Starter Pokemon Battle Royale is the 7th entry of Pokemon Battle Royale collaborated by Jeremy Chinshue and Lockstin from Gnoggin. Simulating Earth once again, all the starters (including pre-evolutions, middle-evolutions, Pikachu and most of the Eevee line) are sent out to fight and determine which will be victorious.
The battle is preceded by Pokémon Battle Royale: ULTRA BEASTS!.
You can watch the video here
and watch Lockstin's commentary here.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Unovan Samurott prefers to defeat its enemies in one decisive blow, allowing Infernape to catch it off guard when it dodges its assault. Hisuian Samurott, by contrast, doesn't stop attacking its target is defeated, which allows it to kill Infernape when the latter briefly stops punching. However, this also proves to be Hisuian Samurott's undoing, as it keeps attacking Infernape even after cutting the fire monkey in half, leaving it open to Emboar and Blaziken ambushing it and finishing it off.
- Boom, Headshot!: Inteleon takes out Feraligatr and Blastoise by sniping them in the head with jets of water while the latter two are busy grappling each other.
- Call-Back:
- Just like Mega Latios and Mega Latias, Typhlosion and Hisuian Typhlosion do the "Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man" meme.
- Blastoise once again demonstrates its steel-piercing water cannons... and is still shooting water from its forehead rather than its cannons.
- Chesnaught's shields prove yet again to be a good source of defense, and it even says the same phrase of "DISGUSTANG" upon seeing Meowscarada's tricks.
- Alolan Decidueye, Unovan Samurott, and Infernape have their mini-royale from the first battle royale again, with the exact same results. The twist is that after Infernape wins, Hisuian Decidueye and Hisuian Samurott then step up to challenge Infernape. H-Decidueye ultimately suffers the same fate as its Alolan descendant, but H-Samurott differs from its Unovan descendant in that it will ceaselessly slash again and again, allowing it to put down Infernape.
- Like in the Gigantamax Battle Royale, Cinderace's legs are actually a manipulated photo of a red pair of pants.
- The Cameo:
- Poipole appears in the background briefly before flying into an Ultra Wormhole, since it's considered a starter in its home dimension.
- When Incineroar runs away from the Fire/Fighting free-for-all and toward Primarina, a pair of Piranha Plants can be seen in the jungle background.
- Nabiu, the title character from Jeremy's original series The Fruitless Quests of Nabiu, falls from the sky in the shot of Charizard flying before it confronts Greninja.
- A group of Lemmings can be seen in the background during the scene of the grass types chilling out and getting high.
- The standard Eevee from Pokémon Conquest is briefly seen alongside the Eeveelutions.
- Cherry Tapping: Cinderace manages to jump over Swampert's Muddy Water attack, only to perish to the unevolved Sobble's Water Gun.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Despite Partner Eevee having the same buffs as Partner Pikachu, it eventually falls because Eevee's gimmick is evolving into a better version of itself and it spends most of the battle focused on searching for a way to evolve. Plus, it doesn't get STAB from any of its signature moves except its Secret Art and in fact has a type disadvantage against one of the two finalists, Blaziken.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Charizard reduces Chespin, Chimchar, Greninja and Sobble to ashes with Flamethrower.
- Skeledirge incinerates Torchic, whose soul becomes the firebird on its snout, just by exhaling.
- The Eeveelutions wreck havoc with each other. Vaporeon is electrocuted by Jolteon and frozen by Glaceon, Leafeon is set ablaze by Flareon, and Glaceon is melted by the burning Leafeon.
- Blastoise's Hydro-Pump makes short work of Oshawott, Quilladin, Brionne, Dewott, Wartortle, and even the fully-evolved Empoleon.
- Inteleon headshots Blastoise and Feraligatr with its water-gun finger pistols while they're distracted grappling with each other.
- Charmeleon one-shots Thwackey with an Ember before falling into a chasm opened by Earthquake.
- Partner Pikachu fries Inteleon with a single Thunderbolt, and later subjects Charizard to the same fate.
- Despite Hisuian Typhlosion powering up by consuming the souls of the deceased Pokémon, Charizard kills it with a single blow.
- Sobble one-shots Cinderace with a single Water Gun.
- Swampert kills Incineroar, Skeledirge and Emboar in one hit by burying them with Muddy Water.
- Despite getting the same buffs as Partner Pikachu, Partner Eevee gets unceremoniously buried by Swampert's Muddy Water and is finished off by a stomp from Blaziken.
- Darkhorse Victory: Narrowly averted; the Partner Pikachu from Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! manages to fry Charizard, and stands up well against Blaziken through a combination of friendship mechanics from its home game and pure stupid luck note . Unfortunately for it, its luck eventually gives out, and it finally falls to Blaziken's repeated strikes.
