Do you think the writers neglected Misty in the series when she was around?

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precita

Aspiring Trainer
Member
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 permanantly. 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.

10. She's the only female lead with no ongoing rivals, unlike May/Dawn/Iris.


Thoughts on this? It almost felt like they treated her as a placeholder character until they had others to replace her with. Even though both May and Dawn left the show too (and Iris will leave shortly), they all just feel like the writers cared about the way they handled them. Any thoughts?
 
Those are some very interesting points you mentioned, especially about the movie with Manaphy. But Manaphy did not exist yet when Misty was Ash's companion and it would have been weird to have her return for the movie. The newer characters have indeed all had bigger roles than Misty, but I think it is mainly because the writers wanted to change the course of the anime. For example, generation 3 introduced contests. It would have been strange if Misty decided to enter contests while her dream is becoming a Water-type Pokémon Master. Something like that did not exist in the first generation, and the fact she didn't have a real rival has to do with that, I believe. I do remember, however, she met another trainer that wanted to be a Water-type Pokémon Master, and they battled. I know this is not comparable to the rivals May, Dawn, and Iris have, but I think it has to do with the evolving and changing of the anime, rather than the writers not liking her. I think it also has to do with the fact that the writers want to give new characters from the game screen time in the anime.

I would like to see Misty return or get to see more specials where she is the lead. I feel the same for many other characters that starred in the show.
 
Your reasons really made me think about this. Maybe she was somewhat neglected, but it's possible that May, Dawn and Iris weren't because the writers saw that neglecting the female companion was a mistake? I don't know, but there sure are some interesting theories behind this. It would be nice to see Misty return, even if it is only for a few episodes.
 
I think that the writers stopped to like Misty so they decided to replace her with another girl. They clearly say that Misty will not come back to the show as a main character and we should lose all hopes for seeing her traveling with Ash. Maybe she will appear in the special episodes but that is all we can hope for. The writers create the new heroines, even if they share the same personality with the older characters (Misty-Iris, May-Dawn). Maybe they believe that people will not remember what kind of personality the older girls had? I don't know. They probably believe that the only people who watch the show are 4-7 years old kids.
Drohn said:
It would have been strange if Misty decided to enter contests while her dream is becoming a Water-type Pokémon Master.
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It would not have been strange. People change and their goals may change with them. Misty could have found the contests interesting. Showing beauty, coolness and strength of the water-type pokemon could have been her new goal. But the writers prefered to replace her with May. Later they replaced May with Dawn, who was exactly like May, but had different looks. The D/P saga was over, the main girl from W/B was too hot to show in the anime, so they decided made Iris the heroine.

Sorry, I'm just mad when I think about it.
 
Hindsight.

That's the answer you are looking for, and the reason for your questions.

The only reason you found those patterns is because of hindsight, you think the present explains the past, when actually, it's the other way around. Misty left and the series just continued its natural process of evolving (we all know it's not true, but let's say so for the sake of the argument), Drohn has many good points.

And with the later introduction of pokemon and storylines thinly connected to misty... think about it for a second: wouldn't be horribly forced to bring misty back exclusively for the manaphy movie? or the aqua plot? or togekiss? they pushed their luck when they brought her back and togepi evolved and left; it was incredibly forced. More of that would have been pretty stupid.

Vulpix said:
People change and their goals may change with them
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Misty changed. She decided to stay in the gym and actually be a gym leader, instead of f*** around with a perpetual 10 year old the rest of her life. She, unlike the show, actually matured. So, even from your own, hindsighted perspective, she is better off not appearing in the series anymore, it means she grew. Brock took some time, but he is now studying to be a doctor, and he wanted to be just a breeder: he grew too. Even gary m**********g oak grew! he ditched the cheerleaders and is now assisting oak, and guess what, he's not in the show anymore either!. Now, that's a pattern, I'd say.

Ash, meanwhile, is still yapping about being the pokemon master, without giving any thought to it. Pardoning the reference, he's a god damn cutie mark crusader. To. The. Letter. If you want an example more close to pokemon, ash is what would have happened if, in BW, bianca hadn't realized that not everyone can be a pokemon trainer, just pursuing fruitlessly her "dream" without growing up.
 
