CotD: None.
Plot: Ash laments over having to battle his new friend, Ritchie, in his fifth Pokemon League match. Misty shows him Ritchie’s stats from the Pokemon League database, and they’re quite impressive. He’s gotten through all four prelim rounds not only without having a single Pokemon on his side KO’d but also by using only three Pokemon – Pikachu, Charmander, and Butterfree.
The next morning, Ash bumps into Ritchie at the Pokemon Center. Ritchie and Ash agree to give it their all to make this the best match of their lives.
Team Rocket watch the two friends and cook up an idea. Using a voice changer, Jessie pretends to be Ritchie over the phone to Ash. She tells Ash that ‘Ritchie’ has something to tell Ash and to meet him somewhere alone with Pikachu to talk about it. Ash agrees and heads off.
At the meeting spot, Ash is met with a puppet Ritchie, and Team Rocket traps him and Pikachu in a net. They throw him in the back of a box truck and drive away.
Meanwhile, the stadium is all set for Ash and Ritchie’s match. Ritchie has arrived, but Ash hasn’t, obviously.
Ash uses Squirtle’s Water Gun to fill the box truck and flood the cab to cause it to crash. It works, the door opens, and Ash escapes, but Team Rocket takes chase on the axle and wheels of the truck. Ash uses Bulbasaur and Pikachu to knock them out and continue running back to the stadium.
Team Rocket catches up with him again, this time using bicycles, and they use Weezing to Smokescreen him. They give him the ultimatum of giving them Pikachu and getting to the stadium on time for his match or refusing to give up Pikachu and missing his match. Ash chooses to steal a bicycle from them and escape instead.
Back at the stadium, Misty rushes the field to smack Ritchie around, suspecting he has something to do with Ash’s disappearance since the last thing he did was meet Ritchie. After hearing of the phone call he never made, Ritchie insists that he had nothing to do with Ash’s disappearance. Misty believes him, leaving them all to wonder where Ash is.
As sunset washes over the stadium, Team Rocket once again cuts Ash off by grabbing his bicycle with a claw from their balloon. Pikachu shocks them, and they blast off. Ash uses Pidgeotto to pull the balloon to the stadium.
Meanwhile, so much time has gone by that the judges are planning to award Ritchie the win by default since Ash is absent. Ritchie begs the judges to hold out just a little while longer because he has faith Ash will arrive. The ref agrees to wait ten more minutes but no longer.
His patience is rewarded as Ash finally makes it back to the stadium just barely in time before he’s disqualified. However, Pidgeotto is far too tired to partake in the battle, so Ash is down one Pokemon before the match even starts.
As the two friends finally face off, Ritchie calls his first pick, Happy – his Butterfree. Ash calls out Squirtle.
After exchanging a few blows, Happy puts Squirtle to sleep with Sleep Powder, and Squirtle declared unable to battle.
Pikachu rushes in next, despite being winded from attacking Team Rocket earlier. With a Double Edge and a Thunderbolt, Pikachu defeats Happy.
Ritchie calls out Zippo – his Charmander – who immediately starts shooting Flamethrowers at Pikachu. He dodges, but Pikachu is losing steam. With a Tackle, Zippo KOs Pikachu.
Ash is down to his final selection, so he rolls the dice by calling out Charizard.
Zippo attacks with a Flamethrower that Charizard barely pays any mind to. In retaliation, Charizard sends out his own Flamethrower, which overwhelms Zippo and sends him running all over the field.
Ritchie recalls Zippo and calls out his final choice, Sparky – his Pikachu.
Charizard is not intimidated at all by the tiny electric mouse. He plays with Pikachu by stomping on the ground repeatedly, causing the shockwave to knock Pikachu over each time. Then he blows Pikachu away with the power of the wind generated by flapping his wings.
Sparky won’t give up, however, and rushes toward Charizard to continue the fight….
….Only to find Charizard lying down for a nap.
Everyone stares, baffled and confused while Ash begs Charizard to obey him and battle.
Charizard continues to refuse to budge since he doesn’t find Sparky to be a worthy opponent. The ref has no choice but to call the fight in favor of Sparky, giving Ritchie the win.
Ash falls to his knees and recalls Charizard. He’s clearly devastated by the loss, but he picks himself up and congratulates Ritchie for his win, genuinely happy his friend is moving on in the tournament despite knowing his own Indigo League journey has come to an end.
