Today finds the twerps on their way to Lilypad Town, stopping in the forest for lunch. As Brock prepares the meal, Dawn is practising for her next Contest using Mamoswine... which seems a little grumpy at being told it has to be pretty. It slams its tusks into a tree, not really understanding the concept of "pretty", so Dawn has Piplup do a Bubblebeam display in an effort to get through to it what she wants.
Well, it's good to see Dawn paying this kind of attention to Mamoswine. It must be....
The Bubbles spin and pop into a fine mist, but Mamoswine just gets grumpier. Dawn tells it to try and do a pretty move as well, assuring it that its moves are really pretty so it has nothing to worry about. She has it use Ice Shard towards the sky, then shatter the falling ice with its tusk, creating a rather pretty rain of ice that impresses everyone... including Mamoswine. Dawn pushes just a little too far by asking it to do it again but this time with a twirl, and Mamoswine ends up... well... it ain't good.
After the Ice Shard crashes onto the spinning Mamoswine's back, shards get up its nose and it ends up on its back before struggling back to its feet, Piplup bursts out laughing and Dawn snaps at it that it isn't funny, while even Pikachu has to fight back sniggers.
Mamoswine is furious, blasting the ice out of its nostrils.... and bouncing them off of a tree trunk and back into its face. Pikachu can't take it and bursts out laughing, and a furious Mamoswine chase after it and Piplup until they hide behind Dawn's skirt and a furious and embarrassed Mamoswine runs off into the forest and hides behind a tree.... only it's too big to actually hide. Dawn finds it and tries to mollify it, offering it a poffin if it comes back with her.... but then something gets its attention and it takes on a threatening pose at something deeper within the forest.
Back at the campsite, lunch is just about ready and Ash prepares to take Piplup and Pikachu into the forest to find out what is taking Dawn so long. As they prepare to go though, a green haired woman leaps into their path and forbids them, declaring that she is Verona - a Forest Ranger - and it is forbidden for anyone to enter this forest with a Pokémon.
Well shit lady, real bang up job you're doing there!
Inside the forest with her Pokémon, Dawn and Mamoswine watch as a bizarre tentacled monstrosity out of a Japanese schoolgirl's nightmare swings through the trees. It's a Tangrowth, which is quite possibly the unholy spawn of a Tangela that raped a gorilla.
Seriously, what the fuck is that supposed to be?
It blasts eyebeams at Tangrowth, infuriating the woolly mammoth which starts throwing down immediately, though Tangrowth's agility gives it the edge.... till Mamoswine blasts a treebranch and causes Tangrowth to crash into the ground. It leaps up and eyebeams Mamoswine, putting it to sleep, then waves strangely to Dawn and rushes away, leaving behind a Sitrus Berry on the ground. Dawn picks it up and Mamoswine catches the scent and immediately devours it, almost taking Dawn's hand off.
Meanwhile, Verona has finished telling Ash and Brock about the Tangrowth living in the forest that drains the energy of Pokémon, and seems more determined to do so the bigger the Pokémon in question.... meaning Mamoswine has a big ol' bullseye on it. Ash and Brock explain about Dawn, and go with Verona to find her.
Dawn herself is angrily trying to convince an equally determined Mamoswine that they should return to the others. It refuses though so she tries to lay down some authority, telling it that it is being a brat and that she is going back to camp without it. It ignores her and continues further into the forest, and when she realises it is calling her bluff, she rushes after it in a panic.
Meanwhile meanwhile.... Team Rocket!
Oh this is gonna be good!
Exhausted and hungry and barely able to walk, they stagger through the forest complaining of their hunger, Jesse wishing deliriously for the "King of the Forest" to come and save her and present her with a feast.
At which point a GA-ROARING Onix bursts out of the ground with a GA-ROAR! They turn and run in a panic, but then the passing Tangrowth blasts it and drains it of energy before swinging down out of the trees, waving to the passed out Onix and dropping another Sitrus Berry in front of it. Meowth returns to grab the berry, delighted at the chance for a meal, only for Tangrowth to drain all of his energy as well. He drops the berry and it rolls into Onix's mouth, acting like the fruit version of Viagra and reinvigorating it to fully erect with yet another GA-ROAR before it drive on further into the forest. Tangrowth does another little wave, this time to Meowth, and leaves behind an Orin Berry for the passed out little Scratch-Cat, which leaves Jesse and James utterly perplexed.
He struggles to his feet and leaps up and gobbles the berry out of Jesse's hand, before becoming so fired up with energy that he presents us with yet another patented Crazy Meowth Giovanni Fantasy, explaining how the Boss spends all day in a fury bouncing from foot to foot screaming at underlings.... and then at night in his jim-jams with his nightcap he simply can't sleep and keeps leaping out of bed to take part in strenuous physical exercises, unable to get any rest until Tangrowth appears to drain him of his excess energy and let him get a good long sleep, making him eternally grateful to "Meowth and friends" who he declares will now rest in the lap of luxury.
