Poke Ball, Piplup truly cared about his trainer and wanted to do everything he could to impress her or to make her happy (the most notable example being DP007, where Piplup tried its hardest to master a contest appeal for its trainer). In this aspect, the writers had succeeded with Piplup where they had failed with May's Torchic in the first eighty or so episodes of AG when they shafted the latter pokemon for the other pokemon May had obtained and used in contests.

The writers tried to compensate with this later on when they eventually evolved May's Torchic into Combusken, but it still hardly bonded with its trainer like Piplup did with Dawn, and it did not even have half of the number of episodes of focus that Piplup received in DP. Combusken simply felt like a powerhouse after it evolved, especially when it was compared with the unevolved and inexperienced pokemon that May was given access to in the later stages of AG. I never felt that Torchic-Combusken-Blaziken was May's signature pokemon until the very end of AG. May was shown to bond more with her Beautifly, Skitty, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and even her Munchlax and Eevee than she ever did with her starter. With the exception of a few episodes near the start of AG (the most notable being Drew's debut episode), I don't think May has ever bonded with her starter on-screen. In my opinion, that was the biggest flaw of May's character in AG.

I am glad that the writers have used Piplup in DP to more than compensate for the lack of main character-first pokemon interactions that were hardly present in AG. Even though Dawn did obtain a lot of pokemon in such a short amount of time, even more so than May had did in her run, the writers hardly detracted from presenting Piplup as her most important pokemon. Piplup was used in a lot of battles, from fighting Kenny's evolved Prinplup in Dawn's very first contest victory to battling May and her Glaceon in the Wallace Cup.

Even though Piplup's refusal to evolve episode appeared to be another account the writers took from Pikachu's notebook, the interactions that Dawn and Piplup had in that episode were truly heartfelt and genuine. Piplup actually cared what his trainer thought when he had decided to disappoint her by refusing to evolve, and was simply unable to handle the stress of choosing between pleasing his trainer and doing what he felt he wanted. In quite a few of these episodes, Piplup was shown to be more than just a simple comic relief device or a Pikachu clone. Piplup may have had more screentime later on DP than he should have had, but it was because of this that we truly cared what happened to the pokemon when it really counted.

Secondly, I did like some of the interactions that Piplup had with the other pokemon that belonged to the main characters. Two of these pokemon in particular, Ash's Gible and Dawn's Togekiss, had interacted with Piplup a great deal even though they were only seen on the main cast for less than 40 episodes. Although Piplup being struck by Gible's uncontrolled Draco Meteor attack may have been the writers's attempt at forcing the pokemon into comic relief moments, this simple recurring gag had proven itself to be a very useful tool for character development and plot transition.

As expected of the emotional mascot, Piplup was bothered by the fact that it kept getting bombarded by Gible's attacks and its trainer did not do anything to help it out. Piplup wanted to lash out at Gible, but the latter pokemon was too dense to understand the repercussions of its actions until somebody else pointed it out. Gible eventually apologized for unintentionally hitting Piplup with its attack, but he still used the attack occassionally when Piplup was separated from the main characters. Introducing Piplup into the Gible mastering Draco Meteor subplot not only broadened Piplup's character development and sparked the character's relationship with another main pokemon, but it also made Gible a relevant pokemon in some of the episodes where the gag had been implemented.

And now in the latter case: Dawn's Togekiss may have been on the main cast for only twenty episodes and was only seen in half of them, but she still interacted with Piplup a great deal in the final episodes of the series. Very rarely in this series (in any region) do we have two pokemon that truly bond in the way that Piplup and Togekiss had in DP. Piplup may have appeared to be spoiled and impatient on the surface of its character interactions, but it still presented a soft side when he was in the presence of Togekiss. As an older and more mature pokemon, Togekiss acted like a foster mother or even an older sister to Piplup; perhaps the writers had wanted to liken Piplup's emotional state to that of a young boy after all.

When Piplup was hit by Gible's Draco Meteor, Togekiss scolded Gible. In the final episode of DP, Piplup was bawling tears after he found out that he would be separated from Ash, Brock, and their pokemon. Pikachu and Piplup may have been forced to stick together like glue for the second half of DP, but it was still sad to watch the two pokemon cry together when they were separated. What I truly loved of this interaction was how Togekiss was involved and calmed the two pokemon down. This may have been a brief moment during the episode, but the interactions that Piplup had with both Pikachu and Togekiss in this scene were truly genuine. These are far cries than the usual comedic (or at the very least, forced comedic) moments that Piplup is usually engaged with throughout the second half of DP.

To summarize, there were some aspects of Piplup that I did enjoy and others that I felt were good at first but eventually became overbearing in time. Overall, I felt Piplup's character in DP was a success; I found that there were more pros than cons with the pokemon's development and personality. But I am starting to get a little worried; some of Piplup's emotional outbursts appeared to have rubbed off on Pikachu in BW.