#123 - Scyther
Bug/Flying
Okay, now we're getting to the cool single-stage Pokemon of Generation I that fill out the rest of the Dex beginning with Scyther, the coolest Bug Pokemon introduced in Generation 1, and arguably (not counting his evolution) the coolest Bug-type Pokemon introduced ever. This was the reason you bought Pokemon Red to grab this bad-ass, but don't expect Scyther to just fall into your hands, you either had to get lucky in the Safari Zone, or score big in the Game Corner. You know, in my mind Scyther was top-tier during Generation I, but looking back it seems he was just pretty average, his biggest strength being his overwhelming speed and attack, but he lacked a lot of versatility due to having a rather shallow movepool. Maybe if Game Freak had remembered to program some decent Bug-type moves for him, he would've been the best counter to Psychic-types, but ultimately he never really lived up to how cool he looked, although he enjoyed popularity thanks to his powerful TCG Jungle card. Nowadays though...two words, Stealth Rock. Ouch. I'd love to see Scyther get a Mega Evolution, even though he already has a normal evolution, he's unique as he and his evolution share the same base stat total, and he actually has the highest stat total of any unevolved Pokemon at 500, so I think a Mega Evolution could work for him. On a lighter note, I always wanted a cute Scyther Baby too.
Scyther is known as the mantis Pokemon, but like Kangaskhan he only shares a slight similarity to his base animal, looking much more like a weird dinosaur hybrid. I always pictured him being like a raptor, probably because he looked as cool as the ones in Jurassic Park and just as intimidating as them, and I think his unorthodox appearance helped him stand out from the rest of the Bug-type Pokemon in Generation 1 who really were basically just giant bugs. On the other hand, praying mantis are really cool animals, and I do hope we get a more traditional praying mantis one of these days that embodies more of their natural traits, such as perhaps one that works off the idea of the "femme fatale" mantis known for eating their mates. Scyther is Bug/Flying, even though I always thought he looked like a Grass-type (Bug-type Pokemon being "Grass" in the TCG helped push this misunderstanding) as a kid, and sometimes I'll briefly forget he's not Bug/Grass. His Flying-type is actually sort of "implied", as the PokeDex actually says he rarely depends on his wings since he really has no reason to fly thanks to his blinding speed, and most of the Flying-type attacks he does learn are the ones that are more "wind elemental" and focus on slashing attacks. He does learn Roost (Feather Rest in Japan) though, which doesn't really feel like it fits him thematically, although it can be useful by removing his Flying-type which probably benefits him though due to removing a few of his weaknesses. Despite not being a Pokemon known for flying often, most of his appearances in the show tend to show him flying quite often, and in XY, he's one of those Pokemon who is always in a flying pose and can take part in Sky Battles, even though he seems like one of the Flying Pokemon who probably should've sat them out. But there's just so many issues with Sky Battles why even bother getting into that right here, let's just say Game Freak needs to majorly overhaul it or just drop it, and leave it at that.
The one motif Scyther seems to embody the most is actually a ninja, due to his ninja like speed, agility, and deadliness. His design always made me think of a traditional ninja outfit somewhat, and I imagine his scythes are meant to represent the kusarigama "chain sickle", that ninja are often shown using in popular fiction. Furthermore, excluding Pikachu in Yellow, Scyther was the only Pokemon capable of learning Double Team in Generation I, which is actually a ninja technique. Yeah, "Double Team" doesn't really scream ninja, but it's another example of why when wanting to learn about Pokemon more sometimes you'll have to go to the source and examine the Japanese names, where Double Team is known as Kage Bushin, "Shadow Divide/Clone", and I shouldn't have to tell you that that's one of the most ninja moves that ever ninja'd, and no, Naruto did not invent it. Naruto also did not invent the idea of frogs and ninjas being related to one another either, although it did bring the idea to mainstream culture perhaps. So, yeah, if you ever wondered why Scyther was so cool he's part-ninja.
Of course, such a cool Pokemon was given to Tracey Sketchit, and not only that, they made his Scyther a geriatric old-man who was on the verge of death. Actually, I don't think we've seen it in like years so it probably did die. Honestly, if I was owned by Tracey Sketchit of all people, I'd pray for death everyday. What was the point of that character exactly? Anyway, Scyther's first appearance was in "Showdown in Dark City", an episode inspired by the Akira Kurosawa classic "Yojimbo", where he was given the very odd weakness of being enraged by the color red, and paired up with another Red Version Exclusive, as opposed to his actual Version Counterpart Pinsir. That stuff confused me as a kid because I used to think the whole red deal was part of Scyther's personality even though it's only mentioned in this episode, and nowhere else. I'm not sure there's any part in Yojimbo that ties into this either, so I guess the writers just decided on a weird weakness for this episode. If you think about it, a lot of Kanto episodes tend to ignore the elements the Pokemon are actually known for in favor of just using them for the plot, which I guess might be a positive depending on how you look at things as it meant they could be pretty creative when they wanted to be.
#212 - Scizor
Bug/Steel
Scizor is the evolved form of Scyther when he's traded with the Metal Coat, although Scizor is quite different from the other Cross-Generation Evolutions. Perhaps because Scyther was already seen as an extremely cool and stylish Pokemon, Game Freak didn't want to totally replace him, so Scizor is almost like a "branch evolution", somewhat, in that he and Scyther share the same base stat total, with Scizor switching Flying for Steel, as well as taking Scyther's speed and redistributing it to his Attack and Defense. While this was the plan originally, and Scyther and Scizor were somewhat on equal standing at first, Scizor has easily outclassed Scyther thanks to having a far better Type (and not fearing the Stealth Rock), and a lot of additional tricks to his advantage that means most people likely won't be picking Scyther over his evolution at this point, unless they're extremely dedicated to the purity of Generation I. And then Scizor went further beyond with a Mega Evolution in Gen VI.
