• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Review S17 EP12: To Catch a Pokémon Smuggler!

"Smuggler" suggests to me that the crime here is in how he's selling pokémon, and who to. As a real life example, take tortoises. They can be bred and sold in captivity, but it's illegal (At least in the UK) to import wild tortoises.
This would mean catching and trading Pokemon was illegal in this area, in which case Jenny should have just kept Ash tied up. Selling Pokemon for money wouldn't be a crime.
 
Not necessarily. It could be legal to capture pokémon for personal use (Which typically wouldn't be that many), but illegal to catch them to sell for profit, which would mean a lot of captures for maximum profit. Pokémon is a world where people pay attention to maintaining the ecosystem, after all

It isn't a well thought-out episode, when you break down the logic, but if you were to find an explanation, that's the best I can think of
 
What my thoughts are
So the Smugglers name is Dolan and he looks like Wario... the inept police force strikes again with some false accusations and without probable cause and a rope as handcuffs ( times must be really bad)... WHY IS WIGGLYTUFF THE SIZE OF A BUICK?!?! aint it suppost to be around the size of psyduck or something? Clemont is going to have a heart attack... Dolan gets busted for poaching and for tricking gooby. and one mass evolution at the end
Not too bad but it could have been better 7.1/10
 
Was a decent episode for me. The only thing that disappointed me was I was hoping he would end up keeping that Vivillon as a throwback to Butterfree from the original series.
 
So, how was the Smugler a "bad guy"? I get that he had a cliche minor-villain attitude, but why did his actions, regardless of the reason, warrant his arrest? He was taking Pokemon from the wild to trade away later. Would it have been any different if he used pokeballs instead of a net? Is raising them in kennel cages any worse than having them fight other Pokemon? The evolution time from when he captured them as Scatterbug was not long, so it's not like he'd have kept them caged for long.
I'm, uh, guessing you missed the part where they mentioned he sold them online? Which is illegal? And raising them in kennel cages is worse then having them battle each other - if I recall correctly, Pokemon like battling, and it's exercise for them too, rather then just keeping them locked up - using a real world example, a dog you take for walks would be more fit then a dog you just kept in its cage all day.
Selling Pokemon isn't illegal. It's no more illegal than trading one Pokemon for another. And don't forget the Pokemon in the game you either purchase or gamble for, like Porygon. Also, to say that Pokemon like battling is to deny the Pokemon in the anime and games who didn't like battling, were wild or just didn't care. Snorelax, for example, don't care about battling. There's a handful of lazy and even more peaceful Pokemon who don't want to battle, wether it's against their wild nature or would require more effort than they care to spend.

A good example of both Good/Evil as well as a Pokemon who obviously didn't want to battle, look at how Ash treated Helioptile when he first met it.
You have me there, I'll admit. (Never mind that Porygon don't have needs like regular Pokemon...) Of course, you have to look at what his title is: a smuggler. He isn't putting Pokemon in a Ball, which would appear to be a Virtual Reality equivalent of whatever habitat the Pokemon would naturally be in (if I recall correctly) - he's trapping them in cages, forcing them to evolve, then selling them on the black market for collectors, who will probably continue to treat them that way. If he was catching them in Poke Balls - again, something that was made for the Pokemon - rather then with cages/nets, and sold them as, say, pets (I'm guessing that's the Magikarp Salesman's angle), then he wouldn't be the villain. Before you bring up Porygon, I would like to point out that Team Rocket (the owner of the Rocket Game Corner) was a mob (or maybe a mafia, I can't recall at the moment), so having them give Porygon or whatever for cash (coins) isn't exactly below them. And before you bring up the topic of trading again, I'd like to point out that it both isn't something that we can exactly relate to and that the Pokemon don't exactly like it either, having their happiness reset to the base whenever you trade.

I also brought up the "battles" because you did, and I said it was exercise. Keeping them locked up wouldn't have them exercise. Even the Pokemon who didn't like battling would get exercise (or be lazy, like Snorlax).


