Follow TV Tropes

Following

Podcast / Pokémon World Tour: United

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_5635.JPEG
Left to right: Bango, Rose, Cobalt, and Treble. Not pictured: the plethora of other critters, friends, and enemies the two have come across. Official art by Shannon Manor.

Pokémon World Tour: United is an Actual Play podcast created by Hey! Jake and Josh, where they play through a game of the fan-made Pokémon RPG Pokemon Tabletop United, run by their friend Alan.

Rose Jenny and Cobalt Elm are two trainers just beginning their journey from Pallet Town. Things are pretty normal at first, but soon they find themselves embroiled in plenty of strange and dangerous situations—meeting a strange but innocent boy who seems far too young to be on his journey, getting caught between two factions of Team Rocket trying to restore it to its former glory, and uncovering a plot to disrupt the natural order of things by kidnapping legendary Pokemon. And that's just the start...

The podcast was started in 2016, running concurrently to Jake and Josh's parent podcast, Pokémon World Tour. They often feature guest players, most frequently the show's artist Shannon Manor and Cira, as well as plenty to play Gym Leaders.

The series can be listened to on iTunes and Stitcher. They have a Patreon where one can donate to become a potential future guest on the show. Along with the show's official Twitter, the cast are quite active on their own accounts, and Shannon will post comics about the offscreen antis of various characters.

Due to the serialized nature of the Podcast, only spoilers from Act Two are guaranteed to be in spoiler tags.


Pokémon World Tour: United contains examples of...

  • Accidental Kidnapping: Billy tries to kidnap a Nurse Joy from the Pokémon Center in Pewter; Cobalt gets in the way, and is summarily kidnapped by Team Rocket. This prompts Rose to call Cira for help to launch a rescue mission.
  • Actually, I Am Him: Rose and Cobalt meet Trey upon entering Cerulean City. He escorts them to the Cerulean Gym but it's only well after they've arrived and been introduced to the Junior Trainers that it's revealed that Trey is short for Trajan, the Cerulean Gym Leader.
  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • During Cobalt's gym battle with Kent, Rose gets fed up with the Hurricane of Puns everyone else is throwing around and flips off the camera broadcasting the fight. Right after, Rose's Togepi, Scramble, imitates the gesture. Kent states that, while he can not condone the act, it was adorable.
    • In episode 53, Jake describes Rose's outfit for the day as "tough and cool", prompting the GM, Alan, to ask if that makes Rose a "tool". Jake admits Alan got him with that, as he walked right into it.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: Red, Blue, and Looker are all gay in this game. No mention of their sexuality is made in the official franchise.
  • Adaptational Villainy: While Team Rocket as a whole takes a step up in villainy in United, with misdeeds such as a Pokemon fight club, brainwashing its members, and causing chaos with the weather by subduing Moltres, none of this would be happening without the leaders of the new Team Rocket regime: Jessie and James, best known for being incompetent boobs in the Pokemon anime.
  • Alliterative Family: The various Officer Jennys in the setting. Each and every one of them has a first name starting with the letter A, such as Amelia, Amethyst, or Acantha. Meaning they are all literally "A. Jenny". One of the few who doesn't, Rose's grandmother, still has an alliterative sounding name, Odessa. At first it seems that Rose is the Odd Name Out, in keeping with her status as the family Black Sheep, but between Acts 1 and 2 it's revealed that she goes by her middle name, her actual first name is "Alouette".
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: invoked In episode 51, Alan describes a Chansey dipping her cookie into her tea as something strange, causing Jake, Josh, and Matt to all roast him for having never considered that that's the purpose of cookies in the first place.
  • Ambiguously Human: In this universe, Detective Looker. Amelia's never seen him think, and Trey was at one point convinced enough to try and throw a Pokeball at him.
  • April Fools Episode: Episode LXII (note the numerals rather than numbers) is non-canonical. You can tell by the fact that it confirms the Ship Tease between Rose and Cobalt, and by the fact that it's a crossover with Revolutionary Girl Utena (Adam insists it's an homage).
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Rose tries to convince everyone who witnessed Scramble warp time with Metronome that Pokemon are just "like that", citing floating psychic rocks and Pyukumukus puking their guts as examples. Of course on the flip side, Rose refuses to believe in ghosts despite catching several.
  • The Artifact: The Safari Zone still hands out rocks to trainers, but Rollie insists that nobody use them.
  • The Atoner: Acanthla Jenny used to be a Rocket, but now she's a high-ranking officer trying to stop the other Rockets.
  • Audience Participation: All of Hey! Jake and Josh's shows have this to one degree or another. United is the best known for it as the Gym Leaders except Blue are all voiced by Patreon sponsors and, in the case of Trajan, even become recurring characters. One of the reasons later episodes introduce the Underground Trials is to allow for more audience participation beyond just the limited number of Gym Leaders.
  • Audio Play: The podcast is a serial, with sequential episodes following Rose and Cobalt's adventures. There is a short recap at the beginning of every episode, but it's best to listen to them in order.
  • Author Appeal: Jake Mason loves the pizza restaurant Dirty Mike's, and therefore so does Rose. Likewise, everyone else involved thinks that name is terrifying and have their characters react accordingly.
  • Badass Boast: Episode 60 provides two:
    • Before Rose and Acantha's battle, their mother Ambrosia tries to talk Acantha out of it, asking her if she really wants to go through with this. When Acantha demands to know why she wouldn't, Ambrosia responds with "because she will wipe the floor with you."
