Part VI: Rivals

by WeakScallion June 12th, 2026

This is the sixth part of my rewrite series on the Black and White series of the Pokémon anime. If you missed out on the last entry, go to this post!

This 7-episode arc covers the first few days after leaving Castelia City, mainly focusing on the group's encounters with old and new rivals alike.


BW027 Emolga the Irresistible! (adapted from canon BW024)

Note from when I first rewatched the series for the rewrite: "The fuck is Bianca doing now, traveling with the group?"

Anyway, it would have been better if Bianca literally showed up out of nowhere instead of traveling with the group for no explicit reason other than why not. So yeah, Bianca rushes in for the episode, comes literally out of nowhere, but does not explain why she is once more away from Juniper’s lab.

The episode is otherwise great, one of my faves of its kind for sure. How can you not love Iris' Emolga

At the end of the episode, Bianca leaves the group, saying she’s got a ton of stuff to do and see.

p.s. I was going to add another episode before this one to space out Bianca’s showings a bit, but I figured her role in the Relic Castle arc is small enough for me to be able to allow it.


BW028 Lights Out at Litwick Mansion! (rewrite for BW026 Scare at the Litwick Mansion!)

This episode’s concept is perfectly acceptable for a filler episode. The execution is definitely questionable, though.

Team Rocket is set up in that house since they haven't been able to contact Giovanni ever since the Relic Castle incident, and thus they've decided to lay low for a few weeks. They set camp earlier that day, but didn’t know the house was haunted (so the whole plot with them using the Litwicks is out, c’mon that sucks)

They notice odd things are happening in the house, and so they look out and they see Ash, Iris and Cilan. They assume it’s them doing all that stuff, and confront them. Since it’s pouring rain outside, they accept they’ll have to sleep close to each other for the night, but they go separate ways inside the mansion. Each group faces different anomalies, and they assume it’s the other group playing dirty with them.

Amidst the chaos, James notices a small Yamask watching them from behind a cracked mirror. At first he thinks it’s part of the haunting, but Yamask is actually trying to warn them.

Anyway then they encounter the Litwicks, who look like they’re trying to help, but of course everyone gets progressively weaker until they realise it’s a trap and it was the Litwicks playing with them, and the episode ending plays as in canon.

James catches Yamask and both groups part separate ways.


BW029 A Taste of Things to Come! (NEW)

The group arrives at a town that is hosting a Junior Connoisseur Exhibition. Cilan explains these are competitions for C-class and B-class Connoisseurs, and that good performances earns them points toward the next class (upon reaching a threshold, they take an exam and they can ascend to the next tier). Cilan keeps talking about how they must stay to watch, because it’s an extremely refined and elegant succession of exhibitions that no one should miss.

These exhibitions are also hosted by the town’s Don George ‘cos of course they are. They are split in 3 parts: First Taste (watch interaction of trainer and Pokemon, give an evaluation); Battle Exchange (advise a trainer mid-battle under pressure); and the Showcase (a small performance with their own Pokemon showing each trainer’s philosophy).

They approach and suddenly meet with Burgundy again, who is visibly nervous but tries to hide it, acting non-chalant and cocky in front of Cilan. She is rehearsing with her Dewott, who scares the shit out of Ash's Oshawott for a reason Ash cannot quite understand. Burgundy then reveals that this is her second Exhibition, and that in the first one she messed up so badly she got kicked out.

While talking and cheering her up, Cilan spots Ricard Nouveau, an A-class Connoisseur he knows from when they were both climbing the ranks. This Ricard guy is smug, polished, and clearly elitist. He explains he’s here to coach Lucien, the snobbish son of a richman. He also reveals Lucien’s father will sponsor him for the upcoming Grand Connoisseur Salon, the event through which A-Class Connoisseurs can finally become S-tier. Entry to the Salon requires sponsorship, and Ricard mocks Cilan saying Cilan hasn’t secured a sponsor because no one would ever take his theatrical nonsense seriously.

Cilan wants to prove Ricard wrong and so he decides to coach Burgundy. In the first round, Burgundy does not understand a single one of the comments Cilan advises and ends up being as straightforward and blunt as she always is, making the trainer admit their relationship is actually that flawed.

During the second round, Cilan overwhelms Burgundy with commentaries, and she ends up screaming like crazy so that he shuts up. This leads to the trainer she was advising to lose.

During the third round, Burgundy tries to imitate a style they saw Cilan and Pansage do earlier; but her Dewott cannot understand shit and neither can Burgundy — finally, in the middle of the performance, Cilan begs her to do it her own way, and Burgundy starts performing well. The performance charms every spectator and she and Lucien end up scoring the same amount of points in the last round.

Lucien thus takes the overall win (with Burgundy second), but Ricard looks pissed.

Cilan then goes to try and politely sign peace with Ricard, but Ricard says this tie feels like a stinging loss and he will for sure crush Burgundy (or any one of Cilan’s protégés) if they cross paths again. He mocks him and leaves, saying the next time he hears his name will be on the news, as that year’s S-tier Connoisseur.

