>>27271063Consider the following
>Misty's been off the regular cast for about 14 years now and had less of an active role DURING her run because Togepi>While Misty still appears in games since then, she's just another stepping stone for the player to beat and fuck off. She's just sort of "there">Even if Gym Leader girls as early as Hoenn appeared in the anime, they're a bit more respectable or memorable because Ash started to have some better battles for real uncharitable victories and even if not that their screen time leaves MUCH more to the imagination about stuff to admire about them. People don't remember Misty the battler whom Ash never won a proper battle against. They remember Misty the Hot Headed diva with an egg-shaped tumor grafted on her arms the whole trip through who didn't do much but bitch about her bike. Even Iris didn't raise a hand against Ash. Fucking Iris, who fought against Drilbur with her BARE HANDS.
>It's not her fault. It's the writers. OLM had a shit idea of how to handle active female leads and contests sort of threw them a bone for that. It was okay for May, it kept her busy but it did WONDERS for Dawn because there was something to pad the series and build a second source of drama MORESO than with May. So involving, even Ash took part in a contest or two.Misty was more or less the back-up that might have offered a girl's perspective sometimes but was otherwise negligible by design.
Misty doesn't stand out to younger fans that might have known of the character and the time she did spend on the screen didn't leave a respectable position because she just didn't have the benefit of better writing (relatively) like May, Serena and Dawn who experience some kind of loss or sacrifice in their bit of the journeyand if not that, the fact that Ash never had a proper battle (an underwater battle was stupid) with her where he could go all out.
Not gonna doubt that Misty had her moments but they're not as strong as they could've been.