    • After Rose wipes the floor with Acantha and Acantha has left, Ambrosia and Rose's grandmother, Odessa, warn her that Acantha will not take this humiliation lying down, and is certain to use any connections she can to make Rose's life miserable any way she can. Rose responds that Acantha or anyone she sics on her is going to have to actually deal with her, as well as her friends.
  • Bag of Holding: The group are able to put basically anything in their packs. Cobalt got a trophy as big as he was from the bicycle race and managed to fit in there. Scramble got a washing machine into Rose's pack, and she's more confused about how she never noticed rather than the physics of it.
  • Battle Aura: Whenever Bango gets to activate Flash Fire, it almost never goes well for his opponents.
  • Beach Episode: Episode 67 takes place on the top side of the Seafoam Islands, which are a popular tourist destination.
  • Beneath Notice: In spite of Rose's playing a central role in foiling Team Rocket multiple times, most of the other members of the Jenny family regard her as either a Bratty Teenage Daughter or a Black Sheep. Trajan suggests taking advantage of this when trying to convince Amelia Jenny to let Rose in on confidential information and letting her lead the investigation into the compromised and/or brainwashed Jennys. He notes that between Rose's family's feelings about her dodging the Academy and various Jerkass moments during her broadcast Gym battles, most will assume Rose has neither the skills nor the temperament to actually be a danger.
  • The Bet: As they go through Victory Road, Cobalt and Rose decide to add some stakes to their fight for the League Championship: if Rose beats Cobalt, he has to eat a slice of Dirty Mike's Pizza. If Cobalt beats Rose, she has to wear a tuxedo t-shirt.
  • Big "NO!": Cobalt when he realizes that Treble's pyjamas don't fit after his evolution.
  • Big "WHAT?!": In the 2017 Candlenights Special, Cobalt (or maybe Josh) has this reaction upon hearing the Pokedex entry for Crabominable.
    Pokedex: Crabominable. The Woolly Crab pokemon. It just throws punches indiscriminately. In times of desperation, it can lop off its own pincers and fire them like rockets.
    Cobalt/Josh: It does WHAT?!
  • Biological Mashup: The goal of Team Rocket is to create super-powerful pokemon by combining their DNA with other species. This is demonstrated in the Act 2 finale when they fuse a Vileplume with a Victreebel.
  • Bird-Poop Gag: After Cobalt ends up getting a ferry swarmed by Wingull, he and Rose hide in the captains quarters. It's only afterwards that they realize they forgot Victor outside, and find him covered in Wingull poop.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: Not for the whole show, but with regards to the Rockets. The black-suit Rockets are pretty bad, especially considering their leadership has brainwashed most of them into following them. The white-suit Rockets are still criminals, but they have morals as well and are significantly nicer than the others. Rose even calls the two "Rockets" and "Bad Rockets", and acknowledges that, in the case of the White rockets, you can at least see the line of reasoning of "steal Pokemon > Get money".
  • Bland-Name Product:
    • Many real-world products and media have equivalents in the Pokémon world, including Oran berries for oranges, and Mesprit instead of Sprite. An arts and crafts selling website is named Floettesy, and when a Pokemon-themed name for Iron Chef is needed, the cast comes up with "Steel-Type Chef"
    • For online videos, one can go to Rotomtube (YouTube), Pidge.tv (Twitch.tv), or maybe just "Spinflix and Chill" (Netflix). There's also the Pokemon equivalent to Apple's services, Leppa.
  • Blatant Lies:
    • Cobalt and Rose definitely weren't at the Viridian Police Station when it was attacked.
    • Also, Rose didn't steal her cousin Amethyst's phone when they met at the Sunflora Cafe, she just picked it up after the latter dropped it. And Rose returned it later, and it's not her fault it recognized her face as Amethyst's and also that she read all of Amethyst's texts.
  • Black Market: The party find one in an underground tunnel leading out of Celadon City.
  • Black Speech: Heard by Rose when Scramble uses one of Mewtwo's attacks via Metronome during a Contest.
    "Psycho Cut"
  • Breather Episode: Episode 44, the Hot Springs Episode is "a relaxing episode where nothing happens". Though it does include the reveal that Bonnie is still susceptible to mind control, it counts as this up until that point.
  • Book Safe: The group find a key inside a book in Old Cinnabar that leads them deeper into the lab down there.
  • The Bus Came Back: Professor Acorn, who was the new Pokemon Professor in episode one, is quickly forgotten about soon after Professor Sky is introduced. He doesn't appear again until episode 47, simply because Cobalt needs to consult a professor and decides that they haven't seen Acorn for a while.
  • Butt-Monkey: Billy, and Victor, to a certain extent.
  • Cain and Abel: Rose's relationship with her eldest sister Acantha eventually devolves into at the end of Act Two, with Acantha as the Cain to Rose's Abel. They were always on the outs with one another, as Acantha is the oldest and most serious minded of Rose's sisters, while Rose herself is the Black Sheep baby of the family who considers Acantha the "mean sister". When Rose pushes Acantha a step too far after confronting Acantha about her possibly being a Rocket, Acantha calls their mother and informs her that Rose stole Bango after he washed out of the Academy. It comes to a head when Acantha challenges Rose to a one-on-one battle using their Growlithes, with the stakes being whether Rose is arrested or pardoned for her actions. After Rose wins handily, Rose is warned by her mother and grandmother that Acantha will not take what happened lying down, and will almost certainly use any connections she has to make Rose's life miserable.
