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

[WaterShuriken]

Three points...

1. I hope TR is not back to blasting off and being incompetent. I don't mind the white uniform change but at least keep their seriousness. I think by finding Giovanni they will get on his good side. i wonder what happened to Flint and Professor Serger.

2. What happened to Tranquill? I'm guessing Ash switched her out for Sewaddle in between episodes or something. I wonder why... did Tranquill get injured in the TR vs TP fiasco, or did Juniper just want to analyze Tranquill and look at the improvements from when she was a Pidove? Also due to the fact that Cilan didn't mention "Ash should have brought Tranquill" I"m guessing something did happen to her.

3. Yay! Swadloon! Ash now has two pokemon in their middle stages. It was funny seeing Oshawott get rejected like that. It makes sense though. Wait a minute... Ash chose to use Oshawott against grass-type Pansage when he had Pidove, but now rejected Oshawott when facing part grass-type Leavanny? Why didn't he just use Pidove in the beginning. I'm seeing that of all times Pidove/Tranquill would have been extremely useful... Ash forgets/ignores her.
1. Against Pansage.
2. Forgot above Pidove when trying to catch Snivy and only intended to use her as a hunter.
3. Against Whirlipede and Leavanny here... (but there migth have been a reason for this one).

It also seems that Pikachu did replace Volt Tackle w/ Electro Ball.

 

[Deikan]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The lame old Team Rocket is back . Great gym battle though.

 

[Almighty Zard]

Swadaloon's expression is funny, I didn't think it could smile at all with it's constant "i'll kick your butt." look.

 

[Vodka Haze]

It's a shame that Team Rocket is now going back to the goofy trio they once were, but I'm hoping they still maintain they personalities while being badass in their captures. Would be nice if they didn't blast off in (m)any episodes, and escape like they did previously in the BW saga. And at least James has a Pokemon now, hopefully Yamask will suit him.

 

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Agree, normally serebii.net has the pictures before anyone else. Did something happen?

No Filb has pictures before anyone else.

Anyway seen the episode and Tepig actually put up a fight, nice fight the episode was entertainining and yes say wtv you want but Team Rocket is back to what they were and I will have nightmares about them being plotholes and annoying as heck.

 

[Arcamenel]

I'm gonna miss srs bzns Team Rocket but it's cool that James got a yamask. Anyone think it's the same one from the museum? Electro ball looked cool and Ash showcased more of original battle tactics.

 

[ChaosMage]

I can't wait for Team Rocket's pokemon to evolve- that's the most exciting thing to come from this episode for me. Swoobat and Cofagrigus seem like they'd be very affectionate pokemon, but hopefully also competent in battles.

 

[gliscor&yanmega]

Until I see them blasting off all the time, to me they aren't the old Team Rocket. I'd say the writers are going for something more in the middle this time, more along the lines of near the beginning of Best Wishes.


The gym battle was pretty interesting, Stringshot was being used in a different manner then it would be used in the games. I think all this Protect that's been going around in Best Wishes could lead to Ash coming up with a way to beat it.

 

[uber gon]

Wonder if Ash will have any personality problems with his new pokemon? I kind of expect them.

 

[Almighty Zard]

also it seems Tails was right, Volt Tackle might be gone now.

 

[Akaku]

2. What happened to Tranquill? I'm guessing Ash switched her out for Sewaddle in between episodes or something. I wonder why... did Tranquill get injured in the TR vs TP fiasco, or did Juniper just want to analyze Tranquill and look at the improvements from when she was a Pidove? Also due to the fact that Cilan didn't mention "Ash should have brought Tranquill" I"m guessing something did happen to her.

Actually, in the episode, Iris and Dent mentioned how it would have been better to use a flying type against Hoiiga, and that's when they said that Satoshi left Hatobo in Araragi's Lab.

 

[WaterShuriken]

Actually, in the episode, Iris and Dent mentioned how it would have been better to use a flying type against Hoiiga, and that's when they said that Satoshi left Hatobo in Araragi's Lab.

Oh okay thank you.

I hope Tranquill gets to shine in another gym.

 

[BlueMage]

As much as I liked the serious Team Rocket, I am at least happy to know that the silly Team Rocket we all love still existed, and hey, this means we'll probably be seeing Woobat more often now. Yamask was a good choice for James too, and one that I didn't see coming. I was expecting him to get a Ferroseed. It's nice to see a main character own a Ghost Pokemon for once.

A bit disappointed in the Gym battle, though. Ash used Tepig. Again. He still has yet to use Snivy in a Gym Battle, despite Snivy being one of his strongest Pokemon at the moment. Personally, I was really hoping for Snivy vs. Leavanny. That would have been a perfect matchup, in my opinion. I was also disappointed that Burgh's Leavanny used like, no physical moves in the battle. Seriously, no Leaf Blade? All it did was just stand there spamming Leaf Storm.

