Pokémon Battle Royale: ULTRA BEASTS! is the 6th entry of Pokemon Battle Royale collaborated by Jeremy Chinshue and Lockstin from Gnoggin. Simulating Earth once again, all the Ultra Beasts are sent out to fight and determine which will be victorious.
The battle is preceded by Gigantamax Pokémon Battle Royale and followed by Starter Pokemon Battle Royale.
You can watch the video here
and watch Lockstin's commentary here.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Kartana is an origami samurai with arm-blades said to be capable of cutting through literally anything.
- Aliens Steal Cattle: The first thing the extradimensional Nihilego does upon being sent out to a Miltank ranch is to grab one of the Milk Cow Pokemon and carry it away. Lockstin refers to the trope directly during his analysis.Lockstin: Hey look, it's an "alien abducting a cow" trope.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Pheromosa destroys Buzzwole's arms with well-placed kicks.
- Kartana decides that the best way to free Pheromosa from Naganadel's adhesive poison is to cut off its limbs, leaving it unable to run away from Guzzlord.
- Guzzlord's arm-tongues get cut off by Kartana, leaving it no choice but to try and suck in Kartana with its main mouth.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Poipole is the only Ultra Beast present to be a pre-evolution of another one, and spends most of its screentime playfully attacking Stakataka. Consequently, it's also the first casualty of the Battle Royale.
- Berserk Button:
- Stakataka is content to merely dodge all of Poipole's attacks until Poipole sits on top of it, at which point Stakataka's eyes turn red and it attempts to shake Poipole off; failing in that, it yoinks Poipole inside of itself and crushes it.
- Pheromosa and Buzzwole's truce ends when the latter pats the massively germophobic roach-like Ultra Beast on the head, which enrages the former to kill the latter in revenge.
- Butt-Monkey: Pheromosa ends up suffering the most abuse in the battle, as it gets possessed by Nihilego, has its personal space violated by Buzzwole, glued to the ground by Naganadel, and finally gets all of its limbs chopped off by Kartana before getting eaten by Guzzlord.
- Company Cross References: A Snugooi from Lockstin's Pokémon Legends Neo: Ghetsis series is shown roaming Oak's lab at the end.
- Delayed Explosion: In a humorous twist of the trope, Kartana destroying Celesteela's rockets is accompanied with an impressive-looking giant explosion... followed by a smaller stock effect explosion to cap it off a few seconds later.
- Determinator: Implied in The Stinger for Mawile, Banette, and baby Kangashkan. Their attempt to escape the simulator is hampered by the fact they need to navigate through over fifty billion storage boxes. But if the Sudowoodo's reaction is anything to go by, they don't have any intentions of stopping.
- Draconic Abomination: Lockstin's breakdown of Guzzlord describes it as a dragon-shaped black hole capable of eating anything, with the anime's lore treating it as by far the most powerful Ultra Beast. Gameplay-wise, however, it's rather middling, resulting in Kartana killing it from the inside.
- Enemy Mine: A few pop up across the battle, mainly in reference to the Trading Card Game where some Ultra Beasts are paired together:
- Pheromosa and Buzzwole start off allied with each other, with the latter even saving the former from Nihilego possession. Buzzwole neglecting to remember that Pheromosa Hates Being Touched ends the truce, however.
- Guzzlord and Naganadel join forces with each other late in the battle, sharing a moment with each other where the former screams and the latter nods, seemingly establishing a truce. This one also doesn't last when Guzzlord swallows Naganadel in its attempt to suck in Kartana.
- Pheromosa manages to charm Kartana to its side and faces off against Guzzlord and Naganadel with it. Unfortunately for Pheromosa, Kartana's only solution to freeing the former from Nagandel's sticky poison is to cut off Pheromosa's limbs, which makes it easy prey for Guzzlord.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: Pheromosa raises an eyebrow at the sight of the power plant that Xurkitree lights up.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When the video cuts to Professor Oak's lab, notifications from Professors Sada and Turo about "Paradox Pokémon" pop up on the monitor running the battle royale.
