After watching Fantina defeat Zoey in a practice battle with exceptional skill, Ash and his companions finally get to meet the elusive Hearthome Gym leader. Fantina then explains to them why she had been away from the Gym for a while: she had been honing her skills and creating a new, unique battle style.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Blood Knight: Fantina is an ambitious and passionate Hearthome Gym Leader who not only desires to engage in great battles herself, but also wishes to provide her challengers with equally great battles. To achieve this, she often ventures on training trips away from the gym, where she hones her skills and devises new strategies to keep her opponents on their toes.
- Call-Back: Previously, Paris informed Ash that Fantina was away on an important training mission to develop a new battling style.
- Also, Alan from the episode "Nosing 'Round the Mountain" makes a cameo appearance in a flashback where he was shown to have been beaten by Fantina when he had Nosepass, but later defeating her after it evolved into Probopass.
- Chekhov's Gun: Jesse mentions that she wants to interview Fantina so that she can copy the Gym Leader's Contest performance. Two episodes later, she tries it on the Celestic Contest, with mixed results.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Even though Ash quit at the end of their battle, Fantina still managed to defeat Ash using only her Drifloon/Drifblim.
- Japanese Spirit: Fantina believes in providing her challengers with an exceptional battle experience. Therefore, she embarks on a journey to develop a distinctive style that combines the raw power of regular battles with the stylish moves of Pokémon Contests. This is why she occasionally leaves her Gym to hone her skills.
- Know When to Fold Them: With both his Pikachu and Chimchar alseep and Buizel knocked out, Ash decided to end his battle with Fantina then and there saying there is no point in continuing the battle.
- That One Attack: In-universe, Ash forfeits his gym battle with Fantina, and spends the next few episodes trying to learn how to counter her Drifblim's Hypnosis.
- Walking the Earth: Fantina explains the reason for her absence is that she decided to take up the hobby of being a traveling trainer. Her reasoning is that she, as a Gym Leader, must always try to get stronger as even though she will win, her opponents like Alan will always come back stronger and beat her. Though she does admire this trait, she admits that she also wants to win and thus dedicates her time to traveling around and getting stronger.