————————————–
– Ash: “Why’s my next match have to be against Ritchie? Everything happens to me…” This dumpster fire of an episode starts with Ash whining.
Never has there ever been a more apt intro to an episode of Pokemon.
– Oh! So the database thing I mentioned in the last analysis was actually from this arc, I just misremembered the episode………They’re only just NOW realizing there’s a Pokemon League database with information on all the competitors?
– Ash continues to struggle with his inferiority complex – this time to his new BFF Ritchie. Brock says it’s amazing that Ritchie got through all four prelim rounds without losing a single Pokemon, and Ash has to yell out in annoyance that he also got through all four rounds of the prelims.
– Misty points out that Ash was lucky to have made it through the rounds while Ritchie clearly knows what he’s doing, and this seems to shut Ash up.
– What the frick? Ritchie got through all four prelim rounds without a single KO on his side and only using Pikachu, Charmander and Butterfree? That is most certainly insane. While I have no doubt Ritchie knows what he’s doing, luck had to have played a part in his wins too because dear lord.
– There’s a Grass icon on Butterfree’s window when it’s a Bug/Flying type.
– Brock: “An Electric Type, a Flame (*Fire) Type, and a Flying Type? They’re almost the same kinda Pokemon you use, Ash.”
First of all, Brock, you’re saying Ritchie is similar to Ash because he uses an Electric Type, a Fire Type, and a Flying Type so far in his battles?
…..Ash has used Pikachu in one of these prelim matches.
He’s never used Charizard in this tournament……..So far.
And he hasn’t used Charizard regularly since it evolved.
As for the Flying Type, I assume you mean Pidgeotto, who is mostly relegated to being a balloon popper and also hasn’t been used in this tournament at all (That we know of, anyway. There are some Pokemon that were KO’d offscreen.)
If anything, the types Ash typically uses nowadays are Electric, Water, and Grass since he tends to stick with Pikachu, Squirtle (And Krabby/Kingler was his big first round sweep), and Bulbasaur.
Second, Brock, you’re not going to point out the obvious in that Ash uses a Pikachu, had a Charmander, and had a Butterfree instead of just vaguely being like “Wow, Ash, you use these types of Pokemon, too!”?
Third….”They’re ALMOST the same kinda Pokemon you use.”? You listed three types! This line would apply to all Trainers if you’re being that vague.
– Misty: “That means it all depends on which one is the better Trainer.”
That’s what it means from the start, Misty. If you’re a better Trainer than someone else, it doesn’t matter if you use the same types or not. Also, what makes you so sure Ritchie will keep using these three (types anyway) and nothing else? You’re so amazed by his skills but you think he’d be that predictable?
……*sigh*…..I mean….he winds up being that predictable for some dumb reason, but still.
– Honestly, it is a little nice to see Misty roast Ash a bit on his skills before this match starts. Not that it matters much, but still.
….Would be a perfect time to remind him of how much he screwed off in his pre-tournament training and how it would probably bite him in the ass. Maybe give him something to ruminate on. But alas.
– Why does Ritchie have six Pokemon in the Pokemon Center if he’s only used three the entire tournament? Are the others just getting checkups and some R&R?
– Joy’s comment about it being nice to have a battle against a friend because you can still be happy for your friend winning even if you lose is a sweet sentiment and a nice message to kids.
– Yeah, Team Rocket has a Ritchie puppet. Sure.
– I want to give Ash credit for the Squirtle idea…….Yeah…..I think I will.
– Ash: “I choose you, Bulbasaur!” Just shock them with Pikachu and leave.
*Pikachu Thunders at Team Rocket on his own*
*Team Rocket defeated*
*Bulbasaur recalled*
See?
– I do think it’s sweet, in a messed up way, for Misty to start smacking Ritchie around because she thinks he had something to do with Ash not being there.
– Exactly how long are competitors expected to wait when an opponent doesn’t show up? All of the remaining matches take place in this stadium, so they’re probably holding up other matches to wait seemingly hours for a competitor to arrive. I mean, it’s nighttime now and the match started at 5 O’clock according to Brock.
– Wait, why are Misty and Brock waiting on a bench down on the field? Misty came out of the competitor tunnel earlier as if she was in the stands and got through that way. Are they acting as Ash’s coaches again, or are they just watching from the field? If it’s the former….that sucks, because Ash was insistent on doing the fourth round without their help. Now he wants it again? If it’s the latter….why?
