Japanese Title: The Valley of Donfan!
Original Airdate: November 4th, 1999
US Airdate: November 4th, 2000
The one where... Ash and Co. go digging for stones.
Ash and friends stumble into a small valley where Donphan are used to harvest precious stones. Not so fortunate are the valley's residents, as Team Rocket is on the heels of Ash and his friends and are already hatching a plan to steal the stones for themselves.
Tropes
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Donphan at the start of the episode is on both ends of this. It effortlessly defeats Brock's Onix and is similarly taken out by Ash's Heracross.
- Epic Fail: Team Rocket steals an untrained Donphan. It's too young to know how to find amberite.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Team Rocket actually manage to successfully steal a pokemon for a prolonged period of time. Unfortunately, they spend too much time looking for amberite that the twerps manage to locate them and send them blasting off again.
- Strong, but Unskilled: Ash's Heracross. It has strength in spades and by Rochelle's own admission almost knocked out her most powerful Donphan but its lack of training ended up leading to its loss.
