In today’s poorly named episode (“Ash and Trip’s Third Battle”! Really?), Ash battles his rival Trip, Iris acts like a hypocrite again, and Cilan is ignored. Even though I don’t care for Trip, it is nice that someone in BW realizes how annoying Ash and Iris are and tries to put them in their place. Ash, the kid who doesn’t know the basics and is always getting in his way, asks for a battle; I can understand why Trip is so annoyed. I’d be too if a failure kept on bugging me with his loud voice. Likewise, Trip points out Iris hypocrisy in not liking Ice types because they are Super Effective against Dragons when she loves Dragons, who are also Super Effective against Dragons. And we have to appreciate that while Iris didn’t want to battle Trip, she still guilts Trip into battling Ash, someone he doesn’t want to battle. Trip might not be the most interesting guy in the world, but it is refreshing to see that not everyone can put up with Ash’s antics.
Trip’s desire to enter the Unova League is so that he can battle his childhood hero Alder. To that end he trains really hard with his Pokémon. Ash, meanwhile, barely trains his Pokémon and expects them to do great. Trip might be harsh, but his critisism is valid. He hasn’t worked with Snivy at all and Ash didn’t bother to fix Oshawott’s Aqua Jet until Trip tells him what is wrong. Ash trained Tepig once, and he still loses a lot. Considering how much focus Oshawott gets, it makes since that he is the only one that beats Trip.
As for voices, I enjoyed Vanilite’s and Alder’s, Palpitoad’s voice sounds weird, and Timbur’s deep voice should have been saved for its evolutions. I really think Jason Griffith should put more emotion in when voicing Cilan, as his performance in this episode was a bit disappointing. Young Trip was cute but the voice seems off to me.
An okay episode basically. Battles were fine, but Oshawott and Timbur’s battle should have been a few attacks longer. More mentions of the Champion League makes me hope Trip enters it (not Ash, IMO he's too much of a noob to win any league).
Perhaps I expect too much from this show...