The Battle For The Badge! (063)

[Serebii]

Battle For The Badge!

In Viridian City, Ash goes to the gym, but Gary gets in there before him and gets beaten by a never before seen Pokémon. Luckily Giovanni leaves the gym and puts Jessie and James in charge. Can Ash beat them and get the badge?

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[Hales]

I actually liked Gary in this episode, but after this episode and the episodes he's in towards the Silver Conference... I don't like him, he's like an obnoxious brat.

But anyway I loved how Gary tackled Meowth so that he ended up losing the controls.

Togepi pressing the buttons was hilarious.

[meggirl63]

I taped this episode because of Gary Oak. Oh, I got a chance to see Gary being honest with Ash during the scene in the gym. Gary was unconscious and Ash comes to help him up. Gary tells about a mysterious Pokemon and Ash was shocked.

[Jesse GS the II]

You know, this episode holds a very dear place in my heart, because it was the one story I was proudest with when I concluded my comic adaptation of it. See, a few years back, I wanted to see if the "Pokémon" plotline would work well in a daily comic strip, and I adapted a lot of the stories seen on the TV show. This one went through a few alterations, though.

It started off pretty much the same way as the first movie, with Mewtwo being cloned and realizing that he wasn't created with a purpose. So he breaks out of the lab and sets off to find a place where he can be respected and have a reason for being. He lands in the Viridian Forest, where Jessie and James con him into coming back to the Rocket base with them. Giovanni invites Mewtwo to work at the gym for him, and gives him the armor and everything. At this point, the POV of the story switches to Ash and the others. When Ash learns that Gary got beaten by the Viridian Gym Leader's mysterious Pokémon, Ash charges in and demands a battle. Here's the biggest change - he actually challenges Giovanni HIMSELF to the battle. Giovanni sends out Mewtwo, and when it becomes obvious that Pikachu can't take such abuse, Ash sends out Charizard. Naturally, the thing is asleep, but one attack from Mewtwo awakens him and gets him steaming mad. So Charizard hits Mewtwo with a Fire Spin that heats up his titanium armor to the point where Mewtwo passes out. Ash leaves with his Earth Badge, and Giovanni sends Mewtwo back to its training area - until Mewtwo learns that Giovanni is only manipulating him for gym battles and takes off again.

What do you think?

[Hales]

Very impressive, especially since I really wanted Ash to battle Giovanni instead of the others!

[Ryuu]

Hehe, I liked Ash's quote "It was an egg-sident". XD

Gary was cool here, though he was pwned by Mewtwo.

I liked Giovanni too; Gary's Nidoking and Arcanine put up an impressive show. And Gary's cheerleaders were good too.

[Mistystar89]

Yup, funny episode when Misty yelled at Ash for losing Togepi XD Poor Ash but I wished he went against Giovanni instead but it was a good battle and episode 8.5/10

[Psychic Venusaur]

I got lots to say about this episode.

Yeah, the "eggsident". He actually dared to make a joke!

Giovanni, you fool! Keep the Togepi! Who cares what it does? You've never seen one in your life! Man, seriously, Jessie and James finally get you a Pokemon and you reject it?

I liked Giovanni's Roman sentinels.

I wonder where Gary got those badges?

The first episode where Giovanni comes to the light. Nice. I like how Mewtwo was in it.

Meowth wired both sides, haha! Yeah, Togepi pressing the buttons was hilarious! When in doubt, just press both.

8.5/10, full of good stuff.

[Rockin83]

i av just seen this ep and i realised that gary was using nidoking and he kept saing nidoqueen

[Batdude]

This ep was good. In fact, very little of Kanto was actually bad. A couple of funny lines in this one.

Jessie: *in a daze after getting shocked* Follow the leader...

Ash: It's Gary!
Brock: And the GIRLS!

Giovanni: *looking at Togepi* What exactly does this 'Pokémon' do?

