Tomorrow's the big day: Ash vs Paul at the Sinnoh League starts off, and really the beginning of the end of Sinnoh. So this episode is really a good one to look at.
Gligar is really cute in this episode. It wants to battle in the next gym, but Ash refuses, saying that it hasn't had enough experience. In general, this is sort of how things go for awhile b/w the two of them. Gligar is fired up to battle, but once it gets in a battle, it's teary-eyed nature comes out. I think Gligar doesn't appreciate how mentally tough and hard battles can be until it's in one (then comes the teary-eyed look). Ash isn't a fan of this attitude, but Dawn and Brock do take a liking to it, and so it's a bit of a conflict. Today in one of the other threads, I said Brock is important b/c he really the only person now who is familiar enough with Ash's travels and pokemon to give Ash advice or listen to what's on Ash's mind. But over the course of Sinnoh, I definitely think Ash has grown to the pt where his judgement and ideas are just as good as Brock; and not just about Pokemon, but about other people. It's another reason why I think 2nd of Dawn's first round contest losses was so important, b/c it showed Ash picking up how a person was really feeling, while everyone else was stumped about why the person was acting that way. To bring this back to Ash's and Gligar's relationship, I think Ash ends up having a better idea of the character of Gligar and how to train it than Brock, Dawn, or someone else who comes along and voices his opinion do.
Ah! But Paul is what this episode is really about. Poor Ash! After hearing Wallace say he should compete in the contest, Zoey's apology that he was right about learning from both contests and gym battles, and then pulling off the most stunning move in the Wallace Cup, the ice aqua jet (which even caused Wallace to drop his composed aura and look absolutely stupefied and shocked at the idea), Ash couldn't have been ready for Paul to say what he does. Paul, for his part, I think, is a little jealous; he was watching when Ash pulled off the Ice Aqua Jet, and he heard the amazement of other people who saw it as well. It's bad enough Ash is a hypocrite, from Paul's perspective, but then other people are also impressed with Ash pulling off the ice aqua jet. That's hard to take. But again, the fact that Paul is bothered by any of this shows that he respects Ash (and remember the last episode in which Ash and Paul met each other was the Pikachu episode, where Ash did prove his pt to Paul, that trusting in your pokemon can make them stronger).
Ash goes from smiling at the start when he explains Wallace told him to enter the contest, to being furious himself as Paul doesn't buy it. This has to be tough on Ash as well; all along it's been crystal clear that entering the Wallace Cup was the right decision, but now Paul puts a different spin on things. Does this make Ash wrong? Of course not. But is this the way life goes sometimes? Yes. Everyone has a different view of things, and it's amazing how a decision you make can seem like the right thing to one person, and then the wrong thing to someone else. You know, back in the tag battle tournament, I said it was interesting that Paul chose to use Torterra after he released Chimchar. To me, it was like it was Paul's way of saying he now acknowledged Ash, and so wanted to show him his real power. He even says in this episode: I did win the Tag Battle Tournament. He changed his viewpoint, from trying to get Chimchar stronger and not caring about the result to really trying to win. Sure, Elekid evolved, but it was really a nice bonus; Paul was definitely trying to win. What was Ash trying to do at the Wallace Cup? He stuck with Buizel (and that was actually given as a reason for why he lost to the guy COTD), and really he thought the whole thing was good for Buizel. Did Ash really want to win the ribbon? Not really....at the very least, he was probably hoping more that Dawn would win b/c of her troubles.
After a few moments of anger, Ash becomes very honest with Paul; I think this is Ash's most honest moment in all of Sinnoh. He tells Paul that the way they train their pokemon are completely different, even though they have the same goal. Ash is wondering about what it means to be a strong trainer, and he's got to try to be one doing it his way: to trust his pokemon and care for them. I think what Ash says here really shows how much Paul has bothered him, that a trainer doing what Paul does is still so skilled. This is why Paul bothers him.
Well, the two square off in a battle. Now, the way Ash chooses his pokemon is open to 2 different interpretations. The first is that Ash realizes this is a practice battle, and so choosing Gligar is a great way to give it some experience. The other interpretation is that Ash really does Gligar simply b/c it asks him to-and this is a failing of Ash's (Paul even laughs, and I don't think it's simply b/c he can choose Gliscor). Going back to that Brock topic question earlier about how Brock helps Ash, this is why I think Brock is/was helpful for Ash to talk to during league battles. Ash was prone to picking pokemon just for the heck of it rather than thinking things through, and this is no way to win a league. But Ash does mature over Sinnoh; and again, it's really almost gotten to the pt where Ash's thought process is consistently as good, although different, from Brock's-honestly, there have been a few instances where Ash's thinking skills are shown to have surpassed Brock's, in my opinion.
Chimchar is up next, and of course there's the whole Blaze thing. I think Ash's attitude about Blaze is pretty admirable at this stage. Dawn and Brock are keen to talk about how Ash got Blaze to work while Paul could not, but Ash doesn't get caught up in that. The most important thing, to me, is not that Ash got Blaze to work. It's that he got Blaze to stop. Ash never gloats about using Blaze, and is extremely careful to put on a carefree expression as soon as it's over so that Chimchar doesn't get too frightened. When Paul asks Ash is he thinks he can master Blaze, Ash doesn't give a straight answer either (nothing at all like the honest explanation for why he and Paul are different that he gave earlier). Chimchar is Chimchar, and Blaze isn't the important thing for Ash. I think Ash takes more pride in Chimchar's stronger flamethrower than the fact that it activated Blaze.
