Battling For The Love of Bug-Types! (684)

[d4rk_tailed]

Ah cheers for that clarification of the language discrepancies with TR mate.

I havent watched the ep yet because I cant, but having looked at the pictures, is Swadloon grumpy like that throughout the battle?

[Akaku]

Yes, Kurumayu keeps that same facial expression throughout the battle.
It sucks because Kurumill was so hyper active from those little days of screen time it got. ^^;

[Ruby XIII]

The episode was pretty good to me, I can't believe James caught a Yamask. Very cool to me.

[_Taidow_]

Ok. Here we go. Just a few (Major) clarifications. I apologise in advance as Key Hole was being laggy last night which meant I misheard some things.

- Burgh has moved part of the Pinwheel Forest into the Gym for the bug Pokemon (so they feel more at home).
- As to be expected, both Trainers are limited to 3 Pokemon each.
- Burgh's Dwebble is carrying a different kind of stone that is lighter than most, which is why it's so fast.
- For his own reasons Ash spams Tackle for most of the battle with Dwebble.
- When he finally does use Nitro Charge, Burgh and Dwebble use protect.
- Followed immediately by Rock Wrecker which knocks Tepig out.
- Cilan thinks Burgh was waiting for Tepig to get close before using the attack.
- Iris asks 'Of the Pokemon Ash has on him, who can beat Dwebble now?' Cilan responds 'Either a water-type move from Oshawott or Pikachu's Iron Tail.'
- Ash, god bless him, says 'Bug vs bug!' as he sends out Sewaddle.
- Although both are surprised, Cilan says 'This tastes just like Ash, though.'
-
- TR is NOT disbanded. Giovanni is (probably) NOT missing. The TRio ask the secretary to speak to him, she declines and says he is very busy. They ask if he said what they should do next - she says that he said they are free to do what they like, and work hard for Team Rocket.
- The TRio doesn't know what to do; they ponder about the meaning of the orders.
- Meowth does indeed say they should track down Pikachu for Giovanni and James agrees, leading into the motto.
- Jessie goes to attack the Yamask when it appears, James thinks its hungry and feeds it.
- He then catches it.
- Jessie and Meowth claim a victory for Giovanni because of the capture.
- Then we're back at the gym battle.
- Ash uses Swadloon's own Razor Leaf to break through Leavanny's String Shot.
- Pikachu uses or is ordered to use Thunder, Quick Attack, Electro Ball and Iron Tail during the battle.
- Pikachu gets Leavanny in the neck with an Iron Tail. In the neck.
-

Apologies again.

Oh thats awesome, thanks for clarifying the whole TR thing.

I also did notice the Iron tail to the neck... ouch.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Ah cheers for that clarification of the language discrepancies with TR mate.

I havent watched the ep yet because I cant, but having looked at the pictures, is Swadloon grumpy like that throughout the battle?

Yes, its eyes are like that and it looks depressed but it was happy he even smiles when it wins, its just the design :P.

[Ciccone]

Well, I got to watch this episode at long last, and it was pretty good. I had expected something good and that's basically what I got. I loved the fact that Burgh's Gym looks like a forest. I know we got that with Bugsy's Gym as well, but I really liked seeing something like this again. I also liked how the battlefield appeared out of the ground like that. It was classy. The referee guy looked pretty cool as well, I don't know why though haha. Burgh sent out his Dwebble first, and I couldn't help but wonder if it would ever meet Cilan's Dwebble. OMG KrustyShipping! Ash went with Tepig, which was predictable. Tepig wasn't able to hit Dwebble at first though, and Dwebble got the best of it with Dig. Dwebble used X-Scissor a few times and even though Tepig fought back with Ember and Flame Charge, it lost to Dwebble's Rock-type move. Problem, Tepig? Haha! As Cilan and Iris discussed the battle, Ash sent out Sewaddle to fight. Well, you can't call Ash unoriginal I suppose. Sewaddle used RaZoR LeAf but that damn Dwebble used Protect. Sewaddle seemed like it was going to suffer the same fate as Tepig, but it used String Shot to avoid Dwebble's X-Scissor attack. Oh look, one of Ash's Pokemon actually has a brain. About trucking time! Sewaddle made more use of String Shot and it defeated Dwebble with Razor Leaf when it lost its shell. Yay. Burgh then sent out a tire Whirlipede. I wondered what would happen if his Whirlipede met the Venipede from the previous episode. OMG PesShipping! Sewaddle tried to trap Whirlipede with String Shot, but it didn't work. Sewaddle struggled against Whirlipede and then Burgh had Whirlipede charge up its laser SolarBeam attack. Sewaddle got hit but then it...evolved. Into Swadloon. Just like that. Then began the battle of the cocoon Pokemon. OMG CarapaceShipping! Swadloon looked like it was going to lose, but then Ash told it to use Energy Ball, which actually worked. Wow, I didn't even know that it could use that attack. Whirlipede fainted after getting hit with Tackle, and I just laughed at how ridiculous that was.

