Why is Misty so poor and incompetent at battling in Pokemon when she's supposed to be a Gym leader?

Jan 30, 2:31 PM

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Mar 2014

119

I've been marathoning through the show paying close attention to battles, and almost every time Misty battles she either does poorly, loses, or Psyduck pops out of its ball getting a headache. The writers wrote Misty as a "faux action girl" which if you know the trope, means every time it looked like Misty was about to do something epic, it backfires on her (either Psyduck pops out stopping her from battling properly), or her opponent immediately defeats her.

Her Starmie loses to a Graveler in the poketech school ep with Giselle. Pidgeotto was trashing Starmie in the Cerulean Gym. In the princess festival ep she has to borrow Ash/Brock's pokemon to win. In the Orange Islands ep with Marina her Goldeen loses in 1 hit to Tentacruel and Marina's Psyduck immediately defeats her Staryu.

She does get slightly better in battling in Johto but even then her Poliwhirl loses the Whirl Cup and she doesn't do much afterward.

Jan 30, 2:35 PM

rohan121

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Sep 2018

9901

2 reasons likely exist for that
- ash is meant to be the better trainer as he already has her badge.
- losing humanized Misty to make it easier for her to connect to the audience.

Jan 30, 2:46 PM

precita

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Mar 2014

119

Reply to rohan121

2 reasons likely exist for that
- ash is meant to be the better trainer as he already has her badge.
- losing humanized Misty to make it easier for her to connect to the audience.

Yes but 1st season Ash is meant to be a rookie, Misty was at the time, supposed to be more experienced than he is. Yet Ash trashes her as early as the 7th ep in the Gym, and then after that most of her battles are just slapstick with Psyduck or her losing them all.

And Misty didn't have the excuse of being a beginning trainer herself like later female leads.

Jan 30, 4:21 PM

KingOfMAL

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Jul 2022

precita said:
Yes but 1st season Ash is meant to be a rookie, Misty was at the time, supposed to be more experienced than he is. Yet Ash trashes her as early as the 7th ep in the Gym, and then after that most of her battles are just slapstick with Psyduck or her losing them all.

And Misty didn't have the excuse of being a beginning trainer herself like later female leads.

There may be a few reasons why that might be , i dont want to get in too much headcanon but i think ur ok with that

1) In the manga, The league chooses strong trainers when there’s an open position, and they have to pass a test. That could depend on the region though. (The test might have been easy for her)

2) Other Gym leaders in the Franchise become gym leaders by being passed the title by family, and some are even self appointed.(That might be a reason why she may not be the strongest & This would explain how Janine inherited the Fuchsia City gym after her dad's promotion, how the whole Sootopolis Gym Wallace/Juan thing played out in RSE, and how the leadership has passed around with Brock and Misty in the anime.)

3) Spicing up the Plot…having a shock/surprise moment by having the MC fighting his first companion in a competitive scenario

Jan 30, 7:32 PM

Kidzuna

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Jun 2023

537

The simple is answer is that the writers didn't actually care to showcase Misty's strength or develop her like the other Female Trainers, They just used her as a plug to fill the role of 3rd person and I dont think there's much we can expect of a character that literally does nothing but holds a egg throughout 3 seasons

Jan 30, 7:52 PM

Lucifrost

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Feb 2016

10473

Reply to precita

precita said:
Yet Ash trashes her as early as the 7th ep in the Gym

I always believed Misty would have won the battle if Team Rocket hadn't interrupted.

その目だれの目？

Jan 31, 8:45 AM

Akilis93

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Feb 2013

152

Bigger problem is Rock' Gym Leader that had mf Onix for years and had that Onix lost to rookie electric mouse. Dont get me wrong, I love Brock as a character, but storywise that battle was 100% garbage. But it is a pokemon for kids, so I just dont care. But if you do, this is waaay worse than Misty

Jan 31, 8:52 AM

Ex-Aid

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Jan 2024

274

The had no idea what they were doing with the anime for the Kanto andd Johto seasons. It gets better in Advanced onward.
@Akilis93 Onix is a pretty weak pokemon game wise. Literally made out of paper. But in that specific fight they spend the episode powering up Ash's Pikachu and there was a fire which activated the sprinklers which soaked Onix in water and weakened him... it wasn't like it had no logic to it. Ash even acknowledges that he cheated there and did not want the badge but Brock insisted.

Feb 1, 12:41 AM

Otaku_4511

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Dec 2015

122

Honestly, Gym Trainers get beaten by rookies all the time because how else will they be given their badges. Makes sense that she loses. Must be hella easy to become a Gym Trainer in PKMN

Feb 6, 3:15 PM

#10

precita

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Mar 2014

119

The OS ran for 275 episodes, it's a real shame that Misty has so few battles in the series. Like not counting the few times she helps blast off Team Rocket, Misty only has a handful of battles against other trainers, and she also only battles Ash 3 times in the series up to the end of Johto, where she loses twice and only wins once.

And a lot of the times it was just to watch Misty lose, or have a gag battle with Psyduck, etc. Like if someone right now wanted to go back and rewatch all of Misty's battles in the series....there's honestly not much to rewatch, simply because they don't exist in the anime. Misty only has a small handful of battles in each season she's in, and it's far less than May and all the other girls who came after.

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Why is Misty so poor and incompetent at battling in Pokemon when she's supposed to be a Gym leader?

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