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Is Misty the worst written character?

For me not even close. I think Misty is a pretty well written character in the show and I think that Misty's overall character improved during the Johto seasons of the show and has some pretty good development but not the most highly developed character from the show. But later on Misty growed to be her character in the show and became a very likable character for me. If i have to say the character that was poorly written character from the Pokemon anime it mostly has to be Iris without a doubt
 
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The other thread has brought up good points about how a well-written female lead can give young girls someone to relate to. However, Misty never really did that for me when I was young. It could be just me since I never really liked Misty, but if we consider her purpose in the show to resonate with the younger female audience, I don't think she's well-written.
 
What a clever and detailed counter-argument.

On a serious note, guess you don't have anything intelligent left to say since you state my opinion is invalid but don't explain why (unlike the way I did), so I'll leave you at that.

Your opinion is invalid, since i cannot take you serious anymore after you called my opinion invalid (Opinions cannot be invalid, since they are called opinions for a reason, seems like you don't know what opinions mean).
 
I think Kasumi had an interesting personality because she was kind of flawed in a way the other female characters aren't with the exception of Musashi. She rarely has malicious intentions but more than often Kasumi's ideas aren't that great. Take for example the episode when Satoshi challenges Takeshi and she comes with suggestions that aren't necessarily bad from a logical standpoint but just weren't right for Satoshi's battle style. The Nidoran episode during Orange Island is yet another example of this when Kasumi's nature as a hopless romantic messes everything up even if her intentions are pure.

Kasumi is very tough and mabye even a little bit hot-headed but she also has a vulnerable side which we get to see in the Princess festival episode when she tells us about how she felt lonely and ignored as a kid when her family would buy Hinamatsuri dolls for her sisters while she got the hand-me-downs (this is very important in Japanese culture).

The goodbye episode is also interesting even if it is a little bit negative because it shows that Kasumi deep down is very sensitive and has opened up a lot since the beginning of the journey. In the beginning Kasumi just wanted her bike back because it represented some kind of security to her, she could always blame it on the bike if somebody wondered why she was hanging out with Takeshi and Satoshi. At the end she was hurt when Satoshi (being the clueless idiot that he is) assumed that getting the bike back was her goal when in reality it was just an excuse to avoid expressing her true feelings towards her friends.

Kasumi was immature and stereotypically tsundere. Even if I have never been able to relate to her even as a kid, I can think of a lot of people that are just like her when it comes to expressing their true feelings.
 
Misty is an interesting character with potential, but only on paper. But how they handled her in the series really feels like the writers just stopped caring for her. And this leat to her been the most falt character of the show. At least Brock accomplished something in his runtime. Misty was just there in the end.
 
No, Misty wasn't the worst character. That award goes to Iris. Misty is overrated, however. But, beside that, as many have stated before me, she did have development, it was just very, very slow. Not to mention that, given the fact that the OS was really just getting off the ground, it often had shallow writing to it. Many of the Mons in the group had little to no quirks, such as Pidgeotto, Starmie, and Geodude, which was a result of early anime writing, which does give Misty some flexibility. Not to mention it took until the Orange Islands for any real decent events to take place to help develop the characters better. Plus, unlike Iris, a lot of Misty's "complaints" did hold water to them, as Ash was very much a naive, immature rookie with an inferiority complex (Gary being the main cause of that). However, unlike Iris, Misty was also pretty much in the same boat as Ash, as she was at best average, thus both were on a somewhat even footing. Plus, due to how Ash was in the early days, Misty's temper tantrums toward him were justified.

