At the very least, this episode's title was appropriately named after its central theme: farewells and meetings. Unfortunately, the debut of Ash's "new rival," as well as the set-up for the big two-parter coming up in a few weeks, took a very large chunk out of what was supposed to be Dawn's final farewell episode.
And as I expected, the Junior Cup ended in nearly the same way as it had started. The first major battle of this episode, Trip's Serperior vs. Alder's Bouffalant, concluded relatively quickly. Judging by how Trip calmly discerned Bouffalant's ability as Sap Sipper, I was under the impression that he wanted to defeat Alder using a pokemon that he knew would have a disadvantage against it. Of course, Trip had been playing this exact card throughout this tournament, so I wasn't shocked or anything.
The only element of this battle that really surprised me was that Alder was actually serious throughout the entire battle. As opposed to his debut episode in which fought Ash, Alder wasn't sleeping or focusing his mind on other things during this battle. This was a surprise because Alder's inattentiveness and carefree nature was what pissed Trip off during BW052, and what caused Trip to become even more obsessed in surpassing Alder with his own power. So basically, it felt like Alder's strategy in this battle was the same as the one from when he fought that trainer during the Nuvema Town Festival back in Trip's childhood. If it were not for Trip witnessing the events in BW052, his reactions throughout the entire tournament might not have been as emotional or tense. It felt that most of Trip's complaints about Alder stemmed from the Champion not being serious all of the time, even though Alder actually had been during their battle.
I was also disappointed that Trip "changed" his attitude so suddenly after Alder informed him where his true strength lied. This circumstance felt like a cop out from the writers in character development considering how egotistical and smug Trip has been throughout the entire series. Alder getting the upper hand, and eventually, winning this battle without receiving any true damage didn't indicate a serious blow to Trip's pride as a battler or anything. What stemmed from the Trip and Alder battle greatly contrasted with Paul's situation when he fought Brandon back in DP, in which Brandon's words actually appeared to shake Paul a little bit and caused him to gradually alter his battling style later on in the series.
Here it felt that Trip had already accepted Alder's advice about loving his pokemon, and that power and strategy were not enough in deciding the results of the battle. Trip didn't attempt to argue with Alder or prove to Alder at all that the latter's strategy was wrong, despite his dislike of the Champion's carefree attitude stemming most of the tension he had during the series so far. Trip casually left the tournament after saying a few words to Ash related to the Unova League coming up. There was no connection between Ash and Trip that makes me believe that they actually do have a rivalry with one another, even at this point in the series. It feels that Ash had already respected Trip as a trainer and simply wants to improve his skills as well. Ash's presence simply felt out of place here, and many characters have noted that battling Alder was really the only thing that Trip had on his mind during the entire tournament.
Oh, and speaking of rivals, this episode featured the debut of Ash's newest "rival," Kotetsu. My impression of Kotetsu is not certainly one of praise at the moment. Kotetsu seems to be an amalgam of Barry's hyperactivity and Morrison's obsession with competition. Kotetsu also has some of Stephan's lack of common sense of practical knowledge, such as when he assumed that he only needed seven badges to compete in the Unova League, and that the league took place in Johto. Really, the only aspect of Kotetsu that really stood out in my mind was that he had a Riolu, a pokemon that only appeared very rarely in the DP saga. It's such a shame that all this Riolu did in this episode was imitate its less than competent trainer. One last note about Kotetsu: He somehow earned a badge from Lenora from crying out loud. How did he even find the gym hidden in that place?
And finally, this episode was notable in that Dawn's guest role in BW Season 2 was ending and that she was moving on with her life as a coordinator. Once again, Best Wishes fails to deliver anything spectacular with its departures. Aside from the two-minute "training battle" that Pikachu and Dawn's Quilava had outside of Cynthia's villa, this episode didn't cover anything that we hadn't already seen back in DP191.
Dawn's departure from Ash and co. this time might have left a bigger impression on me if the writers had actually did more for her character during the guest star appearance. Dawn really had a starring role in just two out of the nine episodes that she appeared in, and most of the screentime that she had in the other episodes were allotted to the other characters (Cilan, Iris, Trip, Alder, Cynthia, etc.) Of course, it certainly wasn't helped that the writers actually spent more time in this episode introducing a new character or continuing with the Meloetta storyline than to give Dawn a proper sendoff.
This episode felt average for me. I'm glad that the Junior Cup has finally ended, despite all of the controversies that I felt that it was characterized by.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
L-05308 
Your right, I was also annoyed when Dawn's Quilava first lerned the same move that Ash's did. But Flamethrower? Why? Why not, Extracensory, Wild charge or even Blast Burn?
Quilava can't normally learn Blast Burn; the only exception to the rule was by evolving the Cyndaquil from XD.
Quilava can only learn Extrasensory as an egg move, and since it did not have that move from when it was a Cyndaquil, there was no reason for Quilava to learn the attack here in its evolved form. With the exception of three notable cases, all in the AG era, the writers don't really have pokemon learn egg moves as attacks.
And Wild Charge wouldn't do that much against Pikachu, anyway.