I wrote my post as a fan who would like to see Misty again but I have to admit that your point is good. Misty was forced by her sisters to coming back but later she probably started to like her job as a gym leader. I think she should start her own journey or challenge stronger trainers, if she wants to become a master. Battling young, not advanced trainers will not make her stronger. I can't tell how she she is actually planning to make her dream real because we haven't seen her for a very long time. We had a chance to see Brock and Dawn, but no Misty. Honestly, I would be disappointed, if she didn't grown. Now I remembered that Koga (who was a gym leader) became a Elite4 member, so maybe Misty's future is bright as well? I hope so.
 
That's simply because Misty and Brock didn't get much character development while traveling with Ash. Sure they got some episodes from time to time, but nothing major because they could never overshadow Ash. Most of Misty's development happens AFTER she leaves Ash.

Also at this point its been a decade since Misty left the show, so she's far too old for the writers to even think about bothering with anymore. Old Pokemon can easily be brought back like Charizard because they're the selling point of the franchise. But an old human character? Not so much.

To be honest I'm surprised Brock lasted as long as he did, since they could have theoretically axed him for good at the end of Johto when Misty did. People only wrongly assumed Misty/Brock would be important since the show started with them, if they weren't the first companions nobody would think such a thing.
 
Yes they Neglected her IMHO

I was hoping for a Ash / Misty romance but didnt happen ( I used to read alot of Ash+Misty fanfics from 1999-2001)

Also she had better lines and part in story in the Pokemon News Paper comics :D

Maybe she'll be in Kalos :)
 
JamesBond said:
I haven't kept up with the all the seasons yet, But I hope misty isnt permanently gone :(
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Dude, she's been permanantly gone since 2002, that was 10 years ago.

All she got after that was a few brief episodes in Hoenn and she never appeared in any generation since. She's only brought up in flashbacks from time to time when the writers reference a Kanto episode.

To say Misty isn't long gone after they've brought 4 female leads after her is laughable.
 
It's been 7 years since she last appeared? That's quite sad. Doesn't seem that long to me. I do hope that she comes back for a future episode or two, I'm fully aware that its not that likely though.

Vulpix said:
]It would not have been strange. People change and their goals may change with them. Misty could have found the contests interesting. Showing beauty, coolness and strength of the water-type pokemon could have been her new goal.
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I see her going completely gaga over a Tentacool she caught using Ice Beam in a contest. We all know how cute she thinks those things are.

professorlight said:
Ash, meanwhile, is still yapping about being the pokemon master, without giving any thought to it. Pardoning the reference, he's a god damn cutie mark crusader. To. The. Letter.
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That gave me the chuckle of the night. That'll probably go on the list of things I have to draw. Though, now that you point it out, he completely is. And it's kinda sad.
 
Axell Starr said:
It's been 7 years since she last appeared? That's quite sad. Doesn't seem that long to me. I do hope that she comes back for a future episode or two, I'm fully aware that its not that likely though.
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Misty has been gone for 10 years, which means she was only in the show for about 30% of its total run. Her last cameo was 7 years ago during the Hoenn era...she's never been given an appearance outside of flashbacks since Gen III...we're now 3 gens later.

I really don't think some of you realize that Misty left at the very beginning of the anime's history. The show was only 5 years old when Misty left....its now entering its 17th year. Misty was a very short-lived character in terms of the overall series. For comparison all the other classic Kanto characters were in literally double the amount of episodes she was in, Brock outlasted her by a good 400 episodes.
 
I agree with Drohn and professorlight.
After Johto, it's common for Ash to travel with the game's female player so Misty couldn't return as a travel companion in Hoenn (Aqua plot), the movie or any of Ash's journeys. I think the Togekiss point is the weakest of arguments since Misty and Togetic departed when in Mirage Kingdom and a return would be stretching the rope way too much.
Like professorlight, I too think that Misty (and almost every other character!) is better off without Ash, for the same reasons that professorlight said and I add up: Ash is a never aging kid who aims to be a master and yet still makes rookie mistakes (not counting the XY series). Not only that, Ash is always "stealing the thunder" from his partners since he's always up for contests, aerial challenges, etc., stuff where it should be his partners getting the spotlight.
I hated the episode where Ash caught Totodile not only because it made more sense for Misty to capture it but as one of Ash's Pokémon it was a wasted potencial (now that I speak of it, why can't Ash just give Totodile to Misty? Why has Ash to keep every Pokémon at Oak's lab, just doing nothing...wasted potencial).

