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Would Misty be a good female rival for Ash?

Should Misty become Ash's rival(if she wasn't already)?

  • Absolutely Yes! It would make me, and many fans very happy!

    Votes: 11 16.4%
  • No, nothing against Misty, but I'd rather not

    Votes: 10 14.9%
  • Yes, but not his main rival, secondary maybe

    Votes: 11 16.4%
  • No, her being Ash's rival does not interest me

    Votes: 26 38.8%
  • I don't care

    Votes: 9 13.4%

  • Total voters
    67
My answer is no. Because:
1) Misty and Ash already have a history as travelling friends that would become awkward in such a situation.
2) Rivals compete for the same goal. Misty isn't competing for the same goal as Ash, as she is a water type trainer and doesn't participate in leagues.
3) The battles Ash and Misty have had were in my opinion dissapointing as the writers seemed to go out of their way not to make one win properly against the other. (Either by cutting the battle short or using Psyduck.)
4) Misty is a Gym Leader and Ash regularly defeats Gym Leaders, even the very strong ones.
5) Part of the fun of a rival is discovering their personality and backstory. Misty already has this stuff so the rivalry wouldn't be as interesting.
6) Misty is a gym leader from Kanto. What would she be doing in Isshu/other region? And if she was travelling there, wouldn't she want to join Ash?

So, yeah, no.

I agree with this.
And Misty only trains water types. Rivals train more than one Pokemon type.
 
It would be maybe like half as epic as the rivalry between my head and this desk. (The desk is winning so far, but though battered and demoralized my head is never giving up.)
 
No. I want Misty back, but not this way. They traveled together too long and know each other too much, to be now rivals. I want to see them as best friends, not as rivals (what could screw their friendship up).
 
If the writers are that desparate to introduce a female rival, they'll just invent a new rival and not bring back Misty.

A "Misty-Expy" rival who isn't a Water-pokémon trainer would be the closest thing to what you want.
 
Your kinda contradicting yourself in here.First you say how they never had rivarly,just to try later on using as counter argument "how this didnt worked in past".What exactly?When Misty was travelling with Ash they were friends,not having much rivarly between them therefore we dont know how this would work out since it never happened.

Reason why ifs here needs to be used is coming from one simple fact.Ash and Misty were never serious rivals,so we cant base future outcomes on past events which didnt happened.
Even if it did,as counter argument against your statement can be used fact how writing isnt the same as it was before.Writers improve,things get handled better and direct example is treatment of Ash rivals like Paul compared to rivarly he had with Gary.



If you rewatch battle you can easily notice how after evolution Bulbasaur was put in worse position.Poliwhirl with ease was confrontating Bulbasaur grass attacks like razor leaf,outmatched his close range attacks with his size and bodyslam aswell bringing him on edge of losing with bubblebeam.Its quite clear how Bulbasaur had hard time,pulling out solarbeam as his last resort which would bring outcome of battle in his favor.

p.s.When exactly i defended Psyducks win not being DEM?However fault for lost was on Ash,since he was stupid enough to forgett about Psyducks hidden power.
My point is that they never had a rivalry to begin with. I'm speaking in terms if the animators randomly decided to give them a future rivalry - I'm answering that what if with reasons from the past as to why it wouldn't work.

So, when it suits you, it's plot power and when it isn't, it's one of the characters being stupid? Please.

And pretty much THIS to everything Hestia said.

Anyway, I have a sinking feeling I'm going to end up in an endless circle of an argument/debate/whatever this is so I'm going out with "No, I don't want Misty as Ash's rival".
 
Misty shouldn't be his rival, but neither should Brock or anyone else he ever traveled with.
 
IMO, Misty coming back to rival Ash and say that she couldn't grow too much from the Gym, and she wants to rival the best, because she traveled with one of the best, and was tired of living in his limelight when it came to battling after watching him in the League, is great writing.

I always found Misty to be the best trainer out of all the main characters, but that's simply because I love how she went about her battles, and matches. She always had drive and passion, and always was humble and proud of her pokemon whether they won or lost.

Misty's Politoad got great development and battles, some even better than this show's water types.
 
...

No.

Unless Misty had a complete personality change, starts training a variety of pokemon, starts to mock/hate Ash, Ash hates/mocks Misty back, and they both get brain washed.

Then ok. But she won't be called Misty anymore :3
 
Yeah, and most of them were likely tomboys. I bet the percentage of girls watching pokemon increased with the introduction of contests and May. Contest and May opened up a whole new demographic, that wasn't there when Misty was around.

As far as i know Misty was just as popular as May and Dawn were(i wont say morem,but from what i noticed some could argue with this).
Many girls which liked her werent even tomboys to begin with,which says something.

To me, no they wouldn't be as good rivals, since none of their battles were interesting, as they never really pushed the other to surpass themselves and progress.

Being little biased arent we.I beg to differ regarding this statment.Just because you didnt finded their battles interesing,doesnt mean others didnt.

Many people enjoyed in their duel for Totodile and in first half of battle vs Poliwhirl and Totodile.

You're mistaken on this. He battled more against Dawn, Brock, maybe May...

If we count sparing battles with purpose of training than yes,but otherwise no.

We need to know what her goal involves. I always thought that it was just like Ash's goal, specifically using water Pokemon. But if that is true, she would've had to collect badges. And she didn't do it while she was traveling on the show.

