YMMV / The Pokémon Squad

• Alternate Character Interpretation: June to the extreme, and also, Pikachu to quite a huge extent.
  • Ironically, even the non-original characters aren't safe from it. RM, for example, though was modeled after the real RM, is essentially an Alternate Character Interpretation of himself, with many behaviors interpreted as extremely camp, his close friendship with RM's Friend and RM's Friend's Twin interpreted as a stalker's crush, his high intelligence interpreted as pure genius, his skill as a Pokemon Trainer interpreted as being unbeatable, and his possession anxiety over his hat taken to the logical extreme.
• Ass Pull: This upcoming exchange between the Recess gang in "Castles and Candy", where they're playing a Dungeons & Dragons-esque RPG, but with CandyLand instead.
  T.J.: You and your friends are walking towards Lord Licorice's castle. What do you do to prevent him from seeing you and putting you in his dungeon?
  Mikey: We use the invisible spray!
  T.J.: Invisible spray? Where the whomp did the invisible spray come from!?
  Spinelli: From our backpacks!
  T.J.: Since when do we have backpacks!?
  Gus: We always had backpacks!
  Vince: Yeah, if you were going to be walking in some place you didn't know for a long time, wouldn't you bring a backpack?
  Gretchen: I have to agree; he does have a point.
  T.J.: Alright fine. We take the invisible spray that came out of nowhere out of our backpacks which appeared out of nowhere and spray it on.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: There's pretty big one every so often usually involving Caramelldansen, What Is Love, Party Night, or Hare Hare Yukai.
  • The ENTIRE pilot episode. None of it made any sense, the characters and their personalities were completely off...
    • Also in the pilot, let's not forget RM randomly getting every power in Super Smash Bros. Brawl...
• Cargo Ship: According to Brock, RM and his DSi.

  • In that case, RM is quite unfaithful, since he's cheating on his DSi with his 3DS.

