Recap: Love at First Flight

Hello everyone, and welcome to my final Pokémon Advanced Challenge recap! While my coverage of this season started with some of my least favorite episodes, I thought I would end with an episode that I enjoyed considerably more as I got back into the series. With #PokémonLet'sGo thankfully being more commercially and critically successful than the skeptics were worried, let's open up "Love at First Flight!"

We open on a beautiful lake known as Lake May, as our heroes see a Volbeat and an Illumise flying over the water. It turns out the Volbeat is named "Beat" for short, but I wonder where Rhyme is.

The opening is "This Dream," and I shall link to it one last time for this recap.

After the title card, it turns out that they're part of a show being put on by a couple young lovers named Romeo and Juliet. I know what you're all thinking, but trust me when I say it thankfully doesn't get much worse than dropping Poké Balls and almost falling in the lake; no daggers or poisoned wine here.

Team Rocket, watching everything unfold from some nearby reeds, also have a plan to pilfer the Pokémon and present them to Giovanni.

At the Pokémon center, after healing his Volbeat; it turns out Romeo has a different problem, and it's about his lady friend Juliet. Before I address this further, I'm just going on record that the British accents in this stretch are pretty phony. It's about as convincing as Simon Pegg attempting an American accent in Ready Player One, especially as he used his regular voice as the curator. I'm all, "Simon, bubby, your regular voice is fine!"

So, it's another story involving a human trainer's lack of confidence; and as per usual, our heroes are the only ones who can help. They don't have the time in their schedule, but they're going to anyway. ... I will definitely have come to a final decision about what I might like to do in 2019; so let's move on for now. I'm not doing the infamous "Trainers' Choice" segment, since I have much more amusing things to address.

Everyone decides to help Romeo reconcile his love of Juliet and practice what he's going to say... with Ash posing as Juliet. He still makes a surprisingly good lady as of the work experience episode in Alola, and the way he gets irritated at Romeo being such a wuss is just hilarious. 

"I want you off the fuckin' set, you prick! Are you professional or not?!"

Brock, who also wants to woo Julia as usual; actually gets so into the act that he hits on the costumed Ash! Brock, you are off the wall- I mean it this time!

While Juliet is still wondering what to do about her childhood friend, Meowth, disguised as a Volbeat is able to kidnap her Illumise! Ash, after changing out of one of Juliet's extra outfits and back into his quasi-Jet Set Radio Future outfit; goes with May, Max, Brock and the two lovers; using Romeo's Volbeat to track Illumise!

Team Rocket tries to suck up the other Volbeat as well as Ash and Pikachu; but a quick Thunderbolt is able to break them all out of their vacuum after a major spin cycle!

Michelangelo: "Now I know what a postal package feels like."

With the combined efforts of Volbeat and Illumise, Team Rocket is sent blasting off; and Romeo and Juliet are able to confess their love for each other and put on the show for everyone there!

Everyone is glad things have worked out right, thanks to "the power of love!" Well, my coverage of AG is definitely ending on a much better note than it started.

"Love at First Flight" is definitely a much better love-themed episode than the potential implications of marital infidelity that "Love Petalburg Style" was (4Kids tried to tone them down and/or remove them, didn't work); and I much prefer when the characters work together to solve problems rather than act like dicks to each other ("The Bicker the Better") or insult people they just met for no reason ("A Double Dilemma"). It definitely took a while, but AG came into its own for me; and whatever the crew has planned for potentially including more characters in appearances in the Sun and Moon series (not to mention Detective Pikachu and Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution); I am very much open to the idea. Though these last six years have been quite the roller coaster, I definitely want to thank everyone reading this for what they've given me over that time. I have my remaining Pokémon Sun and Moon recaps ready to post over the next couple days, with my full look at The Power of Us to close things out on Christmas Eve. Bang.