-Ash is finally on his way towards Driftveil, when Iris stops him to...point out a festival!
-...a festival where there's Whack-A-Sandile using
real Sandile. That seems kind of cruel.
-Oh, it's not just a festival; it's Performer Street.
-...they're selling ice cream shaped like Vanillite(complete with face!). That's kind of creepy.
-Oh, Shooti's there too. And he doesn't give a damn about Ash, as usual.
-And of course, when Ash goes to brag about his new badge, Shooti shows off that he has
five badges...but to be fair, if he managed to get out of Nimbasa before the TR plot struck, he would have had a head start on Ash simply because Ash had to wait for the drawbridge. (then again, all of Shooti's badges past the second one are 100% anime-only...)
-Shooti doesn't want to fight Ash(as usual), but this time he has a really good reason for it! Alder is here!
-As a random aside, I think it's a nice touch that you can see the Driftveil Drawbridge in the distance while Shooti's blathering on about Alder.
-Then we get a flashback to Alder promising to battle Shooti someday(and we all know that there's no way he made that promise to
every single little kid who wanted to be a trainer that he's met!)
-Speaking of Alder...he's just up the hill! Sitting in Officer Jenny's motorcycle and chilling out with her Herdier. Jenny...isn't really pleased about this. Her Herdier seems to like Alder just fine, though.
-Jenny boots Alder out of her bike and drives off, and Trip rushes up to Alder. Alder does a good show of prtending to remember who he is(even though it's been years and there must have been hundreds of kids who were all I'M GOING TO BATTLE YOU SOMEDAY to him), but...he gets Shooti's name wrong, and calls him Shuutaro. Well, to be fair, it has been years since they met one(1) time.
-Ash, having no sense of propriety, rushes up to Alder and asks for a battle. Shooti is understandably kind of annoyed at this, and the end result is a little shoving match.
-I think Alder just offered to fight them both at once, but I'm not really sure.
-When they insist on fighting individually...Shooti volunteers Ash to go first? And he's acting all smug about it; I'm guessing he thinks Ash doesn't stand a chance?
-...Alder just called Ash Santaro! I guess calling people (first syllable or two of their name)-taro is going to be Alder's "thing"?
-Alder leads with
Buffafro Bouffalant. Ash uses Pikachu, because WHY NOT.
-Ash makes the first move by ordering a Thunderbolt, and Alder...is just standing calmly with his eyes closed. Welp.
-Bouffalant shakes the attack off easily, and Alder still doesn't do anything. Is this supposed to be some way of showing Ash that Alder's clearly stronger even without attacking?
-Alder keeps up the no-commands act even through a Quick Attack and an Iron Tail. Everyone immediately starts speculating about what the hell he's doing.
-Pikachu starts charging up an Electro Ball, and...Bouffalant's starting to get annoyed at Alder's silent treatment!
-Bouffalant pretty much yells at Alder after the attack hits, and...wait...Alder's...asleep. That's
amazing.
-Ash's reaction is...about what you'd expect from someone whose opponent(much less the CHAMPION OF THE UNOVA REGION) fell asleep right at the start of their battle.
-Alder orders an Afro Break(**** you, I know it's Head
Smash Charge(see? it's so non-memorable that I couldn't remember its name) in English, but Afro Break sounds
so much cooler), and Bouffalant is kind of testy towards him...so Alder slaps it on the a
ss to get it to charge forward! Okay, this is officially better than Cynthia's "spend hours choosing between ice cream flavors" gimmick.
-Bouffalant charges towards Pikachu...gets right in front of it...then turns around...and hits Alder!
-It's a one hit KO! Bouffalant wins! Looks like Alder's trainer is going to have to work on his defenses some more.
-Alder gets back up quickly enough, and Bouffalant has already distracted itself by eating some bushes.
-Shooti asks if he can battle now, but Alder doesn't want to...and starts talking about Jenny instead. Dento and Iris' reactions are...about what you'd expect.
-Then Shooti breaks out a speech about getting stronger and blah blah blah generic speech blah
-I have to say, the anime's doing a much better job of capturing the whole "Alder doesn't really care about battles anymore" thing than the games did.
-Shooty ends up walking away in a huff. I can't really blame him.
-Alder makes up with Bouffalant by giving it an apple...and then his stomach growls. Well, champions gotta eat too.
-At the Pokemon Center...Alder's hitting on Joy. It's like he's an entertaining version of Brock or something.
-Lunch gets awkward, what with all the trainers staring in awe at Alder. But they go away quickly enough once Alder asks.
-And it's time for our biannual "have all the main characters reaffirm what their goals are" scene.
-But now I think Alder's asking them what they'll do
after they reach their goals? Dammit, they're kids! Don't send them into their midlife crisis early just because you're going through one!
-Or maybe he's asking them why they have their goals? I dunno. All I know is that they all answer with something to do with strength and THAT WON'T FLY.
-Joy pops up in a panic, and...did Alder just call her "honey"?
-Oh, by the way, a Gigalith is tearing up the street.
-Alder apparently gets his apples from the same place Iris kept getting them from in the Cottonee episode.
-Having a Gigalith slam you into a light pole has
got to hurt.
-Jenny starts to fight back against the Gigalith, but Bouffalant blocks Herdier's Shadow Ball!
-Let me take a moment to say that Gigalith sounds really, really cool.
-It was rampaging because of a nail in its foot. And...bahahhaa, everyone but Alder is
cringing when they see how long it is.
-And then Alder offers the Gigalith a...mineral thing. Because they don't eat apples, obviously!
-Jenny starts telling Alder off for some reason, but is interrupted when the light pole from earlier starts to
fall towards her. That ain't good.
-But Gigalith saves her, so it turns out okay!
-And then Alder gives a nice warm-fuzzies speech about friendship and Pokemon and blah blah blah generic speech blah.
-They say their goodbyes in front of the drawbridge. Ash gets a head rub, and Iris and Dento just kind of edge away to the side a bit. Thus ends the episode.
-...the ending changed to a new verse. No more GIARU GIGIGIARU GIGIGIARU for us.
This episode was...different. I'll reiterate what I said about the anime actually showing Alder going through his "doesn't care much about being a trainer anymore" phase(as opposed to the games, where it's told and not shown). In that light, it worked pretty well. And if anyone had any doubts about Trip taking Cheren's place before, it's obvious now - between Trip talking about getting stronger, and then everyone else talking about their dreams and getting stronger to reach them(and Alder being disappointed at that), Cheren would just be redundant at this point.