- David vs. Goliath: The final matchup is Blaziken and Partner Pikachu. Blaziken is a very powerful starter, having a STAB advantage on most of its attacks and gaining speed over time thanks to its Speed Boost, while Partner Pikachu's unassuming appearance hides that (provided RNG cooperates) it's capable of surviving fatal blows and dishing out critical hits like candy. Blaziken's relentless onslaught of strikes wears out Pikachu's luck until it can't hold out any longer and collapses, meaning the Goliath wins this bout.
- Death from Above: Piplup almost immediately dies because the much larger Torterra lands on top of it.
- Determinator: Partner Pikachu tanks many hard hits from Blaziken and manages to hit nothing but critical hits when it gets a chance to attack because of its friendship mechanics, striking harder and toughing it out for the trainer. Unfortunately for it, this doesn't last as it eventually falls over dead after a long enough beating.
- Didn't Think This Through: Charizard tries to use Seismic Toss on Typhosion, but the friction from the air causes its combustible fur to ignite, creating an explosion.
- Due to the Dead: After Swampert causes a tsunami with Surf, Skeledirge sings Peter Crosby's "A Wanderer" for all those that passed.
- Eating the Enemy: Serperior tries to beat Quaquaval by eating it, but they both get swept up by Swampert's Surf before Quaquaval gets halfway down Serperior's throat.
- Fantastic Nuke: Typhlosion can create explosions as powerful as volcanic eruptions by rubbing its fur together. As such, Charizard trying to launch one into orbit using Seismic Toss somewhat backfires on it, and dropping it from several miles up decimates the island like a meteor strike.
- Feed It a Bomb: Meowscarada dispatches Torterra by encouraging the latter to eat one of its flower bombs.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- It's incredibly obvious that none of the pre-evolutions or middle-evolutions will win, as they lack the power required to keep up with the final stages. While these Pokémon most often win fights amongst themselves, they occasionally manage to snipe down a fully evolved Pokémon and Sobble manages to last the longest just by hiding and staying close to Swampert.
- There are a number of factors explaining why the final survivors were going to be mostly Fire-types.
- Fire-types have the most resistancesnote and are sandwiched between Grass and Water in terms of weaknessesnote .
- Almost all Fire-type moves can apply a Damage Over Time effect that also cuts the physical Attack stat in half that only other Fire-types have innate immunity to, with some moves even guaranteed to apply itnote .
- Fire-type starters tend to have their stats lean towards speed and offense, and the moves they get STAB from tend to be more offensive.
- Of all the starter types, Fire has the most members in Uber tier or higher in various competitive circles; Water has eleven, Grass has thirteen, Fire has seventeen.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The reason Sylveon is missing from the group of Eeveelutions is because in all the games Eevee is a starter, either Sylveon didn't exist yet or Eevee was unable to evolve. This is also the reason why Partner Eevee couldn't use the Fire Stone to evolve.
- Good All Along: The Stinger of the video reveals that the Sudowoodo that's been trying to log into the PC system after seeing the Mawile, Banette, and baby Kangaskhan traversing the boxes wants to help them rather than stop them. Once it learns Professor Oak's password, Sudowoodo pulls the trio out of the simulation and sends them to the real world.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Hisuian Samurott is known to keep slashing with its seamitars relentlessly, regardless if it won or not. This means that, even after it cuts down Infernape, Hisuian Samurott doesn't pay attention to its surroundings and gets ganged up on by Blaziken and Emboar.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Swampert's high base stat total and excellent Water/Ground typing makes it a formidable Pokémon in this fight, but it doesn't change the fact that it is quad weak to grass in a battle royale where a third of the Pokémon competing are grass type.
- Made of Iron: Partner Pikachu manages to survive a lot of punishment for a tiny electric mouse taking a beating from the muay-thai cockfighting firebird that is Blaziken. Unfortunately, that iron is RNG-based, and between that and Blaziken's speed and power, Partner Pikachu loses.
- Musical Assassin: Primarina and Skeledirge both fight by singing—the former belting out "Habanera" from Carmen to conjure explosive bubbles, and the latter singing Peter Crosby's "A Wanderer" as a dirge for the deceased fighters.
- Mythology Gag:
- Immediately upon being summoned, Treecko pops a twig into its mouth, a reference to Ash's Treecko from the anime.
- The moment it's summoned, Grovyle quickly pulls out a Time Gear and time travels away, in reference to its most famous representative.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
- Not even five seconds after appearing, Combusken and Thwackey start wailing on Mudkip. They try to do the same to Empoleon, but to no avail.
