Suffice it to say that this episode only exists in the first place because I needed an excuse for Misty to appear for the past several episodes. But it developed into an episode with much more importance. One such factor was the introduction of Tyde. I’ve been wanting to introduce my Elite Four for a while now, but it is somewhat hard to get a good enough reason for them to show up. It’s kind of a shame the way that the Elite Four is normally shown in the show. Ash may have met all of the Kanto Elite Four, but it took up until the Battle Frontier to do so (and technically he didn’t even meet Lance as an Elite Four, but a Champion). He never met Koga as an Elite Four and never met Karen at all. In Hoenn he only met Drake and none of the others. In Unova only Caitlin appeared, and that wasn’t until towards the end of the region. And so far in Kalos Siebold and Malva have only appeared in the Mega Evolution Specials, not the main series, and Wikstrom got a tiny cameo in a movie. Sinnoh is the only region so far that handled its Elite Four well and introduced all of them over the course of the region. I hope to do the same.
Another point worth mentioning for this episode was Misty’s send-off. Of all of Ash’s travelling companions to have a goal, Misty is probably the one who made the smallest strides towards said goal. She did win the Whirl Cup, but that was really all she did. In her send-off I wanted to give her an even more major step. So beyond just having her win the Splash Cup, I gave her the set up that promises to make her into a true Water-Type master. That was a proper send-off for her I believe.
The Cosmic Quest Official Website 