Sooooooo...what of the trainers that catch Pokemon and leave them in their Pokeballs for days, weeks, months, etc on end? Or the good trainers like us who store them in PCs never to see daylight again, just capturing them for the sake of collection? Is that really any better? (Cue whole N mentality/Way of life~). And Pokeballs are not virtual realities. They are just spheres of space a Pokesmon literally sits in (the most recent example of this is Iris's Dragonite).

Oh, and an example to my point. Remember Mira guys? From early DP? The girl who potentially was going to leave her Sandshrew locked down in the bottom of a lake inside its Pokeball? (If not for gang and co). Is this really any different?

I recall reading that the Poke Balls were an enviorment the Pokemon would be comfortable with, which means that - in my mind, at least - it would be a VR. It might've been from a Scholastic book, it might've been Bulbapedia, it might've been the games...like the flavor text for the original Poke Ball, I think maybe...I can't remember. I...haven't watched most of Black/White, so I didn't know anything about it. I saw the picture on the Poke Ball article, but there wasn't really a context for that... And the PCs, at least in the anime (which is currently the continuity we're talking about, so don't bring up the games) transport the Pokemon to a lab - in Ash's case, Professor Oak's (or Juniper's in Unova). It's not too farfetch'd to think that they do something similar in the games, or maybe, again, employ Virtual Reality.

And Mira's situation was different. Okay, I can't remember it clearly, I admit, but I think it was an accident, and she wanted to get it, she just couldn't because a Gyarados was blocking the way and all she had was an Abra.
 
So, how was the Smugler a "bad guy"? I get that he had a cliche minor-villain attitude, but why did his actions, regardless of the reason, warrant his arrest? He was taking Pokemon from the wild to trade away later. Would it have been any different if he used pokeballs instead of a net? Is raising them in kennel cages any worse than having them fight other Pokemon? The evolution time from when he captured them as Scatterbug was not long, so it's not like he'd have kept them caged for long.
I'm, uh, guessing you missed the part where they mentioned he sold them online? Which is illegal? And raising them in kennel cages is worse then having them battle each other - if I recall correctly, Pokemon like battling, and it's exercise for them too, rather then just keeping them locked up - using a real world example, a dog you take for walks would be more fit then a dog you just kept in its cage all day.
Selling Pokemon isn't illegal. It's no more illegal than trading one Pokemon for another. And don't forget the Pokemon in the game you either purchase or gamble for, like Porygon. Also, to say that Pokemon like battling is to deny the Pokemon in the anime and games who didn't like battling, were wild or just didn't care. Snorelax, for example, don't care about battling. There's a handful of lazy and even more peaceful Pokemon who don't want to battle, wether it's against their wild nature or would require more effort than they care to spend.

A good example of both Good/Evil as well as a Pokemon who obviously didn't want to battle, look at how Ash treated Helioptile when he first met it.
You have me there, I'll admit. (Never mind that Porygon don't have needs like regular Pokemon...) Of course, you have to look at what his title is: a smuggler. He isn't putting Pokemon in a Ball, which would appear to be a Virtual Reality equivalent of whatever habitat the Pokemon would naturally be in (if I recall correctly) - he's trapping them in cages, forcing them to evolve, then selling them on the black market for collectors, who will probably continue to treat them that way. If he was catching them in Poke Balls - again, something that was made for the Pokemon - rather then with cages/nets, and sold them as, say, pets (I'm guessing that's the Magikarp Salesman's angle), then he wouldn't be the villain. Before you bring up Porygon, I would like to point out that Team Rocket (the owner of the Rocket Game Corner) was a mob (or maybe a mafia, I can't recall at the moment), so having them give Porygon or whatever for cash (coins) isn't exactly below them. And before you bring up the topic of trading again, I'd like to point out that it both isn't something that we can exactly relate to and that the Pokemon don't exactly like it either, having their happiness reset to the base whenever you trade.

I also brought up the "battles" because you did, and I said it was exercise. Keeping them locked up wouldn't have them exercise. Even the Pokemon who didn't like battling would get exercise (or be lazy, like Snorlax).