– So the ref outranks the judges? Because he’s the one who allows ten more minutes of waiting without consulting the judges.
– It’s also pretty funny that Delia yells to Ash to apologize for making everyone wait.
– Okay, so Ritchie chose Butterfree when Ash’s Pidgeotto is too tired to fight and, obviously, it’d be dumb as hell to choose Charizard. He knows one of Ritchie’s main three includes a Charmander, so Squirtle needs to be in reserve, and Bulbasaur’s a bad pick type-wise. Pikachu’s the obvious choice he–
Ash: “I choose you, Squirtle!”
Yeah, fine, whatever, Dumbash.
– If Pikachu got a little winded from two Electric attacks, and Pidgeotto’s down for the count from pulling the balloon, you’d think Squirtle would be tired too from filling a box truck with his Water Gun.
– The match starts with Butterfree and Squirtle exchanging punches and kicks?…..
– There really should be more leeway with the Sleep condition. The ref should tell Ash that he has to recall Squirtle and see if it wakes up later or something, because just calling Squirtle knocked out after a few seconds of it sleeping after a Sleep Powder is a bit bullshit. Like Dogasu mentioned in their comparison of this episode, you could just sweep a whole match with a Jigglypuff or something if sleeping automatically counts you out.
Being entirely fair, though, the writers of the show really should allow for item usage during battles more often. I don’t remember if that becomes a regular thing. If it does, it must be way, way, way down the line.
…..Not that I can’t believe Ash would have or use an Awakening, though.
I kinda understand why they have it this way in the anime. If they’re not going to use items inside of battle, then the only way to wake the Pokemon up is to wait. In Gen I, this was a 1-7 turn wait (Nowadays, it’s been reduced to 1-3) which translates to a long frickin’ time if you’re unlucky in the anime.
In the meantime, in the games and sometimes in the early anime, the Pokemon is still in play while asleep, and the opponent can still attack. This likely came off as cruel in the anime, so the writers flip-flopped back and forth between whether they should allow that or just call the Pokemon KO’d……..Or they didn’t understand how the sleep condition worked. Who knows?
– Ah Pikachu chose itself. I agree that he’s the best choice, but this is yet another shining example of how poorly trained Ash’s Pokemon are.
Good thing that’s the last example of that happening in this episode.
– Ash: “I can’t believe it. I thought Pikachu would be too tired to battle.” Well, logically, he shouldn’t be, but also, can you not see Pikachu panting like a dog in July over there after using one move and not even getting hit?
– I’d like to note that Pikachu is also battling on his own. Ash has not given a single command while Pikachu has been out during his battle with Happy.
– Oh good, now Zippo’s attacking without command. You both suck, I guess.
– Also, isn’t the ref supposed to be announcing the start of each new round so the Pokemon coming out can’t give immediate sucker punches like Pikachu’s Double Edge and Zippo’s Flamethrower?
– Zippo went that entire round without a single command from Ritchie…..
– Ya know, Ash, considering you had a head’s up as to the Pokemon Ritchie would be most likely to use in this match, I imagine you got out Kingler or Muk. Kingler would be great here because it’s strong against Fire. Though, I admit Ritchie’s Pikachu would be a problem there. Kingler did handily beat a Pokemon it had a type disadvantage against when it was still a Krabby, though, so maybe it’d have a chance.
And while Muk doesn’t have a type advantage against either, it’s a powerhouse on its own so it might be a good option.
I mean, hell, Tauros would be an okay option at this point.
Surely you have one of those, right?
Right, Ash?
Right?
….Alright, alright, enough of me being cheeky. Let’s watch Ash make one of the biggest mistakes of his Pokemon training career.
Ash: “I know it’s risky, but it’s my only hope!” It literally isn’t if you planned at all, but sure.
“I choose you, Charizard!”
Misty: “Oh no!”
Oh no, indeed, Misty.
– So Misty and Brock really are just watching from the bench without giving advice. I guess that’s preferable, but why are they allowed to just sit on the bench on the field?
– Ash: “We did it, Charizard!” CHARIZARD did it. You didn’t even command him to dodge or use Flamethrower.
“I’m so happy Charizard is finally listening to me!” You didn’t say anything! Charizard acted entirely on his own!
