17/07/2014 11:14

This episode was fairly exciting to view. I mean, if a person is interested to see an awesome stampeding mammoth disobey his trainer and saving the other Pokémon while he’s at it, than I recommend you watch this episode. To be honest, this episode showed that Dawn is NOT a Mary Sue character and that she has her flaws and ‘What am I going to do now?’ moments.
This episode also proved that Piplup does risk his life to impress Dawn and wants to make her happy.
What about pearl-shipping in this episode? This episode showed Dawn being slightly depressed with Piloswine's situation. Brock tried motivating her to do better by advising her to not give up.
What did Ash do? He spoke out 4 magic words that encouraged Dawn more than Brock's advice.
He said, “No need to worry!” EVERYTIME Dawn looked like she was about to cry or frown. He chose to help Dawn even when his gym battle was to take place the very same day. He saved her from being crushed under Piloswine's feet.

Need more pearl-shippy details? Then read on ahead…


The episode starts off with the heart touching opening-theme-song and the anime clips of Ash and his companions. The opening-theme-song itself inspires a person to never give up and to try harder if we fail. It’s the perfect way to start off the episode.
 

By listening to the theme-song, we imagine that it is dedicated to Ash and his Pokémon, right? Well, we can also assume that it is for Dawn because she struggled more than Ash did and was more successful in the end. This was Dawns first journey, she had to be brave and determined. There were times when she failed, but she always had friends to help her along the way.
So the theme-song is emphasizing Dawn too.

After this, we see Ash and Co. In a Pokémon center, listening to the anchor about two coordinators (Kenny and Nando) were emerging victorious from many contests. Ash then exclaims that he’s going to train with his Pokémon which inspires Dawn to do the same. She eagerly tells Piplup about using Piloswine after which Ash tells Dawn that this will be his contest debut.
Ash and Co. go outside the field where Dawn calls out her Piloswine. She tells him to use attacks but the mammoth does not obey. Brock tells Dawn that Piloswines hunger may be the cause of his disobedience. Dawn takes out her poffins and feeds Piloswine from a distance. After Piloswine ate all the poffins he runs towards Dawn.

Ash is the first to act quickly and pushes Dawn out of the way:
 

This doesn’t look shippy? You think this is typical of Ash to save others? Well, think again. From this scene we can assume that Dawns safety is the first thing that came into Ash’s mind when Piloswine was attacking her. She was the top priority for him at that particular moment. Piloswine was charging at Dawn with great speed and he was standing at a safe distance. Ash could’ve warned or shouted at Dawn to get out of the way (she is a fast runner), but he didn’t. He decided to grab her and save her.

Now do you see why I am emphasizing this scene?
 

Next, in the scene displayed above, we can raise a question…Why are they THAT close? I mean, is there a purpose to why these two were directed to land this close to each other? Ash could’ve landed next to her or besides her but he is on his knees behind her. Notice how his hands are in a protective position? It’s like he’s ready to pick her up in case Piloswine returns.
Piloswine does return but Ash and Dawn get up quickly and run away. Ash then commands Grotle to help when Piloswine uses Ice shard. Unfortunately, the Ice shard lands a direct hit and grotle partially freezes. Gliscore then decides to take action and save the others. He flies straight towards Piloswine but gets hit by the Ice shard again. Due to the Ice shard, Gliscore learned the move ‘Fire fang’ :
 

Why is this scene important? Have you ever wondered what would happen if Dawn wasn’t there to train? Gliscore would have never learnt the move ‘Fire fang’ which has proven to be necessary in the next gym battle. Infact, this move was the reason why Ash won the Gym. This scene tells us that Dawn proves to be helpful to Ash one way or another. Over here, our young female protagonist has helped Ash indirectly. Do you realize what this means? Dawn is indeed important for Ash’s success. He actually depends on her to win without even knowing it. Brock was not helping either side this episode.

