Review BW104: Fierce Fighting! Win Out in the Rival Battle!!

[WatcherMark]

Goodbye, Trip, you will not be missed, (or even remembered?)

Trip who?

 

[ObjectionMan]

Judging from all these posts, it seems the only reason Trip was ever hated and considered a bad character/rival was because "he wasn't Paul".

This fandom, I swear.......

 

[Chiplet]

Judging from all these posts, it seems the only reason Trip was ever hated and considered a bad character/rival was because "he wasn't Paul".

This fandom, I swear.......

No, that's not really it. Even though it's true that we naturally have high hopes for another great rival after Paul, there are still several other reasons to why Trip wasn't so appreciated.

The thing with Trip is, he was nothing. There was nothing about him that made him an appealing character, nor was there anything with him that would make me care even the slightest about him. At first, I thought he was interesting. He had a bunch of pretty cool Pokémon and I loved the idea with the camera, but that was about it. He and Ash barely cared for each other, they hardly even spoke, and if they don't care about each other, why should I care about their rivalry?

He definitely had potential with the story including Alder which I personally got excited about, but after about a 1-2 minutes battle he'd suddenly turn into a completely different person just like that, and we never got much build-up for it either. Sure, we saw him being determined about beating Alder and swearing to become the very best etc etc, but that was about it. It was never fleshed out, and it never had any sort of impact on his character, nor on the rivalry itself. He's Ash's rival, not Alder's, and even though the battles he had with Ash were fine, it never felt like it had an impact on Ash. When Paul beat him, Ash got determined to train and get stronger so that he one day would be able to beat him, and he truly lived up those words too. With Trip, it's like ''oh darn, I lost... oh well, I'll get him next time! *next episode*''. Then there was nothing more with that.

At least he should've been given the opportunity to battle in a 6v6 battle if he really was such a great rival, but with the writers concluding his character in the first battle of the league, with it also being a 1v1 battle... Yeah, it's like they're admitting that Trip was a horrible character and just want to get rid of him.

Ugh. I'm just tired of trying to look at his character from the bright side, which I've pretty much always tried to do. I'm overjoyed about the fact that he's finally gone.

I'Haven't seen the episode yet, but I can't wait to see Trip leave. I'm excited for this episode because of Ash finally get to knock the shit out of him, and for the battle between Kotetsu and Bianca.

 

[DynoStretch]

Judging from all these posts, it seems the only reason Trip was ever hated and considered a bad character/rival was because "he wasn't Paul".

Not really, people didn't like Trip because he was just a completely bland character who was overpowered for no reason, then underpowered in the Don tournaments, then overpowered again in the Junior World tournament, like the world's most boring roller coaster. The reason people compared him to Paul so much is he borrows a lot of his "anti-social super-skilled-at-Pokemon douche-bag-to-the-hero close-my-eyes-as-I-walk-off" personality traits that Paul used all the time. He simply just existed to give Ash yet another unneeded underdog rivalry, and this one made even less sense since Trip was established as a fresh new trainer. He had virtually no real personality traits outside of his camera thing and his xenophobia about Kanto.

Anyhoot, Trip lost the league in the first round, whoo! Granted it was one of those "Ash gets curb stomped by opponent until Ash comes up with a trick that does a OHKO" moments, but I'm at least thankful no one stopped the referee from declaring the battle over. Trip's look of disbelief was just awesome, gonna have to frame that.

....unfortunately there is one thing that ticked me off, they never resolved Trip's xenophobia with Kanto. Why did he hate people from Kanto so much and call it a hick town? That never got explained. I guess they threw that under the rug like they did Team Plasma. But then again, Trip's gone for good! Whoo!

As for the rest of the episode, we get to the Bianca vs Kotetsu battle and HOLY CRAP IT'S A 2-N-2 BATTLE?! Christmas has come early!!