I sure would love if Misty were to make a return but in some specials, like Chronicles (since Misty used to fish and so too Cilan, the two could meet up (I'm not a Cilan hater).
 
precita said:
Axell Starr said:
It's been 7 years since she last appeared? That's quite sad. Doesn't seem that long to me. I do hope that she comes back for a future episode or two, I'm fully aware that its not that likely though.
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Misty has been gone for 10 years, which means she was only in the show for about 30% of its total run. Her last cameo was 7 years ago during the Hoenn era...she's never been given an appearance outside of flashbacks since Gen III...we're now 3 gens later.
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By appeared, I meant since she showed in an episode/made a cameo.
 
Looking back I guess Misty was nothing more than a trial and error character. She was obviously only there because there weren't any females from the games to make into main characters yet, and since they were choosing Brock choosing the first female Gym leader made sense too.

Misty hasn't been part of the anime for 10 years and over 500 episodes now, so she really was axed at essentially the very beginning of the anime and phased out for the rest of the series.
 
No, because if you look at DP Takeshi, he's been neglected way more. Characters like Iris and Dent on the other hand, had very little personality and were just stuck saying catchphrases the whole time.
Misty had a much bigger personality than either Dent or Iris, even if her role was smaller. At least you could tell the writers cared about interesting characters back in Gens 1 and 2 and the Johto fillers are some of my faviourite episodes, because there's a lot of kooky and interesting characters and personalities, like that Bellsprout in A Bout with a Sprout and that crazy dancing nursery school teacher.
 
Blob55 said:
No, because if you look at DP Takeshi, he's been neglected way more. Characters like Iris and Dent on the other hand, had very little personality and were just stuck saying catchphrases the whole time.
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Well DP Brock was obviously treated the worst, but that's because he overstayed his welcome in the anime by two generations. Misty on the other hand left when she was supposed to (at the end of the original series), and even in her own series she was neglected.

The way I see it Brock's stay in AG and DP was just "extra innings" for him, his role ended in the anime with Johto's conclusion.

Misty had a much bigger personality than either Dent or Iris, even if her role was smaller. At least you could tell the writers cared about interesting characters back in Gens 1 and 2 and the Johto fillers are some of my faviourite episodes, because there's a lot of kooky and interesting characters and personalities, like that Bellsprout in A Bout with a Sprout and that crazy dancing nursery school teacher.
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There are crazy COTD's in every season though.
 
But Johto had the best ones, as now the more unique COTD's tend to just LOOK unique, without much of a personality.
 
The problem is Johto focused on the filler characters instead of Misty and Brock. Instead of focusing on one-episode character who never appeared again, it would have been better to focus on the main cast.

Misty was very underdeveloped in Johto, and it became much more obvious once May was introduced and people saw what a female character could actually do in the series. Why Misty hardly did any battling in the anime either is quite strange.

And as for Brock, well he just declined with each passing saga he was in. In Hoenn he did less than Johto, and in DP he did less than Hoenn. The writers probably figured that DP was as low as you could go for Brock, so they finally axed him for good at that point.
 
Yes, they did. I mean, she was a surprisingly well done character considering how little attention she got in the Anime, and one of the very few (but very big) flaws in her character was the lack of attention to her goal of being a water Pokemon master. If I remember correctly, one of the reasons I really liked Pokemon Master Quest is because it was an awesome season for both Misty and Ash.

I definitely think that the writers could have made her water Pokemon master goal a more present element thorough out the anime.

But it was kind of interesting when she left, she spent most of her time helping Ash achieve his dream, and she was mostly traveling for the sake of traveling, it was a growing experience for her, finally getting away from her sisters, but she did not do much else. So when Misty was upset at having to stop traveling, it was one of the more emotionally interesting parts of the whole anime so far, becoming a gym leader was definitely the best thing that could happen to her career wise, she was not getting very much professional battle experience traveling with Ash (for some reason), yet she wanted to keep traveling, see more places, and of course be with Ash.

lol nice save anime writers.

So, yes, the writers did neglect Misty, but they somehow managed to make it work in a thoughtful way. xD
 
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