Dawn's Ambipom

**Dawn's Ambipom** (Japanese: **ヒカリのエテボース** *Hikari's Eteboth*) was the only Pokémon to be caught by Ash during the Battle Frontier saga, and his twenty-eighth overall. Much later, she was traded to Dawn in exchange for Buizel after Aipom showed a love for Contests and Buizel a love for battling in *Throwing the Track Switch*, becoming her fifth Pokémon overall.

## History

### Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

#### As a wild Pokémon

Ambipom was first seen as an Aipom in *Slaking Kong!*, worshiping a giant Slaking with several other mountain-dwelling Pokémon. She also stole Ash's hat with a group of Aipom getting food to offer the Slaking. Later, Aipom joined the other Aipom, as well as several Mankey, Vigoroth, and Slaking, to attack the giant Slaking, which turned out to be a mechanical robot made by Team Rocket. She helped in returning the stolen berries to Taylor. Later, after Ash and his friends left Taylor's home, the group saw Ash's hat on a rock. After wondering who placed it there, they found out that it was Aipom, due to an apple and a flower she left with the hat. The group continues their journey as Ash said Aipom is a cool Pokémon after all. Unknown to them, the happy Aipom was watching them from a nearby tree.

In *May, We Harley Drew'd Ya!*, Aipom stole the hats of the participants before making off with Ash's hat again.

In *Thinning the Hoard!*, due to her causing too much trouble, Ash attempted to catch her. After Pikachu used Quick Attack to get Ash's hat back and Thunderbolt to weaken her more, she was still able to foil Ash's attempt to catch her.

In *Channeling the Battle Zone!*, as well as the previous episode, after watching May in the Kanto Grand Festival, Aipom became thrilled with battling and challenged Ash and Pikachu for a battle; as he won, Ash finally caught her in front of a huge crowd.

#### With Ash

Aipom enjoyed participating in Pokémon Contests, but was also eager to battle. Her interest was first perked in *Thinning the Hoard!* where she took an interest in May's battle with Harley. Aipom also watched her battle with Drew before enticing Ash into catching her. While Ash had Aipom, she usually sat on his left shoulder when outside of her Poké Ball, in contrast to Pikachu sitting on his right shoulder.

In *Aipom and Circumstance!*, Aipom became jealous of Pikachu's closeness to Ash. Aipom also seemed to have a certain penchant for headgear; aside from taking Ash's and other people's hats, Aipom wore a daisy chain on her head and put on a ceremonial crown that the locals had trouble getting off. The members of a crowd who wanted the crown, as well as Ash and his friends, attempted to remove the crown from her head so she would not become their king for a year. With the help of a Belue Berry's sourness, the crown was finally taken off. Ash hugged Aipom and told her not to get into trouble all the time. As Ash laughed a bit when he told her this, Aipom blushed.

In order to bring back Torkoal to battle Brandon's Registeel in *Overjoyed!*, Ash sent Aipom to Professor Oak, where Aipom had trouble adjusting to the new environment and Ash's absence, even attacking the Professor. However, after Ash's second defeat, Aipom returned.

### Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

When Ash left for Sinnoh, he wanted to leave all of his Pokémon except for Pikachu behind, just like he did when leaving for Hoenn. However, Aipom sneaked aboard the boat he was traveling on, wanting to accompany him on his new journey. Aipom soon proved to be necessary backup; as soon as they arrived in Sinnoh, Team Rocket kidnapped Pikachu, but soon blasted themselves off and lost him in the woods, and Aipom helped Ash find him. During this time, Aipom helped Ash catch his Starly and, after Pikachu was found, defeated Paul's Chimchar in battle.

In *Mounting a Coordinator Assault!*, Aipom was watching Dawn training with Piplup for the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest and became interested in participating. Seeing as how Aipom wanted to join the competition, Dawn and Brock convinced Ash to sign up. Ash and Aipom got through the Performance Stage, but in *Arrival of a Rival!*, they lost their first match in the Battle Stage to Zoey and her Glameow. After the battle, Zoey suggested that Ash should let Dawn raise Aipom.

