History Recap / PokemonS10E40TopDownTraining

* IdiotBall: Paul is usually an intelligent trainer, except when it comes to utilizing Chimchar. Paul first chooses Chimchar to battle Cynthia’s Garchomp, which had a huge advantage over Chimchar, in terms of experience, type-advantage, stats, and evolutionary status. The end result is…[[{{CurbStompBattle}} rather predictable.]]

* CurbstompBattle: Paul challenges Cynthia to a full battle and loses four Pokémon to her Garchomp, who barely gets a scratch on it, before deciding it's not worth continuing. Justified in that Cynthia is the Sinnoh Champion and Garchomp is her signature Pokémon.
** CurbStompCushion: Despite Paul’s team getting wiped handily, one of Paul’s strategies and attacks actually momentarily brought Cynthia’s Garchomp down on one of its knees. Considering Cynthia’s Garchomp can NoSell attacks from The Elite Four, this is an impressive feat, even if it still didn’t win Paul the battle.

* RockBeatsLaser: Cynthia's Garchomp taking ScratchDamage from Weavile's Blizzard and then defeating Weavile in a single hit. Normally, an Ice-type move will do 4x damage to a Ground/Dragon type and Blizzard is the strongest Ice-type special attack; however, Garchomp is simply so strong that it can shrug off even Weavile's Blizzard.

** CurbStompCushion: Despite Paul’s team getting wiped handily, one of Paul’s strategies and attacks actually momentarily brought Cynthia’s Garchomp down on one of its knees. Considering Cynthia’s Garchomp can * NoSell attacks from The Elite Four, this is an impressive feat, even if it still didn’t win Paul the battle.

** *CurbStompCushion: Despite Paul’s team getting wiped handily, one of Paul’s strategies and attacks actually momentarily brought Cynthia’s Garchomp down on one of its knees. Considering Cynthia’s Garchomp can * NoSell attacks from The Elite Four, this is an impressive feat, even if it still didn’t win Paul the battle.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Despite being a competent and powerful Trainer, Paul realizes he's way in over his head when he gets curb-stomped by Cynthia, the strongest Trainer in the entire Sinnoh region. Even if you're really good at a particular thing (in this case, Pokémon battles), it doesn't mean you're automatically the best at it.

* TheWorfBarrage: Paul's Torterra uses Frenzy Plant, the Grass-type equivalent to Hyper Beam, and Garchomp brushes it off like it was almost nothing.

* NeverMyFault: [[{{SoreLoser}}Paul]] tells Chimchar that it "ought to be ashamed" after losing to Garchomp, even though he, as the Trainer, should have realized that there's no way Chimchar would even be capable of scratching Garchomp, given its type disadvantage and unevolved status.

* NeverMyFault: Paul tells Chimchar that it "ought to be ashamed" after losing to Garchomp, even though he, as the Trainer, should have realized that there's no way Chimchar would even be capable of scratching Garchomp, given its type disadvantage and unevolved status.

* IdiotBall: Paul is usually an intelligent trainer, except when it comes to utilizing Chimchar. Paul first chooses Chimchar to battle Cynthia’s Garchomp, which had a huge advantage over Chimchar, in terms of experience, type-advantage, stats, and evolutionary status. The end result is…rather predictable.

* IdiotBall: Paul is usually an intelligent trainer, except when it comes to utilizing Chimchar. Paul first chooses Chimchar to battle Cynthia’s Garchomp, which had a huge advantage over Chimchar, in terms of experience, type-advantage, stats, and evolutionary status.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Despite being a competent and powerful Trainer, Paul realizes he's way in over his head when he gets curb-stomped by Cynthia, the strongest Trainer in the entire Sinnoh region.

* RockBeatsLaser: Cynthia's Garchomp taking ScratchDamage from Weavile's Blizzard and then defeat Weavile in 1 hit. Normally, an ice move will do 4x damage to a Ground plus Dragon type and Ice and Blizzard is the most damaging Ice special attack.
* TheWorfBarrage: Paul's Torterra uses Frenzy Plant, the grass-type equivalent to Hyper Beam, and Garchomp brushes it off like it was almost nothing.

* ScissorsCutRock: Cynthia's Garchomp taking ScratchDamage from Weavile's Blizzard and then defeat Weavile in 1 hit. Normally, an ice move will do 4x damage to a Ground plus Dragon type and Ice and Blizzard is the most damaging Ice special attack.

* TheWorfBarrage: Paul's Torterra uses Frenzy Plant, the grass-type equivalent to Hyper Beam, and Garchomp brushes it off like it was almost nothing.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Paul having Weavile use special moves when Weavile's Special stat is pitiful. For a trainer that was supposed to have a lot of experience in battling and being one of Ash's strongest rivals, this should have been noted.

* TheWorfBarrage: Paul's Torterra uses Frenzy Plant, the grass-type equivalent to Hyper Beam, and Garchomp brushes it off like it was almost nothing.

* CurbstompBattle: Paul challenges Cynthia to a full battle and loses four Pokémon to her Garchomp, who barely gets a scratch on it, before deciding it's not worth continuing.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Cynthis advises Paul to take better care of his Chimchar, a tip that Paul would just blatantly ignore.

* RedHerring: For most of the early episodes, viewers came to the conclusion that Paul is a beginning trainer. This episode throws that theory out the window.

* JerkAss: Paul once again displays how horrible he is to Chimchar when he says it's Chimchar's fault it got kidnapped, despite the fact that Chimchar was sleeping, and its injuries don't concern him.

Ash and co. run into Dawn's rival Zoey, who has sprained her ankle, so they give her some first aid. As a thanks, Zoey helps Dawn with her contest training.

!!Tropes

* UngratefulBitch: Subverted. Zoey remarks about how her Pokémon found someone to help her who likes to talk a lot, and Dawn calls her out on this, but Zoey really is grateful and volunteers to help Dawn with her training as a thanks.