Original Title: Juptile VS Tropius! Grassland Duel!!
Original Airdate: January 26, 2006
US Airdate: October 28, 2006
Grovyle is setting himself up to join the Heartbroken Badass club.
A fight with a Tropius lands Grovyle in the Pokémon Center, leading to romantic feelings for Nurse Joy's Meganium. But Meganium isn't on the market. Can Grovyle find the fortitude to overcome a broken heart to challenge Team Rocket?
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Crush Blush: Grovyle frequently blushes around Meganium, particularly paired with Something Else Also Rises. Earlier, Tropius gets one when Meganium tells it to stand down from its fight with Grovyle.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Poor Grovyle fights for Meganium's heart, but she ends up with Tropius.
- Flowers of Romance: The flower in Grovyle's twig. And just like the flower Wobbuffet gave Kirlia earlier in Battle Frontier (though for a different reason), it wilts when Grovyle discovers Meganium and Tropius are a couple.
- Foreshadowing: Meganium stops the fight between Grovyle and Tropius. Nurse Joy notes that Tropius will never attack Meganium.
- Heartbroken Badass: Grovyle has a crush on Meganium. But Meganium is in love with a Tropius.
- Heroic BSoD: Grovyle gets one of these when he finds out his love interest, a cute and motherly female Meganium, is already in a relationship with his rival. After evolving into a Sceptile, it got worse as he loses his ability to attack because of a broken heart.
- Hey, That's My Line!: When Team Rocket do their motto, Mime Jr. steals Meowth's part, while Meowth does Mime Jr.'s bit at the end. When Meowth realizes what he's doing, he threatens Mime Jr. not to do that again or he'll be cute and flat.
- Innocently Insensitive: As Meganium and Tropius are cuddling, everyone comments on how cute they look and that they looked like they were meant to be together, not noticing the heartbroken look on Sceptile's face.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Even though he was spurned, Grovyle still steps up to rescue Meganium and Tropius when Team Rocket captures them.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sceptile is on the receiving end of one against both Seviper and Cacnea, since he is powerless and can't fight back.
- Not So Stoic: Not even Grovyle is too stoic to fall in love.
- Oblivious to Love: Probably the most obvious case of this for Ash, as he can't put two and two together regarding Grovyle's feelings for Meganium, or his heartbreak when they find out Meganium was already with Tropius. Brock all but spells it out for Ash and he still doesn't get it.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Grovyle manages to defeat his rival Tropius in battle, but it turns out to be All for Nothing because Meganium is already in a relationship with Tropius, and defeating Tropius doesn't change that, leaving Grovyle heartbroken.
- Something Else Also Rises: How can they tell Grovyle is smitten? A flower suddenly bloomed on his twig.note
- Took a Level in Badass: Subverted initially. Grovyle evolves into Sceptile, but loses his moveset in the process, making him ineffective in battle for now.