In *A Gruff Act to Follow!*, Aipom put up a fight against Roark's Cranidos during Ash's Gym battle against Roark in the Oreburgh Gym, but lost. In their rematch in *O'er the Rampardos we Watched!*, she went up against Roark's Geodude. Geodude managed to avoid a lot of damage from Aipom while countering with its attacks, but Aipom was able to connect a super effective Focus Punch and defeat Geodude. Aipom next went up against Rampardos. Aipom uses Swift, but it didn't affect Rampardos at all. Rampardos uses Headbutt, but before Aipom could dodge it, she was hit and knocked out.

In *Borrowing on Bad Faith!*, Aipom entered an informal Pokémon Contest not sanctioned by the Pokémon Activities Committee under Jessie's command. They was able to advance to the final round, where she won against Dawn's Pachirisu, earning Jessie a year's supply of fruits.

In *The Grass Menagerie!*, Aipom was Ash's third and final Pokémon in his Eterna Gym Battle against Gardenia; she went up against Gardenia's Roserade after performing a contest like introduction. Aipom initially struggled against the Bouquet Pokémon's use of Grass Knot to create ensnaring vines and Flash to blind her, but was able to turn it around by listening for Roserade's attacks. Through this, she was able to send back a super-effective Weather Ball before creating a circle of Swift stars to deal major damage. Aipom used Focus Punch to finish the battle and win Ash the Forest Badge.

In *Throwing the Track Switch*, Ash began the training for his next Gym battle in Veilstone City. However, Buizel seemed to be more interested in Ash's battle training and thus couldn't set his mind on Dawn's training; Meanwhile, Aipom also had a problem in Ash's training because her style tended to be best suited for Pokémon Contests. Then, Zoey proposed that Ash and Dawn trade them. After some soul-searching, the Trainers agreed, and the trade took place.

#### With Dawn

In *Journey to the Unown!*, Aipom managed to learn Double Hit. Brock told Dawn that Aipom would evolve soon. Later in the episode, when Dawn and Aipom were being attacked by a group of Unown, Aipom jumped in and evolved into Ambipom.

In *Team Shocker!*, Dawn used Ambipom in the Performance Stage of the Solaceon Contest, but failed to advance to the Contest Battles. Zoey explained to Dawn that she failed due to an overuse of Swift, blocking Ambipom from view.

In *Crossing the Battle Line!*, Dawn used Ambipom in her Gym battle against Maylene. Ambipom was chosen for her extensive battling experience with Ash. She proved her strength in the battle by defeating Maylene's Meditite, making her the only Pokémon Dawn used in the match who managed to defeat one of Maylene's team. Despite this victory, Ambipom found herself unable to stand up to the strength of Maylene's Lucario and was quickly knocked out.

In *Staging a Heroes Welcome*, Dawn once again used Ambipom for the Performance Stage in the Wallace Cup. She managed to pass the round by dazzling the Contest Judges with Swift, Focus Punch, and Double Hit.

In *Battling the Generation Gap!*, Dawn used Ambipom in the Battle Stage of the Celestic Contest. Ambipom was shown defeating a Delibird and a Nosepass to advance to the finals, where she went up against Lila's Delcatty. The battle started with Ambipom using Swift, which seemed to hit Delcatty. However, it was actually a decoy created through the use of Substitute while the real Delcatty sneaked behind Ambipom and wrapped himself up in her tails before using Shock Wave, landing a clean hit and costing Dawn some points. After that, Ambipom used Double Team and then Focus Punch, hitting Delcatty but unknowingly activating his Cute Charm Ability. This left Ambipom infatuated and allowed Delcatty to use Sing to put Ambipom to sleep. Delcatty proceeded to hit Ambipom with Iron Tail, sending Ambipom flying in the air and posing in an elegant manner while she was falling. The Prim Pokémon used Shock Wave and the attack woke Ambipom up. Ambipom used Swift, but Delcatty once again avoided the attack with Substitute. This time, however, Ambipom surprised Delcatty and attacked him with Double Hit, becoming infatuated in the process.

