To Thine Own Pokemon Be True! (592)

[CyberCubed]

I too would have liked to see her return for the Grand Festival, but unfortunately that was never going to happen, thanks to the 'Ping Pong OR Contests' choice which was laid out before her.. and the fact she was going all the way back to Kanto to play the stupid game.

Quite possibly the stupidest release in the entire series. At least the releases for the other pokemon were reasonable and you understand why it happened.

Ping pong is borderline retarded and came out of nowhere, and its not even in the games. WTF.

 

[BurningSociety12345543210]

Though when you think about it, a monkey leaving the people who love her, to learn how to play ping pong is actually sort of funny.

Sometimes, I think Ambipom would agree to being traded/given away to anyone. I'm sure if O asked Ambipom if she wanted to be traded to a serial killer who could teach her how to burp the alphabet, she would be happy to go.

 

[OshyHikari]

This was the saddest episode I watched cos I love Ambipom. I miss her

 

[Brownie]

To Thine Own Pokemon Be True

This episode is about Ash, Dawn, and Barry getting ready for a ping-pong tournament. This doesn’t sound that bad, in fact, unlike many, I like the idea…the problem is how it’s integrated into the plot. If nothing important happened, it would be a decent filler, but that’s not the case here. After the tournament ends, Dawn decides to leave Ambipom with O (the COTD) because she loves ping-pong more than contests, even after establishing earlier that she loved contests more than battling. The Ash and Dawn trade made SENSE, this is just a plot device to get rid of Ambipom. It’s basically the Primeape release episode, but worse. O said they’d be in Vermilion City, but Dawn never returned there to pick up her Pokemon.

This is, without a doubt, the worst release episode ever.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I really thought this was a great episode. I don't really know why it gets so much hate, but oh well. Dawn and Ambipom were really impressive in the ping pong tournament, I'm glad they made it to the semi finals of the tournament. Too bad Barry got too overconfident and lost to the ping pong champ in the quarter finals, I would have loved to see a Dawn vs Barry match in the final round. Ambipom did decide to leave Dawn's team at the end of the episode, but i'm not really bothered by it at all. It was a great sendoff for it and it was pretty emotional too. 10/10

 

[CyberCubed]

This episode was the writers wasting a year and a half of development for a Pokemon for no reason. Made even worse that this pokemon was traded from Ash to Dawn, so Ash got a new Buizel and Dawn technically "got nothing" after she released it.

So the writers tossed away Ambipom's crush on Ash, and love for Contests, as well as a good Pokemon for Dawn in general....for no apparent reason. Truly the worst mistake of the DP series overall.

 

[Lorde]

I liked that Ash and Dawn played Ping Pong here, although that O character was so generic in my opinion. I laughed when Jessie and Meowth played against a Marowak and Meowth ended up cutting the ball, and I giggled when Ash got hit on the chin when he played against Farfetch'd and its trainer. I was glad that Barry also appeared here and was funny.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I liked that Ash and Dawn played Ping Pong here, although that O character was so generic in my opinion. I laughed when Jessie and Meowth played against a Marowak and Meowth ended up cutting the ball, and I giggled when Ash got hit on the chin when he played against Farfetch'd and its trainer. I was glad that Barry also appeared here and was funny.

Yeah Barry was awesome in this episode. Ash getting hit on the chin with the ping pong ball was hilarious as well. Anyways just watched this episode again last night, and I really think this may have been one of the best Dawn focused episodes imo. She really showed alot of emotion and it really made the episode that much better by seeing how she felt about letting Ambipom train for more ping pong tournaments. 10/10

 

[Pikachu52]

Not that interesting an episode and a little bit silly. The anime has a habit of taking a sport, sticking the word Pokémon in front of it and centering an episode around it. I didn't think Ping Pong was a particularly serious sport. And yet the episode revolves around a Ping Pong champion who wanted to train Ambipom to take him to the top. What's next. Pokèmon billiards. Pokèmon beer Pong.

