A CONNOISSEUR'S REVENGE!
"Snivy also has no respect for my tongue!"
Score: 5/10
The heroes are traveling when they find a brand new Walmart-sized pokemart in the middle of a forest, filled with customers, because everyone knows that city-dwellers love driving out hours into the middle of a forest to buy basic supplies. Personally, I don’t feel right unless I drive to Fresno at least once a week.
Inside the pokemart is a connoisseur shop, where someone checks your pokemon and evaluates your compatibility. Cilan then explains the ranking system for connoisseurs - he's A-class, but there's also S-class above that. What’s the deciding factor in Ash wanting to get his pokemon evaluated? That the connoisseur is female. How… strangely potentially sexist? I don’t know.
Ash dislikes the long line, but another female connoisseur tells him that she's free. Ash thinks this is not suspicious at all, even though he's last in line of dozens and she offers to see him specifically. This connoisseur is named Burgundy - and don't worry, she comments on the rarity of Pikachu. She then proceeds to examine all of Ash’s pokemon (except Pidove, who’s not with him) and inform him that he has no chemistry with any of them because of things like Tepig being too happy or Snivy’s eyes being too narrow. When Cilan and Iris appear, Burgundy reveals that she knows Cilan - she lost a battle to Cilan, and he said "ridiculous and hurtful things" to her. By the way, she did not know Ash is Cilan’s friend, so apparently she just randomly ambushed a trainer to insult.
She became a connoisseur as revenge (and you just know that any revenge plot that involves learning a trade and becoming a professional in whatever field you study is probably very complex), but Cilan joined Ash’s journey before she came back to the gym. She now just wants to defeat Cilan, and also eventually admits that she's only a C-class (so her insults to Ash’s pokemon are incorrect, I guess). Cilan tells her that the manual isn't always right, so Burgundy challenges him to a battle. Wait - the manual tells you that a Tepig that’s too happy is a bad Tepig? That’s oddly specific.
Dewott versus Dwebble - Cilan's choice surprises everyone because it's weak to water pokemon. Cilan then promises that if he loses, he'll give up his A-class rating and make Ash replace all of his pokemon, because… he totally has the authority to do that, I guess. Cilan's plan for using Dwebble is to let it get hit, because its ability is Sturdy, and then to use shell smash and defeat Dewott. Cilan then chides Burgundy for being a crappy connoisseur (not that he uses those exact words), so she sends out a Sawsbuck. I like how the pokedex claims people use them to measure the passing of the seasons, because in Unova, apparently they hate going outside. Cilan just sends out Pansage, then uses confusing, sneaky attacks to defeat her. After the battle, Cilan tries to give her some advice, but she just gets angry and leaves. He is satisfied, however, that she’ll become a good connoisseur one day.
So, uh… I don’t really like Burgundy, sorry. Aside from her personality being annoying, a rival is supposed to be at least vaguely on the level of the person she’s a rival to, which is how she challenges him and makes him better. Freaking Ash had a more of a chance against Tobias than Burgundy had against Cilan. Still, Burgundy does get beaten up a lot over this episode, which is gratifying to watch, as, as I mentioned, she is very annoying.
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Started: July 6, 2005