I liked Emboar defeating Samuraott, but really? Attract? Okay writers, you're finally using more bad stat ailments in battles, well done. But I'd prefer if you came up with more interesting and unique stuff then just hormonal energy. Doesn't Bianca already have a male Pokemon that can use Attract? Oh right, her Minnicino who seems to be nonexistent in the series now, much like a lot of the other Pokemon the other characters use.

I feel so bad for Bianca losing the fight, I'd be sad too if I was thrown out of the series by some new rival who just showed up at the last minute. :<

 

[Karamazov]

Just to remind everyone in case the thread steers off-topic, there's a thread to Snooty/Trip debate thread right here.

 

[Chatsy]

This episode was quality.

Ash's shiny butt approved.

 

[WindBlast]

Really disliked this episode! Just when things get emotional and just when I start feeling sympathetic towards Satoshi ( at the point when Pika was freed from Jarlorda's tail) they pull a thunder armor on us and voila Jarlorda is down!!! I didn't mind the combo, but did Jarlorda really have to be knocked down that quickly?!! Jezz they should have played it a bit more! and what's with the music that played during Satoshi vs Shooti mintage? it was hmmmm unpokemon-ish?!
The major downer of this epi for me was Bel vs Kotetsu!!! Come on! Chevargo vs Daikenki was the most horrible battle I have ever seen in pokemon! waay out of rhythm! and what's up with Daikenki getting knocked out by 2 moves only?!!! Ah! I have never felt more about an episode before! and I have never disliked a pokemon episode before so dunno >>

 

[Ashfangirl22]

This episode was quality.

Ash's shiny butt approved.

Yah, Ash fan service beats all

I wanted Trip to say sorry about mocking Ash and his home town, such a disapointing ending to such a well.

 

[Paulisthebest]

I agree with what most people have been saying about Serperior simlair to Paul's Frolass both are fast Pokemon but are very fragile. One hit from the wrong attack and they are defeated. Could be the reason Trip raised it so well in terms of Speed and Evasiveness.

Either way, this battle was something else. Am I mad that Pikachu too so many hits without fainting and then beating Serperior with one attack? Not really, since it was a revenge battle and a closure to Trip (finally). Seriously, our favorite electric mouse never won against the green hose in ANY of its previous forms so why not beat it in front of an entire stadium in a big battle.

If Ash had been showing this DP spirit and creativity he would have won a lot of his battles not only with Trip but with other trainers in other battles. Would have loved to see Counter Shield in this battle it would have been interesting to see it used to avoid Wrap.

I will say that Trip does know how to teach his Pokemon attacks according to the battle that he will be in. Like Conkeldurr knowing Bulk Up to raise its defensive and offensive strengths, using its pillars to block attacks, Strength to whack its opponents after Bulk Up and Rock Tomb/Stone Edge combo for the finisher. Serperior is the same in using various moves in different battles.

All of which making use of their various body structures and objects they might have (snake like body/concrete pillars). Similar to Paul rotating Eletavire's moves like Light Screen, Brick Break, and Giga Impact.

Sad to see Trip go ONLY because I wanted to see more of his Pokemon but oh well. As someone mentioned its not that he wasn't Paul that made me dislike Trip, it was the fact that he was a pseudo-rival to me. Seriously, there was nothing between Ash and Trip to make a rivalry to begin with. It was take a picture here and there with the camera, trash talk Kanto, remind Ash of the basic stuff, etc.

He just got Ash mad over nothing and Ash didn't grow at all. Their battles were constantly, "I'm going to beat Trip this time, I won't lose! I believe in my Pokemon even if they are facing an evolved form of themselves or in a type disadvantage." Really, each battle was a repeat disaster of the last one. Like someone pointed out, after a loss the next episode was like it never happened. With Paul, especially their full battle at the lake Ash constantly had flashbacks from that loss to help him get stronger and by the time the Sinnoh League rolled around and they had their full battle you could see the vast improvement from their first full battle.

