With the first bout of the Masters Eight tournament over, Leon has advanced to the second round. Now, it's a Champion vs Champion battle as Lance takes on Diantha. But who shall emerge as the winner? The Champion of both Kanto and Johto, the Elite Four member, and the Pokémon G-Man? Or the legendary actress and Champion of Kalos?
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Brains Versus Brawn: Diantha, a more strategically minded and elegant battler, goes up against the more aggressive brawler, Lance, in the series' first Champion vs Champion battle. Diantha winds up making a comeback to take the win to face Leon in the next round.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Besides Ritchie, Jimmy, Vincent, Marina, Shawna, Trevor, Tierno, and Sawyer making their return to the screen, Iris brings back the one Pokémon she didn't use in her initial reunion with Ash: her Excadrill.
- Cynthia likewise brings back her Gastrodon, who hasn't seen use since Diamond and Pearl.
- Call-Back:
- Ash mentions he fought Diantha before in a battle.
- When Diantha brings out her Gourgeist, James and Meowth make mention of the one Jessie used to own, causing her to freak out upon seeing it in action.
- The Cameo:
- For Lance's introduction, Ritchie, Ash's old rival from the Indigo League, as well as Jimmy, Vincent, and Marina from The Legend of Thunder, all make appearances cheering on their Champion.
- For Diantha's introduction, Shawna, Trevor, Tierno, and Sawyer are seen watching the Masters Eight Tournament.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Ash isn't sure which Champion to root for—Lance, who represents his home region, or Diantha, whom he actually had the privilege of facing in battle.
- Crazy-Prepared: Diantha has her Gourgeist use Trick-Or-Treat to change a Pokémon's typing to Ghost, allowing it to use super-effective Ghost moves on its opponent. It works wonders on Lance's Shiny Gyarados, but his Hydreigon is able to avoid suffering too much damage and takes Gourgeist out.
- Flanderization: Although his style was always focused on power, Lance's battling skills in this episode are largely boiled down to Attack! Attack! Attack!, attempting to brute force his way through Diantha with little regard for his Pokémon's stamina or defense. This stubborn approach proves to not pay off, as Diantha's use of defensive moves and tricks are able to counter his raw strength.
- Forgot About His Powers: Lance seems to have forgotten his Pokémon can defend themselves with the battlefield after using Hyper Beam, a trick he pulled off against Leon in "Clash of the Titans!". Unfortunately for him, this costs him the battle.
- Hypocritical Humor: Jessie puts Diantha down as a far inferior actress, despite the fact that Diantha is, you know, an actual actress who's regarded as both talented and famous—then she starts fangirling hard for her when Diantha brings out a Gourgeist.
- In-Series Nickname: The announcer refers to Cynthia as "The Queen of Sinnoh".
- Out-Gambitted: Lance Dynamaxes his Dragonite to unleash Max Hailstorm, unleashing an ice storm that slowly chips away at Mega Gardevoir's health despite Dragonite being in weaker shape and far more vulnerable to Ice attacks. His hope was that it would chip away at it just enough to leave it vulnerable to a Hyper Beam while Dragonite tanked any super effective Fairy attacks in its Dynamax state. It fails because Diantha is able to keep Mega Gardevoir going and elegantly dodge the Hyper Beam, leaving Dragonite vulnerable to Moonblast and clinching the win for Diantha.
- Scissors Cuts Rock: Lance's Dragonite is able to defeat Diantha's Aurorus, which has a quad advantage against the Dragon/Flying type on account of it being an Ice/Rock type.