Despite the infatuation, Ambipom was able to use Double Team. Delcatty used Sing, but Ambipom used Double Hit to defend herself from Sing and attacked Delcatty at the same time—something which inspired Ash to come up with the Counter Shield. When the infatuation wore off, Ambipom used Swift while spinning around to make the golden stars swirl. Delcatty tried and failed to avoid the attack with Substitute and then used Shock Wave. When the Electric-type move came into contact with the Swift stars, it formed a flat, rotating disk containing stars and dust at the center of the stage. Ambipom kept on using Swift on one side of the stage while Delcatty used Shock Wave on the other. A few seconds before time ran out, Swift broke through the disc and a massive amount of stars hit Delcatty. When the smoke cleared, Dawn was shown to have more points on the scoreboard, winning the battle and earning the Celestic Ribbon, her third Contest Ribbon overall.

In *Old Rivals, New Tricks!*, Ambipom was used in the Sandalstraw Town Pokémon Contest. In the Performance Stage, Dawn sent her out of her Poké Ball with a Song Seal]] and asked her to use Double Team followed by Focus Punch. Ambipom created multiple copies of herself and then punched all the musical notes with her long tails, taking advantage of the Seal's effect to begin her performance. Ambipom proceeded to use Swift as if she was serving a ping pong ball. She spun around rapidly, causing the golden stars to move in a spiraling pattern before destroying them with Double Hit, which resulted in sparkles pouring down on both Ambipom and Dawn as they posed together to mark the end of the performance. The presentation was well received by the judges and allowed Dawn to move on to the second round.

In the Battle Stage, Ambipom squared off against Jessilina's Seviper in the semifinals and managed to win the battle. She proceeded to the finals, where she found herself up against Kenny's Prinplup. The battle started with Prinplup using Drill Peck, which Ambipom blocked with Swift before using Double Team. After that, Prinplup used Bubble Beam to destroy the illusory copies Ambipom had created. However, before the attack could hit the real Ambipom, Dawn had the idea to implement ping pong moves into the battle and asked Ambipom to use Focus Punch, sending the bubbles back to Prinplup. Seeing that, Kenny asked Prinplup to repel the bubbles with Metal Claw. The bubbles went back and forth for a while until Prinplup used Bubble Beam again. This time, instead of repelling the bubbles, Ambipom used Double Hit to destroy them. The bubbles were keeping Ambipom busy and Prinplup took the opportunity to try to attack her with Drill Peck, but Ambipom saw Prinplup coming and countered with Focus Punch. The two clashed in midair, but Prinplup quickly recovered, jumping high and using Drill Peck while nosediving and spinning. Ambipom proceeded to use Double Hit, but the move was unable to stop Prinplup. Ambipom was taken aback by this and Prinplup attacked her with another Drill Peck, knocking her out. As a result, she lost the battle.

During the Sandalstraw Contest, she discovered a love and talent for ping pong. She used this talent to compete in the Pokémon Ping Pong Tournament with Dawn in *To Thine Own Pokémon Be True!*. Due to her obvious natural ability, fellow competitor O offered her a place at his Ping Pong Training Center in Vermilion City. Dawn left the decision to Ambipom. After deciding to pursue ping pong over her love of Pokémon Contests, Ambipom bid farewell to Dawn and Ash and left the group in order to follow her new ambition.

### Pokémon Journeys: The Series

Ambipom, as an Aipom and under Ash's ownership, appeared in a flashback in *Friends, Rivals, Lend Me Your Spirit!*.

In *Partners in Time!*, Ambipom appeared as a vision to Pikachu during his battle against Leon's Charizard.

