Iris or Misty in the sidekick role, who was handled better overall?

[Cybersai]

I always thought it was never fair to compare Misty's role with that of May or Dawn's because they were so different. But comparing Misty with Iris makes more sense because their roles on the show were more similar.

While you can compare their personalities, development and show-wise, who was handled better? Do you think Misty's role was handled better than Iris, or is Iris a "new and improved" version of an older character?

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

Iris is probably more active then Misty was, overall, but Misty was still a better written character in terms of character growth, if only because Iris hasn't truly had much proper character growth, as she hasn't really learned anything new since the start of BW and hardly does anything to work toward her goal to become a Dragon Master. So, I'm going with Misty.

 

[MizuTaipu]

Well, Iris' role in the franchise hasn't concluded yet so "I dunno."

 

[Bouffalant Herdier]

Misty. Her Water Master goal never went anywhere, and once she got Togepi, she was shoved in the background and had nothing to do, but at least she herself mellowed out and became less annoying. That's far preferable to Iris, who is still the same as she was at the start of the series; she never learns anything, she's still a bitch, only very slightly less persistent with her gloating and criticism.

 

[Cybersai]

One thing I actually liked about the way they handled Misty is she was never shown to be a powerful trainer. She was slightly better than Ash at the very beginning because he was a rookie, but he seemed to surpass her quickly enough and Misty was shown to struggle for the rest of Kanto. I seriously don't think Misty had any wins in Kanto without using Psyduck or Ash/Brock's Pokemon like in the Princess festival.

Misty got better at battling in Johto, but even then she was still not overpowered or anything. With Iris its like they made her strong from the start and keep giving her powerful Pokemon out of nowhere.

Misty's growth was much more realistic.

 

[Duckgon Z]

Misty was written so much more better than Iris is hurts. Iris is more "active", but her entire character is like "fuck logic". Misty was at least steady and more entertaining that infuriating.

 

[ivantuga2]

OK, Iris' "story arc" still hasn't finished, but like many people here, I much prefer seeing a less active Kasumi than an active Iris, who's only consistent in one thing: bad writing. Kasumi was definitely not as active, but Iris' attempts at action and story are so pathetic, it's not funny. I'm almost missing seeing a character who actually wasn't that badly written, just wasn't explored much and gave a lot of room for imagination. But Iris' role and story is so clear and so obviously not working that I have to agree with everyone here saying Kasumi was a better written character.

In AG and DP I used to not care much for Kasumi (even if I never disliked the character), but now? I'd take Kasumi in the group with Satoshi and Dent any day in place of Iris (provided she would be handled at least not worse than originally).

 

[Cybersai]

Yeah, but Iris definitely is more active. In just 90 episodes, Iris has already entered 3 different tournaments. Meanwhile it took Misty over 250 episodes to enter 2 tournaments, (Princess Festival and Whirl Cup).

Even though Iris has a rival, Georgia is pretty much treated as such a punching bag that I am not sure it even matters. Perhaps Misty and Brock not having rivals was not so bad after all.

 

[Iteru]

I'm gonna close this because Iris' story is yet to finish so I don't see the poll as being too fair at this point in time.