Sooooooo...what of the trainers that catch Pokemon and leave them in their Pokeballs for days, weeks, months, etc on end? Or the good trainers like us who store them in PCs never to see daylight again, just capturing them for the sake of collection? Is that really any better? (Cue whole N mentality/Way of life~). And Pokeballs are not virtual realities. They are just spheres of space a Pokesmon literally sits in (the most recent example of this is Iris's Dragonite).

Oh, and an example to my point. Remember Mira guys? From early DP? The girl who potentially was going to leave her Sandshrew locked down in the bottom of a lake inside its Pokeball? (If not for gang and co). Is this really any different?

I recall reading that the Poke Balls were an enviorment the Pokemon would be comfortable with, which means that - in my mind, at least - it would be a VR. It might've been from a Scholastic book, it might've been Bulbapedia, it might've been the games...like the flavor text for the original Poke Ball, I think maybe...I can't remember. I...haven't watched most of Black/White, so I didn't know anything about it. I saw the picture on the Poke Ball article, but there wasn't really a context for that... And the PCs, at least in the anime (which is currently the continuity we're talking about, so don't bring up the games) transport the Pokemon to a lab - in Ash's case, Professor Oak's (or Juniper's in Unova). It's not too farfetch'd to think that they do something similar in the games, or maybe, again, employ Virtual Reality.

And Mira's situation was different. Okay, I can't remember it clearly, I admit, but I think it was an accident, and she wanted to get it, she just couldn't because a Gyarados was blocking the way and all she had was an Abra.

Okay, then let's stick to one continuity (in this case the anime). So mentioning Pokeball characteristics/features from the games, Scholastic books, etc is invalid. In the anime, as far as we have seen, inside a Pokeball is just a spherical seemingly virtual space. There isn't much more too it though, and it certainly is not a virtual reality where Pokemon can run around in lush grasslands and swim in beautiful streams until they are called out by their owners.

My whole point in saying this was because Dolan putting the Scatterbugs and Spewpas in cages is the same dynamic of People putting Pokemon in Pokeballs. The Pokemon is in an enclosed space, it can't really move, and it is to stay there under the instruction of its owner (unless you have the rare exceptions to the rule like Croagunk, Oshawott, Wobbufett etc). That is what I was getting at. So that is why I didn't understand the disdain he garnered for doing so.

Also, we have seen very few trainers (notably Ash & Gary) leave their Pokemon with professors, so I wouldn't assume that that is where all excess ones stay (afterall, Elm, Birch, and Rowan weren't explicitly seen babysitting other trainers Pokemon). A testament to this can be found in Ash's companions-Misty, Brock and May, who all leave their Pokemon at their respective residences. This can be applied to every other trainer as well, in addition to the possibility of them leaving their Pokemon inside their balls somewhere.

And Mira and her friends promptly forgot about the Sandshrew as none of them remembered to take its Pokeball when the school was notified that it would soon be evacuated in place of the dam. Eventually she checked up on that, and realized that everyone had failed to save the poor Ground Rat from an eternal water prison. Thus she went back to do the right thing with Ash & co. However, the point/moral/problem of the story is that that Sandshrew was possibly going to be left there to stay in a Pokeball forever (its original trainer abandoned it!). What if Mira and her friends never found it to begin with? Think about that. So my ultimate point is that trainers, to some degree, do the same thing when "caging" Pokemon, thus I found the whole Dolan-is-the-bad-guy plot ridiculous. And if its about him making a profit off of them, then explain the Magikarp salesman >_____>
 
Okay, then let's stick to one continuity (in this case the anime). So mentioning Pokeball characteristics/features from the games, Scholastic books, etc is invalid. In the anime, as far as we have seen, inside a Pokeball is just a spherical seemingly virtual space. There isn't much more too it though, and it certainly is not a virtual reality where Pokemon can run around in lush grasslands and swim in beautiful streams until they are called out by their owners.

