If anything it's natural some aspects of the early seasons wouldn't age well because the writers learned how to write battles a lot better (which is obvious, the battles in the OS are the weakest of the series besides a few standouts like Charizard Vs. Magmar), and of course they learned how to develop characters better after the Johto season. Looking back Misty/Brock were sort of designed like Ash/Team Rocket where they only had miminal development because they were intended to last in the series a long time. All the other companions have a limited timeframe in the show, so I guess the development is more noticeable when they're only around a short time?
I mean this is not even counting Brock's stagnation for most of AG and DP where the writers seemed to purposely use him as just an exposition character and not much more, which is why so many people got bored of him. I remember people wanting Brock to leave the anime years before he actually did for good.
In fact it's pretty obvious most of Misty/Brock's development happens after they leave the cast. For Misty I think her specials during AG and her cameos in AG/SM developed her better in just like 10 episodes than the entire 156 episode span of Johto did. Isn't it funny Misty gets more development in her cameo returns than when she was on the cast in Johto just lugging Togepi around?
I mean this is not even counting Brock's stagnation for most of AG and DP where the writers seemed to purposely use him as just an exposition character and not much more, which is why so many people got bored of him. I remember people wanting Brock to leave the anime years before he actually did for good.
In fact it's pretty obvious most of Misty/Brock's development happens after they leave the cast. For Misty I think her specials during AG and her cameos in AG/SM developed her better in just like 10 episodes than the entire 156 episode span of Johto did. Isn't it funny Misty gets more development in her cameo returns than when she was on the cast in Johto just lugging Togepi around?