So, it is not that he wasn't a Paul clone that made me hate him, it was the writers trying to make another failed attempt at Paul. They really didn't do too much to set him apart at all. What I found interesting is that some websites pointed out that in the last episode, we see a nicer Trip but still anti-social in terms of hanging out with the others rivals. Haha, it seems that was the best thing if they kicked him out the league and the story this soon

 

[Karamazov]

I gotta agree that the Kotetsu/Bel battle was underwhelming. It would have been much better if the latter didn't spam Iron Defense.

On the CotD side, it looks like Rikio has a Tranquill, Antonio has a Sandile, and Flora has a Foongus.

 

[Winterdaze]

Huh, I kind of expected more from the Kotetsu/Bianca battle, the pacing was all over the place. Still it's nice to see Ash broing around with the other rivals, this group seems like a really close bunch.

Oh and Trip left. That was...well, it happened. He's gone.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Re-watching the battle;

Would have been something else if Serperior also knew Coil. Imagine that in combination with Wrap. It would have literally squeezed the life out of Pikachu. I'm shocked that Ash let it go on until it was blue in the face. I keep thinking about what if Trip didn't command a final attack that didn't involve Wrap letting go of Pikachu...

Honestly, I wanted too see an Energy Ball/Dragon Tail combo vs. Iron Tail/Electro Ball. That would have been something else, but Trip isn't as inventive and off the wall as Ash is.

 

[JB2448]

There isn't enough snark in the world to instill on the potential commentary for the following screenshots, so I'll just go ahead and post them without saying another word:

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[Adil]

And just as I say that I forget about all the fan service in this episode! I'm sure the sauna scene will have many people squeeing. XD (There's some Mustard just for you @Yoshi-san;!)

I sure enjoyed the bonding scenes. Really, they haven't done that in BW, may be one or two times but that's it.
Also, Moo-Moo Milk is certainly famous in Unova

Shooty's departure was decent and the battle was enjoyable.
And poor Oshawott xD

I did not like the way how Bianca's battle got handled. She's more awesome than that... Oh, well.

 

[Ampharos King]

I have placed my episode review in spoilers. Feel free to read.

Spoiler

This is the second episode of the Higaki Conference, and so far the first round isn't that different from previous competitions. As usual, we get the montage battles from the recurring rivals, and they are 1-on-1 eliminations. This tournament is different, however, in that Ash battles against his "primary" rival in the very first round of the tournament; a first in the anime history. Of course, we have all been dreading this match-up because we knew that Trip had to lose so Ash could advance. And considering what the match-up is (Pikachu vs. Serperior), I had to call foul here.

The episode starts out with the continuation of Ash and Trip's battle. As it had during its previous battles, Serperior effortlessly dodges all of its opponent's moves, and counterattacks with Dragon Tail. Even though Ash's Pikachu is very agile, he still cannot measure up to Serperior's speed. Pikachu's close-range moves are ineffective due to Serperior moving out of the way, while Pikachu's long-range Electro Ball couldn't make contact because of Serperior's body shape. Meanwhile, Pikachu continues to get worn down from Serperior's Dragon Tails.

When I first watched this match, I was expecting Serperior to get paralyzed with Static just as some of Pikachu's other opponents were inflicted in the past so Pikachu could win against an otherwise unbeatable opponent. But no, Static was never used in this battle. Instead, Serperior was able to constrict Pikachu with his Wrap attack. When Pikachu tried to use Thunderbolt, Trip had Serperior dig its tail into the ground as a lightningrod to reduce the damage he would have taken. It seems that Trip's training paid off: he truly raised Serperior into a powerful pokemon. Even though Trip miscalculated and forgot to constrict Pikachu's tail, which made it possible for Pikachu to escape Serperior's grasp with Iron Tail, Pikachu still couldn't match up to Serperior's power and agility. Pikachu was completely thrown back when he collided his Iron Tail with his Dragon Tail.