My whole point in saying this was because Dolan putting the Scatterbugs and Spewpas in cages is the same dynamic of People putting Pokemon in Pokeballs. The Pokemon is in an enclosed space, it can't really move, and it is to stay there under the instruction of its owner (unless you have the rare exceptions to the rule like Croagunk, Oshawott, Wobbufett etc). That is what I was getting at. So that is why I didn't understand the disdain he garnered for doing so.

Also, we have seen very few trainers (notably Ash & Gary) leave their Pokemon with professors, so I wouldn't assume that that is where all excess ones stay (afterall, Elm, Birch, and Rowan weren't explicitly seen babysitting other trainers Pokemon). A testament to this can be found in Ash's companions-Misty, Brock and May, who all leave their Pokemon at their respective residences. This can be applied to every other trainer as well, in addition to the possibility of them leaving their Pokemon inside their balls somewhere.

And Mira and her friends promptly forgot about the Sandshrew as none of them remembered to take its Pokeball when the school was notified that it would soon be evacuated in place of the dam. Eventually she checked up on that, and realized that everyone had failed to save the poor Ground Rat from an eternal water prison. Thus she went back to do the right thing with Ash & co. However, the point/moral/problem of the story is that that Sandshrew was possibly going to be left there to stay in a Pokeball forever (its original trainer abandoned it!). What if Mira and her friends never found it to begin with? Think about that. So my ultimate point is that trainers, to some degree, do the same thing when "caging" Pokemon, thus I found the whole Dolan-is-the-bad-guy plot ridiculous. And if its about him making a profit off of them, then explain the Magikarp salesman >_____>
Poke Balls, at least, seem more "humane" then catching Pokemon in cages - in the Japanese version of Pokemon The Movie 2000, Misty asked Lawarence(?) III why he didn't just capture the legendary birds in Poke Balls (if my memory/TV Tropes is correct). If you want an explanation from the dub side of things, perhaps it wasn't specifically catching them in cages, it was what he did to them once he was done transporting them. I can see your point, though.

Leaving them at their residence still lets them run around. You might argue that eventually the home would be overrun by Pokemon, but many Trainers don't have a lot of Pokemon - in fact, the only reason why Ash has so many is because he goes to so many regions and starts anew. (I think...)

You could chalk that up to being caught up in the heat of the moment. They were rushing to get out of the school, and in the rush they forgot about the Sandshrew they had (that they weren't supposed to have, I think, explaining why they couldn't rush back into the classroom if they remembered - they didn't want to get in trouble). As for the Magikarp salesman...it's entirely possible that he was on the run from the law, we just didn't see it because it wasn't relevant to the plot. Or because he was selling Magikarp, which are extremely common in Kanto - they're located anywhere there's water. Dolan, on the other hand, was smuggling his Pokemon in from other countries, so he can get all the different kinds of Spewpa.
 
Okay, then let's stick to one continuity (in this case the anime). So mentioning Pokeball characteristics/features from the games, Scholastic books, etc is invalid. In the anime, as far as we have seen, inside a Pokeball is just a spherical seemingly virtual space. There isn't much more too it though, and it certainly is not a virtual reality where Pokemon can run around in lush grasslands and swim in beautiful streams until they are called out by their owners.

My whole point in saying this was because Dolan putting the Scatterbugs and Spewpas in cages is the same dynamic of People putting Pokemon in Pokeballs. The Pokemon is in an enclosed space, it can't really move, and it is to stay there under the instruction of its owner (unless you have the rare exceptions to the rule like Croagunk, Oshawott, Wobbufett etc). That is what I was getting at. So that is why I didn't understand the disdain he garnered for doing so.

Also, we have seen very few trainers (notably Ash & Gary) leave their Pokemon with professors, so I wouldn't assume that that is where all excess ones stay (afterall, Elm, Birch, and Rowan weren't explicitly seen babysitting other trainers Pokemon). A testament to this can be found in Ash's companions-Misty, Brock and May, who all leave their Pokemon at their respective residences. This can be applied to every other trainer as well, in addition to the possibility of them leaving their Pokemon inside their balls somewhere.

