If there’s one female character that marked my childhood, it’s Misty. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Water Pokémon Master, and if you aren’t, I highly recommend you watch the first few seasons of Pokémon. You’re in for a treat, trust me.
The Pokémon franchise is one of those series that just stays with you no matter how old you get. Most of us grew up with the series. We’d rush home after school to catch the latest episode the same way we now rush to the nearest video game store to grab us the latest game. And yes, Pokémon are cute and all and the intro songs are brilliant but it’s really the characters and the hardships and adventures they go through that truly made this series so dear to our hearts.
Ash’s companions come and go in the series, but Misty’s fiery personality made her unique and memorable in every way. She isn’t only smart and funny, she’s also ambitious and fierce. Just like Ash, Misty never gave up on her dream of becoming a Water-type Pokémon Master and we’re all happy to know that she succeeded in doing just that. Now, Misty wasn’t always the best of friends with the other characters and she went a long way before finally opening up to them and revealing who she truly is. In honor of our favorite water type Pokémon trainer, here are 25 ridiculous facts about Misty that will leave you to rethink the way you’ve seen her this all time.
Well, I am here to dissect and disprove some of the most popular Disney Channel criticisms I have seen and heard during my lifetime because I believe that nothing is as awful as the internet (nor our 12-year-old selves) make it out to be.
25 Misty Is Quite The Hot-Headed One
Misty is short-tempered, to say the least. She never holds back what she thinks and she has proven herself to be capable of force from time to time. Over the years, we’ve seen her mistreat poor Brock’s ear every time he falls in love and starts being inappropriate with a girl, but more often than not, Misty’s rage is directed at Ash who she yells at him every chance she has.
Tough love, they say.
Did you know that the English dubbed version of the anime censored most of Misty’s outbursts? If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of the slap, but you won’t see it on screen.
24 One Of Her Kind
We’ve seen a number of Gym Leaders in both the series and the games, but one thing I noticed is that Misty is the only Water-type Pokémon Gym Leader who gets a lot of screen time. The show doesn’t have too many Water-type experts, aside from Juan and Wallace from Sootopolis City, Crasher Wake from Pastoria and maybe a couple of others.
It must also make her lonely since it can’t be easy already being the single female protagonist in such a male-dominated world.
Being the only female Water-type Pokémon expert in the main cast means she carries all the responsibility of proving both her worth, but also her favorite Pokémon type’s worth. Misty, Cissy and Cress are the only female Water-type experts. Not an easy burden to carry on such young shoulders.
23 Conquering Her Worst Fear
Because the characters are fairly young, we rarely get to see their lives before they started their adventures. But there’s one thing we learned about Misty’s childhood that gave me shivers. She climbed into the mouth of a Gyarados when she was a baby and was almost swallowed by it.
No wonder she’s been scared of Gyarados ever since she was a baby.
When she decided to go run the Cerulean Gym, she hears about a Gyarados terrorizing the people leaving around the lake. Being the awesomely brave character that she is, Misty pushed her fear aside and faced the beast, eventually managing to calm it down. If that’s not your definition of bravery, I don’t know what is.
22 Calm Your Fanart, Please
Let me just put that out there right away, because I feel it’s a much-needed reminder: Misty is only 10 years old. That might be something a little hard to unsee, so we wanted to make sure the fans knew.
There, now that that’s out of the way, we can focus on the reason why I wanted to remind all of you of that fact. Welcome to the Dark Side of the Internet, the place where your childhood heroes get all kinds of makeovers and where your eyes will never be able to unsee such images.
I’ve come across so many fanart pieces of Misty. Some are absolutely gorgeous and cute but others are simply inappropriate and just … wrong. I get that we grew up and of course we tend to wonder what our favorite characters would be like as grown-ups, but this is pushing it too far, don’t you think?
Art by Sakimichan.
21 Keep Your Enemies Close
You would definitely notice if a character’s voice changed mid-way through a series, right? But do you think you would notice if two characters, within the same series, shared the same voice? I certainly didn’t and that’s why I was so surprised to learn that Misty and Jessie’s English versions are dubbed by the same voice actor.
It’s kind of incredible that I never noticed this, and I consider myself an avid fan of the show!
Yup, voice actress Rachael Lillis plays both characters in the English version. Who would have thought, honestly? Now all I want to do is to rewatch the series and try to catch the vocal similarities between the two characters. There are always reasons to rewatch this amazing series!
20 One Day You’ll Be A Lady
It can be tough to make room to be all lady-like and girly when you only hang out with boys and travel the world to become a Pokémon Master. It can be even harder when you have quite the fiery personality, like Misty. But that never stopped her from embracing her girly side, or from demanding the boys treat her more like the lady she is.
