"Selling the customers what they want is an idea whose time has truly come."
Score: 7.5/10
Before the opening credits even begin, Ash wins his round 2 match against Girl in Sweater and her mighty Grumpig. We then get the match-ups for round 3, and given that the title of this episode implies that Paul will battle yeah.
Really? We aren't going to get another Ash versus Barry fight? Really? I mean, I guess I can get over it, but still, Barry shows up all the damn time and we’re not going to have a follow-up on it? Well, whatever, Barry tells the heroes that he's going to introduce himself to Paul, and they tell him not to because Paul’s a douche. He does so anyway, and finds Paul looking up data on him; Barry takes this as evidence that he's a top contender, but Paul just tells Barry not to overestimate himself. Unfortunately, Paul's data is out of date and Conway's data just says he's unpredictable, leaving the mostly sympathetic characters out of luck for their next match. Conway also shows up and tells everyone about Tobias defeating eight gyms and his first two League enemies with only his Darkrai. Wow, huh, I’m sure this Tobias guy won’t be coming up later.
Finally, we come to Paul versus Barry. Barry's Skarmory versus Paul's Magmortar. Ouch. Skarmory may be in OU, but fire still ruins its day. Barry starts with spikes-- and Skarmory is knocked out with one flamethrower.
Barry sends out Empoleon, one of the only water types not strong against fire types. Despite its hydro cannon scoring a direct hit, Magmortar stands strong. Barry expects Paul to not recall pokemon with spikes on the field, but Paul does so anyway. So... Ash could have recalled Staraptor earlier, but didn't because... he didn't. Well, seeing Paul's Ursaring, Barry recalls his Empoleon, sending out a Hitmonlee. Ursaring uses bulk up, but Hitmonlee's speed allows it to dodge Ursaring's attacks. Barry brags about Hitmonlee's speed, but Ursaring still manages to land two attacks out of like eighteen. Hitmonlee lands multiple attacks,
But a blaze kick burns Ursaring, activating its guts ability and allowing it to finish Hitmonlee off with a hammer arm.
Barry sends out his last pokemon, Empoleon, but after Empoleon proves stronger than Paul expects, he withdraws Ursaring and sends out Electivire. Empoleon does its best and even activates torrent, but at the end of the day, it can’t even hit Electivire once.
After the battle, Barry tells Paul that he regrets nothing since he did his best, and Paul agrees that it was a good battle. Barry tells Ash that he'll root for both him and Paul in their match, but Brock reminds Ash that "before that, you'll have to get past round 3, first." This is what dropping out at fourth grade does to you, people, it causes obvious grammatical redunancies like this to happen. Also Conway appears and brags about his secret strategy for beating Ash.
Yeah, a pretty good episode, even if comes down to “Paul sweeps Barry lol.”
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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005