I will never understand the comparisons between Misty and Iris, especially since I've been watching Kanto since I was a child. When I watched Iris in 2010-2012, even though the ending of Diamond and Pearl affected me. I felt that BW cured some of my bad days and when Scraggy was born is still one of my top episodes of the series.
I'll explain why the episode contributes to this.
And why the Scraggy episode is so important and shouldn't be erased from Pokémon continuity (as some idiots tend to do)
Ash with Panphy and Larvitar had some setbacks, like he didn't know how to deal with a baby Pokémon, he scared the Pokémon and demanded it return to its PokeBall, and he was very impatient.
With Larvitar he is a bit overprotective and a bit spoiled by Ash despite the whole trauma plot. He doesn't evolve much as a Pokemon, there are some things here to improve but...Ash is still learning.
Scraggy is an evolution of this learning and not a regression.
1 - Ash introduced Scraggy to his team
Despite Scraggy's temper, Ash did not fight with him, or simply get mad at him. Ash learned his lesson from the past and was patient with Scraggy's nature.
2 - Ash kept his new catch out of the PokeBall
He simply kept Scraggy to explore the world around him. He let the Pokémon sleep outside its PokeBall, and still gave it space to get used to the Team and its own Trainer.
3- Scraggy and Axew friendship
Scraggy and Axew are a duo in so much, they evolve together, work together and are on the same level and seek to be close to each other.
(Journeys should have had a reunion between him and Haxurous but that's for another time)
4 - Scraggy was saved and learned to trust Ash in his own time.
The whole episode built Scraggy up to be one of Ash's best Pokemon eggs in terms of writing for me, in everything he shows he learns from his mistakes with Ganvantula which makes Ash himself Take better care of your Pokemon as proven below
After Scraggy Ash became much more capable of caring for Pokémon regardless of their nature, whether calm or whiny, whether hopeful or turbulent, he is there.
He learns his lesson
He went after Riolu like he went after Scraggy, as he knows how a hotheaded Pokemon can behave since he's been through it before. Scraggy taught him exactly what to do in this situation: stay calm and save the Pokémon even if it doesn't want to go with him. Because this is what he understood and evolved as a person.
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Thanks for reading my thoughts.
Tumblr is great for writing despite the image limit










