Part VII: Approaching Nimbasa

by WeakScallion June 13th, 2026

This is the seventh part of my rewrite series on the Black and White series of the Pokémon anime. If you missed out on the last entry, go to this post!

This 7-episode arc covers a series of encounters the group has with new Pokemon, rivals and villains; as they work to overcome their fears and limitations.


BW034 Making a Splash with Stunfisk! (replacement for BW032 Facing Fear with Eyes Wide Open!)

The group decides to stop by a lake to chill and swim around. Ash decides he will train with Oshawott while everyone is having fun in their own way. Like in canon, he first checks he does indeed close his eyes whenever he's under water, although this time they are being observed by a Stunfisk. Meanwhile, we see all Pokémon spending their day playing or relaxing.

Then Ash asks Oshawott to use Aqua Jet to try see how they can fix the issue, but it goes so horribly wrong Oshawott crashes into the lake, washing over everybody... except for Darumaka, who curled into a ball and ran away from the scene. When they check on him, Iris and Cilan notice just how filthy Darumaka is, and joke Bianca's Minccino would be dying. They decide Darumaka needs a bath, and so try their best to get him to shower while Ash and Oshawott continue their training.

They try to talk to him, push him near the water... even Emolga uses Attract on him, but his lovestruck self just breaks as he touches it. Ash and Oshawott leave the water, disappointed Aqua Jet did not work. Ash leaves to dry himself up and, upon learning what went on with Darumaka, goes try talk to him. He also tries his best to get Darumaka to get cleaned up but decides against forcing him. Oshawott, overhearing Ash, looks down at his reflection in the water only to then shut his eyes again when a ripple distorts it.

Then, he notices a series of electric shocks suddenly ripple through the shoreline. As they all take their distance and go see what's going on, a wild Stunfisk reveals itself from the muddy shallows, releasing another electric shock to warn them away from its territory. As Stunfisk seems ready to attack, Oshawott launches himself forward valiantly with Aqua Jet... but hesitates, loses his nerve and crashes. Cilan notes that, if they don't approach the lake, Stunfisk seems to not be aggressive, so it'd be better if they just leave.

They decide to wrap things up, but as they're doing that a pair of fishermen show up, decided to catch Water Pokémon from the lake. Stunfisk uses Discharge to scare them off, but suddenly a section of wet ground near the lake collapses as a result of the shocks. The mud gives way, wedging Stunfisk beneath a collapsing shelf of wet clay: the hiding place it had been protecting is now unstable, and the more Stunfisk moves, the more the mud breaks apart around it.

Oshawott’s Water Gun cannot safely wash away the mud without making it collapse entirely, Swadloon's String Shot is not sturdy enough to hold for long. Cilan realises the problem is not just the mud on the surface, but that the hollow is connected to pockets of water underneat the ground. They need someone to go underwater and see where the mud is weakest... and that has to be Oshawott.

He clutches his scalchop, tries to act brave, but he knows what this entails. Ash helps motivate him and to tackle each one's fears one step at a time. Oshawott manages to open his eyes beneath the water and points towards a specific side of the hollow: if they loosen the mud from that direction, Stunfisk may be able to slide free without the whole ground collapsing. Oshawott launches Aqua Jet underwater, and at first it misses its direction, but finally Oshawott opens his eyes for good to loosen that specific side.

It's now done, but Stunfisk needs help getting out, and the ground is way too wet for anyone to stand close enough. They all aren't sure how to help out... until Darumaka, who had been watching from very far away, nervously steps forward and uses Incinerate from afar, carefully drying and hardening parts of the mud around the hollow. The hardened mud gives the others enough footing to pull properly and that, alongisde a final Aqua Jet effort from Oshawott to finally loosen the mud for good, allows the team to drag Stunfisk free.

Oshawott poses like he has consequered the ocean itself, only to then slip on the mud and fall flat on his face. Ash congratulates both him and Darumaka. Stunfisk, exhausted, flops onto firmer ground and gives an akwward little cry of thanks. Cilan catches him.

By the end of the episode Cilan prepares a warm cloth so that they can clean Darumaka without submerging him. Darumaka still dislikes it, but eventually relaxes.


