Web Animation / Pokémon Rusty

He's gonna be the very worst, like no one ever was.

Pokémon Rusty is a series of shorts by Dorkly parodying the Pokémon franchise while also telling an original story.

The story focuses on a 10-year-old boy named Rusty, who lives in Beige Town, a town so insignificant that it's not even on the map. Together with his Kakuna, named "Pikachu"—after his hero Red's favorite Pokémon—Rusty sets out to be the best Pokémon Trainer there is, completely oblivious that he is, in fact, the very worst.

The original series ran for 15 episodes. After a 3 year hiatus, the series eventually returned with 5 more episodes airing from March 18, 2017 to May 20, 2017.

The entire series can be found here.

On October 21, 2017, a Creator-Driven Successor called Pokémon Ralphie debuted, starring a former Bug Catcher named Ralphie who is under the delusion that he is Red's number one rival.

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This series contains examples of:

A-C

• Accent Relapse: Battle Bart normally talks in a ridiculous pseudo-Southern American accent, but when he tells Rusty to burn the Battlehaus and explains that he needs the insurance money to pay off a debt with Team Rocket, he drops the accent and becomes completely serious.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Rusty buys the pot-filled bicycle that Professor Tree was going to pick up from the shop keeper, who thought that Rusty was the one picking it up. He informs Professor Tree this with a "You are gonna think this is real funny..." Professor Tree is shocked but immediately admits that it actually is funny.
• Adaptational Wimp: Legendary Pokémon, which rather than being powerful elemental embodiments, are actually only rare because they are endangered species.
• Adaptational Villainy: Team Rocket in this series have no problems murdering people and even get into shootouts with the cops.
• Affably Evil: Team Rocket, while still portrayed as thieving criminals, are shown to be rather polite and cheerful people most of the time.
• Amusing Injuries: Half of Rusty's injuries fall under this umbrella, such as being mauled by the Eevee he was supposed to steal when he (briefly) joined Team Rocket.
• Anachronism Stew: Either a variation of this or a fantastical case of Misplaced Wildlife. The series clearly takes place in Kanto, but specifically uses sprites and backgrounds from the third generation games^note excluding the overworld sprites of the Pokémon themselves, which appear to be taken from the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. This despite Pokémon from later generations appearing to be found in said region, such as Vanillite from Gen 5 and (most especially) Bidoof from Gen 4.
• And the Adventure Continues: Peanut Butter, Good Rusty and Cleffaye Valentine all go on adventures together throughout the universe. We get glimpses of some of them during the Creative Closing Credits
• Animal Testing: A member of Team Rocket steals an Eevee, which he says will be used to test shampoo.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Rusty has demonstrated several times in the series that he's easily distracted by the littlest things. Notable examples include trying to convince a police officer he's innocent of any wrongdoing and then asking where he got his cop badge from, thinking it was a gym badge (before getting tazed), or "remembering" that he still has to catch Legendary Pokémon... after "battling" the Elite Four (which involves his golden god-like Bidoof named Peanut Butter killing poor, poor Agatha).
• Ax-Crazy: Peanut Butter, the perfect, god-like Bidoof, is shown to be very murderous just to make sure that Rusty gets what he wants.
  Peanut Butter: I live only to slate your blood thirst, Father.
  • And then he heard about how Legendary Pokémon are hunted for profit, and he learned compassion (which Rusty forbade him from remembering because he already had 4 moves) and thirst for vengeance (which Rusty allowed because it sounded cool). So he went ahead and enslaved the world.
• Back to the Early Installment: After the Bidocalypse, Rusty is sent back to the first episode to stop himself from ever going on his Pokémon journey. He succeeds, but ends up doing everything all over again and failing to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Julian the EV trainer intends to marry his perfect Cleffa...when she comes of age, of course. Even Rusty is disgusted by this.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Grand Finale edges between this and Happy Ending, Peanut Butter learns the error of his ways and repairs the world. However due to Future Rusty being Lethally Stupid, Peanut Butter forces Rusty into working at his dad's deli for the rest of his life, as a slave, with Pikachu being his owner. However, the world is a much safer place as Future Rusty is forced to work at the deli and Past Rusty (the one who never killed Pokémon and people with his stupidity) is off adventuring with Peanut Butter.
• Black Comedy:
  • Rusty drowns a Zubat while trying to teach it Surf, shoves multiple Bidoofs into one Poké Ball, and washes a Grimer down the drain, among many other examples.