Still, Pikachu's will to win was strong, and Ash decided to improvise (as he would have done during his DP days); combining two of his moves into one. Pikachu once collided his Iron Tail into Dragon Tail; this time, having his Iron Tail powered up with Electro Ball. A dust collision occurs, and this is perhaps the worst part of it all. Somehow, the tired and exhausted Pikachu who repeatedly took damage from Serperior's moves survived that collision. Meanwhile, Serperior, who only took damage from Pikachu's Thunderbolt, was defeated. This was a ridiculous way for the writers to give Ash a victory here. The writers basically took a strategy that they used for Pikachu to tie with Tobias' Latios (at the time, Pikachu combined Volt Tackle and Iron Tail), and changed it around so that Pikachu could instead win over his opponent this time. Pikachu did not deserve a victory here, and it is sad that the writers decided to eliminate Trip first so they could focus on his other rivals. Trip did not deserve such a crappy sendoff. Trip said that he won't lose to Ash again, and he will become strong enough to surpass Alder. Good luck with that, Trip; that is, if we ever get to see you again after this tournament.

As expected, all of Ash's other rivals made it past the Top 128 round. There was a brief comedic moment in which Pikachu and Oshawott were relaxing in a hot spring inside the Pokemon Center. Riolu came in, and with his entrance water splashed on Oshawott. Surprisingly, Oshawott wasn't the one who got pissed; this time, Pikachu was upset for some reason and decided to splash Riolu. Riolu stares briefly at Pikachu, and both begin to splash each other. Eventually, Pikachu decides to "tease" Riolu by using Thunderbolt on the pool. Riolu jumped out of the pool in time, and Oshawott got electrocuted. It's interesting to see Pikachu with his playful personality, and interacting with Riolu as if they were competing against one another. The writers are definitely pairing those two up for a battle at some point.

The Top 64 round began the next day, and it is almost the same as the first round except the battles in this round are 2-on-2. As expected, the writers paired Bianca and Kotetsu for the second round. Since there were only a few minutes left in this episode, I watched this battle expecting a few quick defeats. Bianca starts off with her Escavalier, and Kotetsu his Samurott. Samurott goes on the offensive, but all Bianca does is order Escavalier to dodge Samurott's moves and to increase its defense with Iron Defense. I was surprised that Bianca, who had battled very recklessly in the past, pulled off such a strategy. It showed how far this trainer had progressed on her journey, and that she was very flexible with any battle style that her pokemon had. Bianca had Escavalier repeat its defense boosts until Samurott makes contact with a Razor Shell. Escavalier blocked it off due to its increased defensive power.

Once more, Kotetsu pulls his headband to clinch his head so he could come up with a strategy. Kotetsu realizes that there is a possibility for Razor Shell to make a critical hit, which would negate any of Escavalier's defense boosts when damage is calculated. Kotetsu had Samurott use two Razor Shells. Bianca fended the first one off by having Escavalier use Twineedle, but Escavalier could not block the second one. Escavalier was hit, and at first it seemed that he had resisted the move. Bianca was even taunting Kotetsu for his strategy. Once the camera switches its angle, we see that Escavalier is in a lot of pain and eventually faints.

The second match-up (Emboar vs. Samurott) would have played out to Kotetsu's victory if it were not for Emboar learning Attract. Kotetsu did not know that his pokemon could dodge Attract, so he had Samurott do nothing. Big mistake, because it turned out that Samurott's gender (female) was the opposite of Emboar's (male). Samurott just stands there infatauted while Emboar uses his fighting-type moves to win. The Attract card has been played many times before, so I didn't feel that this was a true victory for Bianca. This result had no bearing on either trainer's skill; it was merely luck that decided the end result. If Samurott was male, Attract would not have worked, and Bianca probably would have lost already.