And Mira and her friends promptly forgot about the Sandshrew as none of them remembered to take its Pokeball when the school was notified that it would soon be evacuated in place of the dam. Eventually she checked up on that, and realized that everyone had failed to save the poor Ground Rat from an eternal water prison. Thus she went back to do the right thing with Ash & co. However, the point/moral/problem of the story is that that Sandshrew was possibly going to be left there to stay in a Pokeball forever (its original trainer abandoned it!). What if Mira and her friends never found it to begin with? Think about that. So my ultimate point is that trainers, to some degree, do the same thing when "caging" Pokemon, thus I found the whole Dolan-is-the-bad-guy plot ridiculous. And if its about him making a profit off of them, then explain the Magikarp salesman >_____>
Poke Balls, at least, seem more "humane" then catching Pokemon in cages - in the Japanese version of Pokemon The Movie 2000, Misty asked Lawarence(?) III why he didn't just capture the legendary birds in Poke Balls (if my memory/TV Tropes is correct). If you want an explanation from the dub side of things, perhaps it wasn't specifically catching them in cages, it was what he did to them once he was done transporting them. I can see your point, though.

Leaving them at their residence still lets them run around. You might argue that eventually the home would be overrun by Pokemon, but many Trainers don't have a lot of Pokemon - in fact, the only reason why Ash has so many is because he goes to so many regions and starts anew. (I think...)

You could chalk that up to being caught up in the heat of the moment. They were rushing to get out of the school, and in the rush they forgot about the Sandshrew they had (that they weren't supposed to have, I think, explaining why they couldn't rush back into the classroom if they remembered - they didn't want to get in trouble). As for the Magikarp salesman...it's entirely possible that he was on the run from the law, we just didn't see it because it wasn't relevant to the plot. Or because he was selling Magikarp, which are extremely common in Kanto - they're located anywhere there's water. Dolan, on the other hand, was smuggling his Pokemon in from other countries, so he can get all the different kinds of Spewpa.

"Poke Balls, at least, seem more "humane" then catching Pokemon in cages"

You're right, I agree with this.

"Leaving them at their residence still lets them run around. You might argue that eventually the home would be overrun by Pokemon, but many Trainers don't have a lot of Pokemon - in fact, the only reason why Ash has so many is because he goes to so many regions and starts anew. (I think...)"

I never argued against this notion. I just said that most trainers/people (you would think) do this rather than leaving them at a Professors place.

"You could chalk that up to being caught up in the heat of the moment. They were rushing to get out of the school, and in the rush they forgot about the Sandshrew they had (that they weren't supposed to have, I think, explaining why they couldn't rush back into the classroom if they remembered - they didn't want to get in trouble). As for the Magikarp salesman...it's entirely possible that he was on the run from the law, we just didn't see it because it wasn't relevant to the plot. Or because he was selling Magikarp, which are extremely common in Kanto - they're located anywhere there's water. Dolan, on the other hand, was smuggling his Pokemon in from other countries, so he can get all the different kinds of Spewpa."

You can defend Mira all you want, but that still doesn't allow for the possibilities to be ignored. I understand she rescued it in the end and it was most likely difficult to to acquire it pre-flooding for various reasons, but the fact that it could have been locked away is still an issue (as well as its original trainer leaving it there). Anyways, I will accept that Dolan was/is bad for his actions, but the whole Pokemon smuggling/catching/buying is still pretty foggy at times to me.
 
It is a pretty damn foggy business, but if you wanted to make it more complex, it's easy to do so. Laws regarding the ethical breeding, treatment and sale of animals are commonplace. Some restrictions on the capture and sale of animals are there for ecological reasons (Fishing quotas) - perhaps wild scatterbug catches are restricted to prevent over-catching for the commercial market.