There are more, but they escape me at the moment... It's fun to note that Arcanine beat Kingler here, and in the Pokémon League against Pebbleman. And Squirtle lost to Machamp, but at the start of Mewtwo Strikes Back he whups a Machamp. Crayzay! It was a nice touch that he used his four Pokemon in the match. They all got shown, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Pidgeotto and Pikachu I mean. Weird how they used Rhydon for both Blaine and Giovanni.

[wobbanut]

No matter how many times I watch this episode, I still don't get the bit where Pikachu starts a fire going in front of Ash. At least the part where they said Ash was getting fired up was funny.

I really like that we started to see a different side of Gary with this episode and with "Showdown at the Po-ke Corral". Too bad that he didn't start to be nicer on a regular basis until season four on, but it was great to see a dramatic moment with him where he's not sniping at Ash. I know that if I had watched the show from the beginning I never would have liked Gary, so it's a good thing that I saw his later episodes first and got to see what a nice guy he eventually became. It's also nice that they showed what a great battler he is in this episode.

It's also REALLY interesting that Giovanni got a call to handle an emergency just as Ash was about to go in and battle, and he ends up fighting Jessie. Ash would definitely have never stood a chance against Giovanni back then. He would have had his butt handed to him on a sling. Today, he'd probably have a better shot (Gary's wins were a little too quick to see how Giovanni's first two pokemon really perform), but definitely not back in season one.

It's also interesting that this is the one time in the ENTIRE history of the show that Team Rocket brought a pokemon to their boss. Even stranger that Giovanni took no interest in Togepi, since we see in later episodes that it has some good attacks.

[Satoshi]

Anyone notice that Mewtwo's head-gear is a little different than the one he's wearing in the movie?

[Haunter Hunter Sohrab]

I wonder where Gary got those badges?

Maybe he went to the Battle Fronteir Brains and beath some of them. But then those are called Symbols not badges.

This was a nice cool episode and I like how Gary got defeated. Good stuff.

[ChaosMage]

A nice prequal to the first movie, but not a very good eighth gym episode. It really disappoints me to this day.

[X the.only.trainer.ever X]

Although I liked this episode I was disappointed at the same time

Seeing Ash have to face off against Jesse rather than Giovanni for the 8th badge wasn't all too fun

It was nice to see Gary make another appearance - it had always been in the back of my mind (at the time) as to which pokemon Gary chose at the beginning of his quest

Thinking that I was going to see the pokemon he chose they kept the suspense on us by not revealing it - good move on their part though.

It always looked like Pidgeotto had to take a back seat compared to the other pokemon - it was cool to see that Pidgeotto was the first of Ash's pokemon to do damage to Jesse...the weird thing was it was quick attack against a Rhydon,wow

[Aptenodytes]

hilarious episode and it was fun seeing team rocket and ash getting shocked! it was an ok gym battle overall though. 8/10

[Ashy Boy]

I don't know who messed up the episode more, Gary's overconfidence, Misty's negative attitude or Team Rocket being nasty as always. Anyway, worst episode ever.

[JONNO.FRESH]

Meh it was an alright episode. TR being Gym Leaders suprised me but they lost. Mewtwo beating gary was pretty kool however. Probably the best thing in the epi was Mewtwo

[charizard trainer #1]

Not a bad episode actually, yes i felt ripped off that Ash faced J&J rather than giovannie but it wasn't a bad filler. Gary's cheerleaders are his signiture move people. Laughed when brock ran straight to the unconscious cheerleaders first.

I think this was the first time we see Gary's pokemon: nidoking. Then we see arcanine. Oddly enough, we both of them in Gary's final battle against Ash. Strange.

[De HotShot Mon]

I think this was the first time we see Gary's pokemon: nidoking. Then we see arcanine. Oddly enough, we both of them in Gary's final battle against Ash. Strange.

If you mean Gary's battle against Ash in the Silver Conference, that was Nidoqueen and Arcanine.