So, after Piloswine is stopped by Brocks Happiny, Dawn tries to tell Piloswine to obey her. After she did, Ash immediately suggested that she should put Piloswine in battle because that way Piloswine would have no other option but to obey Dawn. Dawn comments that this is a great idea but here is the difference, when Brock suggests something, Dawn says ‘right’ or ‘that’s a great idea!’ but her expression tells us that she’s trying to say ‘you are a great friend’. However, whenever Ash tells her something, Dawn either comments on his idea being great/good or nods and sometimes she does both. There is one thing that you don’t notice and that’s her tone. Her tone is always baffled or amazed whenever Ash advises her which obviously means that she looks up to his idea and finds him a good source of help.

Here in this scene, Ash is obviously concerned about Dawn training her Piloswine possibly because he knows the feeling of training a disobedient Pokémon and wants to help Dawn or maybe he wants to help her and himself at the same time. Judging by his concern for her, I’d go with the first reason. Ash suggests that Dawn should battle with Piloswine:
 

During the battle, Piloswine does not obey a thing Dawn says and runs off during it because he smells a bun which belonged to Team Rocket. He forcefully takes it after blasting them off. The scene then changes to the trio in the lobby where Dawn is shown to be teary eyes because of Piloswine. Brock tries to tell Dawn that situations like a Pokémon disobeying its trainer are not ‘unheard of’ but that doesn’t help her at all. What’s amusing is Ash and Pikachu’s comment. Ash uses Dawn own catch phrase ‘No need to worry’ to cheer her up and his tone is extremely soft. It sounds like he is trying to calm down a little baby. Pikachu on the other hand motions his hands in the air in a ‘it’s okay calm down’ manner and says ‘Pika Pika’. Ash is shown to soften down his tone over here:

After that, they try to go out but they over-hear some trainer (Team Rocket) talk about a training course that helps trainers get closer to their Pokémon. Obviously, it was a plan to get Pikachu and the others. After the disguised Team-Rocket go out, Ash and Dawn run over and read out the poster. After reading, Dawn exclaims that this program can help her get closer to Piloswine. Ash enthusiastically comments that Dawn should ‘Totally do it!” and his tone sounded like he meant ‘I know you can do it!”.

They program adds a humorous touch to the episode which is great. Piloswine is stubborn and disobeys Dawn completely. The trio and their Pokémon then proceed outside where James is waiting for them as their ‘yoga instructor’. This adds the most comic relief which is provided by Piplup who helps Piloswine yoga. He tries to roll Piloswine’s behind like a ball. James then tells the trainers and the Pokémon to stand on separate exercise mats. There, the trainer’s mat collapses and the Pokémon’s mat turns into a cage, trapping the Pokémon inside.
Team-Rocket come on out in their usual attires and lift the cage using their balloon. The trainers get out of the hole that Team-Rocket made after which Ash commands Grotle to use Razor leaf. The attack proves to be useless. Pachirisu freaks out and uses discharge. Luckily Dawn is there to calm him down. Pachirisu lands on Piloswine but his electric attack has an aftershock on Piloswine. Piloswine goes crazy and tackles the cage bars. The cage rocks back and forth which causes the air-balloon to slowly sink to the ground. Jessie takes action and orders her Yanmega to attack Piloswine using Sonic boom.

The attack triggers his evolution and he evolves into Mamoswine. Mamoswine blasts Team-Rocket away and begins to run towards Dawn and Co. Piplup uses multiple attacks to stop him but his efforts are no use against Mamoswines bulkiness and he gets shot into the air. Brock tells Dawn to return Mamoswine in a poke-ball which she does. There is a touching Piplup and Dawn scene after Mamoswine returns in his poke-ball. The young coordinator then gets upset about how Piloswine and now Mamoswine don’t obey her. Ash cheers her up using her own catch phrase AGAIN but this time he is far more enthusiastic. His tone is like ‘Never give up, I believe in you’ as shown here:
 

Ash is obviously not going to give up on Dawn and he used Dawns catch phrase TWO times in a single episode to cheer her up. This is proof enough that Ash has feelings for Dawn and is concerned about her.

The episode ends with the trio returning to the Pokémon center where Nurse Joy tells Ash that Byron, the Canalave gym leader, has just returned.