Why on earth did Ambipom leave. It may have enjoyed playing Ping Pong but so much so that it would leave it's friends to travel with some guy it had only just met. That's just not believable. It's Ping Pong for goodness sake - It's not even a professional sport. This seems like a rather cheap way of getting rid of Ambipom. Poor Dawn, she traded her super powerful Buizel (which should always have been Ash's from the start) for Ampoim then got rid of that.

Its a shame that Ash got thrown out quickly. I don't see why they had to glorify Dawn and Ambipom here to be honest. She'd never played before so it's unreasonable to think she'd be better than Ash. Best that can be said for this episode is it was cute to see Pikachu hitting a ball with his tail.

Sorry to say so but this just seems like lazy writting. 2/10

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Not that interesting and a little bit silly. The anime has a habit of taking a sport, sticking the word Pokémon in front of it and centering an episode around it. I didn't think Ping Pong was a particularly serious sport, yet here it has a champion who wanted to train Ambipom to take him to the top - I'd have said Top coordinator would be a better title to attain. Shame that Ash got thrown out quickly. I don't see why they had to glorify Dawn and Ambipom here to be honest. She'd never played before so it's unreasonable to think she'd be better than Ash.
Best that can be said for this episode is it was cute to see Pikachu hitting a ball with his tail.

Well they did it because they were writing off Ambipom from the show and to open up a spot for Togekiss on Dawn's team. It was more Ambipom that was getting the focus because it had some skill as well as practice from the contest before this episode; so Dawn really wasn't much of a factor as Ambipom was with their current placing in the tournament.

 

[JudySpell]

This episode made me hate Ambipom since she wasn't satisfied with Ash in early DP and now she wasn't satisfied with Dawn and Contests.

 

[Mrs. Oreo]

This episode made me hate Ambipom since she wasn't satisfied with Ash in early DP and now she wasn't satisfied with Dawn and Contests.

I do kind of get why Ambipom leaving Dawn's team here might have seemed kind of messed up, but Dawn gave Ambipom the choice to go play ping-pong, so it's not like she just ditched Dawn with no remorse. ^^;

 

[Pikachu979]

Honestly I don't hate this episode like others do. I think it shows how nice of a trainer she is by letting her pokemon do what it wants.

 

[Gillachu]

This episode made me hate Ambipom since she wasn't satisfied with Ash in early DP and now she wasn't satisfied with Dawn and Contests.

Lol, this. And knowing her, she probably left the ping pong dude off-screen and joined 75396416 other trainers afterward.

 

[Moonstardust]

When Dawn's Ambipom decided to leave here, I felt betrayed since it seemed like she had no sense of loyalty for Dawn and just wanted to have fun.

 

[Leonhart]

Eteboth seemed to have an issue sticking to one hobby. Her decision to play ping-pong in Kanto left a sour taste in my mouth because she had only tried playing it in this episode. If I had been Hikari, I wouldn't have allowed Eteboth to go with Ou.

 

[Wednesdayz]

I was so peeved at Dawn giving away her Ambipom: it's like Ash's Primeape all over again. It was interesting how Dawn gave Ambipom the chance to decide what it wanted to do, though. I wouldn't have. :/

 

[Alloutℯ]

Despite Ambipom's release putting a sour note on the show, I thought the episode itself was pretty good. There was happy, sad, dramatic and funny moments all in one episode.

 

[Wednesdayz]

Tbh given Ambipom's unfaithfulness, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ping Pong dude doesn't even own her anymore; Ambipom probably ditched him as soon as they were in Kanto...

 

[DarkLeviathan]

This episode was a complete tease. Not only do none of our main characters beat O, but Dawn loses her Ambipom. I guess O wasn’t satisfied with his of golden ping-pong balls and Pokemon food. He had to go and claim Dawn’s Ambipom as his prize, by manipulating the both of them with flowery talk of training.