The writers have made some terrible decisions over all five of their series, that's not deniable. The idea here is that when criticizing the writers for the product they make, one should do so based on the product that they're actually making. Too many fans get an idea of what a show should be and come down hard on the show that actually is because it doesn't live up to that ideal. If we're going to criticize them and their show for their handling of Kasumi, we should do so based on the fact that they had 279 episodes with her and couldn't tell her story well. We shouldn't criticize the writing of AG, DP, BW, and XY for not continuing with her when it's only one series (OS) that messed up.
And while it is true the writers don't always make the best decisions, that doesn't mean fans do either.
They also messed up with her in AG, specifically how they handled her departure (and believe me, considering the hints that she doesn't even like running the gym, that is something that is indeed tarnishable even in AG, at least), so yes, the writers do deserve the blame for their handling of Misty especially upon her departure, and yes, they fully deserve the criticism. And no, we fans did not simply have false expectations, as the show made pretty clear more than a few times the things we criticized.
Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises are different movies. That they all center around Bruce Wayne and continue his story through all of them doesn't change that. The same concept applies with OS, AG, DP, BW, and XY. Just like those three Batman movies vary in their quality, so do the different Pocket Monsters shows. And just as those are different movies set in one timeline and revolving on one character, these are different shows set in one timeline and revolving on two characters: Satoshi and Pikachu.
Except unlike the Dark Knight Trilogy, where we actually do see Bruce Wayne develop as a character throughout the films, Ash barely undergoes any development at all, or heck, even retain any experience. Probably the closest he's come to actually developing was in Johto and Sinnoh, and that's only because of the leagues (which even that only has two rank increases in so far five regions he's participated in, plus staying static in one region and being demoted in one region). Not to mention the Dark Knight Trilogy actually does reference each installment somewhat decently, which is unlike most of the Pokémon anime series where they barely even reference much about the past and in fact more than a few times conflict with it.
And honestly, when Ash and Pikachu remain the main characters, constantly, with Team Rocket as the main antagonists, and the entire crux of the show actually depends on continuity (after all, how can Ash reasonably be pursuing Leagues to become the world's greatest Pokémon Master and retain his rank if each Anime is self-contained and thus not in continuity with each other), the anime franchise, between its various series, is not "self-contained," period, as each franchise being "self-contained" would imply that they lack any continuity between each other at all, or at best give occasional nods, which includes not keeping any of the original cast (in other words, they have to replace Ash and Pikachu, heck, literally everyone in the cast just to "start fresh" and have it be self-contained from the next show). The Next Generation series of the Star Trek franchise is self-contained, and has a completely new cast from the original Star Trek, even taking place at such a time distance to all but ensure none of the original cast could reasonably return, aside from possibly Spock who is relegated to a cameo character at best. Another good example of a self-contained series is the Final Fantasy franchise, which has a completely different cast in each installment, and a completely different setting as well. The closest they've come to any continuity between ANY of the games is Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X-2, where there was a kid named Shinra in the latter game that, according to Word of God, actually founded Shinra from Final Fantasy VII as well as Gilgamesh's cameos in some of the games after Final Fantasy V that specifically allude to his sentencing to the Void (and BTW, that's not counting the crossover fighting subseries Dissidia, which even that gave the main characters laser-guided amnesia for reasons that were plot-important). Heck, the Pokémon GAMES do a heck of a better job actually being self-contained than the actual anime, having a different protagonist every time, and a clearly different plot for each game while there are occasional references to the other installments without it directly impacting the actual plot of the current game, like how DP referenced the Red Gyarados incident in Gold and Silver in the beginning of the game, only to reveal it wasn't actually in the same region. I think the closest they've come to actually heavily referencing a previous game to the extent of being an actual sequel is Pokémon Gold and Silver (since it heavily referenced the events of Pokémon Red, Green/Blue and to a lesser extent Yellow), as well as more obviously Black 2 and White 2 to Black and White.
In this much, I partially agree with you. The unfortunate reality is that the anime shows adapt the games and much like the games follows the same basic concept of the main character, for which Satoshi is a proxy, getting to a Pokémon League. But that doesn't mean new shows can't find a way to make his journey interesting, or even just retire the character so as to do the storyline with someone else - just as the games do. That the writers don't really do more with Satoshi, and have in fact been doing even less with him as time goes on, is a flaw of theirs.
But let's also be fair, there have been occasions where the franchise has done this: Jouto would sometimes bring up his general improvement as a trainer; the earlier parts of AG contrasted his experience with Haruka, who was a rookie; DP introduced Shinji as a rival who challenged his core beliefs as a trainer. None of them take it as far as I would have liked, but these examples do show that Satoshi can be used in more entertaining ways without ruining the self-contained nature of the individual series.