BW035 Where Did You Go, Audino? (rewrite for the canon BW035)

Okay so, obvious small problem: we don’t have Roggenrola to catch on sound waves. That’s like, half of the episode.

We are gonna overcomplicate the plot. Both Team Plasma and Team Rocket are attracting the Audinos to different locations with different methods, thus why the Audinos are acting unbelievably erratic and their scent takes very odd turns. In fact, the echosignals they are sending are also messing with Pikachu’s unstable electricity.

Oh also, I hate these two kids. Like I’m totally in for having them I reckon? I'd actually have the girl with the Gothita be Flora, who we already met a ton of episodes back in that small tournament in episode 9, and thus she’s the one to recognize them and say they’re innocent.

Anyway yeah, the different groups reach 2 separate locations, Team Rocket’s malfunctions early ‘cos of Foongus’ Stun Spore and so the Audinos (of which there should be more than 3 anyway lmao) head towards the Plasma’s basement, where recruits talk about how, after forcing people to liberate their Pokemon, they will track every single Pokemon to make it their own; but that this is an operation that must remain secret by orders of the Sage.

They fight ‘em off, everyone’s happy, off they go.


BW036 Iris and Excadrill Against the Dragon Buster! (adapted from canon BW033)

Wonderful backstory. Honestly, top tier episode for what it is.

No fucking notes.


BW037 A Rock Solid Rescue! (replacement for BW034 Gotta Catch A Roggenrola!)

Okay so the main thing here is that Ash will not want to catch Roggenrola.

I like the idea that Team Rocket are using the Roggenrola as power sources. However, since I don’t want them to be this edgy, we can hint it’s for Team Rocket’s next plan and whatnot; but stop making them this sinister, they are not sinister ffs.

At the beginning, their meal is first interrupted by the Sunglasses Sandile, who is back for his actual fight with Pikachu. Ash accepts and they exchange a few hits; but ultimately the fight is interrupted by the Roggenrola who escaped at the beginning of the episode. Sandile gets mad, fights off Roggenrola, Roggenrola plays very defensive, Sandile gets exhausted, and when Roggenrola flees Sandile takes pursuit.

Then the whole plot unfolds but inside the cave they meet again with Sandile, who alongside Excadrill helps the team escape. Then Sandile leaves when they all go running to the warehouse to fight Team Rocket, and is left pensive.

So when Team Rocket fires for the first time, it’s clearly aimed at Roggenrola and the group, and then Sandile pops out of the ground, destabilizes the machine by using Dig under it, and then jumps in front of Ash to protect them while evolving into Krokorok.

Ash thanks Krokorok and offers him to continue the fight, but he leaves using Dig. Also obviously at the end Ash does not catch the Roggenrola lmao, so there’s no final fight against it.


BW038 Archen In The Modern World! (rewrite for BW036 Archeops In The Modern World!)

Stop it with the Rockets being everywhere omg, I hate ‘em. Like, not the Rockets in general, I like them as bother-of-the-day material, but stop treating them like pros oh my God. How is it that no matter how hugely they fail, they always manage to collect the information they need? Whatever.

Archen wants to learn to fly but of course Ash has no fliers. Emolga tries, but her style is way too dissimilar to what Archen needs.

This episode will not solve this issue right now as Archen will not learn to fly yet. The important thing is that Team Rocket tries to steal the information (in a way less professional manner than in canon, of course), and Archen shows she’s an extremely proficient climber, and just how much she loves his fruits, making her bond with Emolga and whatnot.

Of course, in the fight the tree is destroyed and Archen starts crying, but N (who had been observing the whole pseudo-flying-training from the background) approaches to hand her a piece of fruit that fell in the middle of the fight.

Fennel says she’ll keep observing Archen, but N criticizes her and Juniper for treating the Pokemon as lab rats. Upon talking to Archen (which Juniper cannot believe), N says she would much rather stay close to Ash, who gave his all to protect the tree and Archen when they most needed it. After much thought, Ash catches Archen and the group continues onwards.


BW039 A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition! (rewrite for the canon BW037)

I used to hate the episode’s title but c’mon, it’s fun.

Anyway, Bianca’s motivation here (she couldn’t do shit at home, now that she’s traveling she wants to do a ton of stuff) is great, we can maybe expand a bit on it so that we get the gist of what Bianca’s up to: she was working as Juniper’s assistant, she got the motivation she needed to travel from battling Ash and bonding with her Pokemon, and now she’s free, doing a bit of everything.

