If it were a random Buizel just imagine even more complaining that it wasn't Ash's Buizel.
The problem is they are IN Sinnoh, while Buizel is is Kanto, so I don't think I would think it would be Ash's Buizel or be upset if it wasn't.
Though if it was Buizel, there could've been the speculation that Ash was indeed using his previous generation Pokemon when visiting new regions as opposed to we don't know what Ash is going to do in regards to his team.
Well if that's Ash's Pikachu riding the Mantyke maybe Croagunk and Piplup were meant to be partners before fighting with each other
I can't think of any instance of Dawn's Piplup and Brock's Croagunk fighting. Croagunk was mainly there to reign in Brock
I get that maybe you are going with Piplup being ridden on by Croagunk or Piplup riding Croagunk but I still don't think that makes sense for an Ice Floe Race.
Not to mention if these are owned by the same trainer or even different trainers.
Plus the title of "Don't give in" seems out of place if it was JUST partners fighting.
I'm just saying maybe it shouldn't have been an Ice Floe Race and randomly choosing Croagunk because it kind of feels like they know what they are doing with the whole Croagunk and Piplup picture.
But then again, perhaps we're looking at this from the entirely different perspective. Maybe Croagunk isn't as important as we think and it just so happens to be ONE of the more important Pokemon in the race. Maybe Croagunk's trainer is the reining champion who laughs at water type trainers for losing to a non water type. And that Croagunk's role is PRIMARILY an obstacle rather than something that is of equal importance.
In that case, why do we care about a random Piplup and its dream of reclaiming victory from a poison/fighting Pokemon in and ice floe race?
I mean yeah sure the series is going to be completely and randomly chaotic sure, but why not an episode about Scorbunny or perhaps some relation to the previous unknown title episode. Like have Scorbunny having some kind of fight with a Chimchar for example or maybe Scorbunny vs Croagunk.
Why Piplup? and Why Croagunk? if they ultimately serve no benefit to the series. Why do we care about this? Especially if the whole series is going to be like this? Are they incapable of using pre-established Pokemon and characters they have to draw from completely random and irrelevant situations. Man this series is going to be boring and uninteresting if this is going to the majority of series is like. With things that no one should really care about. I mean sure slice of life episode I guess but it sure is going to be annoyingly repetitive. I mean how many episodes until we get another race like episode? But I guess we'll see, I could be completely and utterly wrong.