  • The Pokémon documentary begins with a Seel majestically leaping from the water... followed by a Sharpedo leaping after it and making it lunch.
• Blank White Eyes: Subverted. Rusty appears to have these on his small sprite, but his full-body sprite and some art shows that they're actually a pair of glasses.
• Blood Is Squicker in Water: In the Pokémon documentary, a Seel is grabbed by a Sharpedo, causing blood to stain the water after the Sharpedo swims off with its snack.
• Body Horror:
  • The birth defect shiny Bulbasaur, "Burbasaur", which can't vocalize properly and has a festering boil on its back where its bulb is supposed to be. When Rusty tries to use it in a battle, it's level -2 and the only attack it knows is "Organ Failure".
  • Peanut Butter, the perfect Bidoof, beats the Elite Four by causing tiny Bidoofs to burst out of Agatha's eyes and mouth. The other three immediately alter the rules so Rusty replaces her (and doesn't kill them).
• Book Dumb: Rusty knows nothing about Pokémon. Even the most basic of information that anyone in this world would know is a mystery to him.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • When it isn't the Pokémon, Rusty is often the one on the receiving end of several injuries like being slammed into a tree by a Geodude, being tasered by the police or getting beaten to near-death by Battle Bart.
  • Out of all the Pokémon, Bidoofs and Zubats have suffered the most in the series.
• Call-Back: There are quite a lot of references to past events in many episodes. For example, in "Viridian City Gym", "Pikachu" the Beedrill is revealed to have survived Red's Charizard blowing up Team Rocket's truck and became the new boss of Team Rocket by killing the previous one. Battle Bart, who had mentioned being in debt to Team Rocket, is beaten up on "Pikachu's" orders after the former was pleading for them to give him more time to get them the money he owes. This is while the perfect Cleffa, Clefaye Valentine, is carried around behind "Pikachu's" desk.
• The Cameo:
  • In episode 10, Red appears and instantly stops Team Rocket.
  • Rusty appears at the end of Dorkly's million subscribers video, revealing he's still in prison for his Beedrill's crimes.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The perfect Bidoof that appeared at the very end of "How to Breed the Perfect Pokémon" reappears in "Jailbreak" to break Rusty out of prison. He's also shown to have god-like powers, can talk, seems to think that Rusty is his father, and is renamed "Peanut Butter".
• Chronic Pet Killer: Just replace "pet" with "Pokémon" and... well, do we really need to explain this one?
• Cosmic Retcon:
  • Subverted. Following Peanut Butter's taking over the world, the surviving humans attempt this by having a Dialga send Rusty back in time to stop himself from embarking on his journey. Rusty succeeds in scaring away his past self, but then proceeds to commit his mistakes all over again, with the result being a timeline that is almost exactly like the one he was originally sent from.
  • Played straight in the finale, where Peanut Butter uses his reality warping powers to magically undo all his actions as a dictatorial overlord.
• Crapsack World: The series is more grounded in reality than the actual games.
• Crippling Overspecialization: When Rusty goes shopping, he's shown a Brunch Ball, which only works at noon on Sundays. Rusty buys fifty.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • His first battle against a youngster's Rattata has Rusty one-shotting it with Kakuna's headbutt. That is, Rusty throws Kakuna at Rattata like a baseball and calls it a headbutt. Even if it was cheating and beyond unorthodox, and is heavily implied to have outright killed said Rattata, it's the only battle Rusty ever wins until Peanut Butter.
  • Rusty vs. the EV Trainer. Rusty's Zubat is only level 6 while the EV Trainer's Clefairy is level 72. All it takes is one hit and Zubat is down.
  • Rusty challenges Blaine to a gym battle when he manages to get to Cinnabar Island. His first choice is a level 2 Vanilite while Blaine chooses a level 42 Growlithe. Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors notwithstanding, the sheer level difference alone assures Vanilite gets melted, despite Rusty's insistence that Vanilite would have the advantage since "Ice is the opposite of Fire." Rusty's second choice is to use a level 12 Venomoth; it gets incinerated. Then a level 11 Cubone, which would deal super-effective damage, but Growlithe is just too high leveled and Cubone gets killed by Growlithe's bite. This is what happens when you try to beat the seventh gym with Pokémon not even strong enough to beat the first and no idea of how type advantage works.
  • Red vs. the Team Rocket member. Red annihilates him with a Charizard, Magneton, and Gyarados while the poor guy can't even manage to bring out a Pokémon to fight back. Red also killed Pikachu the Beedrill (supposedly) and the kidnapped Eevee when he blew up the guy's truck.
  • Peanut Butter vs the Elite Four. It doesn't end well for one of them...

