-Today, Ash is having Tepig, Snivy, and Pikachu do some target practice. I like how they're going out of their way to show Ash actively training these days.
-Oh look, it's Chili! Dento is understandably confused about why he's in Driftveil, but apparently Chili's set off on his own journey. But more importantly, Chili challenges Dento to a battle!
-Aw, Pansage and Pansear are buddies. :3
-When the hell did Pansage learn Rock Tomb?
-Unsurprisingly, SHOOT FIRE AT THINGS UNTIL THEY DIE doesn't do so well against actual strategy. And even less surprisingly, Ash is a bad referree.
-Then Pansear gets mad at Chili, but it's impossible for me to take it seriously because of its little monkey voice.
-Pansear ends up running off, and Chili's too stubborn to go apologize. Shortly afterward, Dento calls Cress, and...it turns out Chili was lying about why he wasn't at the gym! He ran away without a word after Cress said "well you could get better at battling by changing your style" to him after his losing streak got him down. Looks like
someone can't handle constructive criticism.
-Chili is eating his stress away. With donuts. A
lot of donuts. Everyone cheers him up a bit, and they go off to find Pansear. Which is eating its stress away. With apples.
-Apparently Chili has a dream of opening up Unova's first fire gym. Way to say he doesn't care much about the gym he's part owner of now!
-Once everyone's happy again, Dento evaluates Chili and Pansear...and notes a big problem. Pansear only knows fire moves! But teaching it Solarbeam will help with that problem, *and* help it against Water types.
-Then we get a delightfully hippie moment as everyone stands with their arms outstreched and appreciates the sun.
-Chili decides to fight Ash to test out Pansear's new attack, and Oshawott volunteers itself to battle for Ash. And Chili's first command is...Fire Blast. (which is deflected with Water Gun) Then Fire Punch. (which is repelled with Razor Shell) This is why Dento was telling you to branch out your moves a bit, dude.
-Of course, Chili wins the instant he commands Solar Beam.
Pretty good episode, though it's definitely one I'd appreciate more if I could understand everything that's said. Although the episode focused on Chili, we did learn a thing or two about Cilan; if nothing else, it was nice to see
exactly what he's getting out of traveling with Ash(he's learning balance from him!).
But less importantly, posts on another forum taught me that all three Striaton gym brothers have slightly different pant lengths. I'm impressed that someone decided to put that detail in, and more impressed(...but in a rather different way) that anyone actually noticed it(I sure as hell didn't until it was pointed out to me).
If Cilan's goal was actually the focus of the episode, then I would agree with you. But, it was merely a supplement to the main story, which was about Chili.
You're really answering your own question when it comes to why I think this was fanservice - the episode was entirely focused on the sibling of the main character with the most intense fanbase, was created because of a plot point you recognize has been sustained by said fans, and ended with the fan-favorite character's sibling winning an improbable and largely pointless victory against the actual main character. That adds up to look like quite the proverbial wet dream for a fan of him.
But where do we draw the line between fanservice and "an episode starring a character I don't like, which has some events I didn't like"? Was the A-glider episode fanservice for Charles fans? Was the Iris/Deino episode fanservice for Iris fans(at least the ones who didn't care whether or not she got Deino)? Was the Meowth mini-arc fanservice for Meowth fans? Is (insert pretty much any episode focusing on Oshawott) fanservice for Oshawott fans?
And even if it is fanservice, I don't see how that's automatically a bad thing. Then again, I don't really dislike any of the characters in BW, so maybe it's different if you actively hate Cilan/Iris/whoever.