Uh.. No. You can't show the strength of Mega Lucario and connect it to the gym battle without Pikachu being brutalized. It only gives Ash and Pikachu a better motivation to win. You can't remove Clemont and Korrina talking to each other.
Which is why we're always treated to a first episode of introductions, then the gym battle.
Buuuuuuuuut instead we got a whole arc of an introduction because Korrina sucked despite winning so much.
Because it is the regional gimmick. Not explaining it is bad writing. And Ash had a substitute for mega evolution which was even better done than mega evolutions.
Dude, we all saw
that replacement for Mega Evolution. They couldn't even give it a believable backstory. Even the village of its origin didn't have an original name. And that's without getting to its pathetic losing streak against a certain dragon!
Also, you forget Serena and Clemont were things. Those two could have gotten Mega Evolution, but they surely weren't given any because the writing team really wanted to sell the idea Ash was the hero.
Lucario was becoming enraged because he had never experienced such power before. It's expected. It has been done many times in other pieces of media without any complain from the audience.
As for the italicised part, remember when Korrina said Lucario was waiting for her. She specifically wanted to help Lucario with his rage. Mega Evolution is possible successfully only when the Pokemon is bonded with the trainer. Korrina began to doubt herself and her experiences with Lucario. Then she worked to achieve ME and did it successfully with Lucario. You cannot ignore all that and say she didn't anything for Lucario's zombie mode.
As for the bolded part, I already said that it showcased how ME works for different Pokemon. Mega Audino is not the same as Mega Lucario. Lucario is shown to be a naturally aggressive species in the anime. While Audino was always shown with Nurse Joy and has never been shown to be rash. Also, nothing implied that Mega Audino had a powerful boost similar to Lucario.
Girl has a Pokemon that evolves through high friendship. If she faced all these difficulties, she just sucked, or things just got really weird that an arc had to be used. Also, for a Pokemon unable to control that much power...the gym battle sure looked way too tame. Like, where did all this power go? It didn't help TRio had to show up and take off time from the gym battle.
And let's not brush off Mega Audino so easily. We were told having a strong bond is needed to Mega Evolve, but in that instance, Joy and Audino were absolutely this close to wringing each other's necks until TRio showed up and just one small moment of heartbreak that had absolutely no implications of existing prior was enough for them to be in complete sync. I really can't fathom how they got it so easy with no training while Korrina progressed so well...and yet she got the short end of the stick.
So then what do we make of Sawyer and his Mega Sceptile? That thing wasn't shown doing any sort of training and yet Sawyer had almost no time to perfect it between Wulfric's battle and the league. I know he was often said to be some sort of prodigy, but seriously, the guy suddenly goes Wally in very little time.
I would very much prefer if Ash didn't won his limelight battle in Alola with a cheap DEM that he never worked for. So, anything would be better than that.
The exclusive Z-Crystal he obtained literally exists just for him. It was his creation. Which is why all the Pikachu with anime hats can use the move.
Look, this was the first time Ash was going to fight against ME. There needs to be a damn good motivation for Ash to win. Remove the arc and Korrina becomes the umpteenth hyperactive kid and the gym battle becomes another random battle that was just cool animations. They need to size up Lucario. They need to show how dangerous ME is in the wrong hands. They need to show how the bond between a trainer and Pokemon is of paramount importance when talking about ME. If mega lucario was a random mon with no feats, then the gym battle fails to deliver as the first Mega Evolution fight. Without getting thrashed, there is no narrative importance of the fight between Pikachu and Mega Lucario. I have been very disturbed with how gimmicks have been handled in the current series and previous series. All things considered, we were lucky to even get such an arc.
For something that is allegedly dangerous, all we got was Pikachu getting punted and a jackal roaring incoherently. Show me the beast destroying a whole house.
And for when they finally mastered the transformation, really, I didn't get the feeling it was so strong. Getting rid of TRio as a solution is hardly wow material.
The execution was overall poor once the big picture of all instances of Mega Evolution are shown. I really wanted Serena to have the mechanic if Ash didn't bother with it somehow.
*claps hands*
Anyhow! I won't budge from these thoughts. Now let's see if they don't do a repeat of Korrina's arc with Ash's Lucario, if it's given Mega Evolution. (If so, dear god, I fear the spotlight-hogging.)