D-H

• Deconstructive Parody: Of the Pokémon games, mocking many recurring aspects, from criminal organizations to battle styles. Rusty himself seems to be a Deconstructive Parody of the typical player character in Pokémon games, showing why sending a 10 year old who has limited knowledge or experience with Pokémon into the world and out of his home is a terrible idea. On the other hand, 11-year-old Red is played straight as The Ace.
  • Contrary to the games, Pokémon don't just get headbutted or set on fire without issue. Rusty's Fastball Special gives the opponent's Rattata head trauma, Rusty's Pokémon die when he fights the Cinnibar gym leader too early (Vanillite melts and Venomoth is incinerated, both as a result of being exposed to Flamethrower), and so forth.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Rusty breaks into Team Rocket HQ to save his captured Pokémon, with only a Bidoof by his side. His plan is very much like the games: battle each member one at a time until they surrender and give him his Pokémon (and some money). One member of Team Rocket just shoots his Bidoof in the head while reminding Rusty that they're criminals and another points out that it's a dumb plan.
  • The last remaining humans opposing Peanut Butter decide that the only way to save humanity is to use Dialga to send Rusty back in time so he can convince his past self to give up on Pokémon training. They didn't account for future Rusty redoing all the events that led to Peanut Butter's regime.
• The Ditz: Rusty is a bit out there, believing among other things that a level 2 Vanilite can defeat a level 42 Growlithe.
• A Dog Named "Cat": Rusty names his Kakuna "Pikachu", in honour of his idol Red's favourite Pokémon. When the Kakuna abandons him, Rusty replaces it with a Bidoof, whom he names "Pikatwo".
• Downer Ending: Episode 15 since Rusty was arrested for being associated with his psychotic Beedrill, with the officers promising he's going to rot in jail forever, thus dashing his dreams of ever becoming a Pokémon Master. However, this trope is an inversion for everyone else in the story since Rusty being in jail would make everyone better off: Pokémon would no longer die meaninglessly under Rusty's poor handling, his parents could potentially visit and take back their ungrateful ass of a son, and people won't be harmed by Rusty's utter stupidity (causing a forest fire, running over a 10-year old kid, etc).
  • Subverted, unfortunately for the world. Come Episode 16 onwards, where Rusty is freed from prison by his golden Bidoof, which he decided to call "Peanut Butter". Peanut Butter is also shown to have god-like powers. With PB willing to do his every whim, Rusty has so far: broken out of jail and let a whole bunch of murderers free, robbed every trainer in Kanto of their badges (with their corpses being sealed in a blood-stained sack) and brutally murders Agatha of the Elite Four. Be afraid world. Be very afraid...
  • Ultimately averted; After Peanut Butter takes over the world and subjects humanity to his rule, La Résistance sends Rusty back in time using a Dialga to convince his past-self (since Rusty won't listen to anyone but himself) to work at his father's deli so everything he did the entire series won't lead up to this moment. He succeeds, only to redo his entire adventure and repeat everything that happened. However, thanks to Past-Rusty not becoming Lethally Stupid and creating incredible sandwiches, Peanut Butter learns the error of his ways and journeys with Past-Rusty and EV Trainer's Clefa across the stars after undoing everything he inflicted. He also imprisons Future-Rusty at his father's deli to make sandwiches for the rest of his life.
• Electric Jellyfish: Rusty mistakes a Tentacool for one and shoves its tentacles into an electric socket after mistaking them for wires, accidentally killing it.
  Rusty: Yeah, you're an Electric-type! That's why you got all those wires!
  Tentacool's ghost: Wh—I clearly am not! I've got a whole jellyfish thing going on!
• Enfant Terrible: Rusty. Only 10 years old, and yet he has done much more horrible, abhorrent actions than your average brat; so much so he gets locked up for life in episode 15.
  • However, Rusty's dumb luck bails him out of jail when the EV birthed Golden Bidoof, renamed "Peanut Butter", breaks his "father" out of jail, thus allowing Rusty to unfortunately continue his misadventures.
  • Then, because of his lack of empathy, he denies Peanut Butter the chance to learn compassion^note since he can only learn four moves and instead allows him to learn bloody vengeance^note because it sounds cool. This paves way for a dystopia for humanity where Pokémon have enslaved them. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, indeed.
• Epic Fail: This encapsulates Rusty's entire journey.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even Team Rocket is horrified by how Rusty treats his Pokémon, referring to him as a "dumb monster" when they learn he throws away Pokémon who are injured and shoves multiple Pokémon into one Poké Ball. Subverted in episode 9 when they recruit him, saying that "a black-hearted trainer like you... always has a place at Team Rocket!"