However, by the time we got to Iris, Ash was a considerably better trainer and person, so a lot of Iris' "complaints" were pure hypocritical nonsense, as she was clearly a beginner before they retconned her backstory. I mean, her Axew couldn't use Dragon Sneeze... er, Rage, properly, and couldn't handle weakened attacks, yet everyone claimed she was this genius trainer, which was clearly an informed ability. Not to mention she never really took training seriously, and even took a plot coupon in the form of Dragonite to suddenly make her seem great. Georgia, despite her sore loser tendencies, did rightfully call her out numerous times, especially about Dragonite, proving that Iris took shortcuts and got handed free plot coupons in order to prove what a "genius" she was. Throw in the fact that Axew suddenly pulled two uber moves out of nowhere (and never used them again) when he struggled with Dragon Sneeze reeks of poor writing as an attempt to "justify" her "genius". Not to mention her fear of Ice types was poorly handled, very inconsistent, and rather ironic, as Dragons are weak to themselves, something that Trip of all people pointed out. Unlike Misty's fear of bugs, which is a very common real-life fear, fear of Ice types because her preferred type is weak to them is a rather weak reason in its own with a dash of irony. While, yes, Ash got hit with the Dum-Dum Ray early on, the fact that Iris criticized him for pretty weak reasons (mainly used by her "catchphrase") proved that she was a big, fat hypocrite.

So, overall, Misty was a decent character, but she was handled rather poorly, but I'm willing to give her some flexibility as the OS was in infancy, mainly thanks to early writing mishaps. Over time she did develop, but it was a very slow process that didn't show itself too clearly. Iris, on the other hand, was clearly a poor excuse for a character that was trying to duplicate the "dynamic" of the OS, but given the fact that, by then, the writing staff had more than bloomed and became very experienced, resulted in a very poor display of character traits and nature. So, while I do agree that Misty wasn't well-written (and is overrated at this point), I'm willing to give her a pass because of early writing experimentation, while Iris clearly was the most flawed and poorest written character of all despite the fact that years of progress in writing had been clearly shown.
 
I think Iris is better than Kasumi in terms of battling. She had a tournament arc, Pokémon that can fight on land and a rival. The problem with Iris' tournament arc is that it's not exclusive to her, had no checkpoints (badges, ribbons or keys) and didn't get some kind of league or Grand Festival at the end to tie up her character development.

If Kasumi's Whirl Cup had been built up during the course of the Johto saga and split up into smaller tournaments, Kasumi would probably have developed more as a battler. She could have gotten a rival who would show up occasionally that would need to be defeated at the end of the Whirl Cup. Kasumi should also have caught more water Pokémon that can fight on land so that she could have trained and battled in episodes where there is no water.

I always wondered why they never gave her a Vaporeon since it's practical (can fight in water and on land), cute and marketable. Shigeru's Eevee had already evolved during the Johto saga so I don't think that is an excuse.
 
I think Iris is better than Kasumi in terms of battling. She had a tournament arc, Pokémon that can fight on land and a rival. The problem with Iris' tournament arc is that it's not exclusive to her, had no checkpoints (badges, ribbons or keys) and didn't get some kind of league or Grand Festival at the end to tie up her character development.

I wouldn't say that Iris is better than Misty in terms of battling. She had more opportunities to battle compared to Misty, but I don't think any of those battles really reflected well of her skills. A lot of those tournament victories she had were cheap or undeserved. The series kept treating Iris like she was this great special gifted trainer, but her battle skills were average at best. Even having a rival didn't really amount to anything when Iris never really defeated Georgia with her own skills. Georgia lost their last battle to Dragonite, not to Iris. Plus, not having checkpoints like badges to allow her skills to grow over the course of the series and something like a League to showcase more of that development didn't really help. Not to mention only Dragonite and maybe Excadrill were consistently useful in battle. Dragonite was handed to Iris on a silver plate, so that doesn't really reflect her own skills. Axew was virtually useless despite having two overpowered moves under its belt and Emolga was barely used.

Misty's team wasn't outstanding by any means either, but she had a few more strong and consistent Pokemon by Johto at least and she did have Pokemon that could battle on land. It also helps that they didn't make her out to be this extra special Water Pokemon trainer. Her skills were also about average, if not above that by the end of the original series, but Misty wasn't put on this high pedestal like Iris was.

Emelie said:
If Kasumi's Whirl Cup had been built up during the course of the Johto saga and split up into smaller tournaments, Kasumi would probably have developed more as a battler. She could have gotten a rival who would show up occasionally that would need to be defeated at the end of the Whirl Cup. Kasumi should also have caught more water Pokémon that can fight on land so that she could have trained and battled in episodes where there is no water.

I always wondered why they never gave her a Vaporeon since it's practical (can fight in water and on land), cute and marketable. Shigeru's Eevee had already evolved during the Johto saga so I don't think that is an excuse.

