Recap: A Hole Lotta Trouble

Hello everyone. Well, after the annoyance wash that was "Seeing is Believing," I thought I would make my remaining two AG recaps of episodes of the series I actually rather like. Please keep in mind that my opinion on the Generation III games on the whole was, and still is relatively favorable; despite my initial mixed feelings towards its anime adaptation. It's still surprising how much material I've been able to get out of this little arc on Dewford Island, so let's open up "A Hole Lotta Trouble!"

We open on Ash, May, Max and Brock training on Dewford Island when they come across the Granite Cave. They also remember from before that this is where Steven Stone, heir to the Devon Corporation is training, and they all decide to go into the cave and find him. I know what many of you are thinking, and I will address that in a moment.

Before we get our title card, we get the theme song, "I Wanna Be a Hero." It's a decent track as the first dubbed AG theme, but the later ones do get better as they go.

As Team Rocket is digging in the caves, Brock marks their tracks just to be safe; and we see Steven doing his own digging. I must say that he's easily one of my favorite characters from Hoenn, if not my favorite. I will explain more in a bit.

Everyone is caught in a pitfall, but then it caves in; sending everyone to separate parts of the cave! So, this episode is essentially the AG version of the Johto episode "Forest Grumps," which is one of the plots I rather like.

Further complicating matters are the Aron inside the caves, which are easily startled by all the noise and seismic activity! Not quite a bunch of Ursaring in heat, but it works fine. While Ash, Brock and James grudgingly work together to get back topside, Max and Pikachu have to deal with Meowth trying to intimidate them, to no avail. Even a flashback to "Go West Young Meowth" doesn't amuse him, but I like that.

As May and Jessie work on getting free, Max, Pikachu and Meowth meet up with Steven; who is working to solve the mystery of the tremors in the cave. The search leads to Brock finding the mark he left before, and to everyone meeting up at a waterfall inside the cavern!

When Team Rocket reveals they were doing all the digging, Steven immediately lambastes them for the way they disturbed all the Aron. He then sends out his ace: an Aggron!

With a single Hyper Beam attack, Aggron sends them blasting off! Digging random holes is bad, kids. Hyper Beaming them with a big steel kaiju is better, and more efficient!

So, we close on Steven Stone setting off on his own journey, and referring everyone to the inlet on the far side of Dewford Island to train. I still submit that if people want to have an older protagonist, that we need fewer ones like Alain and more ones like Steven Stone. His role in the Mega Evolution Specials and XYZ is proof of that.

"A Hole Lotta Trouble" is a whole lot of fun, and one of my favorite episodes of the Dewford Island arc. Though AG still had plenty of growing pains before I warmed to it, this episode stood out among the early ones for me. Though I didn't really see it when I was younger, I still found it to be an entertaining episode as the first season of Advanced goes. I just have one more episode left that I want to address of AG before retirement, and I hope you all enjoy reading about it as much as I will writing it. See you, space cowboy.