• Everyone Has Standards: Rusty himself, in spite of all the awful things he's done, is still perfectly capable of seeing how obviously screwed up the EV Trainer is.
  Rusty: Wow, you really deserve all of this.
• Face–Heel Turn: Rusty is roped into joining Team Rocket when they find out how much of a horrible person he is, but backs out after his first job. On a related note, Beedrill becomes the new boss of Team Rocket.
• Faking the Dead: In an extremely lazy way. When he leaves on his journey, Rusty tells Professor Tree to tell his parents that he's dead when they sent him to deliver a panini. They buy it if the dialog between Rusty and his dad when he picks him up from Mt. Moon is any indication.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • When Rusty watches a nature documentary with Professor Tree, one scene shows a Mr. Mime being lynched by random bystanders.
    Documentary Narrator: This [Mr. Mime], for instance, looks like a human, but it isn't.
    Guy standing next a Mr. Mime: Hey! That ain't no human! Get him!
    (Cue him and the other people beating Mr. Mime to death on the spot.)
  • Rusty's father doesn't seem to have a good opinion on Pokémon, referring to them as "monsters." Although, he could've been just using the term to describe bad people.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Rusty's parents (particularly his dad) want him to abandon his dream of being a Pokémon Master to run their deli, as they consider it little more than being a glorified pet owner. The ghosts of his Pokémon take their side on this.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Averted; Guns exist in this setting and Team Rocket have no problem committing armed robbery.
• Fastball Special: Rusty throws "Pikachu" the Kakuna at a Bug Catcher's Rattata.
  Rusty: "Pikachu" use headbutt!
• The Fool: Rusty causes so much death and suffering by accident, and it almost never comes back to bite him.
• Foreshadowing: One way to know that "Pikachu" survived Red's Charizard was that his ghost wasn't present in the Pokémon Tower.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Rusty's Rival," Rusty's phone lists his Pokémon as Kakuna and Panini, the latter being the sandwich he never gave to Professor Tree in the previous episode.
• Freudian Excuse: "Pikachu" the Beedrill is noted by Team Rocket as being the "most sociopathic, cruel, and hate-filled" Pokémon they've ever taken. When they ask him what Rusty did to it, he reveals he threw rocks at "Pikachu" in his Kakuna form in a vain attempt to get it to evolve (Rusty hoped that one of the rocks would be a sun stone, even though sun stones don't evolve Kakunas).
• The Ghost: Despite frequently being mentioned, and being the namesake of Rusty's Beedrill and one of his Bidoofs, an actual Pikachu never appears in the series.
• Haunting the Guilty: In "Ghost Tower", Rusty goes to the Pokémon Tower and is confronted by the angry ghosts of all the Pokémon he's accidentally killed, including a Zubat he drowned by trying to Surf on its back, a Tentacool whose tentacles he plugged into an electrical socket, a Grimer he washed down the drain, and a horde of Bidoofs he crammed into a single Poké Ball. Unlike most examples of this trope, he does not feel guilty for their deaths at all, because he's a complete idiot.
  Rusty: You came back from beyond just to tell me that I shouldn't feel bad and that I should keep training!
  Ghost Cubone: No! Give up! Go home! You were born to work in a deli!
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: At least Rusty thinks he's a hero, and all of the suffering he puts his Pokémon through is Played for Laughs.
• Hero with an F in Good: Rusty thinks himself as a great hero, but he is such a terrible Trainer that even Team Rocket finds him appalling.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Rusty wants to be a Pokémon Master like Red, but he doesn't even know some of the basics of Pokémon, and hasn't won any actual badges. Plus he is so horrible a Trainer that he causes the deaths of most of his Pokémon, whether its unintentionally or he just doesn't understand that they could be killed or are dead.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Occasionally by Rusty and others, such as "oh Dunsparce" or "son of a Bisharp."
• Hostile Show Takeover: The intro has Rusty covering "FireRed" in the game title using a cardboard sign with his name on it.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: The Pokémon documentary shows a mating ritual between the tiny Weedle and the massive Gyarados. The documentary gives them some privacy, leaving the viewer to contemplate the mechanics.
• Hypocritical Humor: Rusty laments the recently-deceased Pikachu the Beedrill as irreplaceable... then immediately yells at Pikachu Two the Bidoof that they need to find some wild Pokémon to fight.

