Was Misty poorly handled and developed in the anime compared to later girls?

[precita]

I've been rewatching the original seasons and notice how Misty gets sidelined most of the time. Any time she tries to battle or do something epic, Psyduck would come out interrupting her for the usual gag.

Outside of that most eps focus on Ash and the random filler characters they meet in every ep, so Misty and Brock are largely just treated as exposition characters commenting on whatever is happening. Most of her pokemon are underused too, and it feels like if you don't care about shipping half the appeal to her character is lost. You'd think 275 episodes would be enough to develop her but eh

Misty wasn't a beginning trainer like most of the other female companions, when she's introduced she already co-owns a Gym with her sisters and had 3 pokemon (Staryu, Starmie and Goldeen). But you wouldn't know that from the way she was portrayed.

Early rookie Kanto Ash nearly beats her as early as the 7th episode (he was on the verge of winning had TR not bust through the wall), and he only used Butterfree/Pidgeotto and didn't even have the Kanto starters yet. If he had Bulbasaur or Pikachu wanted to battle, he probably would have won easier. And then after that, Misty loses in the Giselle episode to a Graveler, and doesn't really battle much for rest of the season without Psyduck popping out of its ball to get a headache. In Orange Islands I think her only major trainer battle is the Golduck episode against Marina. Then after that there's not much in Johto till she gets Poliwhirl/Corsola.

Anyone find it weird Misty was treated as inexperienced? Half her team couldn't even battle properly unless under special conditions (Togepi, Psyduck, Goldeen, Horsea), or were underused (Starmie), etc. I know the writers didn't want her to upstage Ash, but they gave her one of the worst battle track records imagineable till the tail-end of her run.

I think the writers just didn't care. When you stop to think of it, there are only very few episodes that actually focus on Misty herself in each season she was in. For the rest of the eps she was basically sidelined with Brock.

[DrampardonMe]

I haven't seriously watched the Pokemon anime since around "Advanced", in equal part due to it getting a little formulaic and me simply outgrowing it, so I don't have a point of reference for how good (or not) other female leads were after Misty. I mean, I recall May's thing being Contests and Dawn being set up as "The New Ash" before they brought him back after two episodes, but that's about it.

I'm inclined to say you have somewhat of a point. Didn't Misty start using Staryu over Starmie for whatever reason? That always kind of irked me even back when I was watching it new, and the only explanation I can come up with is she wanted to focus on making Staryu stronger, but that's just conjecture. As for the Psyduck thing, I'd agree insofar as the gag gets old after a while, but it's not as annoying as, say, Wobbuffet (though I guess that balances out since it at least gives Team Rocket an edge in battle, unlike Psyduck)

How exactly would you have written her? Honestly curious.

[precita]

I'm inclined to say you have somewhat of a point. Didn't Misty start using Staryu over Starmie for whatever reason? That always kind of irked me even back when I was watching it new, and the only explanation I can come up with is she wanted to focus on making Staryu stronger, but that's just conjecture. As for the Psyduck thing, I'd agree insofar as the gag gets old after a while, but it's not as annoying as, say, Wobbuffet (though I guess that balances out since it at least gives Team Rocket an edge in battle, unlike Psyduck)
How exactly would you have written her? Honestly curious.

Misty leaves both Starmie and Horsea behind at her Gym in "The Misty Mermaid" episode, which was about 60 eps into Kanto. So she basically only had Staryu, since togepi and psyduck couldn't battle properly and Goldeen couldn't do anything outside water. Misty didn't really have a capable battler pokemon till she got Poliwhirl in the middle of Johto, and that became her main battler till the end of Johto as it evolved and Corsola.

The problem with Misty, or the original series as a whole, is it was entirely centered around Ash when it first started. Most eps would focus on Ash and the different filler characters they would meet in each episode, so Misty/Brock would not get to do much more than provide commentary unless the ep focused on them. Most of Misty's moments in Season 1 are just comedic banter/arguing with Ash, but then her temper dies down early into Johto so that aspect of Misty started disappearing and she became less interesting. It also didn't help the Johto saga was plagued with filler, so Misty didn't get to do much for a large chunk of eps unless they made an ep about water pokemon.

She had no "real" goal to follow, as whatever Misty's water pokemon thing was barely focused on. She had no rivals (that went on beyond a single ep), and she rarely battled in official competitions aside from a few small things (like the princess festival in Kanto or the Whirl Cup in late Johto). Most people just remember Misty holding Togepi in her arms because...that was genuinely what she did for most of her run on the show. Even in the original 5 movies she barely has a role in any of them, just that short shipping subplot with Melody in Movie 2, and battles Molly a small scene in Movie 3, but not much else. And also of course, not many battles, like if someone right now wanted to go back and watch all of Misty's battles from Kanto through Johto, there's only a small handful to even go back and watch, even less if you don't count all the times Psyduck popped out to get a headache.

It honestly feels like Misty was designed to be a short-lived character which is why she worked in Kanto and Orange Islands for the most part, but once you got into Johto she barely had a role anymore besides a few eps. In retrospect it's easy to see why the writers axed her around then and brought in May when they finally had a female protagonist from the game to use, and introduced the contests with battles to give May more focus than Misty got.