  • Canon Welding: The first episode establishes that the series takes place twenty years after the events of the Pokémon Red and Blue video games, with Red being a Pallet Town hero and Blue being the first Gym Leader Rose and Cobalt face. However, the end of act one reveals that Team Rocket's new leadership consists of characters from the Pokémon: The Series, specifically Jessie and James. Further, other characters from the anime, Butch and Cassidy, are aligned with A Lighter Shade of Black faction of Team Rocket. Later, when exploring the old Rocket hideout in the Celadon City Game Center, Cobalt uncovers a document describing the new regime's rise in power, which includes mentions of Ash and his frequent battles with grunts Jessie and James and their talking Meowth. This all amounts to show that, in this version of the Pokémon universe, the events of the game and the events of the anime both occurred.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Rose's undercover Rocket hairstyle, which she models after Jessie from the anime. Other Rockets commenting on it is an early hint that Jessie is one of the new Rocket leaders.
    • Cobalt finds a secret hatch in the ground outside Pewter very early on. It turns out to be the location of the main Rocket Base and where Ariana is hiding out.
  • Christmas Episode: Each year has a "Candlenights" special, using the pan-religious holiday originating from My Brother, My Brother and Me
  • Cleavage Window: To go along with the high-fashion theme of the Fuchsia City gym, Mitch wears an outfit with one. It exposes his Carpet of Virility.
  • Colourful Theme Naming: Cobalt and Rose, of course. Cobalt's parents as well—Chartreuse and Cyan are shades of blue as well.
  • Contrived Coincidence: After Rose, Cobalt, and Cira spelunk into the ruins of Old Cinnabar, they conveniently find exactly three combination respirator/goggle devices right at their feet.
  • Cool Helmet: Cobalt gets one in the Act 2 Interlude with a fiery mohawk on it to look like Treble.
  • Costume-Test Montage: During episode 040, Cobalt searching for a new outfit combined with Cobalt's impossibly-tacky fashion sense makes this a pain for Rose and Cira.
  • Covered in Gunge: A Rotomtuber wanting to take a tour of the Kanto Power Plant for her vlog gets shoved into the Muk muck while trying to force her way into the building.
  • Creator Cameo: If there's a character that has any significant interaction with the gang, they're probably named after a Patreon or a fan. Examples include Shannon, the scientist the gang met in Mount Moon (after the show's artist, Shannon) and Professor Skye, the scientist living in Cerulean (after fan artist Skye).
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Cira, Cobalt, and Rose against Team Rosey Ladies in their first battle at the Saffron Colosseum. The latter barely last a single turn.
    • When the three participate in a race on cycling road, it's a photo finish between them. However they were still a good twenty minutes ahead of the other racers.
  • Death by Adaptation: Mr. Fuji passed away in the time between the original games and now, with Tsubaki taking over in his stead.
  • Devolution Device: Scramble channels Dialga's Roar of Time and causes a Swanna to temporary turn back into a Ducklett.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Several Pokémon are caught by befriending them, rather than being beaten into submission. Also applies to Roxy, Kent's Junior Trainer from Pewter City.
  • Didn't Think This Through: A tangent in episode 34 ends with Alan suggesting a future episode based on "Hush" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer...before immediately realizing that it wouldn't work on an audio-only medium.
  • Divine Intervention: Mew has interacted with Rose and Cobalt's adventures at least twice so far: once to turn Staryu, Teddiursa, and Eevee into Shiny Pokémon, and once by impersonating a Clefairy so Cira and Rose can infiltrate Operation Fight Club.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Cobalt and Rose discover a group of stolen and abused Pokemon in the Celadon Black Market. After freeing them, an Espeon unleashes a powerful Psychic on the man who held them captive, possibly lobotomizing him.
  • Dogpile Of Doom: Used to heartwarming effect when Victor ends episode 25 buried under a blissful pile of the main party's Pokémon.
  • Drench Celebration: After they win the hockey trial in episode 69, Bobby has Rose and Cobalt drenched in Feraligatorade to congratulate them.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: Pulled off by Cira and Rose to infiltrate Operation Fight Club. Also inverted, as Cira considers herself to still be part of Team Rocket, but mostly dresses in normal clothes. Rose and Cobalt do this again to infiltrate Rocket's Secret and Super-Secret bases.
  • Egg McGuffin: Twice! Rose and Cobalt received an egg each as they began their journey. Later they found a suspiciously large egg in the depths of Mount Moon that ends up hatching into twin Pokémon, Nyssa the Cleffa and Falsetto the Igglybuff.
  • Eldritch Abomination: There's something hiding in the depths of Mount Moon. That something is a colony of nebulous black masses that have color-changing eyes, are not affected by moves like Ember and Sleep Powder, and are responsible for the death of Baritone's mother and the Clefairy that protected them.
  • Enemy Civil War: There seems to be one going on within Team Rocket. The primary group are the more active ones, going on crime sprees and trying to steal and abuse Pokemon, and often failing. There's also the faction Cira is working with, who are trying to return the organization to it's former glory.
  • Enemy Mine: The waiter at the cafe in Lavender Town that Rose and Cobalt visit isn't fond of Rose's antics, but ends up helping her when he finds out she's trying to pull one over on her cousin Amethyst on account of her being a "royal terror".
  • Failed a Spot Check: Cobalt does not have the best perception. One notable instance was at the beginning of episode 3, where Josh critically failed and Cobalt didn't notice Team Rocket attacking the police station that he was inside at the time.
