Pokemon Shippings & Character Opinions

They Are Not The Same

So for a while (it isn't prominent now but) there's this issue going around in the Pokemon fandom where the main Pokemon girls have similar personalities or things in common, especially Misty and Iris. May and Dawn may had had similar personalities to an extent, but because of their character development and story differences, it's not as prominent. Then there's the comparison with Dawn to Serena. Although I won't go too deep into the topic as a whole, I might say my own two cents into it too. Of course everything is opinionated and if you think there is no differences, then sure. I'm not gonna go into the female companions in Sun and Moon just because this was an ongoing conversation before they even appeared in the Pokemon fandom. Keep in mind I will mostly be talking about the anime because the manga and games does a better job at making the characters more unique lol.

There are many instances where people say that Misty and Iris are basically the same character. Although I can agree to a certain extent, outside of personalities, they're not alike. Firstly, Misty is tomboy. Iris is also a tomboy. However, there holds a difference within those two statements, and here's why. Sure, they both have a rowdy and sassy personality. Especially in the English sub, Misty has way more of an aggressive tone of voice overall compared to Iris who was just curt and straightforward most of the time. The game specifically titles Misty as a 'tomboy', but if I have to be honest with you, Iris is more of a tomboy in my opinion in comparison to Misty-in the anime at least. (I'm not really going to go into depth with Misty's game counterpart since her characteristic are a bit different from her anime counterpart.) Despite her title, Misty is a girl who likes cute things, is afraid of bugs, and complains a lot; whereas Iris grew up as the "wild child," which kind of gave her an edge on how she is later on as a character in the anime. The game, however, is another story though because Misty's counterpart isn't as feminine.

I don't exactly want to put traits into masculine or feminine stereotypes like how our society has been formed to be, but based on those ideals, we could say that Misty to at least leaning more on femininity.

Then there's the issue with how they treat Ash. They were both fairly rude to Ash from time to time because of his actions. I personally think Misty was worse in the beginning, which all the yelling and stuff. And honestly, they're ten, I can't blame them for acting like that. And with what happened to Ash in Gen 5, I don't blame Iris for calling him a kid either. However, unlike Iris, Misty gets her fair development and acts differently around him, which could also be because of how her feelings changed around him. Now personally, I don't see the issue with the phrase Iris uses to target Ash, but I wish there was a bit of a better development with her like what Misty got.

So I probably didn't say much besids the obvious, but long story sort, they aren't the same. Not every character is going to be conformed to just one character trait. Sure, sometimes Misty and Iris' personality correlate, but there's more to them than just "the aggressive tomboy poke girl." They are both independent people. Even so, Misty wanted a recognition of her own that was not immediately connected to her older sisters; Iris grew a love for Pokémon despite standing out and not getting along with others her age. Misty is a romantic while Iris is adventurous.

I won't deny the fact that at first glance they do seem like the same person, but later on throughout the story they hold their differences.

A/N: I wrote this some while back but never actually published it till now lol. I apologize if the errors are just terrible, and also feel free to comment your insights.