The third match-up (Emboar vs. Riolu) was an interesting one. This is the first time that we have seen Riolu battle since its debut 11 episodes ago, and I wanted to confirm that the move Riolu used in the opening was Vacuum Wave. Indeed, it was, but Riolu had plenty of other interesting moves that are rarely used in the anime. Other than the "standard" Focus Palm (because we have seen many Lucario use Focus Palm in the past), Riolu also had access to Copycat and Circle Throw. Riolu may have had a disadvantage in terms of size, but it was able to compensate due to its speed and surprising moves. Bianca didn't expect Riolu to use Circle Throw on Emboar, or to use Copycat to mimic Emboar's Flamethrower. I was surprised that Flamethrower did a lot of damage on a FIRE type (Emboar), but at least it was not enough to stop it. Riolu won due to its "signature" move, Vacuum Wave. While it was true that Emboar took a lot of damage battling Samurott, I felt that Kotetsu and Riolu still would have won even if Emboar was already at full strength when they fought.

I am a little disappointed that Bianca got eliminated early. We never got to see her use more than three pokemon, and because her character isn't going to be in the download tournament for BW2, we'll never see what other pokemon she has. Alas, this is the price that we all have to pay so other rivals can advance farther in this tournament. I wanted both Trip and Bianca to have many more battles under their belt during this tournament. Instead, we have to deal with rivals that were just introduced a few episodes ago as Ash's final Unova League opponents.

The next episode is going to be a ridiculous filler in which Axew gets into trouble again. I am not expecting anything to happen in this episode, but I hope Bianca uses some of her other pokemon here to help find Axew (as unlikely as that will be). Since Ash and Stephan will not be paired up in this round, maybe we get to see a few brief second round montages for Ash to advance.

This episode was better than the last one. I liked the Bianca and Kotetsu battle, but I hated how Ash defeated Trip here. Overall, this episode was slightly above average.

 

[garrison-san]

Doesn't Bianca already have a male Pokemon that can use Attract? Oh right, her Minnicino who seems to be nonexistent in the series now, much like a lot of the other Pokemon the other characters use.

To be fair, Minccino hasn't used Attract since BW025, and he has been shown to have two new additions to his moveset since then (Swift and Thunderbolt). Attract might well be gone.

I can agree that Attract was rather a glib, overused method for allowing Emboar to gain victory over Samurott, but I liked getting confirmation of the latter's femininity all the same.

 

[Flying Christi]

Well that was BY FAR the shittiest rival battle I've ever seen.

 

[Hellwarden]

*watching ep, enjoying the fight Bianca is putting up*

Well done, writers. You've finally managed to mix Bianca's silliness with a bit more competency that I've be-

*watches Bicana break down in overly dramatic tears following her loss*

Goddammit writers. Goddammit.

 

[Karamazov]

Can't really blame her for crying like that, even if she did deserve to lose. Her loss meant that, after all her growth and hard work, she still wasn't good enough to win and achieve her goals. Everything she'd been working for all saga was dashed away. And unlike Ash, who can easily bounce from his losses due to his experience, Bianca is still somewhat immature emotionally.

 

[Metan]

Ok, I'm not upset about how Trip lose or w/e. Whatever skill you're going to master, you're also going to master a weakness. A proof of that is what Trip developed to avoid Pikachu's Thunderbolt with Serperior, knowing it could give problems to his side. Luckily Serperiors don't have horns Also, the idea of Iron Tail + Electro Ball was clever, kind of Ash's strategies. Trip was written out leaving the Higaki Conference, clearly a way the writers found to kick his ass as fast as they could, as well as to show how he's such-a-kid.avi

The scenes post-battle made me laugh. The Ash scene, along with the Mijumaru knocked out on the mini hot spring, was too much for my sides XD.

The Kotetsu x Bel battle indicated Kotetsu isn't as fool as he appears to be, while Bel isn't as skilled as we thought she was I never thought that anyway. The Samurott scenes using Razor Shell was simply amazing. The double Razor Shell, in special, turned Samurott into a real bigboss, more than he already is.

Spoiler

His expression is just priceless, it's clearly full of disbelief and shock.

F****** SAVED.