  • Fake Texting: In order to find out whether her cousin Amelia is a crooked cop, Rose pickpockets Amelia's phone-slash-Pokedex to go through its contacts and messages. In a moment of Refuge in Audacity, she plays up her Bratty Teenage Daughter reputation within the family to pull out the phone right in front of Amelia herself and search it while looking like she's busying herself with it while an otherwise important conversation is going on.
  • Family Business: The police force in Kanto is primarily made up of the Jennies, all of whom are somehow related to Rose. The Jennys frequently state that they have to work harder to compete with the non-Jennys, which confuses Rose since, to her, it makes no sense that Jennys should be obligated to work harder when they're he ones who make up the majority of the police force and that clash of logic is part of the reason she wants no part of it.
  • Fantastic Racism: Amethyst Jenny believes that non-Jenny cops are a threat to the family legacy and are not to be trusted Then again, it's possible this is a cover for herself due to the Rocket brainwashing.
  • Flipping the Bird: In episode 11, between losing her Gym Battle with Kent, arguing with Roxy over her assumptions of her and Cobalt's relationship, and a sheer barrage of everyone else's rock-based Hurricane of Puns, Rose is in a foul mood. So it's no surprise when she eventually flips off the cameras broadcasting Cobalt's battle with Kent out of annoyance. What is surprising is when Scramble sees the gesture, looks at the little flippers Togepi have instead of hands, and cheerfully tries to imitate it. Kent remarks that, while he not condone that act, it was pretty adorable.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Odessa Jenny's delirious rambling about Moltres and Team Rocket, Billy's gloating about possible corruption among the Jenny force and the greater Rocket scheme, and the darkness beasts that live in Mount Moon are not setting up an easy journey for Rose and Cobalt.
    • Bango is never seen inside his Pokeball, even when the situation would call for it. Because Rose doesn't have his ball. She stole him from the academy when he dropped out, and when she returns to her family home Acanthla tries to use it to take him back.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Rose is Sanguine, Cobalt is Choleric, Victor is Phlegmatic, and Cira is Melancholic. Or, according to the CKT SCale, Rose is exasperated, Cobalt is exasperating, victor is dumb, and Cira is horny (though this depends on the situation since Cobalt can also be plenty dumb, and Rose slides directly into horny when Cobalt's dad is around).
  • Funny Background Event: When Rose starts scrolling through Amelia's contacts to see what she's been sending to other Jennys, Alan describes how she keeps scrolling...and keeps scrolling...and while he does this Jake, Josh, and Matt have an entire conversation on how Amelia might organize said Jennys in her contacts, with Alan in the background continuing on. "And you scroll...and you scroll..."
  • Funny Foreigner: Ross, the Breeder/Gardener that the gang meets on Route 3, has a ridiculous French accent since he's from Kalos. Rose and Cobalt get a kick out of hearing him try to pronounce "Scoops", the nickname of Rose's Skiddo.
  • Free-Range Children: Justified for Rose and Cobalt, who are 16 and legally of age to begin a Pokemon Journey. Played straight with Victor, who faked his Trainer's License.
  • The Gadfly: Daphne the lab tech at the Power Plant appreciates how popular her site has gotten, but sometimes all the tourists around makes it hard to get things done. So she has her Muk round up the surrounding Grimer and uses them to scare people off to get some peace and quiet.
  • Ghost Ship: Aegean and Calico built one to help patrol the Vermillion coast and check for Rockete activity. They've also started selling tickets and hosting dinner cruises on it in the meantime.
  • Gladiator Games: The purpose of Bonnie's experiment in Mount Moon: set hordes of Jigglypuff against each other in fights until only the strongest remain, then use those strongest in Team Rocket's service.
  • Glass Jaw Referee: Mitch acts as the referee for Bobby's trial in Episode 69, but when Bobby gets tired of him enforcing, y'know, hockey rules, he sicks Wildwing on him to take him out.
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop: Amanda and Aeris, the Jennies that Rose, Cobalt and Cira meet outside of Mount Moon. Amanda is the kindly Good Cop, Aeris is the standoffish Bad Cop.
  • Good Parents: Chartreuse and Sky, Cobalt's parents, support and love him wholeheartedly.
  • Gotta Rescue Them All: So far Cobalt has saved at least two Pokémon from Brian. The first is his own Cyndaquil, Treble, who is revealed to have been abandoned after Brian's mass breeding of Cyndaquil. The second is Brian's Typhlosion, confiscated by Rose and turned in to the police once Cobalt recognizes it's been abused.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Cira has appeared in several episodes; so far, the Gym Leaders tend to feature in at least two episodes. The cast also come across recurring Non Player Characters during their travels.
  • Hammerspace: The player characters' bags are seemingly limitless; their packs include several changes of clothes, their fossils, spare Pokéballs, camping equipment, food, and even their Pokémon.
  • Hamster-Wheel Power: Team Rocket's aerial transport is provided by a flock of Pidgey, Pidgeotto, and Spearow that are strapped to a hot-air balloon basket.
  • Hangover Sensitivity: Rose and Bango fall prey to this after a sleepover. Rose even gives Bango bacon to help, since he can't take aspirin.
  • Happily Married: Cobalt's parents. There's also Amy and Joy, who are happily engaged.
  • Hero of Another Story
    • Cira's adventures while separated from Rose and Cobalt can be found on Shannon Manor's Twitter. They include Cira answering wishes from the fountain and hanging out with gym leaders.
    • In a Patreon-exclusive episode, Scramble, Baritone, Dominik, and Biscuit get their own spotlight episode.
