I feel this is all a matter of short-term vs. long term, and when it comes down to it, that Liko's story is taking a vastly different direction from Ash's story and things are handled quite differently as a result.
To put it in roughly comparative terms, Ash was pretty much akin to a shonen hero, like Goku or Naruto, when it came down to it, and his story was structured much like a shonen story. Think, obviously, Dragon Ball for instance. The basic structure of such a story is Friendship, Effort, and Victory. He was a hot-headed (though this cooled down later on), ambitious, and had a big dream of becoming a Pokemon Master. His story was about action, competition, and aiming to be the best at what the series is about, with the power of his friends helping him become the greatest.
Liko is quite the opposite. She's more akin to a shojo heroine, think Sailor Moon aka Usagi Tsukino for instance, and her storyline is closer to a lot of shojo stories. Her character is really more about personal growth and relationships, forming bonds with people, connecting with others, and her journeys with other people. She even starts out akin to a shojo protagonist: a schoolgirl living a normal life until she's thrust into adventure because of a special power/gift she has. She's very compassionate and empathetic, which seems to be a very clear major trait of hers that drives her story, especially in connecting with both Pokemon and people alike.
In that sense it's better to look at Horizons from the perspective of groups than just a single character. Especially since Liko is part of a larger group of people called the Rising Volt Tacklers. This isn't like Ash's story where he, as the protagonist, dominated the show 95% of the time. While Liko is the primary protagonist and viewpoint character of the current show like Ash was in his era, Liko's story is more about her connections with other characters, whether it be with Roy and Dot, her roommate Anne, and vice versa.
As for how threats are being handled, this is where short-term vs. long-term comes in. Yes, in the short term, you have other people carrying the weight for Liko right now, especially since the Explorers are a significantly bigger threat than Team Rocket, being genuinely competent and being powerful Trainers off the bat.
But long term, they'll eventually be able to hold their own and grow strong enough to the point where they will no longer need Friede or Diana or the like to aid them against the Explorers and the like. With this being a new anime and the fact that this is a long running show that will go on for years over several episodes, we don't know when they'll get here, especially with how sparse few opportunities they have right now to truly train and grow stronger, but it will happen, and it will need to happen at some point. Because frankly, Friede is putting it bluntly, a crutch character, akin to say, Oifey/Jagen characters in Fire Emblem. He's the strongest Trainer on the RVT and can hold off the Explorers for now, but he can only do so much: holding them off is the farthest he can do. But unlike Team Rocket, who were both incompetent and at the very most annoying nuisances to Ash, the Explorers are a serious threat that are expressly interested in Liko and holding them off isn't going to be enough: they need to be taken down completely and fully defeated. And that role isn't Friede's to fulfill, it's ultimately incumbent upon Liko herself to be able to grow strong enough that she can take them down and fully defeat them and put an end to their threat once and for all.
In that sense the latter part is important, because The Explorers are clearly a group that need to be defeated, and I do speculate that the climax of this story will involve Liko actually taking on the organization and destroying them. And Friede isn't going to do that: yes, he's holding them off, but that's as far as he can go, and Liko and Roy will have to surpass him at some point so they can get rid of The Explorers.
It's definitely setting up to be a slow paced adventure overall though, and I can sorta understand the frustration at how slow Liko's development seems to be, but those are certainly points that I felt were worth addressing. Ash's story and Liko's are very different in that regard, and I cannot say one is better than the other: whichever approach you prefer is up to you, the beholder, to decide. We all have our own tastes and perceptions after all. But I do think Liko needs to be looked at from a different angle and perspective from Ash because her story is a different style and direction, and I think that really can influence how you see her story right now. That said, the fact that she's so different is why I find her interesting right now, personally: instead of a repeat of Ash, who I did enjoy, Liko has her own story to tell and its own way of unfolding, and as slow as it may be I still look forward to seeing Liko and Roy grow into great Trainers someday.