It's a complaint lodged at the Generation IV evolutions quite often, but I think it's fair to say that Scizor might be a bit "overdone" compared to Scyther, and personally I've always liked the latter slightly more, although I certainly do like Scizor. The issue for me is that Scyther was already really cool on his own, and Scizor just seems like an attempt to make him even more cooler by making him metallic and a stylish red, but he loses some of the simplistic charm that Scyther had, such as the claws just not being as cool as Scyther's scythes. I feel like Game Freak developed Steelix first, realized it was a waste to only have one classic Pokemon evolve through the Metal Coat, and quickly whipped up a new evolution for Scyther that would use it, and thus Scizor was born. Onix's evolution to Steelix was basically hinted at in its PokeDex, but Scyther becoming a metallic bug on the other hand just came out of nowhere and it's never explained why he suddenly became covered in metal other than "the Metal Coat did it!". But, then again, I think Scizor at least can claim to be an interesting type, and is a pretty unique Pokemon, which is more than I could say for Bellossom, Slowking, and Politoed who weren't necessarily needed and didn't bring too much to the table compared to their evolutionary relatives. So, yeah, Scizor may be a pretty drastic evolution that seems to have been given to Scyther simply because he was popular, and it wasn't actually needed or requested (everyone seemed perfectly fine with Scyther when I was a kid), but he's admittedly cool regardless.
I don't really get what Scizor is meant to be, although I actually think he looks a bit more bug-like than Scyther does. I know there are various praying mantises that are red, but I haven't found any that have the crab claws that Scizor does, and the addition of the eyes on Scizor's claws also felt a little off to me. Scizor already looks like a pretty intimidating Pokemon at 5'11, larger than many Pokemon such as Charizard, and the extra bit to scare foes feels a bit redundant, and an element that would suit a smaller, weaker Pokemon who'd have a reason to try and scare off foes. He's pretty weird, and not in a way that's as cool as Scyther's mantis-meets-ninja-meets-dinosaur look, but then again few Pokemon have met that flawless formula to win over every 10-year old boy the world over. Oh, here's another weird thing---Scizor was known as the "Scissors Pokemon" in Generation II, but since has been changed to the "Pincer Pokemon", which I guess is more accurate, but it seems weird they felt the need to change that, but left Blastoise as the Shellfish Pokemon for six Generations.
Thankfully since Scizor isn't a Flying-type Pokemon, Game Freak didn't give him a ridiculous always-flying animation in Generation VI for Sky Battles, and for that we should be thankful. And it's a good thing they didn't because Scizor is said to basically never use its wings, instead they're merely used to regulate its body temperature implying that perhaps it has somewhat of a mechanical nature to it and needs to "let off steam", so to speak, due to using a lot of energy when fighting. Of course, this is another element most folks seem to miss as I recall Scizor being depicted as a quick and agile flyer a couple times in the show, and I recall in Smash Bros. Melee he also flew around the screen targeting players. Eh, maybe he's just falling with style?
The writers seem to love Scizor, I remember it was a go-to Pokemon the writers used a lot whenever they needed a powerful Pokemon to appear---Bulbapedia's list of appearances seems pretty small though looking it over, but I swear it seemed when I watched the show during the Hoenn and Diamond and Pearl days like one popped up every other episode. Its first appearance in Johto, "Wired For Battle", had a hype-as-fuck battle though, and I also enjoyed the one Battle Frontier episode where it disguised itself as a cloaked figure known as the "Red Lightning" and upon utterly defeating its opponents---scribbled on their face like Jigglypuff. Well, they can't all be winners.
#M212 - Mega Scizor
Bug/Steel
When Mega Pokemon were revealed in XY, all the Mega Evolutions we saw were evolutions of Pokemon who had always been at the top of their line---Lucario, the Starters, Gengar, etc. No Pokemon such as Magnezone, or Blissey, who had been introduced as a Cross-Generation evolution got a Mega, until Mega Scizor was revealed, the first Mega you could say who went---"beyond the beyond". If you think about it, perhaps Mega Scizor is how Scizor should've been at first, having an actual stat gain over Scyther rather than being its "equal", although of course Scizor really never had an issue making a name for itself, and perhaps a Mega Evolution wasn't really needed, but I think it's quite fitting a Pokemon who I feel was only added to try and make a cool Pokemon cooler, got a new form that tried to make it cooler as well.
Did Game Freak succeed? I honestly don't know. I certainly think Mega Scizor looks good, I like the return to the old ninja-motif with the head shuriken, and I think its legs looks a bit better and more insectoid than the rather weak and bendy ones Scizor was given, but like Scyther to Scizor, I think the evolution brought with it a bit of a loss in terms of the "simplistic charm", although personally I think there's a bigger gap between Scyther and Scizor than there is between Scizor and Mega Scizor. So, overall, I'm fine with it, but I'd really love to see Scyther get its own Mega Evolution to compete with Scizor on equal terms once more. Scyther doesn't even seem to evolve naturally, so I don't think him having a Mega Evolution would be too out of place and "break the lore".
Mega Scizor cameo'd in the Diancie Movie under the command of Wikstrom, the Steel Elite Four member from XY. In the games, Wikstrom just uses a regular Scizor, which was pretty disappointing---the fact Mega Evolutions did so little in the game, even though they could've easily give each member a Mega Evolution for a possible rematch, was one of my biggest issues with their implementation, and something I hope "Z" fixes. If you're gonna make super-powered Pokemon, I want to actually fight them during the main adventure as a challenge! Don't limit them to the multiplayer, show us how powerful they can be by making us face them as part of the story!