  • High-Class Glass: When going to Mars' fancy restaurant in episode 56, Bass wears a monocle. Cobalt doesn't know how it stays in and assumes cartoon magic.
  • Homage: Episode 63 and the trail within is one to Pokémon Snap.
  • Hostile Weather: The first leg of Rose and Cobalt's journey includes unseasonably cold and stormy weather. This is brought on by Team Rocket's implied tampering with the balance between Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.
  • Hot Springs Episode: Episode 44 has the group take a breather at the Celadon Day Spa, including hot springs and mud bath.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Brought upon Rose by Cobalt on a frequent basis. This only gets worse during the Pewter Gym challenge with Kent and Roxy. To Rose's increasing frustration, everyone keeps making "ground" and "rock" puns of varying quality. When she finally gets fed up Rose starts Flipping the Bird at the camera, and Scramble starts imitating it.
  • Hypocritical Humour:
    • In episode 54, Cira joins Rose in roasting Daniel for his shoddy-looking Ho-Oh costume. When he becomes ashamed and hands over the mask, Cira immediately grabs it and declares she can actually pass it off as genuine and sell it off.
    • Rose and Cira both have Ghost-types that act a little unnerving (Pepper and Cronenberg respectively), and neither of them trust the other's while they vehemently defend their own.
  • I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Rose says this word for word when she, Cobalt, and Cira go through the Saffron Colosseum.
  • Inside Job: Episode 039 hints, and 042 confirms, that a member of the Jenny force helped free the Rockets that had been arrested.
  • Instant Costume Change: Comes as par for the course for Rockets, including Cira. Rose laments that she can't do this.
  • Insult Backfire: In the 2018 Candlenights special Rose looks at Cira's outfit (which is distinctively un-festive) and tells her she looks like the person who shows up to threaten a kidnapping victim. Cira thanks her.
  • Internal Reveal:
    • Episode 33 has Rose and Cobalt telling Victor that his father was captured by Team Rocket and didn't abandon him.
    • Episode 52 sees Rose and Cobalt tell Amelia and Trey about the brainwashed Jennys, as well as their concerns that Amelia might be one of them. They're also formally introduced to Trey's friend Shaymin.
  • Interspecies Romance:
    • Juliet and Crescendo, a Noibat and Zubat, respectively. They're first encountered flying around each other during the main characters' journey through Mt. Moon. Rose catches Juliet, but the Zubat flies away. Later, when siccing a bunch of Zubat on Billy, Cobalt holds a Pokeball with some Friendship Jerky in the swarm and snags Crescendo.
    • Rose's Growlithe Bango develops a crush on one of Gym Leader Devitt's Pokemon, Camille the Sylveon. It's strong enough that he defies orders to attack during their Rose and Cobalt's Gym Battle with Devitt. Camille reciprocates, and her own attacks suffer as a result. The two Pokemon are on good terms after the battle concludes and there's nothing between them.
  • Involuntary Dance: Seeing a Jynx in the Seafoam Islands causes everyone to shake their hips without realizing it.
  • Killer Rabbit: Rose's Togepi, Scramble, is as cute as any baby Pokemon could ever hope to be. It rides in Rose's backpack, acts as her secretary and keeps things organized, and is an overall Cheerful Child. However, its primary attack, Metronome, has an unsettling tendency to call upon the powers of large, imposing, and/or Legendary Pokemon. Over the course of the first act it uses attacks specific to Giratina, Mewtwo, Rayquaza, and Zygarde. Rose loves her little Scramble and sees her as an angel. Anyone else who's seen Scramble in action is just a little afraid of the power she can throw around.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Cira is revealed to be a Rocket by the end of her first episode, and the fact that she has history with them goes on to be a major element of the series.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Victor's mechanics-heavy lecture to Rose, Cobalt, Cira, Holly, and Scott on the basics of Contest participation provokes lots of questions from the group, such as "What do dice have to do with it?"
  • Lemony Narrator: Applies to Alan as the DM and Narrator.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Rose declares this after the incident with Isaac and the ghost forest. She declares it again after the gang return from the Distortion World.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: The "good" Team Rockets in the white-costumes are still villainous, but they're also kinder and don't recruit through mind control.
  • Limited Wardrobe: In contrast to Rose's Unlimited Wardrobe, Cobalt only ever wears a T-shirt and jeans. The shirts can vary, since Cobalt bought several with various puns on them and has a tuxedo T-shirt for formal occasions. During their Gym Battle in Celadon City, Rose comments on how Cobalt's only ever worn the same pair of jeans since she's known him. Cobalt asserts this isn't true, and opens his backpack to show Rose several pairs of the same kind of jeans in what Josh describes as "a Hey Arnold! situation".
  • Long-Runners: In a preemptive and meta sense; although the podcast is only a quarter into its first season (as of 025), the cast has already started to plan out the events of the second, third, and fourth seasons.
  • The Lost Woods: Viridian Forest doesn't quite count as this, but there's a section within it referred as "The Lost Woods" that fits the trope - very spooky, very labyrinthian, and full of ghosts.
  • Mama Bear: Chartreuse counts as this, towards Cobalt and her Pokémon; Rose also applies, although only towards her Pokémon.
  • Malaproper: When Victor gets concerned about being involved in the party's shady activities in episode 49, Cira assures him that he hasn't actually done anything wrong and that he's not culpable. Which leads to this exchange.
    Cobalt: Victor you're very culpable. You can do anything you put your mind to.