Ash's choice in Pokemon is really starting to bother me, too. Yeah, I know this is typical of Ash and the anime likes to prove that all Pokemon are equally strong, but this was just a tad bit ridiculous. Ash picked the worst possible Pokemon for this Gym match, making him seem outright ignorant, and it makes no sense for Sewaddle/Swadloon to have defeated Dwebble and especially Whirlipede so easily. In my opinion, Ash should have just used Sewaddle from the start, then after it lost to Leavanny, he should have used Snivy. Leavanny also appeared to be female so Attract wouldn't have worked on it, so we could have had a real action packed girl fight there.

 

[DarkWobbuffet]

Ooooh my god I love Swadloon. That little guy saved my butt a lot in White and I'm pleased to see one in the anime kicking all sorts of bug butt.

So Dwebble's attack was Rock Wrecker? No wonder Tepig got Tepwned.

And Team Rocket is back to their normal selves. Yes, by the gods yes. Hopefully they'll try to be a bit more of their flamboyantly funny selves from early Kanto. Oh and James getting a Yamask, awesome. I swear, my favorite character seems to coincidentally always get my favorite Pokemon. All he needs now is an Eelektross and it'll be perfect.

I have to admit, this season got off to a bad start as far as I was concerned, but it's certainly picking back up a bit.

 

[Chill92]

Yea, I heard Cilan mentioning Tranquil here about something...
Anyway, the way TR reacts to the secretary and Meowth mentioning Pikacu means that they are free to hunt for the rodent again. Hopefully they don't get blasted off like failures but at the same time remain with the "goofy" personality. In the Sandile episode and Musharna one, they tried getting Pikachu. Though they failed, they at least did it in a cool way. Here's hoping they continue with that.
I found Swadloon smiling like that weird to me, since it had that grumpy expression while battling all the time lol
Oshawott = DENIED

 

[Akaku]

A bit disappointed in the Gym battle, though. Ash used Tepig. Again. He still has yet to use Snivy in a Gym Battle, despite Snivy being one of his strongest Pokemon at the moment. Personally, I was really hoping for Snivy vs. Leavanny. That would have been a perfect matchup, in my opinion. I was also disappointed that Burgh's Leavanny used like, no physical moves in the battle. Seriously, no Leaf Blade? All it did was just stand there spamming Leaf Storm.

Ash's choice in Pokemon is really starting to bother me, too. Yeah, I know this is typical of Ash and the anime likes to prove that all Pokemon are equally strong, but this was just a tad bit ridiculous. Ash picked the worst possible Pokemon for this Gym match, making him seem outright ignorant, and it makes no sense for Sewaddle/Swadloon to have defeated Dwebble and especially Whirlipede so easily. In my opinion, Ash should have just used Sewaddle from the start, then after it lost to Leavanny, he should have used Snivy. Leavanny also appeared to be female so Attract wouldn't have worked on it, so we could have had a real action packed girl fight there.

I wanted Hatobo (Tranquill) to battle, but personally it doesn't surprise me much, and I'm not really bothered by it. Surely Tsutarja (Snivy) will be used in the ground gym battle as well as Mijumaru (Oshawott) and probably Kurumayu (Swadloon). Tsutarja might be at a disadvantage with the electric gym battle, though, only because Emolga is flying too and Zebraika has Nitro Charge.

Also, I totally agree about Hahakomori (Leavanny). It needed to move more, I was hoping for X-Scissor and Leaf Blade too, it's characteristics make it an Attack/Offense Pokemon, not SPATK. Another point is that it's a bug gym, and Hahakomori had no bug attacks except String Shot. Nevertheless, it wasn't too shabby.

 

[Poke Master 7]

Ash's choice in Pokemon is really starting to bother me, too. Yeah, I know this is typical of Ash and the anime likes to prove that all Pokemon are equally strong, but this was just a tad bit ridiculous. Ash picked the worst possible Pokemon for this Gym match, making him seem outright ignorant, and it makes no sense for Sewaddle/Swadloon to have defeated Dwebble and especially Whirlipede so easily. In my opinion, Ash should have just used Sewaddle from the start, then after it lost to Leavanny, he should have used Snivy. Leavanny also appeared to be female so Attract wouldn't have worked on it, so we could have had a real action packed girl fight there.

I agree on the part of Ash's pokemon choice in the gyms beginning to bug me as well. I mean back in Sinnoh, if he had pokemon with a type advantage in his team, he was sure to use it in the gym. Yet here in Isshu he used a fire pokemon against a fire gym pokemon, a water against a grass and now a grass/bug against a poison/bug and even though he has a flying type and knew he was taking on a bug gym, he uses Pikachu rather than the pokemon with a 4x advantage against the gym leader's strongest pokemon. I'd really love to know why the writers went from Ash choosing to battle smart to it seeming more like they're drawing Ash's gym teams out of a hat

 

[Pepsi_Plunge]

also it seems Tails was right, Volt Tackle might be gone now.

I hope so, people were saying he was losing battles because of it, I tend to agree on that point and I won't be bothered at all if that happens, even though the attacks is pretty cool.

 

[Sabonea_Masukippa]

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.'
- Tranquil was indeed sent to Prof. Juniper.
- Whirlipede has Solar Beam not Aurora Beam. Dunno what I was thinking.
- 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 Thunderbolt, 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.

 

[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?