Cilan decides he’ll work hard to enter that tournament not because of a sponsor, but by the recommendation of someone who truly values what he does is special. Finally, Cilan congratulates Burgundy, and Burgundy yells at him instead of accepting the compliment to then leave running.


BW030 The Dragon Master’s Path! (adapted from canon BW027)

Most of the episode stays as is ‘cos why wouldn’t it, it’s a fun enough episode. Regarding the smaller changes:

  • The Scraggy v Axew training at the start, we are turning it into an Oshawott v Axew. Iris asks Ash to go easy on Axew, and while Ash agrees, Oshawott looks decided. Axew is of course unsure at first, but soon relaxes as he sees Oshawott miss Aqua Jet again. Axew then fails to execute Dragon Rage, and that's it for the scene. Meanwhile, Darumaka is warming up the egg under Cilan's supervision.
  • Team Rocket's attitude is not as evil, but the plan is cool regardless. Honestly wtf is up with Unova's Rockets.
  • To battle Emmy, Ash decides to call on Darumaka as he's a newbie too. As soon as Darumaka takes a look at Druddigon, he curls into a ball and starts whining. Emmy cannot fully understand what's going on. Druddigon does nothing and yet Darumaka tenses up and releases a strong Incinerate, and as Druddigon steps forward, Darumaka hits it with Headbutt. Anyway, Druddigon finally attacks and overwhelms poor Darumaka, who loses the battle.

The rest of the episode can unfold as in canon.


BW031 Oshawott’s Lost Scalchop! (rewrite for canon BW028)

The group arrives at another small settlement before Nimbasa. Here, there is a Battle Club training field where the trainers do stamina drills and obstacle courses with their Pokemon, and there they meet Stephan, a loud, friendly, and intense guy who is training with his newly caught Blitzle. He has been buying vitamins from the Battle Club to boost Blitzle's speed, to ensure he'll beat the obstacle course's record.

The gang decides to participate in the obstacle race too. They first see Stephan's attempt, with Blitzle jumping and running very fast, although crashing with a few obstacles and walls along the way, thus rendering the attempt invalid but setting a very good time Stephan is proud of. Seeing the course will require climbing and running fast, Iris calls on Emolga, who performs good at first but is soon distracted by food elsewhere and leaves. Cilan's Pansage does great, but gets tired in one of the long runways, fainting. Ash calls on Swadloon hoping her String Shot will help her move fast, but soon recalls that her String Shot is not quite strong enough yet to hold her and so calls on Oshawott next, who valiantly goes for Aqua Jet. It misfires so badly, it literally avoids every single obstacle and arrives at the goal extremely quickly. The attempt is also invalid, but it crushed Stephan's mark and so Stephan decides to challenge Oshawott to a fight to prove his Blitzle's speed is far superior.

Oshawott tries to land a few hits but Blitzle avoids them all, and like in the canon episode knocks Oshawott's scalchop away. Oshawott runs in a hurry, shocking Stepha who points out Oshawott can truly be fast if the situation demands it. He actually joins the search party too and helps Oshawott try the new scalchop variants. Swadloon devotes a very long time to make Oshawott a scalchop out of her String Shot, which proves to be more durable than what her previous String Shots had looked like but not quite enough. Like in canon, Oshawott settles with Dwebble's scalchop and trains to be strong enough to use it. The training scenes with Oshawott are a bit shorter and include Stephan (to justify the EVs reference), and it all leads to the rematch, which unfolds pretty much like in canon... except the two tie. Ash still congratulates Oshawott, and starts shining bright. They cannot believe it, it's evolving! However, Oshawott starts to panic.

While that's happening, Axew shows up with Oshawott's scalchop and throws it back at Oshawott, who manages to cancel his evolution as soon as he gets his scalchop back. Cilan argues evolution may have been caused by Oshawott pushing himself so hard without his scalchop, forcing his body to start trying to adapt. Ash, not fully understanding why that happened but still happy to see Oshawott's growth, bids Stephan goodbye and continues onwards.


BW032 Drifting Toward Love! (rewrite for BW029 Cottonee in Love!)

Let's get the obvious changes out of the way:

  • It's not Scraggy training with Axew but rather Darumaka (and later with Cottonee it's also Darumaka, who sighs in relief when he notices Cottonee can't aim for his life)
  • Tranquill isn't used for following after the Cottonee. Ash could use Herdier instead (it's not like Tranquill succeeds in any case lmao), and Iris could count on Emolga to follow the air currents.

Now, for the big change. When they find the Female Cottonee, they are not immediately sucked in by Rocket machinery. Instead, the Male Cottonee starts to court her. The group expects the Female Cottonee to attack just like it did when they first saw her, but instead the Female Cottonee observes the Male Cottonee slowly. Then N steps out, and we see him talking with the Female Cottonee, commending her for her new, revised approach. They confront him, asking what's this now, and N tells them that battling is the wrong approach, and that they should first learn to express their feelings. Ash argues competing is their way of expressing their feelings.