    Rose: That’s not what culpable means. But I like the effort. I like that you’re trying.
    Cira: You were very sincere with that and that's what counts.
  • Malicious Misnaming:
    • Rose intentionally refers to Looker as "Jeff". Her justification is that he introduced himself as "John", then soon after claimed "I Have Many Names".
    • A more textbook example is Rose calling Micah the hot air balloonist from episode 61 "Krirsten" solely to mess with him.
  • Man of a Thousand Voices: Alan, as the GM, voices all of the NPC's and all of the Pokémon.
  • The Maze: The Underground Trial in Celadon takes place in the ruins of the original Rocket Hideout, with the portals replaced with Drilburs that toss the participants around the maze.
  • Mistaken for Romance: Rose and Cobalt are often assumed to be boyfriend and girlfriend by those who don't know them well. Plenty of people who do know them think it's just a matter of time.
  • Mobstacle Course: One of the final rooms of Mount Moon is a literal minefield of sleeping Pokémon, including Geodude, Graveler, Golem, Roggenrola, Onix, Steelix, and Aggron.
  • Mockumentary: Episode 024 is a homage to Parks and Recreation, taking place in a local nature park and featuring a Confession Cam.
  • The Mole: The Rockets have brainwashed several Jennys to stay one step ahead of law enforcement. Conversely, Amelia Jenny was undercover as a Rocket during the period where they didn't have a leader in order to keep tabs on them in the time being.
  • Monster Protection Racket: The owners of the ferry service from Fuchsia to Seafoam have trained several of their Pokemon to fake attacks on the boat from wild Pokemon in order to make the trip more exciting.
  • Mood Whiplash: Crops up to help cut the tension at times.
    • Episode 24 has this, with the action cutting from the main party's fight against a group of Snover, to Victor playing dance with Biscuit, Cubchoo, Sakura, and Baritone...to the main party screaming at the Abomasnow.
    • Episode 58 has things go back and forth between Rose and Acanthla interrogating each other and Victor and Cobalt failing through a police training course.
    • Episode 59, likewise, goes back and forth between Rose being interrogated by her family and Cobalt fishing for Grimer in the polluted river.
  • Mythology Gag: Apparently the line about "You're still light-years away from facing (Gym Leader)!" carries over as the Gym Leader changes.
  • Never Mess with Granny: The Rosey Ladies team that Cobalt, Rose, and Cira go against in the Saffron Colosseum are a trio of tough old ladies. Not strong enough to win, though.
  • Never Say "Die":
    • Both played straight and averted. Rose and Cobalt are fully aware that Baritone's mother and its Clefairy protector are dead. They conceal this fact from Victor and Baritone.
    • Played for laughs when the group returns to Lavender Town and meets Tsubaki at the Radio Tower. Rose has Pepper out and keeps covering his ears and getting upset when people say the word "die" around the undead Charmeleon.
  • Not Helping Your Case: When Rose and Cobalt encounter Cira and Bonnie in a church in episode 36, Rose teasingly questions if they're there to get married. Cira denies this, but then notes that her earlier description of herself in all black and her companion wearing all white does not actually help her defense.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: It is pointed out to Cobalt (and Rose) that taking Brian's Typhlosion is a common trait of Team Rocket. Rose justifies his action with a legal statute that allows for removal of Pokémon if there is evidence that the Pokémon has been abused by the Trainer.
  • Oh, My Gods!: Since there is (presumably) no God in Pokémon, the characters say "Oh my Arceus" instead.
  • Omni Disciplinary Scientist: Victor's aunt Patricia is a paleontologist, archeologist, computer engineer, and seamstress.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted with several NPCs named Mike. There's Mike who runs the bike shop (full name Micycle), Captain Mike Captain who runs the ferry from Seafoam to Cinnabar, and the owner of Dirty Mike's Pizzeria in Saffron.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Jake begs Alan not to do a Boston accent in episode 53 because it sounds "like a cartoon mouse from New Jersey".
  • Out of Focus: Cobalt and Rose like to catch plenty of Pokémon, but they don't often use their entire line up other than their starters and a few other notable Pokémon, leading to this.
  • Palette Swap: Rose, Cobalt, Cira, and Victor each have a Shiny Pokémon, and Brian also has a Shiny Dragonair. They are treated as incredibly rare, mirroring the situation in the video games.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise:
    • When Christopher the creepy shopkeeper tries to convince Rose and Cobalt that his sister is operating another stall, he quickly throws on a bad blonde wig and calls himself "Christerfina". Cobalt still falls for it.
    • When Cira is searching for brainwashed Jennys she wears a hat on her head and...that's it.
      Shannon: If you know that's Cira, it looks like Cira in a hat.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Used to justify Cobalt's sudden skill in Hollywood Hacking, as the password protecting the Team Rocket computer in Celadon City's Game Center was "passw0rd".
  • Pokémon Speak:
    • None of the Pokémon speak human, naturally; Alan instead voices all of the Pokémon. Luckily, most of the trainers Speaks Fluent Animal.
    • This also applies to anything a Pokémon writes down as well. Even typing is effected, as Scramble's participation in a stream chat during the Celadon Gym Battle is just variations of "Togepi" along with some emojis.
    • When TBD transforms he also replicates the speech of what he mimics in total monotone. This goes beyond Pokemon to any inanimate object. Or human.
  • Police Are Useless: The Jennys (or any police for that matter) don't have the greatest track record over the course of the campaign. And won't Rose won't let her family ever forget when they exemplify this trope.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Most of the Jennys are rather understanding of the situations our heroes end up in. Aeris less so.
