This week, Ash faces off against Roark, only for Roark's Cranidos Crystal to sweep him!

This episode was heavily rewritten to account for the team reshuffling and in an attempt to speed things up. I also foreshadowed Ash's Heart Song (in Tintri's Disarming Voice--he will get a Mega Evolve-able Pokemon later on, but who this is is a surprise.)

I let Ash borrow Brock's Sandshrew Terra to account for Aipom being cut, and Gaia the Budew replaces Turtwig to account for the...

This week, Ash makes preparations for facing Roark, unaware Team Galactic is hatching a plot!

This episode is one of the rare times we see what the evil team is doing while Ash and the gang are competing. But this is setup for later in the arc, when Mars' and Jupiter's plot comes to a head.

I felt that this sounded like something Team Galactic would do--so it converted from Team Rocket very nicely. Unlike Team Rocket, Mars and Jupiter don't care who the baddest bad...

This week, the match between Roark and Paul continues!

The major change here was re-orienting the battle so it is seen from the group's perspective. This is why you don't see what is going on in the battle itself unless one of the group sees it, or it is important you see what Roark or Paul sees.

I did speed up the battle by not having Paul welcome back Surge at the end. Instead, Crystal, Roark's Cranidos faints from exhaustion.

I couldn't resist Ash...

This week, the group arrives in Oreburgh City, where Ash receives a Budew and watches Paul take on the Gym Leader, Roark!

This episode had a lot of of opportunities for callbacks to Moonlight Silver, and foreshadowing of Sapphire Sky (the RSE remix). Ash refers to his match with Whitney, and reminisces about River, his Marill from Moonlight Silver (whose storyline continues in Sapphire Sky). Brock also hints at the stowaway, and reminiscences about Raquel, his own Geodude.
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This week, the party rescues Brock and the Nuzleaf, but Mars and Jupiter don't go down without a fight!

This episode was dramatically rewritten to account for Bonsly being cut. Instead, Terra overcomes her fear of the water to protect the Nuzleaf.

I couldn't resist Brock using his Swanna Song a second time to alert Ash and Dawn to his location--he did recover a little from when he used it to break his bindings earlier, so that's how he was able to safely use it again....