Well from what it has been displayeed so far Mistys goal involves becoming one of top water trainers in world,being highčy recozniozed as trainer worldwide on pair with E4 members.Considering ho some of them are labelled as masters of certain types(we have ice,dragon,fire masters)indicates how title of water master exists too and how becoming one of elite trainers brings you very close to it.
Also during Whirl Cup it was showed how in order to achieve Mistys goal,there are certain tasks like winning water prestige tournaments.

My point is that they never had a rivalry to begin with. I'm speaking in terms if the animators randomly decided to give them a future rivalry - I'm answering that what if with reasons from the past as to why it wouldn't work.

And whole reason why im not agreeing with this is coming from one simple fact of not knowing how would possible rivarly in future work,since they never had one as you said(unless those small rivarly sparks they had count,which they dont),not having anything from past which would support argument against it.

Its different when your travelling with someone,but it would be whole another thing if Misty was given role of being serious rival posing threat to Ashs quest standing in his way.

Of course that doesnt mean how im necessarily for Misty becoming Ashs rival,but to be fair i dont think this woukld be a bad idea as some people make it out to be.

So, when it suits you, it's plot power and when it isn't, it's one of the characters being stupid? Please.

No,but its pretty obvious how in example of battle vs Poliwhirl and Bulbasaur its obvious who was leading until last moment.
 
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no, simply because they have different goals. Plus the writers pretty much ruined misty's charcter by making her much more calm, and therefore more boring
 
no, simply because they have different goals. Plus the writers pretty much ruined misty's charcter by making her much more calm, and therefore more boring

I have to disagreee with this completely.Mistys character was never ruined,she simply started to develop as character becoming more mature with time but that didnt make her any less interesting.

As its beein showed in chronicles and cameos after departure she became more responsible and selfconfident with main traits about her being kept(having sarcasm,liking to tease Ash and Brock,competitive fire in her,love for water types,spunk,fears from bugs,being funny etc).She can still explode sometimes too(showing temper) when provoked enough as we get to see in Hoenn cameos with Togepi.Her development represents a good thing in my opinion,giving more depth to her character making her more realistic and interesting.

All characters in this show have developed including Ash,May,Dawn etc and its not to expect that they stay 100% the same as they wer in beginning.Their base is left intact(things which define them),but as show goes on they change showing growth as characters.
 
The writers never even focused on Misty's Pokemon much either. Politoed is the only Pokemon that went through full evolutions through her run. Let's look:

- Staryu. Remained the same throughout her run. No real personality.

- Starmie. Hardly any screentime as it was dumped halfway through Kanto.

- Horsea. Loved this Pokemon, but sadly it got hardly any screentime and was dumped early.

- Psyduck. Main comic relief Pokemon and most used early on, but not for serious battling.

- Corsola. Main battler in late Johto, but no evo's really prevented it from progressing in some way.

- Politoed. This one was handled well, although I liked its personality more as a Poliwhirl than its last form.

- Togepi, of course hardly did anything but some metronomes. She released it anyway so Togetic can't be used regardless.

- Goldeen. Mostly useless outside of water, also got very little screentime. No major personality as its just a fish.

- Seaking/Luvdisc/Seel/Dewgong. These Pokemon I see belonging to the Gym, not Misty herself. Although one of the Luvdisc is hers, it doesn't matter too much.

- Gyarados. A powerhouse battler, but we didn't see too much of it. I think it was only used in two episodes?
 
- Staryu. Remained the same throughout her run. No real personality.
- Starmie. Hardly any screentime as it was dumped halfway through Kanto.

When it comes to starfish pokemnon i cant really blame them since its hard to portray any kind of emotions with this kind of pokemon,not having facual characteristics which would show them.
It isnt to expect to see much character from this pokemon,but they are good in what they know best and that is battling.

I agree about Starmie and Horsea being dumped,being stupid move but oh well writers made mistakes with others pokemon too especially when they were at beginning.

- Corsola. Main battler in late Johto, but no evo's really prevented it from progressing in some way.

So it cant be really her fault,can it?I think Corsola was handled pretty well,bringing some major wins for Misty becoming stronger with time.

- Seaking/Luvdisc/Seel/Dewgong. These Pokemon I see belonging to the Gym, not Misty herself. Although one of the Luvdisc is hers, it doesn't matter too much.

Thats true,but one of Luvdisc has been confirmed to be hers as you said.

- Gyarados. A powerhouse battler, but we didn't see too much of it. I think it was only used in two episodes?

Thats understandable considering how rarely Misty appears.
 
She never will of course. But as for a serious answer, she would only make a good rival when to comes to expertise with Water-type Pokemon. That's why she wouldn't make a good one.
 
who cares?
she's not coming back. :]

Maybe I care, huh?!

And don't say something that you're not completely sure.

Ontopic: I can see her as Ash's rival only in water competitions, like Whirl Cup, you know.
 
Maybe I care, huh?!

And don't say something that you're not completely sure.

Ontopic: I can see her as Ash's rival only in water competitions, like Whirl Cup, you know.

like i said.
nobody cares.

Oh I am totally and 114% sure of it.
 
With better Pokémon(or just better moves for her Pokémon) and better tactics and without Psyduck and Togepi yes, but I have a feeling Angie would be a better choice. Misty was better with her role as a mentor/travelling companion.

Oh and their goals were different so that kinda makes a possibility for a rivalry harder.
 
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