(apologies for the ramble, just had a lot to talk about here)
To put it in roughly comparative terms, Ash was pretty much akin to a shonen hero, like Goku or Naruto, when it came down to it, and his story was structured much like a shonen story. Think, obviously, Dragon Ball for instance. The basic structure of such a story is Friendship, Effort, and Victory. He was a hot-headed (though this cooled down later on), ambitious, and had a big dream of becoming a Pokemon Master. His story was about action, competition, and aiming to be the best at what the series is about, with the power of his friends helping him become the greatest.
Liko is quite the opposite. She's more akin to a shojo heroine, think Sailor Moon aka Usagi Tsukino for instance, and her storyline is closer to a lot of shojo stories. Her character is really more about personal growth and relationships, forming bonds with people, connecting with others, and her journeys with other people. She even starts out akin to a shojo protagonist: a schoolgirl living a normal life until she's thrust into adventure because of a special power/gift she has. She's very compassionate and empathetic, which seems to be a very clear major trait of hers that drives her story, especially in connecting with both Pokemon and people alike.
In that sense it's better to look at Horizons from the perspective of groups than just a single character. Especially since Liko is part of a larger group of people called the Rising Volt Tacklers. This isn't like Ash's story where he, as the protagonist, dominated the show 95% of the time. While Liko is the primary protagonist and viewpoint character of the current show like Ash was in his era, Liko's story is more about her connections with other characters, whether it be with Roy and Dot, her roommate Anne, and vice versa.
As for how threats are being handled, this is where short-term vs. long-term comes in. Yes, in the short term, you have other people carrying the weight for Liko right now, especially since the Explorers are a significantly bigger threat than Team Rocket, being genuinely competent and being powerful Trainers off the bat.
But long term, they'll eventually be able to hold their own and grow strong enough to the point where they will no longer need Friede or Diana or the like to aid them against the Explorers and the like. With this being a new anime and the fact that this is a long running show that will go on for years over several episodes, we don't know when they'll get here, especially with how sparse few opportunities they have right now to truly train and grow stronger, but it will happen, and it will need to happen at some point. Because frankly, Friede is putting it bluntly, a crutch character, akin to say, Oifey/Jagen characters in Fire Emblem. He's the strongest Trainer on the RVT and can hold off the Explorers for now, but he can only do so much: holding them off is the farthest he can do. But unlike Team Rocket, who were both incompetent and at the very most annoying nuisances to Ash, the Explorers are a serious threat that are expressly interested in Liko and holding them off isn't going to be enough: they need to be taken down completely and fully defeated. And that role isn't Friede's to fulfill, it's ultimately incumbent upon Liko herself to be able to grow strong enough that she can take them down and fully defeat them and put an end to their threat once and for all.
In that sense the latter part is important, because The Explorers are clearly a group that need to be defeated, and I do speculate that the climax of this story will involve Liko actually taking on the organization and destroying them. And Friede isn't going to do that: yes, he's holding them off, but that's as far as he can go, and Liko and Roy will have to surpass him at some point so they can get rid of The Explorers.
It's definitely setting up to be a slow paced adventure overall though, and I can sorta understand the frustration at how slow Liko's development seems to be, but those are certainly points that I felt were worth addressing. Ash's story and Liko's are very different in that regard, and I cannot say one is better than the other: whichever approach you prefer is up to you, the beholder, to decide. We all have our own tastes and perceptions after all. But I do think Liko needs to be looked at from a different angle and perspective from Ash because her story is a different style and direction, and I think that really can influence how you see her story right now. That said, the fact that she's so different is why I find her interesting right now, personally: instead of a repeat of Ash, who I did enjoy, Liko has her own story to tell and its own way of unfolding, and as slow as it may be I still look forward to seeing Liko and Roy grow into great Trainers someday.
(apologies for the ramble, just had a lot to talk about here)
-utely nothing we got on other media like the games, but still, very little. One can argue Mega Evolution doesn't fare better thanks to the anime skipping AZ and his WMD, but I am still to this day mad at the lack of information we got on the Bond Phenomenon.
Greninja first gain this Ability? Is it related to Mega Evolution? Can 
Froakie and 
Frogadier use Bond Phenomenon?
