So jakeeggroll had this headcanon where Steven is really afraid of dragons(childhood accidents, check her blog for details). Kinda adding onto it.
So pre-ORAS, Steven would freak out when dragon-types get into his visual range, regardless of distance(although the shorter it is the larger the freak out). The Elite Four sensed that this wouldn’t be good if a Dragon Tamer came for a challenge, so Drake and Glacia basically organised a bit of training where Drake brings out one of his Flygons(they looked the friendliest), and try to get Steven to adapt to them, in a way(of course, Glacia is there to monitor him, and blasts the Flygon if it moves foward too much).
Considering this sketch where distance is badly calculated, Steven can manage dragon-types when they’re technically on the opponent side, flinches badly when they use physical attacks, but still freaks out when there’s any of the Bagon line or the dragon uses breath-based attacks. And if it’s outside trainer battles, consider a massive ‘nope’.
toradbos dump spot 