I-M

• Idiot Hero: Rusty, with more idiot than hero. His stupidity has lead to the deaths of most of his Pokémon, and it's a miracle that he is still alive after all the blunders he has done.
• Inelegant Blubbering:
  • Rusty begs for his life the second Team Rocket threatens him.
  • Rusty goes into this when the reality of his skill catches up with his delusions. The first time is after being robbed by Team Rocket. Then again after being beaten effortlessly by Blaine. He bounces back not much later though.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Rusty's 10-years-old but all the injuries he sustains throughout the series don't seem to be permanent.
• Insurance Fraud: The Battlehaus owner is up to his ears in debt to Team Rocket, and their new boss wants to collect from outstanding debtors. So he enlists Rusty's help in burning down the Battlehaus so that he can collect on his fire insurance and pay the debt.
• Insurmountable Waist-High Fence: Rusty encounters a tree blocking his path and immediately decides to end his journey. Unfortunately for all his future victims, an old man shows up to explain how HMs can get Rusty past that obstacle. Rusty kills two Pokémon and burns down a town trying to figure it out.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: "Pikachu" the Beedrill speaks by buzzing in a specific pattern after becoming the new boss of Team Rocket, yet his words are completely understandable.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • The EV trainer wanted to marry his newly hatched Cleffa.
  • A Pokémon documentary Rusty watches in the penultimate episode features a courtship between a Weedle (a caterpillar) and a Gyarados (a sea serpent).
• In Vino Veritas: Done with pot instead of liquor. Professor Tree admits to knowing nothing about Pokémon and just spends his time growing pot, then immediately lampshades that he shouldn't have told Rusty this and blames being stoned for his inappropriate honesty.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Rusty gets smacked by his Beedrill, mauled by a kid's Eevee, beaten up by Battle Bart, and electrocuted by a police officer. He never seems to suffer any lasting damage.
• It's All About Me: Rusty's only concern is his dream to be a Pokémon Master. When Team Rocket captures him and plan to steal his Pokémon? He hands them over and begs them not to kill him without any prompting from them. His Vanillite, Venomoth and Cubone are killed in the battle with Blaine? He breaks down because he lost and didn't get a badge, not because of their deaths. "Ghost Tower" is the biggest offender. When the ghosts of his Pokémon appear, he states, not assumes, they came to tell him not to feel bad, even though he clearly doesn't. Even when they declare their undying hatred of him, he believes they all missed him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The EV Trainer. Sure, he insists on insulting Rusty for not knowing his secrets and for trying to have fun, and is extremely blunt, but he is more than willing to help him learn. When Rusty meets him later at the Pokémon Day Care, he learns that Rusty's Beedrill ended up dying. He offers to help Rusty breed a perfect Beedrill to replace it and decides on a perfect Bidoof instead when Rusty says that's all he has.
• Kick the Dog: Rusty treats his Pokémon horribly and cares little for their well being. He forces numerous Bidoofs into a single Poké Ball and drowned a Zubat. Before he found out what a Pokémon Center was, he'd just been tossing away the Pokémon he got injured in battle and leaving them to die. That being said, he didn't realize how bad of a trainer he really was.
• Killed Offscreen: Red and all the elite trainers of Kanto are massacred by Peanut Butter between "Legendaries" and "Bidocalypse (Part 1)".
• Lack of Empathy: Rusty is incapable of understanding the feelings and thoughts of others, human or Pokémon, and is more or less in his own little delusional world of being "the very best Pokémon trainer." He could hardly care less what happens to the Pokémon he owns and hasn't been home in months (essentially abandoning his parents and putting them in debt since he purchased a million dollar bicycle using his dad's credit card).
• Laser-Guided Karma: Rusty may not be intentionally malicious, but through a combination of self-centered morality, neglect, or sheer stupidity he ends up doing a lot of bad things in the series, killing several people, Pokémon, and starting a forest fire. During Episode 15, however, it all catches up with him when the police arrest him and throw him in prison for the rest of his life on account of him being responsible for his Beedrill's psychotic nature.
  • Happens again in "Legendaries" where Peanut Butter vows to stop mankind's greed and ruling over Pokémon by enslaving humanity, including Rusty, who seemed to have had the impression that Peanut Butter wasn't being serious about the whole thing and still declared him to be Rusty's slave pet.
  • This is ultimately Rusty's fate; After he screwed up La Résistance's plans to topple Peanut Butter's reign, Past-Rusty shows the latter the error of his ways^* through sandwiches and he hits the Reset Button on everything he did. Then he subjects Future-Rusty to imprisonment at his father's deli where he'll make sandwiches for the rest of his life without harming another innocent Pokémon or person.
• Leitmotif: Whenever Peanut Butter appears, he's accompanied by the Sealed Chamber theme.
• Lethally Stupid: Rusty.
  • He doesn't understand how HM moves work and tries Strength, Flash, Fly, and Surf to get around a tree that you use Cut on, but, predictably, none of them do the job. He finally refers to Red's twitter and, ignoring the obvious clue to use Cut, lights the tree on fire. This causes a massive wildfire that levels the forest and a nearby town.
  • He puts a Grimer into a bath and tries to wash it off in hopes of there being a legendary bird underneath. It gets Grimer washed down the drain and killed.
  • He plugs in a Tentacool, thinking its tentacles are wires and thus thinking it's en electric type. This gets the Tentacool electrocuted.
  • He stuffs sixteen Bidoofs in one Poké Ball simply because he "ran out." They die as a horrible mass of Bidoofs.
  • He tries to teach Zubat how to use Surf and doesn't realize that Surf and Zubat are incompatible. This leads to Zubat drowning.
• Literal Metaphor: During his battle with Blaine, Rusty states he's going to be on Blaine like a moth to a flame. Ignoring that Rusty is using the analogy all wrong, it means being attracted to something; his Venomoth runs right into Growlithe's flames and gets incinerated.
• Literal-Minded: Rusty takes the "Gotta Catch 'Em All" motto literally. He's caught multiple Zubats and Bidoofs, though most of them die anyway.
• Mass Resurrection: When Peanut Butter decides to undo all the horrible things he did, this presumably includes bringing back all the people he killed (and possibly some other dead as well).
• Meaningful Name: The term "rusty" is used to describe someone who lacks certain skill or knowledge in a specific form of training, which sums up Rusty and his understanding of Pokémon perfectly.
• Misplaced Sorrow: When Blaine's Growlithe uses Flamethrower to melt Rusty's Vanilite.
  Rusty: No! That Pokémon cost me like ten dollars! It was gelato.
• Mugging the Monster: Team Rocket Grunts attempting to rob random people accidentally find Red who sicks his high level Pokémon on them and straight up kills them.
• Mr. Exposition: Lampshaded in a conversation between two Team Rocket grunts:
  First Grunt: Y'know, ever since the new boss took over, membership is been at an all time high.
  Second Grunt: Quit presenting exposition, Dennis!