  • Possibly Dora and Mexico. Seriously.
  • The relationship between Buzz Lightyear and Miss Grotke probably counts, since Buzz is a toy.
• Crossover Ship: RM and May
  • Also Ash has shown affection towards RM's Friend.
  • And Brock and Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket.
• Die for Our Ship: Dawn and Henry. Also, RM is shipped with Sailor Pikachu by Ash.
• Dry Docked Ship: Ash and Dawn, Ash and May, and Rudy and Penny. Although Ash has implied that he's cheating on Misty with Dawn...
  • In "May's Big Break", it's CONFIRMED he's cheating on Misty with Dawn. And he's cheating on both of them with RM's Friend, though RM's Friend is too oblivious to notice.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Among the creators of the fanfic, Barney's Japanese cousin, Baka.
  • Also among the creators of the fanfic, Barney Frank (which begs the question of why he's so Out of Focus nowadays).
• Heartwarming Moments: They are very rare, but you can find them.
  • "Sailor Pikachu's Goodbye" has several:
    • June giving Sailor Pikachu the original sweater she wore on KaBlam! as a memento. Sailor Pikachu was extremely moved by this, and June even gave her a hug.
    • This very sweet quote:
      Sailor Pikachu (on the verge of tears): Lastly, Henry and June. I know things have been kind of tense between us lately. And I'm definitely not thrilled with June starting to turn into, essentially, Amanda Bynes. But you two are beyond the best friends anyone could ever ask for. You two have been there for me literally whenever I needed somebody, even when nobody else was. Even with all the tensions between us lately, you two are my best friends ever, and I love you both so much. Never lose each other, okay? Maybe someday Henry will finally be man enough to propose to you, June.
    • Sailor Pikachu wasn't even mad with Ash for eating the concessions.
      Sailor Pikachu: I couldn't ask for anything more than this.
    • Sailor Pikachu telling Brock that she certainly believes he can still find a woman.
      Sailor Pikachu: I know you have a lot of difficulty finding a girl who finally will love you and accept you, but don't give up. Someday you'll finally find a special girl who you'll make really happy, even if you are a creepy pervert stalker with no eyes. My bet is she exists in a visual novel or dating sim, but who knows, maybe she exists in real life.
• Ho Yay: Between Barney and Baloney. Also, Rudy and Snap.
  • Ash shows affection towards RM's Friend on several occasions, most notably in the first episode, where Misty mentions that it will never work in the English dub.
  • Roger has a huge crush on Doug.
  • To the extreme between RM and RM's Friend, as well as between RM and RM's Friend's Twin.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Barney Frank may be a grouchy Big Brother Bully towards Barney, but he's the one who has to deal with his stupidity the most (along with Elmo, Rudy, and Snap), had an abusive stepfather (an expy of Homer Simpson who inadvertently killed his real father), and always failed at everything he tried in the past. His failures range from a visit to another country during his presidency (his suggestion of playing "fun music fun and games", meant to capitalize off of his brother's success, got him labelled as a terrorist by the locals) to a gig as the titular character of Barney and the Backyard Gang (he was fired for the series proper because he was too scary) to a brief stint on the World War I era military recruitment posters (he was replaced by Uncle Sam because he ended up scaring people away from the military).
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ash.
• Ho Yay: Possibly Sailor Pikachu and June.
  • Though this is thought of by the other household members. June is dating Henry.
• Memetic Mutation: Uses many internet memes.
• Moe: Sailor Pikachu
  • Possibly also RM's Friend, at least according to Ash. And some might say RM's Other Friend, too. And although RM fits some guidelines of a moe, only some.
• Narm: Whenever something bad happens to Barney, he's still smiling. Even if he's on fire, or zombified, or terrified.
  • Same goes for Barbie, which makes for quite an amusing fist fight between the two of them in one episode.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • We have a scene in the episode "The Childrens Show Host Games" where Barney's red underwear was said to be white when he bought them. Granted, it's a Whole-Plot Reference to a SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, but still...
  • In "Unhappy Trails", when the squad is forced into a trailer park (due to another one of Ash's stupid decisions), the McBadbatts offer them all caramelized rats on sticks. Hell, even Ash thought they were disgusting!
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In one episode, Barney is set on fire AND HE'S STILL SMILING.
  • Also, when Brock is cleaning the gutters using acid in one episode, Fan Boy And Chum Chum are in the gutters. The acid dissolves them down to the bone.
  • In the first episode/Christmas special, RM's Friend says that he only stopped reading his manga and came inside when he realized that the snow had completely covered him and obscured his view of his manga. One would shudder to think of how long it would take for him to realize that June broke both of his arms and both of his legs.
  • RM does the Moar Krabs face in the first Halloween special.
• Tear Jerker: Not even this fanfic is immune to these^note These moments are very rare, which is because RM didn't want the fanfic to get too mushy:
  • In the short episode "I'm Dreaming of a Dark Christmas", Ash accidentally poisons Sailor Pikachu and lands her in the hospital. Ash is so distraught by it that he feels unloved and almost commits suicide (and unlike other depictions of suicide in the series, this is purely Played for Drama). He is then shown an alternative universe where he never existed, which ultimately shows that if it weren't for him, everyone he loves would be dead, and that includes his mother.
    Ash (about to jump off a bridge) This is it. Gotta catch ya later.
  • Most of "Sailor Pikachu's Goodbye", where Sailor Pikachu leaves the mansion. When June is genuinely sad (even shedding tears), you know you've got one of these.
  • In Episode 228, RM is heavily conflicted about the mission to steal the helm because one of the curators at the museum the helm is at has an obvious crush on him. RM wants to go through with the mission, but in a rare humanizing moment, really doesn't want to break her heart.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The first few seasons were supposedly aimed at children, but still had a fair few raunchy elements; Brock was still a pervert (albeit not as bad as he is nowadays), Barney the Dinosaur was still clearly a pedophile, there was tons of drunkenness Played for Laughs and not to mention all the violent ways Fanboy and Chum Chum died. The later seasons avert this trope, as it took a Genre Shift for a more adult audience.
• The Woobie:
  • Ash. He suffers from a ridiculously overbearing mother, is Too Dumb to Live, and is respected by absolutely nobody even though he's well-meaning. He was also once Driven to Suicide after inadvertently poisoning Sailor Pikachu.
  • Henry is a weak-willed Extreme Doormat with an abusive girlfriend and, similarly to Ash, is treated as a joke by everyone.
  • Doug has been traumatized three times in his life: when he was a child actor on Barney and the Backyard Gang, when he was reminded of said stint during one particular Thanksgiving, and when his show was brought back by Disney. As a result, he's a mentally unstable alcoholic who wants to kill Barney. In spite of this, he's every bit as friendly as he was on his home show.