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Was Misty the writers least favorite Pokemon girl?

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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.

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?

Utack and Swampy:

--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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)

--- End quote ---

Brock left before Misty and was replaced with Tracey, and then brought back.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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.

--- End quote ---

So are all of the other of the female leads. Misty got 3 arcs, Kanto, the Orange Islands, and Johto. May got Hoenn and the Battle Frontier, Dawn got Sinnoh, and Iris so far has only gotten Unova. Additionally, Misty got mentioned in Hoenn, and even got a few episodes to allow Togepi to evolve. She also got some episodes in Chronicles. By comparison, Misty lasted the longest of the female counterparts of Ash.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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.

--- End quote ---

So has May's, she doesn't even get recalled in flashbacks. The anime seems to follow the trick of 'Bring back the most previous female counterpart to meet the new one' rather than 'Let all female counterparts get a few cameo episodes each new arc'.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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.

--- End quote ---

A large majority of the pokemon in the world are water types, dragging Misty back into the plot every time there's a theme dealing with Water reduces the character development of the new female lead.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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.

--- End quote ---

May recieved a bulbasaur and squirtle, and Dawn also received a cyndaquil, which were exclusively owned by Ash, and Dawn was the first main character in the anime to get an electric type besides Ash. Not really seeing the issue with Togekiss, it was a Sinnoh-evolution, just like Mamoswine. I personally think it was just to be able to give her and display more region centric pokemon.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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.

--- End quote ---

Addressed earlier, the formula has mostly been having the last main female lead making a cameo. And pokemon is all about following formulas... We're still getting 8 gym badges and challenging the pokemon league after all.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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.

--- End quote ---

Misty's character was not as developed as the additional female leads, but she did have some backstory here and there. However, at the time, Pokemon was geared more towards the male demographic, it was only at Crystal were you able to select a female character, and as I recall, the character' Crystal' didn't appear in the anime until much later, in Hoenn/Chronicles. It was only around Hoenn did Pokemon start focusing on the more 'feminine' aspect of Pokemon, activities outside of battling, such as contests, and thus began developing the female characters to be a counter-part to Ash.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---8. Misty did not get an ending theme in the Japanese version of the anime, while other female leads did.

--- End quote ---

Same as above


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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.

--- End quote ---

Brock was dropped first in the Orange Islands for a character who drew Pokemon, which are essentially drawings. I believe (havn't checked) a general dislike of Tracey made the show bring back Brock, and Misty stayed with us through Johto.

..So, yeah. They didn't drop Misty first opportunity, they dropped Brock first opportunity.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---10. She's the only female lead with no ongoing rivals, unlike May/Dawn/Iris.

--- End quote ---

Same as 8, which is the same as 7.


--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 01:36 ---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?

--- End quote ---

I think you're correct that Misty didn't get as much character development as the newer leads, but the show really wasn't about her. It was about Ash and his journey, and Misty and Brock were really there to act as guides and support, not for their own character development.

precita:

--- Quote from: Utack and Swampy on June 30, 2013, 03:21 ---So are all of the other of the female leads. Misty got 3 arcs, Kanto, the Orange Islands, and Johto. May got Hoenn and the Battle Frontier, Dawn got Sinnoh, and Iris so far has only gotten Unova. Additionally, Misty got mentioned in Hoenn, and even got a few episodes to allow Togepi to evolve. She also got some episodes in Chronicles. By comparison, Misty lasted the longest of the female counterparts of Ash.
--- End quote ---

She lasted the longest, but only because there wasn't a female lead to replace her with at Johto's start. And Tracey kinda bombed, so they probably didn't want to make up an anime-only female lead at the time. Had Marina/Kris existed with Gold/Silver instead of Crystal, I sometimes wonder if Misty would have left at the end of Orange Islands. By the time Crystal came out we were in the middle of Johto, so they weren't going to bring in Kris/Marina for 1 year and a half just to get rid of her for May after.


--- Quote --- So has May's, she doesn't even get recalled in flashbacks. The anime seems to follow the trick of 'Bring back the most previous female counterpart to meet the new one' rather than 'Let all female counterparts get a few cameo episodes each new arc'.
--- End quote ---

All of Charizard's big moments happened in Kanto, it was logical to expect Misty/Brock to be seen. Likewise May (and I guess Dawn?) have been references or shown in openings/endings in every saga after they left too.


--- Quote --- Addressed earlier, the formula has mostly been having the last main female lead making a cameo. And pokemon is all about following formulas... We're still getting 8 gym badges and challenging the pokemon league after all.
--- End quote ---

So why didn't Misty get to come back again then? The Sinnoh saga went on for a staggering 191 episodes, they could have easily removed 2-3 fillers to make a small arc for Misty. Instead they chose to ignore the character while even Gary, another Kanto character, comes back for 4 episodes.

I could also mention that Dawn's cameo lasted a whopping 9 episodes, while Misty only got a measily 2 in Hoenn and then another 2 before BF. I wonder why Misty's cameos were so short lived?


--- Quote --- Brock was dropped first in the Orange Islands for a character who drew Pokemon, which are essentially drawings. I believe (havn't checked) a general dislike of Tracey made the show bring back Brock, and Misty stayed with us through Johto.
--- End quote ---

Brock was originally dropped because the writers didn't think Brock's eyes would be popular with Western audiences so Tracey was created. Once it became obvious that Brock was popular and his eyes weren't a problem, Tracey was ditched. Had Brock had normal eyes from the start, we wouldn't have never seen Brock "replaced first."

Likewise Brock got to come back after he was replaced and it looked like his return was permanent for a good while till Unova. When Misty was replaced, she stayed gone.

Even if May and the Contests were still introduced, Misty would have continued into Hoenn as a side character. The Hoenn group could have very well been Ash, May, Misty and Brock, or a group of 5 if Max was still considered. It makes you wonder why Misty wound up not lasting in Pokemon past 2002, when Brock lasted till 2010.

Angelic Lapras King:

--- Quote ---I could also mention that Dawn's cameo lasted a whopping 9 episodes, while Misty only got a measily 2 in Hoenn and then another 2 before BF. I wonder why Misty's cameos were so short lived?
--- End quote ---

And what did Dawn do exactly in those 9 episodes? As much as I love Dawn, her cameo in Unova was kind of wasted. She was only really there to see Ash and a bit of fanservice for the fans. That's about it.

Often, I don't think the writers even have long term future ideas they stick with. I remember Misty's VA said she'd return in Sinnoh and that never happened. Remember all those hints of a Marina cameo in Sinnoh? Scrapped as soon as HGSS were announced and lacking Marina.

Clairefable:

--- Quote from: precita on June 30, 2013, 05:14 ---She lasted the longest, but only because there wasn't a female lead to replace her with at Johto's start. And Tracey kinda bombed, so they probably didn't want to make up an anime-only female lead at the time. Had Marina/Kris existed with Gold/Silver instead of Crystal, I sometimes wonder if Misty would have left at the end of Orange Islands. By the time Crystal came out we were in the middle of Johto, so they weren't going to bring in Kris/Marina for 1 year and a half just to get rid of her for May after.

--- End quote ---

They could easily have plucked another gym leader from obscurity to replace Misty for the start of Johto.

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