"Dat'll be some lap!" Meowth/Giovanni declares as the fantasy ends.
Dawn is still looking for Mamoswine when she spots an unmistakable huge furry butt sticking out of some bushes and giggles to herself that it is kind of hard to hide that caboose. She walks up and taps it on the butt, telling it to guess her, and it turns to reveal that the little girl in the short skirt is now face to face with the Horny Rapist Bear - Ursaring!
Well, she's boned.... in more ways than one!
She runs in terror as it blasts a Hyperbeam at her, knocking her off of her feet before leering and lunging towards her.... and Mamoswine comes out of the bushes and slams into it, knocking it backwards. Ursaring isn't interested in throwing down with a mammoth when all it wanted was to brutally rape, murder and devour a 10 year old girl, so it rushes off, leaving Dawn alone. Mamoswine strides off still in search of Tangrowth, and Dawn follows along on its side, telling it that they are alot alike, they both really hate losing.
Ash, Brock and Verona are having no luck finding Dawn, and Ash decides to call out Grotle to try and help (why not Gliscor? That would actually be.... you know... helpful) and immediately Tangrowth blasts its energy draining beams at Grotle. Grotle backs away and fires Razor Leaf at it, but it leaps into the foliage and Grotle loses sight of it till it swoops down out of the bushes and drains Grotle of energy, knocking it out. It waves to its knocked out opponent and leaves a Sitrus Berry before taking off. Ash tries to get Grotle to eat the Sitrus Berry, but it refuses, and Ash realises it can use Synthesis instead. It restores itself, while Ash, Brock and Verona try to figure out WHY Tangrowth is doing this. Ash thinks it might be hurt and trying to restore itself to full health, but Brock says if this was the case it would just eat a Sitrus Berry itself. Grotle appears to have caught the scent though, and leads them on.
As the sun sets and night falls, Dawn and Mamoswine are still tracking Tangrowth. Mamoswine catches a scent and tosses a squawking Dawn up onto its back before lunging on ahead.
As they move along, they encounter several small forest Pokémon that are trying to block their path. Mamoswine charges them and they all use Absorb just like Tangrowth, slowing and stopping Mamoswine before dropping a Sitrus Berry down for it to eat. Apparently the Absorb wasn't quite as effective from these Pokémon though, and Mamoswine shakes off the effects and charges them again, causing them to scramble in panic as Mamoswine thunders onwards past the berry and they come to the base of a huge tree.
Out of a small alcove in the tree, Tangrowth and the small Pokémon emerge, and Mamoswine wants to throw down. Dawn tries to explain that it doesn't want to fight, just protect the small Pokémon, but it seems to want to keep up the fight despite Dawn's protests until finally it lowers its gaze and turns away, much to Dawn's relief.
Ash, Brock and Verona show up (Dawn rather hilariously asking with an air of paranoia,"Who's she?"). Verona explains the tree is over 1000 years old and is the central point of the forest, "watching" over it all. Tangrowth leads them all around to the opposite side of the tree and they discover a large chunk of it has been split by a recent lightning blast. It uses Growth on the tree, joined by the other Pokémon, and everyone realises that Tangrowth has been using Absorb on Pokémon - the bigger the better - to store up energy to use as Growth on the tree to try and repair the damage. Verona tells it that she wants to help, and then a giant vacuum cleaner rolls up and tries to suck the tentacle monster environmentalist up through the nozzle.
Oh now who DIDN'T see that coming!
Tangrowth grabs hold of the smaller Pokémon and shields them with its own bizarre body, blocking up the nozzle with its back. Mamoswine uses Takedown to crash into Team Rocket's Vacuum-Tank, but they laugh at its efforts, claiming they've thickened the armour and improved the power of the tank, but Dawn is sure that Mamoswine can do it, and that encouragement seems to get to Mamoswine whose tusks glow bright as it accesses Hidden Power and focuses it all on one point on the tank, shattering it, freeing Tangrowth and its buddies and sending Team Rocket blasting off again.
The next day, the twerps have come up with a possible solution to the problem of the tree. Tangrowth Absorbs energy from Grotle, which then uses Synthesis to power itself back up. It can only use Synthesis so much though, and Mamoswine offers Tangrowth the opportunity to drain its energy as well. It does so, offering Mamoswine a Sitrus Berry afterwards, while Verona explores the tree and finds the centre point containing the most nutrients.
A scientist burst into tears reading this.
All of the Pokémon use Growth on the tree once more focusing on that one point, and the split in the tree heals over, restoring it to full health once again and preserving the forest as a whole. Verona (who was pretty much completely useless this entire episode) tells Tangrowth they should work together to protect the forest from now on, while Dawn takes a more realistic stance of pointing out to Mamoswine that working together they can achieve great things.
And that great thing is winning a pretty ribbon!
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Promoting Healthy Tangrowth mini Episode Guide (Read 1664 times)
