day 1796 cilan catches a dwebble {bw11} day 1799 ash gets a Pokémon egg {bw12}
The above happens, Cilan+Iris continue to fail at garnering any interest from me. Ash still hasn't recovered from the brain damage his last stay in Pallet Town must of caused, and TR keeps on with the badass espionage motif, staying far away from the twerps. My level of apathy is worse than in Johto, there it was because of rampant filler, but this is the actual story and I can't escape that. Please let something interesting and fun happen soon.
day 1802 they meet bianca and she catches a minccino {bw13}
Have my prayers been answered, a side-character I actually like? Indeed, the anime version of Bianca is like a breath of fresh funny air amidst all the stupid crap. She's basically a female version of Barry..., blonde hair, hyper attitude, prone to causing injury to Ash and to themselves... urge to ship characters that have never met rising... go hyper-shipping! Too bad she doesn't stick around for long, but as my expectations for disappointment have only increased since BW started, I'll take what little good there is.
day 1804 arrival at nacrene {bw14} day 1805 ash loses to lenora, team rocket steals a meteorite for some reason {bw15} day 1806 Ash gets 2nd badge, team rocket doesn't appear in this ep at all. I feel empty. {bw16}
Looking back, this was the moment where I truly gave up and realized that barring something hugely monumentally miraculously awesome happening, the seasonal rot that began from the outset of bw1 would continue till we left the region, It got to be so bad, that it eventually gave me flashbacks to the latter half of Death Note.
The nacrene city 3-parter starts out, Lenora nowhere to be found to have a gym battle with, so instead they help out her husband who says the museum/gym is haunted. Cilan at this point decides to announce something extremely moronic, namely that ghosts don't exist. Any idiot could tell you what the type designation for gengar and spritomb and the like is... and of course it turns out to be a yamask's doing, in short Cilan needs to brush up on the basics like a ton.
I'd almost recommend to just skip 14 and watch the match in the next ep, thus having Ash teleport like he did to Vermillion, but as the events in both are tremendously dumb, you're not saving yourself much of a headache. Ash loses to Lenora... my rage is slightly mitigated by the fact that Tepig had only battled with Ash once before, presumably when he battled with his previous trainer it turned out poorly explaining why said asshole abandoned him and that Lenora's lillipup's roar pulled out Oshy, contrary to whatever strategy Ash might have cooked up. Seriously tho, a Lillipup! I get why it's not a Stoutland, but come on show Ash a little respect and have Lenora beat him with a herdier at least.
Having said all that, Ash has a 1-night crash course training session like he always does, intentionally chooses the same team he lost with, like he always does, + wins the rematch against Lenora... who does have a herdier this time... was Ash sleep battling last ep? Or was it the writers trying to force drama?
After 672 consecutive appearances from ep2 to bw15 and m1-13 Team Rocket finally fail to make even a brief cameo... there's something acutely wrong about that, but it's one of the changes of Best Wishes, they've got better things to do than hang around the plot so they won't be in every episode. <sigh>
day 1808 ash's egg hatches into a scraggy, Team Rocket meet Dr. Zager {bw17}
day 1811-12 they meet burgh, ash catches a sewaddle... 7 Pokémon and 2 badges in 18 eps, I might hate BW as a whole but it's certainly running at a fast pace. {bw18}
day 1814 they meet burgundy, she's tsundere for cilan, although I'm still getting rapey vibes from him {bw19}
So the egg that Ash got from the just short of bad filler bw12 finally hatches. I like Scraggy, he's a childish brat, which makes sense since he's literally a day old. He further proves how suckish Axew is by fighting him to a draw... and he's a newborn! Too bad they become friends but whatever.
Dr. Zager is like an interim boss for TR as Matori and Giovanni are too busy to give them orders whilst gearing up for the Rocket vs Plasma showdown. He's basically like Dr. Wily from Mega Man. Generic mad scientist type, OK for what he is.
Comparison time! EP 18, by this point in Kanto Ash had gotten 3 badges, 7 Pokémon, and was currently relaxing on the beach after being lost at sea for a little while. EP 134, the 18th episode of Johto, he has gained 1 badge and has with him a full team of 6, though only 2 are new, and he'd be down a spot due to Charizard's departure at the end. AG 18, Ash again only has 1 badge, and just 3 Pokémon this time. DP 18 is where he gets his first badge and he has half a team once more. Let the record stand, I give fair praise for its pacing of a story... even if I hate said story with all my hate. Ash's sewaddle is a ninja, and Burgh is simply fabulous, but enough about that instead let's get introduced to another side-character I wish stole more of Cilan and Iris's screen-time.
Burgundy with her horrid french accent, in contrast to Fantina rather authentic one {in the dub at least}, spontaneous rage moments, in contrast to Iris {who I swear is just teetering on the edge at all times}, and hilariously erroneous advice, in contrast to Cilan {who is annoyingly perfect}, is IMO actually kind of endearing. She tries so hard, and fails at everything, but hey... she tries. Also regardless of how accurate her tsundere tinted flashback regarding Cilan's treatment of her actually is, I'm still using it as evidence of Cilan's dark inner nature. This then makes their interactions even creepier, which only adds to the funny. Much as is the case with Bianca I'm left with wanting her to show up more.
Next time... What do you mean Team Plasma's not gonna be in this series?— Hey look everyone, look at how not surprised I am, its just par for the course <arrgh> 20-32
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