Then the Team Rocket incident occurs, and then there's the fight against the 2 other Cottonee intending to court the female. But the female here begs them not to fight over her. N lets the group know that, if every Pokemon knew there was a life besides that of fighting, they would all live happy lives. Ash cannot believe he truly believes that. Our Cottonee defeats his two rivals, and then approaches Iris (whom, as a reminder, has been eating the whole episode because love inspires her to eat), takes a piece of fruit off of her hand, and gifts it to his beloved. The female Cottonee embraces the gesture and the two leave together.

The group watches the Cottonees follow the wind as N observes from the distance, pensive.


BW033 Figuring Out a Rival! (rewrite for BW031 Ash and Trip's Third Battle!)

God the canon episode’s name SUCKS.

Anyway… obviously this whole episode has to be rewritten ‘cos Trip is now a functional character.

So let’s start with the same eating scene, but this time we move stuff from Emolga and the New Volt Switch and have Emolga use Attract to get the fruit from literally all of Ash’s team except Swadloon, who is a female and thus immune and able to scold her. Just a bit of personality I don’t want to fully lose.

Axew and Pikachu are training, bit more of emphasis on Axew’s growth but still showing that it’s a long way until he excels — Pikachu is still able to avoid his attacks and whatnot.

Then they are interrupted by Trip, who applauds Axew’s Dragon Rage but lets Iris know that, if she wants to defeat Pikachu, she needs to exploit his weak points. Iris lets Trip know they are just sparring and she’s just glad Axew is making progress, while Trip mentions she could have already won if she had actually studied Ash’s battling style instead of solely on Axew's growth.

Anyway, since he’s got Pikachu so figured out already, Trip asks for a formal rematch against Ash, a 3v3. Ash, of course, accepts gladly.

Ash first picks Oshawott, and Trip sees the perfect opening to show a new Pokemon of his: his very own Swadloon. Trip gladly tells them that Ash’s last win was because he had a Pokemon he did not account for, but now he could not use such a secret weapon. Trip’s Swadloon moves differently to Ash’s in that it’s way more aggro, and Trip has Oshawott almost cornered. He also points out here that Oshawott's Aqua Jets keep missing because he's doing them with his eyes closed. Ash is shocked at the reveal, and Trip says that the result of this battle is irrelevant. No matter who wins, these stupid errors Ash keeps making time and time again, this reliance on Pokémon finding their own way, will soon stump Ash. His ceiling is ridiculously low for a Pokémon Master, he argues. This stride of cockiness enrages Ash and Oshawott, and they manage to defeat Swadloon. Trip tries to act like it doesn't matter but he is visibly pissed off, and argues that he knew he shouldn’t have trusted the result of a lucky win.

Ash calls Oshawott back and brings out Herdier next, to which Trip responds using Timburr, again with the type advantage. The battle is close, Herdier playing with Timburr's log and all much to Trip's disgust, and the two end up tying.

Trip is now clearly irritated and calls Servine out as his last Pokemon. As Trip tries to calm down, Cilan asks why such desire for senseless strength. Trip explains he needs to become strong beyond any stroke of luck so that he can battle his idol, Champion Alder (who Ash doesn’t know). Alder once taught Trip "it was all about getting stronger". Ever since, Trip has studied his Champion League fights against all challengers and knows what he needs to defeat him, but first must reach that point and so he needs to get people like Ash out of the way — people that challenge his rulebook. Now even more convinced, Trip demands Ash to use Pikachu next. He knows he can get the win.

Indeed, Trip has the upper hand as none of Pikachu’s usual shenanigans do not work. Trip's tactics to shut Pikachu's electricity off are immaculate, using Servine's whips to tie it to the ground and nullify the damage, knows Pikachu's Thunderbolt needs all of its body to be charged with electricity, (so as long as he keeps his upper body in check it's all good), and his other two moves are contact moves so he just needs to stay away from direct confrontation. However, Pikachu has a chance to use his new Electro Ball, which Pikachu cannot even properly control yet (so Trip, who didn't even know he could use such a move to begin with, is incapable of reacting), and so Trip's plan is thrown off. His later attempts at recovering, although greatly executed by Servine, are not adequate for the situation (as pointed out by Cilan), and Pikachu the eventual win.

Trip at first looks about to explode, but he ends up composing himself and smiling, saying he’s got Ash wholly figured out now. As Iris scolds him for his pettiness, Trip wonders why she is criticizing him so much. Iris must have a reason for wanting to train so much as well, right?; ain’t that reason as petty as his own? Why is Ash travelling so far from home, anyway?

Trip leaves and the group continues towards Nimbasa.


Updated summary

Ash's team: Pikachu, Herdier, Oshawott, Swadloon, Darumaka Iris' team: Axew, Excadrill, Emolga Cilan's team: Pansage, Dwebble

Badges obtained: 3 Season progress: 33/48

Deleted episodes: 3 BW025 Emolga and the New Volt Switch


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Pub: 12 Jun 2026 10:50 UTC

Edit: 13 Jun 2026 13:32 UTC

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