Why Do The Writers Love Ash's Heracross so Much?

[Cinderfella]

It's something that I never really understood.

Heracross is a great Pokémon and all, I just found it very random how often it appears. And with its new Mega Evolution and the possibility of Ash potentially using reserves come League, I can't help but wonder: why all the Heracross love?

In case you've forgotten:
-Heracross got a decent amount of focus in Johto, at least in terms of strength with that Scissor episode.
-Heracross was used against Gary-Gary people, over Pikachu and won against a Magmar.
-Heracross was used in the Battle Frontier, so was Tauros-yes, but Muk and Kingler could have been its substitute as well
-Heracross was used in against Nando and against Tobias-against a freaking Darkrai.

I'll admit Heracross in the Nando battle and Tobias battle was amazing. And it's important to note I say all of this with love. I am by no means hating on Heracross as a Pokémon of Ash's. I think its actually quite cute and funny how it looks to sap off of anything and is a loyal Pokémon shown in a good light.

As a matter of fact, if Ash ever does face The Elite Four-any Elite Four, it'd probably be best to take Heracross with him actually given its track record-and seeing it Mega-Evolve in the Kalos League would be rather nice.

However, in the name of Kingler, Muk, Totodile, Bayleef, and even Ash's reserves for Unovoa who could have been on Heracross' level as a reserve but weren't, what makes Heracross so special to get this kind of treatment and not them?

Discuss.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Might be a cultural thing. As I recall, Heracross is based on a popular insect well known in Japan for a kind of insect pit-fighting. This might be one of those things where the reference was far more obvious in Japan

 

[Hector]

Probably Rule of Cool or something similar. Same reason for Charizard being (perhaps) Ash's most powerful mon. I don't think this is a case of wider symbolism or a conscious decision by the writers. More 'which mon should we use? how about the badass fighting beetle everyone seems to like' type decision making.

 

[Johtohfiller]

Eh, I thought Heracross got screwed over pretty bad back in Johtoh, getting Oaked so quickly. The later appearances could have been making up for that.

 

[Life]

Honestly, I don't think they really showed much love for it until the Sinnoh League when they gave it two big roles. As Johtofiller mentioned, Heracross got very little screen-time in the Original Series and was sent to Oak's Lab instead of some of Ash's Kanto Pokemon going. In fact, there are only three episodes I can recall it being in, those being its debut episode, the episode where it beat that Scizor, and its episode at the Silver Conference. A quick search on Bulbapedia even shows that it really only had a couple episodes of stardom. I hardly consider that so much love.

Yeah, it did appear in BF during Ash's battle against Spencer, but I wouldn't necessarily call that "love", considering Ash was recalling his old Pokemon throughout that entire saga.

And moving on to Sinnoh... Like I already mentioned, the writers decided to give it two big roles here, and that was mainly due to the battles Ash was in. Ash wanted to use a Bug-type against Nando because he wanted him to experience what a heated battle felt like, and since Heracross was Ash's only Bug-type at the time he didn't have any other options. And I suppose that he used it against Darkrai because it was his best bet as far as type match-ups go.

I guess you could call that love, but it's more just smart planning on Ash's part.

 

[Muur]

I actually think it got pretty shafted, rather than over exposed.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Heracross did get tossed aside quite early on in Johto, so the screentime he got afterwards seems fair enough. I feel that he's Ash's best Johto catch by far until Quilava evolves.

 

[garrison-san]

Heracross got Oaked early on in Johto, all so that Bulbasaur could remain on Ash's team long after the other two Kanto starters had departed. I wasn't feeling the love back then.

 

[Hidden Mew]

While Heracross has come back a few times for Leagues and the Battle Frontier, I'm not sure if it's been really overexposed and loved by the writing staff. As others mentioned, they got rid of it pretty early in Johto, which never really made sense to me because Ash could have easily kept it around longer if they had gotten rid of Bulbasaur sooner than they did. The most attention it got was in the Sinnoh League, but that was mainly due to how it was a good match-up against Nando's Pokemon, as well as Darkari.