This was the worst episode of Scooby-Doo I've ever seen. All this time, I was in over my head regarding who The Tangrowth really was behind that grotesque costume. The Tangrowth was one of the most tantalizing villains we've ever seen, yet they never even unmasked him by the end of the episode? Rip-off. Fortunately, through the power of mystery-solving, we can deduce who this fiend really was...
We start things off with Mamoswine, who people still wouldn’t believe is obedient if it suddenly charged out of the TV and began smothering you with love. And if you were sick of Ice Beam, then good knows for you, because Mamoswine has Ice Boogers. Now there’s a word you haven’t heard since pre-school. And so our lovely COTD walks up, who I assume is a park ranger. She’s apparently not very good at her job, however, as Dawn has already passed into the forbidden zone. Suddenly, our villain leaps out from the trees.
It’s The Tangrowth! It is here that we must look carefully for identity clues. It shoots fancy lasers and fires Bullet Seed, and enjoys both whipping and zapping with its tentacles. Conclusion? The Tangrowth is Harley. It was only a matter of time until he returned, considering the fandom’s boredom with Zoey and Kenny. But perhaps such a judgment is a hasty one. Whatever. So here we have TR walking when all of a sudden AN ONIX! OMG! WE’VE TOTALLY NEVER SEEN ONE OF THOSE RANDOMLY POP OUT OF THE GROUND BEFORE AND ACT LIKE A TURD! But The Tangrowth zaps it, forcing me to one simple deduction – The Tangrowth is Steelix. Think about it – what is the only obstacle that stands between Steelix and complete screentime domination? Its inferior evolutionary form.
After a hilarious Giovanni fantasy that desperately needed the classic Scooby-Doo laugh track, we get a random Ursaring appearance, who like the random Onix appearance, only exists in this anime to be a prick whenever convenient. Ash and COTD and Random Stranger stumble upon The Tangrowth, attempting a potpourri of pretty attacks that should hopefully coax you into buying their merchandise. We see Mamoswine get ticked off at a few completely insignificant grass Pokemon and stumble upon a Deku-Tree-like-cave where The Tangrowth probably lives. And if you know anything about caves in the Pokemon world, you know this could only lead to one possible identity for our villain – The Tangrowth is a Golbat.
Of course, Golbats aren’t known to really leave their caves. Rather, Golbats tend to be happy not enabling you to walk more than three spaces at a time before they attack you, then get their amusement by not allowing you to run since their Speed is superior, and thus, they get plenty of laughs using Confuse Ray on you repeatedly. Funny stuff. Team Rocket then comes to save the day in their Mystery Machine, now equipped with a vacuum. But they fail, and soon enough, The Tangrowth revives a tree using the life it sucked out of everyone over the course of the episode. This, my friends, leads to our final definitive answer for The Tangrowth’s true identity:
The Tangrowth is Serebii Forums. Sucking the life out of the innocent, then replenishing the feeble aspects of life that nobody truly cares about. Personally, I feel this was a fantastic metaphor and I must tip my hat off to the writers for thinking of it. If it weren’t for this wonderful parallel, this would have been a horribly mediocre episode, but since it was obviously intentional, I now want to hold up a banner while naked on an overpass expressing my deep appreciation for the Pokemon writers, who make my life complete.