I mean, the girl is just asking for some respect here, you boys need to give her that, at the very least.
She may be a bit of a tomboy, but we often see Misty go crazy over pretty dresses and fancy haircuts and I have to say, that makes me so happy. She’s fierce and brave but she also isn’t embarrassed to love shiny and pretty things. I only have one thing to say: you go, girl!
19 Keep That Insect Far From Me…
We all have that one thing that we simply cannot deal with, whether it’s Brussel sprouts or people chewing with their mouth open. For Misty, it’s bugs. She hates them. No, not even hate, she is disgusted by them. Not liking them is one thing being disgusted seems to be a bit much.
As Ash would say: “Pokémon have feelings too, you know”
Remember how sad Caterpie was to be rejected? Misty LITERALLY ran away when it came to her for a cuddle. My heart broke for him, truly. How can one be so quick to judge others by their appearance, I’ll never know…
18 …Unless It’s A Cute One
While we’re on the subject of judging one on their appearance, I think it is worth mentioning that Misty doesn’t hate all bugs. No, she actually loves bugs sometimes, just the ones that don’t look like bugs. The girl would run away screaming if a Weedle gets too close but would squeal with joy if she sees a Butterfree.
I have to agree with her on one thing, Butterfree is super cute, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a Bug-type Pokémon. If you want to say you hate insects, the least you can do is hate all of them, Misty, and not just the ones you don’t find cute.
Discrimination isn’t such a pretty thing, Misty.
17 Some People Just Aren’t That Into Romance
If I hear anyone say that Misty+Ash isn’t a thing, or that they would rather see him end up with Serena, I swear, I’ll scream.
Misty + Ash = OTP (One True Pairing).
Many have believed and hoped that those two would end up together eventually. We were certainly given many clues supporting that belief throughout Misty’s time on the series. The two of them clash on numerous occasions but they also understand and care for each other.
The characters are young, I give you that, but it just makes so much sense for them to be together. It’s just hard to understand why we were never given a little Misty and Ash romance. Also, does anyone remember “Misty’s Song” from the first Pokémon album? If that isn’t a love declaration, then I don’t know what is!
16 The Art Of Fishing
I don’t know about you but I hated fishing in the games. It was just one frustration after another because I only ever caught those weak Magikarp, so I quickly gave up and resorted to surfing to find my Water-type Pokémon. Anyway, the characters in the series really seem to love fishing. They’re actually shown practicing their skills pretty often.
At the beginning of the series, Misty proudly shows her friends the lure she made, which is a lure that happens to look like her. Now that’s pretty cool if you ask me, but did you know that Misty gave one of her famous Misty-shaped lures to Ash in a banned episode?
It’s entitled “The Legend of Miniryu” and it only aired in Japan. In this episode, Ash is show-casing his Misty-shaped lure and one is left to wonder if there might not be a case of proud boyfriend hidden somewhere here.
15 Abandoned By Her Parents
Who wouldn’t want to become a Gym Leader when they grow up, honestly? The fame abd the recognition that one is indeed one of the best trainers out there is huge! Sounds pretty dreamy to me. Sadly, it’s not quite as dreamy as one may think.
In the manga Pocket Monsters, it is revealed that Misty and her three sisters were abandoned by their parents at a very young age. Indeed, they soon realized after becoming Gym Leaders that it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, quite the contrary. The life of Gym Leaders is ruled by a number of tough regulations that leaves very little room for mistakes. The pressure became too much for the parents and they left their daughters to run the Cerulean Gym for them.
Setting good examples for youth, uh?
14 Talking About Family
Did you ever realize that Misty is the only one of the Cerulean sisters who isn’t named after a flower? Yup, her older sisters are named Daisy, Violet, and Lily. That surely makes one wonder why she’s the odd one…
Apart from being the one with an odd name in the family, Misty is also extremely different from her older sisters, both physically and personality-wise. Their differences can be seen in the episode “The Water Flowers of Cerulean”; Misty is often picked on by her sisters from being a tomboy as well as for abandoning the Gym to pursue her dream of becoming a Water Pokémon Master.
The other sisters are also very feminine and sweet compared to Misty who has yet to discover her femininity and is often short-tempered. We also discovered in that episode that one of the reasons why Misty left is because she had grown tired of being judged by her sisters.
13 Misty The Picky Eater
Misty is often very black and white when it comes to the things she loves and hates. We’ve already established that Misty feels an aversion to bugs but she also has something to say when it comes to food. She made it very clear that she cannot stand carrots and pepper, and by that, I mean she hates them.
Misty probably dislikes these foods as much as she hates insects, so that’s really saying something.
