To weedle_mchairybug:
Regarding Misty i suppose since her story, uresolved fears and dreams of becoming water pokemon master weren't developed enough to allow for ending not meeting requirements to go from point A to point B unfortunately, writers had to come up with way to write her out viewing gym i guess as only viable option at that time. Explaining abrupt, out of blue departure taking it over and staying out of necessity and obligation as was showed afterwards.
Never indicating in any way that she gave up on her dreams of becoming master and living up to idol Lorelei from E4, but aso feeling its her responsibility and duty to take care of gym until adequate substitute is found being able to leave it to thrusty hands. Expressing sadness and displease with her older sister actions of not being able to count on them to take care of things in case she wants to travel to advance her own goals and learn new things.
I presume reasoning behind unfinished dreams and plots which formed Misty story accompanied with uncleared situation regarding gym delivering catch 22 situation was made from writers part on purpose to have way to easily bring her back in case they ever felt need to do it. Likely because at that time they werebn't sure in what direction to take anime keeping Misty as backup option in case they ever felt need to further character and her story forward- but since they didn't had any plans to do something with Misty in past is reason why whole situation with older sisters was left unresolved with Misty plots which form story being left to hang in air leaving direction in which things will pan out for her in future undefined and unresolved.
However on positive side whole pending status of Misty story which was largely left undefined and unfinished, unset position in which writers put her currently being unknown if she will eventually follow Wallace and other experts footsteps going on journey to advance her dreams and rank up as trainer provides easy way for writers to bring her back with purpose of continuing from where they stopped without being tied back by anything.
Hence why in my opinion in case of special tournaments taking place after Kalos region occurs would be ideal setting for Misty to become relevant to pokemon anime again. Since judging by wording of sea priestess Maya from Whirl Cup and whole connection between Alpha OMega of water pokemon with title of water masters reveals how participating and winning prestigue tournaments is mandatory to prove your worth to other trainers and test out your bond with pokemon and battle skills in coming closer toward this dream. And learn about more profined, sophisticated ways of training and developing strategy with your pokemon by observing other experts bringing her closer toward E4 level of strength.
Yeah, you're right. The fact that she occasionally leaves the gym, even delaying from returning, shows she doesn't really like running it. And Maya did point that out about Water Pokémon Masters as well, so its not like there wasn't an already established precedent. Besides, based on Ash's overall actions, I doubt becoming a gym leader would get you anywhere close to becoming a Pokémon Master, in general or in a specific field.
Kalos had better do something to include Misty (and again, based on Mayumi Iizuka's tweet, she's definitely going to be making some sort of appearance in the anime), and especially make sure that, at the very least, she doesn't have to return to the gym if she can't return permanently.
Speaking of Ash its unfortunate how he flopped in skill level and achievements in Unova league, which was nusproduct of writers attempting to make some sort of semi reboot. To better go with BW games mantra of new start experiencing drastic revamp compared to previous generations(like exclusion of contests, no older pokemon in BW1 games or ties to previous sagas).
However there exist such thing as going overboard with attempt of making anime product closest to games as possible for promotional purposes, to the point of directly perturbing quality of storyline and sense of following.
Being overlooked fact how one of main reasons why people even follow pokemon is because its supposed to be treated as big on going story which continues on itself, follows progression of driving force Ash going on venture in exploring regions, various cultures and makes steps forward in becoming pokemon master. While keeps ties with history and previous events using them as vector to help push things forward.
Granted as far as continuity goes and paying attention to previous companions or past writers are doing pretty bad job in making it acknowledged. Burying companions in past unfinished with wasted or unused potential along with keeping main plot in stagnation. But at least Ash was making progression doing better placing in leagues feeling like things are while at snail pace moving somewhere.
Either way it seems writers mitigated what i considered mistake with pokemon series becoming slightly more continuity based with Ash seeming more mature and competent now in Kalos burning with fire of becoming pokemon master and winning league more than ever. If his dialogue to his mother and afterwards in current XY series is something to go by. So maybe this time he leaves notable trace on Kalos region making exceptionally big success at league, tournaments and various challenes which may occur later down the road in whatever filler saga comes afterwards. Along with format of competitions or tasks it introduce within itself, working under presumption there will be any.
I might as well make a correction to what I said, he actually got Top 8 instead of Top 16 in Unova, but even still, his decreasing in rank was just a terrible way to end the league. At least have him retain Top 4 if not get even better. I wouldn't say Ash got better during Hoenn (he retained Top 8. It took us until two whole leagues for him to actually improve), but even that was better than Unova, as at least he didn't decrease in rank.
And yeah, they really went overboard with the whole reboot method in the anime. Just because the games did a near-total reboot didn't mean they needed to reboot the anime as well just to match up. And they didn't even do it right when they included Delilah Ketchum, Professor Oak, Team Rocket (both JJM and the entire organization, especially Giovanni), and especially Ash and Pikachu. If they wanted to ensure a reboot, they need to use a completely new cast. Yes, that even means replacing Ash and Pikachu, since that's the ONLY way the stuff in Unova could be justifiable, if Ash and co. weren't there at all. Completely clean slate. Still, from what I can gather, Kalos may be doing better with continuity now, at least compared to Unova.
Probably the only good things about Unova are that the writers ironically managed to remember Ash's original team (even if they only appeared in flashbacks, at least its better than not appearing at all). They definitely need to make a side arc tournament, possibly the aforementioned Gym Leader tournament to give Misty the excuse to reappear, or heck, even a Whirl Cup-style tournament, again just to have Misty appear and decide whether to continue being a gym leader or whether it is time for her to actually resume her journey. She can't become a Water Pokémon Master if she's cooped up in a gym (if anything, she'll stagnate to the point that she'll lose like JJM did in episode 3 of the original series, remember how badly they lost?).