  • Red Herring: The aptly named "Red" Harry Harrison from the Candlenights 2017 Special appears at the beginning before attention is diverted towards the other aptly named Slick Cheatums, who is trying to buy out Pelipper Pier from under Calico and Aegeon. Except it turns out Slick was the red herring, and Red was behind everything all along.
  • Repetitive Name: The full-name of the Cerulean City Joy (who's engaged to Amelia Jenny) is Joy Joy Joy Joy (of the Joytown Joys).
  • Reveal Shot:
    • The vanishing of the halfway house for lost spirits in the depths of Viridian Forest.
    • Episode 18 ends with Articuno perched over the exit of Mount Moon, watching Cobalt, Rose and Victor leave with a mysterious egg.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: All over the place, since it's Pokémon, but Cobalt and Rose Squee several times over some of the Pokémon they meet. Out of character, Jake, Josh, and Alan frequently obsess over the accessories and outfits that Alan keeps assigning to Biscuit.
  • Running Gag:
    • Cobalt and Rose taking selfies with Pokémon they meet.
    • Rose is definitely not a cop.
    • Cobalt's teriyaki-flavored Friendship Jerky.
    • Rose and Cobalt lying to their mothers about their journeys.
    • Whenever somebody references a real-world animal, Rose won't understand what they're talking about.
      Kent (referring to Bango): I love dogs!
      Rose: What's a dog?
    • Noting that all the characters from Kalos have accents, but not the same accents, so it's just the "accent" region.
    • Cobalt's terrible fashion sense.
    • Treble's snoot. After evolving into Quilava, it's more about the donk.
    • Whenever Cobalt sees Bonnie, "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright plays in his mind. But with misremembered lyrics.
    • Rose making fun of Victor wearing socks-and-sandals, whether he actually does so or not.
    • "Lie to the Cops!" and "Lie to your Mother!", which for Rose are often conveniently the same thing.
  • Secret Identity: Cira's status as a renegade Rocket. Her status as a Rocket in general is revealed early, at the end of the group's time in Viridian Forest. It's not until later, over the course of other encounters with Team Rocket, that Cira's being rogue starts to come to light.
  • Secret Underground Passage: There's a tunnel beneath Old Cinnabar that leads all the way back to Mt. Moon.
  • Selfie Fiend: Whenever Rose Jenny takes a photo of a Pokemon for her Pokedex to identify, she makes it a point to make that photo a selfie of herself with that Pokemon. She will take selfies with the same kind of Pokemon more than once if given a reason, such as the Chansey stationed at various Pokemon Centers, who often dress in outfits themed to their location, like pith helmets for the Safari Zone.
  • Sequence Breaking: Supposedly, Trial Captain Serena is supposed to give prospective trial-goers their stamp books before they begin their trials. However, Rose and Cobalt beat Cira and got a booklet from Rich before they even met Serena. They really chew her out for giving Rich said booklets if her plan hinges on him not having them in the first place .
  • Shapeshifter Mashup: In episode 023, TBD transforms into a combination of Bango and Scoops, resulting in the Fire-Grass type Growdo. After the intial Gonk, TBD proves quite useful.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend:
    • Rose and Cobalt are very insistent on this. Rose especially, since Cobalt sometimes is slow to get the hint. Nobody really believes them.
    • It gets shaken up in episode 51 when Amelia Jenny knows that Cobalt isn't Rose's boyfriend... so assumes Victor must be. Cobalt is shown finding this hilarious.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Similar Squad: When Cira, Cobalt, and Rose partake in a bicycle race in the Act 2 interlude they find that they're competing against one of these composed of Candice, Caleb, and one of Rose's cousins Augusta.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: In the first episode, Cobalt's attempts to catch a Taillow with one tail feather antagonizes it such that it reappears at different points throughout the series just to screw with Cobalt. It continues this even after it's evolved into a Swellow. In act 3, the rivalry mostly comes to an end when Cobalt finally captures the Swellow in Fuschia City. A new nemesis comes to Cobalt on the ferry rides around the Seafoam Islands in the form of a Pelipper, who swarms the boat with his flock after Cobalt feeds a single Wingull.
  • Snowed-In: The result of the snowstorm around the north of Kanto leaves our heroes snowed in at Professor Skye's lab.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: The actors use their favorite Pokémon's cries to cover up any swearing they might do.
  • Speak of the Devil: Mewtwo can sense whenever someone speaks his name.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Bango and Devitt's Sylveon Camille start crushing on each other in the middle of the gym battle. Bango defies orders to attack her because he doesn't want to hurt her, and when Scramble KOs her he lets out the canine equivalent of a Big "NO!". Fortunately they part on good terms afterward.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: Part of Cronenberg's and Pepper's skill set, since they're part Ghost-Type. Weaponized by Pepper during the Cerulean Gym battle to devastating effect.
  • String Theory: Odessa Jenny and Looker have one set up in her house to track the members of the Rockets and the brainwashed Jennys.
