Now that the anime has gone on so long after the original series ended, 15 years to be exact, it's retroactively made the original trio and Misty specifically seem rather short-lived.

It's hard to believe there was once a time when Misty was in every episode of the series, or even half the series total episodes back when AG/DP were airing, but nowadays she's only in like 30% of the animes total run. People used to base the series around Misty and say, "the sagas after Misty left" but now the ENTIRE SERIES takes place after Misty left. AG/DP/BW/XY/SM now make up the majority of the anime, so you can't even base the show on Misty anymore.

It's kind of ironic. Although Misty is still in more eps than the other girls since she stayed for 2 gens, retroactively she now comes across as a short-lived character in the anime. It's ironic how the passage of time really changes views on characters. To be fair when the anime first started nobody would have predicted it would go on for 20+ years.