Dawn's a pretty good step up from May since she has a much more nuanced character and doesn't take as long to go through character development. But the less I say about how they ruined Iris, the better, tbh.

I think you're right! I'm pretty sure that Giovanni and Blue both didn't have type specialization in the games, and i'm pretty sure Giovanni didn't have a type specialization in the anime either. So I may just go that route with Ash, I think.