day 1702 they get to sunnyshore city, meet volkner + flint {sinnoh el4:3/4} {dp165} day 1703 grotle evolves into torterra {dp166} day 1707 jessie gets 4th ribbon {dp167}
The time gap between the snowpoint arc and ash's arrival in Sunnyshore is longer than even the most filler filled badge gap part of Johto, on top of that due to plot contrivances he doesn't even get to battle volkner yet making the time between badges even longer. With that being said, as stuff actually occurred in DP during that span of time, it was still less an aggravation to get through.
Speaking of Volkner, 2 points of interest. First he looks way too much like the 4th Hokage, apparently giving up your soul to the grim reaper causes you to move across dimensions. Design jokes aside, he occupies an interesting place in the plot as a sort of dark shadow of Ash.
As it turns out the reason why Barry says he's the best gym leader is that he's given up on the game and is just giving out badges for free. Apparently Volkner was so OP that he was undefeated and grew disillusioned about well everything to the point that he thinks battling at all is pointless. Heck, the only reason Flint is in the elite 4 over him is that he still gives a damn. Really makes ya wonder about what would have happened to Mr. Ketchum if Pikachu and Dawn hadn't pulled him out of his funk.
To make a long story short, Flint challenges Ash to a battle in the hopes that it might reawaken his friend's fighting spirit. Unsurprisingly it works, indirect therapy jutsu I guess. Before Ash can have his gym match in 166 however TR hijacks the skyscraper/power station in sunny shore, all because James lost his favorite bottle cap. Between this and when he tried to burn Ash to death back in Kanto, he's definitely scarier than his teammates. In the midst of this, Grotle evolves again, becoming much more cooler and even slower in the process, and the gang heads off to the grand festival to give Volkner time to rebuild.
167 has Dawn's mother foist her daycare group on them, and buy some non slutty clothes for her daughter for once in the form of a pretty formal dress, and Jessie almost but not quite qualifies for the grand festival. General plot moving forwardness throughout. 168 has Marley, the second to last of the special npcs from Platinum, unlike Cheryl, Mira, or Riley though her episode is filler. It has some shaymin and some funny moments at least. 169 doesn't even get that being a Pokémon ranger spin-off. Skip it.
day 1714 ash meets bertha {sinnoh el4:4/4} {dp170} day 1718 jessie gets 5th ribbon, dawn gets a togekiss {dp171}
Fun fact: these aired as a 2 parter commemorating the anime's 13th anniversary.
Ah yes, Ash's torterra's finest moment wherein he still loses the 1vs1 fight against Bertha's giant hippo but at least looks awesome doing it. Looks like Bulba-Spock had the right idea didn't he Torterra-Mc Coy and no, this doesn't excuse Piplup's decision in my mind. Hell, if you want to keep the theme going with Star Trek names, he would be that whiny jerk Wesley.
The follow up to this, dp171, has Pokémon go all Prince and Pauper on us as Dawn just happens to look exactly like this foreign royal dignitary that just happens to be passing through the same town they are and all she really wants to do is participate in a contest. There's a switcheroo, Ash as always is astonished when one of his girls actually cleans up nice (even though she's been in a dress before) and no one wonders if perhaps Dawn's mom banged an exiled royal back in the day because they're totally twins. In the end the princess gives her togekiss to Dawn, since Misty and Togetic aren't showing up again any time soon and the show needs to fill that dex entry somehow, and Jessie against all odds will actually get to be in the grand festival. (2013) Now that I think about it, I wonder if this at all relates to the mirage kingdom that togetic left to protect?
Of course, since the end of Dawn's plot arc is right around the corner and she finally has a full team again, its a perfect time to pad things out a little. 172 is a direct continuation of 171, where Dawn has to learn how to integrate togekiss into the team and learn her abilities... even though everything seemed fine at the end of the last episode and the princess gave her advice. Verdict: completely pointless. 173 is a bad rip off of the ditto+duplica episodes from the original series, not worth wasting any time on it.
day 1723-9 sinnoh grand festival, dawn loses to zoey in the final (runner-up) {dp174-177}
Just to make this clear for the 3rd or 4th time, that stuff looks amazing, why can't contests in the actual game be anywhere near that cool? Surprisingly, Kenny doesn't even make it to the battle rounds, while Jessie manages to claw her way up to the semi-finals. Also that Nando vs Zoey... UST man, no Zoey don't give in to the bishie! You have Candice!
Color me blue with shock, did a principal protagonist actually almost make it to their desired outcome, not being railroaded into defeat early on or getting a loss from a deus ex machina? An actually legitimate close climatic battle? That's just great. Take heart Dawn, no one in this show will ever come closer to fulfilling their dreams than you just did. Aw, and now I've made myself sad.
Lastly Nurse Joy informs Ash that the gym (and the city) of Sunnyshore aren't piles of rubble anymore so they set off to make the trek back. Before they depart Zoey offers an invite to Dawn to come to Snowpoint for a party and to start preparing for next year or something, but she quips that she already knew that Dawn wouldn't accept seeing as how she (much like her predecessors) refuses to be apart from her boyfriend at all times... until of course the crushing weight of the plot will inevitably force them apart for all time anyway that is. Speaking of unrequited affections, 178 is something we haven't seen in a long while a Meowth ep! Fun times for all, even if it's a bit lacking compared to other TR eps.
Next time... The League's here already, better hightail it! Wassat? Those Pokémon we helped out were from a place called 'Unova'? I've got nothing better to do, I'll go check it out. movie 13 and Eps 179-185