In *Heroes Unite!*, Ambipom appeared in a fantasy while Ash reminisced about the Pokémon he'd caught on his journey.

## Personality and characteristics

Like most of her species, Ambipom is a playful Pokémon. As an Aipom, however, she behaved much like Ash's Chikorita, being mischievous, often stealing Ash's hat or other forms of headwear and even other Pokémon's food just for attention. She was also quite attached to Ash, getting jealous of his attention to Pikachu, or even attacking Professor Oak just because Ash wasn't present. Upon her evolution, most of these traits mellowed. Ambipom had stopped stealing and became quicker to obey orders. While still loyal to Ash after being traded and evolving, she also became loyal to his friends, showing a more mature side.

Ambipom has been shown to develop different interests over time. A well known example of this is Contests. While not necessarily preferring them to Battles, she has shown great interest. She first showed interest in Contests as a wild Pokémon when watching May and other Coordinators compete in *Thinning the Hoard!*. Her love for Contests even persuaded Ash to participate in the Jubilife Contest.

Later, she became interested in Pokémon Ping Pong after using Ping Pong-like moves in a recent Contest. This interest, once again, ended up in Ambipom switching roads.

## Moves used

 A **†** shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

### Moves improvised

 **Description:** Ambipom balances herself with her hand and starts spinning. Her tails glow and the stars shoot out of it. Ambipom spins on her back (break-dances), and the stars collide, making spurts of rainbows.

## Trivia

* Ambipom is the first Pokémon character to be the focus of Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia twice:
	+ For DP014, Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia is about Ash's Aipom. He writes this senryū about her: 「エイパムが　しっぽでつかむ　サトシのハート」 *Eipam, it seizes with its tail, Satoshi's heart.*
	+ For DP073, Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia is about Dawn's Ambipom. He writes this senryū about her: 「エテボース　しっぽでリング　ともだちだ」 *"When Eteboth make rings by linking their tails, they're friends."*
* Ambipom and Buizel are the only two Pokémon to be traded between main characters.
* Ambipom is the only:
	+ Member of her species to appear in the main series.
	+ Pokémon of Dawn's that shares an English voice actress with her.
	+ Pokémon belonging to Dawn to not appear in *Pokémon the Series: Black & White* or to not physically appear in *Pokémon Journeys: The Series*.
* Ambipom is the first Pokémon owned by a main character that was introduced *before* the character, since Aipom was originally Ash's Pokémon before being traded to Dawn. She would be the only Pokémon to have this unique distinction until Roy's Fuecoco, who debuted in HZ002, with Roy himself debuting at the end of HZ003.
* Ambipom, as an Aipom, was Ash's only:
	+ Non-temporary Pokémon that he permanently traded away.
	+ Pokémon other than Pikachu that Ash has had on hand through the end of one series to the start of the next.
	+ Pokémon aside from Pikachu that Ash has traveled with alone for at least two consecutive episodes.
	+ Pokémon to have been previously left at Professor Oak's Laboratory, but to no longer reside there.
* Ambipom was the first Pokémon belonging to Dawn that evolved and her first fully evolved Pokémon.
	+ Ambipom was also the first of Dawn's Pokémon to evolve by the method of knowing a certain move, the second being her Mamoswine.
* Despite leaving in *To Thine Own Pokémon Be True!*, Ambipom, unlike other Pokémon that left the main cast, was not removed from the opening sequence until the sequence itself was replaced over eight months later.
* Not including temporary Pokémon, Ash's capture of Aipom marked the first time Ash had caught a Pokémon outside of the series its debut generation is based off.
* Despite being confirmed female, the Czech dub consistently referred to Ambipom as male, even to the point where in *Battling The Generation Gap!*, Lila's Delcatty's gender was changed from male to female to make Delcatty's Cute Charm activation work.

1. ↑ Confirmed in *Aipom and Circumstance!*.