That being said, the outrage and disgust at Dolan in this episode is terribly melodramatic
 
Why does Ash feel the need to check everything out, this isn't a Video Game. Is that guy had a gun and shot them all it was his own fault. You have a Gym battle to get to, remember why should petty criminals matter? you'll just get in the way most likely.

The voice acting when the Pokemon fell off the trunk was terrible.

Why would anyone believe Ash is actually a Spwepa lmfao.

Ash really should've specified what Vehicle to look for. Should've had it find Jenny to teach him a lesson.

I recognise that "WHAT!?" Eggman?

Ash catch that Spewpa...

I also agree with others saying about how selling Pokemon wasn't that bad, although it did say they were stolen. Some of them stolen from trainers maybe?

Safeguard doesn't work that way... just use protect.
 
Last edited:
@Erdrick; If Pokeballs are more humane then cages then he has no reason to use cages because they are illegal and he can lose them. As for selling pokemon being illegal it with exception of GODS, it shouldn't be since ownership of every pokemon is legal without ANY restrictions. Not to mention there seems to a endless supply of them, the point of the games (AKA source material) to get all of them,and people have huge compounds where they breed the fuck out them. Also a world in which selling pokemon is illegal and yet giving them and trading them to strangers is okay doesn't add up. Especially considering the existence of battle factory, orre, trainer schools and that pokemon park etc etc what are they ALL donations.

Bottom line the poacher thing is a bullshit and creatively bankrupt way to force in conflict. The fact they use the word stealing for wild pokemon shows they don't even care. It would be a lot simpler if they just gambled or actually STOLE pokemon.
 
There's definitely inconsistency in that catching wild pokémon is always called "stealing" if it's done by villains ... but poaching does not equal catching. In the anime it's already been shown that there are Pokémon Reserves where no catching is permitted. It's not a stretch to imagine that there could be such a thing as restricted catch zones, or that only Poké Ball captures are considered legal. Poké Balls are stated to provide a comfortable environment for a pokémon. A cage on the other hand, does not, and surely it's going to be cheaper to buy lots of cages than lots of Poké Balls. Dolan even says that he's looking to sell as many as he can, as I recall.

Very little of this is in the episode, so I'm not going to claim that this was all thought out by the writing team. What I'm saying is that just because pokémon can be traded and bred doesn't mean that poaching can't make sense
 
A cage on the other hand, does not, and surely it's going to be cheaper to buy lots of cages than lots of Poké Balls. Dolan even says that he's looking to sell as many as he can, as I recall.

Pokeballs cost 16 bids and you can have thirty better ones in a limited time for 500 pokeyen. Also if you think that's just game balance well they already have the apricorn as base so synthetic apricorns must be REEALLY cheap.
 
Last edited:
Phoenixphlare said:
@Erdrick; If Pokeballs are more humane then cages then he has no reason to use cages because they are illegal and he can lose them.
Pokémon can escape from Poké Balls. They - or at least, the Pokémon he was catching - cannot.
As for selling pokemon being illegal it with exception of GODS, it shouldn't be since ownership of every pokemon is legal without ANY restrictions.
I believe it was mentioned before, but it was the way he went around doing it which is what made it illegal.
Not to mention there seems to a endless supply of them, the point of the games (AKA source material) to get all of them,and people have huge compounds where they breed the fuck out them.
There is an endless supply of them - because it's a video game. More specifically, a mon-collecting RPG - if you're stuck and there aren't any monsters to grind off of, then you're stuck. Plus, being a, y'know, mon-collecting game, how annoying would it be if you knocked out the last of a rare cool Pokémon?
Also a world in which selling pokemon is illegal and yet giving them and trading them to strangers is okay doesn't add up. Especially considering the existence of battle factory, orre, trainer schools and that pokemon park etc etc what are they ALL donations.
It's entirely possible that only Scatterbug/Spewpa/Vivillion, along with other rarer Pokémon, are illegal to capture en masse (which Dolan was doing) because of the large demand from collectors trying to get all of the forms of Vivillion. Because, y'know, it would cause the wild Vivillion population to die out.
 
Please note: The thread is from 10 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom