Review BW043: Nyagotiator Nyarth! Zuruzukin Persuasion Tactics!!

[Garren]

Even if Meowth is faking his dismissal for whatever reason, I wonder if he'll pull a Cait Sith (lol) and end up liking the twerps for real. After traveling with them for four episodes, and possibly more, I can't imagine he won't end up taking an authentic liking to them.

 

[Paperhorse]

I am 100% sure that this is a set-up. It just wouldn't happen otherwise imo.

@sunyshore; brings up a good point, but I definitely think Nyasu is aware of it. He's a good actor!

 

[Grave-E]

If Meowth is faking all this, he's doing one hell of a good job. Getting himself to the state of collapse, just happening to know Kibago and Pokabu would look in that specific bush to find him, his explanation as to how he got into this predicament in the fist place. Damn convincing.
I agree with Rusty that, if this is all one big act, there's a chance that Meowth could end up legitimately liking the group. I could definitely see it happening, but BW has been so weird with the character development stuff it's kind of hard to tell if they want this to lead up to something (character-wise, not evil-plot wise) or not.

This one was quite dialogue heavy, so I didn't quite get what was going on here. Why exactly did Zuruzukin kidnap Kiabgo? Was it just to get the gang's attention so they'd help out? And why was Miss Vulture attacking him in the first place? And what did giving apples to another vulture have to do with anything?! And why would a carnivorous scavenger eat apples in the first place?!

 

[sunyshore]

breakdown:

zuruzukin kidnapped kibago since he wanted someone to help him battle vulture, who'd taken his house away. he'd asked many pokemon for help and they were all like "hells no" so he resorted to kidnapping and a hostage situation (with ash and co. continuously acting as tho one wrong move would result in kibago's violent execution).

thanks to meowth's negotiating, zuruzukin's story is heard and they went to go get his house back. turns out miss vulture got thrown out of her sisterhood for getting the munchies and eating everything, so she stole zuruzukin's house to live in.

so THEN they go to the vultures and meowth negotiates miss vulture's return into the sorority and she brings lots of apples as a peace offering.

moral of the episode is, it doesn't matter if you've attempted to steal/maim pokemon for fifteen years, kidnapped a baby dragon and made vague threats that could or could not mean you're going to murder it, or break and enter into someone's home and kick them out, or eat absolutely everything in sight: as long as you look pathetic, you'll be forgiven.

 

[Hassel]

Haha, thanks sunyshore! I was totally lost during the episode too, but I figured something like that happened.

 

[Ampharos King]

This entire episode looks interesting. Meowth has really shown a lot of personality here that had rarely been displayed in BW. I find it very odd that Moewth was clasping his hands when he was following the twerps around the first time. If anything, this is a sign that Meowth is scheming against the twerps.

J/J may still be in mission mode right now, but I really want to know what their plan is. If anything else, I want to see how Meowth joining with the twerps is related to this plan. Do J/J need the twerps to be present? Or do they want the twerps to be occupied so they cannot attempt to stop them?

I am not surprised that Iris didn't catch Meowth. There are a lot of hot signs here that Meowth is truly scheming behind the group's back. Meowth being contained in a Poke Ball would ruin that experience. Meowth may eventually grow to like the twerps for who they are, but such will only take place if he is roaming outside and travelling with the twerps firsthand. This is what he seems to be doing in future episodes.

It was an alright introduction episode to this new story arc. It may appear to be more filler on the surface, but Meowth adds a whole new personality to the group. Meowth's ability to communicate with other wild pokemon will help the twerps in many of their endeavors. Ash certainly did not trust Meowth at first, given their bad history; whereas Cilan and Iris cautiously remained at a distance but still offered Meowth a helping hand whenever it was necessary.

 

[Aestivate]

God, this episode sounds as if it is made of crack.
I approve xD

 

[Mareepy]

If Meowth really end up liking the twerps, I hope Iris will finally capture him next time

 

[Jukain]

Yeah, it's really unclear if Meowth is lying or not. We'll find out at some point, I wager.

 

[The Knights of Wario Land]

I REALLY loved Scrafty's characterization in this episode. Scrafty/Zuruzukin is my all-time favorite Pokemon, and they got his character down pitch-perfect: tough and mean on the outside but really caring and emotional on the inside.

I hope he appears again in future episodes, and/or Ash's Scraggy/Zuguru becomes a Scrafty himself.

 

[Smoochum & Pal]

This was a fun episode. We finally get some fun time with Meowth and the twerps. The only thing distracting me was the two Mandibuzz. Were they lesbians and one of them wanted to go back together? Or were they sisters and were having siblings argument about foods?

 

[Kaiz]

Scraggy trying to headbutt meowth made my day

 

[Cybersai]

Anyone else think the writers are setting up Nimbasa city to be destroyed?

