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Arcanine was indeed supposed to be a legendary, but I don't believe he was scrapped for Moltres. I think Arcanine was supposed to be a unique typing, probably Light/Heroic/Courage element based on his dex entry. He was designed to rule over the three birds and stand against the most powerful pokemon ever created, Mewtwo. Is it a coincidence the big bad of the pokemon world is a fucking cat? Pokemon was supposed to be about going out in nature and collecting pets. You have all kinds of variety but notice how the kanto legendaries are birds and cats? I think Arcanine was meant to stand at the top, reflective of how dogs dominate as man's best friend. In the end this probably didn't sound like good marketing since it paints cat lovers as "evil" so Arcanine just became the one and only "Legendary" pokemon. I will say though he seems to have a lot of behind the scenes favoritism when it comes to movesets. He hasn't really had a BAD generation since 1.
