YMMV / Challenge of the Samurai

• Broken Aesop: The episode wants to be about taking responsibility for your actions. Unfortunately, it mistakenly convinces itself that Ash is the one who needs to take responsibility, when the true Unwitting Instigator of Doom is the Samurai—the Beedrill swarm was summoned by the escaped Weedle, so the Samurai who distracted Ash and let the Weedle escape is at fault. The episode proceeds to take the Samurai's side when he blames Ash not only for letting the Weedle escape but for the Beedrill kidnapping Ash's Metapod—in effect it creates an unintentional Hypocrite by having the guilty party insist that it's Never My Fault while convincing an unlucky schlub that It's All My Fault.
• Don't Shoot the Message: Taking responsibility for one's own actions is a very important lesson for kids to learn early on when growing up... too bad it's muddled by the fact that it genuinely wasn't Ash's fault for everything that happened in this episode, despite what the episode tries to tell you.
• Improved Second Attempt: The novel version of the episode by Takeshi Shudō fixes the Broken Aesop. Weedle is caught by the Bug Catcher (Samurai's replacement) at the beginning of the chapter and the Beedrill are out hunting as opposed to being out for revenge. Ash forgets to recall Metapod and makes up excuses for it, and then Bug Catcher calls him out for it, even tearing up at the thought of someone else's bug Pokémon becoming the Beedrill's snack. Ash then acknowledges his immaturity. This really gives more meaning to Ash's character development in this story.
• Informed Wrongness: The episode's fundamental Broken Aesop rests on ignoring the Samurai's part in the Beedrill swarm and then agreeing with the Samurai when he blames Ash for the swarm kidnapping his Metapod. What actually happens in the episode is that the Samurai interrupts Ash's attempt to capture a Weedle by sticking a deadly weapon in his face and then demanding a battle, providing the distraction for the Weedle to escape and summon the Beedrill swarm.
• The Scrappy: The Samurai, the first Character of the Day, is hated for interrupting Ash when he's in the middle of catching a Weedle in order to challenge him, causing said Pokémon to call a swarm of angry Beedrill, which proceed to steal Ash's Metapod and force them into hiding. The samurai angrily blames and berates Ash for not taking responsibility, even though Ash tried his hardest and that all of this was the samurai's fault in the first place! Otherwise, had it not been for the Metapod vs. Metapod battle and Ash's Metapod evolving into Butterfree, this episode would have been discarded quicker than Shed Skin.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The episode really is trying to have an Aesop about taking responsibility for your actions, but Ash's actions aren't what actually cause the problem, and worse, the episode tries to deliver that Aesop through the Samurai, the character whose actions were responsible for what happened—it's the Samurai who was the Unwitting Instigator of Doom and the actual example of passing the buck, so for him to blame Ash makes Ash seem like a bullying victim and the Samurai himself an Articuno grade hypocrite and gaslighter.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Ash's Metapod for acting hurt over Ash "not coming for it earlier", again, even though Ash risked his own well-being to save it from the Beedrill before Misty pulled him away. Ash, again, apologized for something that couldn't be helped.

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