Was Misty the writers least favorite pokemon girl?

[precita]

I can't help but think that the writers never really liked having Misty in the series. As someone who has watched most of every saga of the series, this is why I think this:

1. Misty was the first classic Kanto character to leave the show. Ash, Brock and Team Rocket all lasted in the anime for 13+ years (and Brock only just recently left), while Misty was dropped way back in 2002, back when the anime was still at the beginning of its lifecycle. She was officially the shortest-lived classic Kanto character of the series.

2. As we can see now, Misty's departure at the end of Johto was indeed quite permanent. Misty stayed gone permanently for the entire duration of the series and was never allowed back into the main cast in any of the following arcs.

3. Misty's cameos/guest appearances have stopped entirely. The last time Misty had a real appearance in the show was way back in 2005 when Ash came home from the Hoenn league. That was 7 years ago! She appeared in flashbacks in the recent Best Wishes series, but flashbacks don't really count. The writers don't even allow Misty to come back for 2-3 episodes anymore like she did during Hoenn, now she's completely ignored.

4. All the biggest water-related plotlines in the anime happened AFTER she left. Hoenn had Team Aqua which was a villain team all about water. Movie 9 was a blatantly water-themed Pokemon movie with a legendary who was the "prince of the sea." Wallace appears in the DP series as a, "Water Pokemon Master coordinator" and Misty doesn't get to meet him. They gave May blatant water-themed plotlines instead of using Misty for them.

5. Dawn got a Togekiss. Back at the start of the anime, Togepi was exclusively associated with Misty and no other character ever had a Togepi in fillers in the series. Then instead of Misty reuniting with her Togetic, the writers decide to debut Togekiss with Dawn instead.

6. With the current 5th gen anime drawing to a close, this is the second generation in a row where Misty did not get to return. The writers didn't have her appear in a single episode over the entire span of the DP arc, and it looks like she won't appear in the Best Wishes series either.

7. She was probably the worst treated of all the female leads in the series. She barely got much screentime and was always kept on the sidelines while Ash did everything. In many ways May, Dawn and Iris all got bigger roles in their respective sagas than she got, making it seem like Misty wasn't very important.

8. Misty did not get an ending theme in the Japanese version of the anime, while other female leads did.

9. The writers dropped Misty the first opportunity they got, which leads me to believe they might have dropped her at the end of Orange Islands if a female lead from the games existed with G/S instead of Crystal.


Thoughts on this? I realize a lot of you haven't kept up with the anime, but for those of us who have it really seemed like the writers royally screwed Misty over in every single way possible.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Well there were some eppies concentrated around Misty like Princess VS Princess. That was total Misty glory. Sadly, I can agree with many of your points, but the writers have been changing the female characters ever since they abandoned Misty. May and Dawn didn't have so much better treatment in my opinion.

[CaptainJigglypuff]

I believe Iris has the LEAST character to her right now as all we really know about her is she is from the Village of Dragons, wants to be a Dragon master, hates the cold, and trained under Drayden at the Pokemon school in Opelucid City. She has less than eight episode focusing mainly on her where Misty had maybe twelve and Dawn and May both had Contest episodes. Iris's biggest episodes were her in Opelucid City and batling Drayden. Iris just seems so one sided right now. I mean we know a bit more than Cilan in that he is a Pokemon coneseur (not sure of the spelling), is a triplet, was one of Striton City's Gym Leaders, enjoys movies, photos, cooking, mysteries, and subways, and has a still unexplained fear of Purrloin.

[precita]

I believe Iris has the LEAST character to her right now as all we really know about her is she is from the Village of Dragons, wants to be a Dragon master, hates the cold, and trained under Drayden at the Pokemon school in Opelucid City. She has less than eight episode focusing mainly on her where Misty had maybe twelve and Dawn and May both had Contest episodes. Iris's biggest episodes were her in Opelucid City and batling Drayden. Iris just seems so one sided right now. I mean we know a bit more than Cilan in that he is a Pokemon coneseur (not sure of the spelling), is a triplet, was one of Striton City's Gym Leaders, enjoys movies, photos, cooking, mysteries, and subways, and has a still unexplained fear of Purrloin.

Oh I'm not talking about total episode count. Misty was in the show longer than the others, but its only because Johto dragged on with the fillers. If Iris leaves at the end of the 5th gen she will be the shortest-lived Pokemon girl overall but I almost feel like the writers are treated her like Misty should have been handled.