There is a lot about Satoshi and his journey that one can find fault with. But again, that should be done with the material that's actually on screen to criticize. If we're going to call the writers incompetent because of Satoshi and the way they've written him, let's criticize them for the character's lack of nuance even by the standards of Pocket Monsters, or for a journey that's becoming less and less entertaining, or for the fact that they're often pretty inconsistent with his growth.
Let's not criticize them for reasons like his past not being explored, or for older characters like Kasumi not showing up, because neither of those things were ever even hinted at as plot points meant to be explored. Those are also perfect examples of fans wanting something out of the show they were never promised, not getting it, and blaming the writers because they raised their hopes and got them dashed.
At least in regards to me, my complaints about Misty are indeed related to stuff actually occurring on-screen in the animes, possibly even actual comments made by some former staff members. For example, throughout Johto, heck, possibly even the Orange Islands, Misty made very clear that her goal is to become the greatest Water Pokémon Master, and considering the Whirl Cup and the implications of how that directly impacts her goal, that is something that was made very clear onscreen. We also see that Misty was forcibly removed from her goal because her sisters basically left the gym unattended for a three month cruise, plus their being broken birds anyways, and her reappearances in the actual show, heck, even her Pokémon Specials made pretty clear that she did NOT like running the gym at all (heck, in her final full appearance in the anime franchise, not counting the 10th anniversary special, she even delayed having to return to the gym as long as she possibly could, which IS a pretty huge indicator that she hated having to run the gym and would want any excuse to get away from it as long as possible). Keep in mind that the latter bits are from AG and thus yes, they most certainly are to blame for it in that series as well as the Original Series.
Also, they at least had Tracey actually accomplish his goal, and Gary at least gave up his goal willingly in favor of another goal, even Brock did that by DP as well. Not to mention May, Dawn, and Iris (and Iris is especially notable since she, like Misty, also was a character who pursued being the greatest among being a Pokémon Master of a specific type [Dragons in her case], yet actually was allowed to pursue her goal without being forced into a gym) at least had the luxury of actually being able to continuing to pursue their goals. Misty never even got that, period, and that is a definite, justifiable gripe. DP may be a case of the fans expectations being false, but BW isn't, especially when the writers most likely are fully aware of the Pokémon World Conference, which, BTW had all the Gym Leaders from all the regions up to that point, Misty included, and considering they view the anime as effectively being an advertising agent for the game, plus Takeshi Shudo's shame about how they replaced Misty at the very least, they actually had a golden opportunity to actually rectify their earlier error and actually have an arc dedicated to the World Conference, and even give an opportunity for Misty to actually pursue her true goal of becoming a Water Pokémon Master, a goal she most certainly by her behavior would rather pursue than run a gym. It would have killed two birds with one stone, basically give actual advertising to the games, and at the same time bring back a beloved character and even give her true closure. Instead, they just had a Junior version that wasn't even that good and basically skipped it, despite it actually being something from the games (which advertising stuff from the games is pretty much the entire point of the Anime, which basically means they really should have gone for something like the Pokémon World Conference. Now, if Misty was depicted as actually, willingly deciding to become a Gym Leader by her own accord, was actually shown to enjoy the job better than her prior goal, and its made very clear that she actually changed her goal, many of us wouldn't have that problem, but that's not what it was. May, Dawn, and Iris may not have developed as fully as they should have been, but at least they were given the opportunity to actually pursue their dreams. What about Misty? She can't pursue her dreams, and wasn't even allowed to willingly change her goals, and based on her appearances in AG, both in-series and even her Hosos, she doesn't even like running the gym. The most logical solution, something literally anyone can naturally deduce is that they make sure to actually fix it by giving her another appearance, and this time make sure she actually leaves for her goal rather than being forced back into the gym again. Even you have to agree with that.