N-S

• Never My Fault: In "Ghost Tower," Rusty is confronted by the ghost of a Zubat he drowned by trying to Surf on its back, not knowing Zubats can't learn Surf. His only excuse is "You were terrible at Surf."
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Okay, the "hero" part is kinda stretching it, but in "Legendaries", Rusty and Peanut Butter take a tour of the Safari Zone and see a poacher trying to kill an Arceus. Witnessing mankind's greed firsthand, Peanut Butter learns compassion... but can only know four moves. Rusty, being Rusty of course, thinks that's boring. Then Peanut Butter learns vengeance, kills the poacher, declares that the age of man ruling over Pokémon is over, and makes Rusty his first slave when he tries to make Peanut Butter go back in his Poké Ball.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The documentary narrator is based on David Attenborough.
• Obliviously Evil: Rusty thinks he's doing great, but his Pokémon tend to disagree.
• Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: Inverted. By the end of the series, literally everyone across the entire show gets a happy ending thanks to Perfect Bidoof... except for Rusty, who gets his overdue life-long karmic punishment.
• Pet the Dog: Rusty puts his father into a Poké Ball after he is badly injured in a car crash and later catches the Snorlax that was both the source of and badly injured by the crash. Rusty takes both to the Pokémon Center and gets both healed since Team Rocket burned down the only hospital.
• Physical God: Peanut Butter, an anthropomorphic Bidoof with Reality Warper powers.
• Plot Armor: In "Snorcrash," both Rusty and his father are propelled out of their car when they crash into a Snorlax, but Rusty doesn't get so much as a scrape while his father is severely injured.
• Plot Hole:
  • A resistance member asks why, if a Rusty stayed home in the new timeline, how the future Rusty would have been picked up by his father if his father believed Rusty never left home. He's murdered before anyone can question this inconsistency.
  • A more gaping one is how Future!Rusty even still exists since he convinced his past self to work in the deli instead of becoming a Pokémon master.
• Precision F-Strike: Julian the EV Trainer gets one when their attempt at restoring their reality fails due to Rusty's stupidity.
  Julian: So you're the Rusty we already sent back in time? Then why. Are we all. STILL F*CKED?!
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Rusty gets several of these over the series. Considering that he never listens to them though, they are not very effective.
• Record Needle Scratch: This happens in the first episode when Rusty declares his intention to be a Pokémon trainer, only for his dad to forbid him from doing so.
• Replacement Goldfish: After losing Pikachu the Beedril in a car fire, Rusty replaces him with Pikachu Two the Bidoof. After Pikachu Two burns to death, the EV Trainer offers to help him breed a new one, but that plan falls through when Team Rocket runs over the Bidoof/Ditto orgy the EV Trainer had set up. As The Stinger shows, however, a Bidoof still gets made. Only instead it's brightly gold and has a buff, humanoid body.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Rusty thinks that his Cubone has a type advantage against Blaine's Growlithe not because ground is strong against fire, but because Cubone's a "bone-type," and dogs have a weakness for bones.
• Running Gag:
  • In every episode Professor Tree appears in, he gets followed by a pair of Pidgeys. Doubles as a Continuity Nod to the first episode, in which he states that his "job" is to count Pidgeys every once in a while.
  • Expect many of the Pokémon that appear throughout the series to die (Bidoofs in particular).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rusty teaches his Pidgey "Fly," and it does... away from him.
• Security Cling: Rusty treats "Pikachu" the Kakuna so horribly that the first thing it does after evolving is attack him and then cling to a nearby Team Rocket member.
  Team Rocket grunt: Aw, it's okay, Beedrill. You're safe now. Come on, let's go set the hospital on fire.
• Sequence Breaking: Rusty's first gym battle is with Blaine, who is supposed to be the seventh Gym Leader faced in Gen 1 due to washing up on Cinnibar Island after being kicked off the S.S. Anne. Blaine even notes that trainers who typically face him should have earned several badges.
• Shout-Out:
  • The EV Trainer names his newly-hatched Cleffa after Faye Valentine, whom he calls "the woman of my dreams."
  • The music that plays in "Battlehaus" when Rusty is getting beat up by Battle Bart is the song "I Love it" by Icona Pop.
  • The music that plays when Rusty enters the Herb shop in "Pokémon Documentary" is "Is This Love" by Bob Marley.
  • In "The Elite Four", Rusty asks Peanut Butter if they could go to McDewgongs.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: When Rusty inadvertently causes a wildfire, the welcoming music for Poké Marts plays in the background even as the forest and nearby town are engulfed in flames.
• Stable Time Loop: Rusty was sent back in time to stop his past self from becoming a Pokémon Master to avoid the Bidocalypse. While he succeeds in stopping past Rusty, future Rusty opts to replay everything over again exactly the same way, Bidocalypse and all.
• Street Urchin: Rusty willingly invokes this trope when he essentially abandoned his home to become the greatest "Pokémon Master". Since then, he's admitted out loud that he hasn't seen his parents in months since his father's accident with Snorlax and then later mentions that he's been eating out of garbage cans to survive for a whole year.
• The Stoner: Professor Tree. He admits he knows little, if anything, about Pokémon. He took the job because it was the easiest grant to apply for and uses his monthly paycheck for pot. He ordered a bicycle full of illegal drugs and was seen in a smoke-laced Herb Shop toward the end of the series. He also comments that he was high when Rusty went to him and picked up "Pikachu" the Kakuna, which Tree thought was a paperweight.
• Suddenly Speaking: This implies Pokémon gain the ability to speak after they die and become ghosts. This is more or less canon in the games, as Marowak's ghost speaks to you before battling you.
• Supreme Chef: As it turns out, when Rusty is in jail, it's revealed that he can do one thing right—cook.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: The story ends with Peanut Butter realizing the error of his ways thanks to Past Rusty and deciding to undo all the terrible things he did, presumably hitting the Reset Button and bringing back to life all the people he killed. He also condemns the real Rusty to spend the rest of his life working at his father's deli, where he will never be able to harm another human or Pokémon. Peanut Butter and Past Rusty (the 'Good Rusty') then leave to have some adventures.