- Blaziken subjects Partner Pikachu to an unrelenting thrashing to beat out Pikachu's RNG-based endurance. It takes a while, but Blaziken finally wins.
- No-Sell:
- Combusken and Thwackey try to take down Empoleon together, especially since one of them has type advantage. It doesn't work.
- Meowscarada tries to stop a charging Chesnaught by lobbing flower bombs at it, but fails because Chesnaught's Bulletproof ability renders it immune to bomb moves.
- Scissors Cuts Rock:
- The Fire/Dark Incineroar manages to score a victory against the Water/Fairy Primarina, thanks to its Throat Chop. Justified, as Throat Chop disables sound moves, taking most of Primarina's strength away.
- Charizard's flames are hot enough to melt the sturdy Blastoise in the first royale, and against the faster but frailer Greninja, they're enough to make its resistance to Fire moot.
- Since at least three fully-evolved starters are Fire/Fighting, a type combo that is generally accepted as one of if not the best in terms of offense, Empoeleon, Greninja, and Hisuian Samurott are actually at a disadvantage; Empoleon's Steel-type means it takes neutral damage against Fire-type attacks instead of resisting it while also having a weakness to Fighting-type moves just like the Water/Dark-type Greninja and Hisuian Samurott.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- The moment Poipole is sent out, it opens an Ultra Wormhole out of the arena.
- Grovyle pulls out a Time Gear and time travels away as soon as it's sent out.
- As soon as the Eeveelutions are done posing after they're sent out, Espeon looks around in a panic and bolts just before its brethren turn on each other.
- Incineroar decides to hightail it when it spots all three of the Fire/Fighting final evolutions duking it out, as its partial Dark typing makes it weak to Fighting.
- Shout-Out:
- Johtoian Typhlosion and Hisuian Typhlosion do the Spider-Man pointing meme upon being summoned.
- Floragato uses voice clips of Puss in Boots from the Shrek series.
- Meowscarada's line just before it feeds Torterra a flower bomb is the Joker from The Dark Knight saying "How about a magic trick?"; in both cases, the trick kills somebody.
- Feraligatr is initially drawn as an homage to the flat crocodile meme.
- Intelleon uses voice clips of James Bond, one of its inspirations, and even quips "Shaken, not stirred." as the double earthquake + tsunami + whirlpool wipes out most of the combatants.
- Once Hisuian Typhlosion starts absorbing souls, its more menacing appearance homages Kaitlan Sutherland's animation depicting the species.
- Meowscarada killing Torterra by feeding it a flower bomb is a Shout-Out to Dodongos from The Legend of Zelda, who can be easily defeated by feeding them bombs.
- Emboar and Blaziken do the memetic hand-shake from Predator after they send Hisuian Samurott plummetting into the pit.
- Rillaboom uses Donkey Kong's "OK!" line from Donkey Kong 64 before a sudden shift in tone to the memetic "Now you die!" voice-clip from the The Super Mario Bros. Movie when dragging Swampert into the chasm.
- Blaziken yelling "Why Won't You Die?" while continuously punching Partner Pikachu is taken from the NPC voice clip from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
- The Stinger: The researchers' Sudowoodo manages to watch Oak enter his password into the PC, allowing it to log in and rescue Banette, baby Kangaskhan, and Mawile.
- Taking You with Me: Rillaboom manages to partially climb out of the chasm to grab Swampert's leg and drag it down too.
- Talking with Signs: Upon being sent out, Piplup immediately looks up, pulls out a sign reading "RIP", and is squashed by a falling Torterra.
- Why Won't You Die?: During the final beatdown between Partner Pikachu and Blaziken, Pikachu continuously endures Blaziken's barrage of punches to the point of Blaziken furiously shouting the trope, which elicit a crazed laughter from Pikachu.
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- Partner Eevee spends much of the battle royale flying around in her Sky Dash vehicle trying to pick up unattended evolution stones to evolve, only for them to get destroyed in various ways before she can reach them. When Eeevee finally grabs a Fire Stone, she finds out she's incapable of evolving, gets swept away by Swampert's Muddy Water, and is ultimately stepped on and squashed by Blaziken.
- Pikachu finally goes from being killed off in the background for a gag to having a legitimate chance at winning, but it still ultimately dies in the end after its luck fails it.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Hisuian Typhlosion gathers all the souls of the dead (including the Torchic that acted as Skeledirge's firebird) to power itself up. Unfortunately, Charizard manages to shove it into the pit created by Torterra, Swampert, and J-Typhlosion before it can do anything.