- Fun with Subtitles: Blacephalon vocalizes with silly-sounding noises. When it spots the light show Xurkitree is creating at the power plant, a series of honks and a slipping sound effect are subtitled as "Finally! A worthy opponent! [in clown]".
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Poipole's and Naganadel's ability to shoot super sticky poison is nowhere near as impressive-sounding as the other Ultra Beasts' powers, like Guzzlord's black hole of a stomach or Kartana's ability to cut anything. As Lockstin's video notes, however, this ability is actually very powerful, as Naganadel can use this, along with its perfect accuracy, to negate many of the Ultra Beasts' abilities.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Both Poipole and Stakataka succumb to this thanks to each other’s actions. Poipole gets crushed by Stakataka following it pestering the creature too much, and Poipole’s adhesive poison ends up sticking to Stakataka, preventing it from moving and thus causing it to get eaten by Guzzlord.
- Nihilego attempts to possess Blacephelon, who then proceeds to explode its head and thus blow up Nihilego.
- Guzzlord eating Kartana ends up resulting in Kartana dealing a fatal blow to its innards, subsequently eliminating Guzzlord.
- Kartana invoked Attack the Tail on Naganadel by slicing its stinger, only for that trope to literally backfire on Kartana, resulting in its death and Naganadel's Phyrric Victory.
- Kill It Through Its Stomach: Guzzlord dies after it swallows Kartana and the latter Ultra Beast uses its Absurdly Sharp Blade properties to deal a fatal blow to its insides.
- Mythology Gag:
- The team-ups of Buzzwole and Pheromosa, as well as Guzzlord and Naganadel, are based on several trading cards depicting both pairs together as TAG TEAM cards.
- When Pheromosa is possessed by Nihilego, the latter ends up transforming into the form it assumed when possessing Lusamine. Lusamine's appearance visually resembles Pheromosa.
- Kartana's backwards speech, Guzzlord's meme screams, and Blacephalon and Xurkitree's rivalry are all references to their anime appearances.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Stakataka performs one after crushing Poipole inside itself, only to promptly transition into an Oh, Crap! when it discovers it can't rearrange itself and is in the path of Guzzlord's feeding frenzy.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Buzzwole saves Pheremosa from being hijacked by Nihilego when Nihilego attempts to use Pheremosa as a puppet and even tries to reassure Pheremosa with head pats after Nihilego is thrown into the horizon. Unfortunately, Pheremosa really, really Hates Being Touched, leading to Buzzwole losing its arms and getting kicked into space as a result.
- No-Sell: Nihilego attempts to fuse with Naganadel by latching onto its head... and fails because Naganadel's brain is actually in its abdomen.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Poipole can only scream in horror after it gets trapped inside Stakataka and the latter Ultra Beast shows aggression by having its component bricks turn their red eyes inward and start chorusing "EXTERMINATE!".
- Stakataka performs an Eye Take with several of its bricks when it realizes it glued itself together when it squished Poipole and Guzzlord is rapidly approaching its position.
- Pheromosa gets an impressive look of horror when it gets immobilized by Naganadel's poison and realizes what Kartana is going to do to free it right before it cuts its limbs off.
- Overly Long Gag: An implied variation: when Buzzwole is sent out, it immediately starts flexing while a chant of "BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!" plays. The video focuses on other Ultra Beasts for a couple of minutes; when it goes back to Buzzwole, it's still flexing to the beat of the same audio clip.
- Pyrrhic Victory:
- Stakataka manages to kill Poipole by moving the walls of its body together to squish it as revenge for pressing its Berserk Button. However, Poipole's sticky poison gets squeezed out and glues Stakataka solid, leaving it unable to flee from Guzzlord.