Iris competed in 3 tournaments in only 100 episodes....it took Misty her entire 270+ episode run just to do that. Iris got an all-powerful fully evolved Dragonite while she was on the cast, Misty was left with a rather lackluster team until they gave her Gyarados but only after she left.

Lastly anyone noticed Misty had no real rivals in the series? Whenever she got a rival it was just for one episode, while May/Dawn/Iris have recurring rivals they compete against throughout their entire run.

I just think the writers didn't know what to do with Misty. They tried to make her into Ash's love interest but then abandoned the idea, then tried to focus a bit more on her water pokemon goal but didn't really do much with it, and they they removed her for the rest of the series. Even Tracey gets more regular cameos and appearances than Misty does, and considering how minor a character Tracey is, that's pretty sad.

[CaptainJigglypuff]

Oh I'm not talking about total episode count. Misty was in the show longer than the others, but its only because Johto dragged on with the fillers. If Iris leaves at the end of the 5th gen she will be the shortest-lived Pokemon girl overall but I almost feel like the writers are treated her like Misty should have been handled.

Iris competed in 3 tournaments in only 100 episodes....it took Misty her entire 270+ episode run just to do that. Iris got an all-powerful fully evolved Dragonite while she was on the cast, Misty was left with a rather lackluster team until they gave her Gyarados but only after she left.

Lastly anyone noticed Misty had no real rivals in the series? Whenever she got a rival it was just for one episode, while May/Dawn/Iris have recurring rivals they compete against throughout their entire run.

I just think the writers didn't know what to do with Misty. They tried to make her into Ash's love interest but then abandoned the idea, then tried to focus a bit more on her water pokemon goal but didn't really do much with it, and they they removed her for the rest of the series. Even Tracey gets more regular cameos and appearances than Misty does, and considering how minor a character Tracey is, that's pretty sad.

You are forgetting that Misty's rivals came in the form of her older and prettier sisters
. Misty left Cerulean mainly because she didn't feel she fit in and was tired of being treated like a much weaker person by her siblings. You have to remember that she tried several times to outshine them with accomplishments and would call to rub it in her sisters faces when she achieved something. So Misty had sibling rivalry even though it was featured as much during her run.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Misty's Psyduck was enough reason for me to like having her around

[CaptainJigglypuff]

^ I agree. Psyduck's brainless antics and Togepi getting into trouble was worth it. I especially liked the one episode where a Shellder attached itself to 'Ducky's head!

[precita]

Misty was good up until about the first Johto season, then she started to get boring. Once the writers took away Misty's temper and stopped having her battle she became really uninteresting. Kind of the same reason Brock got boring in the DP saga, he lost almost everything that made him once interesting.

It also bothers me that Misty and Brock hardly have any major battles in the series. I remember the last time I rewatched the early seasons I couldn't believe how little Misty battled in the series, and how often she would be interuppted by Psyduck preventing her from having any decent battles.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Filled with fillers, Johto did no good to many characters, including Misty and Brock. Even Team Rocket, whose appearance in every episode was so funny all because, well, it happened in every episode, became boring in Johto.

Also, don't forget Psyduck saved Misty and others in several episodes like Ninja-Poke Showdown and So Near, Yet So Farfetch'd. Note also Psyduck didn't make too many appearances after Orange Islands. I'm not saying I completely disagree with you and you probably noticed that from my posts in this thread but I think all Pokemon characters in general don't have so much depth in them. Well depth to some extent but there could be more.

I liked Misty, and I also liked May and especially Dawn. Iris has her moments as well. Other than the main female characters, I have to say Bel/Bianca has stolen my heart recently.

[Blademaster]

The token bitch with the annoying voice and almost zero characterization (even for Pokemon) gets poorly treated and is nearly forgotten from the canon?

You don't say...

[Magmar]

...Water Pokemon Master...

ONOZ you better not be or I swear to God

But yeah, Misty was kind of bland as a character anyway. There's only so much you can do with a character who specializes pretty much exclusively in one element of Pokemon.

[precita]

Misty was great during Kanto and Orange Islands, and she had lots of humor and good episodes. Johto is where her character began to wane, but the anime in general started to get dull around this point.

It kinda surprises me when you realize its been 10 full years in real life since Misty left back in 2002/2003. I remember when we first heard the news about Misty leaving and being replaced by May....its so hard to believe that was 10 years ago now. I remember when May was considered the, "new Pokemon girl," too. Hard to believe May is a decade old herself.