Burgh then sent out Leavanny and it was going to battle against Ash's Swadloon. OMG VertShipping! Then we saw Team Rocket at some warehouses. They were seen talking to Giovanni's secretary and I can only assume that they were asking for orders or some kind of assignment. Oh look, Meowth showed emotion by yelling. Oh look, Jessie and James seemed worried. Oh look, Team Rocket seemed happy. Oh look, they're going after Pikachu next. Oh look, DP series motto music. Oh look, white uniforms. Oh look, James feeds a wild Yamask. Oh look, James catches said Yamask. Oh look, funny Team Rocket is back. Anyway, back at the Gym Burgh's Leavanny wrapped Swadloon in a net of love silk and it couldn't move. Leavanny used Leaf Storm and then another attack I don't care about and Swadloon fainted. Too bad. Ash returned Swadloon to its Poke Ball and Oshawott appeared! Oh, it was so cute since it wanted to battle but its shell fell off. I just wanted to pinch its cheeks! Ash chose to use Pikachu in the end, though. I guess he wanted to lose? Anyway, Pikachu used Thunderbolt but Leavanny dodged it easily. Pikachu used Iron Tail, but that failed against Protect. Leavanny used Leaf Storm again and Pikachu's Thunderbolt collided with it, causing an explosion. Why do all attacks cause explosions in this series? FML. Leavanny trapped Pikachu in a silk toga and it got hit by Leaf Storm. Lol. What I wasn't counting on was one of the best comebacks in a long time! Pikachu managed to cut the toga using Leavanny's Leaf Storm and it was then able to dodge all of its String Shot attacks. I loved seeing it use Iron Tail followed by Elecball to finish off that battle. Ash got the Insect Badge from Burgh and all was well with the world. Ash and friends then left the Gym and headed to another part of Castelia City. Well, that was definitely a good episode. Some of the Pokemon's moves were strange, but things were still pretty interesting. I give this episode a nice 8/10. Stay faaaabulous~

[Juputoru]

