Ash, Misty, and Brock from Pokémon: The Series are lost and wandering in the wilderness (as they so often are), when they happen to stumble across the arena for the Cell Games.note They see Cell in the ring, and mistake it for some unknown type of pokemon, so Ash leaps into the ring to try to capture it, to Cell's exasperation.
Neither Squirtle's water attacks or Charizard's flames have any effect on Cell, and Ash is preparing to see if Pikachu will have better luck when Team Rocket interrupts in their hot air balloon. Cell is not inclined to humor them, and so he blasts their balloon off into the distance before they can quite finish their speech.
When Ash tries to restart the battle, Cell finally angrily manages to get it across to Ash that he is not a pokemon, nor is he interested in any more shenanigans and is willing to kill them all if they don't leave. A little dejected, Ash and company depart, leaving Cell muttering to himself about how it's taking forever for the tournament day to arrive.
At that moment Mewtwo goes flying by, and an astonished Cell mistakes him for Freeza.
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Tropes used include:
- Adaptational Intelligence: As much as Cell (rightfully) ribs Ash for not being very bright, at least here Ash is actually trying to logically figure out what type of pokemon Cell would be and how to respond to and counter him, whereas in his own show he pretty much always needs either Brock or someone else to exposit about the different pokemon types and abilities.
- Call-Back: Cell makes references to the other challengers who have come to the ring, but especially Yugi, and he compares Pokémon and the Duel Monsters card game on multiple occasions. Amusingly/ironically, Cell seems to insist on seeing Pokémon as a ripoff of Duel Monsters, when the Pokemon games came out first.
- The entire premise of this episode is someone mistaking a Dragon Ball character for a Pokémon (namely, Ash mistaking Cell for a Pokémon). This was previously done in this series with Nappa mistaking Chiaotzu for a Pokémon.
- Deadpan Snarker: Every line Misty says is some sort of snarky quip.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Ash insists on referring to Cell as an "it" because he believes Cell is a pokemon, and talking about Cell as though he's not there. That's one of many things Cell is annoyed by during the course of the episode.Ash: Man, nothing I do is phasing it!
Cell: The name is Cell, by the way. You could have at least asked before you started throwing critters at me. - Killed Mid-Sentence: Possibly. Cell blasts Team Rocket just before the end of their entrance speech, and nobody knows (or cares) about whether they survived.Brock: Are they gonna be okay?
Misty: Do you honestly care?
Brock: [beat] No, I actually don't. - Literal-Minded:
- Cell is actually impressed by the sight of Charizard and comments "Whoa, is that a freaking dragon?! Cause I'm going to be honest, that's pretty metal!" Brock takes this as a question about Charizard's pokemon type, and notes that it's actually neither a dragon or steel type. Cell is obviously annoyed at how the fun of his slang has been taken literally.
- Cell, meanwhile, is irked by the fact that "pocket monsters" aren't literally kept in one's pockets and takes issue with the name because of that.
- Locked Out of the Loop: None of the human character appear to have a clue who Cell is or about the Cell Games. Presumably they've been wandering the wilderness since before Cell's announcement.
- Made of Iron: Squirtle takes refuge inside his shell when Cell tries to hit him with a ki blast... and is unharmed when the smoke clears.
- No-Sell: Even more so than in most of the Cell Games videos. Squirtle and Charizard can't even come close to doing damage to Cell. In fact Cell actually thanks Ash for Squirtle's water attack, since it's a rather hot day, and the only thing Charizard's flames do is dry him off, that's how easily and thoroughly he No Sellsnote their attacks. It's pretty unlikely that any of the three humans had a Pokémon that would have fared any better.
- Pet the Dog: By this point Cell has started to kill (or at least greatly harmed and/or humiliated) the annoying challengers who have ignored his rules and challenged him early. However, once he finally gets it through to Ash and his friends that he's not a Pokémon, he simply tells them to go away. He does still threaten to murder them if they don't leave but it's more leniency than he showed Light or Genos in the prior two episodes. (And he certainly intended to get bloody revenge on Kenshiro prior to that, although whether he was actually able to do so is unknown.) It might also help that Ash was completely unaware of the Cell Games and the encounter was just a random accident.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Downplayed. Cell is fed up by now with people challenging him non-stop, yet despite his exasperation he's willing to talk to the main trio at least somewhat politely until he finally launches into a rant to get Ash to understand he's not a pokemon and to vent his displeasure about the whole thing. Ash, meanwhile, rushes to battle Cell and tries to launch a surprise attack on him. However, by the end this is almost reversed; Cell's temper is visibly fraying throughout the video even before he start shouting at Ash. Meanwhile when it does sink in that Cell isn't a pokemon, Ash is quick to meekly leave without any further trouble, albeit without apologizing for the whole misunderstanding.
- Shipper on Deck: Passive example since he doesn't really care, but when Cell tells Ash to Get Out!, he calls Misty "[Ash's] ginger girlfriend". It's notable that neither Ash or Misty have a She's Not My Girlfriend reaction to this statement.
- Shout-Out: Ash's Pokedex mistakes Cell for MissingNo, the infamous Glitch Entity from Pokémon Red and Blue
- Skewed Priorities: After who knows how long of wandering through the wilderness, Misty and Brock are wishing that they had some sort of electronic device that could help them find their way. Ash comments that an electronic device which tells them which pokemon is which is more important.
- Talk to the Fist: Cell was still trying to talk to Ash when Ash orders Squirtle to make the first attack, specifically noting that Cell was distracted and thus it was a good time to strike.
- Two Decades Behind: The fact that Ash and company stepped straight out of a 90s cartoon is lampshaded by the fact that they're lost due to a missing map, and they bemoan the fact that there's isn't some sort of digital device that could help them find their way. Of course, by the time this series was released in 2017, a pretty good chunk of the world had smart phones in their pockets complete with GPS and apps for finding their way.
- Cell: Now get out of here before I murder you and your little yellow rat!