Heck, even that is eclipsed with how writers basically screwed Misty over for Brock with his hoso, heck, even AG itself. Basically, Misty has to run the gym, not just because her sisters basically left it unattended for three months, but had the PIA discovered it was unattended, the gym would be shut down no questions asked (and in the Hoso itself, it was made clear that the Gym would be shut down if the gym was unsafe, unclean, and uncool). Considering that Pewter Gym somehow passed the inspection despite the disaster Lola nearly had in store for the gym with her terrible redecorating projects, not to mention nearly getting a lot of the gym's rock types killed by her extremely stupid decision to convert their training holes into a swimming pool, both of which violated the safety and coolness factors (both of which would have ensured that Pewter Gym would've ended up shut down even with the gym leader being present, due to failing two-thirds, maybe half of the inspection, even without the zero-tolerance policy enacted, as made very clear in Misty's first hoso), and then it got even WORSE in AG where not only did Forrest pretty much blow it regarding his being tasked with actually running the gym instead of Lola and Flint by letting his mom violate her promise of not redecorating the gym by not only doing so again (even though, being the gym leader, he honestly should kick her out rather than let her tarnish the gym again), but this time with even worse decorations than before (it looked like the gym was struck with a massive vandalization attempt), and with the help of shady painters (implied to be Team Rocket) who then bribed her and Flint with plane tickets specifically to burglarize the Gym of their Pokémon, but he doesn't even attempt to fight them at all (which, you know, is the primary job of being a gym leader), instead resulting in Ash and Brock having to deal with them. And despite those events that basically endangered the gym, almost to criminal negligence levels, Brock STILL doesn't take back the gym, despite the fact that it should be obvious even to him that he's pretty much the only one who actually can keep the gym even functional instead of dysfunctional, instead selfishly, irresponsibly continuing his journey with Ash, and hitching a ride with a trucker, among other things. Honestly, why didn't they force Brock to run the gym? Honestly, forget how May was depicted, forget the terrible Gym battles in AG, forget the bad league turnout, heck, forgetting even for a second the very reason they started girlswapping was for eyecandy purposes, this basically is tied with the in-universe reason for Misty's removal as being the absolute worst, poorly-done part of the show.
Well you're free to look at it however you want, I guess. But that doesn't change that these are separate shows, as much as the trilogy of movies I mentioned earlier are separate movies. They are written as mostly self-contained material. The one constant in each of them are Satoshi, Pikachu, and the Rocket trio - all of whom I agree have had their problems in being consistent and remaining entertaining as time goes on. There are many things one can call the writers incompetent for, and while I don't think they are, I'm not going to argue with people who do - at least, not for reasons that actually take into account the material they've put on screen to be evaluated. But I don't believe they should be called incompetent for reasons like older characters not coming back to new shows, or Satoshi's past not being explored further in depth, because nothing in the new shows call for it.
Again, The Dark Knight Trilogy is not "separate movies" at all, at least not in the way you are describing it, as they are continuity heavy and they actually have the characters develop, something that's lacking in the Pokémon anime. Heck, The Dark Knight Rises in particular is probably unwatchable without some knowledge of Batman Begins, as they heavily reference the events of that movie, especially the League of Shadows and their former attack on Gotham, heck, Ra's al Ghul's death even being a major focal point, and even The Dark Knight gets a lot of references, especially Harvey Dent's death as well as Rachel Dawes' death, even Alfred burning the letter and hiding the contents from Bruce Wayne (and even the Joker is indirectly mentioned a few times, and most certainly got a mention in the novelization of the Dark Knight Rises where he is supposedly the only inmate at Arkham Asylum, and even then its rumored he escaped by the time Bane took over Gotham). A far better example of a Batman movie franchise that is self-contained with each installment would be Batman and Batman Returns, to the extent that Tim Burton even rewrote the latter film specifically to keep as few references to the previous film as humanly possible (the only thread to the first film being the brief mention of Vicki Vale leaving Bruce Wayne due to his dangerous lifestyle as Batman).
There is always going to be something more one can do with a character, and I get the impression that's what you really mean when you say none of these characters ever reached their full potential. The important thing is making sure that a satisfactory story is told, something I think AG and DP did well with characters like Haruka, Hikari, and Shinji. Admittedly, you have others like Kasumi and Takeshi, who didn't fare very well. But that's something that should be held against only against the writing in the shows they appeared in, and shouldn't be used to tarnish all five of them.
None of this is to say the writers and their shows are perfect. They really aren't and have never been. This is to say that us fans have a way of allowing our expectations to get away from us and come down hard on the writers when faced with the reality that our vision of the franchise isn't always shared by the writers. We're not the ones in charge and, contrary to what seems to be a popular fandom belief in general, we're not the ones who get to make the decisions. Our role is to evaluate what's put on screen and judge whether it's good or not, and part of that means recognizing what these shows are attempting to accomplish and to critique it by that. I truly believe that's where a lot of these claims of the writers' incompetence come from.
Yeah, and in regards to Misty, the problem with her removal actually extended to AG thanks in large part to how they characterized her dislike of her running the gym in the specials, heck, even in her few appearances in AG itself (especially the three-episode arc at the beginning of Battle Frontier), and even BW, considering they actually had a golden opportunity to actually rectify that mistake (and believe me, even the writers, or at least Takeshi Shudo, viewed how she was removed as being a big mistake) with the Pokémon World Conference and they blew it (and yes, they most certainly knew about that event). Keep in mind that my complaints about Misty for the most part deal with what is actually on-screen, and I think DBZ Fan has the same gripe as well. Even if all five series shouldn't be tarnished for this, the OS, AG, and BW definitely should, for the reasons cited more than a few times in this post alone.