 

[Ampharos King]

Once again Ash has his Tranquill on him. It felt so weird that all six of Ash's pokemon, Iris's Axew, and Cilan's Pansage were the only pokemon that were seen eating lunch. The other pokemon were not seen outside their Poke Balls. It may be a brief scene to some, but I was visibly bothered that the other pokemon weren't included just for the sake of being included.

Meowth tries to get the main characters on his good side by praising Axew's cuteness and Cilan's eloquent taste. Ash and Pikachu still don't trust Meowth, though.

Axew was the one who caused his own kidnapping. If Axew wasn't so naive and chased around the rock that Scrafty attached to the string, he would not have been taken away so easily.

Meowth attempts to stop the group from rushing into the warehouse to save Axew, as Scrafty has the pokemon as a hostage. He convinces the humans to let him negotiate with Scrafty. After he failed a few times, Meowth convinced Ash to send out his Scraggy, as it is the pre-evolved form of Scrafty, and try again with a different approach. Meowth and Scraggy plan to distract the Scrafty so that Ash and Snivy can sneak in to rescue Axew with Snivy's Vine Whip. Scraggy distracts Scrafty by trying to learn Hi Jump Kick from Scrafty. After the group succeeded in rescuing Axew, Scraggy didn't want to be recalled back, as he is concerned about Scrafty.

Scrafty challenges the group to a battle. For the hell of it, Ash sends out his Tepig. Scrafty performs Hi Jump Kick during the match, the same attack that Scraggy is eager to learn. Scrafty also knows Focus Blast. Tepig dodges those attacks. Tepig manages to win this battle using his Flame Charge.

As a homage to a detective/cop series, Cilan and Meowth "cosplayed" as detectives attempting to interrogate Scrafty. Cilan offers Scrafty a warm meal. Scrafty refuses at first, but begins to break down. Scrafty reveals its conflict with a wild Mandibuzz. Ash and co., along with Meowth, manage to locate the Mandibuzz. Mandibuzz defeats Scrafty with Shadow Ball. Ash sends in Pikachu, but Scraggy wants to battle Mandibuzz instead to help out Scrafty. Scraggy has a difficult time dodging Mandibuzz's attacks. Mandibuzz uses Peck and rams into Scraggy. Scraggy dodges the attack and Mandibuzz's beak ends up being stuck in the rock. Scrafty tells Scraggy to remember what they practiced. Scraggy masters Hi Jump Kick and defeats Mandibuzz with a single attack.

This Mandibuzz revealed her problem to the group. Meowth and the Mandibuzz offer apples to the other Mandibuzz in order for the first Mandibuzz to be welcomed back into its group. [The second Mandibuzz has a deeper-pitched voice and is slightly larger than the first Mandibuzz. Perhaps the writers had intended this Mandibuzz to be her mate, a "male" member of her species, although this is impossible in game standards.]

Meowth still follows the group after this conflict. Iris was impressed by Meowth's ability to communicate with wild pokemon and attempts to catch him for herself. Meowth breaks free from the ball. He is visibly angry that Iris had attempted to catch him. Nevertheless, Meowth decides to travel with the group.

Meanwhile, J/J are still in Nimbasa City in the middle of the night. They formulate the next phase of their plan. This mission was assigned to them by Professor Zager.

Anyone else think the writers are setting up Nimbasa city to be destroyed?

Something big is guaranteed to happen because J/J have set up explosives in Nimbasa City's subway.

 

[AshK]

it seems like an interesting episode. Nice to see Mandibuzz and scrafty .I wish ash caught Mandibuzz, it would make a decent backup to his normal bird. Or just throw it into the main party I mean it is so freakin awesome looking .

 

[Cybersai]

Something big is guaranteed to happen because J/J have set up explosives in Nimbasa City's subway.

Let's hope we don't wind up with yet another banned set of episodes on our hands. Because its getting ridiculous.

 

[Zayin]

I was so scared of that episode because of Meowth's possible capture. Now I'm relieved! It was an interesting and fun episode at that. I hope J&J didn't set up explosives in the metro. They're not supposed to be terrorists. If that's the case, I'll find it way out of character since they're good people deeply within...

Could anyone roughly translate what the TRio says in Meowth's flashback?

 

[Iteru]

This was a really good episode!

Firstly I loved how Pokabu and Kibago were playing together at the start as we rarely see Pokabu in a non-battling capacity and I like that Satoshi was more suspicious of Nyasu then Dent and Iris. I thought that Zurrug learning Jumping Knee Kick from watching Zuruzukin use it was a nice way to learn the move and I'm glad they kept the effect of recoil if it misses. I was glad that Nyasu protested after breaking out of the ball. It did seem to have the ball chucked at it without a lot of warning xD

 

[PTOldMan]

Was that thing really an explosive? I mean, do they CLEARLY say that it is an explosive? I don't know, but I wouldn't say it was one. As I understand nothing of what they say, I would probably say that that was a sensor or something. Though I'd love if it was an explosive.

 

[Zayin]

I wouldn't! :O Jessie and James aren't terrorists at all!