  • Stock Sound Effect: They use sound effects and background music from the Pokémon video games, though some of the music is remixed.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: Since the League Challenge is nonlinear, the Gym Leaders have rotating team rosters depending on how many badges the challenger has.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: In episode 24, one of the final Snover is able to call an Abomasnow to aid it against the main party.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: Towards the end of their journey through Mt. Moon, Rose, Cobalt, and Victor encounter a Clefairy fighting a dark creature completely unlike anything they had seen before. Rose charges in and gets to the Clefairy just in time to see it dissolve into glitter, effectively dying. When Cobalt and Victor catch up, having missed that, Victor wonders if the Clefairy ran away. Cobalt, realizing something happened, makes the decision to say that that's exactly what the Clefairy did.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Cira has this plenty of times when trying to hide the fact that she's a Rocket. When Amethyst Jenny asks about why everything she says sounds a little fake, she and Rose reply that it's just her tone.
  • Sustained Misunderstanding: Cobalt spends twenty minutes blundering through a police officer training course and, after flunking out, receives a sticker in the shape of a police badge. From then on he thinks he's a cop and has a crisis about upholding the law.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Cobalt and Rose frequently interrupt the action of the game to take pictures of new Pokémon with their Pokédexes.
  • Tempting Fate: As soon as Rollie asks Rose and Cobalt not to throw rocks at Pokemon in the Safari Zone.
    Rose: I'm gonna throw these rocks.
    Rollie: Please don't.
    Rose: You told me not to and I'm sorry, the laws of gods and men say I have to.
  • Theme Naming: The region's professor is Professor Acorn (plants) and the main characters are Rose and Cobalt (colors). Cobalt's nicknames for his Pokémon are themed around music, Cira's nicknames are themed around famous directors, and Rawley nicknames his Pokémon according to the alphabet.
  • Time Skip: The story is stated in the first episode to take place twenty years after the events of Pokémon Red and Blue.
  • Town Contest Episode: Episodes 020 and 021 take place around the Cerulean Contest. Episode 20 is Victor competing in a Master level competition, while 21 is Rose, Cobalt, and Cira in a Beginner Contest.
  • To Be Continued: Most episodes end with this style of outro, as described by DM Alan.
  • Tracking Device: The Dark Badges that Rose and Cobalt receive are tracking devices from the Rockets.
  • Underground Monkey: There are plenty of Pokemon the team encounters that have different typings from the originals (a concept they created before it became canon in Sun and Moon). Most of them end up on their teams, so some (like the various ghost Vulpixes and Mr. Mimes in Old Cinnabar).
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: The cast, especially Cira and Rose, have extensive wardrobes. Rose even laments the fact that she can't wear any of her cute spring outfits because of the unseasonably cold weather. She even gets a Costume-Test Montage before the Pokémon Contest.
  • Video Phone: These are available in every Pokémon Center. The main characters frequently keep in touch with their parents with them.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Rose, Cobalt, and Cira are often trading barbs with each other, but they clearly care about each other as well.
  • Volcano Lair: There is a Rocket laboratory in the remains of Old Cinnabar, which was destroyed by a volcano. Though since it was entirely abandoned and likely above-ground before the eruption it probably wasn't intentional.
  • Wacky Racing: The race on cycling road from the Act 2 Interlude is this; complete with built-in obstacles and power ups.
  • Waxing Lyrical: Alan has a habit of slipping song lyrics into his narration.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Cobalt gives Harmony, his Paras, away to a boy in Kalos. Harmony was not used since her debut episode.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Episode 028: Articuno approaches the party and demands they help rescue Moltres.
    • Episode 030: Rose and Cobalt succeed in freeing Moltres, discover Victor's father has been kidnapped by Team Rocket, and that the new leaders of Team Rocket are Jessie and James.
    • Act One Interlude: their are definitely two Team Rocket factions, and the black-costume ones are being mind-controlled.
    • Episode 036: Rose has Psychic powers.
    • Episode 038 and 039: All the Rockets that Rose helped arrest on the S.S. Anne have broken out, and it's likely that one of the Jennys helped.
    • Episode 057: One of the brainwashed Jennys is Rose's sister Acanthla.
  • Wham Line:
    • From Rose's grandma in episode 004:
      Odessa Jenny: Sweetie, there's...Moltres...The Rockets...they've done something awful, dear. They've done something awful...all legends have a basis in reality, dear. Moltres, they...they...
    • From episode 018:
      Alan: You know that this is a Cubone. You also know how Cubones are made.
    • From episode 029, after the Rocket Admin tells an undercover Rose about the new Rocket leaders:
      Rocket Admin: But you know? I think she's gonna be mad that you took her hairstyle. note 
    • From the very end of the Act One Interlude:
      Alan: Treble is starting to glow.
    • From episode 059:
      Ambrosia: Did you steal your Growlithe?
      Jenny: No, I didn't steal him. I rescued him.
    • During the battle in episode 94:
      Pepper: Chaaaaaaaar -
      Rose: Solar Beam!
      Pepper: -izard. *blam*
  • Wham Shot: Episode 041 pulls two. First, right after it looks like the heroes have won the doors to the courtroom burst open. Everyone's worried that it's a villain here to ruin everything, but it's actually Private Psy and Wattson. Then it looks like it's just a cute little interlude before Judge Trudy reveals they've uncovered actual evidence that Aerith is a Dirty Cop.
  • Wingding Eyes: When a Pokémon (or Billy) is fainted, Alan frequently describes knocked-out Pokémon this way.
  • Win-Win Ending: At the end of episode 056, both Cobalt and Rose win Mars' cooking duel and receive their badge.
  • World of Technicolor Hair: Just like the mainline games, abnormal hair colours are quite common.
    • Rose and all the other Jenny's have hair in various shades of blue.
    • Eris and Rollie are natural greenettes. Billy's hair is described as "snot green".
    • Jay and Bonnie have purple hair.

Smell ya later!

Top