Ritchie: “Maybe it’s risky, but it may be my only chance to win.” I love….with all my heart, how this is basically just the line Ash had before sending Charizard out. They can’t not make Ritchie an Ash clone at every turn. Only with Ritchie it doesn’t make much sense. Pikachu is actually a pretty okay choice here because Charizard is part Flying type. Pikachu is also fast, so it would be good at dodging Charizard’s attacks in the meantime.
Oh right, not to mention that it’s not nearly as risky as Ash’s move because Sparky actually LISTENS to Ritchie.
……Although…..Ritchie…..Seriously….what other Pokemon do you have on you or at all if Pikachu is your only chance to win? I know you didn’t actually bring only Happy, Zippo and Sparky with you if you had six Pokeballs at the Pokemon Center, so what gives?
– Ash: “Sparky?”……YES…..SPARKY. Ya know, the last of the three Pokemon you know Ritchie uses seemingly exclusively?
– They try their damnedest to make you feel bad for Ash after he loses, and there is some part of me that does feel a little bad because this is still a ten-year-old boy who lost at something important to him, but considering I don’t think he deserved to even get this far, my pity well is rather dry. Nice try, though, composers and animators.
If anything, I oddly feel worse for Ritchie. He begged and pleaded for them to wait so his new BFF Ash would have a chance to give Ritchie the best match of their lives like they promised, and what does he get? A Squirtle, a Pikachu who was already tired, and a Charizard who TOOK A NAP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO BOTHER FIGHTING WITH RITCHIE’S DINKY LITTLE PIKACHU.
Also, screw that scoreboard, Charmander didn’t actually get KO’d so it was still in play to be called out later if Sparky was KO’d.
He really has to feel like he didn’t earn much of that win at all. Or, even if he did, it’s still a weird match to be proud of winning. Like, imagine trying to reminisce on this fight in the future. Imagine Ritchie explaining how he won all four prelims without a single KO on his side, using the same three Pokemon. And then he gets to the one fight where he does get one (or two, if you want to follow the show’s logic) KOs on his side, which would imply great strength and skill from his opponent in any other situation, and it’s against a Trainer who had one Pokemon down before the match even started, one empty space in his party, I guess, one Pokemon he used was tired, and one just refused to battle because it thought Ritchie’s Pokemon was a weakling.
I also feel bad for the audience in the stands. How much must it suck to sit there waiting for hours on a fifth round Pokemon League match just to have it be whatever the hell that was?
– Brock: “From here, they both look like winners to me.” *snort* Okay, Brock.
Oak: “Ash should be very proud of himself.” No, he shouldn’t.
I know I’m being a little shit here, because he does get some props for being a good loser and being happy for his friend when he’s still sad he lost…..
….But he’s not a winner. And he shouldn’t be proud. Not of this anyway.
———————————————
Well, did anyone die of secondhand embarrassment today?
I know I almost did when I watched this episode way back when.
Seriously, remember my disappointment at the Earth Badge episode? Magnify that by about 100 and staple it onto child!Twix’s face
Dear god, what a crock of shit this episode was. It’s the finale to the Indigo League Tournament for god’s sake, and it’s horrid from start to finish.
Let’s work our way backwards because we already know what the huge problem is here – Charizard. Or, more to the point, the fact that Ash called out Charizard at all even though he knows fully that Charizard doesn’t listen at best and is a safety hazard for everyone around him at worst.
They act as if Ash really didn’t have a choice here, but, like I already explained, he did. If he didn’t play his main Water type against Butterfree when he knew Ritchie has a powerful Fire type on his main lineup and Pikachu was a better option, he would have had him to use against Charmander. If he bothered to get Kingler or literally anyone from his meager B-squad back at Oak’s place, he would have had a suitable option. But he didn’t.
I thought he learned his lesson about that in round four when he revealed he thought ahead and took out Muk, but I guess lessons are like sidewalk chalk in a flood with Ash.
At the very least, Brock and Misty know how terrible of an idea this is and rightfully facepalm when he calls Charizard out, but that only counts for so much.
The fact that Ash once again just expected Charizard to obey and acted like he was obeying when Ash didn’t give any commands just adds more frustration. It’s even worse than the frustration I was experiencing before the League because 1) this is the Pokemon League where you’d think Ash wouldn’t want to take a risk with Charizard. Or, if he did, he’d be smart enough to not use him as a final round trump card, leaving the entire match in Charizard’s claws on the gamble of whether he’ll bother to actually fight. And 2) you may have noticed, but he had MONTHS of downtime to train between the Earth Badge and the Indigo League. MONTHS where he could have been working on this one massive dragon-shaped problem he’s struggled with for a long time to gain what would have possibly been a League-winning asset should he succeed.