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Pokémon or not, letting a child who knows next-to-nothing about caring for animals going out all by themselves is shown to be a terrible idea (let alone a child who has an ego the size of a small planet). As a result, Rusty's Pokémon either are killed due to improper handling and negligence, or end up hating his guts. Also, a lot of Rusty's ideas that might work in the games end up failing thanks to this. Such as sicking his Bidoof on a Team Rocket Grunt, who shows he can just shoot the poor beast in the head.
  • The aforementioned shooting of a Bidoof also illustrates that unlike the games or anime, Team Rocket isn't going to agree to Pokémon battles or fight fair. They're an organized group of criminals who are not above killing animals they don't need or children who break into their base.
  • For that matter, its also been noted several times throughout the series that Rusty essentially lives like a homeless person, as he claims that he sleeps in the woods and eats out of the garbage.

T-Y

• Take That!:
  • EV Trainers and "Stop Having Fun" Guys in general are mocked, as one tries to teach Rusty about breeding and EV training. He gets bored halfway through the explanation, and Team Rocket keeps stealing his Pokémon precisely because the EV Trainer breeds such perfect specimens. The song that accompanies his montage of teaching Rusty how to EV train his Pokémon lampshades this.
  • There also seems to be some mocking of Pokémon Battle variations in "Battlehaus." Horde battles in particular; Battle Bart says they're not in the Battlehaus because he passionately considers them "cheap f**king trubbish*t."
  • Pokémon who are considered lame get killed, such as Bidoofs, Zubats, Mr. Mime.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! gets bashed in "Battlehaus" when Rusty and Battle Bart enter a room with two people playing the game. Both completely skip out on it when the game's name is mentioned.
• Tele-Frag: Rusty shoves sixteen Bidoofs into one Poké Ball. The result is a horrible amalgam when they're finally let out.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Red utterly annihilates a Team Rocket Mook with his Charizard, Magneton, and Gyarados. All that's left of him is a pile of smoking bones.
• They Just Dont Get It: Rusty will never learn his lesson. No matter how clearly anyone tries to explain anything to him he will continue thinking he's an amazing trainer. Even the ghosts of his Pokémon blatantly telling him he's a terrible person who has no business being a Trainer is taken as them encouraging him to continue on his journey.
• Third-Person Person: Rusty occasionally speaks like this.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Rusty has done many stupid things that almost get him killed, and two Team Rocket members have to explain to him that Pokémon Centers can heal your Pokémon. There are so many instances that it's easier to count the number of times he subverts this.
  • "Snorcrash", however, subverts this when Rusty remembers Team Rocket explaining Pokémon Centers from the previous episode and recalls them saying they were going to burn down the hospital. Knowing this, he opts to put his injured father into a Poké Ball to keep him alive and then catches the severely injured Snorlax. He takes both to the Pokémon Center and gets them healed up of their injuries, including his father's ulcer. A lone moment of the Smart Ball for an otherwise very dense character.
• Turned Against Their Masters:
  • After evolving, Beedrill is quick to ditch Rusty and tries multiple times to kill him.
  • The Pidgey that learns Fly immediately abandons Rusty.
  • The ghosts of all the Pokémon that Rusty has killed meet up with him again at Lavender Tower and not only accuse him of being the worst trainer but implore the dumb bastard to go home. When he remains completely oblivious and callous, the ghost Pokémon just go "Screw it" and try to murder him.
  • Peanut Butter does this to his trainer Rusty and making him one of his slaves after getting tired of mankind's ruling over Pokémon.