I can understand carrots, but pepper? Doesn’t that make one’s meals very … bland? To each their own taste of course, but pepper seems to be one of those spices that everyone just loves, or at least doesn’t mind that much.
Gif by yoswallow.
12 Je Te Nomme…
Apart from her orignal name in Japanese, Misty is known pretty much everywhere as “Misty”. Allow me to put an emphasis on “pretty much” here.
Indeed, if most countries have decided to go along with the English name of the character, the French, once again, felt the need to change it and they named her: Ondine, after some water spirit. Now that’s the version I grew up with so I don’t mind it but I was surprised when I watched the anime in english for the first time and it left me to wonder why the French decided to change her name.
It’s fairly common for character’s name to be changed in French, mostly for pronunciation purposes I suppose but “Misty” seems just fine to me, so why France, why?
11 Cuteness Does Not Make The Pokémon
No matter how much Misty claims she only loves Water-type Pokémon, it is evident that she has a soft spot for everything that fits her definition of “cute”. Hard to blame her when some Pokémon are so darn adorable you just wish you could reach inside the TV and bring them to the real life for a cuddle.
But for someone who wants to be a Pokémon Master, it seems to me that Misty should love all Pokémon regardless of what they look like.
The worst is that she even comes to reject Pokémon from her own type based on their looks instead of on their capacities and strength. It just makes me sad for all for Pokémon who just want to be loved…
10 What’s That Saying About Jealousy Again?
Misty is not one to hide her thoughts, nor would she ever back away from a challenge. Because of that, she can sometimes feel insecure and even jealous of others if she fears she’s going to be replaced.
Say it with me now: “Jealousy is a sin”. It’s normal to have feelings of inadequacy from time to time, but Misty needs a better grip on herself.
We’ve seen how she reacted to a resident of Shamouti Island giving Ash a welcome kiss in Pokémon: The Movie 2000 so we can only imagine how bad she would have reacted had she been here when Serena gave Ash a kiss later in the series. I don’t know about you, but I imagine explosions. Misty never admitted her feelings for Ash (at least in the English Dub), but it’s not hard to guess what she felt when we know that she often start sulking.
9 Not Quite The Girl I Remember
We’ve already learned so much about Misty so far, but here’s another disturbing piece of information for you: Misty’s original purpose in the series was to keep boys interested in the show. It’s alright, take some time to digest it…
The creators introduced her character as an “eye-candy”, which is a little disappointing to female viewers of the show.
They also revealed later on that it was the reason she was the first one in the trio to leave and she would be replaced by a new girl. It’s hard to imagine her being just a pretty thing considering how complex and developed her character is. It truly saddens me to know that one of my favorite childhood characters was never supposed to be the role model she is now…
8 Hide That Indecent Belly Button
Funny how most female characters in animes tend to wear pretty short clothes, and Misty, of course, is no exception. One thing we can notice is that no matter how short her top is, you will never see her belly button unless she is wearing a proper bathing suit. Apparently, the creators decided not to give her a belly button in order for her not be too attractive.
Talk about a lot of nonsense. First we hear that Misty was there to attract male attention, and then we find out she can’t be “too” attractive.
Also, is that body-shaming I hear? Shouldn’t Misty be able to wear whatever she wants and show off her belly-button if she wants to? Perhaps the TV world isn’t as evolved as the real world just yet.
7 Misty Is Secretly A Softie
Misty appeared in the very first episode of the series. She met Ash as he was rushing to get Pikachu to the Pokémon center after being attacked by a group of Spearrows. Ash takes Misty’s bike to get there faster but the bike gets destroyed by lightning and Misty runs after Ash to demand he buy her a new bike.
We were introduced to a rather intense Misty at the start, but we soon learn that she’s got a big heart.
She sure held a grudge for some time but when Ash finally replaced her bike in “Gotta Catch Ya Later”, Misty surprisingly decides to keep traveling with him. It seems that behind all that yelling and complaining she does, she actually took a liking to our Pokémon Master in training.
6 The One She Wasn’t Psy-ched About
When you think about Misty, the Pokémon you probably associate with her the most is Psyduck. Not because he’s her most powerful Pokémon or because she loves him so much.
On the contrary, Psyduck is actually the Pokémon she never meant to catch.
If you think about it, you’ll remember that Misty never meant to capture Pysduck. She dropped aPokéball and Psyduck being a little…peculiar, he basically caught himself. Misty got stuck with a Pokémon she never wanted and their love-hate relationship became iconic. She may complain about Psyduck a lot, like A LOT, but Misty would raise heck if anyone dared to pick on him.
Sometimes love grows in the most unexpected ways.