I can handwave the lack of training during that gap if Charizard wasn’t a factor. Well, for the most part. He most certainly should have still been training, and he definitely should have been training his ‘never-used-in-battle-or-at-all-after-capture’ B-squad. However, Charizard should have been priority number one for Ash during this gap.
But no.
As far as we see, he never once even lets Charizard out or acknowledges that that’s a problem he should be working on. Just another instance of “Eh, he’ll obey me next time for some reason. The best part about being a Pokemon Trainer is never training your Pokemon! I’m Ash!”
Hell, if Charizard was trained properly, Ash could have just ridden him back to the stadium without any problem.
Ash most certainly needed to lose this match. I’m not saying that to be mean to Ash. I’m saying that because he’s a first-year rookie with a crappy capture rate and the training discipline of a sedated sloth. If he beat Ritchie and made it to round six, I’d definitely feel like they’re fudging the matches just to hand Ash wins. And after a season of several pity Badges on top of a tournament where one match was bullshitted and two more were mostly off-screen, I’ve had quite enough of that malarky, thank you.
At the end of the day, I have argued back and forth about whether Ash deserved to go out like this. Probably one of the most humiliating defeats in Pokemon League history is on Ash’s shoulders. There’s much more bullshit to discuss with this match, but did he deserve that final nail in the coffin to go out in such an embarrassing manner?
Yes.
Actually, if you ask me, this was the most fitting way he could have gone out.*
His lack of training with Charizard needed to bite him in the ass in a severe way for him to finally get the picture that he needs to train this thing. If he won’t, he might as well leave Charizard with Oak and use the space for Kingler or Muk – or both given that another annoying aspect of Ash is that he never keeps a full party at this point.
His constant moronic view that Charizard will just up and obey one of these times he lets him out of his Pokeball was not going away, and he needed a cold dose of reality. Him losing his chance at winning the Pokemon League because he pulled that shit AGAIN was, in theory, absolutely perfect to make him learn this harsh lesson. He was lazy, he was stupid, he was cocky, and he paid for it. And that is the perfect crux for finally getting Ash to train Charizard.
* Is what I would say if we weren’t in Stupidville and the writers DIDN’T have this be his big “Oh shit, guess I have to finally train Charizard.” moment.
No, no, no. No. After this, he will still, for some braindead reason, still just let Charizard out and expect it to obey him.
Lesson not learned in the slightest.
It will take another 25 friggin’ episodes for Charizard to finally “chill”, and they even manage to screw that up.
When Ash fails to learn minor lessons like battling a Pokemon before trying to capture it or basic type matchups, I get irritated. But that is, sadly, just an annoying facet of most long-running TV shows from the pre-00/10s, especially ones aimed at kids and families. Boy Meets World highlighted this hilariously.
However, when you have a huge moment like this in what is supposed to be one of the most important events of Ash’s life, you’d think the lesson would stick. But no. He’s determined to be an idiot and basically solidify why he deserved to go out in such an embarrassing manner in front of thousands of people.
And, again, I would like to mourn the fact that Gary Oak was apparently not as skilled as ASH to make it through the prelims.
Absolutely bullshit.
How brutal would it have been if Ash and Gary were matched up for round five instead of Ash and Ritchie? Gary would never let Ash live this down. Not ever.
Let’s pull back a tiny bit and discuss the match as a whole.
It is also absolute trash.
For a match that was hyped as being emotional because Ash would be facing off against his new friend and exciting because these two promised to have the best match of their lives, it wound up being one of worst matches in all of Indigo, if not the worst, if you ask me.
The match is marred badly before it even starts. On Ritchie’s side, we know exactly who he’s going to use, so there are no surprises. And his roster, let’s be real, blows. I know his Pokemon are well-trained and powerful on their own, but these can’t be his pick of the litter.
I like Butterfree just fine, but it should never be someone’s main pick when in round five of the Pokemon League. Pikachu and Charmander are also well-trained and fine, but they’re still base-evo pipsqueaks. The only reason Charizard even bothered fighting back against Charmander was because it was a fellow Fire type.