-The Castelia Gym looks much less ridiculous than it did in the games! Now it's just trees everywhere, instead of a mixture of honey walls & normal walls plastered with artwork.
-Come on, Burgh. Less babbling about how the forest-gym makes bug Pokemon happy and more battlng!
-There we go. Burgh leads with...Dwebble! Which has a lighter shell than Cilan's Dwebble, btw. I'm not sure why the animators felt the distinction was necessary when Cilan's not the one fighting here, but eh, whatever.
-Haha, Iris notices that they look different too. Burgh's Dwebble also seems to have sliiiightly more seperated eyes than Cilan's does. I can get the shell color difference, but bothering to draw THAT differently is kind of ridiculous!
-Using Protect once? Annoying, but I can deal with it. Using it again, right as Tepig goes in for a Nitro Charge? Christ, I know it's effective, but it's still boring as hell to watch.
-And Tepig is down. Hopefully the battle will get more interesting now that they've gotten the "look! Burgh's Pokemon are strong!" bit out of the way.
-Cilan:"Hm, Ash could use Oshawott since it's water type, or have Pikachu use Iron Tail..." Ash:"SEWADDLE, GO!!!" Oh, Ash.
-Pfft, Cilan & Iris' reactions to this are just great.
-STOP WITH THE GODDAMNED PROTECT, BURGH.
-Seriously, STOP IT. Unless this is leading up to an illustration of what happens when you repeatedly use Protect. But Burgh's been making sure to use other attacks in between each use of Protect, so...
-It's almost comedic how quickly Dwebble fainted once Ash caught it off-guard. That's what happens when you rely on Protect as your sole defense against attacks, jerk!
-Up next is: Whirlipede! AKA "the lamest part of the (still cool as hell) Venipede line."
-I retract my "Whirilipede is lame" statement. It just spun around like a goddamned buzzsaw!
-By the time Sewaddle actually gets an attack in, Whirlipede uses...Iron Defense. Oi.
-Burgh goes to finish Sewaddle off with...Solar Beam? But that's doubly not very effective against Sewaddle! Is Ash's refusal to make logical type matchups starting to rub off on his opponents?
-Sewaddle endures it, and...evolves! GREAT JOB, BURGH.
-The only bad part of this is that Swadloon is no longer eye-meltingly adorable.
-Apparently, Swadloon's string shots now shoot 3 strings at once. That's kinda weird.
-Whirilpede is down! Burgh should be embarassed that Ash is sweeping his gym with his specialty type, doncha think?
-Haha, Leavanny's entrance is dramatic enough to warrant the opening cutscene music from the games!
-JJ&M are eating up valuable screentime again. Apparently TR as a whole isn't too pleased with how the events of the postponed episodes went down. And...oh for FUCK'S sake Meowth, you're babbling about Pikachu again?
-...w...why are they doing the motto now?
-They're back in their white uniforms! And Meowth was obsessing about Pikachu again, so...oh dear god, PLEASE don't let this mean what I think it means. (or at least have the writers show some restaint by continuing to have TR-less episodes)
-My emotions of abject "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" aside, this is a pretty damned-well animated motto!
-Yep, they're just obsessing about Pikachu again. Fuck.
-Then a random human soul Pokemon...I mean, Yamask shows up.
-Jessie's about to attack the human soul Pokemon Yamask, but James has a better idea...giving it Pokemon food! Because even spirits need to eat, I guess? At any rate, Yamask willingly joins James. Finally, people can stop whining that he doesn't have a Pokemon!
-Now back to your regularly scheduled "Pokemon VS its own evolution" battle. Swadloon starts with energy ball, and Leavanny uses...protect. *sigh*
-Swadloon gets hit with Hyper Beam and goes down. Yeah, sure, whatever.
-Oshawott pops out, and...manages to knock off its own shell while proudly beating its chest. THIS IS CLEARLY THE POKEMON THAT WILL WIN EVERYTHING FOR ASH!
-Then Ash decides to use Pikachu. Oshawott is devistated, to put it lightly.
-Burgh says stuff about Unova(presumably HEY THAT'S NOT A UNOVA POKEMON since that's clearly not gotten old yet), and...Cilan calls Pikachu Ash's vintage. Aww.
-How on earth is that String Shot supposed to have slowed Pika down? It's only BARELY interfering with one leg!
-And it's even interfering with Thunderbolt? I call bullshit!
-Blah blah battle blah blah Ash wins blah.

Honestly, I wasn't too fond of this episode. Burgh pulled off too much bullshit with Dwebble and Leavanny to hold my interest in their battles, and TR reverting back to their pre-BW ways was quite a letdown. (and before anyone goes HURP DURP WELL BW TR WAS ALSO BORING DERP DERP, this isn't the topic for that debate)

...although after doing my usual write-up, I read that TR actually disbanded(!!!), so...does that mean that JJ&M will just be wandering around forever, vainly hoping that they can get the team back together if they could only get that damned Pikachu? Well, whatever happens this...still isn't the topic to debate that!
EDIT: And now I hear that TR wasn't disbanded, Gio was just too busy to speak to JJM. Either way, I'm hoping TR continues their recent tradition of not taking up too much screentime. :<

[XXD17]

Oh, then how is that their old motto, well it doesn't matter, it looked cool anyway.

The motto is still the new one but the background music was the one used in DP not the most recent one from Best wishes...

[Dax]

Best gym battle so far. I love Swadloon, the voice was so cute.

One thing I didn't like is how Leavanny looks like a pokemon that can move around, it seems agile yet it stayed in one place and launched attacks. It barely moved. I would have loved to see the bug run, dodge, and be more physical.

Oshawott was EXTREMELY cute. I love when the shell falls.

I find it ironic how they have mentioned in two gyms Pidove/Tranquill was the best choice yet Ash doesn't really use her. Sad...

[CyberCubed]

Watch Ash use Tranquil in the electric Gym, given he's been purposely using type disadvantages in every BW match so far.

[Shneak]

Watch Ash use Tranquil in the electric Gym, given he's been purposely using type disadvantages in every BW match so far.

This. Iris and Cilan pointed out in this episode twice that Ash was choosing the wrong types.

This was one of those episodes that got much better from the beginning. Tepig had it rough, but I'm kind of glad it lost. Swadloon did well. I love the Best Wishes instumental theme, which I'm now calling the 'evolution song'. Pikachu finally taking out a strong Pokemon ended the battle well.