- Naganadel ends up the victor of the battle royale after one final showdown with Kartana, but only barely. It still ends up horribly injured, with its stinger lost in the exchange.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite only being a foot tall, Kartana can slice through various objects and Ultra Beasts as if they were made of butter.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Stakataka's usually blue eyes all turn red once it gets angry and starts trying to kill Poipole.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: Kartana speaks exclusively in reversed Jetstream Sam voice clips.
- Shout-Out:
- The scene before all the Beast Balls are sent out is a direct reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Poipole's arrival in Alola resembles Stitch's arrival on Earth as immortalized in the "send me an angel" meme, though it uses Yoshi voice clips.
- Guzzlord's roar is a memetic scream sound effect as a Take That! to the anime giving it a normal-sounding scream instead of a proper roar.
- Celesteela shares the same goals as the Space Core, and utters some of its lines as it takes off.
- Stakataka uses sound effects from various series:
- The noise it makes as it shapeshifts from a castle to its usual form is the Transformers transformation sound effect.
- The noise it makes when dodging Poipole's attacks is the sound effect for building structures in the LEGO Adaptation Games.
- When Poipole sits on top of it, the pressing of its Berserk Button is accentuated by the sirens from the Nostromo's self-destruct sequence.
- When it prepares to crush Poipole, it speaks using voice clips of Daleks.
- When it emerges from its Beast Ball, Naganadel screeches using Ridley's sound clips from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- After Pheromosa destroys the bulked-up Buzzwole's arms, it shrinks into an emaciated state in a reference to Toshinori Yagi from My Hero Academia.
- All of Kartana's lines are dialogue from Jetstream Sam played in reverse.
- Blacephalon at one point decides to hide in a sewer like another fellow alien clown. It even lures the childlike Nihilego over to a sewer grate.
- Buzzwole flexes to the beat like a certain other muscular fighter, while the chants of "BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!" are taken from the Buzz Lightyear commercial in Toy Story.
- When Blacephalon honks a challenge at Xurkitree, the latter responds with the music notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blacephalon letting out the Skull Kid's cackle from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask in turn.
- Once defeated, Celesteela's head floats out in space in a manner reminiscent of how Crewmates are ejected in Among Us, with the word "SPAAAAAACE" replacing the confirmation that the Crewmate was ejected.
- Kartana killing Guzzlord from the inside is depicted with the same visual and sound effects as the player's final blow to the last boss of an Undertale Genocide run.
- The Stinger: Continuing the Story Arc introduced in Mega Pokémon Battle Royale, the researchers' Sudowoodo is seen watching the computers as Banette, baby Kangashkan, and Mawile move through the storage boxes, clearly attempting to escape. The Sudowoodo grimaces at the sight of this, and at the fact that it doesn't know the password to log on to the system.
- A Twinkle in the Sky:
- Buzzwole rips Nihilego off of Pheromosa's head and hurls it into the sky, producing a gleam of light.
- Pheromosa eliminates Buzzwole by kicking the latter so high into the starry sky, it doesn't come back.
- Vacuum Mouth: Guzzlord inhales Naganadel and Kartana after its pincer-tipped tongues are cut off.
- Victory Fakeout: As soon as Guzzlord sucks in Naganadel and Kartana, the video's victory banner and fanfare pop up... only to immediately stop cold with a slash from within Guzzlord and a 9999999 damage number popping up above it, after which Guzzlord blows up and Naganadel and Kartana come out of the explosion.
- The Walls Are Closing In: Stakataka kills Poipole by trapping it within itself, then moving the walls that form its body together until it squishes Poipole.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Kartana does one thing, and one thing very well: cut stuff. As the Pokédex claims that it can cut anything, this is more or less all it needs to do in the fight. Of course, when it comes time to help a team member, like its ally Pheromosa when it gets struck by Naganadel's sticky poison, it only has one way it can provide aid.
- Would Hurt a Child: Considering how Poipole is essentially a baby Ultra Beast due to being Naganadel's pre-evolution, Stakataka crushing Poipole to death inside its body can definitely count.