Like I mentioned last time, we learn in episode 80 that Ritchie does have at least one other Pokemon – a Spearow or a Tentacool…..both of which are also base-evo pipsqueaks that should never be in round SIX of the Pokemon League. It is mind-blowing that Ritchie doesn’t seem to have any powerhouse Pokemon outside of well-trained base-evo pipsqueaks when he’s so much better than Ash – who has THREE fully evolved Pokemon, and that’s still pathetic when you consider where he SHOULD be.
As a better Trainer, Ritchie should know to avoid using a predictable lineup, but he uses the same Pokemon each and every match. The only reason we see him using Tentacool/Spearow in episode 80 is because that was a six v. six match and they needed at least three battle clips for a clip show before the final battle because two would be too short and look silly.
When I first watched this match, I was excited to see what other Pokemon Ritchie had, but I guess my excitement was poorly placed.
On Ash’s side, you have the writers giving him a handicap from the start since Pikachu’s tired, Pidgeotto’s out before they even get to the stadium, and Ash just doesn’t have any sixth Pokemon on him for no given reason.
It’s like the writers couldn’t come up with any fun or exciting match so they just made it so Ash practically couldn’t win. Not that Pidgeotto’s his trump card, and Pikachu did KO one Pokemon so he did pretty good all things considered, but it’s clear that they didn’t have it in them to at least try to make an epic finale here so they tweaked it to force Ash’s hand into losing in the dumbest way possible.
He still made missteps anyway by starting with Squirtle when he knew Ritchie uses a Charmander and Pikachu would be a more logical choice, and, again, not having a B-squad backup, but they still stacked the deck against him. It gave them the excuse to basically cry that Ash lost mostly because of circumstances beyond his control instead of because he made the massive mistake of calling on his disobedient Charizard when that should be what matters most.
You can still have Ash make that same mistake with Charizard without having Ash hindered from the outset. It would not be unbelievable in the slightest for Ash to call out Charizard on a cocky gamble, especially if they bothered to give Ritchie an ace-in-the-hole powerhouse himself. I mean, he did promise to make this the best match they ever had, and for a ten-year-old boy with a sensitive ego, using a massive orange fire-breathing dragon would do the trick there.
Not to mention the fact that there was little strategy in this entire match, and most of the attacks were done of the Pokemon’s own volition with no input from their Trainers. Pikachu even went out without being chosen by Ash. How can you be impressed by either Trainer if none of them are doing anything?
In fact, look at this Bulbapedia note: “Throughout the entire battle between Ash and Ritchie, only one command was actually given to the Pokémon.” That is sad on levels I can’t even process. Yeah, let’s give it our all, Ash. And by that I mean let’s just stand there and act as if we’re doing something like we’re early episode Beybladers.
Let’s pull out even more and talk about the abhorrent pacing in this episode.
Five minutes of this episode is dedicated to Ash and Ritchie lamenting that they have to battle a friend and ultimately deciding to give it their all. This is fine. This is necessary.
TEN minutes of this episode is dedicated to Team Rocket shenanigans, Ash trying to get back to the stadium, and Ritchie and the others at the stadium twiddling their thumbs waiting for Ash.
Only the last five minutes of the episode is the fifth round match, which is unacceptable.
Team Rocket’s intrusion into this episode is, honestly, the least of this episode’s problems. Like Dogasu said in the comparison, their interference didn’t affect many of the main issues with the match itself outside of tiring out Pidgeotto. Pikachu was tired too, but, let’s be real, it was defeated by a Bellsprout’s kick to the head in round four. I could accept it being knocked out after fighting Butterfree and then Charmander, especially given how powerful they are, without Pikachu being a little winded from two Electric attacks being a factor.
Team Rocket shouldn’t be blamed for the match going the way it did. From what little we got of the match, we can safely assume the match would have been a disappointment either way. It just would have happened in the daylight without Team Rocket.
They are still a major problem in this episode, though, because, goddamn, their section was so repetitive and boring. It brought the entire episode to a halt for no good reason.
It’s just the perfect storm of “We’re not even going to try.” “We don’t respect the audience’s time or interest in this show” and a middle finger. It’s certainly iconic, I’ll give it that. I have never once forgotten this match since it aired, but it’s iconic in all the wrong ways and it’s only gotten worse over time.
Luckily, from what I remember, the next episode is much better, so we won’t fully end the Indigo League tournament on this wet fart.
Speaking of which….
Next episode, Ash tries to cope with his Indigo League loss, Ritchie competes in round six, and we close out the tournament.
…..Previously.
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