Aside from Goldeen and Horsea, I don't recall Misty having that many Water Pokemon that wouldn't be able to battle on land. Most of her Pokemon could battle on land and in the water. I'm not sure if catching more Pokemon would have been the solution given how most of her Pokemon in the original series are boring or forgettable. Having the Whirl Cup be set up akin to a Pokemon Contest where Misty would have to take part in smaller tournaments to get into the Whirl Cup would have helped with that though. I'm not surprised that they didn't do that. The Whirl Cups were more associated with the Whirl Islands and it was still kind of tricky to get a lot of consistent focus on characters who weren't Ash or Team Rocket during Johto.

As for why she didn't get Vaporeon, I don't think that Eevee was as popular back then as it later became once there were more Eeveelutions introduced. Plus, Misty and Brock barely caught any Pokemon during the Kanto arc.
 
To be fair to Iris, Misty had Psyduck being ludicrously overpowered when it's abilities activated and it wasn't like Misty trained it to be that strong. Actually I believe Psyduck was also responsible her only victory over Ash when he grabbed the idiot ball in the Whirl Cup despite having been able to deal with Psyduck just fine in the past.
Edit: Honestly I felt Misty came across as a poor battler during her time as a traveling companion but improved later. She did terrible against Ash most of the time:
*Cerulean Gym--she's clearly about to lose despite the huge handicap of Pikachu refusing to fight, tries to claim otherwise after.
*Togepi battle, Psyduck comes out and fails.
*Totodile battle, her only success is taking advantage of Pikachu being unwilling to battle Togepi.
*Gets a big help in the Whirl Cup because of Ash being restricted to water types, still relies on Psyduck ex machina to win with Ash making a dumb mistake he previously didn't.
 
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Yeah... Misty wasn't really a great battler either. Misty was technically nothing, to be honest. She wasn't a greatly written character, she had no real goal, no conflicts to overcome, hasn't battled much. She was just there.
 
Considering how popular and iconic she remains to this day, I'd say no.
 
To be fair to Iris, Misty had Psyduck being ludicrously overpowered when it's abilities activated and it wasn't like Misty trained it to be that strong. Actually I believe Psyduck was also responsible her only victory over Ash when he grabbed the idiot ball in the Whirl Cup despite having been able to deal with Psyduck just fine in the past.
Edit: Honestly I felt Misty came across as a poor battler during her time as a traveling companion but improved later. She did terrible against Ash most of the time:
*Cerulean Gym--she's clearly about to lose despite the huge handicap of Pikachu refusing to fight, tries to claim otherwise after.
*Togepi battle, Psyduck comes out and fails.
*Totodile battle, her only success is taking advantage of Pikachu being unwilling to battle Togepi.
*Gets a big help in the Whirl Cup because of Ash being restricted to water types, still relies on Psyduck ex machina to win with Ash making a dumb mistake he previously didn't.

That is a good point. Psyduck was her walking deus ex machina for plenty of battles. The show still usually didn't present her as a strong trainer for relying on Psyduck's unreliable Psychic abilities, which I think is a key difference between her and Iris. I definitely remember Iris being praised for raising Axew well after it learned Giga Impact. Plus, I think that Psyduck defeating Ash in the Whirl Cup was the only time it gave Misty a cheap win, or at least it's the only time I can recall at the moment.

Yeah... Misty wasn't really a great battler either. Misty was technically nothing, to be honest. She wasn't a greatly written character, she had no real goal, no conflicts to overcome, hasn't battled much. She was just there.

I'm not a huge Misty fan, but calling her technically nothing seems a bit harsh. She still had a goal. Water Pokemon Master is vague as can be like Ash's goal, but it's still a goal. She was there as the token female lead, but I don't think that makes her a nothing character.
 
She could had been much more better at battling, if only she would use her own pokémon, instead of calling out to Ash to send his pokémon. I just had a Johto rewatch, and it's like that most of times. Like, why not use Staryu?
 
I wouldn't say that she was the worst written character in the cast as a whole, although she did lack initiative and needed to battle more often against non-TR characters. I felt that she was one of the more interesting cast members overall up until around early Johto when she became really monotone and predictable.
 
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