I have no idea what is happening with Team Rocket, or what will happen, but I'm excited. Looks like they might be going back to their original selves. If they can have a serious and comedic attitude at times, that would be great. And I'm glad to see James catch a Yamask.

Best gym battle so far.

[Arcamenel]

I hope volt tackle is gone personally. The fact that pikachu rarely ever seemed to take any recoil damage from it when it's supposed to cause a lot of it was pretty cheap imo and I like Electro Ball tons more.

[Gaiash]

I hope volt tackle is gone personally. The fact that pikachu rarely ever seemed to take any recoil damage from it when it's supposed to cause a lot of it was pretty cheap imo and I like Electro Ball tons more.

But it and Iron Tail were both moves it put a lot of time and effort into learning. It would be a shame for that effort to go to waste if it doesn't use it ever again.

[Mr.Munchlax]

I think the reason why Ash chose Sewaddle for his gym battle was to show Burg how well he's bonded with it since last time

[RickHoenn]

i hate this show now i cannot beleive it you know what this means

since badass team rocket was better in the dub then the raw but comedic team rocket sucked in the dub

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS NOW WERE GONNA HAVE A HORRIBLE DUB AND RAW THIS IS SOOOOOOO STUPID' I CANNOT BELIEVE IM SAYING THIS BUT I HOPE THE FLOODS DESTROY AND KILL ALL THE WRITERS FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO THE BEST THING IN THE SHOW

YOU HAVE RUINED POKEMON I HATE UUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Overreact much???? OMG how can you wish them death -_- I seriously hope you're joking... if not then you're mentally unstable.

[Arcamenel]

But it and Iron Tail were both moves it put a lot of time and effort into learning. It would be a shame for that effort to go to waste if it doesn't use it ever again.

If I'm not mistaken it learned volt tackle by pure chance. It had stored up a lot of electricity from having to cut off thunderbolt and in an attempt to do quick attack all that energy was released to form volt tackle. I don't really see how that counts as putting a lot of effort into learning.

[lolipiece]

you dont know how bad comedic team rocket are i hate them they were the reason why i hated diamond and pearl and the dub isn't good with goofy team rocket only badass team rocket i dont understand why thE writers would ruin the show THIS IS WORSE THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO POKEMON EVER

Yes, because this one small minor change will ruin the show FOREVER....

>_>

[GalladeRocks]

Watch Ash use Tranquil in the electric Gym, given he's been purposely using type disadvantages in every BW match so far.

Did Oshawott and Tepig have a type disadvantage against Lenora's Pokemon? Did Pikachu have a disadvantage to Panpour? No. The only ones that include Ash using a Pokemon at a disadvantage are Oshawott vs. Pansage and Sewaddle/Swadloon vs. Dwebble and Venipede. Tepig against Pansear was somewhat of a defensive choice, with neither having an advantage over the other (until Pansear pulled Dig out of his tail), and Swadloon against Leavanny put both Pokemon at an advantage over the other. Taking other battles into consideration...well, all I can think of is Ash vs. Trip, which included Ash making smart choices like Pikachu vs. Tranquill (after sending out Tepig, of course :l), Snivy vs. Servine (defensively it's a good choice), and Snivy vs. Frillish (not that it exactly turned out well in the end).

As for this episode itself, I've got to say that Whirlipede was about the best part. That thing was going like a freaking buzz-saw! I was expecting it to cut poor Sewaddle in half! Oh, and of course, Team Rocket returning to their old comedic selves is always a good thing. If they keep tackling some more serious missions, then we'll just have the perfect balance, with important goals but funny personalities.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Overreact much???? OMG how can you wish them death -_- I seriously hope you're joking... if not then you're mentally unstable.

He is either 8 or trolling don't take it seriously, either way or even if there is a third option.

[RickHoenn]

you dont know how bad comedic team rocket are i hate them they were the reason why i hated diamond and pearl and the dub isn't good with goofy team rocket only badass team rocket i dont understand why thE writers would ruin the show THIS IS WORSE THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO POKEMON EVER

I loved their comedics antics until Hoenn and while I somehow agree about DP they staled to death to the point they were unbearable! you're overreacting -_- you don't know what's going to happen, maybe Giovanni will give them more orders in the future, in BW33 sketches James and Jessie looked damn serious. Everyone don't know what's going to happen next.

He is either 8 or trolling don't take it seriously, either way or even if there is a third option.

I was hoping he wasn't being serious but look at his signature...