• Undying Loyalty: Peanut Butter, Rusty's pefect Bidoof, is the only Pokémon he has that doesn't hate him or want to hurt him. It spent its entire time since its birth finding him before freeing him from prison.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Rusty uses his father's credit card to buy a 1 million dollar bicycle after picking him up from Mt. Moon. He also captures the ghost of his grandfather Crispin after saving Rusty from the vengeful ghosts of his Pokémon and proclaims he's never going to use that Poké Ball.
• Unstoppable Rage: "Pikachu's" extreme hatred for Rusty due to all the abuse he garnered from him is so strong, it's how he survived the explosion caused by Red's Pokémon.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Blaine. After thoroughly handing Rusty his ass, Rusty begins feeling that his dreams of becoming a Pokémon Master are dashed and that he should just return home and work in his parents' deli. Blaine's pity and giving a "badge" (a seashell) to Rusty causes him to renew his dreams and keep going, which leads to more Pokémon deaths at his hands. Had Blaine done nothing Rusty would have headed home. Had Blaine tried training him then Rusty might have even become competent.
  • The old man who informs Rusty about Hidden Machines, or HMs, when you think about it. Rusty immediately decides to just give up and go home upon encountering a tree that was blocking his path. However, an old man shows up and tells Rusty that what he needs is an HM (which Rusty just so happens to already have on him, having bought some while at the mall). Unfortunately, now that Rusty knows about HMs, he tries to unsuccessfully teach his Pokémon a few of them (including strength, fly, flash, and surf), which lead to the deaths of a few more of his Pokémon (and causing a forest fire in the process).
  • Rusty himself could possibly even qualify. His self-centeredness notwithstanding, all he wants to do is to become a Pokémon Master and a lot of the trouble he causes appear to be unintentional on his part.
  • Julian the EV trainer. Creates the Perfect Bidoof in the episode "How to Create the Perfect Pokémon". Said Bidoof returns in the 2017 episodes, and is shown to be even more destructive than Rusty. Even actually having a bloodthirsty side!
• Villain Protagonist: Rusty can be seen as such, given the sheer amount of damage he causes and Pokémon he kills.
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • Again, Rusty is only 10-year-old, even though he has a shrill but still obviously adult voice.
  • Blaine as well. He's an old man but sounds like somebody who's in their mid-30s. The same can pretty much be said for the daycare lady in "How To Breed the Perfect Pokémon."
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • A small one but in "Team Rocket," Rusty fearfully gives Team Rocket his Poké Balls (about five of them to be exact) and they only open four, which has lead to many questions as to what Pokémon was in the fifth ball. It was likely a Zubat, as Rusty caught three but only two were released.
  • Rusty's parents haven't made an appearance since "Snorcrash". Rusty lampshades this in "Viridian City Gym".
  Team Aqua Grunt: Oh hello unattended child! Do your parents know that you are alone in this very legitimate city full of non-criminal enterprises?
  Rusty: I haven't seen my parents in months!
• Worth It: "Pikachu" the Beedrill, the new and more threatening head of Team Rocket, knows he's in for trouble when caught by the police in the last episode of season 3, but its expression as it watches Rusty get arrested and electrocuted by cops seems to say that it's fine with it.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Rusty seems to believe that the world runs as if it were the games rather than being real life.
• You Monster!: Team Rocket calls Rusty this when they found out that he just throws away injured Pokémon and has no idea how Pokémon Centers work.
  Female Team Rocket Grunt: You. Are a dumb. Monster!

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