In retrospect was Misty really underdeveloped as a character in the show?

Now that there's been so many new female companions after Misty in the series, I honestly feel rewatching the Kanto/Johto era's that she was really underdeveloped. As much as I like her interactions with the cast and the group, it honestly feels like the writers didn't feel like doing anything major with her character after the first two seasons.

She doesn't really get many focus episodes to herself (usually only once every 30-40 episodes), and a lot of the time it felt like she was just there to repeat Brock's exposition dialogue over whatever was going on in the episode. Even her temper and bickering with Ash dies down pretty quickly, I was shocked when I saw it die down as early as Orange Islands because I remember it going on longer after that. Then for most of Johto she acts as a mother to Togepi but is fairly inactive unless the writers made a filler about water pokemon.

Besides that her water pokemon goal was pretty much treated as an afterthought, she never really felt like she made any progress toward her goal while she was a main character. Despite having a lot of water pokemon, most of them really couldn't battle besides under special conditions (Togepi/Psyduck/Horsea/Goldeen couldn't have any real proper battles, and Starmie was dumped at the Gym 60 eps into Kanto). She also didn't battle too often either, and most of the time when she tried to battle Psyduck would pop out of its ball interrupting her from having a proper battle.

She also had no rivals as a main character, when even Iris had her own rival. I honestly feel that despite Misty's long length in the show (she was around 275 episodes) the writers didn't utilize her much for anywhere that amount of time. They could have done so much with her, but decided to treat her similarly to Brock most of the time. I do like her development after she became a Gym leader though, but that was after she left the series.

I'd say no, since for the most part I think everyone loves misty. Underdeveloped characters typically don't leave much impression.

But I like misty probably more than ash. If anything I'd say ash is the underdeveloped character.

The companions displayed their personality by how they reacted to ash. And then also in their development episodes.

But no matter the situation ash has always been pretty much the same, one track mind, any potentially troublesome personality quirks were ironed out after the first series.

You can pretty much break almost all of Ash's actions down to, Wow, pokemon!!, Oh no, Pokemon!!, Yay, my pokemon!! Oh no, my pokemon!!

And that's about as far as he gets on about anything.

There are character traits, and relationships I can quote to people on brock or misty.

Brock is a responsible, and all around capable guy because he had to take care of his many siblings on top of leading the gym, because his dad was such a flake.
Absolutely loves beautiful women, can become lovestruck at a moments notice.

Misty, tomboy-ish and sometime brash, girl with attitude. That belies her responsible and considerate nature.
Was forced to grow up fast do to her family's financial problems and how completely unreliable her 3 older sisters were.
Developed her love for water pokemon by taking care of all the pokemon in her gym home, growing up.
Is horrified by bug and ghost pokemon.


The only thing we have defining ash is he wants to be the best, and all of his relationships besides his mom or pikachu are just rivals, companions, people he beat or people he lost to, nothing deeper than that.

I've heard he's gotten better in the sun/moon series but prior he was pretty bad.

Oh and for some mysterious reason he doesn't have a dad? Which based on japanese society is a weird note for them to add..
Was that ever mentioned? did he die, is he working, what?

Its honestly pretty sad the person we know the least about is the main character.

So I just finished watching the Johto saga, completing my run of the original series as a whole. I do like that Misty got a bit more focus in the end of Johto with the water competition and seeing Poliwag fully evolve, but she still did too little outside of those episodes. It's difficult to even say Misty went through any development because if you watch the first episode of Johto and her goodbye episode, she's exactly the same in both episodes. Meaning if you didn't know what happened in the Johto saga, it feels like she hardly changed.

Most episodes of Johto just has her act as Ash's cheerleader or just comment about battles with Brock, but Misty herself doesn't really get any attention unless the writers make an episode or filler about water pokemon. I also got really bored of Togepi this series, I don't know why it took until Hoenn for them to evolve it. Most of the time it seems the writers were just content leaving Misty on the sidelines with Brock.

Misty had some development personality wise talking but she had zero development goal wise talking so yeah, she was.