Participating in the fishing competition too will be Ricard Nouveau for some more rivalry with Cilan. He joins late in the episode so that the first half of the episode can stay the same.

And that’s the thing: the first half is cool, the second… not so much? Starting from the very moment the Frillish shows up, to be honest.

So instead of that, we have Team Plasma crashing the competition, starting a grandiose speech about how fishing Pokemon and then trapping them in balls is absolutely immoral. They convince some, who stop fishing, and then try to persuade the Rockets, who try to escape but fail for whatever wacky reason.

Assuming the Pokemon caught all disappeared in the commotion, the trainers leave. There’s a farewell with Ricard Nouveau and Bianca, and they head towards Nimbasa again.

At the end of the episode, however, we see how the Pokemon never really disappeared and the Plasmas actually got quite a few Pokeballs for themselves. One of those grunts says their lord would not approve of stealing Pokémon in this manner, but the first insists that the operation is necessary for the future they are building.


BW040 The Legend of the Pokémon Knight! (rewrite for BW038 Movie Time! Zorua in "The Legend of the Pokémon Knight"!)

The canon BW038 is a pretty fun filler episode. I do have 2 major complaints with it, though, so here they come:

  1. the idea is under-exploited
  2. Team Rocket showing up is so random. I would have maybe bought old Team Rocket doing this, but Black and White’s version of them?, not in a million years.

I have a feeling there’s a better lesson to be learnt (and a better justification for Luke’s own personal progress) if the episode’s plot sees Luke and Zorua argue because Zorua likes to improvise, and Luke’s script is rigid.

So Luke wants to submit the film for a small competition. He’s in a rush ‘cos he spent a ton of time on the script, was about to film it, and now Zorua doesn’t want to play all the characters he wrote — she wants the princess, and she wants said princess to do stuff.

Luke adapts the movie to feature Ash, Iris and Cilan.

  • Cilan will play the villain, accompanied by his trusty Dwebble (whose shell, thanks to some makeup, now looks pirate-themed).
  • Ash will play the hero, then Oshawott jumps in as his intrepid companion. Oshawott keeps posing and acting unnecessarily cool for comedic effect. Luke gets frustrated ‘cos the shots are not how he envisioned them, but hesitantly accepts since he’s on a deadline.

Of course, every Pokemon helps out in preparing the film

  • Ash’s Swadloon tries to help out Luke’s Leavanny at making the costumes, with Leavanny teaching her some neat tricks.
  • Herdier tracks some missing props.
  • Darumaka helps with fire effects (although he tends to scorch props).
  • Archen climbs to set up high-angle shots.
  • Pikachu and Emolga help with the lightning.

The main issue comes when Zorua starts improvising. Instead of a static, frightened princess, Zorua’s version of Princess Yuria is more intrepid and clever. Luke keeps calling cut, while Ash and the rest think Zorua’s ideas are cool.

There’s a final fight between Dwebble and Oshawott, and when Ash is going to rescue the princess… the princess is not there. For a moment, everybody's confused at what might be going on. Luke cannot believe it, he's done for.

Cilan starts improvising, and then we see another Captain Cilan barking orders to the pirate crew — that’s Zorua. She commands the crew to abandon the hideout and they obey thinking she is the real captain. The crew split between the two Captain Cilans, the scene is a mess, there’s a bit of an epic final silly fight; and Zorua ends it showing that she’s just a Zorua, not Princess Yuria.

Then it’s revealed that the real Princess Yuria was Iris, and c’est fini.

Luke thanks Zorua for a much better version of his story, wins the competition, and is then enticed to go participate in the Club Battle Tournament since he wants to learn more about improvisation.


Updated summary

Ash's team: Pikachu, Herdier, Oshawott, Swadloon, Darumaka, Archen Iris' team: Axew, Excadrill, Emolga Cilan's team: Pansage, Dwebble, Stunfisk

Badges obtained: 3 Season progress: 40/48

Deleted episodes: 3 No new deletions


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Pub: 13 Jun 2026 21:47 UTC

Edit: 13 Jun 2026 21:47 UTC

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